Tag: Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing Practices

When trying to gather a better understanding of digital marketing and what it entails, you do not want to spend your time searching through different websites go find individual answers. Therefore, we have put together a list of common digital marketing questions and answers for you to read. This way, you will be able to deepen your knowledge in one place.

SEO - Digital marketing

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation is an essential part of digital marketing, but why? Why is it so valuable and important to business in today’s society? Below is a list of SEO related questions to you can get a better idea of search engine optimisation.

What is SEO and why is it important?

SEO is the process of upgrading and optimising the content throughout your website to attract more traffic to your website. It is also used to increase and boost your websites ranking on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo making it crucial for the long term.

Should I create an SEO strategy plan?

Whether your business is big or small, an SEO strategy plan is essential. You could be years into a successful business or even days into a new one, whatever the duration, a plan will benefit you. Although, before you make one you need to understand how, why and what aspects you need to include. This way you have a rough idea of what to do before you begin.

What should I include?

  • Keywords – Search keywords which rank for your topic
  • Look at your competitors and your target audience
  • Build pages for each ranking topic and optimised content
  • Link building – Backlinks
  • Social media
  • SSL certificate

These are some of the aspects you could include in your SEO strategy plan for 2020, although, there are plenty more things you can add too.

Social Media

Social Media

If you are trying to grow your brand, social media is the perfect place for you to gain a new/bigger audience. With millions of people scrolling on each platform each day, you are bound to increase your traffic with the right strategy.

What are different platforms good for?

Different social media platforms will give you different results. Some might give you better results than others, some might bring you a different target audience and others may not work at all… but which are which?

Facebook – Facebook has approximately 2 billion monthly active users, meaning you will be able to interact with your target audience no matter what. The platform allows businesses to customise their target to make it more specific to its users. It is great for maintaining customers and building relationships.

Twitter – Although Twitter is not one of the most popular platforms, it is still used by hundreds of millions of people each month. Twitter is great for reaching a new audience and creating more conversions for your business. Before putting your time and money into Twitter you should ensure that it is the right platform for you.

LinkedIn – Typically used for connecting with other people, organisations and B2B businesses. This platform tends to have a specific audience of those between the ages of those who work 9-5 jobs.

Which platform is better for my company?

This depends on what type of company your business is, how it works and who you are trying to reach.

As mentioned above if your business is a B2B organisation, you are best focusing on those platforms which allow you to interact with other professionals. An example is LinkedIn.

Whereas if your business is more of a B2C organisation and you are trying to connect with direct customers, platforms like Facebook will be a better option.

Content Marketing

Content Marketing

Content marketing is also another important aspect of digital marketing. It allows you to interact and educate your audience with the necessary information, which will result in relationship building. Here at Hive Digital Media, we offer the service of content marketing. We specialise in working with different businesses to create outstanding content to connect target audiences to brands.

What are the benefits of content marketing?

Content marketing has multiple benefits for your company, some of them include:

  • Increased Sales
  • Increased brand awareness
  • Higher volume of traffic

How can I create new content regularly?

There are plenty of sites which allow you to use photos on their website which are copyright free, this way you will not be breaking any laws when promoting your business. If you are looking to create content from scratch then there are sites including Canva which can help you. A good way to get some ideas for your content is by using content curation. This allows you to browse and brainstorm ideas from other businesses content.

KFC

Top 3 Marketing Campaigns of 2020 (so far) 

Since lockdown began on March 24th we’ve seen some fairly spectacular ways of how not to advertise your business. Who can forget Wetherspoons Tim Martin commenting that his 40,000 members of staff should ‘go and work in Tesco instead’ or Sports Directs Mike Ashley initially keeping Sports Direct open as he classed it as providing an ‘essential’ service? These are just a couple of examples. However, some brands are getting their marketing ‘right’ during these unprecedented times. So, who’s managed to promote their brand in the right way? Here are our top 3 marketing campaigns of 2020 (so far). 

IKEA 

A great example of how to adapt to your audience is IKEA. By releasing the recipe for their famous Swedish meatballs IKEA tapped into their customers need for transparency during a difficult time. Yes, meatballs aren’t everything but just the act of disclosing the recipe of something that’s cherished in our collective subconscious is a stroke of genius. Other brands quickly followed suite including McDonalds sausage & egg McMuffin and Wagamama’s Katsu Curry. The point is they weren’t selling anything but the brand itself.  

KFC 

Their recent TV campaign using homemade KFC (including branded buckets and paper-cups) tapped into the nation’s obsession with some much-missed classics such as KFC’s Bargain Bucket and Zinger Burger. Don’t even get me started on McDonald’s – you truly don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.

VOLKSWAGEN 

The Last Mile – Volkswagen said goodbye to their trusty Beetle with a great video accompanied by the Beatles ‘Let it Be’. The iconic Beetle can be held up as a symbol of great design, it also represents a different time. With Volkswagens commitment to producing electric cars, it seems fitting that they’ve made letting go of its classic both a nod to the past and the start of something new. 

Of course, big brands can afford to take risks. For smaller businesses digital marketing is a financial investment, there is a temptation to put their marketing strategy on hold for the time being. With everyone tightening their belts it would initially make sense. However, there’s never been a more important time for your business to be visible – particularly online.  

What to focus on?

Digital Marketing During the Pandemic

While the pandemic has made many areas of business grind to a halt, there are still opportunities to increase your website traffic and overall online presence through digital marketing.   

Since lockdown began, search engines have seen an overall increase in traffic due to our increased online presence. From shopping to DIY, we are browsing more than ever. With an expanded online audience comes more opportunity for advertising and promotion. This doesn’t however, only apply to paid advertising. The Financial Times said it had seen a ten-fold increase in trial subscriptions in the past three weeks alone.  

In recent years businesses have begun to realise that their website is incredibly important. If you think of your business website as the ‘shopfront’ to your business, you can start to appreciate that as the first point of contact for potential customers (or clients). Your website needs to do a couple of things, 1. Stand out visually, and 2. Be easy to use (user experience).  

But where should you start? What are the essential aspects you need to focus on if you want to improve your visibility online in 2020? Here are a few;  

  1. SEO – Still one of the most critical aspects of your digital marketing strategy. Good, optimised content will always help improve your online visibility. Considered keyword analysis and research are one of the best organic routes to gaining more visitors to your website. An initial site audit will show you where you are going wrong (or right) and where any changes can be made. Given the present situation – there’s never been a better time to work on your SEO (search engine optimisation).  
  1. Native Marketing – Sick of spending a small fortune on Google Ads? You’re not alone. The explosion of native marketing in recent years (specifically Taboola and Outbrain) has seen significant changes in how businesses advertise. If you want your adverts to appear on mainstream platforms such as the Daily Mail Online native marketing is the avenue for you.  
  1. Social Media Advertising, including TikTok – unheard of up until a couple of years ago, Tik Tok is now one of the fastest-growing advertising mediums in digital marketing. If you start thinking of TikTok as the new Instagram, you’re on the right track. That doesn’t mean you should solely focus on video marketing on TikTok. Facebook & Instagram stories have seen a massive increase in traffic since they started using the facility.   

Clearly the best way to move forward with improving your websites visibility is to integrate a holistic approach to your businesses digital marketing needs. A comprehensive, well thought out (and executed) marketing plan is something every business should invest in – particularly during these difficult times. 

For more information on all things marketing contact our experienced, professional team at Hive Digital Media on 0161-974-7891 

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Digital Marketing Agency

10 Reasons an Agency is Good for your Business

If you are a marketer and even a small business owner, your ultimate goal is to grow your business. Growing your business online is one of the cost-effective ways of doing this. However, in order to do all these things, hiring people or training people in house will be really costly. This is when a Digital Marketing agency comes to your rescue.

Read on to find 10 reasons why hiring a marketing agency will be advantageous for your enterprise. 

1. Complete service

Your business will receive everything to manage every aspect of your company’s online presence with full-service digital marketing. This includes advertising, marketing and promotions. A full-service digital marketing agency’s aim is to create a full strategy for your business, allowing the employees to define your KPI with it and assess how each department can work to fulfil your business’ mission statement.

2. You’ll get even better value

The process of hiring a full-time marketing executive firstly involves taking time to find the suitable person, and if you’re trying to have your strategy completed and inaction it may not be the quickest option as outsourcing a whole team of skilled individuals.

3. Tactical control 

By using an agency to control your marketing endeavours, you’ll be able to receive a higher level of the tactical and strategic control your business is yearning for. In addition, the agency will update you regularly, during the advancement of your campaign and throughout the implementation process.

4. Quantitative results

A high-standard company will have all metrics measured and analysed to evaluate what’s working and the ad spend is the most productive.

5. Maintain consistency 

Having an agency step in and literally continue from where the progress was left can be advantageous as it prevents delays and allows the deadlines in your business to be met, allowing your mission statement to be fulfilled.

6. Cost-effectiveness

When you’re using a full-service agency, you don’t have to bother about paying more payroll taxes. Instead, you can contact your digital partner when assistance and guidance are needed as opposed to giving wages to people who may not be always fully committed to your set marketing tasks all of the time. It’s also beneficial as you can negotiate rates with complete control over your budget

7. Fresh ideas

Using a good agency will give you great ideas and techniques that drive results for your business. For example, when it comes to social media marketing, a digital marketing agency will help you know where your target audience is mostly available and what kind of content you need to distribute among them. 

8. Scalability 

By hiring a marketing agency, they can scale marketing campaigns to fit perfectly with your business. Wconsishether your company is in rapid growth and expansion phase or just a steady growth phase. This allows no resources to be wasted in the process as well. Plus, scaling marketing activities may not always be possible with an in-house team unless the marketing workforce is expanded.

9. Access to technology and tools

Digital marketing agencies keep their technologies up to date, a professional agency will train their employees with the latest technologies and even keep them educated with the ways to improve. Your business’ productiveness and efficiency will dramatically increase with the latest technology and tools as they’re evolving on a regular basis.

10. No need to train agencies

In a marketing agency for your enterprise, you won’t have to fork out any capital to dispatch employees to a marketing training program or seminar.

If you would like to talk to us on how we can grow your business digitally, then just hit the ‘Let’s Talk’ button below.

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