Showing posts with label Digital Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digital Marketing. Show all posts

Thursday 27 April 2017

The Art of Copywriting!

In the digital age, content is king. Businesses want to communicate with customers and targets on a regular basis. Firms are now producing more content than ever before for websites, blogs, newsletters, social media and press releases but the quality of that content can vary dramatically.


Many businesses create their content internally. It is usually produced by subject matter experts or enthusiastic amateurs. Others employ external experts to do the hard work. There is no right or wrong way of producing your content but it is important that there is a degree of consistency across all of your firm’s copy so that the brand values and “feel” of the messaging is consistent.  For example, if your brand majors on providing simple but effective solutions which are “to the point”, then allowing some of your people to produce long-winded content would go against your brand and could effectively undermine it.

Most businesses will have some sort of internal review process which content must go through before being approved for distribution. It is important to have an appropriate number of stakeholders involved in your approval process. Too many and they could drag the approval process out and make the copy very “watered down” compared to the original version. Too few and there is an increased risk of some inappropriate or incorrect content making it through and being published.

How many individuals are involved in the approval process depends on the type of business that you operate. For example, if your firm is a regulated entity, in say, financial services or the legal sector, then you may need to have compliance people involved in your approval process. However in a less regulated industry like fashion, perhaps the approval process should involve a subject matter expert and a product manager.

Regardless of the type of industry that you are in, creating engaging content is key. Whatever you produce must be on-message and should be of interest to your readers. You should aim to tell a story, draw your reader in and show how your product, service or knowledge adds value for your customers or potential customers. Your copy should be well crafted, balanced and should flow. If you are inserting key words for search engine optimisation (SEO) purposes, you should intersperse them throughout your text in a way that seems natural to your reader.

Finally, it is good to have a 4-eyes approach - i.e. 2 people read the content before it is finally published. This helps with sense checking and typo spotting.

Thursday 12 January 2017

Should Your Business Build A Mobile App

The biggest and best businesses all seem to offer a mobile app of some sort. Whether booking a taxi, checking into a flight or checking your bank balance, it seems that the smartphone is now the “Swiss army knife” that everyone uses to do pretty much everything. So does this mean that you need to build an app for your business?


The first thing you need to think about before committing to building an app is what your needs are. Do you need an app to help you with marketing, sales or customer services? How would an app add value for your customers and streamline processes for your business? You don’t need to be a programmer to create an app as there are plenty of agencies and online DIY tools that you can use to create one. Here are a few things to think about before you decide whether or not to develop an app for your business:

Marketing

Your app reflects your firm’s brand, and that icon on a mobile device that is frequently looked at will help to build recognition of your brand. You can also use an app as a marketing tool to create “push notices” that deliver information about your business and its products or services to customers. For example, you could use an app to push special offers, updates, or announcements to your customers.

Accessibility

Do you want to create an app simply to make your business accessible to your customers 24/7? Apps make it easy to engage with your business because customers don’t have to switch devices. When your business crosses their mind, they simply tap the app on their smartphone.

Sales 

Could your business use an app to sell more products or services to your customers? Again, this depends on the type of business that you operate. For example, if you run a coffee shop, perhaps you could replace loyalty cards with an app. Alternatively you could allow your regular customers to place orders for future products or services directly from an app. This would speed up the sales process for your customers and also help to generate loyalty from customers who may keep coming back to buy more because it is so easy to do so using an app.

Customer service

Do you want to put your products or services at your customer’s fingertips? You could create an app that allows your customers to engage with you and your business in a matter of seconds. You could offer product support, help desk services, market updates or even a booking service, depending on the type of business that you operate.