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Category: Pro Content

Marketing Articles: Page 6

IMC11: Understanding your customer

Learn how to better understand your customer and fulfil your customers needs with more targeted products

Notes

Two ways to address a customer need

  • Solve a problem
  • Support the life goal

Solve a problem

  • Hungry – Need food
  • Back pain – Take medication
  • 10mm hole – Need a drill / laser cutter / punch
  • More social engagement – Need interesting posts / followers / video

Support a life goal

Move someone from where they are to where they want to be

Jobs To Be Done
‘…your efforts should focus on helping them make that change. Ideally the consumers wouldn’t have to do any work.’

  • Not to be hungry – Food
  • Be fit and health – Medication / Diet / Exercise / Physio
  • Sell more widgets with holes Tools / Contractor / Automation
  • More leads – Focused sales strategy / Sales team / Outsource

‘When we buy a product, we essentially “hire” it to help us do a job. If it does the job well, the next time we’re confronted with the same job, we tend to hire that product again. And if it does a crummy job, we “fire” it and look for an alternative.’

Question: Why do customers hire you?
Why do people hire the IMC?

Build a customer profile

Start simply, add detail as you learn more

Describe your customer in five words Good place to start
Here’s Ben’s: Passionate Professional, Mac user, 40

Download Persona sheet blank.pdf to help build you customer profile

Customer / product fit

What are your customers goals?
How your product helps achieve these goals?

Customer Goal / Product Aim

  • Lose weight / Simple diet
  • Feel healthier / Exercise plan 
  • Meet new friends / Group meet-ups

Other considerations

Awareness

  • How do customers describe the product?
  • Where do they look for recommendation?
  • How can we reach them?
  • What’s your backstory?
  • Why should they care?

Consideration

  • What do they know already?
  • How will they compare us?
  • How long will this process take?
  • What questions can you help answer?

Decision

  • What do they need to know to make a decision? Price, delivery, returns…
  • Who will make the decision?
  • How do they buy from us?
  • And how can we make this easy?

Paradox of choice

We’re addicted to choice
Broadly seen as a good thing
Taken to extremes

Search waitrose.com for “cheese”
564 results found
136 Cheddar products (was 108!)
Choose from Mild, Medium, Farmhouse, Mature, Extra Mature & Vintage (10 products)
Most expensive, No.1 Rollright £29.50/kg

What if I made the wrong choice
Missed a better option
Able to research options endlessly, the internet makes things harder

How do we cope with choice?
Dozens of sizes, prices and features
Opinions from friends, magazines, podcasts
Mental energy to make informed decision
Decision overload

End up differentiating on price
Why we think choice is a good but actually it paralyses us

Restaurants are the worst
Large menu plus specials board
First 10 minutes not deciding
After meal – unlimited coffee choices!
Decisions left un-made by the designer (chef)
We need to make decisions for our customers
Reduce choice and anxiety Increase the throughput

Thali Restaurant
Vegetarian curry house – Bristol
2 set meal times, 2 set menus, one fixed price
Make it easy for me, keep it simple

Use choice to your advantage
Experiment with 2 beers, 80% chose most expensive, 20% least expensive
Add 3rd option, 80% chose middle, 20% choose expensive
No one bought the cheapest – Have 3 options

“seeking the perfect choice is not only a recipe for misery but more than likely does not actually exist.” – Barry Schwartz from book “Paradox of choice”

There is no perfect choice. Don’t beat yourself up about it

No decision is the worst decision
Why we think choice is a good thing but actually it paralyses us

Getting feedback

Helps to understand the customer better and deepens customer relationship

Learn to talk you customers language

Use testimonial text in your copy
Reflect language back in conversation
Use to improve customer persona

Bring your customers closer

A positive review reinforces your opinion of a company
More likely to refer to others

Sign up for a free SayHola account https://sayhola.co

Resources

IMC10: WordPress walkthrough

In this episode Ben walks your through how to use WordPress, from logging in to posting your first blog article.

Notes

Why WordPress?

Can get started for free on WordPress.com
Completely flexible when self managed
Lots of plugins such as woocommerce.com for commerce stores
Best control over SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Powers over 30% of the worlds websites
Used by the biggest companies in the world: TechCrunch, Bloomberg, BBC America, Sony, Disney, Playstation, Facebook
Has active community and developers

Screen-share and demo of self hosted WordPress
Log in

1. Go to /wp-admin
2. Use forgotten password

Dashboard

1. Quick tour of key features
2. Check time location

Add pages

1. Create Home page
2. Add dummy content
3. Make sub title H2
4. Add an image. Name image ‘John Doe accountant profile’
5. Link up CTA (Call To Action)
6. Publish
3. Add other pages About, Blog and Contact
4. Show page permalink

Customise

1. Change Title ‘Yellow Jumper Accountants’ and Strapline ‘Xero and Quickbooks specialists’
2. Select logo
3. Add Main menu and add Home, About, Blog and Contact
4. Remove widgets Comments, Archives, Meta, Categories

Add video

1. Add some media to the About page
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of9809TALDE

Add blog

1. Add a new blog post with image
2. Rename uncategorised as ‘News’
3. Create new category ‘Tax’

Other stuff

Media library
Adding a new user
Changing your password
Adding a contact form contact page
Search optimisation of a page with Yoast SEO

IMC9: Blogging & Content Strategy

Developing a blog content strategy to get found online.

Notes

What is a blog?

  • A page on your website that is updated regularly Company News
  • Helpful information
  • “Your business diary”

What is a blog for?

Insight into your business Passive helpdesk Credibility / Influence Search optimisation

Why should we write one?

  • Get more leads
  • Educate our customers
  • Improve SEO to key product pages 
  • Support sales / tech support

Who will read it?

  • Who you are writing for?
  • Think of your best customers
  • Pay well, friendly, good referrers
  • Understand what they like

Three types of content

  • Helpful – long lasting and specific
  • Topical – relevant but short lived
  • Product (or service) – sales content

Content type examples

  • Helpful (about them)
  • How to file VAT return
  • How to plan your business cashflow
  • How should I price my services?

Topical (about them)

What does Auto Enrolment mean for me?
What is IR35 and how will I know if it affects me?

Product (about you)

Do I need an accountant?
Benefits of cloud accounting with Xero

Topic ideas

  • Questions that clients ask Hints and tips
  • How to
  • Clever ideas
  • Insider info / secrets
  • What makes you different?
  • Something you want to learn or be better at

Use answerthepublic.com to get topic ideas

Content checklist

  • Is it based around a relevant topic?
  • Am I adding value?
  • Do people desire to see it?
  • Will they share it?

Focus keywords and SEO

Build a keyword list
Use Google Trends for simple comparison or Google Keyword Planner for detail
Add keywords to the blog title and copy

  • (most important areas of on page SEO)
  • Title
  • URL
  • Heading 1
  • Keyword research
  •  Use Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin in WordPress to edit on page SEO

Blog styles

Example style and formats

daringfireball.net (simple design, linear format)
loudandclearaccounting.co.uk/blog (linear format with images)
ratherinventive.com/blog/ (blogs in two columns)
hellopippin.co.uk/copywriting-blog/ (main/popular blogs high-lighted)
communionarchitects.com/articles/ (broken into categories with popular blogs)

Writing tips

Allocate time

Create a regular event in your diary
Find a place that removes distractions
Make a routine, start small

Keep it focused

Write for your audience
Write the snippet first
Read around the subject

Ask for action

Email signup
Find out more
Buy related product
Get in contact for help

Images and video

Increases page views
Helps people scan content
More visible in a social feeds
People more likely to read
(Make sure you check the image license, can you use it for business?)

pexels.com / pixabay.com (free image library)
giphy.com (animated images, mainly silly)
selmach.com/news/going-the-extra…tooling/ (example of video in post)

IMC8: Image Editing

Best practices, how to prepare an image for the web or social media, handy tools and live demos.

Notes

File formats

Formats (JPEG, PNG, EPS SVG) Compression
Best pixel size

Vector/icons

(respective sizes of example artwork)
JPEG     PNG   SVG   EPS
147KB   12KB   2KB    324KB

Raster/photos

5760 x 3840 (resolution of example photo)

(respective sizes of example artwork)
JPEG 20%    JPEG 40%.   JPEG 80%    JPEG 100%
471KB           628KB          1.4MB            9.7MB

Image dimensions

At least 1500px on the smallest edge
Recommend 3000px
Start with the biggest image possible
Always keep the original

Naming images

Describing an image to someone over the phone
Describe the content of the image in text
Add keywords if you can, may show up in Google image search
Name before you upload

A tabby cat in a wicker basket.jpg (example file name)

Live demos

Cutting out an image – Colour correction
Social profile icon
Social post
YouTube thumbnail – Podcast cover art

Finding legal images online

Free and paid image libraries
Free – www.pexels.com
Free – pixabay.com
Free – https://www.flickr.com
Free – giphy.com
(make sure you check license is for commercial use)

£14/mo – elements.envato.com/photos/
Other paid options (Adobe Stock, 123RF, Getty images)

Media Selection tips

Show don’t tell – Product in action
Evoke emotion – Include people
Draw up a shortlist, use light boxes
Test out with previews before committing

Useful image processing apps

Free – https://pixlr.com/x/ (image editor, browser based)
Free – https://www.canva.com (image editor and layout, browser based)
£22 – https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/ (image editor, macOS only)
Free – https://imageoptim.com/mac (image compressor, macOS only)
Free + paid – https://imagify.io/optimizer/v (image compressor, browser and WordPress)
£49 – https://flyingmeat.com/retrobatch/ (multi image processor)
Free – Digital Colour Meter (colour picker, macOS only)

IMC6: SEO Strategy

How to improve your website content and structure with an aim of getting to page one in Google.

Notes

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

Making changes to your website that you know (or believe) will gain a higher position in search engine results for a given keyword search
There are many search engines We’ll focus on Google:

Why people search

  • Do something e.g. ’camping france’
  • Know something e.g. ’how to fix washing machine’
  • Go somewhere e.g. ’facebook’

First five results get 68% of clicks
Desktop & mobile ranking position CTR 2014 data from Moz.com
 

Terms you should know

  • SERP – Search Engine Ranking Position
  • Snippet – Information on a Google search result
  • Impression – How often your snippet shown
  • CTR – Click Through Rate. Number of clicks compared to impressions
  • Keyword – A phrase used to find something online
  • Long tail – A long and specific keyword phrase
  •  Keywords and how to find them
  • What keywords do people use to find services like yours online?
  •  Keyword examples: “accountant” “cirencester accountants” “accountants in cirencester” “how to prepare end of year accounts”

Google Trends for simple comparison

  • Broad, simple keywords
  • Keyword Research
  • Google Keyword planner for advanced searches
  • Related searches on Google

Create content that search engines will love and people will share

  • Find the best keywords to rank for
  • Find out who else is ranking for them
  • Create content that’s better than those pages
  • Meta Descriptions: Writing a snippet is a great way to start writing content
  • Blog Content
  • Help Content
  • Content Checklist
  • Must have keyword on the page
  • Keyword order and spelling often matter
  • Content of page must be relevant to keyword
  • Avoid ‘thin’ content. Write enough to answer the question
  • Write for people not search engines
  • Page structure development
  • Link to main pages Adding keywords to images Simple URLs
  • Link to page on your site <a href=“/bookkeeping/”>Bookkeeping</a>
  • Link to a page not on your site <a href=“http://website.com/”
  • rel=“nofollow”> A link to another site
  • Add no follow if you don’t want to pass any Google SEO credit

 “If you create a page on a keyword that is 10x better than the pages being shown in search results (for that keyword), Google will reward you for it, and better yet, you’ll naturally get people linking to it!”
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/on-page-seo


 Images

  • Describe the content of the image in text <img src=“tabby-cat-in-wicker-basket.jpg” alt=“A tabby cat in a wicker basket”/>
  • Add keywords in if you can. Can then show up on image search
  • Short and human readable i.e. /blog/how-to-fix-washing-machine’
  • Use hyphens ‘-‘ not spaces
  • Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin

Getting linked

  • Links from other websites (often called backlinks) can be most beneficial
  • Self created
  • Links by you to other sites e.g. directories
  • Natural: Referenced by another website because your content is awesome
  • Manual outreach: Asked for the link or guest blog post

   
 Do Measure Repeat

Use Google Search Console to track performance Tweak site slowly to look for improvements

  •  GSC performance
  •  SERP listings
  •  Page errors and indexing issues

Other Important factors

  • Site speed. Less than one second
  • Mobile friendly
  • Engagement / Long click
  • Reviews and ratings (structured data)

IMC7: Google Analytics

How people find your site, tracking sales and setting up a dashboard.

Notes

Social Media Round Table

What is Google Analytics?

Free tool to track people who visit your website Like a security camera in a shop but not as creepy
 

How do I install Google Analytics? Don’t have GA installed?

I’ll help you
Book free half hour session


Questions to ponder on

Who uses Google Analytics?

How do you need your site to improve? What information do you need to track?

  • What are you trying to measure? Sales, Downloads, Form fills?
  • Social engagement? Best marketing channels?
  • Overview of Google Analytics (GA)
  • Key sections
  • Real-time, Audience, Acquisition, Behaviour, Conversion
  • IMC7 – Google Analytics – 29 October 2019
  • Select account – Five key sections
  • Change date range – Export

Terms you should know

  • Users: Unique visitors
  • Sessions: A block of time spent on your site
  • Bounce rate: A single page visit
  • Pages/session: Average pages viewed in one session

 How people find your site

  • Best sources
  • For new traffic
  • For new visitors
  • For people who spend time on your site • Where you money is coming from !
  • Connect Google Search Console

What keywords drive traffic and SERP

  • GSC performance
  • What people do on your site?
  • Popular pages? Where do they click next?
  • Tracking conversions
  • Which sources generated sales? Does Instagram deliver email sign ups?

Segmenting data

  • View only data from people who buy Or people who who visit key pages
  • View just the sources where traffic converted
  • See which landing pages they saw
  • Campaign URL generator
  • Get more clarity from inbound links
  • https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign– url-builder/
  • Setting up a dashboard report
  • Stay informed with regular updates
  • Custom dashboard
  • datastudio.google.com “

IMC5: How to get Five Star Reviews

And why they are good for SEO

Notes

Review examples
What do I mean by reviews?

Why are reviews useful?

  • Find local contacts
  • Multiple keywords

Support SEO

  • Get shown in Google map pack
  • People more likely to click on your entry
  • May also help improve organic rankings

Learn to talk you customers language

  • Use testimonials text in your copy
  • Helps target SEO
  • Reflect language back in a conversation
  • Use to improve customer persona

Bring your customers closer

  • A positive review reinforces your opinion of a company
  • More likely to refer to others

How to collect reviews

  • Ask after a positive engagement – ‘If you were to recommend us to a friend what would you say’
  • Asking after a few successful deliveries. Want testimonials from long term customers
  • End of your support emails
  • Ask for review directly on your Google My Business profile . Send people to the review page directly https://support.google.com/business/answer/7035772
  • Thank people for their review. A free coffee, discount or other small gift No bribes, keep it under £20

Structured Data (don’t be scared)

  • A standard format to identify types of content
  • Recommended to add by Google/Bing

Example schema for a company. Provides context to the data Ties together other online identities Added directly to HTML

 <script type=“application/ld+json">{ "@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "Corporation",
"name": "Selmach Metalworking Machinery",
"alternateName": "Selmach",
"url": "https://selmach.com",
"logo": "https://selmach.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/medium_selmach-
logog.jpg",
"contactPoint": {
   </script>
"@type": "ContactPoint", "telephone": "+44(0)1432346580", "contactType": “sales"},
"sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/SelmachLtd", "https://twitter.com/SelmachLtd", "https://plus.google.com/117812825186653408748", "https://www.youtube.com/user/SelmachLtd"
], "aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating", "ratingValue": "5",
}"reviewCount": "1" }

Interview with Duane Forrester who helped to develop schema.org
Well worth a listen.


https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F559389345&show_artwork=true

IMC4: Get more out of LinkedIn

Get you up to speed with LinkedIn and learn about some of the key ways people use it to get new business.

Notes

LinkedIn overview

Great place for sharing business content
Authoritative personal search result in
Google Good for engagement

LinkedIn stats

610 million users / Over 260M monthly active
LinkedIn provides 50% of social traffic to blogs

Profile checklist

Professional and friendly
No photos from holiday

Personalise the URL – linkedin.com/in/benkinnaird- marketing-expert/
Professional headline – Write how you help people
Profile photo – Recent picture that resembles you. Smiling, approachable
Banner images – Add contact number/email
Summary – Expand headline. Share your experience you have. Keep it simple. Include testimonials that share why people should buy from you.

Screen-share

Review Ben’s profile
Any anyone else who’s brave enough…

Q?

What do you look for in an LI profile?

Endorsements and Recommendations

Who uses these?
Do they help you to decide work with someone?

Engagement

Be the first to comment or help others
Original poster will appreciate your support
Helps stimulate more commenters
First follower video

Posting

Share links to your blog or other content
Alternative / addition to blogging

Screen-share

Review of posts and how to

Advanced Search

Find local contacts Multiple keywords

Screen-share

Demo of advanced search


Get noticed

Visit other peoples profiles
Use Google search to find people

Personal pages

These rule over business pages (Alex Galviz)
Get your employees to post your content on their personal pages

Stay connected

Connect with people you meet with or connect in advance (podcast interviews)
Ask a question when connecting

Become a tribe

Idea of WEN (Worcestershire Education Network)
All members reviewing group account
Looking for ideas to share

Resources

IMC2: Using email marketing effectively

How to use email marketing effectively

Notes

Uses for email marketing

  • Regular newsletter
  • Sales promotions
  • Nudge down the funnel

What is a good open rate?

20% seems to be about right
(via mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing- benchmarks/)

Selmach case study

More focused emails Increased customer calls

Plan

  • Set out the goals
  • Who emails where aimed at Sketch or Wireframe
  • Plan ahead

From 18% to 21% open rate
From 14% to 30% click rate (7% to recipients) Above average 😀

Witley Jones case study

  • Tricky audience
  • Customers mention email content
  • Interesting content or video most clicked

Communion Case study


Email Tools

Email marketing tips

  • Streamline
  • Clean your list, remove the duds
  • Segment your list. Send only to those who want/need it

Personalise

  • If possible use their name Can help visibility in the inbox Can increase open rates
  • Use a named email rather than a generic one to increase open rates
  • Interesting or challenging subject line
  • Ask a question Intrigue
  • Tell the reader exactly what your email contains

What is the goal?

  • Why are you doing this?
  • Have purpose
  • Include a still or animated GIF
  • Including a person seems to get more clicks
  • Use video
  • Ask for action
  • Include a call to action
  • Link out to your website Include a phone number
  • Draw people to the action

Built trust

  • Aim to create an unmissable email
  • Make it easy to unsubscribe
  • Make it clear why you are contacting them Send consistently

Run experiments

Test out different subject lines or content to find out what works best

IMC3: YouTube Engagement

Understanding YouTube analytics and getting more engagement from your channel.

Notes

Why use video

Easy for visitors to watch Helps with SEO

YouTube stats

Worlds 2nd largest search engine 63 million daily viewers Average CPV $0.044 (3p)

businessofapps.com/data/youtube-statistics/

Selmach Case study
Reduced dropout Increase subscribers Get more goals

Plan

  • YouTube delivered most visits and often goals
  • Review stats and optimise engagement
  • Want to increase subscribers to get more website visits and goals
  • Most visits from YouTube
  • Traffic source
High drop off during static title image

Subscriptions increase

YouTube Optimisation tips

  • Optimise keywords
  • Research what people are looking for Similar rules as on page SEO
  • Add keywords into the title
  • Videos indexed faster than web pages
  • Get to the action within the first five seconds Remove boring bits to keep the pace
  • Don’t be boring
  • Know your audience
  • Watch other videos your audience might like
  • Check your retention stats to see where people drop out
  • Ask for action
  • Include a call to action
  • Link to your website in the first two lines of the description
inventivepeople.co.uk/collections/video- production

IMC1: Planning your marketing strategy

Planning your marketing strategy

Notes

Look back at the previous year

  • What worked well?
  • Do them again or ditch?
  • Incorporate the good ideas back into plan
  • Review social and blog efforts
  • Which networks gave you most engagement? Check profiles are up to date
  • What are your most popular blog posts?

 Review ad campaigns

  • Are you getting the return you expect? How do you measure this?
  • Review your marketing plan
  • Vision / Objectives Mission
  • Strategy
  • Audience Competitors

 Vision / Objectives

How do we want to be thought of? Long term objectives, blue sky visions New products or more family time

Mission

Quantify the vision. What are the numbers? e.g. sell 10 tractors a week

Audience

What are their problems and how can we help them?

Competitors

Who are they? What do they do well? Where do they fall short?

Look ahead

What events can you get involved in? Partner with businesses who have same audience?

Review your website

Easy for a visitor to find out what you do? Is it clear how to buy from or contact you? Do you have reviews on your site? Has relevant structured data been added?

Design review

Design Branding
User Journey Visual Content Mobile

 Usability review

Content Site Layout Menu Forms Speed

Example review
Homepage layout Images

Website usability report

  • Increase conversions – make it easier for customers to act (buy, call, or sign up)
  • Improve brand perception – your website is your shop window for customers and prospective customers
  • External opinion – Why? Objective review, experienced
  • Website design and usability report

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