The removal of the instagram following tab – a good or bad move?

You know what? I’m pretty obsessed with social media.

I mean, I have to be for my job but I do like it in my personal life too. From finding out the latest Brexit saga on Twitter to reading the Coleen Rooney / Rebekah Vardy beef on Instagram, social media serves up an unrivalled mix of entertainment, news and social interaction in one fell swoop.

But I do find myself on there too much, mindlessly scrolling when I’m supposed to be watching the latest episode of Peaky Blinders and having to rewind (much to everyone’s annoyance).

This is why I’m coming round to Instagram’s shock move of deleting its following tab from users’ accounts. It provided yet another way of staying on the app longer for me and my fellow obsessives, another feed to scroll, another time-wasting exercise.  

However, from a business and marketing perspective, I’m worried removing this tab could do brands and influencers harm in the long run.

I used this feed to discover new accounts, with most of my ‘I don’t know you in real life’ follows coming from this tab. Yes, there’s still the ‘explore’ section of the app but a good majority of those images are from accounts I’m not really interested in.

I asked quite a few of my other Instagram-loving friends if the following feed was something they benefited from. Many did, agreeing that it was somewhere they could find new people or brands to follow via their like-minded friend’s activity. Others weren’t too fussed about its demise – they said it was nice knowing people weren’t lurking in the background watching what they were doing.

Could this mean the number of new followers to a company account will slow down? Who knows. What with the number of likes soon disappearing on photos, will brands start to feel the impact of change on Instagram? I guess we’ll soon find out.

As for me, I promise to use the time I would have spent on the following tab on something more valuable. Like looking at Boris Johnson memes on Twitter.

Choose a PR agency

  1. Be realistic. Don’t be wowed by the agency which comes up with the most interesting or unusual ideas.  Wacky ideas can sound impressive in a pitch, but they can also be highly unworkable.  Ask them for a media plan to hit the ground running and look for an agency who is realistic, honest and up-front about the job they can do for you.
  2. Horses for courses: Find out who will be actually working on your account. You may be meeting the slick presenters at the pitch but then be passed over to the newest recruit straight out of college to cut their teeth on your account.
  3. Proactive not reactive: Find out how proactive they are in creating news. Your PR agency shouldn’t just sit back and wait for you to give them story leads.  They should be using a combination of imaginative thinking and hard graft to unearth opportunities for you.
  4. Short-stay: Ask them how long their clients stay with them on average. This should give you a good measure of their levels of commitment.
  5. Skin deep: Find out how much of a priority your business will be to them. If your account manger is spread too thinly working on 12 different accounts at once, how can they ever hope to really get under the skin of your business and understand your market?
  6. Take aim: Look for a B2B marketing agency which will agree to setting campaign objectives together, not one who makes up their own objectives for your PR programme and then congratulate themselves for achieving them. PR is cost effective but it’s still an expense. Everybody deserves to know what return they’re getting on their investment.  You should be getting regular updates on results.
  7. The whole truth: Check what’s included in the monthly fee so you can avoid being hit with a long list of ‘extras’ they omitted to mention at the pitch.
  8. Eats, shoots and leaves: Yes we know social media speak has taken over but there’s still no excuse for sloppiness.  If emails and proposals from the agency have grammatical errors and typos, chances are all the subsequent work will be too.
  9. Ask to speak to current clients: they should be the agency’s best advocates and if they’re not, you need to know why!

Handling the media

In the spotlight: top tips on being media savvy for business growth

Today’s business environment is hugely competitive, compelling companies to promote their services, image, brand and reputation in an effort to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

The media offers one of the most effective means of achieving this, and the return on investment can be compelling.  It’s usually cheaper than advertising, much more credible and more effective at boosting Google rankings. 

Here are 10 quick tips to get media savvy fast.

  1. Always respond to a media enquiry.  You are being given an opportunity to influence what appears in the news and, more importantly, how you, your company and industry are perceived.
  2. Be aware of deadlines – journalists work to very tight schedules – if you want to get on the air or see your name online, be prepared to move fast and cancel a few appointments.
  3. Be prepared before interviews. Find out – or work out – what the journalist is likely to ask you and prepare and practice key messages.
  4. When being interviewed, be confident and remember that you are an expert in your field. Inject a little bit of oomph and allow enthusiasm to shine through.
  5. But don’t make it up. No-one expects you to know everything about everything within your organisation or industry.  Don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know the answer to a question; just say so and offer to find either the information they need or an appropriate person to talk to them as soon as possible.
  6. NEVER say “no comment” – you might just as well admit you are guilty.
  7. Don’t feel compelled to fill a pause or a silence with unnecessary information – silence can be used by an interviewer to get a person to make revelations they wouldn’t otherwise divulge.
  8. Don’t just answer yes or no – give full answers but, if it’s for radio or TV, no more than 30 seconds long.  Any longer and you will be edited from a recorded interview or interrupted during a live one.  
  9. If you want to promote your company and its products and services, be subtle, or you’ll sound like a snake-oil salesman. Don’t disparage the competition.
  10. Don’t drop your guard when the interview is over. It’s never over until the reporter leaves the building or hangs up the phone. And remember that journalists never stop working and speaking “off the record” no longer exists.

Come up with new ideas for content

Content marketing – how to come up with ideas for new content

Though the principles of content marketing have been around for some time, only in recent years has its popularity has skyrocketed in the B2B sphere.  Rather than being new-fangled and complex marketing technique, it’s just another bit of jargon that can easily be translated and owes as much to human nature as to textbook strategies.

Fact 1: Unless you are in the final stages of the buying cycle, nobody likes being actively ‘sold’ to. It feels intrusive and no B2B marketing professional wants to end up feeling like a foot-in-the-door double glazing salesman.

Fact 2: B2B marketeers have to earn their right to sell later on by sharing useful, objective, credible, relevant, expert advice now – when prospects are in the early stages of research. Don’t tell them about your products, tell them about how the general technology can help them to solve a problem, make them look good in front of their boss, support their staff better, make their working day easier so they can leave work on time etc.

So far, straightforward. But the internet is awash with anodyne advice from the school of the obvious. So how do you come up with high quality, engaging, fresh content to fuel your marketing campaign?

Aside from the obvious point about subscribing to relevant e-newsletters, LinkedIn groups, Google Alerts and RSS feeds so that you are amongst the first to know about industry developments, you want to be gauging what your current clients what they want to hear about.

You should then create a schedule, so the inspiration doesn’t dry up, and incorporate enough flexibility into it so that you are able to be reactive and respond to new developments as they happen.

At Cameron Wells, we’ve been doing this for clients for 15 years – here’s a case study and a list of ideas which might help:

  • Buyer guides – e.g. 10 things to look for when specifying… or a 3-step guide to buying…
  • 10 questions to ask…
  • 5 must-haves, 5 mistakes to avoid
  • Trends – creating threats/opportunities for your clients
  • Warning signs – 7 signs of impending cashflow problems
  • Strategies – 12 ways to reduce your health insurance costs
  • Definitions – 10 SEO terms explained – demystify buzzwords
  • Resources – 10 best guides, best websites, best online calculators
  • Aggregated content – e.g. 10 best infographics (where you should always credit and link to the source)
  • Enhancements – 10 ways to make the most of your telematics system, are you getting the most out of your dictation technology?
  • Best practice – 10 keys to sustainable growth/case studies
  • Metrics – are your e-newsletters working? 6 metrics to track
  • Capture content from events and then drip feed info in different formats: e.g. from a presentation: video – topics by topic, podcast, slides, article, white paper, webinar and a news release

Get new business leads through direct marketing

Digital and social media has undoubtedly changed the face of B2B marketing with many businesses redirecting much of their marketing spend to these channels.

So should direct mail still have a place in your marketing plan? Is it cost effective? Does it deliver results? Can it help customer engagement? Will it drive sales?

Read our top 10 tips to implementing a successful B2B direct mail campaign.

1. Plan ahead

Set very clear objectives that can be measured. Do you want a sales meeting? Who with? When?  How many can you handle each month? Do you want to promote a short term special offer or launch a new service? How many sales or product trials do you require? Set up unique telephone numbers, ad codes, arrange tele-sales follow up or track unique website visitors so that you can measure the campaign success.

2. All about the money

Establish what is an acceptable cost per pack. Before you brief your agency, give clear direction on your budget. Embossing, spot UV and promotional gifts may look fantastic but will they deliver the ROI you need? Don’t forget to include the ‘invisibles’ in your overall pack cost – postage, list purchase, data cleansing, inserting (hand or machine enclosed), labelling and sorting plus follow up all need to added to the creative and print costs.

3. Power of data

Fish in your own pond and use a reputable list broker. Don’t ignore your lapsed customers. Don’t omit non responders to past campaigns. They may be in market this time and interested in your new offering. Segment and profile your most profitable customers and then buy similar data from a recommended IDM or RAR provider. If timing is critical to your product or service, try to buy tagged data with a renewal date appended so you are contacting potential customers at exactly the right time.

4. Know your audience

Who are you targeting? The Finance or Marketing Director? Or the PA gatekeeper who opens the CEO’s mail? What sector do they operate in? What is the size of the business? ‘Who’ drives everything – from the data provider to the concept and tone of voice to the messaging. Get this wrong and even the most powerful Direct Mail pack will fail.

5. Keep your enemies close

Try to get on mailing lists of your competitors. Monitor their on and offline activity.  Know what they are up to, what they are saying and offering – then do it better.

6. Make it memorable

Be different. The format and creative execution must have stand out. You have very little time to make an impact. Remember people are time poor and are bombarded with mail – probably from your competitors. Make yours intriguing enough for them to want to open and you’re half way there. Whether that’s through a message that really strikes a chord, a compelling offer or a branded gift which engages them.

7. Power of words

Be single minded – make your campaign proposition obvious. A skilled copywriter will turn your product or service features into meaningful benefits for the end user. Features are ‘so what’ whereas benefits demonstrate how your offer could make them twice as effective or allow them to go home on time by being more efficient.  Make them want you as much as you want them. But don’t overpromise. Make sure everything you say is legal. Always check the T&Cs and small print.

8. What should I do now?

Make your call to action clear.  There should be no uncertainty about what happens next. Should they call you to arrange a meeting? Email you? Enter a prize draw? Visit your website to arrange a demonstration?

9. Testing testing

Budget and volume permitting you should always A/B split test. Long copy v short copy. Incentive v none. Letter only v full pack. Price v benefit as lead message. With and without email or call follow up. Monitor, learn and refine your next campaign accordingly.

10. How did it measure up?

Always share your results – internally and with your agency. And don’t just track the mailing response rate – it’s the conversion, overall ROI and the projected lifetime value of the lead that will really tell you if direct marketing is working.

How to write a good creative brief

As one Creative Director I knew unsurprisingly put it: “It’s the most important piece of paper in the agency”. Get the brief wrong and you will waste valuable time, resource and reputation. And have a really grumpy creative team.

First and foremost a brief must be brief – 2 sides of A4 maximum, 1 page is ideal. Remember the left brain, right brain rule of how a creative mind works compared to that of a suit! But brief does not mean it shouldn’t be thorough.

Run through the brief in person if possible and deliver it with passion. Give it the time and enthusiasm it deserves. A good brief should leave the creative team feeling excited and motivated to get started.

In brief – top 10 tips for the brief writer

  1. Before you write anything, do your research, prepare, question and challenge
  2. Don’t just fill out a form, but use the briefing form (see below) to stimulate your thought process
  3. Be very clear about the aim of the brief
  4. The main brief sections fall into 3 main categories: Background, Communication and Implementation
  5. Deciding what you leave out can be as important as what you put in
  6. Include only the critical information in the brief with the remainder in the attachments
  7. The single minded proposition should be the focus of the brief
  8. Understand your audience and what motivates them
  9. Think about how to make your brief memorable
  10. Confirm your brief in writing and get approval from necessary parties

When you’re ready to put finger to keyboard, here’s what should be included in every brief…

Background

  • brief overview: give an overview why the work is required including supporting customer research, past campaign results and competitor activity where appropriate in attachments.
  • objectives: these should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) eg 20% increase in sales leads amongst FTSE 250 HR directors within 3 months – NOT: lots more sales leads as soon as possible!
  • target audience: ‘who’ drives everything from media selection, tone of voice to imagery. Approaching affluent, AB, 60+ retired couples in Cheshire is very different to talking to SME business owners in the North West. Include any valuable consumer insights.
  • execution: what exactly is required? A lead nurturing email campaign? A/B split test consumer press ads? 30” radio script? VAT free direct mail pack? An integrated campaign featuring all?

Communication

  • single minded proposition: arguably the most important part of the brief, yet the most difficult to get right. What is the ‘essence’ or key take out from the brief? A good SMP should be captured in one sentence – or ideally just a few words. The SMP for the M&S food TV advert “This is no ordinary…” was simply ‘Food Sex’. The agency would have produced a very different ad had the proposition been ‘Great value yet delicious food.’
  • primary and support messages: pick out the most salient messages which will add value and be meaningful to the target audience – these can be company attributes or product features and benefits which can be functional or emotional.
  • creative direction: this is where you need to consider the look and feel of the piece – should it look hard sell, traditional, nostalgic, dynamic or quirky? Should it position a brand as an innovative, fast paced industry expert or a caring, nurturing service provider which will pull at the heart strings? Think about formats, photography style, colour palettes, fonts etc. Give direction – not instruction so that the creative team has chance to do what they do best.
  • tone of voice: How will the headlines and subheads engage the recipient? Should the copy by punchy, humorous and conversational or formal, informative and thought provoking? The tone must clearly reflect the brand personality.

Implementation

  • call to action/ response mechanism: be very clear about what the recipient should do next. Should they visit your website to buy online, call to arrange a meeting? Don’t forget to include any tracking or promotional codes.
  • budget
  • timings / key dates
  • mandatory inclusions: eg. small print and brand guidelines

Remember the old adage – you only get out what you put in. You can’t bake a mouth-watering cake with out-of-date or missing ingredients so don’t expect exceptional creative work if your brief is lacking in lustre.

How to create engaging infographics

Infographics have created a marketing bandwagon that all savvy marketeers appear to have scrambled onto to liven up dull topics or simplify complex ones, but how do you make them as engaging and effective as possible?

Here are our 10 top tips to creating the perfect infographic:

  1. Ensure you consider everything and plan everything before you start to design an infographic, for example consider the structure of it, what you want to include on it and what the purpose of it is. Will it be used to mainly to educate or entertain people, for example? Will it be for social media or more for sales meetings collateral? Create a central theme around which all your statistics will hang.
  2. Create a strong, enticing header for your infographic and social media posts to encourage click throughs.
  3. Get it right from the offset – use correct facts and stats for your infographic and double check they are correct before thinking about anything visual.
  4. Make your design unique to ensure it stands out; use strong graphics and make sure it has a colour scheme and look and feel that accurately reflects the brand.
  5. Tailor your infographic for your target audience, using relevant design style and language. In an ideal world you will already know that this is a hot topic and that your target audience feel strongly about.
  6. Don’t try to tackle too many subjects at a time, one subject per infographic.
  7. Keep a good balance between images and text, don’t include too much text as this defeats the point of an infographic.
  8. Ensure your infographic flows logically and that everything is in the correct order.
  9. Don’t be lulled into making it too long – the average time spent viewing an infographic is only three minutes so forcing people to keep on scrolling could be extra design budget down the drain.
  10. Always include your sources or a link to your sources online.

Looking for some inspiration? Here’s a couple we prepared earlier….

Willis Towers Watson Health & Benefits – HR Healthcheck

Willis Towers Watson Health & Benefits – Binge Britain

Webfleet Solutions – Fleet Productivity

7 deadly sins of content generation

1 GREED

MORE CONTENT DOESN’T NECESSARILY EQUAL BETTER CONTENT

Whether it’s 500, 2000 or more words, don’t make the mistake of undermining the value by simply adding to the volume.

Remember your audience is time poor and message rich, so they need to absorb your salient points as succinctly as possible. Everything you produce should be more engaging, not just longer than what your competitors are currently producing. Give them a reason to connect with you, share your content, and come back for more.

2 GLUTTONY

DON’T OVERINDULGE IN HOT TOPICS

Writing about trending topics can often help with immediate views and shares. The same could be said for time-sensitive content. The problem with that kind of content is that it’s not ‘evergreen’. While it may generate an influx of short-term interest, it doesn’t have lasting value. It soon becomes obsolete.

Don’t overlook the value of less ‘de rigeur’ but more stalwart evergreen content generated from case studies, how-to’s, testimonials, thought-leadership and educational content.

Incorporate both types of into your content marketing strategy so that your audience gets a more appropriate and meaningful mix.

3 SLOTH

STICKING TO THE SAME OLD

One of the areas where content marketing often fall short is in content promotion. If you’re not exploiting new content via new routes, you’re significantly limiting its impact.

Remember that one piece of content can be used in many ways from PR and lead nurturing to social, website and email marketing. The reach of a good piece of content is limitless so don’t forget to try new tactics of engagement. Test new writing styles, imagery, video content, infographics, short films, use influencers or brand ambassadors. See who responds to what then test again.

You should also look for new promotional methods:

  • Engage influencers using the Connector tool from ContentMarketer.io to help you build relationships and get your content shared by those influencers
  • Use a service like Quuu.co to promote your content to others who are looking for content to curate
  • Retarget your audience with your content by using a service like Outbrain or Zemanta

4 ENVY

DON’T COVET YOUR COMPETITORS’ CONTENT

Don’t fall in to the trap of ‘me-too marketing’. While it’s healthy for your brand to keep an eye on competitors, don’t mimic content from companies with different goals.

If you’re not creating unique pieces, ultimately the value of that content is limited.

But equally don’t make the mistake of creating content just for the sake of creating content. Know your audience and pay close attention to what they want from you and adjust accordingly.

5 WRATH

DON’T BE NAMED OR SHUNNED

Regularity and quality of content creation is key. Don’t go quiet on your audience or they will find a new voice to listen to – formulate a content plan and stick to it – then review and enhance it.

When contact quality and frequency drops off, you remove a point of engagement with your audience who may rant and vent their frustrations on social media which can adversely impact on your brand equity.

6 PRIDE

TOO FOCUSED ON “ME”

Without understanding your target audience, the content you create is far less likely to connect. That means less engagement, less interest and less sharing.

Take the time to know your audience as part of your strategy and if necessary segment or even micro-segment them. Know what bothers and excites them and what issues are occupying their thoughts and what trends are driving their behaviours. Then write content that targets those issues and interests for each segment.

Don’t over-focus on what you can get out of it: leads, referral traffic, new business, and social recognition – when you’re too focused on “me”, it’s difficult to provide significant value.

Provide substantial thought provocation and always question the value of the content you produce. Your reader should always have actionable takeaways from everything you produce.

7 LUST

LONGING FOR IMMEDIATE RESULTS

If you think your content marketing efforts are going to instantly convert into sales, social aplomb or lead generation think again. Content marketing isn’t paid search. It doesn’t convert first time.

It’s impossible to say what will work initially. Understanding your audience is a good start, but even then, you’ll have some trial and error. Some content will do really well, and some won’t. KPIs, testing and measurement are important parts of creating your content strategy for this very reason.

4 reasons why good content and PR improves your Google rankings

FACT 1

HIGH QUALITY, FRESH CONTENT = INCREASED ENGAGEMENT = PEOPLE SPENDING LONGER ON YOUR WEBSITE = A HIGHER GOOGLE RANKING

  • High quality and engaging content not only adds credibility and creates better engagement, it also improves SEO by boosting time on site. High quality content = increased engagement = higher dwell time = improved SEO. 
  • Time on site is still a powerful Google ranking factor along with topicality (thank you Google Freshness Algorithm) – so the more up-to-date and stickier your site is and the lower the bounce rates, again the higher up the rankings your site will climb. This is because Google can be confident that it is taking users through to relevant content which keeps their interest.

FACT 2

LINKS BACK FROM QUALITY, OBJECTIVE SITES (SUCH AS ONLINE MEDIA) = GOOGLE THINKS YOU ARE MORE CREDIBLE = A HIGHER GOOGLE RANKING

  • Content is still king for SEO, but links are still very important. Not the link farm links of before; authoritative links from trustworthy, highly relevant sites. 
  • If you are regularly creating good quality content, you can also share it online via guest blogs or PR (feature articles or press stories). This creates valuable embedded backlinks from high authority online media and news sites to your website, helping your site to look more credible and impacting on natural search rankings.

FACT 3

GOOD QUALITY CONTENT THAT ANSWER PEOPLES’ QUESTIONS = GOOGLE THINK YOU’RE AUTHORITATIVE = OPPORTUNITIES TO EARN FEATURED SPOTS AND A #0 RANKING

  • Google’s mission is to organise information and to make it accessible. One of the ways it does this is to publish featured snippets – summarized answers to a search query – and to predict the questions people are asking for all topics, products and services at the top of its search results Using machine learning and AI, it will auto-suggest the latter in a ‘people also ask’ panel.
  • Authoritative website content that answers the questions your customers and prospects may be searching for can help you to be featured in Google’s ‘featured’ automated responses.
  • The opportunities for this increase when the content is structured in an FAQ format and when supporting PR campaigns help to increase the web traffic they receive.

FACT 4

MORE CONTENT MEANS MORE SOCIAL SHARES = MORE LINKS AND WEBSITE TRAFFIC = GOOGLE RECOGNISES YOUR WEBSITE’S POPULARITY = A HIGHER SEARCH RANKING

  • According to Google social media is not a direct SEO ranking factor – but it can certainly have an indirect impact. Sharing links to useful content such as white papers or advice guides on your website via social media channels creates a valuable source of links back to your site. This helps to drive website traffic and boost the popularity of your website in the eyes of Google. In turn, this can lead to a higher search engine ranking.