Home » Archives for 2016

Dog tips on dressing for Bonfire Night

Posted on 1st November 2016 by The Marketing People

Howdy humans,

It’s almost bonfire night, which means it is time for fireworks, and blankets and tasty tasty food. So we thought we would take a look through our previous ensembles and pass on a few tips of dressing for the occasion.

Pick a good coat

We’re lucky that we have a mum with really good taste, she we get to wear great coats that keep us all snug.

You should look out for full body coverage

But even then you still sometimes can’t impress us.

Keep your head warm

It’s important to keep our furry faces nice and warm as the temperature is dropping. but this can be harder for some animals than others.

The cat wasn’t too impressed with having to join in this rule. She looks like she’s actually trying to repel the hat!

And Chops looks a little like a Jedi, but she’s getting there with what it should look like.

Keep safe.

George has got the idea here with his hi vis vest. Keep safe with your human at all times.

Or stay in and pick a good blanket.

We love a good blanket! We even have a number of ‘blanket poses’ so hopefully we inspire you.

The pile on. Now, this one involves grabbing as many blankets as you possibly can, and piling them on top of you to form a warm (and quite stylish) nest. This one involves a little bit of effort, as finding those blankets can be tough!

The old lady. This is a specialist pose, and requires the help of a human. They wrap you up in a seated position, and though you may feel fabulous, you look like an elderly human lady.

The envelope. This is where you lie on a flat surface (such as a desk) and have a blanket underneath you, and above you. Sammy is a classic envelope sleeper when she snoozes at work.

The roly poly. This is so much fun! Get in your blanket, and roll and roll and roll. With a little help from a human, you will be like a toasty burrito in no time.

And our favourite, the group hug. Get the dog squad together, put on some good tele, and relaxxx.

Renegotiating the terms of the leash

Posted on 6th September 2016 by The Marketing People

Last time we looked at what to look out for with those nasty ulcers. But what if you find yourself in the same position as George, and you are now adapting to a different way of life?

Here’s some of the tips the humans have found when looking at training a blind dog. But there is no right or wrong way, just what works for you and your human!

Our first paw-ry was how George was going to play. As you all know he woofs his toys, and will always make a game out of anything he can get his paws on.

We’ve seen tips that adding bells or smells to toys can help, so that George could hear or smell his toy, and be able to find it that way, rather than seeing where it is. We know George has a sixth sense when it comes to knowing where his favourite toys are anyway, so he will probably learn quick on this one!

One place also said to use a mat under our dog spot, so that he will know from the feeling under his paws that he is back to base, and near his bed. We think he could probably follow our snore’s though!

Dad’s also said he has got to stop mom picking George up and carrying him cause he can ‘map out’ the house. We think George deserves s bit of fuss for a while, but we suppose it may be a bit confusing being picked up in the kitchen, and suddenly you’re on the sofa. They are gonna get some spongy bits for the table though, so he doesn’t bump his head when he is sniffing out his way (even though he bumped into everything before!).

To be honest, they have this completely under control, and there is so much help for them on the woof wide web that we know it’s all going to be okay.

In the lots of research they have done, part of that was looking at some videos of other pawed pals who are dealing with the same thing. They seemed to make them smile, so we thought you may all want to have a look too.

Here are our favourite videos.

Do you have a pet story to tell? Perhaps you are adapting to a new situation, or even just a fellow hard working office dog. Get in touch and we might be able to get your story on our blog!

For now though love and licks to you all

Chops and Sammy xoxo

George is making an amazing recovery!

Posted on 2nd September 2016 by The Marketing People

Hello humans, its Chop,Sammy and Vic (the cat don) here. Well its been a tough couple of weeks but we are pleased to bark that our brofur George is doing really well.

We are taking recovery a day at a time and we are all learning something new every day. Mum and dad have been training him loads with the help of lots of tasty treats and voice commands and of course everyone has been giving him loads of extra cuddles which he is lapping up. Us girls have been walking alongside him to guide him along as he’s finding his way around the office and house.

What not to do in an email campaign

Posted on 30th August 2016 by The Marketing People

Throughout this month we are focusing on email campaigns, the tips, tricks, dos and don’ts to get you on track. Today’s blog looks at what not to do in an email campaign. As though they are a quick and easy option to put together, they can also quickly and easily go wrong.

Here are seven easy mistakes to make they may cost you business.

Send it to everyone

You have some email addresses. You know you should go through them really, but that takes a lot of time that you just don’t have. So you send your one email to the entire list.

This brings you a lot of bounces, unsubscribes and generally not a great return on your ‘effort’. So why doesn’t it work?

Well there are a number of things wrong with this scenario. Firstly, you should regularly clean your data, as database’s tend to decay 22.5% each year. You should also take the time to ensure everyone has opted in for your emails. Then you need to look at the other data you have. Check out our previous post for more on this. But really you need to be making sure that the email that lands in your customers inbox is one that is relevant, useful and personal to them, otherwise what is their incentive to buy?

Put really long subject lines

So you want to make sure the customer knows exactly what they are opening, so you write a brilliant subject line. It’s a little long, but it’ll be okay, your customers will understand once they open the email.

Wrong. If your subject line can’t be seen fully in the preview, chances are they won’t open the email full stop.

It has been proven that more emails are opened when they have a shorter subject line and ideally you should be keeping them under 50 characters. Make the line as short, snappy and to the point as you can. It should point to what the content is, but the email itself should explain what’s going on, the subject line is just the precursor.

Bad timing

Newsjacking or scheduled emails can go horribly wrong pretty quickly. Always check current events and the schedule of the email, and if in doubt of how it will be interpreted, always get a second (non-biased) opinion.

Newsjacking or topical content is a brilliant tool, but when you are delivering that content straight to someone’s inbox, you need to take extra steps to ensure it won’t cause offence.

Spamming the hell out of people’s inboxes

Have you ever thought ‘Ooo that’s the fourth email I’ve received from that company this week, I definitely want to go and check out what they have to offer’ … No didn’t think so. So why do we think it’s okay when we’re the business?

Your emails should be useful, and if you have to send 5 in a row, they might not be providing all that benefit to your customer. Not to mention they should be expected, and your customer will most likely be expecting all the information they need in the minimal amount of emails.

Carefully plan out your email schedule, and explain at the point of signing up what users can expect in terms of emails from you. If you state then and there you will be sending an email every day and they still sign up, then that’s okay.

Also remember to only re-send the same content to non-openers. Don’t annoy the people who are actually clicking your email.

Not suitable for mobile

Did you know that 45% of email opens occur on a mobile phone? So why when building up your email do you not consider what it will look like on a mobile phone?

Consider how your images will resize. Is there a lot of text? Will people be having to try and expand to read it? If you received an email that just didn’t look right on your mobile, would you click back off it and forget all about it? I’m guessing you probably would.

You have to design for mobile first if you want to keep up with your customers. Luckily most free to use email programmes such as MailChimp already use responsive templates, you just need to make the most of them!

No obvious action

You’ve got a great subject line, loads of your recipients have opened, but then nothing. Why is nothing happening? You’ve spent so long putting together this fabulous email with a beautiful design. And it’s full of loads of useful information too!

But what did you actually ask your customers to do? Was there a singular call to action which was obvious to the reader? If you are bombarding your readers with lots of beautiful pictures, and all of this information, how do they know what to do next? They may just absorb everything and continue with their day.

All of your email should be pointing to a single call to action which is clear to the reader, and appealing enough to inspire them to click. Make it as easy as possible for the reader to complete the action, and for you to be able to measure the result.

Not bothering to test, or read through, or just generally speeding through.

Again, we love to rush and get these things out don’t we? But how do we know our links work? That it makes sense? And that its going to achieve what you want it to achieve? You need to test it!

Send it to yourself, to your colleagues, to a beta set of customers. You need to test drive this to make sure what you send out will have people looking forward to your emails, not unsubscribing from your list.

You also need to commit to the changes you may need to make. Though you may love the design, or you really hadn’t factored in the time to change your CTA button, you have to change to make it better. Otherwise what was the point in testing? Or sending for that matter.

What has been the worst email you’ve received and why? What would be your advice on what not to do in an email campaign? Let us know in the comments!

A tough week for seriously paw-ly George

Posted on 24th August 2016 by The Marketing People

I’ve been tasked with pawing the blog today, which has been quite a ruff one. Our George has been a little in the wars, and it’s time to update you our furry friends.

George had been suffering for a few weeks with a very paw-ly eye, having to go back and forth to the vets, and leaving mum and dad putting eye drops in 6 times a day. As you can imagine this wasn’t George’s favourite part of the day. As the drops were kept in the fridge, he would hide in his bed whenever the fridge door went rather than running to see what he could scrounge!

We thought his eye was getting better, but during a normal day at the office, and running to greet someone at the door, George let out a yelp, and his eyeball went pop, and mum and dad had to rush him to the vet hospital.

Me and Sammy were so worried, but knew he would be okay with mum and dad and the vet. Unfortunately, we found out that George had a ‘corneal ulcer’ which can develop rapidly. Meaning they couldn’t save his eye, and the vets had to remove it.

Now, I know that George loves dressing up, but I thought this may be a step too far for the pirate costume he wanted to get (complete with eye patch).

But all barks aside, we felt very sorry for our Georgie, as not only did he have to have his one eye removed, but we found out that he had the same problem in his other eye, with a tiny ulcer appearing. Then the very next day after his op to remove his eye, before he even had time to come home for a cuddle! He had to be rushed to the hospital again for an operation to save his other eye, as the ulcer had grown massively.

The vets were amazing. We thought the dog squad had strategy down for trying to steal the humans toast, but their plan was something else! They were going to take out the bad bits in the eye, and then graft some of George’s eye back over, so that he could still see a little bit. We were very impressed at how they must have a steady paw! But also a little worried about our George.

Luckily George is a tough cookie, and came through the two operations in two days, a bit battered, a bit bruised, but still the same cheeky George we love (and lick). He had a couple of days of extra cuddles from mum and dad, and from us too when we were allowed to have a gentle cuddle. Even with the very limited vision he had, he was still trying to help mum dehead flowers in the garden, and even tried to play with his toys.

It looked like he was back on his way to recovery, but on Tuesday morning, just after we had all had our breakfast. We heard the same yelp that followed the pop last time, and mum and dad knew they had to get George back to the hospital. Even though they rushed and rushed, the vet said they would have to remove his other eye too.

This left us all very sad. What were we going to do?

Thankfully we know George is a tough nut to crack, and he would adapt. He was even doing what he could before his op to make the vet smile, including singing to him through the night.

As of this afternoon (Wednesday) we can say that George has come out of his operation, and out of the anaesthetic, and should hopefully be home with us tomorrow.

So George looks a little different now, but it’s okay. Me and Sammy are going to take him under our paws until he’s back to his normal boisterous self. Dad’s got loads of training in mind so he can still use the house as normal, and mums buying bells galore so he can hear things coming.

We know he’ll keep inspiring us, even without his sight, just like the Paralympian’s we are waiting to see on the tele. Oh, I wish I hadn’t barked that now, George is already expecting a medal. Watch out for a blog of him saying how he’s like a Paralympian now!

Thanks to all the extra love we’ve had off all the humans, from the team at the office, to the vets, to the clients, and even the poor postman who was in tears over Georgie. We wuff you all. (You can tell George isn’t pawing this blog as I can go a bit more soppy and dramatic!).

We’ll bark more updates as we have them, as well as guides of what to look out for in your pet pals, and we’re sure George will want his say when he’s feeling a little better. So make sure you sniff the blog for more information.

Love and Licks

Chops xoxo

Email Marketing Statistics to consider in 2016

Posted on 2nd August 2016 by The Marketing People

Email has changed in 2016. With a boom in automation and mobile use, we take a look at what this has done to email marketing statistics.

Email is a marketing tool which goes back and forth as being “dead” and not worth much. But as with every marketing tool, if it fits with your strategy, and is done well, it can achieve great results, just as these email marketing statistics show.

Email Automation

Email automation has taken a huge jump; as online shopping is now proving to be the consumer’s favourite. Acting as an instore offer, or a happy to help assistant, triggered emails help to get customers to the till. Whether that’s incentive to come back and pick up their basket, or to buy a little extra than what they normally would.

Using inbound methodology of allowing the customer to control the sales process, automated emails offer the company to chance to convert the customer.

So does this actual work?

B2C marketers who leverage automation have seen conversion rates as high as 50% – eMarketer
Automated email messages average 70.5% higher open rates and 152% higher click-through rates than “business as usual” marketing messages. – Epsilon Email
Companies who send automated emails are 133% more likely to send relevant messages that correspond with a customer’s purchase cycle. – Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups

From these stats it appears so. Automation, when done correctly, seems to be the perfect balance of nudging consumers down the sale funnel, whilst the customer is still in control.

Will this continue to be the case?

Prediction: Email automation tools become even more useful, offering email marketers more ways to creatively use them and an ever expanding list of triggers – Daniel Codella of Zurb

Email and mobile

As you may have noticed, there has been a lot of stories about mobile ready website, and mobile friendly ads, and email marketing is no exception.

Over half of email is now opened on mobile, meaning your beautifully crafted email needs to able to open on mobile to be successful.

This means looking at responsive design. Perhaps a more ‘drag and drop’ style then hard coding your email. Meaning more people will receive the full benefit when they open.

But is this something you really need to worry about? Let’s take a look at the stats:

About 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices. – Campaign Monitor
Though the number of new Internet users is growing at less than 10% per year, the number of new smartphone subscribers is growing at a 20%+ rate. –TechCrunch
It is more common for a reader’s second open to be on a mobile device than it is on a different device: 70% will stick with their mobile device, and 30% will go elsewhere. – Campaign Monitor

Mobile marketing is no longer a gimmick. It’s something you need to consider in every aspect of your marketing campaign. Especially with email.

Prediction: Email marketing will experience a second coming of age in 2016, thanks to mobile strategies, more integrations and more insights from data. – Chad White of Litmus.

Email personalisation and segmentation

Automation has helped with email personalisation and segmentation, as emails are triggered by a user’s action. But if you are looking at a more traditional email marketing campaign, is it still worth segmenting?

Yes. Of course it is! The user who is receiving your email doesn’t know if they are part of a “traditional campaign” or an “automated” one. All they care about is if that email is of use to them personally.

So should you be taking the time to segment your data? Let’s take a look at the stats:

Personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%. – Aberdeen
Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. – Campaign Monitor
Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates. – Experian

The truth is, as consumers we provide a lot of data to companies, and when we receive un-personal, generic emails, it’s kind of a kick in the teeth. Use the data you have, cater your messages, and you will receive the rewards.

Prediction: “hyper-personalization” is becoming a reality. Specialist third-party services pop up in deliverability, testing, live content, remarketing, predictive analytics, email advertising & customer intelligence. – Rene Kulka

Email Vs Social Media

Email marketing is often compared to social media. However, this is not something you should be doing. Email and social stand at different parts of the sales funnel. Social media is there to attract, and draw new people in. Whereas email is to convert, as they have already filtered down the sales funnel.

So of course statistics are going to look amazing for conversion levels of email, but sometimes you need to view these in context. Here are just some of the statistics out there:

You are 6x more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than you are from a tweet.- Campaign Monitor
Email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing channel, including search and social. – Monetate
A message is 5x more likely to be seen in email than via Facebook. – Radicati

Don’t choose between email or social, as they are not an either/or option. Both have their merits, and their faults, but they are two very different things.

Just remember that if you have someone’s email address that you have permission to use, chances are, they are more willing to convert as they have passed on their details.

Other email statistics

Just a few last email statistics for the road, to give you thought for your next campaign.

The total number of worldwide email accounts is expected to increase to over 4.3 billion accounts by year-end 2016. – Radicati Group
76% of marketers see active growth in their number of email subscribers. –Ascend2
Open rate is highest when companies send two emails per month. – Database Marketing Institute
Email marketing was the biggest driver of Black Friday transactions, with 25.1% of sales originating from the marketing channel. – Custora
65% of users prefer emails to contain mostly images, compared to 35% who prefer text. – HubSpot

Do you use email campaigns in your marketing? What do you think of these email statistics? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

If you require help or advice with your email campaign, then why not speak to the team about arranging a free marketing consultation to see if we could work together.

The 5 essentials to a successful landing page

Posted on 21st July 2016 by The Marketing People

You may have heard us mention a number of times about landing pages, but we haven’t covered them in detail in any of our recent blogs.

Today we’re going to take a closer look at landing pages in 2016, and what you should focus on to make your landing page as successful as it can be.

What is a landing page?

It can be really easy to get confused as to what a landing page is. It’s just a page that your visitor lands on right? Not quite.

As Hubspot so eloquently put – “All landing pages are web pages, but not all web pages are landing pages”.

Simply put, a landing page is a web page with a focus on a singular purpose, without the distraction of the rest of the website.

So, for example, you may use it to get someone to sign up to the free trial of your software. Or perhaps, to download an eBook, or for a discount voucher.

These pages can rest on your regular domain, but are hyper relevant to that specific topic. So this means removing all links to other distractions, and making it simple for your reader to ingest the information.

So might you use a landing page?

Landing pages are known to greatly improve conversion rates, as they are targeted. So how can you use landing pages for your site?

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If you want to see some of these in action, go to Hubspot’s Landing Page Best Examples article, for some great (and varied) examples.

What do you need to focus on?

So these can be used is a variety of ways, for a variety of different purposes. How do you even know where to start when it comes to your landing page?

Here are 5 steps that should start you off in the right direction:

A valid offer for a landing page

Landing pages massively increasing conversions sound great right? However, that doesn’t mean you should set up landing pages for everything. Your website should be doing the job as an informative tool of your services. Landing pages offer a targeted option to persuade users to complete a certain action.

In order to persuade your users, you will need a good offer that is of value to that user. For example, you may be trying to grow your contact list of those who may be interested in your inbound marketing services. You would perhaps offer a beginners guide to inbound marketing for your business. This would be downloadable in exchange for contact information, and would provide value to those users.

A clear, short and simple layout

Now you have an offer that’s valid, you begin to put together your page. It’s best practice to keep your information above the fold where possible.

This isn’t always possible, but having your main information, and your call to action as the first things on the page will increase conversion rates. This is as users don’t have to work to find the information, what they wanted is right there for them.

When designing, consider how this will look on different devices, is your call to action still prominent?

Informative, professional looking content

Once you have an idea of how you are laying out your page, you will know how much content you need to include.

Again, it is better to keep this to a minimum, as a wall of text is going to cause a barrier to your conversion. But this needs to be precise, and informative, without being too pushy. Your audience is not here for a hard sale.

You also need to pay close attention to your font. Always ensure it is clear, and professional, and follows brand where possible. The last thing you want when a user gets to your page is to not be able to read the instructions.

Contrasting call to action

Your call to action is what is actually going to get the user to click. It goes without saying it needs to obvious, and as we have already established – above the fold.

One of the most popular tips is to have your call to action button in a contrasting colour to the rest of the page, to make it stand out. You could also consider using arrows, or images that point towards your form or call to action.

Also consider the text on your call to action button. This needs to be persuasive, and clear as to what will happen when the user presses it.

Trustworthiness

When you take away the links to the rest of your website, you can remove all signs of trust for a potential customer. They don’t know if you are who you say you are.

Consider adding your accreditations to the page. Or perhaps testimonials or reviews. You could even use some snapshot into your social media accounts. Anything that will reassure a nervous user that you are trustworthy, and telling the truth.

Remember though, all landing pages are different, and will perform differently. It is always best to A/B test landing page, so that you can gain the best results for you. The above will help, but nothing will be as useful as seeing results for yourself.

Consider changing the headline, content, layout, images and call to action to see what works.

If you are in any doubt when it comes to landing pages, our friendly team can help. Just give us a call on 01543 495752 and take advantage of our free marketing consultation.

9 Ways you can use Video Marketing in your business

Posted on 5th July 2016 by The Marketing People

It seems this year, you cannot escape video marketing, and the fact you should be using it for your business. You are probably already sick to the back teeth of hearing about it, so why is everyone crazy for video?

Well let’s consider for a moment the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. That’s a lot of search for a video based platform. Meaning that you may be focusing mass efforts on gaining rankings for your website in Google, but completely overlooking the next largest search by avoiding video marketing. Not to mention that Google owns YouTube, so making the most of the opportunities on both may jump you above your competitors.

But is it really worth it? Let’s take a look at some figures:

In 2015, YouTube viewers spent 37, 000 years’ worth of time just watching the top 10 music videos. That’s not including any cute animals, or viral comedy videos.
Facebook averages around 8 billion video views a day.
Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
A video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more.
Video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engines.
4x as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

Are you considering video marketing a little more now? Now where do you begin? What do you even make videos about?

Here are 9 ways you could potentially approach video marketing:

Promo Video

Let’s start with the most obvious. A promotional video is where most companies begin their thought trail, and it may be just the thing your business needs.

Think of this as your sales pitch. This is you demo, and your benefits, and your prices and your close. It’s everything your sales guy would be doing, just in video format. This could display on a home page, a landing page or even something you include in packs to potential clients.

Yes, this is probably the most cliche of our suggestions, but for some businesses, it really works. Just for your own business, off the customers you have, if this would be the right method for you. If you do not know why you are doing this style of video, or this isn’t your normal style, go for a different approach.

Product or Service Demo

If a sales pitch isn’t quite right, then a product or service demo might be more suitable. Something that displays to the customers the ins and outs of what would happen if they were to purchase from you. Just minus the hard sell.

This could be an example of your product itself in action. If it has multiple uses what would those uses be, and showcasing the benefits of this. If it’s your service, it could be a walk through of what happens on your end, before a customer would actually see the benefit. So for example, if you were an SEO marketing company, it may show clips of the process the marketer goes through. Or the tools they may potentially use, and how they would craft your monthly report.

This allows you to build trust with your potential customer. To show that you do know what you are doing, and that there are standard processes in place.

Tutorials/Walk Through

There may be more complex topics that usually require you to explain in detail over the phone, or email, or perhaps it makes a lengthy appearance in your FAQs. This is something that could be transferred to video, making it simple and easy for your customers to find answer to their problem.

This could be on using software on your site, a particularly awkward product, or just a part of normal process you get asked about a lot. Here you have the opportunity to address does potentially painful moments for your customer before they even happen. Meaning they are on side straight away.

Animated versions of your blogs

Videos take a lot of planning. Sometimes the thought of planning and releasing a video, on top of creating all this lovely content for your site can be enough to put you off. But why not put your blogs into video format?

You have already done the research and creating of content, then you just have to decide on the format for your video. This could take the same shape as the previous point, an example how to, where you walk people through difficult topics, or it could be an animated version of educational topics.

Behind the scenes

Same as you may occasionally post the odd candid picture of your team at work. Like, perhaps enjoying some cake on a Friday afternoon? These glimpses behind the scenes can make for great content on video.

You may have seen some of the videos we post of The Marketing Dogs running around the office. This is daily life to The Marketing People team, and not always the most interesting part of our day. However, by filming this little routine and posting it, it shows a little insight into who we are as a company.

Perhaps you have a motivational Monday talk, or you gather on a Friday to celebrate the week you have had. Perhaps you have all dressed up for charity, or have all got together for a staff outing. Posting short, candid videos (though completely appropriate please folks!) can speak volumes about the business that you are.

Newsjacking

Newsjacking is also a great reason for video. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Newsjacking, it is using a topical or trending topic to advertise or promote your own services. There are good ways to do this, and ways you should avoid, which we have spoken about in our blogs previously.

Video is great for this as you have more opportunities. Such as recreating viral videos yourself, or lip sync to popular songs. Beware of copyrights on this, and always give credit to the originator, but have fun perhaps taking the micky a little bit.

User generated content

This is a favoured one by several companies, and for good reason. This not only do you cut your workload down by not having to create all the content yourself. It also engages your customers in a positive way, and reinforces to your prospects just how much it rocks to be one of your customers.

You can entice people to complete a video and submit it by running a competition. Have people take videos of them using your product or service.

Video Testimonials

We know testimonials are a good move. In an online age, people like that reassurance of knowing other people have made a purchase here, and were satisfied with the result. Video testimonials further emphasise this, as there is no way to argue their authenticity.

Reassure your potential customers with a video testimonial on your landing page, or perhaps on your product overview page.

You could even start an offer. For example, when someone purchases a product or service, they receive their thank you email. On this email they have the option to upload a video testimonial within 2 weeks of purchase, to receive a 10% off voucher on their next purchase.

Recruitment and training

Our finally suggested use can be used on your site and internally. When you are advertising for new staff, why not offer them the option of a walk around your office. Or perhaps an insight into an average day in the life of one of your employees.

This can make it easier to showcase the tone of your office, the expectations you have of your staff, and the duties they will actually be carrying out. This, alongside your usual job description should not only attract more interest, but should attract the right type of candidate by giving them a glimpse into the job.

This could also be used as a tool throughout the interview process, or even once you have offered the job. Videos offer some insight that a job description just can’t.

We’d love to hear how you have used video marketing for your own business, and what sort of results you had. Leave us a comment or post to our social media to tell us your story, and you and your video could feature in a future blog.

If you are considering video marketing for your business, but are still a little stuck on where to start, why not take advantage of our free marketing consultation? Just call 01543 387 047 today to see how we could help.

The Marketing Dogs Big Reveal

Posted on 21st June 2016 by The Marketing People

You may have seen a couple of weeks ago we barked about our photoshoot for Personalised Nation with Dave from Paw Printz, well now the time has come to rrreveal some of the shots Dave has put together in “The Marketing Dogs Big Reveal”.

Here they are in all their furry glory. Feel free to add your thoughts or caption suggestions in the comments, or on the dogs twitter account (@TheMrketingDogs).

Tongue Out George

George possibly looking cuter than you have ever seen him before. It may have taken a treat to coax it out of him, but I think you’ll agree that it was worth it.

Sitting Nicely Sammy

Sammy is renowned for dancing around the office, or falling asleep on our laps, so it is quite unusual for her to sit so nicely on a chair!

Queen Chops On Her Throne

Chops knows she rules the roost, keeping the other two in check, and we can think that can just be sensed off this photo.

Curious George

George often pulls this face around the office, normally when he is deciding if he can make the jump to reach a tasty treat on the side, or why you won’t play with him for the entire afternoon.

Sammy jumping for treats

This is a pose that never fails to make us smile, Sammy loves to dance for treats, and often wonders round on her hind legs to get a better view of what treats are on the desk.

Chops Looking Like Butter Wouldn’t Melt

We know the dogs are clever, great at marketing, and often make us laugh, but sometimes you have to appreciate just how darn cute they are!

George pulling his best pose

George has had comments previously on how he should enter dog shows because of his looks. What do you think?

Sammy “Ridiculously Big Ears” Mitchell

Sammy is the smallest of The Marketing Dogs but certainly wins the award for the biggest ears. She often scratches her ears by putting her whole paw inside of them.

Chops “Best Paw Forward” Mitchell

Chops loves to pull crazier poses, especially if it means she gets a nice treat at the end of it!

George “Give Me The Toy!” Mitchell

George just loves to play. Our office floor is always scattered with whatever is the latest favourite, and he’s always looking for new toys like carboard boxes or bottles.

The Dog Squad

And finally the three marketing dogs, all together as the team that they are.

What do you think?

You can see more from the photographer Dave on his Facebook Page, his Paw Printz site, or his other photography site.

If you want to enjoy picture of your own pawed pal, contact Personalised Nation to arrange a photoshoot, and for more information on how you can enjoy and showcase your photos after.

What is the best marketing strategy for an exhibition in 2016?

Posted on 16th June 2016 by The Marketing People

Exhibiting at a trade show or event in 2016 isn’t just about the day itself, there is a lot of preparation, and after work to make your exhibition as successful as possible.

So how can make the expense of exhibiting worth it for your business? Here are 8 steps to running a smart exhibition campaign in a digital age.

Hatch the plan

So you’ve seen an exhibition that looks like it may be fruitful, and decided to take the plunge. You book your space and you’re off.

Now what? You need to create a marketing strategy that goes further than just your objectives for that day or couple of days, and this will determine how you go through the next 7 steps.

Consider why you are taking on this exhibition, what do you hope to achieve, and who do you hope to meet? How will people interact with you, and what will attract to the stand and then convince them to convert? Lay out all of your plans, so that throughout the next steps, you have something to revert back to.

Begin to plan your stand, what is it going to look like, and look at the likes of pop up banners, display stands, and perhaps even lighting and flooring, depending on what your space package included. These things can take a little while to design, make and arrange to get delivered or installed, so it may be worth getting these in motion, so they are ready in time for your exhibition (and it leaves plenty of times for problems to crop up and be dealt with.)

Also think of an on stand offer or competition. Why are people going to come to your stand? What is going to convince people to buy tickets and come along?

By setting up the goals and pipeline now, you have something solid to keep referring back to, so though your plans on how to achieve it may change, your goals won’t.

Lay the groundwork

Now you have your plan, you can begin to lay out the very beginnings of the groundwork. Think about following the event on social media, and mentioning that you will be attending.

Start to mention it to your clients in conversation, as well as if you are out networking that you will be attending the event.

Start to assess your social media and website to ensure they are all up to date, as you will hopefully be experiencing more traffic over the next few weeks. Do you have the best images on your social and the correct contact information? Does your website have up to date branding, messages and products? Take the time to sort the foundation out before you begin to look at adding offers and such on to the website and social networks.

Build the suspense

Now there are whispers that are attending this event, build on it. Make it official, and build the suspense. Perhaps post a blog to show your team preparing goody bags for the show, or a little bit of what your stand will look like. Now would be a good time to announce any on stand offers you will be running too, to give people motivation to go. You could also include links to where people can book tickets, and find out more about the event.

You can then share this blog across your social media, with the announcement of your offers, and where people can buy tickets, as well as beginning to connect with other exhibitors who will be there on the day.

If you are looking to run an offer, it might be an idea to include this on your website too. So that if someone see’s any of your marketing before or during the exhibition, they are met with the same messages on your website as they are at the stand.

Edge your bets

Though you will have picked this show no doubt because of the attendees you will have visit your stand, it is true that nothing attracts people to your stand more than a crowd. Which is why inviting your current customers to come and visit you on the stand is always a good idea.

This could be through an email, or a direct mail campaign to your clients, detailing where your exhibiting, and when. This can be as an all guns blazing marketing email showcasing all of the on stand offers you have available, or it could be a simple email to say you are attending so may not be able to respond to email that day, but they could come and join you for a day of fun instead.

Some of your customers or clients you may have never actually met face to face before, so this could be a great time to actually put a face to a name. If you have enough people on your stand, and you are at an event near some of your clients, it may be a good idea to arrange a meeting at the event and utilise the time you are there.

Prepare your troops

Depending on the size of your company, you could have your whole team attending the expo, or perhaps a dedicated handful of exhibiting experts, but whatever the size or experience of your troops, you need to ensure a number of things before you set off for the expo.

Is there a sufficient brief?

Do you team know what you want to achieve from this, and how you expect them to do this? Everyone needs to be on the same page, and have a clear picture of what you are all working towards.

Have specific roles been set out?

Do you have people who are better at grabbing the attention of passers-by who have the knowledge to know the difference between a lead and a just browsing? Do you have experts who can take over these quality leads? Do you have a representative who will be setting up follow up appointments? Do you have someone who is going to be managing your social on the day, and gaining images for future marketing purposes? Who is managing your team, and ensuring people take breaks etc. Along with a brief of the company’s overall’s objectives, you need to also brief each individual on their responsibilities. This not only ensures work load is split, with the best person on the right job, this also adds extra motivation for each individual to keep them going through the day.

Do you have offers in place?

If you have offers in place, ensure your team know them inside out. There is nothing more frustrating for attendees (or embarrassing for your team) than having staff members keep having to ask each other the details of an offer. These should hopefully be clear within your marketing on the stand, but your staff should be clear on these too.

Ride the wave

It’s finally here, and its exhibition time, so what do you do? Enjoy it! With your objectives in mind, talk to as many people as possible, collect as much information as possible, whilst making use of all the tools you have available to you.

Use your social channels to send out a few blasts on your day, how people can find you, why people should pop over to your stand, and if people aren’t there, what are they missing out on?

There are plenty of live streaming options available now which could be done straight from your phone, such as periscope or Facebook Live. This works especially well if you are running a competition on your stand, and broadens your exhibition audience to those who aren’t at the exhibition.

Check out our previous blog on running a successful exhibition for practical tips on keeping yourself and your team motivated and in good health for the day.

The next step

In no way is the exhibition the last step, and this is where most people fall down. (Consider when you miss the last step on the staircase and fall down the last part as a very obvious metaphor on this part folks).

You have done this exhibition for a reason, and I can bet that 90% of your objectives have to do with gaining leads or increasing brand awareness. Yes, some of this is done at the exhibition, but the bulk of the work is when you get back to the office, and you have to close those leads, or take advantage of any awareness you’ve gained.

So let’s break this down on how you can fully capitalise on the opportunities you now have at your fingertips.

First and foremost, schedule in the time to do the below.

If you are out of the office for a day or three, you are most likely going to head back to a pile of paperwork, and a bulging inbox. Add this on to all the extra exhibition work you wouldn’t normally be completing, and you can end up a mess pretty quick. Manage your time, and work with your managers and your team to prioritise the tasks on your to do list. It is easy to panic, and flap, and never call back anyone who left their details with you leaving all the hard work you have done at a dead end. But by managing your time when you return (or even planning it before you go) you can complete your own work, and make the most of these extra opportunities.

Follow up your leads.

This is a bit of a no brainer, but if people have genuinely shown interest in your products or services, then talk to them. Whatever your method of sale, go for it, you have qualified leads you have met face to face who have said they are interested, you are not going to get a better time than that to approach people.

Social Media.

You may have spoken to several people at the exhibition who have not shown immediate interest in your product, but may do in the future, or you may have just had a good chat, and its worth staying connected. This is where social media is great, as you can connect, there is no sales pressure, but you can still see what their company is up to, and when might be a good time to approach them in the future. It is also great exposure for you as well if the event has had some buzz, and you can join in on the conversation.

Blog.

What happened at the exhibition? Tell people about it! If you decide to do this all again next year, why should people come and seek you out? Show them what great fun it was, and post your blog on social media. This may get shared by other people who attended, and drive more traffic back to your website.

Email.

All that hard work you’ve put into the blog? Re-use that content and send an email out to your marketing list. Here is what your staff have been hard at work with the last few days, this is why it’s great. Can people still take advantage of any exhibition offers? Tell them how they can.

Website.

If you did have on stand offers that were advertised on your website, then make sure they are taken back down. Now would be the time to add any valuable knowledge you gained at the expo on to your website. Perhaps several people asked you the exact same question? Is this worth adding a new page for? Writing a blog about it? Or even just adding a quick note to your FAQs? If you are driving more people back to your website through social media, blog and emails, then make sure it really provides all the information a customer needs to make their decision.

Feedback to all.

Speak to your team, and to anyone involved, and let them know the outcome. What did they achieve? Did you complete your objectives? What will you be doing differently next year? By not feeding back, any motivation for the next event will be depleted, and general atmosphere can drop if people feel the really hard work of the last few days has gone un-noticed and un-appreciated.

Want to get really smart?

If you have a little spare time, and spare budget, it may be worth considering a 360 video ready for virtual reality. Reach more people than just your exhibition audience, but showcasing your stand in all its glory through virtual reality. Or perhaps create a more immersive experience for those who visit your stand, let people experience your product in virtual reality, or let people tour your whole showroom without ever leaving your stand. Look out for our upcoming article on virtual reality for more ideas on how it could work for you.

Are you exhibiting this year? We can help you from the initial planning of your stand, to the creation on your stand, and the follow up afterwards. If you’d like to have a friendly chat on how we could work together, call us today on 01543 495752.