marketing tips

5 Practical Ways To Improve Your PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Marketing

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PPC (Pay-Per-Click) can take your website and traffic leads from 10% to 100% in a small space of time through visibility on the search page for keywords that are relevant to your business. This can be done in many ways but in this blog, I will provide five simple practises you can incorporate to see results in no time.  

1. Keyword research and SQRS (search query reports) 

Keyword research is important for your PPC account to ensure you have a higher chance of ranking higher in the SERP. You can access the search terms by clicking on Keywords and then Search Terms on the left side menu. You can see search terms at the account, campaign and ad group level. This will allow you to run an SQR between search terms and search keywords to work out which ones provide the most traffic and are specific to your brand. 

Main things to take from an SQR: 

  1. New keywords – New keywords are important to compete with your competitors for the top spot on search pages. 
  2. Create negatives – It is important to add negatives as it is pretty wasteful to spend money on searches that are not related to your business if negatives are not set up properly.

2. Do A/B tests on a regular basis

An A/B test allows you to test two variations of ads against one another to determine a winner. This can test multiple things like ad copy, CTAs, landing pages and assets. When you run an A/B test, Google will serve your ads to random people with metrics at the end to show which one had more clicks, a higher CTR and bounce rate. 

3. PPC Account Structure

Whether you are starting with a new PPC account or sorting out existing ones, the PPC account structure is the foundation of having an effective account. Three ways to (re)structure:

  1. How many campaigns are there and why? – These can be reduced as it’s about quality rather than quantity 
  2. How many ads are in ad groups – Is there more or less than necessary? 
  3. Are keywords relevant or too similar to one another? – It is important to avoid similarity or keywords being irrelevant to selected ad group.

When all of this is done correctly it allows the account to become cost effective while having the ability to really home in on different areas and capture more qualified traffic that is likely to convert.

4. Demographics are just as important in PPC 

One of the things that makes PPC so effective is that you can decide exactly who your ads are served to, based on demographics. Demographics that can be targeted within PPC are age, gender, income level, education, geographically and relationship status This is just important as you are able to target certain target audiences more where you see fit. 

5. Optimise ads 

If your ads aren’t enticing your potential site visitors, searchers aren’t going to click on them, resulting in less traffic to your site. You should ensure you continue to optimise your ads in every way possible. You can optimise and tweak your ads in the following ways:

  • Relevant ads can allow your ads to be higher up thus being seen by searchers more by including things like CTAs, USPs and new headlines.
  • Adding sitelink extensions, callout sitelinks etc can provide your ads with more information resulting in more clicks and traffic. 

Changing things like this along with seasonal/promotional ad copy keeps your brand/business in line with current trends and also gives your ads the opportunity to out do competitor ads.

 If you enjoyed this blog, check out our other blog to find digital marketing tools to help you excel in 2023!

Dos and don’ts in email marketing

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Email marketing on computer
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Are you working on an email marketing campaign and have no idea where to start? Or maybe you’ve done lots of email marketing before, but the campaigns have never been very successful? I’ve collated a list of do’s and don’ts especially for you, to help you utilise and optimise email marketing as a channel for your overall marketing strategy.

Do send emails at certain times

My first piece of advice would be to think about the times you’re sending these emails. It really does affect the performance of your email marketing campaign depending on what day or time of day you send an email out to the world. Research has shown that Tuesdays are the best day to send an email to receive the highest open rates, followed shortly by Thursdays.

Thinking more specifically into the time of day, 10am is a really great time to engage most audiences, as the majority of people are beginning their work days and are shown to be open and receptive to email marketing at this time of the morning. However, after lunch at around 2pm, engagement spikes again for emails.

Using this knowledge could really help increase open rates for your campaigns, and ultimately, lead to an increase in site traffic. Consequently, site traffic will result in higher click through rates and conversion, encouraging more customers to the point of purchase or completing whatever the call to action is for your campaign.

Tablet showing emails

Don’t over-send

It’s extremely important that within your weekly marketing plans, you aren’t scheduling emails to be sent repeatedly every day or more than three times a week.

This is especially crucial if your company has lots of different marketing teams and products or services. There should be complete clarity and alignment between all teams in the company to avoid bombarding customers with hundreds of emails as this will lead to a lack of interest and could lead to them unsubscribing completely.

Do personalise content

If possible, personalising content is always a great way to engage your audience, as it makes customers feel a lot less like just another number, and can really help them feel valued by your company.

Whether this is by using the customer’s name in the opening of the email, or just focusing on what you know about them (e.g. age, gender, likes, interests), to make the email less generic.

Another brilliant way to keep this personalisation throughout the customer journey, is by then personalising the landing page to be specific, depending on what email the person clicks through on. For example, if someone is being targeted by a clothing company who knows they’re female and particularly interested in shoes, when they click through on the email, they could be taken directly to the shoes section of their website or even land them directly back into their shopping cart to persuade them to purchase.

This is a strategy called ‘Abandoned Basket’ emails where an existing customer who may have added a product to their basket, hasn’t gone through with the purchase. A specific email can then be sent to retarget that customer, as they clearly had a high ITP (intent to purchase), making them good people to go after.

Don’t make it too long

Keeping your emails concise but still detailed enough to be relevant is a skill for this form of marketing.

Often, customers will be quickly put off by a long email, and won’t even bother reading it, meaning their engagement is minimal and the email was useless in getting them to go to your company’s website.

When writing an email, ensure it’s around 200 words – this may sound like very few, but according to research it’s always best to keep them as short as possible for the greatest chance of engagement.

Do measure success

Lastly, no matter how well your campaigns perform, it’s vital you keep track of their success.

The most important KPIs (key performance indicators) for an email marketing campaign are:

  • Open rates
  • Click through rates
  • Conversion rates
  • Bounce rates
  • Unsubscribe rates

You must analyse all of these and can even compare your emails against one another, in order to understand what ones are driving the most engagement among your target audience, and why this may be.

Email marketing KPIs on laptop

Conclusion

So, emails are one of the most effective forms of marketing when they are done right!

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Is Influencer Marketing the best way to grow in 2022?

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Woman browsing social media in a coffee shop

Influencer marketing is a powerful weapon in the arsenal of any digital marketer. It offers unique and creative ways to get your product to the forefront of a variety of different sources. Influencer marketing has gone from strength to strength over the last decade thanks to the solidification of social media, the increase in computer literacy, and the developments in technology.

In this day and age, almost everyone has a smartphone on which they have social media, and whether you intend it, or not, you will see an influencer appear on your home feed. This could be because you follow a bunch of influencers or because the social media algorithm in question has determined you would be interested. Because of this influencer marketing is now an essential avenue to incorporate into your marketing campaign. 

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is the practice of using external channels to market your products or services, this is usually in the form of an internet personality, YouTuber, or blogger. These influencers will have a substantial following anywhere from a few hundred in the case of nano influencers, to tens of millions when it comes to mega influencers. 

These influencers then vouch for your product or service, showcasing what it can do and its benefits, driving traffic to your product and implanting the idea of the product into your consumer’s mind. 

With this in consideration, it may be best to go through the best incentives you have to level up your influencer marketing strategy. 

Top 5 ways influencer marketing can help your brand

A person holding their phone open on Instagram

It can help your content strategy

Influencer marketing can help you with your content strategy as it adds a whole lot of unique perspectives and ideas to your approach. Every influencer will have their own process when it comes to creating content, and this can result in an abundance of fresh ideas that you may have never thought of.

It can help you reach more of your target audience

Influencers will have a specific audience with designated interests, for example, an influencer that posts images of cars will have an audience that shares that interest. Therefore when you are marketing a product or service you can easily determine if an influencer’s audience is in keeping with your brand. This also makes reaching new followers and potential customers incredibly efficient as you can see exactly who follows any given influencer.

It can drive more sales

When a product is marketed through an influencer, consumers tend to trust the authenticity of the influencer, as opposed to the brand’s owned channels. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the consumer and influencer already have an existing relationship. This means that a consumer is far more likely to purchase when they see the product on an external channel. 

It can build your brand’s trust

Leading on from the last point, consumers trust the opinions of influencers. While it applies to products, it can also apply to brands. If an influencer that people trust vouches and form a relationship with your brand, people may begin to trust your business. Trust is important as it can lead to increased engagement across socials and as mentioned more sales.

It can help you to boost your SEO rankings

Not all influencers are based solely on social media, some have attached websites, while some influencers are bloggers. Through these avenues, you can boost your SEO rankings through the use of back-links. If your respective influencer embeds the link to your website then it can help you obtain a larger organic reach.

The impact of influencer marketing 

Influencer marketing has had a significant impact in its relatively short existence. This is why it has become an essential part of any company’s marketing team’s strategy. 

Here are some statistics to emphasise the effect this strategy has had: 

  • 66% of people trust influencers over that of brand-owned social channels
  • Influencer marketing delivers an 11x higher return on investment as opposed to traditional means.
  • TikTok currently holds 18.5% of the social influencer market while Instagram owns 44.5% 
  • 55% of the world has purchased a product from an influencer’s suggestion.
  • Influencer marketing is now worth $16.4 billion in 2022

From these statistics, you can clearly see that this strategy is now a powerhouse in the marketing domain.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is slowly becoming an essential avenue for every company to utilise. This shows its enormous impact on the current market. With so much money now present in this avenue it is clear to see the importance it has garnered. 

Influencer marketing gives an abundance of opportunities to grow your business and expand your content strategy, hence why it is a cost-effective way to spend your marketing budget as it provides you with new content, a larger audience, and increased sales. Is it the best way to expand? Possibly, but with the avenue’s continued growth, it will provide clear results. 

Read more on influencer marketing here. 
See more trends in digital marketing here.

What Makes A Good Digital Marketer, and how will an Apprenticeship help me?

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So, you’re thinking of going down the apprenticeship route? Here is a quick guide on what it takes to be a fantastic Digital Marketer, and everything you can learn in the apprenticeship world. Read on to see what employers are looking for when finding the perfect Digital Marketer.

First, let’s talk a little bit about what Digital Marketing is, and what it involves.

Digital marketing is a form of promotion, run through online or offline digital channels. These can include search engines, social media, email, websites, and apps. Digital marketing was initially introduced back in the 1990s, as the digital age began to take off, the internet was developing, and more and more people were using technology in their day-to-day lives. As the years went on, digital development began to change the way brands and businesses would market. People were starting to use online shops instead of physical shops, and social media meant a business could market a product or an idea with the tap of a phone screen. Digital marketing is a forever evolving way of promotion, and with the correct skills learned, can make a great career for someone whose passions lie in this field.

Roles and Responsibilities
Let’s break down the different roles and responsibilities for two Digital Marketing jobs.

  • Digital Marketing Executive

A digital Marketing Executive holds the responsibility of online marketing strategies for an organisation. From planning and executing marketing campaigns to supplying content for the organisation’s website, a Digital Marketing Executive has a very important role. Their responsibilities include:

  • Manage and develop digital marketing campaigns
  • Manage website
  • Take charge of all social media content (Facebook, Instagram etc)
  • Work on SEO of website pages
  • Edit and upload any content, videos podcasts etc
  • Email campaigns
  • Track analytics of website or email campaigns
  • Fix any error in online content and arrange webinars and webcasts

The roles of a Digital Marketing Executive will be very similar to those in a Level 3 Apprenticeship

  • Digital Marketing Manager

The role of a Digital Marketing Manager is to get the word out about your brand in the digital space. See below the roles and responsibilities involved in this job:

  • Develop, implement, manage marketing campaigns which promote your products or service
  • Enhance brand awareness in digital space
  • Drive traffic and acquire any leads
  • Identify and evaluate and new digital technologies by measuring site traffic

So, what traits will I need to be the best Digital Marketer I can be?

  • Creative – Creativity is key when it comes to Digital Marketing. Having the ability to come up with and create eye-catching pieces of content, or effective ideas will be very beneficial when searching for a job in this field. Being original and authentic is also extremely important, as well as following trends and keeping up with the fast-evolving digital world.
  • Teamwork – Chances are, you will not be alone in your marketing role. Being able to communicate effectively with your co-workers is essential, whether that be coming up with new marketing strategies as a team or solving a problem.
  • Initiative – Digital Marketing is often a lot like being your own boss. You will oversee coming up with new and innovative marketing strategies, so a good initiative is important. It’s always good to do what you’re told to – and more.
  • Resilience – Digital Marketing is not an easy job. There will be obstacles put in your way, so you must have a never-give-up attitude. Having a positive mentality even whilst faced with problems in going to help you in your career path.
  • Confident – Last but not least, have confidence in yourself. Share your ideas, no matter how wild and bizarre. Remember, a shared idea is a better idea.

How will a Digital Marketing Apprenticeship help me?

Apprenticeships are a great way to learn new skills and behaviours on the job. You will gain vital experience with hands-on tasks, whilst completing exciting marketing plans, such as running campaigns. An apprenticeship with not only give you the experience needed to be a successful Digital Marketer, but you will also be rewarded with the qualifications you desire.

5 Reasons to implement social media into your marketing strategy

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Social Media Marketing Overview

Social media is growing by the day. With over 45 million active social media users in the UK, there is a whole market waiting for you to tap into. Marketing your products and services through social media is a simple and free way to raise awareness for your business. Express yourself with the complete creative freedom to show your audience more about your mission statement, core values and culture. Social media marketing enables you to grow brand awareness, provides customer interaction and increases traffic to your site. Read on to find out our five reasons for implementing social media into your marketing strategy.

  1. Grow Brand Awareness
  2. Engage With Customers
  3. Cost-Effective
  4. Market Awareness
  5. Increase Site Traffic
Image displaying different social media platforms used for social media marketing.

1. Grow Brand Awareness

Brand visibility is an integral part of any marketing strategy. Social media offers a way to increase your brand awareness across an array of platforms, connecting you to new audiences and potential customers. Given the vast quantity of users, adding social media to your marketing mix is a must.

Being seen regularly by customers can help build their trust which, if done consistently can lead to repeat purchases and visits to your site.

It’s important that when a new customer visits your site for the first time, they can see that the brand is reputable. Seeing your presence and legitimate following on social media will help… offer a level of validity that can lead to potential customers putting their trust in you and potential relationships being created.

2. Engage With Customers

The more you communicate with your audience, the higher chance you have of converting them into a customer and building customer loyalty.

Replying to comments left by your audience is key to retaining followers. Making sure you respond in the correct tone and manner, whilst also being prompt, will show customers you care. Thankfully you can answer any problems almost instantaneously through social media. As easy as it may be to reply to general queries, you must also respond to negative feedback in the same manner aforementioned. Providing insightful responses can even help to show other members of your audience that perhaps the negative comment may not be an accurate representation of your brand.

Some of the best platforms to engage with customers are:

  1. LinkedIn
  2. Twitter
  3. Facebook
  4. YouTube
  5. Instagram

While responding to comments may be time-consuming, it is certainly worth it. Growing relationships can help build customer loyalty. A direct impact of customer loyalty may be customers recommending you to their peers.

3. Cost-Effective

Social media marketing is perhaps the most cost-effective method of advertising. The reason being is that it can be completely free to create an account on the most popular platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

If you do decide to pay for ads/promotion it is extraordinarily cheaper than alternatives such as magazines, mailshots and radio. In today’s society, it is also a more popular medium than the other alternatives mentioned. Do you sacrifice the quality of the results? The answer is no, social media advertising still offers the same level of awareness and engagement which further verifies that social media marketing is a must for your marketing mix.

One drawback is the time you will have to dedicate to creating content. Engaging and insightful content isn’t easy to produce and can take up a lot of resources, however, the return-on-investment social media marketing provides shows that this is time well spent.  

4. Market Awareness

As a business, it’s important to understand the needs and wants of your customers. Social media provides a way to monitor this. By monitoring the content your customers are engaging with you can see what interests them. This might have never been seen without having a social media presence, making social media marketing an extremely useful research tool.

Not only can you monitor customers, but you can also monitor the activity of competitors. You can use competitors to see what content and products are popular with similar audiences. You can find out if a competitor is using different keywords to you and if they’re taking advantage of these keywords and hashtags then you now have a chance to see which are performing well and in turn implement them for your own business.

Run polls and ask questions to find out more about your customers’ needs. Spark up conversations with customers. Find out their wants directly and you may even have a chance to reply imminently to any feedback they offer, ensuring they aren’t left feeling confused or helpless.  

5. Increase Site Traffic

Perhaps the best reason for implementing social media into your marketing mix is the countless opportunities for driving traffic to your site. Posting about products and services and linking back to your site is a great way to do this. The more engaging the content you post is, the better the interaction you’re likely to receive.

Post about your blogs, products and services through different social media platforms and link back to your site so any engagement with the post leads back to you. The level of engagement determines the amount of traffic to your site where you can then promote further products and services.

Using engaging content such as polls and videos can increase the likelihood of a post being read, shared and engaged with. If your content gets shared with new audiences then there will be even more awareness for your posts which in turn will increase the number of potential visitors your site gets.

Conclusion

Social media is rapidly becoming more popular and opportunities to grow brand awareness will only keep on coming. Remember your competitors are already increasing the value of their brands through social media marketing and interacting with audiences that you are missing out on. The sooner you implement social media into your marketing mix, the faster you will see the results reflected in your brand.

Check out some other Digital Apprenticeships blogs here.

Social Media – The vital aspect of digital marketing

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Social media on mobile

Social media has quickly become one of the most influential and important virtual spaces. Platforms aren’t just used for social networking, but also as an effective way to market your products and services digitally. With a huge number of online users – adding up to almost 59% of the world’s population. Not using social media as a from of digital marketing is a missed opportunity.

Here are 5 reasons as to why social media marketing is vital for your business

Engaging with your customers via social media

Social media is a good way of engaging and interacting with your customers, as well as potential customers online. The more communication there is with an audience, the higher the chance of a conversion. A two way communication stream should be set up with your businesses target audience, allowing them to know and understand that the customer always come first, and that as a brand you are there for them. Moreover, communication with customers is an easy way to gain their trust and win their attention. Thus a wider established audience will be reached.

Improved brand awareness

Social channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be used to increase your businesses visibility in an stress-free and profitable way. Just simply create a profile for your business and begin networking with others. Having a social media strategy will help significantly increase your brand recognition. By spending only a few hours on social media per week, it was recorded that 91% of marketers had reported that they had seen an increase in brand visibility and heightened user experience. Undoubtably, by regularly using a social platform, your business will gain a wide audience in no time at all. It is a way of spreading the word about your business among the community.

A cost-effective solution

Most social networking platforms allow for free registration to create an account. This makes it a very cost-effective approach for an advertising strategy. To achieve a greater return on investment, you must be cost-effective if you decide to use paid advertising on social channels. The ability to hold a more extensive budget for other business expenses and marketing is equally as important. It’s not particularly difficult to increase conversion rates over the course of a few months with investments of time and money. This will eventually provide you with a return on investment.

Screenshot of Hootsuite – a social management media platform, aimed at supporting social network interrogations for Twitter Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube

Increased traffic

Additionally, another benefit of social media is that it can also boost your website’s traffic. When you share your content on social networks, you are encouraging and enticing people to click-thorough onto your website. As a result of this, the more quality content that is shared on your social account, the more inbound traffic you will generate, and the higher your conversion rate will be.

Enhanced SEO rankings

The importance of social media presence is no longer just about optimising your website and regularly updating your blog. Today, to secure a successful search engine ranking (SERP) SEO requirements are constantly changing. Consequently, it is no longer enough to simply optimise your website and regularly update your blog. When business share their content on social media, they are sending a signal to search engines that speaks to your brands legitimacy, constancy and integrity.

In conclusion, social media marketing is a B2B technology that offers significant advantages to startups and established brands. Regularly updating a social marketing strategy will increase traffic, improve SEO, build brand loyalty, boost customer satisfaction, and so much more for startups and established brands alike. You are already competing on socials, so don’t let your competitors take your potential customers. The earlier you start – the faster your business will grow.

Take a look at these marketing and social media blogs if you enjoyed this article

5 Top Tips for Social Media Success

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Social media on a phone

Social media has changed the game within the digital marketing industry. With new platforms such as TikTok breaking through all the time, it’s almost impossible to avoid and is one that needs incorporating into all digital marketing strategies. Did you know out of all adults with internet access, 71% use social media and worldwide there are 4.66 billion users. So the question is, how can you stand out and really become successful on social media?

Consistency

One of the key areas for social success is consistency. Posting daily or on a frequent basis has been proven to be favoured by social algothrims meaning you will show up to potential customers organically without the need for paid campaigns. Being consistent also allows your audience to recognise your brand and will improve your reach and engagement rates. Stick to your niche, post regularly and the results will follow.

Reaching Target Audience

Whilst large numbers and views look appealing, are these actual potential customers? Views are one thing and engagement is another. Set yourself a goal, what do you want to achieve from social media? Try some A/B testing to see how your target audience reacts. Post what your target audience wants and are asking. A great tool for this is answerthepublic.

Be Relatable

No one on social media wants to see pushy sales posts, there is enough of that in people’s inbox. Your audience are not buying a product/service, they are buying into a team, a brand, real people. Use social media as an opportunity to engage with customers, show what you are about and what you stand for. Product content that your audience will find engaging. Share what you do and why you do it. This creates a sense of brand loyalty from your audience and in the long run, will benefit you much more by converting them into life long customers.

Image of an iPhone showing different social media platforms

Choosing the Right Platforms

In the current modern day, there are so many social media platforms and whilst you may think posting on all of them is the best option, it sometimes isn’t! This relates back to reaching your target audience. Before setting a social strategy, you need to set some goals, what do you want to achieve. You then need to decide which platforms will help you get there and put your time and focus into those. Quality content over quantity is sometimes the way forward. No matter how hard you try, on certain platforms, the engagement for you is just not there. For example, since lockdown TikTok has blown up, however, did you know the target audience on TikTok is actually 16-24 whereas Facebook is 25-34 years.

Keeping up to Date

Social media is everchanging, new platforms come and go. For example, in 2017 TikTok has 65 million users, in 2020 this grew to 700 million. Digital change is happening every day and social media is extremely fast pace. Keeping up with different trends, platforms and content is key to maintaining and growing your engagement rate. The internet and platforms are so oversaturated that if you do not stay up to date with trends, you will lose the opportunity to build a relationship and connect with your target audience.

By following all these steps, it will take your social media presence to the next level and ensure you maximise as much success as possible.

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