digital marketing apprentice

How to create the perfect social media page

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Phone showing good social media page

Are you a digital marketing apprentice looking after a social media page? This is the guide for you!

Creating a strong social media platform is key in the modern world – a good page can help you stand out from the crowd, whilst a bad one can turn off your potential customer/client base.

There are many different platforms you can utilise: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat and Pinterest, to name a few. You may want to focus your efforts on a select few that meet your brand goals the best.

But how do you make your social media page look good and perform well? Here are our 10 top tips!

1. Use original content on your social media page

Stock imagery is a beneficial resource for social media, but a page looks even more personalised with original imagery. Taking regular pictures and videos can garner more interest and actually show off what your page is about. You can also use your tagged content – just ensure you credit the original poster!

2. Keep up with trends

It’s an ever-changing world in social media, so keeping up with trends is vital – for example, TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms, with more than a billion active users in 2022, so this could be a tool for you to explore. Also keeping up to date with current affairs makes your page stand out, where relevant – talking about last night’s awards ceremony could engage people whilst it’s still fresh in their mind. 

3. Don’t neglect video content

The rise of TikTok has pushed the focus onto video content, with Instagram/Facebook following suit with their reels. Video content often has a greater reach, so don’t forget to add these to your page. However, keep it short and snappy – most of these are short form videos, which are less than a minute long! An easy way to create video content is via Canva, which you can upgrade to Pro for more features.

4. Use all the features available on apps

As well as feed posts, stories can supplement your account and offer users a new way to interact with you – this is also a simple way to link back to your website! If you have a shop, linking it to social media can eliminate a step when customers want to buy from you. 

5. Keep in mind which platform you are on

A funny video may be appropriate for TikTok, but might not fit the tone of LinkedIn. Whilst there may be some crossover, adapting your posts for individual platforms is essential. Don’t be afraid to have fun where possible though! A page that posts memes, humorous captions and topical content is more likely to get noticed.

Picture of food for social media page

6. Use a scheduling platform

This means you can plan your posts ahead to save time, and schedule for an optimum time when most of your followers are active. Meta Business Suite is a scheduling tool on Facebook which also can post to Instagram, or you can use Hootsuite to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. These platforms also highlight when there is a spelling or grammatical error, so you can correct this before a post is published.

7. Keep in mind your social media page’s audience

Having a good idea of your audience means you can tailor content to fit them. You can use Facebook Insights, for example, to get an idea of your demographic. This can also affect which platform you use – data shows people aged 35-44 use Facebook the most, whilst people aged 16-34 are more likely to use TikTok.

Geographical location is another key factor – there’s no point in talking about summer essentials when most of your audience is in winter!

8. Engage with your audience

Posting interesting and informative posts is essential, but how can you get your audience involved? Some ways include polls and questions on stories, or encouraging people to comment e.g. “Which is your favourite?” You could even incentivise them with a competition or giveaway!

It is also beneficial to make sure you are regularly answering customer enquiries, whether that be through comments or direct messages. Keep it personal though – nobody wants to feel like they’re talking to a bot.

9. Post regularly on your social media page

A page that posts daily is more likely to gain engagement than a page that only posts weekly. Plus, you want to create a pattern that is realistic long term – don’t put out 10 posts in your first week then post nothing the next week.

You may also want to increase the amount of posts around key events. This could be during a social media campaign or on a key calendar date, like Christmas.

10. Use hashtags sparingly

At one time, using multiple hashtags was the best way to expand your audience. Nowadays, this can actually be seen as spam! When using hashtags, add 3-5 as this is what was recommended by Instagram in 2021. Ensure these are tailored to your business (don’t just use general hashtags). You may even want to create a hashtag for your brand, so other users can easily tag their posts in it!

These are just 10 of our top tips for creating a successful social media page, but the most important thing is to show off your unique selling point! Being creative and representing who you are is what ultimately will make your page stand out.

For more tips on working with social media successfully in your digital marketing role, take a look at more of our posts here.

What is involved in a Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship?

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Do you have a strong interest in Digital Marketing? Are you eager to learn about the digital world? Do you have a passion for online marketing including social media, the promotion of helping brands grow online? Then this is the right qualification for you!

Why is Digital Marketing so important?

Digital marketing is a critical part of the survival of a businesses online presence. It allows businesses to connect with their customers online through SEO and PPC via social media on email marketing (which is something you will learn in this apprenticeship)! Here a few things that you should know about this Level 3 Qualification in Digital Marketing:

Duration

This is an 18 months Level 3 Apprenticeship in Digital Marketing.

Portfolio

During your 18 months completing this course, you will need to document your work and this should be done through creating a portfolio which shows evidence of the things that you have worked on and completed throughout the apprenticeship. Your portfolio will be assessed towards the end of the apprenticeship by an end point assessor to see if you have met all your competencies. A competency is a skill and you should be able to show that you have demonstrated this through your work. The overall aim of this is to showcase what you have learnt and how you have applied it in an everyday scenario.

Trainings

Eventually you will undergo training with your training provider in order to ensure you are learning the relevant skills as a part of your apprenticeship. Then you will go over content that is relevant for your exams and the world of digital marketing.

What is OTJ?

OTJ (Off the Job Training) is something that you must complete in order to gain your qualification at the end of the apprenticeship. As an apprentice, you will work for your employer 80% of the time and the other 20% of the time will go towards training, exams, completing your portfolio and essentially any learning and development. Off the job training must be directly relevant to your qualification. These can include:

  • Attending events relating to your industry
  • Getting inspired by stories & articles
  • Signing yourself up for programs that will develop you personally and professionally
  • Work shadowing
  • Online resources e.g. ted talks, YouTube videos or podcasts 
  • Spending time working on your coursework/portfolio 
  • Coach or line manager meetings (this shows personal growth and development)
  • Networking (virtually or in-person)
  • Workplace training

Exams

You will need to complete three exams in order to receive your qualification at the end. These include: 

  1. Level 3 Digital Marketer in Marketing Principles
  2. Level 3 Digital Marketer in Principles of Coding
  3. Google Analytics Individual Qualification

End Point Assessment

Your end point assessment will consist of a few things:

  1. Gateway
  2. A completed portfolio 
  3. Passing all 3 exams
  4. Synoptic Project
  5. EPA (End Point Assessment) Interview

What is Gateway?

Gateway is a meeting where you hand in all the relevant documents that are required for completing the apprenticeship. You will have your line manager and digital marketing coach in the meeting where you will sign the employer reference, upload your exam certificates and portfolio.

What is a Synoptic Project?

The synoptic project plays an important role in your end point assessment. This project is designed for you to show evidence of completing competencies in the apprenticeship standard. You will begin this project a minimum of 5 days after your gateway meeting. You have four working days to complete this which should be completed in a controlled environment, usually away from work and during this time you shouldn’t complete any work-related tasks.

Once you have completed Gateway and Synoptic Project, you have to submit your synoptic project and you will have your EPA Interview 10 days within submission of your project.

What is the EPA Interview?

The EPA interview consists of a 1.5-2 hour professional discussion about your portfolio and synoptic project.

Conclusion

As someone who is personally coming towards the end of their apprenticeship, If you are interested in all the things that I mentioned, then I believe that this would be a great opportunity to build the foundations of your career in Digital Marketing. Feel free to refer to the Digital Marketer Standard where you will learn more in-depth about the skills and knowledge this course has to offer.

If you have any questions or queries regarding this apprenticeship or any others, feel free to reach out to us via our LinkedIn, Twitter or Website!

A guide to the End Point Assessment for your Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship

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Are you starting or currently undertaking a Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship? Unsure how the End-Point Assessment works? Look no further!

Overview

Once you have completed your training and passed your Level 3 Marketing Principles Certification, Level 3 Principles of Coding Certification and Google Analytics Individual Qualification, you are ready to start your End-Point Assessment (EPA).

The EPA takes place in the final few months of your apprenticeship, using four assessment methods:

PortfolioEmployer Reference
This will be an accumulation of everything you have accomplished in your job so far. A chance to show the knowledge and competency you have gained through the apprenticeship and how you apply this in your work. Your real work project overviews will include performance reports, customer service and feedback.Your line manager will provide some information on how they think you are performing at work and the progression you have made. This will include how you apply your knowledge and behaviours whilst undertaking tasks within your role.
Synoptic ProjectInterview
You will be given a pre-defined project set to show a selection of your knowledge, skills and behaviours. You will be given 4 days to complete this task. This is a chance to show you are consistent in your work and that you have an understanding of specific digital marketing areas that may not be included in your day-to-day role but you have learnt in the apprenticeship.This is an opportunity to gather any other information or evidence to support your knowledge and competency shown in your Portfolio and Synoptic Project. This allows you to expand and define your work to the assessor, this will include your EPA work and workplace tasks.

The EPA gives the assessor a cumulative overview of your performance against the specified standards, allowing them to make a judgement on if you have met or exceeded the standards. Using a variety of assessment methods ensures that the assessment of your work is a reflection of your performance and the quality of the work you produce for your company using the skills and knowledge you have gained whilst undertaking this apprenticeship.

Grading and Results

Following the completion of your End Point Assessment, the grading will take place by an independent assessor. Who will accumulate your submitted work before the interview and will partially assess. The interview will allow the assessor to explore your portfolio and synoptic project in more detail, validate and test your knowledge. After the interview the assessor will come to a final conclusion for your grade. You will be awarded with a single grade of; Pass, Merit or Distinction.

The criteria that the assessment and grading is made from is the below 3 points:

  • The What: What you have shown you are able to do
  • The How: How your work has been carried out
  • The With Whom: Who you have worked with, the internal and external work relationships you have built

If you have met the minimum expected criteria you will be awarded a Pass. To receive a Merit your work must have a number of dimensions that shows you work significantly above the minimum criteria. For a Distinction grade, the quality of all your work must be significantly above the minimum criteria.

Summary

In conclusion, if you are thinking about undertaking a Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship or have already started, your EPA will happen in the end months of your apprenticeship once you have passed the required exams. You will be focusing on your knowledge, competency and behaviours, aiming to be significantly above the expected criteria to gain a Pass, Merit or Distinction. If you want to find out more information about the different stages of the Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship, please take a look at the blogs section of Apprentice Tips.

This is a great apprenticeship to undertake, it provides you with all the skills and knowledge you need to excel in your role and career as long as you apply yourself. Please be mindful that each apprenticeship will be based upon how the company your work is ran, you may not always be placed in the department you wish for but you may have the option to rotate. Make sure to research which company and apprenticeship would work best for you. Good luck and enjoy!

How the marketing industry was changed by the pandemic

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In the past, businesses have stuck with email marketing, informational websites, television, radio and other forms of marketing. However, overnight the marketing industry was catapulted years ahead of schedule. Once the pandemic hit, it was important for businesses to adopt more digital marketing plans than traditional marketing into their strategy. Which left businesses trying to adopt digital marketing technologies, and quickly.

E-Commerce

Ecommerce became a big thing in 2020. Everyone was ordered to stay at home, which meant no shopping unless it was for essentials and I’m not sure a new pair of shoes would count as essential. Shopping online needed to become quicker, easier and personalised. Instagram quickly introduced its own ‘Instagram Shop’ allowing brands to set up their own digital storefront. Which allowed them to advertise their products to be purchased directly through Instagram. Customers would be able to browse, save and purchase items listed by the business. They also introduced features where content creators could tag items in their photos which were available to purchase through Instagram. Since then other social platforms, such as TikTok followed suit. Creating a focus on their shop would allow the user to purchase items direct from content creators’ videos. They even created a buy now button, taking the relevant information from your phone and with Apple Pay/Google pay to make the purchase instantaneous. Keeping up to date with changing e-commerce technologies is vital for a business. Whilst it may not suit every brand, gaining knowledge of what is available to you is important should the business need to quickly change its approach again.

Laptop showing e-commerce marketing site Shopify on the screen

Video Content

With more people at home, social media usage increased, particularly video streaming. 2020 was the year TikTok blew up and gained 2 billion downloads globally. They started with 15-second clips initially and quickly expanded to 60 seconds after the demand for longer content. Since then, in July 2021 they increased the length to 3 minutes in an effort to expand how users engage with the app. Not long after TikTok became popular, Instagram announced they were introducing Instagram Reels. This allowed a user to record and edit a 15-second clip, they have since extended the length to 90 seconds.

Brand Loyalties

The change of behaviour for brand loyalties also changed along with COVID-19. With consumers trying out different brands and not continuing with purchases with their regular brands. Because of this, businesses have needed to increase their promotional offers to existing customers. Needing to give them a reason to stay loyal and spend their money with them. The marketing industry plays a big part in promoting a business’s brand awareness, as well as improving brand loyalties with their existing consumers. Carrying out research on competitors and how they’re achieving customer loyalty is a vital part of a digital marketing role.

Expectations

Since the pandemic consumers expect even more from businesses. They’d received experience from the best in the business, such as Amazon and now they expect it from every brand they connect with. According to impactmybiz.com, 57% of consumers won’t recommend a brand to a friend or family member if they have a poorly designed mobile website. They want the website to do the work for them, not the other way around. If a brand’s website is difficult to navigate, you can bet their bounce rate is going to be through the roof. Customers tell double the number of people about a bad experience than we they would a good one. Consistently monitoring and analysing data brought in from a business’s website is important. This will allow patterns to be noticed and any issues quickly resolved. It is not surprising that because of this brands have inputted a lot of money into the UX of their website.

Piece of paper with graph showing an incline of progression from the past to the future

Conclusion

Overall, once we were through the rough of the pandemic, it made businesses realise how important marketing was for their business and brand. Digital marketing and its technologies were driven to the forefront of businesses and the changes brought were here to stay. The CMO survey reported in February 2021 that 72.2% of companies saw the importance of the marketing industry within the business increase. Now more than ever, it’s important that businesses have a strong marketing strategy. That starts with an effective digital marketer.

Like the sound of the ever-changing marketing industry? Then maybe a Digital Marketing Apprenticeship is the perfect thing for you. For more information take a look here.

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Digital Marketing Apprenticeship: Boosting Social Media Engagement

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Social media engagement

What is Social Media Engagement?

A term heard throughout the apprenticeship of a digital marketer. A measure of how well an online business or brand is doing in its social media efforts. Engagements are shares, likes, comments and any other interactions. Historically, engagement has been a common measure of social media success.

How is it calculated?

Total engagements / Total followers X 100

Tips for better Social Media Engagement

Know your audience – Research into who it is you want to target and find out their interests, what platforms they use and at what times. There is so much you can learn from researching the target audience!

Create interactive content – The more engaging the better! how many times have you gotten sucked into random BuzzFeed quizzes? Interactive content is great because it can create emotions of curiosity, excitement and fun.

Use a social media management tool – Tools such as Hootsuite or Meta business Suite not only allow marketers to plan and schedule content best to fit their audience but also provide analytical features. This means you can track how well campaigns and posts are doing for future success!

Know the difference between Reactive and Proactive Marketing – Marketing campaigns that are proactive require specific preparation before release, while marketing campaigns that are reactive respond spontaneously to current events. Use both accordingly!

Respond quickly to queries – Customer service is key. You want the customer to feel valued always respond in a professional, timely and friendly manor. Keep inline with bet industry practice and your business or brand social media policy.

Somecontent ideas for boosting social media engagement:

  • Host Q&A’s
  • Repost / share relevant content
  • Use National days
  • Follow viral trends
  • Host a challenge
  • Repurpose old content

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How to become a self made digital marketing expert

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Person using the internet to become a self made digital marketing expert

If you’re wondering how to become a self made digital marketing expert, here is the perfect place to start. Read on to find out the best tips and tricks to start a successful digital marketing career.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is how you connect your brand with your customers, normally over the internet.

As more and more of our life becomes digitalised, digital marketing has taken over and there is a large demand for digital marketing everywhere. It is a great time to pick up the skill and take advantage of what digital marketing can do for your brand, or to start a career in digital marketing.

So, now you know what digital marketing is, you may be wondering how exactly to do it. Well, there are lots of new and exciting ways to get your brand out there, but let’s start with the basics.

Read on to find out how to become a self made digital marketing expert.

Types of Digital Marketing

There are many different forms and channels in digital marketing. however it mainly refers to:

  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  • Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
  • Content Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing

These are the main channels a digital marketer will use to reach their goals. A self made digital marketing expert will have to master all of these areas and more to understand how to grow their brand.

All of these channels have their own individual uses and you will need to learn the proper industry standards and best practices for them.

Getting digital marketing right

The most important part in getting digital marketing right is setting clear and realistic goals. You should start any digital marketing campaign in this way. You may want to get some new leads, or more sales on your website, or you may even just want to generate some brand awareness.

Whatever it is, you should keep a record of your targets and measure your success against them.

How to improve Search Engine Optimisation

Here are five quick ways you can improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation):

  1. Publish relevant, useful content
  2. Update your website frequently
  3. Optimise metadata
  4. Build up your backlinks
  5. Use alt tags on your images

Search engine optimisation is an often overlooked part of growing your brand, however it should not be disregarded. The initial investment of creating content may be high, but it is certainly worth it.

Here are 5 ways to generate more website traffic.

How to use Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click is just that – you pay advertisers per click you get on an ad. This is most often done through Google.

This is how you set up a PPC campaign in five steps:

  1. Set your goals
  2. Choose an advertiser
  3. Select the keywords you want to bid on
  4. Set up your budgets
  5. Write your advert and create a landing page for it to link to

PPC is a much faster way of seeing your return on investment (ROI), however it can be costly. Just remember to keep your budgets small at first, until you have an idea of what works for you.

Content marketing for beginners

Content marketing is all about finding out what makes your target audience ticks, and using that to attract them to your brand. This may include articles, videos, podcasts, and other media.

Content marketing is not to be confused with SEO. SEO is the process of optimising your web pages to rank higher in the search engines, whereas content marketing is used to reach more people to connect with your brand with the use of content.

As you can see, SEO is more technical, while content marketing is more creative.

Here are 7 ways to generate more website traffic.

How to up an email marketing campaign

Email marketing has been around since the start of the internet, and is still a very effective way of reaching the right audience. Here are some tips for always creating an successful marketing campaigns:

  1. Build your mailing list
  2. Set your goals
  3. Send different email types for different purposes
  4. Segment your audience
  5. Monitor your analytics
  6. Make your opt-in attractive
  7. Always follow up
  8. Create original subject lines

An important thing to be aware of is that sometimes less is more with email marketing. It may be tempting to always send everything to your whole subscriber list, but this will quickly begin to feel spammy and won’t generate the leads you’re looking for.

Instead, personalise and tailor your content for different audience segments and it will be much better received.

Here are 5 free email marketing tools to create effective campains in 2022.

How to launch a successful social media campaign

Now it is time to launch your first social media campaign. Follow these simple steps to never fall short again.

  1. Research your competition
  2. Decide on your strategy and change it if you need to
  3. Use different types of content within a campaign
  4. Use a mix of promotional and informative content
  5. Find out what’s trending
  6. Make your content stand out
  7. Create a social media schedule

Social media is a great tool to use as a digital marketer. You have the option to set up either paid or organic campaigns, suited to any budget. But which platform should you choose?

Find out more ways to make your social media campaigns successful.

Pie chart of social media for digital marketers

Pie chart of social media

It is also important to use the right platform. Research by Statistica shows that the most popular social media platforms in 2021 were:

Most used social media platform (millions)

  1. Facebook – 2,895
  2. YouTube – 2,291
  3. WhatsApp –  2,000
  4. Instagram – 1,393
  5. Facebook Messenger – 1,300
  6. Weixin / WeChat – 1,251
  7. TikTok – 1,000
  8. Douyin – 600
  9. QQ – 591
  10. Sina Weibo – 566
  11. Telegram – 550
  12. Snapchat – 538
  13. Kuaishou – 506
  14. Pinterest – 454
  15. Twitter – 436
  16. Reddit – 430
  17. Quora – 300

Must have digital marketing tools

  • Some must-have digital marketing tools include:
  • Keyword research tool – SEMrush
  • SEO dashboard  – yourSEOmarketingreport
  • Website analytics – Google analytics
  • Email marketing tool – Campaign monitor
  • Social media scheduling tool – Loomly
  • Photo editing tools – Canva or photoshop 
  • Website tool – WordPress
  • Google data studio

These will help make your life much easier by automating certain tasks, tracking metrics or assist with content creation.

Is digital marketing a good career?

Digital Marketing a great career for anyone who is both creative and analytical.

You’ll have a lot of variation in your job. From creating social media campaigns, to PPC and display advertising, to SEO and the daily running of a website. You’ll never be bored in digital marketing.

It is important to note that you will need good english and maths skills, as the job involves a lot of analysing data and writing content. So, as long as that sounds something you’ll enjoy, digital marketing is definitely for you!

How much money does a digital marketer make?

The salary for an entry-level digital marketer, like a digital marketing assistant can range from £18,000 to £22,000.

Once you are more experienced in digital marketing, you could be earning p to £30,000 a year.

In a more senior management role, you could get up to £40,000 and more.

Level 3 digital marketing apprenticeships

The best way to start a career in digital marketing is to take a digital marketing apprenticeship. This way, you’ll be able to earn and learn, while gaining experience in digital marketing. But what does this mean?

If you take a digital marketing apprenticeship, you won’t have to pay a penny towards your learning costs, as this is covered by the apprenticeship levy. You also will get paid for full-time work while getting extra paid time to work towards your apprenticeship.

Another great thing about a digital marketing apprenticeship is that you’ll get the chance to gain valuable insight, knowledge and experience while you learn. You’ll even get a recognised qualification after you finish!

Level 6 digital marketing apprenticeships

After completing a level 3 digital marketing apprenticeship, you’ll be able to progress onto a level 6 digital marketing apprenticeship, which is actually a degree course. So, you’ll be able to gain a university-level qualification without any student debt.

After completing a level 6 digital marketing apprenticeship, the world will be your oyster, giving you unlimited opportunities for career progression – you will truly be a self made digital marketing expert.

Top tips for creating social media brand awareness: Instagram

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What is social media used for?

Social media today is not what it was 5 years ago. With over 4.5billion social media users across the world on multiple platforms. Social channels have boomed with millions of businesses now using social media as their main selling platform. Now, let’s discuss what impact brand awareness has on Instagram.

Over 20 social platforms are now used across the globe, Instagram being one of the most popular platforms for sharing, interacting, and communicating. This platform is used for both personal and business use.

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness is making the customers aware of who you are, the products you sell and what your brand is. Consumers can recognise your brand or business from a product they see, specific colours, fonts, or slogans.

Social Media Platforms.

Strategy 1: Using Paid Ads

If your new to paid ads on Instagram, look no further! This section of the blog gives you the opportunity to learn how to create and publish your first paid post, and why these are one of the most beneficial strategies to gaining brand awareness on Instagram

What are paid ads? Instagram allow you to pay for a post to reach a wider audience through the use of ads. This platform gives you 3 goal options; Get more messages, more website visits or more profile visits.

Depending on what you are aiming to achieve from the ad, but to gain brand awareness, choose the goal ‘more profile visits. This will drive more traffic to your page and people are likely to interact with the page and posts meaning the user will become more familiar with the brand.

The next step is to define your audience. If you already have audience types created, you can select one from the list, or the automatic target set by Instagram. For specific post types and content, you are more likely to receive better results. The create your own audience you must set an audience name (e.g., Digital Marketing Audience), geographical demographics such as the locations you want to reach, interests of your audience and the age and gender. 

One last step before your Ad is ready to go. Creating your budget and duration is the last part of your paid ad set up. Select the number of days you want to run your ad for, followed by your budget per day, this will ten automatically calculate the spend over the days your ad will run. For example: £5 budget per day for 5 days would mean that the cost of the ad is £25.

Strategy 2: Consistent branding

Creating brand awareness through consistency is a significant way of growing your Instagram business in just a few steps. Firstly, creating a business brand which is suitable to your products and style you are aiming for is the first part of this strategy. 

• Choose a bespoke primary and secondary font to use across all platforms.

• Use specific colours to use in your logo and branding. Take notes of the colour codes.

• Come up with a slogan suitable for the business. E.g., McDonalds ‘I’m lovin it’

Following the steps above and using the fonts, colours, slogans, and logos consistently will make your brand easily recognisable.

Strategy 3: Using hashtags

Hashtags have become more and more popular over the past 5 years for business on Instagram, and the great thing about them is that they’re free! 

They are used in the caption of a post, or the comments section, which is just preference. 

Ideally, you should create a hashtag for your business or use sections of your tagline. This would be followed by trending hashtags which can be researched online, and ones which are linked to the content of the post or industry.

E.g. An interior design could use these hashtags: #home #homeinspo #homedecor #project #renovation #interior #interiordesign #flooring #propertydevelopment #decorating #modernkitchen #furnituredesign.

These hashtags are suitable to the content she is posting, and users looking for information are likely to come across her page. People are viewing the brand and business, becoming more familiar due to searching for hashtags the user has posted.

Conclusion

Creating brand awareness for you page can be difficult at times, and it does take time. Consistently pushing your brand using the steps above will give you more than a head start.

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7 Digital Marketing techniques to increase website traffic

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Is your website traffic lower than expected? Then you came to the right place my friend! Here are 7 great tips to increase website traffic.

1. Email Marketing, old but gold

There are so many ways to market your brand in 2021, it important not to forget one of the traditional methods of marketing, Email marketing. Something as simple as an email blast can give your website the kick it needs to gain more traffic. Top tip, it’s imperative that you do not do these emails too frequently. People receive so many emails per day already, people are likely to unsubscribe to your email list if you use this method too much.

Email marketing is incredibly versatile, how you thought of using targeted email? Using your email database, you can use tools such as Mailchimp to send emails to a specific audience. It could be based on behaviour, geographical location and based on their interests. You can even personalise the emails by adding subscriber names to add a personal aspect you the email.

2. Be active on socials

Using social media to increase website traffic is one of the best and cost efficient ways to create awareness for a campaign as it’s easy and completely free! For short and snappy content with a good image/video/gift, Twitter is your best bet. In contrast, using Linkedin (predominantly used for connecting professionals) you would aim to use a more formal tone and engage the reader with a story or blog post.

3. Optimise your page using SEO (Search engine optimisation)

Another cost-efficient way to increase traffic for a brand is using SEO. Ensuring that the page has healthy keyword density, image alt text, fast page loading time and having secure backlinks to the page can boots organic traffic and build more awareness for your brand.

4. Invite a guest to your blog

Guest Blogging is a great way to gain exposure to a new audience. Identifying known bloggers and social media influencers that fit with your target audience and getting them to guest blog on your brand website is a great way to expose your brand to a new audience as they are likely to share it on their socials and which should bring more traffic to your website.

5. Display banner advertising

Having great imagery and engaging text on a web banner will attract people into clicking the link and finding out more about your brand and website. Ensure that the banners are on websites that the target audience is likely to visit.

6. Take a deep dive into your website analytics  

Using specialist tools like Google Analytics can be a game-changing source of information on everything about your website. It can tell you what is the most popular page, bounce rates, demographics and even who is on your page at this very moment. You can leverage this information by analysing and using this to optimise your strategy. If a particular post is popular, why not make more content about a similar topic and see how it performs? See how, where and when you get visitors on your website and where exactly are they coming from?

7. Grab user’s attention with Video marketing

Studies suggest that retention is remarkably higher for visual material over text. Text on websites and blogs are a very important aspect of gaining more traffic on your website. However, videos can both attract new visitors and make your website a lot more entertaining, it grabs your audience’s attention and has the ability to drive your website traffic up at the same time – it’s a win-win!

I hope these tips help you on your mission for more website traffic. Even if you get one of these right, you should be a boost in traffic. Thanks for reading!

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A Guide To Effective Content Creation

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Digital-Marketing-Content-Creation-Flatlay

Content creation: an arguably vague sector within the digital marketing spectrum, but needless to say an oh-so-important one. Not only does it allow you to innovate with your brand, but also to grow with your audience. When you dive deep into the depths of what content creation can entail in your apprenticeship, you’ll find a vastness of creativity, ideas and excitement. And with an ever-growing range of outlets for your creations and the development of more ways to reach your audience, it is clear to see why content creation can be seen as one of the most exciting areas of digital marketing.

But with such remarkable opportunity for experimentation, and so much availability for new and exciting ideas, not only can creating content for your brand feel somewhat overwhelming, but it also means there’s huge potential to miss the mark when it comes to resonating with your audience. So, I’ve rounded up my top tips to ensure that the content you create in your digital marketing apprenticeship remains fresh and your results remain strong.

Know Your Audience

It’s the oldest trick in the book – and it’s easy to see why. When you begin to think about the type of content you want to create for your brand, the audience you’re targeting should be at the top of your list for considerations. Not only does this mean understanding what themes of content they’ll find relatable, but also where they’re going to be found.

For example, considering which channels they’re more likely to interact with (and more specifically which channels they interact with whilst in a conversion mindset) Also, it’s important to consider which types of content they’re more likely to engage with. For instance, do they prefer feed posts or do they show more engagement in stories? Creating customer personas are a great way to begin to understand this. And when you begin gaining data on content that performs well, you’ll be able to refine your understanding on what is considered engaging for your audience.

Use Your Voice

It’s certainly not an easy job, but it’s a worthwhile one. Creating a voice for your brand and company which goes beyond getting the client or customer to convert is one of the most effective ways to make sure content delivers results. By creating a tone of voice for your brand which is used across owned media, your audience begin to engage with your brand on a personal level. Rather than just being a company which provides a needed service, you’re now an organisation which tells a story and is relatable to the human instinct of your customer or client.

An effective way of doing this can either be by showing the behind-the-scenes workings of your business, creating content which inspires customer feedback and communication, or simply by using humour to engage with your audience.

Consistency Is Key

Once you’ve established a clear tone of voice and understand your audience, consistency within your content is a great way to keep your brand on your audience’s radar. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to recycle the same best-performing video over-and-over on every channel, or that you have to plaster your logo onto every piece of content you create, it simply means maintaining the brand’s online reputation.

This can be anything from writing copy which matches the brands tone of voice, subtly using brand colours or fonts within graphic design work, or even having a consistent schedule to post content. Consistency creates yet another layer of familiarity of your brand for your audience and is an effective method to keep customer interest retained.

Digital-Marketing-Content-Strategy-Planning

Plan, Prepare, Execute

PPE – no, not that kind… All jokes aside, having a content creation process which includes thorough planning will ensure that content is not only created, but executed to a level which shows off the full potential of your brand. By having a clear understanding of hero-trends, micro-trends and keywords that you want to target, you’ll ensure your content remains relevant and insightful for your audience.

Keyword research tools, Google Trends and even having a clear understanding of your audience’s current interests, are great methods to ensure you’re on the ball with planning and preparing relevant and engaging content.

And To Wrap It Up

From having a clear and solid understanding of your audience and how to reach them, to creating consistent content which aligns with your brand, effective content creation is one of the best ways to not only reach your target audience, but to also keep them retained. And whilst these tips only make up the foundations when it comes to creating effective and engaging content, they’ll allow you to experiment with content and grow your company, whilst staying true to your brand and audience.

For more content creation tips, take a look here, or for more information on Digital Marketing, check out our blogs.

How Canva Can Help You Shine As A Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprentice

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Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprentice

Introduction

Learn more about our favourite marketing tool Canva, and how it can help you shine as a Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprentice.

Like many occupations, Digital marketing is, well… Digital. We’re almost certain you’ve seen a plethora of advertisements for various task management services, designed to streamline workflow within a digital environment. Asana, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet are examples of these services. These platforms excel at what they do due to the need of a stable method of communication and task management within a digital organisation.

It’s safe to say, demand for these platforms has increased dramatically in the past 15 months, with the current times having a huge effect on everyone’s working situation. Infact, Microsoft teams alone saw a 50% increase in daily users in the first 6 months of the global pandemic, most likely due to the large percentage of employees working remotely.


Using Canva As A Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprentice

With over 30 million active monthly users, Canva is a well established, industry standard web tool primarily used for content creation and digital marketing strategies. It’s been made even more accessible recently with the addition of a downloadable app version I can access from my desktop and mobile device. 

Used to create social media graphics, presentations, printable documents, animated and other visual content, Canva offers users a platform for marketers to create digital content easily with in-built assistance.

Because of its unrivalled ease of use and low stress, this is a perfect tool for learners, as well as professionals.


What Is Canva Pro?

“It is essential to have good tools, but it also essential that the tools are used in the right way” – Wallace D. Wattles

Digital tools are absolutely vital for a level 3 digital marketing apprentice, and professionals. One of the most popular has unquestionably been Canva Pro, a digital marketing tool used by new and established businesses as an alternative to heavy, expensive software with a much higher skill ceiling.

Canva Pro is the paid-subscription version of Canva, which brings a number of additions at a reasonable price of £99 per year, including:

  • 75+ million premium stock photos, videos, audio and graphics
  • 420,000+ free templates with new designs daily
  • Create 1 Brand Kit and upload your own fonts and logos
  • Unlimited use of Background Remover
  • Resize designs infinitely with Magic Resize
  • Save designs as templates for your team to use
  • 100GB of cloud storage
  • Schedule social media content to 7 platforms
Digital Marketing Apprentice

Top 5 Uses For Canva Pro


75+ million premium stock photos, videos, audio and graphics

Finding the right stock photo for a project can be a time consuming and sometimes pricey investment, however with Canva Pro’s large bank of stock images, you’ll be able to find the perfect image, 100% of the time. By entering simple keywords into the search bar, you can find exactly what you’re looking for all in one location.


Unlimited use of Background Remover

Want to be able to remove an entire background from an image? Well Canva gives you the option to do that with 1 click…pretty good right? Well Canva Pro removes the limit cap on this function, allowing you to remove as many backgrounds as I want!


Upload your own fonts

A disadvantage about the regular Canva compared to Canva Pro, is the inability to upload user fonts. This can be particularly problematic when a client has specifically requested a font for a piece of marketing, ruling Canva out of the question as a resource tool. Canva Pro removes this issue by allowing users to create a Brand Kit, adding logos and fonts to the application without restriction.


Instagram Stories

With 1 billion monthly Instagram users and over 500 million daily story users, engagement has never been more important on the platform. With the sheer amount of traffic, incorporating stories into your strategy is a great way to advertise to consumers, and take up all that screen space. Stories aren’t the easiest thing to design, that’s where Canva comes in. With tons of story templates you’ll be able to harness this digital tool to save me time, and create relevant content.


Content Planner

Exclusive to Canva Pro and Canva Enterprise, introduced in 2021 is the content planner feature. If you’re familiar with content planners such as Buffer and Hootsuite, then this feature needs no explanation. However if you’re not familiar, we will provide an explanation here at ApprenticeTips.

This feature turns Canva from a tool which focuses on content curation, into a platform capable of publishing content directly to social media accounts from the application. By simply linking an account to the right project folder, with a few simple clicks we can add images to a calendar, picking and choosing the dates and times for our freshly created content to be published out to the world wide web. 


Conclusion

If you’re an aspiring or professional digital marketer, I advise this tool over many of the others. It combines versatility with ease of use, removing the stigma that good visual content can’t be achieved without heavy duty software. While Canva is a free to use application, the amount of assists and benefits the Pro Subscription brings will certainly help you shine as an apprentice!

To learn more about the Level 3 Digtial Marketing Apprentice course in its entirety, click this link.


To discover more about Canva Pro, you can visit the website here.

Not what you were looking for? We at ApprenticeTips publish regular blogs about tools and best practices for learners. We also offer training programs and apprenticeships from a huge library of options, including the level 3 digital marketing apprentice.

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