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#MarketingTitbits – Google, Ryanair messaging, internet fees

google-ryanair-internet-smaller1. Does Google use social signals for ranking?Are pieces of content more likely to rank higher on SERPs if they have more social signals (likes, retweets, comments, etc.) than similar content of less social ‘worth’? Econsultancy sheds some light on the topic.

Google is known for ranking content based on its quality, but it appears now that social interaction could possibly be added to the complicated ranking equation. As of this month, Google has begun to roll out an update in the US which shares tweets in real-time in search results.

So, if you have created content and shared it on Twitter with an optimised tweet, chances are that Google may have shared it too. To read more, click here.

2. Quality now drives our messaging, not price, claims Ryanair’s CMO

Ryanair has recently announced that its profits were up 66%, reaching £614 million for the first quarter of the year. Chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has claimed their ‘Always Getting Better’ programme is the key to their growth.

Over the same period, the airline’s marketing spend hit £166m, in an aim to improve brand perception by boosting personalisation features for its customers. Although the brand appears to be winning customers from competitors, be it budget or premium, it still has work to do to push up its index score and rise in the aviation ranks.

To find out more about Ryanair’s success, click here.

3. We’ve hit the peak of ‘free’ on the internet. It’s time to pay up

Over the years, the New York Times has juggled its subscription fees from free to paid and back again a number of times, but what will happen at a point where around 15% of users are paying for a service of some sort?

Free content shows no sign of disappearing, but is likely to be ‘rebalanced’ as online payments become safer and paid content becomes more valuable. But now, as large companies such as YouTube and Apple begin to join in the premium services, will you be persuaded to pay up?

Click here to read more on the ‘peak of free’.

 

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#MarketingTitbits – Google, websites – then and now, Twitter election

google-websites-election-smaller1. The Google algorithm update may be a thing of the past
Google’s algorithm updates are known by names such as Penguin or Panda and will regularly move the SEO goal posts, leaving marketers awaiting their arrival with a certain level of anxiety. But this could now be a thing of the past.  Since 2012, the number of updates released by Google have decreased each year.

In a recent post on Search Engine Land, Nate Dame, the founder and CEO of search and content marketing firm Propecta, revealed his thoughts for fewer algorithm updates from Google and the reasons behind them.

To read more, click here.

2. An internet blast from the past!

Can you remember what LinkedIn looked like when you first visited the site in 2003?

Web design has come a long way in the last 20 years, so we’re sure you will enjoy looking at how some of the leading websites have changed since the early days of their existence.

On the list you will see how our favourite social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have all evolved, as well as Google, Amazon and eBay.

To see how the websites have transformed, click here.

3. ‘Twitter can be crucial to connecting people at this General Election’

With the General Election just over a month away and social media at its peak, it comes as no surprise to see that 34% of people in a survey carried out by Twitter have changed their vote from one political party to another after seeing something on the social media site.

The country is now at a point where people are feeling more disconnected than ever from politicians, so it is clear that Twitter could become a powerful tool for improving engagement, with 78% of members of parliament now signed up. Those in the running for the election could take tips from politicians like Barack Obama, who benefited greatly from his social media strategy during his campaign.

It’s expected that the 2015 electoral campaign will top the 7 million tweets generated from the Scottish referendum, but what influence will this have on votes? Head to MarketingWeek to find out more.

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#MarketingTitbits – domains, data laws, Budget 2015

domains-data-budget-smaller1. Eight genuinely useful tools for domain name generation
When creating a website, the hardest part can often be thinking of and securing a name. One of the biggest problems today is that there are over 900 million registered website domains, but only 25% are actually in use. If you’re struggling to find a domain for your website, a list of the best name generator tools has been compiled by Econsultancy; here are just a few.

Name Mesh, Panabee and Domainr are sites that will allow you to search for a number of alternatives to your ideal domain name/s, which could include shortening or finding alternate TLDs (top level domains). Another problem is then replicating your chosen name across social networks, but with the help on NameChk, you can browse through 157 communities to find out which ones are available.

To see the other tools, you can click here.

2. What new data laws mean for marketers

The EU has been working on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for some time now. The net result of which, brands and businesses will be required to be completely transparent with consumers about what they can expect their data to be used for. The Guardian is one brand that has followed this, through their creation of a £5000 video titled ‘Why your data matters to us’.

With the GDPR due to be released in 2017, the legislation that will be introduced could include the ‘right to be forgotten’, which allows for any out-of-date or incomplete information to be removed from search engine results. The GDPR could also offer brands the option to process pseudonymous data, where personal identifiers are replaced to protect consumer rights.

For more on the GDPR, click here.

3. What the Budget means for your business

When the Budget was announced last week, George Osborne promised that the annual tax return would be scrapped, with digital accounts as replacements. But, what hasn’t been made clear is exactly how this will happen.

One potentially beneficial possibility is that by 2020, small businesses may be able to link their accounting software to government systems, which will share their financial information. As efficient as this might sound, businesses might not respond so positively to the initiative. 100% tax relief on the cost of new equipment is due to fall from £500,000 to £25,000, although George Osborne has suggested this will be reviewed.

These are just a few of the measures that might affect you and your business. You can find out more on what the Budget announcement means for your business by clicking here.

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#MarketingTitbits – hashtags, social analytics tools, SEO tips

hashtags-analytics-SEO-smaller1. Use hashtags to generate greater brand engagement
Are hashtags a fad? Their growing popularity has seen them start to overtake the infamous Facebook ‘like’ button for brands looking to drive consumer engagement. Such is growing obsession over hashtag creation for brands, that some are even employing ‘specialists’ in the field. They may seem like clever creations, but if the brand doesn’t generate any actual positive engagement via this process is there any purpose to them?

Take the hashtag #FirstDraftEver for example – it featured on an ad for ‘Avocados from Mexico’ in what was their first appearance at the Super Bowl. It generated 25,000 mentions in the first 24 hours. This may sound impressive, but the problem was that many Tweets didn’t mention the Mexican brand itself. So did it drive brand awareness?

If you’d like to read more about how hashtags can be used to boost your brand, click here.

2. Five tips for picking the right social analytics tool

Have you ever considered the use of a social analytics tool for your business? If you’re in need of help, Econsultancy has created a few tips to help you along the way.

When using social analytics tools, it is important to focus on how business goals can be achieved rather than social goals. Ask yourself questions – what problems can be solved? What price gives your business the best value? These are important considerations that will lead to a successful investment in tech.

To see the full list of tips on social analytics, click here.

3. 32 simple SEO tips for small businesses

SEO can be a complicated concept for many people to grasp, but the good people at Econsultancy have put together a great list of tips, you can be sure to come away with some valuable insights you can implement straight away. We’re outlining just a few!

Firstly, by creating a blog, you can update your site frequently with valuable content that is interesting and engaging for readers, which in turn will build a strong online presence for your business. Another idea would be to take a look at your competitors; see what they are doing in terms of keywords and site optimisation and how you can improve upon them in order to stand out from the crowd and give people a worthwhile user experience.

To find out more about SEO and how your business can improve, you can check out the list of tips by clicking here.

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#MarketingTitbits – YouTube ads, negative SEO, Marmite

youtube-negativeseo-marmite-smaller1. The top 10 most popular YouTube ads of 2014
Now-a-days, the most popular YouTube ads tend to be made for an online campaigns, instead of airing on TV, so it’s no surprise that most of the top 10 featured in Marketing Week’s article have followed this trend.

Included in the list are the likes of Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, Nike, Marks & Spencer, Always and Pepsi, who all created ads with a social media audience in mind, however, also aired shorter versions on TV. A lot of brands are now creating and sharing stories within their advertisements and this can be difficult to do in a TV ad space of typically 30 to 60 seconds, and this is where YouTube comes in. Consumers are now happier to spend time with branded content online, dependent on the entertainment and relevance delivered.

If you’d like to see the top 10 adverts, you can click here.

2. What is Negative SEO and how can you protect your website?

Negative SEO is the process of using techniques similar to those of black hat SEO, but to attack and undermine a rival’s website that can lead on to damage their rankings in search results.

This can be done in many ways, including:

  • Having a huge number of links directed to your site that are low-quality and spam-heavy with keywords that have little to no relevance.
  • Copying content from your website that is then distributed across the internet, which could possibly interfere with Google’s policy on duplicate content.
  • Damaging your reputation by being negative about your business. That could involve fake social media profiles being created, etc.

You can click here to learn more about negative SEO and the steps you can take for your business to avoid it.

3. Marmite looks to replicate 2013 success by bringing back revamped ‘End Marmite Neglect’ campaign

We spoke about the ‘love it or hate it’ brand back in November when they picked up 2014’s Brand of the Year Award, and as predicted, Unilever have chosen to start a ‘full-scale Marmageddon’ with their parody on animal rescue programmes, entitled ‘End Marmite Neglect’. Although this approach attracted over 500 complaints back in 2013, the ASA chose to take no further action with the ad, allowing the jar to make a comeback this year.

But will this campaign follow in the footsteps of the 14% sales increase that it produced in its first run?

Keep an eye out for the ad, but for now, you can read more by clicking here.

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What SMEs need to know to market effectively in 2014 – seminar summary

Image3-2Last week, TLC Business hosted our annual marketing seminar at Southampton Science Centre. This year we focused on ‘Marketing for SMEs in 2014’. The guests were treated to a working lunch, tackling a range of hot topics on marketing for SMEs. As promised, we have created a blog outlining some of the main themes we explored on the day, so you don’t miss out!
Digital vs. traditional marketing

15 years ago the term ‘digital marketing’ did not even exist showing just how fast technology is moving and how important it is for marketers to keep up. The debate of which type of marketing is more important has been around for just as long and every marketing professional will have their own opinion.

The statistics around digital marketing channels are compelling. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t. So if you’re not already blogging, perhaps you should be thinking about it. Regarding social media, 52% of marketers said they have found a customer on Facebook and 43% on LinkedIn.  In terms of influence, surveys have found 63% of readers are more likely to be influenced by blogs over magazines. These are just 3 examples from a plethora of impressive statistics as to the effectiveness of ‘digital marketing’.

However, despite all the focus on digital marketing, in 2013 digital budgets are forecast to account for just 20% of overall marketing spends and TV, press and outdoor advertising was up 3.4% in the third quarter of 2013.

So what did we conclude? Two main points:

1. If you’re not at least planning on how to use ‘digital marketing’ in your business you should be, because your competitors are likely to already be reaping the rewards.

2. We would argue that the term ‘digital marketing’ has become extinct in any case. So intrinsic are digital channels in one’s overall marketing mix that to imply it is somehow distinct from ‘marketing’ in general is outdated. Digital is so important that it cannot be left out!

The rules of SEO

Over the last few years Google have released a number of different algorithms that enable you or I to find what we are searching for on Google. Famously coy about what companies need to do to enhance their search engine rankings, Google has worked hard with its algorithm updates to eradicate the contrived methods of SEO practitioners to artificially inflate a website’s search engine rankings.

First came Panda. Panda dealt with dubious content pages and demoted websites that attempted to dupe Google about the relevance of pages. Next came Penguin. Penguin came down hard on iffy link building, resulting in a number of big names plummeting down the rankings . And now to Hummingbird. Released towards the end of the summer this year, Hummingbird (birds famed for being precise and quick) moved the goal posts (albeit slightly) once again. Hummingbird has responded to the change in the way that Google’s users now search. It seems we are asking questions more rather than searching for terms that might link to information they want to find. Put simply, Hummingbird ‘thinks’ and ‘acts’ more like a human and recognises the intent (semantic meaning) behind the search phrase.

The best way we have heard the subtle shift in intent from Google described is the following; currently we have ‘search’ engines – Google wants to become an ‘Answer ‘engine.

It is helpful to keep this in mind when creating your content. Consider creating tutorials, ‘how-to’ guides, explanations and general content that provides solutions to challenges in your industry or that your target audience might be experiencing.

How to make your marketing work more effectively

The first rule for making your marketing work more effectively is to know your market. Do you know what competitors are out there and what they are doing.

What about your target audience? Have you established they actually want and value what your business provides? Have you reviewed the demographics; where are they located, what segments exist, what type of marketing is most influential to them. For instance, a 20 year old might find social media marketing a lot more influential than a 70 year old.

The future is never clear and forecasts, even from experts, might never come true. Despite this, it is still important to look to the future when thinking about your marketing. What changes are taking place in the marketplace? How are consumer purchasing habits changing? What technology is becoming available to utilise in your business or your marketing? A lot of the time the information you are looking for is already out there, it is just a question of finding it!

Moving with the times

The pace of change in the marketing sector can feel daunting at times, leaving some to cling to old familiar channels and ignore potentially effective ones in the process. Making an effort to ensure you move with the times is very important. It might not always be appropriate for your sector or audience but the very nature of establishing that is a useful process in itself to better understand your audience.

The annual B2B Buyersphere Report was reviewed and illustrated the different types of social media that are being used by B2B buyers currently. Somewhat surprisingly, Google + came out on top, indicating that perhaps Google’s social media offering is beginning to gain traction.

The presentation looked at the rise of ‘Moment Marketing’, where marketers respond to real life events, in real time. Nestle, Nandos and Paddy Power demonstrated great examples of mastering this. Most importantly, SMEs, through leveraging their social media networks, can compete on an equal footing with corporate giants in the ‘Moment Marketing’ arena.

Mobile marketing was a hot topic; with staggering statistics about the adoption of smartphone – by the end of 2013 there will be more smartphones on the planet than people.

The significance of this for marketers is that more and more interactions between companies and their target audience are taking place on mobiles.

The knock on effect of this is that it is imperative that businesses design their website and content (such as emails) to be mobile friendly.

Equally significant is the rise of ‘People Power’. Mirroring the rise of social media, the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter now give the average Joe in the street a platform to reach a global audience. Marketers need to accept and embrace this rather than fear it. Businesses might not be able to exert the same control that they are used to in more traditional marketing channels but they are able to reach a far wider audience and engage in ways previously unheard of. Social media represents a massive opportunity for businesses and can no longer be ignored.

Top tips all SMEs should know

The event was rounded off with a few key tips that all marketers or those running a business should take away with them. These encompassed:

1. Knowing your audience and the market research tools you can use to do this

2. If you read two books, we recommend ‘The Psychology of Persuasion’ and ‘The E Myth Revisited’

3. Embrace email – the stats all show it works

4. Make sure your content is up to scratch

5. Get yourself on social media – whether you’re there or not we guarantee your competitors and customers will or soon will be

6. Go mobile

 

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SEO: Video makes a difference

seo-image-final!Last month, we provided you with a series of top tips to help you improve the visibility of your website, by uploading regular, quality content.  To help you make the most of your website, the second part of our ‘demystifying SEO’ blog delves into the world of video and viral marketing.
If executed correctly, video content can be extremely beneficial when trying to improve your organisation’s position online.  The average internet user views 32.2 videos a month and it’s been shown that videos can increase the number of website visits by 55%. It has also been predicted that by 2014, 90% of website traffic will be video. With numbers that significant, what business would argue against the incredible opportunity video can offer your organisation?

In order to use video to boost your online presence, it is important to consider the following points.

1.  Outline your SEO goals, strategy and content:

With SEO and video, it’s important to first establish what you want to achieve. Do you want to increase your social presence? Generate lots of views on YouTube, or perhaps create more tailored traffic to your website? Designing and making the video is the simple part, but companies often fail when it comes to defining goals and putting an online strategy in place. Goals can include:

  • Improving website traffic as a whole or for specific pages
  • Generating social shares and creating a viral campaign
  • Increase sales from your website
  • Building your brand awareness online

In addition to this, you will need to decide what type of video you want to produce. Over 80% of the videos that list in Google’s search results are informational. Pushy sales videos do not tend to rank as well within Google, so it is important that you produce content that appeals to your target market and adds value.  Video content can include.

  • Client testimonials
  • Introducing your organisation and team
  • Product demonstrations
  • Top industry tips
  • Fun viral video about your organisation

2.  Include a title and description within your videos:

Search engines look at the information you have provided about the video and compare it with the context of the page that the video is on. If the page title and the video title match up, there is more of a chance that you will get a higher ranking on Google.  It is also very important to make your video’s title specific; you are much more likely to rank higher when the keyword is not too general.

3.  Take into account the length of your video – less is more

Most people would rather spend two minutes watching an interesting video than spend ten minutes reading an article. Statistics show that people tend to engage with online videos for 2.5 minutes on average, so when making your video, try not to make it too long in order to keep you audience interested.

4.  Duplicate your video across several platforms.

To reap the SEO benefits associated with video, you will need to include your content on several different platforms. There are numerous outlets for you to take advantage of, the most important being YouTube.  Having recently celebrated their 8th birthday, YouTube is now one of the most viewed websites in the world, generating billions of hits. Once you have created a YouTube channel, you can then embed the video on to your website and include it on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to increase the exposure and linking potential.

5.  Create a Video Sitemap

Once you have included the video on your website, you will need to create a Video Sitemap. Currently search engines can’t look at what is in the video, so the Video Sitemap tells the search engine everything it needs to know about the content, for example, the title, description and duration.

6.  Measure the success of your video with Google Analytics:

Like any other marketing activity, you will need to measure your results.  Free tools such as Google Analytics will help you establish if your video content has increased the level of traffic to your website.  You could produce a couple of different videos and compare the results, this will determine the type of content that your audience responds the best to.

Even though video isn’t new to the web, many businesses fail to make the best use of tools that will take their video and SEO results to the next level. If you are going to invest time and money in boosting your SEO, start considering video in your marketing mix.

Not only is video a great way to share your story, it’s also  an effective way to build links back to your site and if you target your audience in an exciting, unique way, maybe your video will even go viral. This is where the major search engine optimisation benefit comes into play.

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SEO: Content is key!

SE0-Content-Final3-1Over the past few years, there have been several changes to Google’s SEO algorithms. It feels as if as soon as companies start to master search engine optimisation, Google decides to move the goal posts. This can be frustrating for businesses; however, quite rightly in our opinion, each evolution of search is driven by improving the experience for the end-user, so it is important for companies to get their SEO strategy right, in order to make the most of their website.
With the SEO goal posts constantly moving, knowing how to improve the page rankings and performance of your website is often easier said than done. With this in mind, over the next few months, we will provide you with a series of blogs to help you demystify SEO and improve the visibility of your website.

 Creating content for your website isn’t about embedding as many key terms and phrases on your site as possible.  Google can distinguish between content that adds real value and content that has been posted solely for SEO purposes.

 

Use keywords, headers and page titles to support your text:

Quality content is the key! Most end-users aren’t looking to read long, academic papers; instead, they’re skimming the text, looking for what they need. Search engines do a similar job when indexing your site. Include keywords in the page title, headers and toward the top of the content. By doing this you are giving your website the best opportunity to be placed higher in search engines for those terms. Don’t be tempted to bombard your readers with links or bury the answers to their questions underneath vast swathes of ‘fluffy’ text that adds nothing to the reader’s experience or knowledge.

 

Write for your audience, not the search engines:

It is important to include good content that has been written for your end-user and not for a search engine. Before you can create great content for your website, you have to understand who your target audience is. Who are you talking to? Who is most likely to buy your product or service or religiously read your blog? If your target audience is a group of engineers, the content you create and the tone you use is going to be different than if you were targeting the over 50s looking for information on pensions and investments.

 

The frequency of your content matters:

Uploading one blog every few months isn’t going to generate the results you desire, but producing content with value on a regular basis is! Being a marketing company ourselves, it is extremely important for us to practice what we preach. During the busy Christmas period, we didn’t upload as many blogs and top tips on to our website as we would usually. This had a knock on effect on our search engine rankings. By increasing the frequency and quality of our content, we have experienced firsthand the positive impact on search engine rankings afforded by regular quality content updates.

 

Schedule and plan your content:

In order to help your online marketing stay on track and make the most of what good quality content can do for your website, we would recommend creating an editorial calendar to help support your marketing plan. Strategically plan out the order, topic and timing for each blog or news piece.  Don’t feel like you have to be the sole source of content for your website. Introduce different voices within the organisation and get employees involved in providing fresh content. You might be surprised by how much good quality content is available right at your fingertips.

 

Don’t forget to measure your website analytics:

Once you have started the process of making your content more search-engine friendly, it is important that you measure your results. Tools like Google Analytics will allow you to review traffic levels and identify any particular trends associated with the content on your site.

 

Stay tuned for more top tips to help you improve the visibility of your website.

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Marketing Titbits – MarketingWeekLive, When Advertising Goes Wrong and PageSpeed Insights

1. MarketingWeekLive – get your ticketsThe UK’s largest marketing event takes place between the 26 – 27th June 2013 at London conference venue, Olympia.

With over 450 exhibitors addressing all things marketing, a plethora of free ‘conference’ sessions from some of the world’s largest brands, networking opportunities and learning seminars, MarketingWeekLive is a great event to attend if you have an interest in marketing.

To find out more information about the exhibitors, insight seminars, speakers and to book your tickets, click here.

2. When Advertising Goes Wrong

We found this great blog last week showing 23 unfortunate advert placements. If you fancy a laugh take a look. It just goes to show that you can design and proof adverts all you like but there are some things outside your control, like where and how the adverts are placed. Our particular favourite is the billboard promoting heart disease awareness, placed alongside a Burger King ad promoting 2 ‘Croissanwiches’ for $3!

To see all the images, click here. Let us know which is your favourite.

3. Page Load Speed Insights – Improve your Website’s SEO

When attempting to improve your website’s SEO credentials it is easy to overlook an increasingly important factor – PageLoad speed.

A webpage that loads quickly offers an improved user experience. Faster page loads are shown to decrease bounce rates and improve conversion rates. As such, they are also thought to be a factor the search engines use when assessing your website and then positioning it in search results.

To find out how you can improve the page load speeds on your website, the nice people at Google have provided a free tool, PageSpeed Insights, to assess the pages on your site and suggest ways of improving the page speed.

Take a look to see how your site performs and how you can improve it.

 

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Top Marketing Tips – October 2012

  1. Pheed is the latest social media platform to come on the scene. It offers the standard sharing features, such as text, photos and videos. However, they have decided to differentiate their offering by including new features like voice notes, audio clips and crucially, live broadcasting. It also offers a unique way for users to generate income from their content. They do this by enabling account holders to charge monthly subscription fees to access their content or set up pay per view features. Will it take off? We think it is unlikely, but it does offer small businesses an interesting platform to showcase content.
  2. Google have realised their newest tool that allows website owners to “disavow” low quality links that might be reducing their PageRank. The function has been added toWebmaster Tools. It comes with the warning though; “only to be used with caution”. The main purpose of the Disavow Link tool is to stop low-quality spam links negatively impacting on the search rankings of your website.
  3. If you organise events, seminars or meetings, Doodle could be just the tool you’ve been looking for. It is a free online scheduling tool that enables users to identify a date and time to meet multiple people, which is convenient for all.
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