The average internet user is served more than 11,000 online adverts per month, according to Huffington Post. With all that competition, how do you stand out from the crowd and make sure you capture your audience’s attention? Here are five digital marketing hacks to help increase your business leads:
Video is increasingly becoming one of the most digested forms of media; many people prefer to watch a video of a product’s feature than read the product description. But what makes a successful digital marketing video? The key is to tell a story, one that has a message and a clear call to action.
Stay up to date with all the relevant online marketing trends in your industry. Look at digital marketing blogs or, if you’re too short on time to do it yourself, employ the likes of a digital marketing agency, which will be able to do the work for you.
Around 80 per cent of people say they trust the recommendations of their friends and family. Using the face or name of someone familiar to endorse your product or service can therefore be a great way of gaining the trust of your audience.
No matter how many visitors your website generates, if you aren’t compelling them to give you their information, you’re bound to miss out on converted leads. Ensure your traffic doesn’t leave without being given multiple chances to input their data, such as an exit pop up, competitions or gated content (such as allowing them to download something in exchange for filling in their details).
Just because you’ve set up your website and are doing all the right things across your social media platforms, it doesn’t mean the work stops. The world of digital marketing is an ever-changing one, so efforts in this field will always need to be tested and updated for optimization. A/B testing enables you to compare multiple versions of a web page to determine which one converts better – sometimes changing something as small as moving a headline on your website will increase leads.
If you need help keeping up to date with the ever-changing word of digital marketing to ensure your business is fully maximising its potential online, Air Social can help.
If you work in a business-to-business market you’ll realise the importance of carving out a niche in an increasingly crowded global marketplace, but you might lack focus when it comes to defining a B2B marketing strategy.
A poorly defined B2B marketing strategy is not only an inefficient and ineffective way of promoting your business, but it can also negatively impact your brand identity.
So, what are the key elements of building and executing a strong marketing strategy for your business?
Well, first of all,
What is a B2B Digital Marketing Strategy?
Step by step, a digital marketing strategy helps you to:
First thing’s first, do your research!
Seek to understand your target audience, and define who it is you are trying to reach through your B2B marketing strategy. This will help you to remain focused and will ensure you put across a clear marketing message that is intended for the most receptive audience.
Make sure you concentrate on your core audience; it is impossible to reach everyone all at once and doing so would not be the most efficient use of your budget or time.
Consider creating your ideal target persona to centre your B2B digital marketing strategy around.
Ask yourself:
Example of Customer Avatar from Digital Marketer
Doing so can help you to gain better insights into what your customer’s needs and concerns are and will help you present your message in a way that addresses those needs.
Understanding your business’s place within the wider market will also help boost your B2B marketing tactics:
Get to know your competitors and how they operate - particularly those who are leading the way in your industry. Learning B2B marketing tactics from your rivals will give you an excellent grasp of how well certain B2B marketing strategies work within your sector.
Now you know your market and are clear on the niche your company fills within this market.
What is it that sets you apart from your competitors?
Perhaps you can deliver faster than any of them, or offer something that doesn’t exist yet?
Keeping this in mind will assist you when it comes to creating your B2B content strategy as you move forward with your overall plan.
So, you’ve done your research and you have a better insight into your customers, your market and your competitors.
Now it’s time to put this information to work as you begin to shape your B2B digital marketing plan.
Most B2B companies use a variety of digital marketing approaches, for example through the use of a lead-generating website, social media channels or email marketing campaigns.
However, to gain the advantage in the digital marketing space it is best to have a coordinated digital strategy that’s in keeping with your overall B2B marketing message, designed to reach the target audience you have already identified.
As you plan your approach, make sure you determine which digital marketing methods would be the best for your type of business.
For example, B2B Marketing studies have shown that email marketing, SEO, social media marketing and content marketing consistently outperform all other marketing approaches.
You may wish to start off by focusing in on just one or two approaches that fit your business best and monitoring the results.
If, for example, you have an existing database of customers, an email marketing campaign might work well, but for newer businesses, a B2B strategy that centres on social media marketing might be better for building initial brand awareness.
At this stage in the process, it is also helpful to consider your limitations.
If you have a tight budget a super advanced website might be unattainable.
Instead, a good quality microsite, or a standalone webpage might be the most economical way to produce leads for your business.
Once you’ve decided upon which methods you are going to focus on in your B2B marketing strategy, you can then begin to put your plans into practise.
If you don’t have a clear idea of the best methods to use, then this stage can be an important one for testing out a variety of B2B marketing tactics. Here is a brief round-up of the best-performing B2B marketing methods:
You can also push out relevant, valuable content to audiences to increase engagement and help position yourself as an expert in your industry.
Goals are the end result that you want to achieve. This might be measured by number of leads generated or number of people reached.
Milestones help to break up goals into achievable stages, and help to keep your strategy on track.
Use the SMART system to create your goals:
Once you’ve put your B2B marketing strategy in place, identified the methods you wish to put into practice and tested them, it is important that you then analyse the results.
Measuring the response to your B2B marketing campaigns will help you understand what is working and what is not. You can then use your data evaluations to further refine your marketing plan and make it both more efficient and more profitable.
It is critical that you analyse the right metrics to effectively measure results.
There are certain tools available that will harvest the necessary data for your review:
Building and executing a B2B marketing strategy that works for your business can be daunting. Following a clear structure and remembering to test and analyse your approach, further refining the plan as you go, will help to transform your business.
Understand what is involved but don’t know where to start? At Air Social, your business is our business! We make sure we fully understand your digital marketing needs before working with you to achieve your desired results. Get in touch with us here to tell us more about your requirements.
The existing Data Protection Act (DPA) of 1998 is no longer fit for purpose as in recent years the internet has fundamentally altered the way that we access, create, share and store information. The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25 May 2018. The regulations have been designed to unify the European business environment and encourage companies to think seriously about data protection. This new piece of legislation is set to bring about some significant changes to data security and privacy. Individuals will possess greater rights of access to personal information, there is an elevated requirement for businesses to manage their data better, and a new penalty structure will be put in place.
By the 25 May 2018, the UK will still be classed as a member of the EU, and thus the GDPR compliance deadline is still an important one for UK businesses. In addition to this, the regulations will still apply post-Brexit if your business holds or handles information about EU citizens.
Furthermore, the Brexit process will not have an impact upon the implementation of these regulations in the UK going forward, as a new Data Protection Bill, which will largely include all the provisions of the GDPR, is to be introduced. The Data Protection Bill, which was introduced to the House of Lords on 13 September 2017, is designed to give people greater control over their data and assist businesses in their use of data whilst preparing Britain for Brexit. By implementing the GDPR directly into UK legislation, it is hoped that the free flow of information across Europe will be maintained even post-Brexit, which will be essential for the UK’s future trade relations.
All businesses must develop policies that demonstrate their compliance with GDPR if they have not already done so. The new regulations recognise that smaller businesses require different treatment to larger or public enterprises. Businesses that employ less that 250 employees are treated with greater leniency as they have fewer resources and pose less of a risk to data protection. However, smaller businesses must still comply with GDPR principles if they regularly process personal data.
The UK's Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, has been increasingly frustrated by the misinformation and scaremongering surrounding the impact of GDPR on businesses. "The GDPR is a step change for data protection," she says. "It's still an evolution, not a revolution". She adds that for businesses and organisations already complying with existing data protection laws the new regulation is only a "step change”.
The Information Commissioner’s Office, the GDPR’s governing body, states that, “If you are currently subject to the DPA, it is likely that you will also be subject to the GDPR.”
Most small businesses will not have to appoint a Data Protection Officer, but someone in your organisation must take responsibility for implementing the principles and ensuring company-wide awareness.
For larger businesses that have over 250 employees and who work with bigger or more specialist data sets, (particularly sensitive personal data) a Data Protection Officer will need to be appointed to oversee your company’s compliance to these new regulations. They will answer directly to the highest management levels, whilst acting independently in their role. Their job will include duties such as: conducting information audits, training staff, monitoring performance, managing data processing records and being a point of contact for data protection authorities and data subjects alike.
You must begin to develop and implement policies that demonstrate your compliance with the GDPR. Here are a few pointers on what you need to be doing:
The principles of accountability are significantly elevated under the GDPR. Penalties for non-compliance are much more severe than under the previous DPA, with fines of up £17M or up to 4% of annual global turnover (whatever is greater).
We take data protection very seriously and are fully compliant with ICO directives. Our team are aware that GDPR rules are changing and we understand the impact of this upon the way we hold and manage data. We have already taken the required steps to protect our clients’ data.
We have strict security procedures covering the storage of personal information in order to prevent unauthorised access and to comply with ICO data protection rules.
In the unfortunate event that our security systems are compromised, we would notify all our clients immediately, even if it wasn’t directly related to their accounts.
All client data that we request, or that is sent to us via email, is either encrypted or password protected. The information we hold is secure, accurate and up to date. Any data that is no longer current, is destroyed.
Our internal computer systems are password protected and regularly updated. We have recently conducted an internal audit of the information that we hold in order to ensure that it is current and complies with the new legislation.
When the GDPR comes into effect, it is likely that your company will possess data that you will no longer be able to utilise. However, Air Social is able to precisely match your data sets through social media profile matching and creating lookalike audiences of that data that can then be targeted. This means that the data that you currently hold can still be put to use to generate new leads for your business.
Get in touch with us to find out more about how we can help you make the change to become GDPR compliant, whilst ensuring that the data you currently hold doesn’t lose its effectiveness.
For more information and clarification on the specifics of the GDPR and how it will be implemented into UK law, it is best to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office directly. It includes a helpful GDPR checklist for your business.
The full GDPR can be found here.
Digital Marketing is a world of complex jargon, acronyms and branded software – we’re here to help break through the confusion surrounding this lingo.
Below we’ve compiled a short list of definitions to help you properly get to grips with the world of digital marketing. Whether you need to trawl through Google results or analyse a marketing report, understanding the terminology is a crucial first step to getting to grips with your digital presence.
If you see the value in modernizing your digital presence then we would love to hear from you - contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can work with you.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Statistics show 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram daily. Vastly growing through its years of existence, Instagram has massively changed the way social media works; pioneering an increase in the use of visual content.
Instagram sees 700 million monthly active users – these vary from personal users, to brands, to celebrities and influencers.
Having a sole focus on visually engaging content is what sets Instagram aside from the competition. If your posts are showing your products and services in a good light, not only is it going to portray your business in a positive light, but it can also have a side effect of generating enquiries. Branching out from this, you can even use Instagram to allow your followers to feature their pictures on your page. This type of engagement can drastically bolster customer relationships.
Present followers with a call to action – this should be at the centre of your mind when creating engaging content. Include links to relevant products and sites in your bio as well as utilising the instagram story feature to direct traffic to you. In addition to this, captions could be written so that they are engaging and asking followers to take action.
To build up a following try running competitions requiring people to follow you to participate; share your brand with friends via tags or posts on their own pages to increase engagement. It’s likely that if potential followers see their friends expressing interest/sharing info they are likely to engage.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_cta_button2 title="Contact Us!" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fairsocial-build-com.stackstaging.com%2Fcontact-us%2F|title:Contact%20Us!|"]If you are interested in engaging with your potential customers on Instagram then Air Social is here to help. Contact us today for a no-obligation chat about how you can get the most out of your social media following.[/vc_cta_button2][/vc_column][/vc_row]
To many of us digital natives it is difficult to imagine a world without social media. Social media has evolved from a tool that very few businesses use, to being an integral piece of every company’s marketing strategy. There should be no question as to whether or not your brand should be using social media instead you should be thinking: how can I best utilise platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to help grow my business?
Here at Air Social, we know that social media marketing is key for generating leads, raising brand awareness and developing relationships with existing or potential customers.
When managed successfully, social media provides a platform for excellent, responsive customer service, community engagement and social selling activities that help generate interest and create relationships with customers.
Social media is an essential component of every marketing plan. With its great potential this type of marketing can help you achieve many of your business’s marketing goals, such as:
Once your business is ready to have an online presence, you should develop a social media strategy, ensuring you are sharing engaging content and maintaining a consistent brand image, whilst using your page to correctly promote your business.
Social media is no longer a place where you only interact and socialise with friends and family but is now a key component in promoting your business. Due to this trend, customers are now able to engage with brands whenever they please.
If you have not been using social media for your business you are really missing out! At Air Social, we place social strategy at the centre of all our marketing campaigns. We produce engaging, meaningful and targeted campaigns, reaching the right people at the right time to grow your business.
Contact us today on 01483 789 434 or email us at team@airsocial-build-com.stackstaging.com for further information on our services.
The digital world moves quickly. It can be a daunting prospect knowing that a strategy you are using, or the tools that you find most useful, may soon be outdated. Having been in the digital sector over a period of great change, we know this only too well. However, we also know that keeping up to date with this ever-changing world can yield huge returns.
Knowing the trends and changes coming up will put you ahead of the competition, will give you valuable credibility, and will sit you on the road to digital success.
Below are 4 ways to stay up to date.
Blogs
This is our favourite way of learning what’s new and exciting in the sector. Regularly reading a range of articles on digital will give you a sense of the direction new trends and technologies are taking. There’s a huge range of blogs out there, so it is tricky to know where to start. Here's a small selection that covers a variety of subjects within the digital sector.
Social media group
We love Linkedin groups. They seem to be less well-known than Facebook groups, however with the more professional audiences, you can be sure they contain treasure troves of useful articles and ideas. Simply search for your area of interest, find a group that looks interesting, request to join, and get scrolling!
Email newsletters
Don’t always be perturbed by the dreaded website sign-up form or checkbox, they can be game-changers. Email newsletters are controversial. Some people love them, using them as a tool to stay up to date and informed, some people hate them, seeing them as unwelcome clutter in their mailbox. We sit somewhere in the middle. Having a small yet varied selection of newsletters coming into your mailbox each month acts as a valuable pointer to what’s coming up and what might be worth reading more into. You can make this significantly easier for yourself by setting up an automatic forward to copy these into a specific folder in your mailbox. Then, when you have time to read through, they are all in one location.
Be inquisitive
The best way to keep up to date is also the simplest - talking to people in your industry and asking the right questions to potential customers will give you a foresight into common problems and challenges. These challenges will have been faced by people across the digital world and people will have written about potential solutions. The more your research these, the more rounded a picture you will gain of your digital surroundings. The clearer the picture, the better placed you are to adapt to changes in the digital world.
The digital sector moves quickly, and it can be daunting trying to keep up to date with the latest goings on. The above suggestions are just a few ways you can stay ahead of the game, but if you would like to learn how an agency specialising in digital strategy and creativity can help your business, why not get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
A blog is a valuable tool in your digital arsenal; if you haven’t included one in your website, this is a quick and easy way to supercharge your online presence. We recommend posting small concise articles of around 800 words. This gives you all the benefits that come with regular blog posting, without the negatives of having to spend valuable time away from your business.
We are often asked: what are the actual benefits of posting a regular blog on your website? In our eyes, these are the most important.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Essentially, the more blogs you post, the more pages of your website get indexed. The more pages you have indexed, the more potential touch points you have that will appear on search engine results. Further SEO benefits include the building of external links - the number of other websites linking to your site significantly impacts the ranking of your site. Having a wide range of relevant content on your site massively increases the likelihood of external sites linking to your site. Search engine optimisation is complicated, however a blog is a great and easy place to start.
The personal touch
A good website is concise and clear. Having an effective and clear description of the services you offer doesn’t leave much room to let people know about the achievements of your employees and company. A blog solves this. Posting regular content about your industry and your business performance, gives your brand the personal touch. This is an important component that can convert browsing visitors into concrete customers.
Credibility
Posting regularly about your industry gives you credibility. It shows you are knowledgeable and in touch with the wider goings on in your sector, putting you head and shoulders above your competition.
Social media coordination
Blog posts and themes that are tied in with your social media strategy are a fantastic way to drive traffic to your site. Driving traffic to a site is one of the primary methods you can adopt to increase conversions. The more people on your site, the better the chance of people getting in touch
Fresh content
For regular visitors to your site, fresh content does wonders for creating repeat business. When people see regularly changing content, it gives the impression of a modern, responsive and proactive business.
If you are interested in taking advantage of the benefits of blogging we would love to help with this. Air Social offers a range of blogging services, from regular production of articles, to the creation of a blog section on your website. We are here to help you achieve digital success.
Google themselves explain it pretty well: “Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organisations to manage their online presence across Google, including search and maps.”
What does this actually mean? Well, this means that whenever you need to change business information, such as address, contact information, business hours, etc, all you need do is update your Google My Business information and it will update across all your Google touch points.
Google My Business also gives you the added bonus of a business profile on the search results page. For examples, when you search for a company, such as Air Social Marketing Agency, you will notice a business profile on the right hand side (desktop) of the Google results page. This is your Google My Business profile, looks good doesn't it!
Visibility
Credibility
Accessibility
A Google My Business page is free to set up. You can find instructions on how to do this at: https://business.google.com
A Google My Business page is a must-have tool in your digital arsenal. If you need advice or help setting this up, or coordinating this with the rest of your digital strategy, why not give us a call, we’ll be happy to help.
On April 27 2022, Alex Vinall and Lucy Blackmore from Air Social joined hundreds of other local businesses at the Surrey Business Expo, which took place over two days at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford. Surrey Business Expo was started in 2005 and is today run by the super-well-connected Paul Bridgland and Steve Page. The […]
As an experienced Paid Social and PPC Manager, you will be responsible for managing the strategies and performance for a portfolio of clients. You will be passionate and excited about achieving success for B2B and B2C clients, understanding audiences, coming up with new and innovative ideas and using data and insights to drive your campaigns. […]
Air Social Digital Marketing is looking for a Social Media Manager (full-time) to join its award-winning team of digital marketing, social media and PR experts, based in Guildford, Surrey. The ideal candidate will be educated to degree level and have at least two years’ experience working for a social media marketing/advertising agency with exceptional copywriting […]
Air Social Digital Marketing is looking for a PR account executive (full-time) to join its award-winning team of PR, digital marketing and social media experts, based in Guildford, Surrey. The ideal candidate will be educated to degree level and ideally have work experience in PR or journalism, exceptional copywriting skills and plenty of creative flair, […]
Air Social Digital Marketing is looking for an Account Executive (full-time) to join its award-winning team of digital marketing, social media and PR experts, based in Guildford, Surrey. The ideal candidate will be a degree graduate or have some experience in digital marketing or multi-media PR. They will have good copywriting skills and plenty of […]
Air Social Digital Marketing is looking for a PR Manager (full-time) to join its award-winning team of PR, digital marketing and social media experts, based in Guildford, Surrey. The ideal candidate will be educated to degree level and have at least two to three years’ experience with a background in PR or journalism, exceptional copywriting […]
Air Social Digital Marketing is looking for an Account Manager/Senior Account Manager (full-time) to join its award-winning team of digital marketing, social media and PR experts, based in Guildford, Surrey. The ideal candidate will be educated to degree level and have at least two years’ experience working for a social media marketing/advertising agency with exceptional […]
This month, on September 21st, Google plans to roll out a new strike-based system, which it will enforce against advertisers who repeatedly violate Google Ad policies. The three policies are: Enabling dishonest behaviour This includes businesses or individuals that provide fake documents (such as fake IDs or passports), hacking services, products used to track a person without […]
The video messaging app popular with Millennials and Gen Z now has over 293 million daily users Snapchat is growing faster than it has since 2017, the year it went public. Last month, the messaging app said it added 13 million daily users during the second quarter of 2021, which is a 23 per cent increase from the same period last year. That means that 293 million people across the […]
