The Marketing Dogs best bits

the marketing dogs best bits

the marketing dogs best bits

 

We’re back! Yes the humans have let us loose on the blog again. So we are here to bark you through The Marketing Dogs best bits! It’s been another pawesome year for us marketing dogs, with lots of work, play and snooze.

This is what happened to us:

We’ve been a team of two for quite a long time now. Partners in crime to cause mischief for the humans. Which is something we’re really good at, and have certainly got our practice in this year. We worked on our own notes from last year, and we greeted clients with more effort, and helped to clean up the office more by hoovering up any tasty morsels off the floor, so we really need our Christmas break now!

But at the very end of this long year, we have grown our pack by one, with the addition of Sam. She may be a little on the small side, but we’re training her up so she can be just as good as us at ripping up cardboard boxes, stealing toast and being a good lookout.
The 3 musketeers under the blanket
So next year we will have even more adventures to write about, as we’re sure our little pack of marketers will be getting into lots of trouble!

 

This is what happened on our blog:

 

teaching how to blogWe held blog classes for some humans to show it really isn’t that hard when you know how.

 

 

 

dogs on exhibitionsWe gave tips on exhibitions. We know the humans give a lot of advice, but sometimes you’ve got to consider a dogs point of view!

 

 

 

Dogs on strategyThe humans always talk about marketing strategy but what about toast eating strategy? Me and George look at how you should always stay resilient when it comes to getting what you want.

 

 

 

dogs on showWe went to a dog show at Bingley hall which was so amazing we had to tell you all about it, and how George now definitely wants to be a model.

 

 

 

a dogs view on seoGeorge looked at his version of SEO, which I think is a little different to the humans version!

 

 

 

Halloween dogsGeorge barked about tricks and treats for Halloween, and also told some really awful jokes!

 

 

 

 

 

This is what happened on Twitter:

Our paws are really tired after tweeting all of you this year! We’ve been busy all year, but September and October had us running around like made

In September over 10,400 of you saw our tweets, and 65 of you were barking about us, which is furry very nice. And in October almost 700 of you came to visit our twitter page, and we gained 50 new friends!

You can see some of our top tweets from this year below, but you all seemed to enjoyed George’s #toytuesdays and us being hard working office dogs.

We’re looking forward to another year of tweeting, and showing off our marketing dog skills!

 

Selection of the dogs top tweets

This is what happened in the office:

We ripped 6 cardboard boxes to smithereens.

And played with (and destroyed) 17 different toys.

We demolished 5 plastic bottles.

and rummaged through 3 handbags.

We ate 112 treats.

And stole 32 bites of the humans lunches.

We commuted to and from the office for 188 days of this year.

and we slept for 752 hours at the office.

 

office dog collage

 

 

We’re now the furr-ree musketeers which means we will be up to even more next year. You can check out all our pawesome blogs here, and follow our barks on twitter. What do you want to see more of from the Marketing Dogs in 2016?

Furry Christmas humans!

George, Chops and Sam xxx

12 Days of Christmas … 2 Marketing Dogs (plus a new addition!)

12 days of christmas 2 marketing dogs

12 days of christmas 2 marketing dogs

Bonjour, Ni Hao … and Ahoj!From The Marketing Dogs

The humans have asked us to be part of their 12 days of Christmas countdown as the 2 marketing dogs, which is brrrrrilliant, except for one thing … After we began furiously pawwing this blog at the  keyboard, we’ve had another partner in crime join us. So we are no longer the 2 marketing dogs, but the 3 musketeers.

We’d like you all to give a big bark for Samanta who has joined us all the way from the Czech Republic. After her long journey, she needed a place to stay, so we have took her under our paw and are teaching her the ropes.

Intro to Sam

She already knows how to greet visitors at the door, pull the right face so the humans give her food, and take productive office snoozes, we’re definitely proud of our little sister! And she is very little, so she makes us feel a lot bigger and scarier than we are!

Back to our blog though, the humans wanted to show you some pawesome pictures of us from the year, so we have picked the ones that show our best side, as well as lots of our new dog pack in the office. How will the humans cope with us all under one woof roof?

Enjoy our gallery …

All 3 marketing dogs snoozing

Sam already taking over! Two big dogs in the little bed, Sam in the big bed!

Chops answering the phone

“Good morning The Marketing People, Chops speaking, how can I lend a paw to you today?”

Chops licking George

“Hi, I’m your hair and make up for today, let me just lick that hair into place”

George and Chops after toast

Our normal Monday routine, try and steal toast from the humans!

cat photobombing dog

Cat photobomb! Vic was not letting Sam steal all the limelight

Chops joining the team meeting

While George is stealing toast, I’m trying to get the tasty treats from the side.

All the Marketing Pets taking a break

Well we’d all been working hard, so a bit of downtime for all us marketing animals

George being tickled

No, no, mom, don’t get pictures of me being tickled!

Sam snuggled up

Sam getting snuggled up under mums desk.

George and Chops going blackberry picking

Mum took us blackberry picking, look how many we found!

The 3 musketeers under the blanket

Us having a little bit of down time after a hard day.

Chops looking after a shoe

I’m looking after your shoe mum, don’t worry

The Marketing Cat

We couldn’t leave Vic out! Honourary marketing dog

George and Chops playing

Playtime!

Chops loving the camera

Take another picture of me mum! I’m feeling my fur is looking good today!

George and Chops pulling funny faces

Quick Chops, pull a funny face!

Chops protecting the office from the sofa

I’ll take this shift of protecting the office George

George doing the hockey cokie

The best bit of 2015? I learnt how to do the hockey cokey!

 

Not enough of us dogs for you? Well don’t worry, we’ll be back later this week with our best bits of 2015! We’ll be looking at what we’ve been doing in the office, on twitter and in the blog, and maybe we’ll have a few more pictures for you too.

Love and licks

George, Chops and Sam xxx

 

Take a look at the rest of our countdown to the 12 days of Christmas, for more advice, how to’s and examples of marketing during this festive season.

12 Days of Christmas … 10 things to blog about this Christmas season

10 things to blog about this Christmas

10 things to blog about this Christmas

Even if you’ve managed to successfully blog all the way through the year, it can be heard to know what to blog about in this seasonal time. We’ve put together 10 things you could blog about with your Christmas content.

 

Your best bits

Christmas and New Year is a time we all naturally reflect on our lives and what has happened in the past year. So looking back on your best bits of the year will not only be quite therapeutic for you. But will remind your customers of the good things you have done. The challenges you have overcome. And why they became a customer with you in the first place.

Some good starting points might be what company successes have you celebrated? Has your company grown, or moved offices, or won any awards? Have you had any personal successes in the team such as promotion, marriage or cute newborns? Or has your team really gone the extra mile this year, and took part in charity events, or volunteering projects?

Once you get started, you will probably have a lot more to talk about than you think.

 

What is coming in the New Year for you

If you are making any changes in the New Year, now is a good time not only to inform your customers. To get them excited about it, and ready to embrace the changes.

Consider if you will be offering new services or products in the New Year. Can customers get money off if they refer to a code given in the blog? This may increase shares of your blog, and visits to the website. Resulting in more organic sales, as well as people taking advantage of the offer in the New Year.

Are you moving premises, or changing your opening hours? Now is a great time to inform your customers to save confusion when it comes to January.

 

Industry relevant Christmas/New Year preparation

If people are regularly visiting your blog, or find your blog within search results, they are most likely interested in your industry. So posting industry relevant festive content is something your readers may be interested in. And helps to keep your 80:20 ratio of informative content, to advertising, in a time where it is easy to slip into heavy sales.

Not sure what you would write? Well if we look at our blog for example. This very post in fact. It is an informative post, relevant to marketing, that is based around the festive period.

If, for example, you run a HR blog, why not look at how to act appropriately at the office Christmas party. If you run an accountancy blog, why not look at how to get your finances in order for 2016. These are simple ideas, but it can be easy to overlook them when panicking about what to write when you are more deadlines than normal looming.

 

Seasonal Industry News

Following on from advice in your industry during the festive period, is there any relevant industry news that affects you during this season?

Retail blogs have a lot to work with here, such as looking at best buys for the season or how Black Friday has affected you.

Marketers, we have new Christmas campaign after new Christmas campaign that we can critique. To look at how these could be improved, or how much profit was gained by running a certain campaign.

Security blogs can look to the news of the latest crime statistics. In a period of time where many people have high value items sitting on show in their cars and houses. What are people saying about it? And what can people do to stop themselves being part of the story?

Again, this is looking at keeping your blog content informative, and useful for the reader at a time where most content is focused on selling.

 

Acts of Goodwill

We touched upon this in an earlier point, but as this is the season of goodwill and charity, it is definitely a subject to talk about.

If your team has been involved in charity work, fundraising or volunteering, then talk about it. What did they do, why were they doing it and how did it go? Not only are you showing the employees who took part that you are proud of what they have achieved. You are also showing your customers that you care about these causes, and it’s not all about just going to work each day.

Are you planning more fundraising next year? Let people know, or ask what charities they would like to see you support, or what events they would like to see. Engage with people now. So when the time comes, your customers can see that you have followed through on your word.

Or if you have not had time. Or are not in a position to fund-raise yourselves, why not look to other examples of goodwill to talk about?  Social media is full of examples of this. Of individuals, as well as charities, passing out coats, gloves and scarves to the homeless. Of people starting a pay it forward gesture at a coffee shop, where they pay for the next persons coffee. Or of school children putting together shoebox’s of gifts to be sent to other children across the globe. There are plenty of examples out there of people doing good, so to share and celebrate their achievements is a great thing to do.

 

Your most popular posts of the year

If you blog regularly, now may be the time to recap on what have been the most popular posts. This is something you will see on our own blog in the near future, as we post twice a week, readers can miss out on the occasional post!

Use analytics tools to find the top read blogs for the year, and then link them all together in one handy post. This gives readers a chance to refresh themselves on content they may have forgotten about. New readers a chance to catch up on what has been going on. And it’s a great exercise for you to see what has been well received by your potential customers. So then you can use that information to build on next year’s posts.

 

Things you have learned as a business this year

This can be done in two ways, extremely silly or serious reflection. That’s really up to you and your company.

Silly side, you can have learnt that perhaps some of your colleagues shouldn’t be trusted to make a good cuppa. Or that you need to call to check outfits as people have turned up in the same thing. Maybe you have learned that once one person ordered in food, that means the rest of you cave in too and it turns into a full on food session? Just remember to keep it appropriate, and not too personal about your colleagues. This post should definitely be a light hearted one.

If you’re looking for a more reflective post, perhaps you can look at how you managed to conquer your social media fears. Or how it was a great move to get your website updated. Maybe you changed your location, which worked really well. Or you learnt what your customers really love.

Whichever you choose, this is an opportunity to give your readers some insight into you company, what you value, and what sort of people you actually are.

 

Gift Guide

This will only work with some businesses, so think carefully before using this. B2C businesses have it a little easier here, and can use this as a little promotion for your own products. Talk about your products, why they’re great, and why people have bought them already.

If you don’t necessarily have products that can be sold at this time, maybe you could look at a light hearted version of this post. Collate the worst/most random/most ingenious gifts you have seen around. You could run a “the 10 worst things you could buy your loved one” or perhaps “the 8 gifts that have got us excited for Christmas in the office”. Try and keep it still relevant to your business, make sure it still has a clear purpose and always make sure it’s appropriate.

 

Your best customers

As well as looking back at what your company has done, and what you have achieved. Now is a great time to look back at the lovely customers you have had, and have supported your business this year. This may work slightly better for B2B companies, than B2C. As you may have worked with a particular client or customer repeatedly over the year.

Talk a little about the work you did together. How it has benefited that company or person. And why you loved working with them.

This is a great post, not only for promoting and saying thank you to your customers. But it’s also great for getting your post seen by new audiences if your customers share your post. Meaning you may gain a few more customers from the post.

 

Merry Christmas Message

Number 10 in the list is probably the most obvious one. But a really nice one to put up. Wish your readers a Merry Christmas, thank them for their support, and inform them of your business opening hours over the Christmas season.

Work with some lovely graphics to make it this a nice visual post you can share. Then work on some mince pies and hot chocolates because it’s Christmas and you’ve worked hard.

 

It really is a great time of year on a business blog to add in more humour. To be more personal. To provide more insightful information for your readers. So take advantage of the topic ideas above, and let us know if there is a topic you love to post about at this festive time.

Take a look at the rest of our countdown to the 12 days of Christmas, for more advice, how to’s and examples of marketing during this festive season.