Archive: 9th February 2021

Calls To Action Explained
Small Business Marketing

Calls To Action Explained

Feb 9, 2021 by admin 0 Comments #Call To Action, #Marketing Strategy

What is a Call To Action?

You may have heard the term Call To Action (CTA), even if you haven’t you will have seen them in their millions. So in this blog we are clearing the fog with Calls to Action explained. So, what is a call to action? Exactly what it says on the tin – you are asking your prospects (the call) to take action (verb). It is the phrase that will appear at the end of every communication you have with your audience. The role of the CTA is to drive your potential clients closer to purchase whilst building trust.

Calls to Action are an essential part of your marketing and advertising, they help generate leads and take customers from passive interest to getting your attention through showing interest in your products or services.

B2C (Business to consumer) businesses are more adept at incorporating these into their adverts but two thirds of B2B (Business to Business) businesses aren’t using them at all.

 

Why use Calls To Action in a Blog

Writing interesting articles that educate and inspire your audience are what blogs are used for. Putting the meat on the bones of your proposition. Websites need to be clear, easy to navigate and succinct. This means getting to the core message of what it is your selling and the benefits of your product or service. This leaves little room for narrative. Blogs allow your personality, authoritativeness, passion and expertise to shine through. It builds trust, it smashes myths and misconceptions that may surround your industry.

All the hard work that goes into creating a blog, getting people to find and read it must not be wasted. This is where the Call To Action comes in. Ask the readers to take action, for example ‘If you like our blog, please subscribe’ or ‘Head over to our Facebook page to see some of our happy customers’ or ‘Would you like to find out more? Register to receive our newsletter’,  ‘Follow us on Instagram’, ‘Book a free consultation today’.

 

Calls to Action in Advertisements

The same rings true for your advertisements, they also follow the same structure and the call to action should always be included. After all getting someone’s attention long enough for them to read your adverts in such a noisy world is an achievement. You will never know who reads them and is interested in what you are offering if you don’t guide them on what to do next. ‘Call us today and receive a discount’, ‘Pop in today to find out more from our friendly staff’.

 

Using Calls to Action in Flyers/Local Magazines

Yes the offline world still exists! Flyers if strategically used can yield an instant return of around 1% and a longer-term brand awareness benefit. Promoting through flyers or local magazines delivered to housing estates is still a great investment because readers may not be instant buyers but may keep your details knowing they may call upon your services in the near future. So, calls to action should encourage readers to get more information for the future – ‘Follow us on Twitter’ ‘Call for a brochure’ ‘Visit and bookmark our website’ ‘Subscribe to our newsletter’.

 

Social Media Posts

Planning posts on social media should be targeted to particular client groups and form part of a campaign. Whatever the overall objective of the campaign is will determine the call to action. It may be to raise awareness of your brand or send more traffic to your website, it may be to carry out research or get feedback on products. Directly tie in your call to action with what the objectives of your posts are. Examples are ‘Download our free e book’ ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Start your free trial’.

 

Positioning

Calls to Action are always placed at the very bottom of posts, advertisements, flyers, articles, web pages and ideally not too crowded with text. Put space between the main body text and call to action.

 

Video

Don’t forget for image-based media or video to still include your CTA. This can be put in text at the beginning or end of the video. If using You Tube you can embed links to specific associated articles and web pages to drive traffic to your site.

 

Call To Action Examples

 

Bents Garden Centre – Find Out More – focusing on delivery given lockdown adapting to times

Bents Call to Action
Bents Call To’ Action ‘Find out More

 

Lush – Subscribe – trying to generate regular business due to Lockdown restrictions – not seasonal specific

Lush Call To Action
Lush Call To Action – Subscribe

 

Boots – Shop Now leading on topical – valentine’s day

 

Boots Call To Action
Boots Call To Action – Shop Now

 

Calls To Action can also tie in with Landing Pages, particularly effective for building email lists or sending traffic to a particular product, service or event and getting them to sign up.

 

Thank you

For taking the time to read our blogs. Positive Sales and Marketing is a small business in the North West of England passionate about educating the UK hospitality and freelance artist sector on understanding their marketing.

We offer training and education to enable businesses to take control of their own destiny rather than blindly relying on agencies. We can also offer transparent website design services and copywriting should this be taking up too much of your time.

We work with clients all over the UK and also operate directories for the holiday accommodation sector.

We would love to hear from you, give us a call on 01257 433331 or 01744 670055 or email Caroline@positivesalesandmarketing.co.uk

You can also find us on Twitter @Psalesmarketing or Instagram possalesmarketing please follow us to read our blogs or receive daily inspiration.

 

 

29 Top Instagram Tips 2021
Digital Marketing

29 Top Instagram Tips 2021

Feb 5, 2021 by admin 0 Comments #Digital Marketing Tips, #Social Media Tips 2021

29 Top Instagram Tips 2021

Instagram is undergoing radical change. In 2020 more and more features were added including Reels. Its aim is to become more of an e-commerce social platform that can be tied into third party sites such as Shopify. It is quite hard to keep abreast of all the features and how to keep hold of followers organically. Here are 29 Top Instagram Tips for 2021.

 

How to Boost Organic Reach

  1. Using Hashtags – you can use up to 30 but the average is 15-20 using a variety of hashtags topics. Don’t necessarily choose the most popular include some that are specific to your sector, some that may be local or geo tag, some that are specific to your products.
  2. Hashtags can be used in the caption or comment box, algorithms don’t prioritise
  3. Get ready for the move over to keywords coming this year, hashtags will start to become less relevant

Instagram stories

  1. The opposite to hashtags – use popular topics this gives more chance of being seen
  2. Use stickers in your stories or the text box to manually type your captions
  3. Underline text to make it clickable

Increase chances of engagement with your posts

  1. Algorithms don’t prioritise video over image as you may expect, although the carousels of 10 images or more appear more regularly in feeds
  2. When posting images think colour spectrums, what colours engage the best?
  3. Put people in your images this makes posts more relatable
  4. With images use different angles don’t always take from same spot or of same subjects
  5. As with any other platform AIDA is important – particularly the first line of your captions, incorporate capitals, emojis and hashtags
  6. Be more involved with your own feed, remember to chat to others and like and comment on other posts
  7. Don’t put logos all over images and stories

Where to post links

  1. IGTV allows links in the Call to Action
  2. Direct messages will take links
  3. If you link your story to an IGTV video this will enable you to put links in if you have below 10k followers
  4. DM me stickers encourage direct messaging for links
  5. Link in Bio – the most popular method
  6. Make use of landing pages

Reels – short form video up to 15 seconds long

  1. Can use multiple shots or one take and is a mobile only feature
  2. Swipe right from the home screen to activate Reels camera
  3. The icons on the left allow you to shoot, add features before a shoot, activate speed, add effects and use timer for hands free shooting
  4. Cannot use music over reels if you have a business profile, but can add in stickers and text
  5. Can share reels to stories as well, but do this first as once it’s posted to reels, it can’t later be added to a story
  6. Pick a cover image that will attract viewers to click on the reel (like a book cover)
  7. You have 2200 characters to write a caption and 30 hashtags = there is no warning if you exceed these limits and you won’t know – your post will not be published
  8. You can share or save as draft once finished film and edit
  9. Insights on reels are only basic likes and shares, not very detailed
  10. Reels lend themselves to short tutorials, behind the scenes, meet staff, customer testimonials, daily updates, news, new products coming soon, highlighting special offers

 

Thank you

For taking the time to read our blogs. Positive Sales and Marketing is a small business in the North West of England passionate about educating the UK hospitality and freelance artist sector on understanding their marketing.

We offer training and education to enable businesses to take control of their own destiny rather than blindly relying on agencies. We can also offer transparent website design services and copywriting should this be taking up too much of your time.

We work with clients all over the UK and also operate directories for the holiday accommodation sector.

We would love to hear from you, give us a call on 01257 433331 or 01744 670055 or email Caroline@positivesalesandmarketing.co.uk

 

We can help you set up your Instagram business account or help you devise a strategy around target marketing with effective Calls To Action.

 

 

SEO

Tips for Local SEO 2021

Feb 4, 2021 by admin 0 Comments #citations, #Local SEO

Tips for Local SEO 2021

When running a small business, the question we get asked the most is how can I raise awareness of my brand more effectively? There are no quick solutions, but if you are a business that operates mainly to clientele in a specific geographical area, there are immediate measures that can be put into place to start to maximise your local visibility online. Here are our latest tips for local SEO 2021.

 

LOCAL Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Local search, this is the term given to people who are searching for goods and services that are based in their own communities.

In the early days of Google when we could only really find websites, getting to Number 1 on Google was the goal for businesses to get found. In those days businesses could do this by putting their location in their domain name. Google had basic local indexing tools such as maps, but as it has evolved it has enabled local search to be more relevant.  Small businesses have a wonderful suite of free tools that allow users to find information about them swiftly without having to leave the search engine. Interactive buttons also make it easy for users to directly call you , visit your website, or get directions instantly.  One of the main features Google has brought in is Google My Business.

 

Google My Business

If you are a small business and your target market is predominantly within a local radius, claiming your Google My Business listing is vital. If you don’t you are missing out on some key visibility and putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage.

If Google My Business is new to you and you are not sure how to set it up or use it, then read our Google My Business guide. Once you have set up your Google My Business you will then need to do the same for Bing as this is the UK’s other large search engine. This is straightforward and can be done via Bing Places which simply pulls through your GMB listing information and syncs it up. If you have a physical premises, be sure to claim your Apple Maps pin.

 

Local Directories

Local directories are useful for local businesses to register with. Some may charge a fee and some will be free. The most important factor to consider before jumping on any local directory you find is quality. Google and other search engines will penalise you if you link to poor quality external sites, so make sure the directory is highly regarded locally as a good source of information and one that the community regularly relies on for up-to-date information. This could be the classified section of your local paper, local councils, local business groups, or Chamber of Commerce.

 

Online Directories

Building links on directories is also known as citations, so over time to boost your overall online visibility it makes sense to periodically list your business across UK reputable websites that may be specific to your sector e.g if you were a counsellor the BACP website. There are also more generic business directories such as Yell.com or Thomson Local and it is important to spend a few weeks building up your presence on these as well. Here is a list of the top UK directory sites and a tool to help you with this task.

Word of Caution

Google sees instant mass presence as spamming. For example if you are on no directories today and then suddenly appear on 50 tomorrow that would look like spam to Google. This strategy should be approached over a period of weeks maybe adding 2 a week to make it more organic.

NAP Critical

Building citations is a time-consuming task and this is another reason to list on directories slowly. It would be wise to keep a record of all the directories and online platforms where you have listed your Name Address and Phone Number (NAP) to keep track of where you have listed your business and where to go should details change.

The critical element of this is to ensure that your NAP is consistent across your online channels. This includes your own website, Google My Business, Bing, Apple Map, Eventbrite, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Basically, anywhere you list your business, the Name Address and Phone Number must be identical. This allows the search engines to correctly identify your business and build up a healthy profile of your activity which will boost your online visibility.

Lesser Known Tips for Local SEO 2021

Here are some more unusual tips for local SEO in 2021 that you may have overlooked.

Affliate Links

Do you naturally network or work closely with other local businesses, running joint campaigns, doing guest blogging or putting reciprocal links onto each other’s website or social platforms will also add credibility to your online presence.

 

Keywords

Keywords are the heart of your online content, from social media bios, posts, about sections, web pages, blogs. Local SEO is no exception. Carry out keyword research for the topic your posts, pages or blogs are about and make sure 5% of the copy incorporates them. To be effective keywords or phrases need to appear in the heading or title, the first paragraph and one or two subheadings depending on the length of the content. They should also be featured in your meta description.

To optimise local search, research keywords and phrases that are relevant to your location and business and the variations.

 

Creating Local Content

If you regularly blog or write features on your platforms, create some of your content around local matters. This will add to your relevance score and be great for SEO.

 

Local SEO 2021
Local SEO statistics from Google Infographics

 

 

Multi Location Listings

If you have multiple locations for your business you can create a page for each location either on Linked In through Showcase Pages or on Facebook, or even on your own website. Vary the content on these pages though as search engines hate duplicate content.

 

Reviews

Getting reviews from customers is a great SEO booster, not just for local SEO but generally. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business profile or your Facebook Page. This will give you credibility with the search engines that you give great customer service and therefore you will rank higher in online searches.

 

Sponsorship

Sponsor a local football team or event and this will give you content to post online, affiliate links and mentions online.

 

Advertising

Advertising on Facebook allows geo targeting, the selection of who to display your ads to down to postcodes. This will make you extremely visible to local potential audiences. If you collect an email list or have lots of followers you can even display to look alike audiences to double your exposure. This will only be for as long as the ad is live but it is a great way to boost visibility during quieter times of the year.

 

Thank you

For taking the time to read our blogs. Positive Sales and Marketing is a small business in the North West of England passionate about educating the UK hospitality and freelance artist sector on understanding their marketing.

We offer training and education to enable businesses to take control of their own destiny rather than blindly relying on agencies. We can also offer transparent website design services and copywriting should this be taking up too much of your time.

We work with clients all over the UK and also operate directories for the holiday accommodation sector.

We would love to hear from you, give us a call on 01257 433331 or 01744 670055 or email Caroline@positivesalesandmarketing.co.uk

 

 

 

15 Tips to Grow Your Facebook
Digital Marketing

15 Tips to Grow Your Facebook Audience

Feb 3, 2021 by admin 0 Comments #Facebook, #Growing Audience Organically, #Social Media Tips 2021

15 Tips to Grow Your Facebook Audience 2021

 

How to grow your Facebook audience organically is the main challenge a lot of small businesses face. In recent years those who follow your page are not guaranteed to see your posts, unless they interact regularly with your content. Facebook has become less about businesses and more about community over the last couple of years.  Therfore, posts that appear in people’s feed need to have a social and community element. Our 15 tips on how grow your Facebook audience will help buck that trend.

More and more small businesses now have to rely on paid adverts to grow their brand awareness and grow their followers. This is not unrealistic, after all advertising should be paid for and small businesses should have a budget for this. But a mixed strategy of organic and paid is still the ideal.

Quality content and engagement are key. Good posts that enthuse audiences and add value are what the algorithms love.

 

15 Tips to Boost Organic Reach

  1. Less is more – focus on high quality content posted less frequently – once per day is enough
  2. Build community – Start a Facebook group or host regular Facebook lives
  3. Facebook Watch Parties – the best way to get user engagement and comments
  4. Make 2/3 of your posts video
  5. Boost popular posts through paid ads
  6. Signpost users from your other online channels – website, Twitter, Blog
  7. Use blog posts to signpost users to Facebook to discuss topics or answer questions, put questions related to blog posts on Facebook
  8. Host regular Q&A sessions – ideally through FB live or on page
  9. Encourage customers to supply video testimonials and post them to your page
  10. Photo posts have higher engagement
  11. The majority of your content should be informational and educational not a hard sell
  12. Engage with your audience, start conversations, ask questions, ask for them to post content related to a topic or project – social media is ‘social’
  13. Avoid posting links that will take users away from Facebook
  14. Don’t use phrases such as please ‘like’ or ‘share’ or ‘comment’ as this is seen as spamming by FB
  15. Show not tell – demonstrate why you are the best

 

For more tips on growing your audience, check out our 29 Top Tips for Instagram in 2021

Thank you

For taking the time to read our blogs. Positive Sales and Marketing is a small business in the North West of England passionate about educating the UK hospitality and freelance artist sector on understanding their marketing.

We offer training and education to enable businesses to take control of their own destiny rather than blindly relying on agencies. We can also offer transparent website design services and copywriting should this be taking up too much of your time.

We work with clients all over the UK and also operate directories for the holiday accommodation sector.

We would love to hear from you, give us a call on 01257 433331 or 01744 670055 or email Caroline@positivesalesandmarketing.co.uk