When used effectively, Instagram can be an invaluable marketing platform, particularly for small businesses that don't have a dedicated marketing team or a significant budget to play with. All you need to get your business up and running on Instagram and start building a loyal fan base is a smartphone with a good quality camera and a little bit of know-how.
You can choose to manage your Instagram business page yourself, have an employee look after it or use a digital marketing agency. In any case, it's important to understand why the platform is so influential and how you can use it to grow your business and reach new customers.
With over 1 billion active monthly users as of 2022, Instagram is on par with Facebook as one of the most effective social media marketing platforms. However, the one thing that sets Instagram apart, aside from being the most visual platform, is that Instagram users are actively interested in connecting with and following brands.
The vast majority of Instagram users follow at least one brand, and over half of those people have purchased a product or service after seeing it on Instagram. Users' willingness to seek out brands that create engaging visual content and the high conversation rate make Instagram a must-have for small businesses looking to grow their brands.
Success on Instagram isn't limited to specific industries either. As long as you're producing engaging content that people want to see, and you know how to optimise your posts to make sure the right people see them, you could be onto a winner.
You can read more about the reasons to use Instagram here.
Before you start investing time into your business's Instagram page, you'll want to research and find if there is a crossover in demographic between your ideal customers and Instagram's userbase. There are a couple of ways to do this:
1. Compare Target Audiences
Different people gravitate toward different social media platforms. Age, income, gender, location, personality types, and personal values influence people's social media preferences, so it's important to pick the platform your target audience frequently uses.
Instagram's largest user age bracket is 25-34 year olds, who, as of 2022, make up 31.5% of the active user base. The millennials are followed closely by 18-24 year olds (30.1% of active users), making nearly two-thirds of Instagram users under 35. The gender slip is almost 50/50, with 49.3% of users identifying as female and 50.7% male.
If your business's target audience overlaps with Instagram's biggest demographics, you're in an excellent position to see success by using the platform for your social media marketing. However, if you have an older customer base (35-44), don't rule out Instagram completely - 16.1% of their users fall into this age bracket, which is still a large audience.
If you're unsure how to use demographics to inform your social media marketing strategy, it may be worth getting advice from a social media agency.
2. Do Some Competitor Research
By taking some time to scope out your competitors on Instagram, you'll be able to find out if the platform works for your industry. For example, suppose you find businesses similar to yours on Instagram and see that they receive engagement. Your target audience is likely to use the platform and look to interact with companies like yours.
If you can't find your competitors on Instagram, or you can find them but see that they're not receiving much engagement, this could be a sign that the platform isn't suitable for your company.
Understanding social media marketing is also knowing when something isn't right for a specific business.
3. Ask Your Customers
One of the quickest ways to figure out if your audience uses Instagram is to ask them. You can send out a survey via your email marketing and ask your existing customer base which social media platforms they prefer.
If Instagram features highly on your customers' list, it will give you the confidence to set up a profile and start posting; even if your competitors aren't utilising the platform – you could be the first!
Once you've decided that Instagram is the right platform for your business, it's time to plan a social media marketing strategy and set some goals of what you want to achieve by investing time into the platform.
If you're just getting started on Instagram, pick one or two realistic and measurable goals and focus on creating content that helps achieve those goals.
Sticking to your selected set themes for your Instagram will help guide your content and keep your posts on brand and working towards your goals. The type of business you're running will most likely influence the theme you decide to adopt.
For example, an SEO Agency offering services that help people improve their business's online visibility in search engines will focus on informative and educational posts. These post types demonstrate that the company is an expert in its field and willing to share knowledge with its audience. They will also include regular posts that show culture-focused or behind the scenes content that showcases day to day life within the business or how the company is involved in the local community. These informal posts help to humanise the business and build trust with followers.
On the flip side, a business offering a physical product would benefit from posting aspirational content showcasing its products in high-quality photographs. They might structure these around giveaway posts, product demos and new product launches.
Once you've set your goals and chosen a theme, you're ready to start posting content to Instagram. There are five different types of Instagram posts to choose from:
1. Standard Instagram Posts - These are typical, evergreen posts that stay on your page unless you manually delete them. They will show up on your follower's feeds.
2. Instagram Stories - Posts that are 15 seconds long and disappear automatically after 24 hours. They are best suited to reactive, informal content.
3. Instagram Reels - Videos up to 60 seconds long, which you can edit within the Instagram app to add music, sound effects, and visual effects, much like TikTok.
4. Instagram Live - Live videos that your followers can interact with in real-time. This type of post will appear in your follower's Stories feed.
5. IGTV - Longer form, pre-recorded videos suited to product demos or short Q&As.
You can use a combination of all or just some of the different types of Instagram posts, whichever works best for your goals, theme and business.
There's more to Instagram than just your posts. Make sure your profile is up to date, in line with your business branding and contains all the relevant information potential customers need to know about your business.
Use the following best practices to set yourself up for success:
So, you've got your profile up to scratch, and you're posting relevant content that aligns with your brand and themes. It's now time to start engaging with your followers, which will help build brand awareness and loyalty.
You can build brand awareness and loyalty by following people, liking their posts and starting conversations by responding to comments on your posts. The more you interact with your audience, the more likely they will engage with your brand and convert into paying customers.
Raise awareness that your business has an Instagram account by adding your Instagram handle to the bottom of your emails and other physical or digital marketing material you use. Getting your existing customers to follow you is the first step to building your audience on Instagram.
No matter how tempting, don't be lured into buying Instagram followers. Business growth on Instagram is best done organically by attracting the right people genuinely interested in your brand; they're more than just numbers that will make your metrics look good.
Hashtags in your post captions are a great way to make sure your posts are getting seen by people interested in what your business has to offer. It's a good idea to brainstorm relevant hashtags as part of your strategy to make sure you're using tags that your target audience is searching for.
Searching for a hashtag on Instagram will show you how many posts have used it and allow you to decide whether it's right for your posts. It's also a bit of a balancing act, as choosing hashtags with millions of posts associated with them means your post is less likely to be seen. You want a healthy middle ground where you're using popular hashtags that aren't too competitive for your industry.
Consistency is the key to gaining traction on Instagram and keeping your posts appearing in people's feeds. Post regularly, and the algorithm will reward you by placing your content at the top of your follower's feeds.
Remember, it's not just about the number of followers you have, but whether they see your posts and engage with your business. A consistent posting schedule will help your audience understand when they can expect new content from you and is more likely to be seen.
Developing an Instagram marketing strategy and posting regularly may seem daunting, especially if you're an SME. Building a following on Instagram takes time, so be patient and keep at it.
If you want to grow your business on Instagram but feel like you lack the time and knowledge to do it justice, SQ Digital can help. We can manage your social media campaign as part of your broader SME marketing strategy.
If you'd like to know more about how we can help, get in touch by filling out our online enquiry form today.
Your company's branding is an opportunity to concisely demonstrate who you are, what you do, and why people should engage with you. It's your identity and usually the first interaction a potential customer will have with your business. Your brand forms the building blocks from which you'll construct your physical and online presence. It'll inform your goals when starting a digital marketing strategy and help guide your business decisions as you grow.
There's a tendency to assume branding only applies to large corporations that can reach worldwide audiences with their marketing strategies. The reality is that business branding is just as important to SMEs, particularly across social media, your website, and any other marketing channels you use to influence how your customer base perceives your company.
Your brand is much more than just your company logo, colour scheme, or visual elements you want people to associate with your business. It's an identity that encompasses your company values, summarises what customers can expect from interacting with you, and helps you stand out in an increasingly competitive digital world.
Successful brand identity will include most of the following elements, no matter how subtle, and they should all work together to define who you are and what you're for.
Your brand positioning determines where you sit in the market compared to your competitors. It's the niche your company occupies and will be used to inform all other branding decisions, and not just the visual ones. Correctly positioning your company will help inform your SEO agency when optimising your website to attract the customers you want.
One of the most important aspects of branding is your logo, a simple, easily identifiable image encapsulating your brand identity.
Colours have meaning and personality. The colour palette you pick for your branding will define your brand in the consumer's eyes, helping them understand whether you're playful or serious, youthful or mature, or even expensive or affordable.
The shapes you use for visual assets across your branding, website and social media further help guide people's perceptions of your business. For example, soft, rounded organic shapes feel friendly and unintimidating, whereas people often perceive angular shapes as powerful and authoritative.
Your tone of voice is your unique personality, a set of guidelines you'll use across all written content to ensure your branding remains consistent and that you're speaking to your customers in a way that agrees with them. It includes everything from sentence and paragraph length to active and passive language and how casual or formal you want your company to sound. Your content marketing agency can help you develop your tone of voice if you don't already have one.
Imagery includes any visuals you use that aren't your logo: photos, website graphics, the pictures in your newsletters, the images used by your PPC management agency for your Google and Bing adverts. Whether you choose stock or custom photos, it all contributes to your overall brand identity.
Your branding forms the basis from which all your marketing efforts will grow. If you work with a digital marketing agency, like SQ Digital, they will use your brand identity to make sure they're targeting the right people for your business with written and visual content that your audience wants to see. But what is the purpose of being so thorough when it comes to branding?
Good branding sticks in people's minds. Great branding sticks in people's minds with the desired impression you want them to have of your company. By staying consistent with your branding across all visible online platforms and in any physical location, people will begin to familiarise themselves with your company.
Customers are far more likely to interact with a company and use their services or buy their products if the company has consistent, professional branding. A well-curated brand shows people you're serious about what you do, even if your brand identity is playful and casual.
It's much easier to convince people to part with their hard-earned money if they perceive your company as legitimate and trustworthy. Branding is the best way to do this – particularly if they've discovered you via social media. There are many benefits to social media for small businesses. It’s a fantastic way to garner attention, generate interest, and create an open dialogue with real potential customers. Still, if your visual and written branding across all your platforms is not aligned, people are less likely to see you as legitimate or experts in your field. Inconsistent branding could be anything from missing logos or cover photos, different colour schemes or even variations in your company name across platforms.
We talked about positioning and finding your company's niche, and your branding is how you'll show that to your customer base. It's all very well you knowing that you're cheaper than your competitors, that your products are more eco-friendly or that you offer something the competition doesn't. But none of that matters if your customers don't know. You can use your branding to convince people to choose you over others quickly and clearly explain what sets you apart.
Brand loyalty is key to customer retention and goes a long way to ensure people pick your product or service over a competitor. You want people to be loyal to your brand and its values, not just your products. The chances are, there's someone else offering similar products or services to yours, so use your branding to start building an emotional attachment between your customers and your company.
So you've decided on your brand identity, now you need to make sure that branding is cohesive across all your online channels. This includes all social media platforms, your website, PPC Google and Bing adverts, newsletters, and any other online space your company is visible.
Once you've decided on all the elements that make up your brand, create a set of brand guidelines that you and your employees can reference whenever they're producing content for the business. Brand Guidelines would usually include a visual style guide to ensure visual elements are consistent, a tone of voice document and information on how you want your target audience to see your company.
If you're going to make sure branding remains consistent and effective across all aspects of your business, you first need to get your team on board. To do so, ensure all internal documents, visuals, messages, and training align with your brand guidelines, so your employees see and hear the same message as your potential customers.
Once everyone in the company is on board with your brand, it's time to roll out the guidelines across your marketing platforms.
Get your web design agency to refresh your existing website, or use the brand's guidelines to build one from scratch if you're just getting started. Your website is your core online presence and the place all your marketing channels are feeding into, so it needs to be a true reflection of your brand. Use your tone of voice to guide any written content on the site and your defined target audience to inform any SEO optimisation.
If you regularly send email marketing campaigns, create templates that align with your brand guidelines to make sure recipients recognise your company when that email lands in their inbox.
Get your in-house or social media agency to optimise all your social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and TikTok. Of course, each platform has its own image dimensions, word count limits and requirements, but keeping branding consistent across all platforms is the best way to build recognition and trust.
Once you've successfully implemented your brand across all your online marketing platforms, the most important thing to do is keep it up and don't drop the ball on your branding. Any blogs, social media posts, newsletters, paid ads, and even customer enquiry responses should align with your brand guidelines. In our article on top marketing tips for SMEs, we talk about why you shouldn't neglect your digital marketing, and your branding is a big part of this.
We understand how daunting branding can be for SMEs. Even if you have the best intentions and a clear vision of your brand identity, you may not have the time or in-house resources to effectively implement all this into your digital marketing. If this sounds familiar, it may be time to enlist some help.
SQ Digital is a digital marketing agency with over 20 years of experience in maintaining brand identity across all platforms as part of a digital marketing strategy. If you'd like to know more about how we can help your SME, don't hesitate to contact us today.
As the digital world evolves, many small businesses find digital marketing intimidating and often don't know where to start. Digital marketing covers various services, including SEO, content marketing, PPC, social media and more - all of which, when used in conjunction, can form a solid digital marketing campaign.
One of the most important aspects of any digital marketing campaign is Search Engine Optimisation (“SEO”). SEO refers to the practice of increasing the visibility of your website or landing pages on search engines (such as Google or Bing) and driving organic traffic to your site through a variety of methods.
As an expert SEO agency, we understand the importance of SEO for small businesses and how it can transform a digital marketing strategy, bringing in new, relevant customers and enhancing overall brand awareness. This article discusses the top reasons why SEO is essential for small businesses and why your business should implement SEO into a digital marketing strategy.
There’s possibly nothing more important for a website than user experience. Having a poorly structured website is similar to a messy high street shop where it is hard to see where to go and find what you are looking for. With a well thought out website layout and structure and a good page experience, you can expect your online customers to hang around and browse your website.
As a technical SEO agency, we are constantly improving the technical aspects of small business websites. Staying on top of technical SEO is vital for a small business as a good page experience can bring customers back to a site and increase brand loyalty.
Fixing technical SEO issues such as 404 error pages and broken internal links and images is essential in enhancing the user experience. It can be very frustrating for users if they come across these and will most likely leave the site prematurely.
Technical SEO also focuses on issues such as page loading speed and optimising this to reduce user frustration. Page loading speed is a significant contributor to conversion rates. If a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, 40% of users will abandon the site. Also, 52% of online shoppers have stated that a quick page loading is essential to their site loyalty, making them more likely to buy.
SEO can boost conversion rates by driving targeted traffic to the site. We use SEO to target potential customers at each sale/enquiry funnel stage. By regularly publishing SEO optimised blog content, we can help small businesses attract new customers who are still researching products, services and suppliers. You should produce content that provides relevant information to the reader and potential customers.
You can also optimise product content to target potential customers who know what they want. The content can attract users to your specific service or product. It also means that you are more likely to receive conversions in the form of enquiries or purchases as the initial user intent is to use what you have to offer.
SEO focuses on improving search engine ranking positions using keywords and optimisation. Search engine rankings can vastly improve with a successful SEO campaign, with keywords ranking on the first page of search engine results.
If your site ranks on the first page of results, it increases the amount of trust that potential customers have in your brand. High rankings from reputable search engines such as Google show that they have confidence in your brand, which increases user trust as the search engines have a lot of influence on customers.
Also, if your search engine rankings are higher, it helps increase brand awareness as a more significant number of people will see your brand name when searching. Higher rankings also mean that your brand is easier to find when searching for the key terms, which ultimately means that your site is visible to more customers, hence increasing traffic.
Using SEO techniques can also boost the physical visibility of small businesses with a brick-and-mortar store. When typing a query into a search engine, the searcher's location is also considered.
Search results can vary when searching from different places. When you search locally, maps and addresses of local businesses are typically displayed on the right-hand side of the page. This is one of the first features that users see when searching. A Google My Business account can be created for small businesses and optimised to appear in local results and maps. As an address is listed, it can also drive people into the physical store rather than just increasing online traffic.
Search engine optimisation can be a very powerful tool, and with the right optimisations, your website can start to rise in rankings and surpass competitors that do not utilise SEO. As a small business, it can feel overwhelming when up against larger competitors in the same industry. However, many more prominent companies online are still not using SEO services, which can put your smaller business at an advantage.
Using SEO competitor research, we can identify gaps between small businesses and competitors, whether that be through keywords or content. We can then develop a plan to level the playing field and ensure that smaller firms have the same advantages as larger competitors.
One of the primary practices in SEO is to carry out keyword research, which forms the basis for any optimisation campaigns. We use keyword research to highlight the specific terms that users search for to find relevant products and services. We also consider the search volume of keywords to ensure we optimise sites for frequently searched terms, thus increasing the chance of being seen.
As sites are optimised for key terms, it ensures that only potential customers who are actively looking for a product or service relating to the business are being directed to the site. This eliminates traffic from those looking for unrelated services or products and ensures that the traffic to the site is relevant and can lead to conversions.
With online advertising, the results can often only last as long as the investment. However, with SEO, the results are long-lasting, as long as you continue to use On-site SEO techniques to build up a solid optimisation of your site.
Once higher ranking positions have been achieved, you can use SEO to maintain these positions. Over time, with increased brand awareness, customers will become familiar with your brand and re-use services if satisfied.
Although results can be long-lasting, it’s essential to stay on top of SEO as your competitors will not stand still and will constantly update their site. Furthermore, the search landscape is constantly changing and should be considered in optimisations.
As an award-winning digital marketing agency, we have over 20 years of experience providing SEO services for small businesses. With a successful SEO campaign, a small business can expect an increase in targeted traffic and conversions, along with further digital and physical visibility.
To find out more information on how SQ Digital can help your small business grow with SEO or other digital marketing services, get in touch with us today.
There's been a significant shift in how small businesses use marketing, and traditional marketing efforts, such as print and billboards, are taking a step back. More and more businesses are realising the benefits of digital marketing and are investing more resources in digital marketing services, such as SEO, PPC, Content Marketing and Social Media. Business owners now have a wide range of digital marketing methods at their fingertips that can be adapted to suit their objectives, budget or industry.
It’s fair to say that digital marketing has entirely transformed how businesses connect and engage with their customers. With more consumers searching and buying online than ever before, digital marketing has become crucial. In essence, it allows businesses to effectively put their brand in front of their target audience at the right time and in the right place cost-effectively and measurably.
So, what does digital marketing have to offer you as a small or medium-sized business owner?
Investing in digital marketing services is crucial for your business; if existing or potential customers can’t find you easily online, they will likely go with another business. This is the nature of business today. If someone wants to learn more about your brand, they will probably research you online; perhaps they’re looking for reviews to see whether or not your company is a good fit for them.
As of last year, around 36% of small businesses were operating without a website. Without an online presence, potential customers may assume that you’re not legitimate or may not take you seriously. The result is that they will choose a competitor instead.
Consumer expectations have changed in today's digital world; the average customer tends to search for a product or service online, likely starting with Google. If you don’t have a website or social media presence, it will be next to impossible to compete.
Digital marketing helps to promote smaller businesses in a way that allows them to compete with well-established brands.
Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing gives you the ability to monitor the performance of your campaigns in real-time. You don’t have to wait until your campaign ends to gather the data and analyse the results. By accessing timely data through tools like Google Analytics, you can review the effectiveness of your strategy and make changes accordingly.
Being able to gain these invaluable insights into your digital campaign allows you to respond quickly. You can adapt and refine your digital marketing strategy in line with your customers’ requirements.
It’s also much easier to measure the success of a digital marketing campaign. You can easily track metrics such as engagement and conversions, which is much harder to pinpoint for traditional marketing, such as print ads. With digital marketing, you can see results within a matter of hours, whether it be the number of visitors to your website, the number of people clicking on your ads or the level of engagement you’ve had on your social media posts.
Gaining additional customers is essential for growing your business in terms of revenue and profitability. There are several ways of reaching customers through digital marketing, from websites to video marketing and social media.
It also helps you to attract mobile customers, which is a huge and rapidly growing market. At the end of last year, in 2020, mobile devices (apart from tablets) generated 52.6% of global website traffic; in 2009, this value was 0.7%. Digital marketing helps you to capitalise on this traffic to ensure you’re not missing out.
Digital marketing offers a platform to explain why your customers should choose your business and why your products and services help them.
Rebranding a small business that you’ve been growing can be a daunting decision and task. You may hesitate at the idea; however, even though rebranding can be overwhelming, it can also offer many benefits, from breathing new life into your business to changing the way your target audience perceives you.
There are several reasons why a company might consider rebranding, such as transforming a brand that may have become outdated, further distinguishing a brand from its competitors’ or reflecting a change in your product line.
Such was the case with ROCCIA, the largest independent retailer of tiles in the North of England. The Company wanted to transition from Tile Mart into Roccia to reflect the high-end services and products. The challenge, however, was to ensure they didn’t lose the reputation they’d built over 20 years. To accomplish this, we created a content marketing strategy aimed at the new audience ROCCIA wanted to target, and a Digital PR campaign picked up by many publications.
After a 100% retention of authority and rankings and a 254% increase of traffic to blog posts, it’s fair to say that a well-thought-out digital campaign can help a business to follow a new vision by transforming its brand.
For a small or medium enterprise, keeping within budget is essential. Investing in staff to promote your services and products can be costlier in the long run; while you may have to spend some money on sales efforts to grow your business, having a strong online presence can help you boost sales and reach your audience more efficiently.
A well-designed website will ‘work’ for you every hour of the day, every day of the year, allowing potential customers on the other side of the world to easily browse your services and products outside of office hours. This means that, while your sales team is off the clock, your website is still hard at work and helping to bring in more business.
Many small businesses don’t have the budget available to utilise costly traditional marketing services such as TV and billboard adverts, putting them at a distinct disadvantage to competitors with larger marketing budgets. Only well-known brands can adopt this approach regularly, which meant that they could dominate the market with ease.
Luckily, digital marketing is an affordable and cost-effective option for all businesses. A well-executed and effectively targeted digital marketing strategy can reach potential customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing. By only targeting users actively looking for your services or products, you save money and time.
This puts smaller businesses back in the game. By giving them resources that were previously only accessible to larger corporations, these businesses now have the ability to compete for the same traffic as those with much bigger marketing budgets.
For an example of this, you can read about the work we do for Electronic World. The trick is to be ‘strategic’ about your marketing campaigns; by clearly understanding the results of your data, you can increase your revenue without spending a lot of money.
We created a valuable asset for our customer Morecambe Metals; in this case, a well-researched infographic supported with creative content based on the popular TV show Game of Thrones. We succeeded in getting this featured by The Express newspaper, securing a link from a high-authority website and generating brand exposure nationally.
This only serves to prove that you don’t have to spend big money to get big results.
The reason why companies invest in marketing is simple: they want to maximise profit. Return on investment is the ultimate goal, whether it be through traditional or digital strategies.
We’ve already mentioned that digital marketing is cost-effective. Still, for business owners who want to achieve a high ROI, digital marketing has also proven to be successful without a shadow of a doubt.
We can track almost every aspect of our customer’s campaigns, rankings, conversions, leads, or traffic with our digital marketing services. Analytic tools allow us to focus on what is and isn’t working, enabling us to utilise the available marketing budget effectively. Simply put, we can stop spending money in areas that aren’t working and focus on what is most likely to drive enhanced ROI.
When it comes to paid advertising, ROI – or, more commonly, ROAS – is often the main KPI, especially for e-commerce businesses. ROAS (return-on-ad spend) is found by dividing ad spend by the revenue generated by ads.
Not only does this assist in identifying areas for optimisation, but it also allows decisions to be made using the data provided, such as how much money needs to be assigned where. ROAS essentially measures how much of your advertising spend you get back in revenue.
Digital marketing has completely revitalised the way businesses engage with both current and potential customers. It has made them at once accessible to new customers and familiar and recognisable to existing customers. So How Does Being Accessible Help with Brand Awareness?
Firstly, digital marketing has become an incredibly effective tool for building trust and fostering long-term relationships. It’s important to take advantage of social media platforms when it comes to connecting with your audience. By posting regularly, answering questions and queries quickly, and responding to reviews and comments – positive and negative – you are fundamentally improving brand loyalty and therefore increasing brand awareness. You are showing customers that you care about what they say and think.
Alongside this, you can also improve brand awareness through strategically planned content marketing that reflects your brand’s personality and motivations.
Content created with your target audience in mind can ensure that your brand is reliable and approachable. Writing articles and blog posts that reflect and address their interests and pain points will encourage more engagement and highlight you as an expert within your industry.
This is an approach that we have taken with our customer, The Aesthetic Skin Clinic. We have carefully developed a content strategy that has established them as an authoritative voice within the cosmetic sector, achieved through well-researched and well-written blogs, which have helped build trust among potential patients by educating them on their own health.
Traditional forms of marketing once meant sponsoring an ad during the break of a prime-time TV show and hoping that it reached the right audience. Fortunately, digital marketing allows for much more specific audience targeting. It’s no longer “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to marketing campaigns; it is now possible to become a lot more personalised. You can tailor campaigns to specific demographics, such as age, location, interests and gender, making them more effective.
With our client Axess2, a company that specialises in lifts, we targeted homeowners, architects and interior designers to establish Axess2 as a reliable expert in their industry. To amplify the reach of our content, we also created a targeted Digital PR campaign. This led to publications in important industry magazines, such as the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, and on websites such as the Durham Cathedral (after installing a lift in this UNESCO World Heritage Site building).
Specific audience targeting doesn’t restrict you to local campaigns either. In fact, you can realistically target people worldwide with just one marketing campaign. You can access a global audience through effective but specifically targeted strategies.
Social media platforms, in particular, have the ability to target ads to almost anyone; by using information collected from their users, they can target people according to their behaviours, lifestyles, interests and connections.
By using this insight into your customers’ interests and preferences, you can easily tailor and personalise the marketing messages they receive. This is often considered digital marketing’s biggest advantage over traditional marketing, as personalised messages make customers feel much more valued.
One of the best things about implementing digital marketing is that people no longer need to come to your physical store for you to make a sale. It now takes a matter of clicks to convert customers online. Your website is your store; it should offer potential customers everything they need to know about your product and services so that they can make informed decisions on whether to purchase and enquire.
Whether you’re spending money on sponsored Facebook ads or Google Ads, you can embed unique codes that allow you to track who, when and how people saw your ad, as well as what they did after this. Did they visit your website? And if so, which page did they view? Did they download content? Place an order? With digital marketing, you can monitor your conversion rate to see which leads turned into revenue.
With our customer Banks Lyon, we have executed a paid media strategy that utilises Google Ads and Google Display Network, creating a seamless user journey, from remarketing at the initial customer touchpoint through to enquiry and purchase. This has allowed us to track them every step of the way.
To make digital marketing really work for your business, you need a strategy that uses the resources available to you. Many businesses experiment with digital marketing services, e.g. using social media and posting a few Facebook posts here and there or spending a bit of money on SEO. To really benefit from the power of digital marketing, you need to adopt a more holistic approach. An efficient digital marketing strategy means tying in all digital channels and creating a collective and collaborative campaign. Integrating all the platforms available will go a long way to achieving your set objectives.
Without an online presence, it’s now impossible to compete and grow your business. We work with our clients to develop digital strategies that are an innovative blend of analytics and creativity. We work together to seamlessly create and implement innovative and robust digital marketing strategies that help grow their business.
You can view more of the fantastic work we’ve carried out for our customers on our case studies page.
You can also get in touch with us if you want to learn more about how we can help your business reach its potential online.
With so many businesses now online, a digital marketing strategy is more important than ever. From writing blog posts and sending out newsletters to creating Facebook ads and social media posts, you can tackle digital marketing in a thousand different ways. This is why you should first implement a digital marketing strategy. It helps you see what works for your business and help you stay focused on your goals – making them easier to accomplish.
As an experienced digital marketing agency, we know all there is to know about creating the right marketing strategy for your business. This guide will help kickstart your digital marketing the right way.
One of the first things you should do when creating a digital marketing strategy is to set achievable goals. It's essential you know what you want to accomplish from the start, be it conversions, brand awareness, social media followers, likes on social media, or newsletter opens.
Getting people to buy your products and services online isn't as easy as it sounds because there's a lot of competition. Most UK businesses now have an online presence (83.4% in 2019), so it's more important than ever that you understand how to use digital marketing to your advantage.
If, for example, your goal is to be found more easily on Google, then ensuring your content is optimised with the latest SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) practices can help you achieve this. You will need to make sure you're using the right keywords, have unique and informative content, taken title tags and metadata into account, applying Schema to website pages and that your website loads quickly.
All this can help you rank higher in search engines, which helps your digital marketing strategy by implementing a solid SEO campaign. SQ Digital has been offering digital marketing services for over two decades, so we understand what it takes to set a business up for long-term success.
Think about your goals and how you can get there, whether you want to generate more leads, have more people interacting with your brand on social media or sell more products.
The revenue of online retail sales in the UK has been rising consistently in the past few years, as Statista shows – in 2012, the value of online sales was £33.24 billion and, in 2020, this figure was £99.31 billion. It wasn't all because of the pandemic, though; in 2019, online retail sales were already high, with revenue of £76.04 billion.
As of May 2021, online sales represented 27.3% of all retail sales in the UK. So, if you haven't already, be sure to capitalise on this trend.
Shopping habits are changing, and businesses, including SMEs, can take advantage of this. One way is to start using paid search more aggressively. You can find out where your target market spends most of their time online and figure out if they're searching for products on Google or browsing social media platforms.
You'll need to dig through your site's analytics to get this information. Once you have some data on this, you can focus your attention on a Pay Per Click (PPC), Google Shopping or paid social ads approach, depending on where your target audience is.
Consider where to place your advertising budget when choosing products to promote on your website. If you have any products or services with high demand, make sure to advertise them more aggressively.
Figuring all this out can take some time, including making sure mention your research is done well. If you don't put enough time into your research, you risk putting money behind digital marketing campaigns that don't work.
As an SME owner, you're already busy running your business, so you may want to consider using a digital marketing agency to take care of your paid search campaigns.
Capitalising on products that are in demand is an excellent way to build a successful digital marketing campaign. If you're experiencing a spike in sales or have some products that sell more than others, it may be time to focus on advertising them online.
Adverts allow you to bypass lengthy SEO campaigns to organically rank for keywords. Instead, you can build a robust Google Ads campaign or use social media advertising to maximise your exposure to your target audience. When done well, SEO campaigns offer excellent long term results, but if you're looking for quick wins, paid ads are a great option.
If you find that a product or service has soared in popularity and is flying off the shelves, make sure to stock up and market it extensively. Add a prominent banner of the product on your website, advertise it across all channels and create informative content to drive users towards a conversion.
Planning for the future is important too, so consider potential popular products and services. If you have items that sell well in winter, prepare for when the hot weather comes to an end since you might see a spike in business. Stay ahead of the competition, especially if you have a fully optimised website and a ready-to-go advertising campaign to match.
Strategy is crucial for a successful digital marketing campaign, as it gives you focus and allows you to understand better what will work for your business and what won't. Being consistent in this strategy is equally important – not only can this help you to see results more quickly, but it also shows your audience what to expect from you.
A consistent digital marketing strategy also means using marketing techniques, such as posting daily on social media and regularly publishing blogs.
For help or advice on how to best prepare your business for the next steps, our team is more than happy to assist you. Feel free to contact us to learn more about the digital marketing services we offer and our approach. Or get a free SEO audit to see how your website is performing.
Whether you’re a start-up or have already established your brand online, continuing to develop your content marketing should be at the forefront of your business.
Content marketing is all about communication. It’s about engaging, listening and building a relationship with your customers.
We’ve put together a simple guide to content marketing and developing your brand online.
In today’s digital society, we spend an average of 6 hours and 42 minutes per day online. This increased time browsing the web is an open opportunity to communicate and engage with your customers. It’s important to represent your brand online with rich content and strong marketing copy, no matter your marketing budget.
The best content for a smaller marketing budget would be well optimised on-site content, blogs, tutorial videos, collaborations with other companies and a strong social media presence.
Whether you’re sending a personalised email or posting a ‘how to’ video on Instagram, you can grow your business by speaking directly with your customers and listening to what they have to say.
Marketing copy is generally written with a specific goal in mind, often to compel the reader to do something. It could be to sign up for your newsletter, become a follower of your social media accounts, or make a purchase – we call these ‘conversions’.
There are lots of different ways to create compelling marketing copy, depending on your goal. A digital marketing agency can help you generate more valuable conversions using expertly written marketing copy.
A great place to start is by making sure your on-site content speaks to your target audience. On-site content generally refers to everything you write on your website. This includes help guides, FAQs or web page copy.
Good on-site content should speak your audience’s language. If you're unsure where to start, read our article 5 ways to strike the perfect tone in your content.
There are many benefits of writing blogs; they’re a great way to showcase your expertise and help build relationships with your customers. But writing an effective blog is about more than just sharing your thoughts or business updates with your audience.
Applying a robust SEO strategy to your blog content can attract more visitors to your website, which ultimately means more customers. A well-optimised blog will appear in search engine results when people search for the terms (or keywords) your blog addresses. Your blog will attract visitors who are more likely to be interested in your products or services.
Blog writing is a key part of any content strategy, so if you’re not already doing it, you probably should be.
As well as speaking your audience’s language, the content on your website also needs to speak Google’s language – this is where SEO comes in. SEO (search engine optimisation) will enhance a good content strategy. It ensures that the right people can find all the great content you’re creating.
By including keywords, meta-data, images, links and alt-tags in your blogs and articles, you can start to increase your website ranking on search engines like Google. Posting relevant, well-optimised content regularly is the key.
You can read more about how to optimise your content in our 10 SEO quick wins article.
Posting content about your business online helps you build a clear brand identity and share your company ethos with your followers. If you only have a limited marketing budget, it’s still a good idea to build a portfolio of blogs or videos and use your social media channels effectively to share your content.
By creating this online identity, your customers have a chance to get to know you better and communicate with your business. By being clear, visual and unique, you can set your brand apart from others. Applying a well-thought-out content strategy will establish a brand reputation, tone of voice and return business potential.
While it can take some time to see an impact from your content marketing efforts, PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, as well as paid social campaigns, can deliver more immediate results.
PPC advertising puts your business in front of people who may already be interested in your products or services. In return, you pay a small fee whenever your PPC advert is clicked. The goal is for the revenue generated from the increased visits to your website to be higher than the cost of the clicks. So, there is a risk to running a PPC campaign, and it needs to be right for your business. Why not check out the pros and cons of running PPC campaigns?
On the other hand, a paid social media campaign can give you more options for targeting your audiences, like age demographics, location, and specific interests. This means you can be much more specific about who sees your ads, ensuring you get the best return on your investment.
If you’re interested in finding out more about developing your brand online from a content marketing agency, please get in touch. We could talk all day about the benefits of content marketing!
Over 3.8 billion people worldwide use social media – a figure expected to rise to 4.41 billion in 2025. With numbers like these, it’s clear that social media is a powerful tool for businesses, and one you shouldn’t dismiss, no matter whether you’re a B2B or B2C.
As a digital marketing agency, we help our clients take full advantage of social media opportunities.
Our Paid Social Media expert, Michelle Charnley, is a whiz at creating targeted and highly effective campaigns across several social platforms. She believes that,
“social media has a huge impact when it comes to promoting a business. It creates a positive link with customers and allows smaller businesses to compete with larger companies. It also ensures a unified brand message.”
From a boost in website traffic to higher customer engagement levels and the potential for lead generation, social media channels like Facebook and Instagram are great for promoting your brand, products, and services. These platforms can help SMEs stay competitive, allowing you to connect with potential customers and keep an eye on what other businesses are doing.
LinkedIn is a professional platform that allows you to showcase your expertise, promote your brand and business, interact and engage with your peers, and so much more. Offering professional tips and quick guides on LinkedIn is a great way to attract more traffic to your website, as shown below.
So, don't miss out on reaching your customers through social platforms where they’re already interacting with brands.
It's natural to feel overwhelmed at first, but if you’re looking to set up your online presence, we can help you figure out where to start your social journey.
The first thing you should do is set goals. What are you hoping to accomplish by signing up to a social platform or by talking to your audience? Do you want to sell more products or increase your brand awareness? Your goals will be the driving force behind your social media presence, so be specific.
Also, you should learn as much as you can about your target audience. This research will help you to figure out where your customers are and the types of content they consume. Find out what your audience cares about to better connect with them.
Choosing the right platforms is essential. If your audience hangs out on Facebook, this channel should be your priority; with 2.7 billion monthly active users by October 2020, this platform can be a safe bet for many small business owners.
If you make and share videos, a YouTube presence is a must and, if your content is highly visual, Instagram could be for you. Focus only on the platforms your audience uses so that you can increase your chances of success and not spread yourself too thin. Check out our article “Should Age Demographics Impact Your Social Media Choice?” for more information on which platform is best suited for your business and where to find your audience.
Once you’ve made a decision, think about the content you’ll be sharing. Quality is key here, not quantity.
As you start developing your social media presence, you’ll come across two types of social media content; organic and paid.
Organic Social Media refers to free content like photos, videos and stories you can post and share on your social platforms. These posts will reach existing customers and can be seen by a fraction of your followers and their followers (organic reach) and people following the hashtags you chose.
With organic social media, you:
All this is useful, no matter where your customers are on the buyers’ journey. As an example, we shared an article on Facebook by simply posting about it on our timeline:
In 2018, a Global Web Index study found that 54% of social browsers use social media to research a brand’s products, which further highlights that organic posts are a valid and crucial part of social media. When putting together your social strategy, consider organic content and how people will engage with it.
If you pay to have your content on a platform, you’re using paid social. This term refers to ads and sponsored posts with a reach bigger than your immediate followers; this allows you to connect with people who wouldn't discover your brand otherwise. You can choose a particular demographic to target and set a goal for the post, be it sales conversions or traffic to your website.
There are many reasons why you should choose paid social. For example, Facebook’s algorithm prefers posts from non-business accounts, which means small business owners may want to create Facebook ads to compete on the platform, like the example below from one of our clients.
The ad helps Video 2 DVD Transfers to showcase a discount, raise awareness to their brand and direct people to the website – because it’s a sponsored ad, it means it reaches more people.
In short, paid social media can:
Both organic and paid social should be used in tandem for the best results, as they work well together to promote your small business. Check out some of our tips to help you get started on social media:
Not every promotional post has to be paid. Hashtags – and even likes, retweets and follows – can be powerful for your marketing, and campaigns that use them can be a great way to bring awareness to a product or your brand.
You can see an example of how we helped Compare Cover do this with the hashtag #NationalWalkingMonth. This campaign was even shortlisted for two awards; Northern Marketing Awards for Best Professional & Financial Services Campaign, and UK Search Awards for Best Use of Social Media in a Search Campaign).
In essence, we launched a social media competition that targeted a specific demographic and which was supported by our content and design teams.
We created a Facebook and Twitter competition that encouraged people to like Compare Cover’s Facebook post or retweet and follow @comparecover, with a chance to win a prize. The result included an increase in the number of potential customers engaging with the client’s social media channels, a boost in followers, and an increase of 291.5% increase in website sessions.
On Facebook, you can pick your best-performing posts (an indicator that people are interested in your content) and pay to have it displayed to more people. You don’t even have to create an ad, as this is a low effort to see quick results.
For Simply Baby Lancaster, we boosted an existing post to help it get more reach – this means increasing its chances of people reacting, sharing and commenting on it. Boosting a post also helps people who don’t follow you, but who may be interested in your services and page, to find you.
Never publish a post without an image, a video or any other type of media. Think about it; when was the last time your attention was drawn to a post that was only text?
To get your audience’s attention, you need to make your posts attractive, and this means adding visual content, as the carousel below, from The Bath House, shows. It allows us to display our client’s products in a visually interesting way that immediately draws the eye.
Carousels are great for showing off multiple images and links in one ad and highlighting specific features in each card. It also creates a story that people can engage with by swiping to read more.
If you’re paying to run an ad, make sure it’s a good one. For that, you’ll want to optimise it as much as possible and test it with A/B testing, which allows you to run different versions of the same ad to test your CTA (call to action), the layout of the ad, the audience you chose to target, the type of ad you went with, the copy you wrote on it, and more.
For instance, with Smart Storage, we created different versions of the same ad to see which one performed the best. We changed the images and the CTA, and Facebook divides the budget equally between the posts. This approach allowed us to measure the performance of each strategy.
Ads are effective when they’re aimed at the right demographics and have the right message on them. You can choose an audience based on age, education, location, hobbies and interests, job title, and more, which means your ads will appeal to the people they’re targeting.
Targeting a specific audience will make them more likely to engage with your post, click on your links, and buy your products and services. Take a look at Facebook’s example of audience targeting:
Gathering data about your posts is important because it helps you understand what’s performing well and what isn’t – and where you should invest your time, money and effort. Facebook Pixel is a good example of this since it provides information on your audience and whenever someone takes action, such as purchasing a product.
As a business owner, you’re always looking to improve your brand’s visibility and get your business on people’s radar. Social media is a fantastic way to do this, as it helps you engage with people, attract new customers, grow your client base, promote products and services and establish your business voice.
Social media can also help you see a boost in website traffic and sales leads. With more than 3.6 billion social media users worldwide, you don’t want to miss out on the potential of this enormous market.
If you need help getting to grips with social media or you simply don’t have the time to manage it effectively for your business, we can help. As a full-service digital marketing agency, we’ll handle everything for you while you focus on growing your business.
As experts with 20 years of digital marketing experience, we can help small business owners promote their business online, so make an enquiry today.
Here are our top marketing tips for SMEs, from focusing on online products to getting the most out of social media.
As the world continues to move online, it's more important than ever for SME's to have a strong digital presence. It can be overwhelming, but we want to reassure you that you can take steps to ensure your SME can thrive in a digital world.
Over the last 20 years, we've helped SME's from around the globe achieve their digital marketing goals. As more and more businesses opt for an online rather than a physical presence, we believe that now is the right time to share tips to help small and medium-sized businesses.
More consumers than ever are making the transition to online shopping, and the trend doesn't look like it's going to slow down. We predict that many people will continue to opt for online purchases over in-store, regardless of the high street's future.
Your online presence, whether it's your website or social media, is your digital storefront. It's far more convenient and quicker for the customer to visit your website than a physical location. Depending on the products or services your business deals with, you'll want to focus your efforts on ensuring your online mediums are working as hard for your business as they can.
If you're running online adverts using Google AdWords, now could be the time to ensure your SEO campaign targets the relevant keywords. Take the time to re-evaluate your budget and redistribute funds amongst services that will generate revenue.
If you're not already offering services online or selling products via an e-commerce website, now is the time to look at how you can adapt your business to a digital world.
This tip goes hand in hand with the previous one, as you'll need to promote your online products and services with a credible digital marketing strategy.
Maintaining an online presence and online marketing are some of the most valuable tools that SME's have at their disposal. Therefore, businesses mustn't neglect or significantly reduce the budget for their digital marketing strategy.
Maintaining a strong presence in search engines is essential, so keeping your main keywords on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) should be a priority. Furthermore, in response to the growing demand for online products and services, you should do your utmost to maintain your organic search presence using effective search engine optimisation (SEO) services.
Continue to optimise the content on your web pages and actively work to create fresh and relevant content to attract potential customers to your website. These activities will serve you well in the long run. If you rely on an agency, they should focus on this for you.
It's no secret how difficult it is to recover search engine page rankings once they've dropped, and cutting back on your digital marketing activities could leave your business in a significantly worse position. If lost, it could take several months to recover your keyword positions, so it's essential to keep on top of your digital marketing strategy.
As a content marketing agency, we know how important it is to maintain your content marketing campaigns and social media presence. Simply sharing regular updates from your company can go a long way to maintaining customer trust. Communication is essential for your business, so be sure to stick with writing articles and social media posts to keep your customers engaged with your brand.
Regardless of whether you carry out your online marketing activities, or use a digital marketing agency, remember that your digital marketing strategy is an integral part of your business.
Social media is an essential tool for small businesses, mainly because it allows you to instantly connect and share with your audience. In addition, with more people opting to work from home, the size of the audience you can reach is much larger than it was just a few years ago.
It's worth spending time devising a robust social media strategy that considers relevant issues facing your customers. Identify your customers' needs and use social media to reach out to them, explaining how you can be of service. It's a great, proactive way to engage with your customers.
Social media is also an effective way to communicate clear and concise updates regarding changes to business activities. For example, something may happen that disrupts your normal business operations; you may have to reduce your opening hours or halt services temporarily due to unforeseen circumstances. Social media allows you to communicate these messages to your customers instantly. It also provides you with multiple platforms where you can engage and build trust with your customers. This will help ensure that they keep coming back, even after a disruption to your regular services.
While it can be easy to focus all of your attention on being reactive and responding to things that are happening right now, you should ensure you have a long-term digital marketing plan in place for the future.
When it comes to putting a long-term marketing plan together, we recommend that you take the time to consider everything we've talked about here. Then, do your research and make evidence-based decisions. Remember:
If you find it challenging to adapt or maintain your business's marketing strategy, we're here to help. Our team of expert digital marketers understands the industry inside out. We'll do our utmost to give you the very best advice to ensure your business can thrive online.
Please feel free to get in touch with our team if you would like any advice on the digital marketing services we offer or how to market your company effectively.
Whether you're a small, medium or large business owner wanting to grow your online presence, putting a well thought out digital marketing strategy in place is essential.
The digital landscape is always evolving – for example, the introduction of 5G, the rise in the number of social media platforms, and the constant Google algorithm changes. It can be challenging to keep up with everything, especially when you’re busy running a business.
As a digital marketing agency, SQ Digital can help you create and refine a digital marketing strategy that works for your business and which can adapt to an ever-changing landscape.
Look at it like a master plan or points of action that you can take to achieve your marketing goals.
A digital marketing strategy uses online tools, channels and digital marketing services - like social media, PPC, content marketing and SEO - to guide you through the process of growing your online presence; all these tools work together to help you reach your goals.
No two digital marketing strategies are the same, as they will depend on your business and what you want to achieve. So, it’s essential to create and implement a strategy tailored to your business and your specific goals, be they short-term or long-term.
Producing a bespoke digital marketing strategy for your business will enable you to:
A good strategy allows your business to reach out to consumers, convert them, and build relationships with them. A strategic approach to your digital marketing improves how you implement tasks because it lets you review your actions and make adjustments as needed, meaning your digital marketing can evolve with the digital landscape.
If you’re a Business Owner or a Marketing Manager looking to develop a strategy, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind.
Some of the key steps involved in creating a bespoke digital marketing strategy include:
One of the first things you can do is develop your buyer personas, which will help you identify who you’re targeting. After all, to have a successful strategy, you must know who’s looking for your products and services. Once you find out who your ideal customer is, including their age, gender, location and motivations, you can use that information to create a strategy and decide how to reach your customers.
You must set goals, as you can't create a strategy without knowing what you want to achieve. Make these goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely). This will help you figure out the digital tools you’ll need and establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which you’ll use to measure your strategy’s success.
Look at everything from a holistic point of view. What digital assets do you have, how is your business getting exposure, and how are your channels working together?
Typically, you can split your channels or assets into owned media, earned media and paid media, so this can be a good way to audit what you currently have in place.
Owned media refers to things like your website, your social media accounts and your blog. Earned media is how people are finding you (through guest posts you’ve written, PR work you’ve done, etc.), and paid media refers to Google Ads and paid social ads, as well as any other channel that requires you to spend money to advertise the brand.
Learning more about your competitors can help you identify whether you’re falling short in your marketing campaigns or if you need to improve the business’ website or your social media presence to gain a competitive edge, for example.
To achieve your goals, you must manage the resources you have. For example, you’ll need to decide where to spend your time and money. If you’ve determined that you get the most leads from your paid ads, you may want to focus on this specific channel.
One vital thing is to stay flexible. A good strategy doesn’t need to be overhauled, but it will likely need to be tweaked and improved as things change; your goals may change, industry trends can shift, search engines can alter the way they display links, and so on.
By collecting valuable information about your business, we’ll develop an approach that allows you to take full advantage of your digital marketing. Because we understand just how crucial costs are for SMEs, we can deliver successful campaigns tailored to your budget and business goals.
Simple but efficient, principles guide our approach:
We believe it’s crucial to know your business inside out, which is why we take our time to learn everything about it at the start. Our Discovery phase is all about knowing you and identifying your goals, allowing us to make recommendations that will help your marketing and save you time and money.
Our Retainer phase is where we implement your marketing campaigns, which have been designed with your goals in mind. This way, we can create a long-term partnership with you that will help your business succeed.
As a business, regardless of whether you're a small, medium or large business, you need to implement a solid digital marketing strategy to guide your marketing efforts. Your strategy lays the groundwork for implementing efficient, optimised campaigns, and can help reveal new growth opportunities, resulting in the best ROI – something especially crucial for SMEs.
There are several ways to create a digital marketing strategy, but it’s essential that you first learn about your target audience and set the goals you want to achieve.
When implementing your digital marketing strategy, SQ Digital uses several channels, such as content marketing, SEO, paid search and social media. We have 20 years of digital marketing experience and a wealth of knowledge at your disposal, so don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.
We’ll be happy to speak to you about how we work and what we can offer your business.
