Noughts & Ones, the Bristol agency dedicated to empowering planet-conscious e-commerce brands on Shopify, is thrilled to announce the appointment of Matthew Pill as the new Operations Director. This strategic move comes as the agency continues to expand its operations and services in response to the growing demand for sustainable e-commerce solutions.
Matthew Pill, who has been an integral part of the Noughts & Ones team as Senior Developer, will now take on an even more pivotal role in the agency. As Operations Director, Matthew will leverage his extensive technical expertise and industry insight to oversee the day-to-day operations, ensuring the seamless delivery of projects and retainers while maintaining a strong focus on sustainability and purpose.
Noughts & Ones has established itself as a trailblazer in the e-commerce landscape, partnering with forward-thinking brands that prioritise environmental and social responsibility. The appointment of Matthew Pill as Operations Director reinforces the agency’s commitment to excellence and sustainability.
“Matthew’s dedication to our mission and his exceptional technical skills make him the perfect fit for this role,” said Tom Locke, Founder / Sales Director of Noughts & Ones. “As we continue to work with purpose-led brands, Matthew will play a pivotal role in driving our agency’s growth, ensuring that we meet and exceed the expectations of our clients while adhering to our values.”
In his new role, Matthew will be responsible for optimising project delivery, strengthen team collaboration, and enhance the efficiency of the agency. He will also work closely with clients to ensure that their sustainability and purpose-driven goals are at the forefront of every project.
Matthew Pill commented on his new role, saying, “I am thrilled to be taking on a new role as Operations Director and I couldn’t be more excited about continuing to work with this fantastic team! I’m incredibly proud of the accomplishments we’ve already achieved at Noughts & Ones and I cannot wait for the new opportunities that lie ahead as we look to continue to contribute to a more sustainable future.”
Under Matthew and Tom’s leadership, Noughts & Ones is poised for further growth and innovation in the e-commerce industry, reaffirming its commitment to driving positive change and helping purpose-led brands thrive.
For more information about Noughts & Ones and their sustainable e-commerce solutions, please visit www.noughtsandones.com.
Noughts & Ones is a leading e-commerce agency based in Bristol, UK, specialising in creating purpose-driven and planet-conscious online shopping experiences. With a mission to empower brands that prioritise sustainability and social responsibility, Noughts & Ones delivers innovative e-commerce solutions that drive growth while making a positive impact on the planet.
Charles Russell Speechlys today announces the appointment of Partner, Rebecca Steer. Rebecca joins the Firm’s growing commercial team and will be based in the Cheltenham office.
Over the past 25 years, Rebecca has built up a strong reputation within the Southwest for her commercial expertise and work across the technology, creative and digital sectors. She advises her client base of owner-managed, portfolio and privately owned digital, tech businesses and dynamic innovator companies across a full spectrum of legal issues, including commercial, intellectual property, media, technology, outsourcing, and data protection matters.
Rebecca regularly provides strategic go to market advice and executes commercial, subscription and licensing agreements for emerging tech and digital companies in the UK and overseas, with many of her clients operating on a multi-national basis. She has significant experience negotiating strategic customer and supplier agreements for clients in these sectors. In addition to her private practice experience, Rebecca has considerable industry experience working in-house as a General Counsel at a semi-conductor company, which means she is adept at delivering high-quality and specialist advice to her client base.
David Collins, Partner, and responsible for the Firm’s Business Advisory & Transaction Services Division, which includes the Corporate, Commercial, Employment, Immigration, Financial Services and Banking teams, comments:
“With technological change continuing to accelerate at pace and client demand for bespoke commercial legal expertise growing, it is a very exciting time to be joining our team. Rebecca’s leading reputation, expertise and areas of specialism are very complementary to our highly regarded and expanding commercial practice and client offering. We are delighted to welcome Rebecca to the team.”
Rebecca Steer, Partner, adds: “I am very excited to be joining Charles Russell Speechlys, there are clear synergies between the Firm’s private capital service lines and sectors and my own client base and expertise. Joining Charles Russell Speechlys will enable me to offer a more integrated full-service package to my clients and I am very much looking forward to working alongside the stellar team.”
Rebecca’s appointment closely follows the arrival of David Cordova Flores, Tax Partner in Luxembourg, Head of International Arbitration, Tom Snider, in Dubai and Family Partner, Vanessa Duff, in Hong Kong.
About Charles Russell Speechlys
Charles Russell Speechlys is an international law firm with a focus on private capital, at the intersection of personal, family, business, and corporates. Its lawyers are based in 12 locations across the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and through each of these locations, clients can access the full range of the Firm’s skills and expertise. Charles Russell Speechlys is a leader in the world of dynamic growth businesses, and a leading adviser to the world’s prominent creators and owners of private capital and their families.
We are today announcing that after 13 years at Bristol Creative Industries, Chris Thurling is handing over the reins as chair.
Since joining the organisation in 2010, when we were called Bristol Media, Chris has been hugely instrumental in our growth and success. That includes our rebrand, building the membership, growing our visibility and launching the groundbreaking Bristol Creative Industries Internships Programme.
Taking over from Chris as co-chairs are AMBITIOUS co-founder Lis Anderson and former Aardman executive producer Heather Wright.
As Chris hands over the role, he speaks to Dan Martin about his time at the organisation, its greatest successes and the future of the creative industries in Bristol and beyond.
“In 2010 I was the founder and managing director of a digital web design agency called 3Sixty. I was approached by Paul Appleby who was running Bristol Media with Mike Bennett. Mike was stepping down to do other things and they were looking for someone to join the board who could represent the growing digital sector in Bristol. I thought it was interesting and I signed up.”
“Bristol Media was still new when I joined. It got going with some public funding, but that stopped in 2009 and the organisation moved to a membership model to fund it.
“One of the main things I’ve seen during my time is the membership model embedding itself and the organisation becoming fully self funded and not reliant on any public money or major sponsorship.
“It has survived through the membership fees which is a pretty good achievement for an organisation like BCI. That has given it credibility and autonomy. BCI exists because of its members and the only agenda is the members who support it, and not that of another organisation that is funding it.
“It has matured as an organisation to figure out what it does and what it doesn’t do. Back in the day it was pulled in lots of different directions. There were lots of people wanting Bristol Media to fit their agenda, but over time it has grown in confidence to focus on the things that it does well, not be unrealistic about what it can achieve and not be too thinly spread.”
“We had feedback that the term ‘media’ wasn’t really the collective noun that properly described the sector that we represent. Back in the early noughties, ‘media’ might have been the right word, but over time the term ‘creative industries’ gained traction and became the common parlance.
“It seemed sensible to align ourselves with the terminology that everyone was using, so it’s clear who we are and what we represent. That was one of the first things I decided we needed to do when I took over as chair. Looking back, it has been successful.”
“It is an achievement that the organisation has been financially stable and self-sustaining, even during the pandemic. That has enabled us to continue to serve members and grow the BCI team.
“Another big achievement is the new BCI board, which we appointed following the rebrand in 2021. Our focus was to have a new team of directors to help us Bristol’s creative industry in nurturing and attracting talent, connecting and growing their businesses.
“We recognised the need for our board to better reflect the diversity of talent in the city. We need individuals who can bring different perspectives and experiences and help us widen our reach across the region. An example of that is Bristol designer Marissa Lewis-Peart who we appointed to the board. In 2019, Marissa won the Ben Martin Apprentice Award in collaboration with Bristol Creative Industries.
“We introduced a new always on event schedule led by Sian Pitman, the new full time events manager we employed last year. Rather than the main focus being on the two day Vision conference that we used to run, the events are now spread out across every month in the year. This means there is something for everyone in terms of topics and price range, with some free options for people to access, particularly if they’re members.
“That has been a big success and it has made BCI a lot more visible, because there’s always something happening.
“We also introduced new formats which are tied into our mission of connecting people. These include the member lunches and Walk and Talk events. They are good ways for members to connect with each other, easy to access and something no-one else is really doing for our community.
“The social media activity, newsletter and content has been transformed in the last few years. We produce a lot of really helpful and useful content for our members.
“Finally, the Bristol Creative Industries Internship Programme is the activity I’m most proud of.
“It started with the SXSW Apprentice and Ben Martin Apprentice Award, before evolving into the scheme that is running today.
“It will continue to grow and if BCI has been in any way instrumental in transforming the lives of young people who wouldn’t have had the opportunity without us, then that has got to be the biggest success.
“On diversity, so many organisations talk a good game, send all the right tweets and have all the right badges on their website, but to actually shift the dial, you need to invest proper resources and get expertise behind it.
“We’ve had rhetorical commitment for years, but BCI is now putting its money where its mouth by setting up the programme led by the full-time programme manager, Clare Leczycki.
“BCI is showing leadership in the community, which only an organisation like BCI can do because we are not commercial or competing with anyone else. We’re there to serve the interests of the membership.”
“Lis and Heather’s new roles as co-chairs marks an exciting new chapter for BCI. Having both served on the board and run successful creative businesses, they are experienced hands and well equipped to build on the successes that BCI has achieved to date. They have been key to the internships programme, getting insights on members’ key challenges and connecting them to available funding.
“BCI can continue to take a leadership role in the development and attracting of young talent into the industry in the longer term, making sure there’s a pipeline of fantastic people wanting to come into the industry in Bristol and opening it up to people from all backgrounds and the places that historically haven’t had a look in.
“BCI can also help our industry build firmer commercial organisations. A lot of creative companies are quite hand to mouth and not necessarily great at realising the value of the amazing work that they do because often they are businesses set up by creative rather than commercial people. As times get tougher, creative businesses need more sustainable business models, and not just charging by the hour but finding a way to charge more by the value that they deliver.
“Connected to that is access to finance and financial advice which small businesses often don’t have internally. A collective organisation like BCI can pool organisations together to help.
“The UK does still have a reputation internationally for the creative industries, and as the UK market gets more challenging and competitive, our industry needs to look beyond these shores for opportunities for growth.
“Finally, we need to guard against complacency and any inertia that we have in thinking that Bristol’s an incredibly successful city and we can roll along and it’s all going to take care of itself.
“We need to understand that there are a lot of other cities hungry to eat your lunch. We’re in a good place, but we can’t assume we will be in 20 or 30 years time. We need to make sure that what happened to the first generation of industries in the UK doesn’t happen to the current generation through complacency and taking things for granted. That’s where an organisation like BCI can take a leadership role in pushing innovation.”
“Consistency of messages is important. The government blows hot and cold on the creative industries. Sometimes they get mixed up in the ‘culture wars’ and think that’s it not a real and important sector.
“In schools, it’s all about science, technology, education, engineering and maths, but the arts subjects are struggling and not getting the support that they need both financially and rhetorically from the government. There’s a sense that they’re not seen as real and proper subjects.
“The government needs to buy into the fact that the creative industries is one of the UK’s strongest advantages in the world and we need to be championing and banging the drum from the top down.
“I think that the government needs to find a way to undo the damaging effects of Brexit on our sector. It has had a huge supply of talent cut off by the ending of freedom of movement, which many BCI members used to find incredibly valuable.
“Schools need to be better connected with the creative industries and it needs to happen at an earlier stage with younger children. As a school governor myself, I think that the employability side of schools is still out of date. The kind of jobs that they know about and the kind of connections that schools have with industry is pretty old fashioned. There’s an ignorance of the myriad of jobs in the creative industries that people can do.”
“If you’re a supporter of the Bristol region and the creative ecosystem, joining Bristol Creative Industries is doing your bit.
“Check out what is available from BCI. The membership offers huge value for money. There’s lots you can get out of it including jobs advertising, coming to events, publishing your content on the website, and participating in the social media activity and using it to raise your profile.
“You will definitely meet great people. There are lots of fantastic people who are part of the network. You never know how they might be able to help you and your business.
“If people stop supporting BCI, it will go. If it didn’t exist, people would want to invent it. It’s a valuable thing that has taken the best part of two decades to build. It’s a fantastic asset for the city and the region. BCI is part of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up what’s good about the region.
“Alli Nicholas, who has been at BCI for 10 years, is the go-to person for all things membership so do speak to her if you have any questions.”
> Download the full ebook here for free.
INTRODUCTION
Tackling noise and cynicism in a post-truth world
No 21st century business would disagree with the assertion that the technological advances of the last couple of decades have fundamentally changed the marketing industry.
From build-it-yourself-website platforms to single-print self-publishing services to ChatGPT-generated content, the barriers to entering the competition for people’s attention has never been lower. Winning that competition, however, has never been more challenging.
But the challenge is not simply that it’s difficult to be heard above the noise. The ease with which literally anyone can publish content has made people cynical. As a result, they’re no longer asking, “What can you tell me?” Instead, they’re demanding, “Who are you to tell me?”
In this context, not only is it not enough to create content. It’s not even enough to create articulate content, or content that hooks people’s attention on social media, or tick’s the right boxes for Google’s ever-changing algorithms.
Instead, businesses need to dig deep into the knowledge, skills and experience within their people and create content that is brimming with something AI-driven content mills can’t reproduce: expertise.
Expertise is, firstly, a positioning strategy
There are many ways to position a brand in a marketplace. You can compete on price or personality, values, location or, if you’re lucky, the uniqueness of your product or service offering. Or you can choose an expertise-based positioning strategy.
Expertise builds trust. It encourages loyalty. It allows you to charge a premium because it shows you’re wiser and sharper than the next brand – and you can prove it. If members of your team have mastered certain disciplines and subjects, why would you try to compete on price?
This strategy is also a strong choice because it’s difficult to emulate. You can’t fake expertise, or not for long anyway. Only a few brands have what it takes to even qualify – and fewer know how to translate the expertise within their business into marketing strategy.
But, if it is to have an impact, expertise-based positioning can’t simply be a strategic choice. It needs to be executed well. In other words, you can’t just say you’re an expert, you have to prove it.
Why choose an expertise-based positioning strategy?
> Download the full ebook here for free.
Proctor + Stevenson, one of the South West’s largest and longest-established marketing and communication agencies, has undergone a management buyout (MBO).
The award-winning agency, which specialises in business-to-business marketing, has a workforce of 60 people and revenue of £6 million. It was established by Roger Proctor MBE in 1979 and after 44 years at the helm, Roger is retiring.
The company will now be owned and managed by a leadership team of longstanding directors, comprising Ailsa Billington, Managing Director, Dan Hardaker, Director of Digital Design, Steve King, Director of Technology, Phil Robinson, Creative Director, and Nikki Hunt, Finance Director.
The transition to management ownership underlines a commitment to continuity and progression from within, with those on the board having contributed significantly to the business’ success to date, with almost 90 years’ experience at Proctor + Stevenson between them.
The company, whose customers include Panasonic, Rathbones, Daikin, Pure Cremation and the UK Hydrographic Office, has seen substantial growth in recent years. In the past financial year alone, it grew by over 22%, almost 15% above the industry standard.
The agency’s global footprint has also expanded significantly, particularly in North America, Asia and the Middle East, where it has achieved notable success over three decades. Today, operations in the Gulf Region contribute 25% of overall revenue
Ailsa Billington, Managing Director, said: “The new board members have all risen through the ranks as employees, which is testament to our culture of reward and recognition. We believe in providing opportunities for team members across the lifetime of their careers
“One of our key goals is to continue Roger’s legacy of innovation, with a number of new service launches in the coming year.”
One such service will offer SMEs the affordability and flexibility of design-on-demand services, backed by the expertise of a full-service agency.
To support the work of marketers across the B2B world, Proctors’ newly developed MarTech solution combines the latest technologies with cutting-edge creative, and enables businesses to gather insights into consumer behaviour, optimise targeting and build data-driven marketing strategies.
The new team will also continue many of the CSR commitments Roger spearheaded.
The company is awaiting final certification for B Corp status, with projects such as making education accessible to women in the Middle East a key part of its social governance strategy, alongside a commitment to the Southwest Net Zero strategy.
Proctor + Stevenson will continue to allocate a percentage of its turnover to pro bono support for local charities including charities such as Caring in Bristol, Housing Matters, and Bristol Business Beats Cancer.
It will also continue to deliver the South West Design + Digital Student Awards, an initiative Roger set up as part of an ongoing campaign to tackle the way institutions approach design education, opening doors for the next generation of design talent.
Funding for the transaction was provided by HSBC and legal advice was given by Michael Clarke and Richard Hopkins at Roxborough Milkins.
Ever heard of the dark funnel? You’d be forgiven for thinking it sounds like a Jim Henson film or a Stranger Things rip-off. But it’s not as scary or mysterious as it sounds.
It’s no secret that marketers love data. We pore over numbers, analytics, and reports to build the most accurate picture of performance and inform our all-important marketing strategy.
This data is gathered from an array of sources, whether it’s a company’s website, paid advertisements, third-party businesses like HubSpot, or countless other avenues. In fact, businesses put huge amounts of money into collecting as much data as possible about their audiences.
By having an informed plan, underpinned by data, you’re able to craft a marketing strategy tailored to your audience and optimised to target specific demographics. But what about the touchpoints in a buyer’s journey or the sales funnel that can’t be tracked?
This is what’s known as the dark funnel.
Originally coined by 6Sense, the phrase refers to interactions over the course of the sales funnel that you can’t follow or gather data from. To my fellow data-loving marketers, this might seem like a nightmare. But fear not – you can actually harness the power of the dark funnel to further nurture your leads and open the door to new business opportunities.
View image in original blog here.
But before I get ahead of myself, let’s take a look at some examples of dark funnel data:
The above data points are either incredibly difficult to track, or untraceable altogether. But I think we can all agree any marketing that shares your brand with more people is important. You should also note that the dark funnel doesn’t just consist of these data points – it also includes all of the research a potential buyer may have undertaken during the consideration stage (before converting).
A valid question, indeed – why should this concept matter to you and how does it affect your business?
According to CXL:
“over 80% of a customer journey is spent navigating dark channels”
This staggering figure illustrates the huge potential that can be found in dark funnel marketing. This facet of marketing is largely focused on nurturing your leads.
By nurturing your leads, you can increase brand loyalty with your audience before they’re ready to buy. And as 95% of B2B buyers are not currently in the market to buy, it goes without saying that you still want these buyers primed and ready for when they’re prepping a shortlist.
Another reason to consider dark funnel marketing within your strategy comes from the fact that Google is set to phase out third-party cookies. With this huge shift in data privacy incoming, it’s important that your business doesn’t rely too heavily on tracking them. When these get phased out, you likely won’t have enough data to understand your buyers and measure performance, and you risk losing leads.
“…harness the power of the dark funnel to further nurture your leads and open the door to new business opportunities…”
If the dark funnel was a total mystery when you started reading this blog, that’s exactly why you should embrace it. Many companies aren’t doing this yet, which creates a great opportunity for businesses to set themselves apart from the competition and give their marketing a significant boost.
As previously mentioned, dark funnel marketing is all about nurturing leads without analytics, so that they’ll remember your brand and consider your business when they’re ready to make a buying decision. So how exactly can you get people thinking about, talking about, and considering your business over others?
Consistent organic posting
Putting paid promotion behind your social media posts will undoubtedly help your marketing efforts, but it’s crucial that you don’t underestimate the power of organic posting. This free method of marketing solidifies your brand’s online presence on platforms with millions of users. And it’s not just social media. Posting blogs on your company’s website, for example, is a great way to attract potential leads and build your reputation in the market.
High-quality work
This might seem obvious, but by always striving to meet and exceed client/customer expectations, you give people the best reason to talk about you and take control of your reputation. The quality of your work is a direct representation of your business and its values. By producing top-shelf products or delivering first-class service, you allow your work to speak for itself – and people are far more likely to help you spread the word.
Attending events
This is another great way of boosting your brand awareness and holding space in people’s minds, even without trackable data. By attending events, speaking on panels and growing your personal profile (and encouraging your colleagues to do the same) you start to make those all-important face-to-face connections. These interactions tend to stick in people’s minds far more, giving you a chance to leave a lasting impression.
Using the right channels
There are so many online channels where perfect prospects are talking and interacting (with each other, not your content). If you can enter these spaces without selling, whether it’s getting involved in LinkedIn groups, Facebook pages, or something else entirely, you can take part in your prospect’s conversations. But don’t be tempted to lead with your business or credentials. You can get your brand in front of all the right people, and engage with them to form positive relationships, simply by being your helpful, knowledgeable self.
“…Google is set to phase out third-party cookies. With this huge shift in data privacy incoming, it’s important that your business doesn’t rely too heavily on tracking them…”
Just ask
A highly effective yet often-overlooked way to make the most of dark funnel marketing is to ask your leads how they found out about your business. Plain and simple. You can do this by adding a section on your website’s contact form or a step in your checkout process. Alternatively, you can try reaching out via email. This will give you a really strong sense of which of your dark funnel channels are gaining a response from your audience, and which might need a bit more attention.
Hopefully you’re no longer in the dark about dark funnel marketing or its potential to influence your marketing strategy. Now all that is left is turn ideas into action.
While data can get you so far, there are plenty of ways to get front of mind and build your reputation without a cookie, or a dime.
We’re currently offering free marketing consultations, so if you’d like to find out how your business could discover untapped potential, get in touch at [email protected].
Apart from having over 900 million+ professionals on this platform, research shows that 4 in 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions. This is especially important in lead generation for B2B, because the decision making is more complex and involves more people than in B2C purchasing.
View image in original blog here.
We know first-hand that LinkedIn marketing is a great place to start adding value to your business with both paid advertising and organic marketing having delivered measurable results for us and a number of our clients.
Here are our top tips and tricks to boost traffic to your page and convert your leads to customers.
What content should your business be posting?
Following the 80-20 rule is a simple, yet effective way to think about your content creation.
“The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is a familiar saying that asserts that 80% of outcomes (or outputs) result from 20% of all causes (or inputs) for any given event.” – Investopedia
80% of content should be focused on brand awareness, aiming to educate, entertain and solve problems within your sector – your output.
And just 20% should promote your business, products, and solutions directly – your input.
Craft powerful benefit-led headlines
This is possibly the most important element of your content creation. In this attention economy, you need to engage your audience by using headlines that spur action.
When creating a LinkedIn ad, you need to highlight to your user that you have the solution to their pain-point, this will help you generate more ad clicks and build brand awareness.
Create a compelling, clear CTA
You need to consider the business goals of your campaign. What action do you want your users to take once they’ve seen your advert? Do you want buyers to visit your website? Download an ebook? You can let them know with a clear call to action.
It’s also important to make sure that the offer, link or download meets or exceeds expectations and benefits set out in the ad copy.
Some good examples of effective CTAs are:
Posting high-quality, relevant content on your LinkedIn Business page will improve your bid in LinkedIn advertising auctions. This is because the LinkedIn relevance score rewards marketers who regularly post content that earns ample clicks, likes, comments, and shares.
It’s essential to have a deep understanding of your target audience.
An informed approach will ensure you’re targeting the right people and not wasting money or resources. You can build these out by conducting competitor analysis, understanding your ICP (ideal customer profile), evaluating current clients, and reviewing your data and analytics. LinkedIn analytics alone can reveal a lot about your audience.
Ensuring you have these details is critical for informing campaign-creation tasks, such as audience segmentation and persona- or vertical-specific messaging.
This way, you know the content you create and the paid advertising you run will resonate with your audience as you’re targeting them based on their intent.
The importance of employee advocacy when it comes to your online reputation cannot be overstated. If your employees champion your brand and engage with your content, you can drastically expand your reach. And what’s more, it’s totally free.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, people are 3x more likely to trust company information shared by an employee than content shared by the CEO, so you can’t underestimate the power of employee advocacy.
Employees being active on LinkedIn and engaging with company content is just as important for their personal branding and career development as it is for your company. And if you take into account that every employee in your organisation has their own network, which is an average of 10x more connections than a company has followers – that’s a lot of potential reach for your content.
A simple way to do this is to create a communications channel with your employees and send a link to the post once it goes live on LinkedIn. Encourage them to share their knowledge, opinions, and insights on the thread.
For the most effective performance, commenting, tagging relevant people, and liking the thread will help maximise reach. And hopefully, with a bit of help from your internal teams, you’ll see your network grow.
It’s important to establish an employee advocacy program for this to be successful. LinkedIn itself boasts a helpful guide to leveraging employee advocacy for maximum impact.
Aside from organic performance on LinkedIn, you can boost your lead generation by running paid ad campaigns. According to research:
Brands have seen a 33% increase in purchase intent from ad exposure on LinkedIn.
Depending on your campaign you can choose a number of different objectives, but as we’re focusing on lead generation that seems like a good place to start.
However, it’s important to take the stage of your audience’s buyer journey into account. This means that running brand awareness and consideration campaigns alongside lead generation is a must.
Once you’ve set up your campaign objective, you’ll start building out your target audience. You can upload your own audiences, whether company – or contact-focused.
Alternatively, you can use LinkedIn’s own targeting options, making sure the right people are seeing your content at the right time.
Some of LinkedIn’s targeting options include:
Once you’ve set up your target audience, you can choose the format of your ad. Depending on your campaign objective you can choose from single image ads, carousels, videos and more.
For instance, a manufacturing company may choose a video ad, sharing an explainer video to promote a new product and demonstrate its benefits. This is more likely to be successful than a single image ad because the video can add context to a complex solution that’s tricky to summarise.
Next, you’ll be asked to set up a budget and schedule of your ad. A common rule of thumb is: B2B companies should spend around 2-5% of their revenue on their marketing.
So, depending on your size, you can decide how you want to split your marketing budget and which platforms will work best for your business (generally where the majority of your audience is most engaged).
You can also monitor how effective your paid advertising is using LinkedIn analytics, so you can continuously optimise your campaign.
But, absolutely the most important thing to remember when setting up your ads:
“Content is King” — Bill Gates 1996
Much like in TV, the real money-makers online are driven by beautiful, well thought out content. The kind that resonates with your target audience and influences decision-making.
So, make sure there’s always purpose behind the content you create and the copy you write. Keep your content strategy thoughtful, interesting, well-researched and, most of all, relevant.
You need to educate and provide value to your audience without asking for anything in return.
There are many lead generation tips and ideas that aren’t just focussed on LinkedIn marketing, and can be applied to any marketing methods, watch Phil Robinson, our Creative Director, provide some lead generation tips and tricks in the video.
If you have any questions at all, send an email at [email protected], or book in a meeting with Sophie Harris, Director of Business Development and Marketing for a (no obligations) consultation.
As one of only 3 SEND Centres for Excellence in the UK, we are delighted to share a brand-new workshop that focuses on supporting business who want to foster diversity and inclusion within every aspect of work. As we all navigate through an ever-evolving business landscape, we are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with you as your inclusion partner.
In fact, companies that champion disability and neurodiversity inclusion report:
– 30% higher economic profit margins
– 28% higher revenue
– 2x the net income
Through our brand new innovative and transformative ‘Conscious Inclusion’ Workshop, we aim to build upon the success of our ‘Supporting Neurodivergent Employees’ 1-day training introduced in 2022. Our aim is to continue assisting employers and employees like you, approach diversity and inclusion in the workplace with more confidence. This workshop is perfect for those that….
The “Conscious Inclusion” training by Weston College’s Faculty of Inclusive Practice is not just an investment in your employees’ well-being but also a strategic step towards a brighter, more inclusive future for all. The training does come with a trigger warning as we unpick trauma informed responses.
Ensuring a more inclusive future for your company and the community it serves can have powerful positive consequences.
With a proven track record of driving inclusive initiatives, we are confident in our ability to contribute to your organisation’s diversity goals. You will learn from nationally recognised experts, local to you and at the forefront of SEND.
Book your space online today https://www.weston.ac.uk/conscious-inclusion-training or contact [email protected] should you need to arrange invoice payment. We do have Bristol dates so get in touch to learn in the heart of Bristol at the https://www.weston.ac.uk/bristol-training-institute?utm_source=main-menu&utm_medium=main-menu&utm_campaign=main-menu
We hope you join us on this transformative journey towards conscious inclusion, and together, we can help build workplaces that celebrate diversity and empower every individual to thrive. Our Neurodiversity Workshops are continuing to run in 2023-2024 due to demand. More information https://www.weston.ac.uk/neurodiversity-autism-training-employers
We look forward to collaborating and making a lasting impact together.
(statistics source: https://builtin.com/diversity-inclusion/diversity-in-the-workplace-statistics)
Two of the Mr B & Friends Senior Leadership Team have been promoted and appointed to the agency’s Board level as the independent brand consultancy forges ahead with expansion plans.
Effective immediately, Kate Gorringe will become Executive Creative Director, and Strategy Director Adam Partridge will step up to become Executive Strategy Director. They will take up places on the agency Board alongside CEO Simon Barbato, Chairman Peter Gandolfi and Managing Partner Ellie Wilson.
Kate Gorringe has been with Mr B & Friends for almost a decade. In her capacity as Creative Director she has led large-scale projects for Principality Building Society, Persimmon and Canada Life among others. Leading the team of 13 creatives based in the Bristol office, Kate inspires the team to deliver truly extraordinary work to clients across a range of sectors.
Adam Partridge has led the agency Strategy and Planning department for the last seven years counting Bristol Bears, Bristol City Football Club and Hoare Lea among his successes. His ability to identify and articulate a distinctive brand positioning is highly valued by both existing and prospective clients. His new role has a broader strategic mandate to include the agency brand and marketing operation, product and service innovation and development
and overseeing the strategic output of the Bristol and soon to be opened London office.
The promotions will enable Mr B & Friends CEO, Simon Barbato, more time to concentrate on the company’s expansion plans including the imminent opening of London. Once Mr B & Friends London is up and running in autumn, he’ll be exploring options for a US base, having already scoped out opportunities in the market over the last couple of years.
Barbato says, “The appointment of Kate and Adam to Board level is testament to the skill and commitment they have shown over the years that I’ve worked with them. They’re both hugely talented and the best qualified people to drive the vision for Mr B & Friends forward. It also provides some much-needed headroom for other ambitious staff within the ranks. With
such an array of talent on our Board now, I’m excited to be able to forge ahead with expanding our presence in new markets as we look to challenge the ordinary for brands on a global scale.”
From dealing with demanding clients and tight deadlines to managing complex projects and constrained resources, running a successful agency is a tough business.
In fact, the latest Benchpress – Profit & Growth report 2023 by the WOW agency – found that the average gross profit of £1m+ agencies has dropped to 40%. According to the report, a healthy agency should aim for a gross profit above 50%.
We’ve pulled out the top six lessons you can learn from the top-performing agencies.
Those agencies which measure gross profit by project are likely to be the most profitable.
To calculate gross profit, first, you need to track time and costs against your projects, clients, and services. Then, you can analyse your revenue by project/client/service vs. the cost to deliver the project/client/service.
Gross profit = revenue – direct expenses – cost to deliver
Understanding which projects, clients and services are most profitable can help you make better decisions for growth.
The most successful agencies track their projects in real time. This way, they can spot if things are starting to overrun and get things back on track.
If you’re just ploughing on, you will lose money – and may as well not have taken on the job. Monitoring in real time will keep you within timings and budget.
Aiming for an operating profit above 20% (once you’ve paid yourself) will put you in a strong position, giving you a platform to invest in your growth strategy.
Agencies often cite ‘if it wasn’t for that one job’ or ‘if only we hadn’t taken on that one client’ as reasons for not reaching their target profits. This is when they then start normalising single-figure operating profit.
The familiar bane of creatives is completing their timesheets. But time is what you’re selling, so it stands to reason you need to understand what this is costing.
And the most successful agencies were those where the directors did less client work – demonstrating the impact of working on the business rather than in the business.
Read Agency utilisation rates: everything you need to know
Agencies that use spreadsheets for project management had an average utilisation rate for non-director roles of 66%. Those using software had an average rate of 75%. That’s a big difference. For a team of 10 chargeable staff at £100ph, that would be an extra £174k of profit per year!
And the most popular software used by these agencies? Synergist 🙂
Agency life is fast paced and it can often be easy to get caught up in the whirl of day-to-day activities. But adding in some structure, strategy, and planning will help your agency move from surviving to thriving, keeping workloads manageable, jobs on time and on budget, and profits where you want them to be… growing.