Louisa Guise's Blog, page 5

Why forum websites such as Reddit and Quora can be a game changer for businesses

On the All About Digital Marketing blog this week, we have another fantastic guest blogger. Ankit Iyer is an experienced Digital Marketing Consultant and he founded searchenginecorner.com.

Over to Ankit…

Hello, I'm Ankit Iyer, a Digital Marketing Consultant, and the Founder of searchenginecorner.com. I'm here sharing a case study of how forum websites (also known as Question and Answer websites) such as Reddit and Quora can improve our organic traffic and increase sales.

Finding the right online channel to promote your business can be challenging, especially if you are working with a B2B, SaaS niche. My client Mr Cole Scott, President of FuseBox One, provides Digital Asset Management in the US. He commissioned us to run a campaign to increase our website traffic for his business and to learn more about existing DAM users and what they are looking for when choosing a DAM so that these leads could be converted into sales.

What is Digital Asset Management?

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is software used to centralize digital assets. It helps to streamline business workflows, manage files and handle brand guidelines. For example, suppose it is a hectic Monday and you have to find a file from your system. There might be thousands of digital assets such as photos, videos, graphics, or PDFs. Normally this could be a time-consuming process, but DAM allows you to apply advanced tagging so that you can find the file that you need in no time.

When promoting your business, the competition is high, and we must compete with the big brands. We experimented with many platforms, creating infographics, videos, and guest blogs. However, the return on investment was not satisfying. After a few months, we found Reddit and Quora can be a game changer.

Why did we try out Reddit and Quora for the campaign?

SEO is all about the search engine traffic and platforms like Reddit and Quora attract large amounts of that search traffic. That is because these web pages are popular among individuals and businesses who use it to share their issues and achievements with others. Reddit is called the homepage of the internet and Quora ranks well for many queries generally. Both of these channels have very high amounts of user-generated content. The high amount of such content means that Google gives them priority on the results page of a search.

Also, these sites categorise their pages so we can easily find those users who are already familiar with DAM software. Being able to target users who are familiar with DAM makes life a lot easier for us. The users on these sites can turn into customers if you can provide some value for them.

What we did

Our team joined the relevent Reddit subreddit (aka community or group) and this becomes a game-changer for our Organic Campaign. We could now interact directly with DAM users and turn them into potential clients.

What we found

We found that many DAM users received no technical support around the clock and that many programmes had outdated features in their software despite the fact that the customers paid a high price for it. Our findings allowed us to be the ones to solve the DAM users' problems whilst making them aware of our brand at the same time.  

Growth in Traffic

With a forum website your brand gets attention from the audience who are looking for your products. Reddit and Quora have that audience and by connecting with them there we can grow our referral traffic by around 22%. By being involved with Reddit and Quora we also get a lot more exposure from Google Updates because forum sites get a lot of visibility on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP), meaning that we were beating our competitors to appear when high-volume keywords were searched for.

Increasing our authority by engagement

Forum websites are a good means you can use to build a strong bond with a community. We search and find subreddits with Digital Assets or Brand Asset Management and then engage with the audience to solve their problems. Through this we can give them updates on Digital Assets by sharing tips, quizzes, and tutorials. These activities increase our authority and now people come to us in inboxes for suggestions.

The challenges of using forum sites

While working on Reddit, the biggest challenge was to increase our karma points and gain a lot of upvotes.

Karma points are the number of interactions taken on the forum page such as upvotes (like Likes on Facebook) and downvotes. You can earn Karma points by engaging with the Reddit or Quora community by creating posts and making comments.

We also think that the moderation is way too high on Reddit, whilst with Quora things were more straightforward. We have to promote the brand in a natural way so that we don't sound too promotional or salesy.

Pro tip: Never add just your website in the suggestion but add a few from your competitor as well so that you look natural.

Closing with Conversion

Showcasing out brand on forum sites played an important role in our organic strategy. We improved our site visits and purchase volumes. We added review badges to build trust and we added a pricing page. Search Engine updates are inconsistent, and algorithms may change in no time, yet despite this, for SEO Professionals this is a great place to experiment, although remember that no channel that works every time even if you are successful on a forum site.

Thank you Ankit for contributing to All About Digital Marketing! If you would also like to contribute, comment below or email louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com.

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Social media 101: The lowdown

This week on the Substack blog… it’s me again! I’ll be talking you through the most commonly used social media (in the Western World anyway) and detailing when to use them and how to get the most out of them for promotional purposes.

If you are promoting a product (like a book) or a business I recommend that you have a presence across as many social media platforms as possible because not only can you connect with different audiences, but you never know who might be useful to collaborate with and which platforms they will be using.

Disclaimer: The following information is regarding the free versions of the social media accounts. I have never used the paid versions.

Twitter (X)

Useful for: Marketing, Networking, Customer Relations, Cat content

Pros: Free scheduled posts

Cons: You cannot edit posts (unless you pay), it is plagued with spam bots

Although numbers are said to have declined since the takeover, Tweets are still a great way to showcase your product or business. You can promote using any media – text or visual and their short, simple construction makes it easy to make a post on the spot and be very reactive.

Try and include a trending hashtag, it can make a world of difference when trying to get your post in front of the masses.

Facebook

Useful for: Marketing, Networking, Interest Groups, Personal Connections, Customer Relations, Paid advertising

Pros: There are thousands of very active groups about any topic you can think of which are very useful for gathering information.

Cons: In my experience, the most effective method to market is to post in these groups which is time-consuming. There is no auto-schedule function on the main page.

I was late to Facebook because to be honest I didn’t believe it would last – I had seen other platforms such as MySpace come before it and fade away. I also felt that it was an information overload, and I wasn’t up for posting every tiny detail of my life all over the internet.

I do wish I had seen the potential before now, but I don’t feel that it was, from a business perspective, obvious. I have used Facebook across many of my jobs to advertise businesses, back to the days when it first began to be used for this purpose, and, if I am honest, it hasn’t been the best performer generally. Back then it was very much about connecting with your friends and family, now the younger people are migrating to the newer platforms, and the older people are remaining to socialise with friends and family.

I still don’t use Facebook for anything personal – only to advertise my book How to Leave a Group Chat. I have successfully advertised it here, as well as this All About Digital Marketing Blog and the gamechanger is the groups. Facebook contains the most active groups I have observed of any platform. I like that people are active in the Facebook groups and that you can quickly gain information about anything you want to know about.

LinkedIn

Useful for: Marketing, Networking, Interest Groups, Personal Connections, Customer Relations, Paid advertising

Pros: Easy to engage with other businesses and to connect with a wide variety of people. Free scheduled posts

Cons: The groups on here aren’t very active. There are lots of people ready to pounce and sweet-talk you into accepting their services.

LinkedIn has been my best performer (and this year I have doubled my connections!). It began as a platform that was strictly all about work but has really branched out and given workers worldwide a voice. I don’t know if it has directly contributed to any workplace policies, but it has been fascinating to watch the workplace cultures change.

If you are promoting your product here, do so from a business perspective. If you supply tea pots, talk about a campaign you ran, or show a behind the scenes of your factory or your team. People like to see the human side of your business and the human side of you.

I have connected with people from all walks of life and forged some brilliant collaborative collaborations from this platform. I have also been headhunted for jobs (including my current job) so it’s usefulness goes beyond promotion.

The downside is that you can we swamped with requests in the chat by people trying to offer you unwanted services.

Instagrami_travel_i_write A post shared by @i_travel_i_write

Useful for: Marketing, Networking, Personal Connections, Customer Relations, Paid advertising

Pros: It has a good number of regular users. There is room to be creative.

Cons: Instagram is a social media channel that is all about visuals. If you don’t have many images or videos, you can’t succeed here.

In my personal experience this is where I connect with friends, so I haven’t grown my audience because it wasn’t my main objective. But get it right and you can do really well.

The ability to add Instagram posts to Facebook Stories is very useful, but I have to turn it off every so often because I don’t want all of my content going on there.

Instagram is all about visuals – photos and videos. So if you have plenty of these, you can do really well.

TikTok @louisaguiseauthorIt's a magical feeling when you're an author and you finally see your book in print. How to Leave a Group Chat is a book about how to better balance your relationship with your phone and it has been out for almost 2 months! Get your copy today from Amazon and other great bookshops. #booktok #authortok #unboxing #unboxingbooks #unboxingvideo #nonfictionbooks #author #writertok #booktiktok #newauthor #newbook #freshfromthebox #literature #imanauthor #imawriter #writer #authorvideo #bookvideo #supportanauthor #buymybooks #buymybookplease #writing #tiktokvideo #booktoker #authortoker #newbook #howtoleaveagroupchat #smartphoneaddict #socialmediabook #socialmediaaddict [image error]Tiktok failed to load.

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Useful for: Marketing, Selling, Paid advertising

Pros: You can sell on the Tiktok shop. You can edit videos quickly and easily in the platform.

Cons: Content limited largely to video.

TikTok is all about video. This can be limiting, but if you have plenty of video content that is short, snappy and creative, you can do well. It has a basic video editor which contains lots of music, voice-overs and other sound effects, so you can make some great content quickly – although I would recommend a proper video programme like Adobe Premiere Pro or Openshot if you want to make a more stylised video.

It’s a great place to host snippets from longer videos to peak an audience’s interest.

Unlike other social media platforms, the algorithm takes each video on its own merit, so you could have one video with a million views and another with 10. The trick is to find the right time to release your video and to bump up the view count by posting your video to as many other channels as possible – remember those Facebook and LinkedIn groups that I mentioned?

What is your opinion of the different social media networks? Perhaps you have had great success, or you are an expert in one of the social media platforms that I haven’t covered. I’m always open to hosting guest bloggers, so if you would like to feature on All About Digital Marketing email louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

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How to Create a B2B Content Strategy: The Ultimate Guide

This week on the All about Digital Marketing Substack blog, we’re hearing from our guest blogger Charlotte Tomlinson, Head of SEO & Content at Distinctly, a fast-growing digital marketing agency based in London. Charlotte has been digital marketing for ten years and counting, and has worked with start-ups, SMEs, global enterprise businesses, and everything in between. Currently leading a team of 15 at Distinctly, she has experience in both B2B and B2C, across a huge range of industries. So who better to talk us through the B2B (aka Business to Business) content strategy and how to create one.

Over to Charlotte…

Brand awareness, customer engagement, traffic, leads and sales can all be achieved through the production of high-quality content. 

But before the content is produced, planning and preparation needs to take place. That’s where a content strategy can help.

A content strategy is an overarching plan for all of your digital content. From blogs and whitepapers to social media and video content, a strategy is essential for understanding the purpose behind your content.

Why are B2B content strategies important?

Not all content drives traffic and not all content converts. To ensure your digital content meets your objectives and reaches the right audience, there’s a few points you’ll need to consider first.

What kind of users are you targeting with your content? Which format are they most likely to engage with? How should your content look? Where should the call to actions (CTAs) be positioned? And what exactly do you want your content to achieve?

An effective content strategy should include the answer to all of these questions. From the user research and content formats to the frameworks and design, a good strategy covers it all. Focusing on the bigger picture enables you to have a clear plan and structure for all of your content efforts, ensuring they’re successful and produced with your goals in mind. 

9 steps to create a B2B content strategy

So, before you jump into content creation, how exactly do you put together an effective B2B content strategy?

1. Identify your target audience 

First things first, who are you creating content for? By understanding exactly who is going to read your content, you can ensure it’s written with those people in mind.

A useful way to understand your target audience is through the use of customer personas. These are defined as semi-fictional characters which represent your ideal prospect. Through demographic reports, user interviews, forums, social media and surveys, you can identify key insights into the people and businesses who are likely to read your content.

Identifying your target audience is key for developing content that resonates with them. By understanding their pain points, how they engage with content and how they make decisions, you can tailor your messaging and streamline the conversion journey.

2. Decide on your objectives

Your objectives should drive your content strategy. But not all content will have the same aims.

For example, is it topical content to build authority? Are you aiming to build brand awareness and secure the top ranks within the search engine results pages (SERPs)? Which pieces of your content are to generate leads? 

Knowing what your goals are for each piece will help you understand the purpose behind the content you’re creating. Following the SMART objective method, a method devised to help you cover all of your objectives, is a useful way to set realistic goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART).

3. Choose which content formats to opt for 

Once you’ve identified your target audience and decided on your objectives, you’ll need to establish which content formats are best suited. 

Each stage of the buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, and decision) will also require different types of content, each with a unique aim.

Some of the most popular B2B content formats include:

Blog posts – this form of content is extremely versatile and can include topical blogs, product/service comparison blogs, search-led blogs and even conversion-led blogs.

Case studies – these are a great way to demonstrate the benefits of your business by highlighting how your service or product solved a challenge and offered a solution. 

Ebooks – these can be detailed “how-to” guides that educate the user on a certain topic, giving them helpful advice on the solution to their challenge.

Whitepapers – this is long-form content that delves deeper into a specific topic or offers a solution to a problem that your target audience faces. Whitepapers are often used as gated content, which can only be accessed after filling in a form/exchanging information. 

Infographics – this type of content is a useful way to succinctly convey complex information, making it easier for your audience to engage with key concepts quickly.

Interactive content – this could be in the form of quizzes, checklists, animations or even calculators. Interactive content helps to keep the user engaged, whilst enabling you to collect audience insights.

Social media carousels and posts – social media is an effective tool for brand awareness, helping you to reach a wider audience.

Video content – video content has continued to grow in popularity. Whether it’s customer testimonials, a service/product explainer or even a how-to guide, videos offer an engaging way for users to connect with the business. 

Email content – emails, such as newsletters, can be used to nurture customer loyalty and keep users connected. Emails can feature product/service information, along with repurposing content you have previously created.

5. Create a content calendar including industry events

A content calendar is an easy way to organise your content plan for the year ahead. Not only is this an effective way to keep track of your content plans, it also helps you consider exactly when this content should be published.

Are there any key industry dates that you could create content around? Are there any upcoming changes within the industry that you need to keep in mind? Is your content aligned with relevant seasonal events? By mapping out your content month by month, you can focus on creating relevant and timely pieces that your audience will engage with.

6. Produce detailed frameworks including CTAs

A content framework or copy brief is a plan or template that acts as a guideline for the person producing the content. Having a framework in place improves efficiency, organisation and ensures that everything is produced with your goals and target audience in mind.

So, what exactly does a content framework include? Whilst there are many different ways to produce and lay out a framework, it should include information on:

The content formats

The purpose and objectives of the piece

Information on the target audience/customer personas

The tone of voice to use

Key products/services to promote within the piece

The structure of the content (what will the different sections include)

SEO information (meta data, keywords to target and internal links) 

Call to actions (CTAs) to include and where they should be positioned

Key images/visuals to include

Competitor examples 

When and where the content will be distributed

Key points on how the content should look/design elements

7. Decide where best to distribute your content

Different types of content perform best in different places. It all comes back to your objectives for the piece. Are you offering valuable, in depth content that should sit on your website or blog? Are you trying to raise brand awareness through a social media post? Do you want to generate leads through gated content? 

Understanding the purpose behind the content you create is key to ensure that it reaches the right audience on the right platforms.

8. Consider design and layout

Content isn’t just about the words on a page. You’ll need to consider where each section should sit and how you’ll maximise engagement. From CTA positioning to content formatting, there’s plenty to consider.

When designing the layout for your B2B content, keep the following in mind:

Branding consistency 

Clear messaging

Readability and content formatting

Visual hierarchy

Making use of whitespace

Incorporating imagery and data visualisation 

Ensuring responsive design 

Design and positioning of CTAs

Accessibility 

9. Report on performance, keeping key performance indicators, or KPIs, in mind

So, how did your content perform? Whilst your initial thought might be to report on how many leads were generated, it’s important to remember what the aims of the piece were. Was it to generate brand awareness and traffic? Was it a piece aimed at boosting topical authority, therefore less likely to generate leads? Perhaps your content was repurposed on social media where it then performed the best? 

Whether it’s sessions, conversions, qualified leads, or ranks, keep your objectives in mind when reporting on performance. 

Content plays an essential role in B2B marketing, which is why having an effective content strategy in place is so important. The more thought that goes into your content process, the more results you’re likely to achieve.

Thank you so much Charlotte and Distinctly for collaborating with All About Digital Marketing. If you would also like to contribute a guest blog, please email louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com or comment below.

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Building a Strong Brand Presence on Social Media

In the competitive world of the jewellery industry, establishing a strong brand presence on social media is crucial for success. In this edition of All About Digital Marketing, guest blogger Rachel Lake, the Founder and Creative Director of Rachel Beth Jewellery based in Sydney, provides expert insights on how she leveraged social media to enhance brand visibility, build a loyal community and boost her business.

Over to Rachel

Hi I’m Rachel and I have over 20 years of experience as a jeweller, setting up my own business Rachel Beth Jewellery in 2019. I entered the jewellery industry at 18, fresh out of high school, driven by a passion for art, design, and working with my hands. I decided to walk into a local jewellery business in a quaint little town near the Blue Mountains that housed a jeweller's workshop, and I asked if they had any apprenticeships available. I was captivated by the possibilities of design and metalworking, and that spark set me on my journey. I was fortunate to have a highly creative jewellery teacher who taught me the fundamentals of jewellery making and design. Along the way, I learned various techniques from several Master Jewellers, each contributing to the skills I use in my craft today. As my skill and passion for jewellery grew, I ventured to the upmarket jewellers in the Hills area, then to Sydney’s exclusive Eastern Suburbs, and finally to the iconic Strand Arcade in Sydney’s Central Business District. These experiences enriched my expertise and deepened my love for the craft.

I have dedicated my career to crafting custom engagement and wedding rings, as well as other bespoke jewellery pieces and social media has been an integral part of promoting my business and reaching out to customers. I will share with you some of the ways that I have used social media to do this.

We promote our brand’s Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

At Rachel Beth Jewellery, our UVP is defined by several key elements that make our offerings truly special:

1. Personalised Design Process

We work closely with each client to bring their vision to life, ensuring every detail reflects our customers’ unique style and story. A big sell for us is the ability to allow couples the chance to design their bespoke pieces together and embrace the shared journey of creating a piece that encapsulates their love and story. This collaborative approach enhances the experience, blending personal visions and creativity while still preserving the magic of the final reveal. Despite being so involved in the process; these same couples can also opt to keep the final design under wraps until the proposal moment. This way, there’s still an element of surprise, adding to the joy and excitement of the occasion.

2. Ethical Sourcing

We prioritise ethically sourced materials, including conflict-free diamonds and gemstones, and incorporate recycled gold whenever possible. The Australian Sapphires that are a prominent part of our resource are sourced in an ethical way with strict government oversight, ensuring environmental responsibility and a transparent supply chain which is very important to me and my clients. Our rings are also presented in sustainably sourced timber boxes. This commitment to responsible practices resonates with clients who value transparency and integrity in their jewellery.

3. Australian Sapphires

We pride ourselves on using Australian sapphires in our jewellery. These sapphires are incredibly beautiful and come in a stunning array of colours from the deep blue that we are all familiar with, to vibrant greens and yellow. They add a unique and meaningful touch to any jewellery piece. They are also the second hardest gemstone on Mohs hardness scales, just under diamonds, this hardest not only makes they highly durable and suitable for everyday wear.

4. Handcrafted Excellence

Each piece at Rachel Beth Jewellery is handcrafted. Our focus on quality craftsmanship ensures that every item is not only stunning but also durable.

5. Exceptional Customer Experience:

Delivering an exceptional customer experience is a priority at Rachel Beth Jewellery. From the initial consultation to the final unveiling of the piece, we ensure a seamless and enjoyable journey.

We have a great UVP which allows us to stand out as a brand and we leverage this to help us stand out on social media. We promote these five aspects of our business across social media by sharing videos and photos of how we design and create jewellery behind the scenes, sharing customer reviews to demonstrate our high level of customer service and satisfaction, educating our customers about Australian Sapphires and the origins of our wooden jewellery boxes and of course showing off our unique products. This gives us a good base from which we can create a lot of content.

We demonstrate our authenticity

I am the face of my business and our brand, and I share photos and videos of myself at work to portray my brand as an authentic business. I speak directly to the customers via short, simple videos, explaining my work or inviting them to take part in competitions. This active engagement is a fundamental aspect of our social media strategy, and clients are not shy to engage with us. I have no shortage of wonderful customers willing to share their engagement and wedding photos with me to use across my own social channels, which further demonstrates to my followers the positive customer relationships that I have created. This authentic engagement has been a huge part of Rachel Beth Jewellery managing to generate repeat business. We have many returning customers such as Rita and Caitlin who were engaged, complete with our ring, in July 2022 and married, complete with our ring, a year later in June 2023.

We have developed a content calendar

Planning content is essential to ensure it aligns with your brand’s goals and resonates with your audience. A well-thought-out content calendar helps maintain consistency and ensures balanced coverage of a variety of engaging topics, including for us our latest collections, behind-the-scenes looks at our design process and special features, at the right times in order to maximise engagement and, in turn, the business that is generated from it.

We develop our content calendar by identifying key dates, such as holidays, anniversaries, and special events, that of course resonate with our customers. From there, we plan our content around these dates, ensuring that each post, is timed for maximum engagement.

Given that our custom jewellery takes approximately 8-10 weeks to create, we factor this lead time into our advertising strategy. This ensures that clients are well-informed about timelines, particularly for key dates like weddings and holidays. Additionally, we maintain a selection of “ready to ship” pieces to accommodate last-minute orders, providing flexibility for those who need something beautiful in a shorter timeframe.

Some of the key dates we focus on include:

1. Valentine’s Day (14th February) – an obvious one, but the ultimate time of year to start thinking about engagement rings for that perfect proposal.

2. Mother’s Day (Second Sunday in May) – this is a great opportunity to showcase personalised jewellery, birthstone pieces, and thoughtful gifts for mothers

3. Peak Wedding Season (September to March) – this is our busy period where we focus heavily on engagement and wedding rings, bridal jewellery, and custom designs during this period. In Australia Spring in September to November, as well as early Autumn, which for us is March, are particularly busy times thanks to the mild and pleasant weather providing ideal conditions for weddings.

4. Christmas – it goes without saying that the Christmas period is when you spoil your nearest and dearest.

5. Our Rachel Beth Jewellery Birthday Month (September) – we use my birthday as an excuse for a bit of additional PR by celebrating our brand’s milestones with special promotions, behind-the-scenes content, or customer appreciation campaigns.

6. International Women’s Day (8th March) - This is a time to showcase pieces that empower women, share inspirational stories, and highlight female entrepreneurship. It helps that my thriving jewellery business was also set up by a woman, aka Moi!

To stay organised and consistent, we use a combination of Trello and social media scheduling tools, allowing us to plan and execute our content strategy efficiently, whilst considering feedback from our customers and followers in order to guide our content themes and ensure that they are fresh and relevant.

We run paid social media advertising campaigns

Targeted ads have been instrumental in allowing us to reach a broader audience. The precision of paid advertising allows us to target a wider audience that we believe might be interested in our jewellery. We then focus on reconnecting with users who have previously engaged with our website or social media channels by showing ads to individuals who have spent time exploring our site or following our social media accounts. The intention of this is to help them keep our brand front of mind and encouraging them to return, because we know that engagements and weddings require a lot of planning, so we try to stay at the front of the line when people shop around.

We do visual storytelling and educational content

We have found that visual storytelling is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience on platforms like Instagram. Regularly posting engaging content, such as close-up shots of intricate designs or videos of the creation process, has helped us build a loyal following as customers are enchanted by the story behind each of our unique rings, and they also often get to learn about the people who have bought the rings and their proposal or wedding day through the photographs that we share.  High-quality visuals that showcase the craftsmanship and personalisation of each piece capture attention, generate interest, and add to our perception as an authentic brand that produces a high-quality product.

I regularly share insights about gemstones, the jewellery-making process, and care tips for precious pieces. This has established me as an expert in my field. To further showcase my expertise, I have gone beyond our social channels and collaborated with a number of blogs, podcasts and other media. Collaborating with brands can significantly extend your reach and introduce your business to new audiences. We have always chosen collaborations that align with our brand values and resonate with our target audience, around 70% of whom are couples looking to get engaged and married, to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship. For instance, we recently teamed up with Noosa Picnics & Proposals to record a podcast where we discussed key elements that make a proposal truly special and unique to that couple. Such partnerships not only broaden our exposure but also attract new followers because their followers who haven’t yet heard of us might be likely to engage with us and vice versa.

Track and Analyse Performance

Regularly reviewing the performance of your social media activities is essential. Analytics tools such as Google Analytics or a platform’s own analytics platform can provide insights into what content performs best and where improvements can be made. By analysing these metrics, we can refine our strategy and focus on what works.

Crafting a Compelling Brand Story

By incorporating these strategies, we have built a strong brand presence on social media and have managed to turn our customers into loyal advocates who refer us to their family and friends, and you can do the same.

Thank you Rachel for being our guest blogger! Connect with @Rachelbethjewellery on Instagram or check out her company website rachelbethjewellery.com.au.

If you would also like to share your marketing story on All About Digital Marketing please contact louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com with your proposed topic, or leave a comment below.

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Why Email Marketing Should Be Your Small Biz's Best Mate

Image provided by Chrissy Symeonakis

This week’s guest blogger is Chrissy Symeonakis, an Australian small business owner, coach, mentor, founder of Creative Little Soul, and a passionate disability advocate. Beyond running her digital marketing agency, Chrissy has created two additional avenues to support businesses and individuals. Her personal brand, chrissysymeonakis.com, offers self-help and empowerment courses, and through this platform, she coaches and empowers others in their business journeys. As if that’s not enough to keep her busy, Chrissy also teaches courses on Email Marketing and runs a mentoring program for small businesses.

Over to Chrissy…

Alright, let’s have a chat about why email marketing should be your small business’s best mate. You might be thinking, "Email? Isn’t that a bit old school?" But here’s the thing—email marketing is still one of the most powerful tools in your digital marketing kit.

Why Email Marketing?

First off, email marketing is as reliable as a good old Aussie ute (aka an iconic Australian car). While social media posts can disappear faster than a coldie on a hot day, emails land straight in your customer’s inbox, ready for them to have a squiz whenever they’re online. This means you’re connecting with your audience where they’re already hanging out—whether they’re checking their emails over brekkie or during smoko.

Building Relationships

One of the best things about email marketing is how it helps build strong relationships with your customers. When someone signs up for your emails, they’re basically saying, “Let’s stay in touch.” With every email, you’re not just flogging your products—you’re sharing your story, your values, and building a bit of trust. Over time, this turns your casual subscribers into loyal customers who are keen to hear from you.

Affordable

Another reason to get into email marketing is that it’s affordable. Unlike paid ads or other marketing tactics that can leave your wallet a bit light, email marketing is cheap or sometimes free depending on your database size . With the right tools, you can whip up professional-looking emails without spending a fortune. Plus, you can track how well your emails are doing, so you know what’s working and what needs a bit of tweaking.

Personal Touch

Emails also let you add a personal touch. People love it when content feels like it’s made just for them, and emails let you do just that. Whether it’s addressing your subscribers by name, sending them special deals based on what they’ve bought before, or just giving them content that tickles their fancy, personalisation can really boost engagement and get people clicking.

Boosting Sales

At the end of the day, email marketing is a top-notch way to boost sales. Whether you’re promoting a new product, running a cheeky sale, or just reminding customers why they love your stuff, emails are a great way to drive traffic to your website and get the cash register ringing. And since you’re reaching people who’ve already shown interest in your biz, you’re more likely to see those efforts pay off.

Your Secret Weapon

So, why should email marketing be your secret weapon? Because it’s versatile, powerful, and it bloody works. It’s not just about sending out promos; it’s about building a community, earning trust, and keeping the lines of communication open with your customers. In a world where everyone’s vying for attention, email marketing gives you a direct line to the people who matter most to your business. So, if you’re not already on board, now’s the time to jump in. Your future self—and your bottom line—will be relieved you did.

Thank you so much Chrissy and Creative Little Soul for collaborating with All About Digital Marketing. If you would also like to contribute a guest blog, please email louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com or comment below.

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Building an Enormously Successful Digital PR Campaign for a High-Ticket Client in the Solar Industry

Image courtesty of Raze Solar via unsplash.com

This week’s guest blogger is Pulkit Agrawal, Founder and SEO Director of SEO Company UR Digital based in Sydney and recipient of Australia’s Top 50 Small Business Leaders of 2022 by inside small business. Originally from India, when he’s not running his business Pulkit enjoys playing Monopoly and building drones. In this fascinating case study Pulkit takes you through each step of a PR campaign that UR Digital created for their client Solar Run who specialise in solar energy.

Over to Pulkit…The Partnership

UR Digital began its SEO partnership with Solar Run, a leading Australian solar energy company, in June 2023. Our collaboration was built on a mutual goal to achieve consistent positive SEO results for Solar Run's online presence. In June 2024, we decided to elevate our efforts by launching an extensive digital PR campaign.

Why This Campaign?

The decision to pursue this Digital PR campaign was driven by the need to generate high-quality backlinks without resorting to paid methods, given the limited budgets for the project. Digital PR presented a creative and effective medium to achieve this, and within less than three weeks, we successfully secured 25 valuable backlinks. The campaign's success was further marked by its widespread coverage which spanned the entire Australian radio network and featured on 25 mainstream media websites across every state except the Northern Territory. The media who picked up our Digital PR campaign included high value sites like PerthNow, news.com.au, Time Out and more.

The Concept

The campaign concept revolved around developing an authoritative article ranking Australian suburbs by their adoption of green energy through solar panel installations. Traditionally, the terms 'greenest' and 'greenest suburbs' are associated with tree canopy cover. However, we aimed to flip the narrative by defining 'greenness' through the lens of renewable energy adoption. With the government-published data we accessed, we created the "Greenest Suburbs" article in order to provide a fresh perspective. Our contingency plan was to rebrand the campaign as "Renewable Energy Leaders" if the original concept didn't gain traction.

Gathering and Analysing the Data

To create the article, we started by sourcing raw data from the Clean Energy Council an Australian government body that keeps track of renewables, focusing on solar installations from January 2020 to December 2023. While downloading the data was straightforward, organising it was a monumental task. Using Excel’s advanced features and formulae, we sorted the data by installation numbers and categorised it by state and corresponding postcodes.

Creating the Article

While data is powerful, its interpretation is crucial. We aimed to create an insightful article, not just a data dump. The resulting report, spanning 12,345 words, unpacked significant trends and insights.

Acknowledging that visuals enhance comprehension, we enlisted a graphic designer to create engaging bar graphs, comparison charts, and maps. After thorough reviews and revisions, we uploaded the final article to the client’s website.

Leveraging PR

To ensure visibility, our PR expert crafted a press release and leveraged her network to generate buzz. The article, titled "Greenest Suburbs," was prominently featured on the front page of a Fraser Coast Chronicle, realestate.com.au, and news.com.au, among others. This press release strategy allowed multiple authoritative articles about Solar Run and its subject matter to be released by various newspapers.

Results and Benefits

This coverage resulted in substantial publicity through backlinks, increasing Solar Run's impressions by 30,000 and attracting 1,000 new visitors. As of 7 August 2024, the article ranks third on Google for the keyword "greenest suburbs," with the first and second positions occupied by major newspapers—an impressive achievement for Solar Run. Not only that, we were able to beat Near Map, one of the largest provider of mapping technology for this keyword that they have been ranking for years.

The campaign provided several direct benefits to Solar Run. It massively boosted their credibility, especially in an industry where solar companies often make headlines for negative reasons, such as fraud. Solar Run stood out as an exception by gaining positive recognition in mainstream media.

While it's premature to measure the exact profits resulting from this PR campaign, the increase in impressions and new visitors indicates a strong impact. Solar Run's reach has also doubled, with PR coverage extending across all Australian states except the Northern Territory, compared to their previous limited presence on the East Coast.

Although we are an SEO agency and do not have direct insights into Solar Run's customer conversions, the campaign attracted 1,000 new visitors, with a significant 30,000 impressions and a notable click-through rate.

Prospects

This campaign reinforced Solar Run's position as a leader in renewable energy and also expanded their reach and credibility across Australia. The results speak to the power of strategic digital PR in achieving meaningful SEO outcomes.

Thank you so much Pulkit and UR Digital for talking us through your campaign! If you would also like to feature on the All About Digital Marketing Blog please get in touch via louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com or respond in the comments below.

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What is the Marketing Funnel and How Can You Optimise Yours?

This week’s guest blogger is Will Morrison, Digital Marketing Specialist at CareScribe, an assistive technology company based in Bristol (South-West England). Will has over 10-years of experience working as a Digital Marketer under various guises and has written a lot of blogs in his time. I hope you enjoy this one all about the Marketing Funnel.

Over to Will…

The marketing funnel, sometimes called a sales or conversion funnel, is a fundamental concept within sales and marketing.

The term is used to describe the journey, broken up by stages, that your potential customers go on with your business before they take a desired action (for example, from first hearing about your business to picking up the phone and getting in touch). It is a useful tool when trying to visualise your marketing strategy and helps show how you or your team generates value by moving customers from stage to stage.

If we think about other journeys we take in life, we typically focus on the final step taken to get to a destination. However, if you were to analyse the process, there would have been several other hoops you had to jump through along the way before being able to even think about taking that final step.

Consider Frodo from The Lord of the Rings (spoiler tag for anyone who has been putting off watching the films for the last 20 years…), you could describe his story in its simplest terms as a walk from point A to point B, but in reality, he had to take different steps, and meet certain goals, along the way before being able to finish his journey. Our job as marketers is to analyse that journey and see how we could have made it more efficient for Frodo in order to make the trip easier for the next poor hobbit that comes along.

In summary:

Prospective customers navigate a path within your company's marketing funnel as they assess the decision to purchase from you

Understanding the mechanics of a funnel enables you to identify issues in your marketing strategy

As marketers, it’s our job to use this information to enhance our marketing strategy and to guide people through the funnel to convert them from potential buyers into customers

What Are the Stages in the Marketing Funnel?

The marketing funnel is based on the Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) model and the specific details can vary but they typically include the following stages:

Awareness - the point at which someone becomes aware of your brand, product, or service

Interest - when someone expresses interest in your product or service

Desire - when someone evaluates your product or service. This stage can also be known as “Consideration”

Action - when someone becomes a customer. This stage can also be known as “Conversion”

Advocacy - not all funnels include this stage, but for advanced strategies, this step describes someone who has progressed from a customer to someone advocating for your product or service to others

Let’s take a closer look at each of the marketing funnel stages:

1. Awareness

The awareness stage marks the moment that someone first learns about your brand. For example, they may be browsing LinkedIn and see a relevant post from your brand.

At this point, they are now aware of your business.

An example of a Tweet from Merceds-Benz AG featuring a poll about their ambitions for 20392. Interest

The interest stage is when people start to engage with your brand.

They may sign up for your newsletter, download one of your resources, subscribe to your social media pages, or browse your web pages.

A screenshot of CareScribe’s website

For example, CareScribe, a company who create software for people with additional needs, offers useful, free content like a guide to neurodiversity in the workplace to help nurture users through the interest stage. To get to this point, a user will have to have first become aware of CareScribe before then investigating more and by finding content that is genuinely useful for them, they are more likely to engage and move from awareness to interest.

3. Desire

The desire stage (also commonly known as consideration) is when people evaluate your product or service.

At this point, the customer already wants to know more about your brand, so it is your job to offer them as much information as they need in order to make a decision.

Customers will be evaluating alternatives, reading reviews, looking at customer testimonials, talking to friends, and comparing you against your competitors. If a large portion of your customers visit you via your website, then it’s important you offer plenty of information to answer any questions they may have. You may provide them with product guides, video guides, and FAQs to help influence their decision.

A screenshot of TalkType’s website

For example, TalkType (pictured above), a dictation software company, tries to include as much information as could be needed at this stage on their dictation software page. This helps users who are now considering the product more easily navigate their way to a conversion by offering information like statistics and also other valuable things for this stage of the funnel like case studies.

4. Action

The action stage (also commonly known as the conversion stage) is when your prospective customers have decided they’re going to buy from you. They’re one step away from becoming customers.

Your goal is to make it easy for them to convert in some way whether that’s for example through a phone call, filling out a contact form, or buying one of your products.

Amazon have famously worked a lot on optimising this stage of their funnel and have seen a lot of success because of this.

Why Are Marketing Funnels Effective?

In reality, most people are not going to navigate your marketing funnel perfectly from A to Z. Users will often move back and forth between stages, stay in one phase without making progress, and all sorts of other behaviours.

It would not be realistic to expect any marketing team to be able to anticipate the countless variations that will appear, especially when dealing with large numbers of customers and a complicated user journey.

The marketing funnel helps to simplify our understanding of the customer journey and acts as a framework for businesses to refine their marketing strategies. By mapping the funnel out, you are able to more effectively analyse users and conclude which tactics to implement at each stage of the funnel.

Without a deliberate focus on this structure, certain stages of your marketing funnel may be overlooked, leading to gaps that result in customer loss, often referred to as a "leaky" funnel.

For instance, you might be attracting significant traffic to your website, yet none of those visitors are subscribing to your email list. Or maybe lots of people reach your checkout and then drop off. The marketing funnel can highlight these problems, providing you with the opportunity to address them.

How to Improve Your Marketing Funnel

Every business will need to approach their funnel differently, and there will a lot of different things to consider when mapping out your funnel. So, it’s hard to provide a one size fits all suggestion for how to create a marketing funnel. But, broadly speaking, you can break the process down into several steps.

Understand Your Users

The first step is to understand how your customers are currently interacting with you. A good option here can be to create buyer personas to better map out the type of customers who are buying your products or services. You will likely find that different personas are interacting with you differently. They might face different challenges and so be researching differently or be looking for different ways to convert.

Map out your user journey

From this point, you will be able to start thinking about how those different personas typically convert with you. Do they come through ads for example, or maybe through blog posts? It’s important at this stage to try and understand the conversion events that indicate that a user has moved from one stage of the funnel to the next. Maybe they download a case study which indicates that they have progressed to the desire/consideration stage, or maybe they have left a product in their basket which could indicate they are in the action stage.

What Metrics Should You Use

Now you should start to understand the different metrics you will use to measure success at different stages of the funnel based on these customer journeys you have identified. Typical metrics include things like your site visitors, ad clicks, and conversion rate.

Funnel Analysis

From here, you will need to carry out the actual analysis and work out things like where people are dropping out of your funnel, and what steps are most commonly taken before a user becomes a customer, based on your success metrics.

You can use all sorts of tools to analyse how people are using your site with heatmaps being a common source of interesting information. Microsoft Clarity currently offers a free heatmap that can do this job.

Implement Changes and Review

At this point you should be able to recognise the reasons why users are not converting. This allows you to implement changes and review how these impact your funnel. If they improve things, great! If they make things worse, no problem - just revert your changes and try again.

For example, if your finding that you have a high amount of interest on your site but users are dropping off once they reach your product page, then this indicates that it’s time to optimise this page. You could monitor things like heat maps to find information or you could even send users a questionnaire.

Conversely, if you have a great conversion rate but a low number of users, then it’s time to work on your awareness and generate some more traffic to the site. Maybe that’s through the use of ads or maybe through a content strategy.

As mentioned above, there is no one size fits all approach to improving your funnel, so these are just examples, but if you set yourself up in a position where you’re able to analyse what’s working and what’s not, you’ll be able to use this to your advantage.

Thank you so much Will and CareScribe for your informative post! If you would also like to feature on the All About Digital Marketing Blog please get in touch via louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com.

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All images were provided by Will Morrison from Carescribe.

All about blog collaborations

Image courtesy of Clark Tibbs via substack.com

Last week’s Substack blog was a collaboration with fellow local Marketer Maria Lloyd about Local Marketing. I hope that this will be the first of many blog collaborations on All About Digital Marketing, and I have had a great response since opening up the blog to this.

What are the advantages of blog collaborations?

Blog collaborations are a great way to network with other individuals and businesses who can compliment your own. You can enjoy the benefits of cross promotion by being featured on a new platform and by the supplementary promotion that will occur on each other’s social media and other channels. Also, as you are authoring the blog, this enhances the credibility of you and/or your business as the experts in your industry or field.

Tips for blog collaborations

To make the most of an opportunity to collaborate on a blog (or any other medium such as a video, podcast, social promotion etc.) do the following:

Follow any instructions that are given

If you don’t follow the instructions for blog collaborations set out in the content request there is a high chance that your content will be rejected.

Check the blogger’s existing content

Have a look at their blog, website, social channels. See what has been written already so that you are not writing about a subject that they have already covered recently. Looking at their topics and style will also help you decide what would be a good fit to compliment the existing content.

Add a personal touch to the content

You are the expert in your field. Telling your story or delving into your area of expertise makes your content stronger and much more interesting when doing blog collaborations. You have a perspective that no one else can have, so share it and captivate your audience at the same time.

Use SEO keyword research

If you are able to learn some SEO and include a keyword or two in the text, this will really help people to find your blog when they search for a related topic using Google or another search engine.

Assume you are writing for dummies

The easiest way to make your content understandable is to imagine that you are writing it for someone who has absolutely no knowledge of the subject that you are discussing, because that will probably be the case.

Ensure that any assets that you provide are legally available for use

Anything that you provide (text, images, video etc.,) for blog collaborations should be legally available for use both by yourself and the blogger because there is nothing worse than a blog being pulled due to the legal owner demanding that it’s taken down (I have seen this happen).

Don’t use AI to write content

For now at least, AI is not a content writer. The content produced by it is mediocre, there is a high chance that the text could be at least partially stolen because AI is trained on existing content - it doesn’t create text from thin air and there is a chance that it could make up facts. I personally want high quality content written on my blog by people who know what they are talking about.

Share the result on your own social, ensuring that you tag them

It’s also good manners for the blogger to let you know that they are posting the content and to tag you as well.

Finally, enjoy. This is a great opportunity for everyone involved!

Are you a Communications or Marketing professional, Writer, Graphic Designer or SEO Professional who would like to contribute to my blog All About Digital Marketing? Contact me at louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com with your suggested topic or put your contact details in the comments.

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My local marketer

Last month I was honoured to be the first ever guest on a new podcast. My local marketer podcast is a new podcast hosted by my lovely friend Maria Lloyd who also lives in Reading. Her new podcast is all about local advertising - to highlight the stars in our area, provide local marketing opportunities for them and create engaging content.

What is local marketing?

“It’s a strategy used by businesses to promote their products and services to people within a local area. This is good for businesses that need to get people into physical premises, or for operational reasons such as ease of delivery for small businesses”. Says Maria,

She then goes on to say that it’s about much more than that. According to her it’s connected to a strong sense of community spirit, as well as for people’s daily lives and wellbeing. She herself wasn’t aware of how much there was to do Reading, and felt that Reading’s events didn’t look as impressive as events happening in our bigger neighbour London, which is only 25-minutes away by train. Reading for Maria was just another communter town - reflecting popular opinion. Many people who don’t live in Reading, but who have passed through in a heartbeat on the mainline to London, often comment “Isn’t it just a train station?”.

As Maria says about her own opinion of Reading, “This doesn’t exactly instill a sense of happiness or wellbeing when you are not satisfied with the area where you live.” She started the My local marketer podcast for this reason, “yes we have great access to London, but this shouldn’t stop us from also making the most of what’s on our doorstep on a daily basis too”.

Through her My local marketer podcast podcast Maria aims to give people a greater sense of belonging and connection to Reading and support local businesses and groups because she strongly believes that this will in turn lead to the development of further opportunities for everyone.

And I think that she makes a compelling arguement.

And why is local marketing important?

Maria says that it is important for three reasons:

Business level - it well help to promote and sell your products and services to people in your local area because your marketing will be highly targeted.

The individual level - it will help to improve the wellbeing and happiness of people in the local community, make them more aware of the opportunities available to them

Community level - instilling a sense of pride in one’s local community will encourage them to become more involved and to look after their local area and each other. Everyone can benefit from local marketing.

Check out the My local marketer podcast on the official website. Maria will be not only promoting local businesses and groups in Reading through her local advertising, but also sharing tips and tricks so that members of the community have the tools to promote themselves as well as promoting activities and services available to Reading’s residents and how to find out about them. It’s also a very interesting and entertaining listen.

Connect with Maria Lloyd from My Digital Marketer on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. If you would like to be a guest blogger on All About Digital Marketing and share some of your own marketing knowledge contact me at louisaguiseauthor@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

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How to write a press release for anything

Image courtesy of Annie Spratt, from unsplash.com

It’s worth knowing how to write a press release for anything and everything that you are trying to promote - be it a new book, business, event or product, because this is a very easy way to tell the world what you are doing and why you matter. Press Releases can be quick and even free to put together, and easily sent out to media outlets. In this blog post I am going to tell you how.

The layout

When you are learning how to write a press release for anything the first thing to learn is the layout. Below you can see an image of the layout required (if the image is appearing too small, full press releases are available on my website), the different elements of the press release are detailed below the image in chronological order.

Logo/image

Place your logo or image at the top of your document. You can keep the logo or image on your press release simple, or have a banner if you want to be fancy.

Document title

The standard format is to write Press Release in capital letters on your press release.

Date

It doesn’t matter in which format you write the date on your press release.

Main story

Tell the story. Press releases are always easy to understand and should contain all of the information that any editor or journalist needs. It’s not great practice, but is in reality very common, for press releases to be simply lifted from the page and inserted into a magazine or newspaper with next to no editing.

Assume that your audience knows nothing about your story or subject. Keep to the basics but add anything of interest. Don’t go into too much detail about your subject, you can do this at the end. To try and capture a tone, have a look at different press releases online and see how other institutions have written theres.

Put in as many links as you need in the story. It is good practice to link relevant text, not to put in long links unattached to text. This is neater and better for people with disabilities.

END

You always write END at the end of the main story. I don’t know why. This is just how press releases are formatted.

Subject bios

Give some context about your subjects. This can be a little fluffier. Here the author (aka, me!) has written about herself as the subject, and about Caversham Writers the Writer’s Group.

Website and social media

List your website and any social media platforms that you want to be highlighted. Ideally you’ll want the media outlets that you are sending your press release to to connect with you, so ensure that they have everything they need to tag you on social media correctly. If they have time it is also useful for them to have your website for further research.

How should I save my press release?

It’s up to you if you would like to save your press release as a PDF or a Word document. I personally save mine as a Word document because it is easier for the content writer to edit it at the other end, and easier for me if I am loading it into a site like Press Loft, which is currently offering 60-day free trials.

What can I write a press release about?

You can write a press release about anything of interest. Ideas could be:

Your product or service

Upgrades or updates to your product or service

You or your company trying something new

You or your company attending events, or maybe an event you are holding

Awards that you or your company are nominated for, or have won

Competitions or promotions that you are holding

Details of collaborations with another business

If you become a little more famous, personal updates about life milestones or achievements or even life fails

You can even think outside of the box and come up with ideas to do something that could be a reason to send a press release.

How do I send a press release to the media?

If you are the PR or Marketing personell in your company, you should send your press release via the service that your company uses, or you might pass on your press release to a PR company and there are lots of them out there. If you are an entreperneur or an author or a very small company there are two ways that I would recommend to send a press release:

Use a website such as Press Loft, which is currently offering a free 60-day trial. Through their platform you can upload your press release and send it to every media outlet on file with one click. They operate in many countries and for a 60-day free trial it’s worth trying out to see if it works for you.

Google newspapers, magazines or other outlets and send your press release in an email as an attachment to them directly. If you place all of the addresses into the BCC field each one won’t know that you have emailed many at the same time. This method has worked well for me when I have done book signings - I have managed to get the event into at least two local papers each time.

Hosting press releases on your website

Many great companies have a Media page on their website and you should too. On this page you can host your press releases, articles where you have been featured, maybe events that you are hosting or attending in the near future, and, if you have capacity, some images, logos and banners that people such as journalists can download for use in order to promote you and your work (you can create terms as to how those can be used). This is all very useful for anyone who would like to feature you because they can have the assets instantly without having to contact you for them. I personally always host the press release on a page, and then have a Word version available for downloading as well, just to make life easier.

Good luck sending your own press release. Let me know how you got on in the comments below.

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