How To Maximise Your Business’ Success At Trade Shows

How To Maximise Your Business’ Success At Trade Shows

One of the most beneficial activities that you can do for your retail business is to attend trade shows and exhibitions. These allow you and your team to meet with other professionals such as business owners and suppliers. Meeting other business owners will allow you to improve your network and potentially share advice or even form strong alliances with others. Meeting with suppliers will also give you a chance to improve your business offerings as well if those suppliers then agree with you to stock their products in your store. However, these trade shows are very competitive, and there are some steps you should take to make sure that you maximise your success.

Promote And Invite Via Social Media
Many of the visitors to trade shows will have some idea of who they want to meet and what stands they want to find. If you fail to promote your exhibition stand via social media, then you risk having a diminished turnout of visitors to your stand, regardless of how great it looks. Send out invites and promote your business and stand on your chosen social media platforms, and don’t forget to provide clear instructions on how to find you. You should also consider offering incentives to those who choose to seek you out, such as free merchandise and deals.

Know Your Roles And Stick To Them
The chances are that you’re not visiting a trade show on your own. If a few of you are attending, it’s important to get a good idea as to what everyone’s role is at your stand to ensure that you look as professional as possible. Otherwise, you might find yourselves accidentally talking over each other, for example. As well as this, you need to make sure everyone knows who is in charge of the overall exhibit. This doesn’t necessarily have to be you. It could be one of your managers, for example. This will ensure that one person is accountable for the day and that people aren’t being given contradictory instructions. Ask that person to provide regular progress reports, too, so that you can all figure out what you need to improve on.

Design Your Stand And Entice Prospects
Having an eye-catching display is very important. Not only will it encourage passers-by to stop and check out what you have to offer, but a quality exhibition display like those from Discount Displays will help people to find you when actively searching. There will likely be a lot of vibrant and eye-catching displays around the trade show, so it’s important to make yours stand out as much as possible. Ensure that your banners and signage are all clear and concise, allowing people to know what your stand is all about from a distance.

Listen To People And Focus On The Benefits
It can be difficult to keep on track when running your stand, and there are always worries that you might forget what you need to talk about with those that turn up at your stand. Unfortunately, this can lead to you not listening to those you’re conversing with, which can be very obvious. It’s important to stay calm and practice active listening so that you can tailor what you have to say to them. Ultimately, this will allow you to show how your business can directly benefit them and why it would be a good idea for them to work with you.

The Biggest Challenges Facing New Businesses This Summer

Anyone who is launching a new business will know that there are going to be a lot of uphill battles. You will have been fighting one since the day that you tried to turn your great idea into a company. However, it is important to note that the months ahead are going to bring a lot of serious challenges for anyone who is just starting out. While things are looking brighter in many ways following an incredibly difficult two years, we are all going to have to make sure that we are taking the right steps to protect our companies and ensure our futures. Here are a few of the biggest challenges that you need to be aware of.

Prices Are Going To Keep Going Up

Let’s start with an issue that is on everyone’s mind right now. You will not have missed the news stories about the rising cost of living. Energy prices are going to keep going up both here and in Europe, and we are going to see those ordinary customers have to make serious choices when it comes to what they spend their money on. Every business is going to have to work twice as hard to keep business coming in. Think about how you can optimise your branding and work on marketing strategies to get your name out there.

Security Is Going To Continue To Be An Issue

One of the biggest problems to rock the business world over the last couple of years has been the dramatic rise of cybercrime. And it wasn’t just big businesses. Everyone realised how vulnerable their data, information, and finances were. We all saw that we needed to do more than simply download software and keep an eye on any suspicious links that arrived through email. You need to be able to show your clients that your business meets the legal requirements for information security and that you are prepared to answer all of their concerns. If you struggle to get your head around the idea of what ISO 27001 is, then ISO 27001 templates may be the solution for you. The team at High Table has put together a detailed guide to help you.

Can You Offer A Green Solution?

We are all looking for ways that we can cut down our carbon footprint right now. The news about soaring temperatures and extreme weather events has alarmed everyone, and if you are launching a new business, you will need to be able to demonstrate that you have a green strategy in mind. Businesses everywhere are looking for how they can balance sustainability and productivity. Customers will want to know that you are taking this issue seriously, so think about what steps you can take. For example, if you are shipping orders, you will want to think about using recycled and recyclable packaging. Talk to your business partners and suppliers about their green strategy, and make sure that you are working with companies that have one. You could also think about partnering with green initiatives and charities.

3 Simple Steps To Improving Your Small Business In The West Midlands

As a business owner, you’ll spend a lot of your time trying to figure out how to improve your business, bolstering your success and driving your business towards higher levels of growth. There are so many things to think about, such as your team’s well-being, the happiness of your client and customers, and attracting new ones to your business. To help you improve your small business, we’ve listed three very important steps that can be extremely beneficial to you and potentially help you to grow your success.

Hiring The Right People
You’ll likely be well aware that a company is only as good as the people that are a part of it, and so hiring a good team is so incredibly important for the success of your business. You’ll want to make sure that you put adequate time into the recruitment process for any new roles you have and hiring for roles in which your employees are leaving. At times, especially when first starting a business, it can be easy to get carried away by deadlines, targets, and timeframes you’ve set yourself. This can make you feel strongly opposed to deliberating for too long on who to hire after a round of interviews. However, patience is so important when filling a role, as hiring the wrong person could do more harm than good for your business. It can be a huge waste of time and resources, having to let someone go that isn’t a good fit for your business, whereas it may have been better to spend that extra time finding the right person.

Improving Your IT Support
Keeping everything working like a well-oiled machine is key when running a business. In fact, it’s more so important for smaller businesses, as it can seriously hurt them when things grind to a halt due to a technical error such as networks dropping, software errors, or hardware breaking. A larger company will often have the resources to fix this quickly and have a backup, redundant networks, backup power, and even a selection of replacement tech to be used while things are being fixed. To combat this, you’ll want to make sure you have some quality IT support in place. For businesses in Birmingham and around the West Midlands, you’ll want to use a local, experienced IT support provider such as Geek-Guru, who aims to keep your hardware, networks, and software maintained and operating at all times. They can also provide IT security and improvements to your overall IT architecture too.

Encouraging Innovation
It’s important for your employees to feel involved in the running of your business, as they’ll be spending a majority of their time and effort bringing you further success. When spending a lot of your time in meetings and making larger business decisions, it’s easy to become somewhat out of touch with the day-to-day operations within your business. Remember that the people who aren’t out of touch do those jobs every day. This means that many of your employees may have the ability and knowledge to provide you with useful innovations that can improve workflow and general procedures, ultimately leading to increased efficiency and, therefore, profits, so remember to encourage innovative thinking at all times. You might even find that some can come up with some game-changing innovations, providing your business with some exceptional opportunities for growth and success.

4 Ways To Improve Your HR Department

The HR department plays an important role within a business and there are many duties that must be performed by HR in order to keep the business running. Human resources have the huge task of managing employees and ensuring that they are kept safe and well trained in their position. Additionally, many organisational tasks are done by the HR department, so it is important that you always find ways to improve the department as a whole. If you are wanting to improve your HR department, then follow along for our guide on how you can enhance HR.

Offer HR Employees More Training

One important thing you can do to improve your HR department is to offer your HR employees additional training. Further training and further education is always a bonus in the business and your HR department could really benefit from some extra training. The great thing about training courses in the modern age is that they are all online, so they all can be completed at the comfort of a desk. For example, these eLearning courses offer a wide variety of different HR related courses, so ask your HR employees to have a look through and see what courses could benefit them.

Implement Strong Communication

Another way you can improve your HR department is to implement strong communication. Often, the HR department will act as a communication line between employees and upper management, so it is essential that your HR department always champions strong communication. Because HR works so closely with upper management, there can often be a lack of trust between employees and the HR department. Ensuring that your HR department can communicate effectively with employees will be extremely beneficial and it can help to build trust.

Use Technology To Your Advantage

Running a business in the digital age means that there is a whole host of technology and software can assist in making tasks easier. As the HR department has to deal with a multitude of tasks on a daily basis, it could be a good idea to invest in some sort of software or device that can make things run more smoothly. Ask your HR employees which tasks take the most time and what software they think could benefit them the most. This article gives a good breakdown of some of the best HR software, so you could ask the department to have a look and see what would work for them.

Hire From Within

The next thing you can do to improve your HR department is to hire from within. Hiring of new staff is an HR responsibility and it can take a lot of time and effort to find the perfect candidate. One way to make this process a bit easier would be to instead hire from within. Hiring internally can be better for your company as your employees are already so familiar with how the company is run, so they will not require beginners training. This can also be great for the overall morale of the business as employees will see that their hard work will be recognised, and they have the opportunity to make their way up.

Essential Tips For Starting Your First Business In London

If you’ve come up with a great new idea for a business and have started considering how to get it off the ground, then you’ll probably have started to realise how complicated it can get. After all, owning and running a business is a big deal, and a successful business requires care and dedication to keep things running properly. If you’ve not had much or any experience running a business before, then you may feel put off from even attempting it but remember that everyone has to start somewhere. That’s why we’ve created this article to guide you through the essential first steps to help you feel more confident in this new and often scary endeavour.

Create A Business Plan
Once you’re happy that your business can withstand scrutiny, it’s time to start ramping things up by creating your business plan. However, this stage of your business is much more important than you might think. Your business plan should include absolutely everything you need to make your business a success. This includes an overall brief of your business, your ultimate goals, predictions of sales figures, market research, and even your reasons for starting your business, among many other things. You should make sure that you spend a lot of time on this, as it’s the sort of thing you’ll have to show to investors to secure funding for your business if you choose to pursue that financing option.

Outsource Tasks
You’ll find that sometimes it’s just not practical to hire your own in-house team for certain tasks. This is most common when it comes to marketing, customer services, legal counsel, and financial advice. You’ll want to strongly consider outsourcing these tasks to external businesses. For example, if you’re looking for IT support in London, you should consider searching for a local team of experts such as totality services, who can provide your business with IT support tailored to you. There are so many companies out there that focus on delivering a specific service to other businesses, providing smaller businesses with the support that many larger businesses benefit from every day by having a large in-house team. There are obvious benefits to having your own staff to handle these tasks, but for now, you’ll likely be outsourcing a lot of this work to save a large portion of your budget.

Set A Budget And Stick With It
Going back to your business plan, you should also include an extensive budget. It’s important to revisit this regularly to ensure that you’re on track and aren’t overspending. A budget will allow you to keep working without constantly worrying about your finances too much, as long as you keep an eye on it and respect the parameters you’ve set for yourself. It’s important to split your budget up into multiple useful sections, and while these sections will be relatively unique to your business, there are some that every business should consider having. Most notable is the emergency fund. This is where you’ll set aside a portion of your budget to be used in the event of a particularly unexpected event, such as replacing broken equipment, handling periods of low sales, and paying unexpected bills that you missed.

Creating Videos For An International Audience: How To Get Noticed

Expanding your business ventures is tricky. No matter what aspect of your company you intend to extend, various factors need consideration. From the more significant factors to the smaller details, as an entrepreneur, you are likely combing through these details with a fine-tooth comb.

Particularly if you intend to expand your business into the international sector, you should expect to face a whole new assortment of obstacles. Expanding into the international markets means that you have an entirely new market and audience to target but goes beyond this too. While it is undoubtedly an exciting prospect for businesses big and small, it is also worth noting that it might require a whole new business model. None more so, than when marketing and advertising your business to this international audience.

Should you be in the position where you are expanding your business in the coming months and weeks, you might be wondering how best to create a marketing strategy for an international audience. More specifically, you might find yourself wondering how best to get yourself noticed when using marketing videos for your advertising efforts. If you are in this position, read on to discover our top tips on how to get noticed through this medium.

Think About Languages

While this might seem like a somewhat obvious suggestion, it is worth mentioning in this piece all the same. Thinking about the languages in which you are presenting your videos is critical and could make the difference in whether your marketing strategies take off or not. Releasing your videos in one language is shooting yourself in the foot; you are completely isolating yourself from international markets and audiences, which you want to avoid in your video creation efforts.

Now, this is not to say that you must create hundreds of videos in different languages. This is something that would be time-consuming and costly at the best of times. Instead, you should think about how useful subtitles can be and utilise subtitle translation within your videos. Enlisting the services of a professional translation service will ensure that your videos are accurate and that the information you are putting out there is correct in all languages you opt for.

Including subtitles in your videos is ultimately useful when wanting to translate what you are saying in your mother tongue, into different languages. That being the case, though, it is not merely useful for just this, and can extend to being inclusive to those who are hard of hearing. With this in mind, this leads us to the following section.

Be Inclusive Of All

Being accepting and inclusive of others is something we are taught from a young age and is something that should be adopted when marketing your company in some way or another. Thinking about how to be as inclusive as possible when creating your video is important and will certainly get you noticed in more ways than one. Including various demographics and target audiences will gain you the reputation of a business that cares and one that takes others into consideration when making business decisions.

Relating to the creation of your video, you should think about the colour schemes you are using and how they would present themselves to those who are colour-blind. On the other hand, and as mentioned briefly previously, you should think about how to be inclusive to those who are deaf and hard of hearing. Having subtitles is one means of doing so, but what about having a sign language friendly version of your videos too? There are various means of being inclusive when creating your videos; trying and testing different methods with focus groups and organisations will help you find what works best for all.

Create Relatable Content

This can be a lot easier said than done, but it is something that you should be thinking about when creating videos for your business. Like other aspects of your marketing strategy, you want to be creating content that your customers can relate to and engage with. This is not to say you have to relate to every single individual, but more the customer base as a collective.

Storytelling is critical when creating videos and is something that customers look for. Merely telling them about your services or products might be viewed as you waving it right under their noses. Taking the time to be creative and tell a story while marketing your products is a much-preferred method and one that is sure to get you noticed the world over. What’s more, most stories are not bound by location or borders; they can traverse the world and be related to by people from all over, which is what you want after all!

Understandably, these are but a handful of the ways to get your videos noticed when creating them for a worldwide audience. That being said, we hope this piece has shed some light on where you should start and what factors you should take into consideration when creating your marketing strategies moving forward. After all, the world is your oyster, so what are you waiting for?

Growing Your Small Business Into An SME: 4 Factors To Consider

Businesses grow in stages. Unless they are besotted with generous doses of luck and investment, most of them have small beginnings.

After their humble origins, a rocky road lies ahead. In January last year, more than 900,000 small businesses were at risk of failing by the following April. Though these dire statistics were partially attributed to the coronavirus, new and immerging companies always walk a fine line between success and failure.

If you are running a small business, you will be aware that you are nearly always in a vulnerable position, pandemic or not. Certain measures must be taken to ensure your firm evolves into a reputable small and medium enterprise (SME). Here are some of the factors you should consider to help you do this.

Go Digital

Though pandemic restrictions are easing in the U.K., no savvy business person would expect everything to go back to normal. The world of business has irreversibly changed, and there are more opportunities in cyberspace than in your local towns and cities.

Going digital should accelerate growth, expand customer outreach, and generate further exposure for your small business. Creating SEO content should help you build robust digital marketing. Refining an effective delivery service (if your firm requires one) will help you ship goods out on time and help you meet customer expectations. Developing an app will give users faster access to your services.  

Automation can ensure your business runs around the clock too. If you prefer the input of humans on that score, you can hire a handful of employees from overseas. The timezone discrepancies will ensure your firm stays operational during U.K. closing hours.

Being a digital-based business can leave you vulnerable to online threats if you don’t have the necessary safeguards in place. Take a look at Dial A Geek’s cyber security checklist which details everything you need to know about keeping your firm safe and secure. With their guidance, protecting your business will be simple and easy instead of an endless chore.

Adapt to Staff Needs

Small businesses can only grow with loyal staff who preside over the process. They ensure continuity between all the stages of evolution.

If you have a high turnover rate, that growth you’re striving for will be disrupted, or worse, disjointed. Work cultures are changing today, and it is no longer acceptable to be driven by profit margins alone. Empathy is now required, and the firms who refuse to practice it risk falling by the wayside into obscurity.

Try to adapt to your worker’s needs at every opportunity to do so. They may ask for flexible hours, which you should provide if possible. Further requests could involve pay rises, days off if they are ill, longer breaks, or simply request feedback. So long as they meet their deadlines and perform well for the business, there are becoming fewer good reasons to reject these proposals.

The happier your staff are, the longer they will stick around. You will recruit with the intent to expand your team rather than fill vacancies. In the end, one of the best ways to facilitate growth in your small business is to nurture the careers and well-being of your personnel.

Manage and Mitigating Risks

No business succeeds by adopting safe strategies. Risk is a necessary challenge in every industry and is part of leading an innovative company. Therefore, it can help create significant growth opportunities.

It is vital that you are careful here. Many company owners will pour their own personal capital into their businesses or place their faith in employees who perform detrimental roles. Still, it is not enough to have good intentions or be hopeful. 

You should never court risk without being suitably informed first. If you must hire a crucial employee, vet them extensively and authenticate their skills, qualifications, and experience. Should you need to dip into your personal capital, do some research to assess whether there is a real market need for what you’re doing.

Budget and Audit

Recognising your limitations as a small business is healthy. It allows you to eliminate wastage and draft creative solutions to company problems. These aspects are essential to your small company’s growth.

Review existing processes in your firm. If marketing campaigns are failing, you can cut the funding and use the resources you save to bolster other areas of your firm instead of pumping money into lost causes. Budgeting and auditing can keep you accurately informed of your firm’s goings-on and help you meticulously manage the evolution process. 

Remember, you’re not alone in this process. Accountants and financial advisors can always step in and provide some expert guidance. Be as thorough as possible, and notable progress will be made.

Businesses can often rebrand as they grow and explore new market opportunities. They grow not only in terms of recruitment numbers but also in terms of goals and character. Only a strong cash flow can make that possible. Keep reviewing your financial figures so that you can realise your firm’s full potential and accelerate its growth.

Instagram Advertising Costs UK in 2024

If you’re considering using Instagram advertising to promote your business, one of the first things you are likely to consider is your budget. How much should you spend, what is the likely result and will it offer you a good return on your investment? 

With that in mind, we take a look at Instagram ads costs in the UK in 2024.

How do Instagram ads work? 

Instagram advertising works by placing advertisements in the feed of your ideal audience—usually in the grid, on Instagram stories, or on reels. You can choose which placements you wish to use and can use various placements in a single campaign. 

Instagram is actually part of Meta (formerly known as Facebook ads) so to set up an Instagram advertising campaign, you actually use the Meta ads manager. While you are able to create sponsored posts directly on Instagram, for a well-performing advertising campaign, we would always recommend that this is set up via the Facebook ads manager. 

When it comes to Instagram advertising, there are a number of types of campaigns that you can create and it’s usual to have several types of campaigns or different “ad sets” running at once, but this will very much depend on your business and your overall budget. 

As an example, you can choose campaigns that drive users to your website (traffic), conversion campaigns - which are designed to show to people who are likely to take valuable actions such as buying a product or making an enquiry about a product or digital marketing service. You can choose reach campaigns that have the objective to get your ads in front of as many people as possible. Which types of campaigns you run will depend on your overall marketing strategy and objectives. 

If you’d like to learn more about how Instagram advertising works, why not consider our Facebook ads training. A totally tailored course to help you to get to grips with the platform. 

What is the minimum cost to advertise on Instagram? 

In theory, you can advertise on Instagram for as little as £1 a day.

However, this is very unlikely to achieve anything useful so it’s wise to think about setting a budget that will achieve your aims.

When it comes to working out your objectives, consider how people are likely to interact with your business. For example, if you sell a low-value product that is used in everyday life, it may be as simple as someone seeing your advert, clicking and buying there and then. 

If you’re a b2b provider, you may have quite a long sales process where you need to “warm up” your audience before expecting them to make an initial enquiry. 

Instagram and Facebook advertising generally works on “cost per impression” meaning that you pay for how often your advert is placed on feeds. Impressions are not unique, so often, the same Instagram user will see your advert more than once, and you will still pay for each time they see your advert. 

When you start advertising, a good benchmark is to look at cost per thousand impressions (CPM). This will vary depending on who your audience is and what type of campaign objective you are using, and will also fluctuate depending on how many other advertisers are  “going after” the same audience. If you imagine that each and every person’s Instagram feed is somewhere that holds virtual billboards - consider that you are effectively bidding against other advertisers to get space on those “billboards” (whether it’s story placement, a post in the feed or a reel). If your target audience is a competitive one, then the chances are that more advertisers are “bidding against you” and therefore you are likely to pay more for an impression. 

Once you have an idea of the CPM, you can take an estimate of what your click-through rate is (the percentage of people who see your ad who then click or take action). This will give you an idea of how much traffic you can expect to your website if you are undertaking say a conversion campaign. Then look at the “conversion rate” on your website - the number of people on your website that take action (making a purchase or making an enquiry).

So for example let’s say that you have a CPM of £10 for your campaign, a 5% click through rate and a 2% website conversion rate. 

This means that for every £10 spent, you can expect to have 50 website visitors. If you then convert 2% of them to sales then you can expect 1 “action” per £10 you spend. 

Of course, all of the above figures are completely dependent on your ads, your call to action and how much a conversion is worth to you. 

A rule of thumb that is often mentioned is a minimum budget of £10 per day for Instagram advertising. However, in reality, most successful campaigns will have a budget of at least £20 - £50 per day, and big advertisers can spend tens of thousands. 

That doesn’t mean that small budgets cannot work - but it is worth investing properly with a plan for scaling up your campaigns. 

How much should I spend on Instagram ads?

There is no right or wrong answer here. Like any marketing campaign, there are no guarantees of how they will perform, but there are some things you can put in place to help you to get a better idea. 

Firstly we recommend choosing a test budget to start advertising. This will at least allow you to get a feel for the topline costs for your specific audience and campaign type. 

Firstly, Meta will give you an estimated reach and performance of your campaigns based on your target audience and bid. While we would caveat that this tends to be a big range and often inaccurate, you can at least get some baseline figures to start with. 

It’s also important to consider your own margins. For example, if you are offering a service, then you may have large margins (as there are no production costs). Whereas if you sell a product with smaller margins, it’s worth considering how you increase the value from each purchase event, for example by increasing your average order value. 

Is Instagram advertising pay per click? 

No. You pay for impressions - but you can get to a cost per click by looking at how much you are paying for someone to click on your advert. However, unlike with Google advertising, you are not charged based on how many people click on your advert, but on how many times it is placed on the feed. 

Your “cost per click (CPC) is based on the CPM/number of clicks. The good news is that by constantly testing and improving your ads - you can drive down the cost per click. The bad news is - even if not a single user clicks on your adverts - you will still be charged for advertising. 

However, CPC is not always the best measure for Instagram campaigns. For example, if you are running a campaign that is designed to get people commenting on your post, then your measure would instead be engagement rate. Or you may be choosing to run a lead generation advert - where a user fills in a form directly online - again, here you would be looking at cost per lead, and not per click. 

How are you charged for Instagram adverts? 

As above, you are charged for impressions. However, you set a specific budget (you can choose to set a daily budget or a lifetime budget), and over the course of a month or the lifetime of the campaign, you will not be charged more than the total monthly or lifetime budget. 

Looking to learn more?

If you’re thinking of advertising on Instagram, we can help.

We offer Instagram advertising training which is designed to help you to get more from your ads budget.

Or if you’re looking for a social media agency to look after your advertising for you, then do get in touch.

How to choose a Google Ads Specialist

How to choose a Google Ads Agency?

If you are considering launching a Google advertising campaign, it’s important that you work with the right specialist or agency who can help you to ensure that your campaigns’ performance is optimised to reach your goals. 

We discuss what measures you can take to ensure that you find the right Google ads specialist for your business. 

Do I need to use a Google ads specialist or can I do it myself? 

The truth is that Google ads are not an easy platform to master, and if campaigns are not set up correctly or fully managed, it can be very easy to burn through money with no or little return. The platform changes constantly, with new features being added, old ones being taken away, and policy changes that can affect not just performance, but your ability to use the platform full stop. 

However, if you do wish to run Google ads yourself, it’s wise to do a lot of research and training before starting to run your ads. Google Skillshop offers completely free training via pre-recorded videos and can be a great place to start. However, it is worth bearing in mind that Google does want you to spend on the platform, and therefore will often make recommendations that, while may be beneficial for Google, may not be completely beneficial for you. 

If you’re looking for something more tailored to help you to run Google ads yourself, why not check out our Google ads training - which is totally one to one and completely tailored to your business - so unlike ads academy, gives you the opportunity to dive deeper into what will work specifically for you. 

Are they Google Partners? 

For a Google ads specialist to be a Google Partner, they must have several employees who are certified in Google ads, meet Google’s performance standards, show a growth in client base and also manage a minimum amount of $10,000 per 90 days across their client accounts. 

A premier partner will spend more and have a larger number of clients, or larger spending clients. 

While it’s not vital that you choose a Google ads expert who is a partner, this can give you a little more confidence that the person or agency you are dealing with has good experience in managing Google ads and has been doing so for a reasonable amount of time, with reasonable results.

One thing to bear in mind is to look for the Google Partner badge on the website. This should be clickable (like the one below), if it is not, it’s highly likely that someone is trying to pass themselves off as a Partner without being certified, so if you see a badge that does link to the partner platform, we would suggest avoiding them. 

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What does Google ads certified mean? 

Some Google ads experts may not meet the criteria for Google partners in terms of spend etc, but may still be Google certified. Google ads certification are professional accreditation that Google offers to individuals There are several certifications that an ads expert can hold, so check that their meet with your business. 

Does your Google ads specialist understand your industry? 

We would always recommend that you have a call or meeting with a few Google ads experts before committing to a single Google ads agency or freelancer as this gives you the opportunity to ask questions and even more importantly let your chosen expert ask some. 

This is where you can work out whether they understand your industry, what types of campaigns may work (or not work) for you, and your target audience and potential keywords.

There are several types of Google Ads campaign types, including search campaigns, display, video and shopping ads. An agency should be able to advise you off the bat on which campaigns may be most effective for your business. 

What other services do they offer? 

If you’re looking solely for someone to manage Google ads for your business, then choosing a specialist PPC manager may be ideal. However, in some cases it can make them a little “biased” towards only using Google ads. 

If you’re looking for a more objective look at your digital marketing strategy as a whole, it can be worth considering what other skills they bring to the table. For example, can they also offer SEO services? Or expertise in advertising on other platforms such as social media or other programmatic advertising platforms?

Additionally, if you are using display or Google ads video campaigns, will you be expected to provide the assets, or is this included (it’s usually not). So get a clear picture of what you can expect from your budget. 

Join our Google Ads Bootcamp - and start running your own ads.

Why Are Mobile Optimised Sites Important?

A website is a powerful tool for marketing a small business, and it's important to be mobile-optimised.

What does this mean? It means that when someone visits your site from their smartphone or tablet, they can see everything they need on the page without having to scroll sideways or zoom in and out. Mobile optimisation is important because most of us are using our smartphones more than any other device these days, over 51% of all searches done via Google are done on a mobile phone, 46% from a desktop computer and the remaining 3% on a tablet. The use of mobile phones is increasing year on year, back in 2015 mobile browsing was just 32%.

View more stats here - https://www.statista.com/statistics/277125/share-of-website-traffic-coming-from-mobile-devices/

What does mobile-optimisation mean for a small business website

Mobile-optimised sites are designed to be easy for users to peruse, read, and interact with from a mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone. A mobile-optimised site is typically lighter in design and contains less image heavy content than its traditional desktop counterpart. The layout shifts depending on the user's screen orientation - horizontal scrolling is used if the device is held in landscape mode, vertical scrolling if it is held in portrait mode.

Mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones have become highly popular amongst consumers who are using them not just for browsing the internet, but also to access many of their other needs. Mobile devices are often the first place that potential customers will learn about your business or website, whether that is via a search engine, or social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Mobile devices have become integral to everyday life, they are a mini-computer in your pocket, and with this in mind, information is readily available wherever and whenever it is needed.

Why is it important to be mobile-optimised

It's necessary for small businesses to ensure that their websites are mobile-optimised. The vast majority of people browsing the internet now do so on a mobile device, and if your site isn't optimised for this type of browsing, you're missing out on potential customers.

Mobile devices have made significant improvements in recent years which have made it possible for people to do more things online from them while using less data. With the ability to look up any information online from your device which sits neatly in your pocket is an extremely powerful thing, as a business owner you have the opportunity to always be able to display your services and products at the touch of a smartphone button!

How can you tell if your site is mobile optimised

The easiest way to tell if you site is mobile friendly is to open it up on your mobile phone's browser and take a look, things to look for include:

1) You should always make sure you aren't connected to a Wifi network at the time, rather you should use your phone's 4g or 5g connection. This will enable you to get a more accurate understanding of the page load speeds, if you are connected to your Wifi it will be using your broadband connection speed rather than the mobile data.

2) Check that your navigation works correctly, usually you will see the standard desktop navigation bar replaced with what is called "the hamburger menu", when clicked this will open up a list of your site pages.

3) Does your website scroll sideways? If so then it is a strong indicator that your design isn't built entirely for mobile use. Content which is wider than your screen can make it difficult for site visitors to use your website effectively.

4) Can you click on your links and buttons easily? You should be able to click any hyperlinks or buttons on your pages easily without accidentally hitting other clickable items nearby. If they are too close together it could make navigating your website extremely difficult on mobile devices.

Check mobile design using your desktop computer

If for some reason you don't have a mobile device to hand, you can easily perform the same checks above using your desktop computer. The way you do this is to resize your browser window manually by minimising the window and manually dragging the corner to resize it, in an ideal world you should see your website design changing as you do this, depending on the browser window's "viewport".

Drag your window to roughly the same size and orientation that you would expect from a mobile phone screen and check for issues.

Use Google's tools to tell you

Google has specific tools which help web designers and site owners understand if their website is mobile friendly. The first is their "Google Page Speed Insights" tool found here - https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/.

Google Page Insights is primarily intended to help identify areas of your website which are slow to load on both Mobile and Desktop devices. It will provide you with some feedback on what improvements should be made to gain a better performance on mobiles.

However this tool can be quite technical in what it suggests, you need to have some knowledge of coding and technologies behind websites and web servers to really gain the most out of it.

The second tool is Google Search Console, this like the previous tool provides feedback on how your website performs on mobiles. It gives you average load speeds on a page by page basis but also has a "Mobile Usability" section providing feedback on design elements, text too small to read, clickable items too close together etc...

How do you make your site mobile optimised

There are two main strategies in making your website mobile friendly:

The first (and oldest) is to design two separate versions of your website and have the browser display the correct version depending on which device you are using to view the site. This essentially duplicates your entire website, producing two different versions, this can cause issues when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) where the search engines such as Google may index multiple versions of your website. A line of code is added to your website to detect the browser window (or viewport) dimensions and display the correct version of your website.

The second and by far the most common and accepted method is to design a "responsive" website. This is where your website design automatically resizes itself or "responds" to the size of the viewport or browser window. This is done using something called CSS (cascading style sheets). CSS is a separate coding language which is only used to determine the look and feel of your website, it has nothing to do with the actual physical content (wording, images, video etc..).

With CSS you can define a set of rules for font size, colour, pixel dimensions etc... for any element of your website's design. Through CSS you can set specific rules out for desktop machines, tablets and mobile phones. Because CSS is separate from your site content there is no need to create two separate versions of your pages as in the previous method. CSS would use the same page content and simply display it differently for each device.

Modern CMS's should be mobile optimised

Most modern websites are based upon a CMS (content management system) such as WordPress, WIX or DUDA. These are basically a framework for building your website upon and have a range of different "themes" which can be applied as a basis of your website's design. Newer themes are more often than not always mobile friendly.

Problems occur when websites are built using an old theme, a bespoke theme or out-dated theme. If you are using a CMS for your website it is advisable that you ensure all relevant updates are performed to the CMS software to ensure that your website is mobile friendly.

Hand Coded websites or those not based around a CMS can also cause issues depending on the age of your site or when it was put together, these would require significantly more work to fix any mobile design issues.

Conclusion

In the modern age of mobile browsing and social media, it is vital that as a small business your website is as accessible on mobile devices as possible. Over half of all website visitors use a mobile device these days. Ensuring that your website performs well for mobiles is key to online success, from a fast loading website on 4g & 5g to a design suited for the smaller screen sizes.

Making your website mobile-optimised can be quite daunting, especially if you aren't a web designer. If you are experiencing issues with your website on mobiles and want to ensure you are reaching those potential customers using a mobile device, seeking the help of a professional may be an option you should consider.

Ultimate Guide to Mobile App Marketing

You’ve taken the plunge and created an app that you believe will get people excited. Whether it’s a mobile gaming app, a lifestyle app or anything else you can imagine once your app is ready to be introduced to the world, how do you go about making sure it gets noticed. 

Mobile app marketing can be a world away from marketing a physical product or service, and getting people to install and interact with your app is really just the first step to mobile app domination. 

So how can market your app successfully? Our ultimate guide digs deep into how to use a range of strategies to make sure that, whatever your app idea, you ensure that it is successful.

Setting goals for your app - installs, user retention, monetisation

Any marketing plan rests on its objectives. The clearer you are in knowing what you want to achieve the better you can forecast profits, measure results and tackle potential problems. 

Mobile apps can serve a variety of purposes, they can be a money generator within themselves or a way of helping new and existing customers easily access your services elsewhere such as online or in-store. 

Just like websites, mobile apps can serve a huge range of functions, so what’s right for you will depend on the purpose of your app, and how it drives your business. 

We will talk about how to monetize your app further along in this guide, but being clear about what you want your app to do for you must be the first stage before starting any app marketing strategy. 

Generally speaking, there will be three areas to focus on when creating your app marketing objectives namely:

App Installs

Of course, getting people to install your app in the first place is the key to the next two marketing phases. The more people who are your ideal customers who install your app, the more likely your app will be successful. 

Consider setting targets for the number of installs you need to make your business profitable. 

User Retention

Getting someone to install your app is all good and well, but ensuring that they use and keep the app installed is what will matter in the longer term. Of course, in some circumstances where the app is designed to be used for a single purpose, retention may be less important. 

Consider the difference between Rightmove and Uber. We buy a house maybe a few times in a lifetime, whereas for many jumping in an Uber is a weekly occurrence. Therefore their retention goals will be very different. 

Monetisation 

All the users in the world won’t make a difference if you don’t have a clear idea of how you will make money from your mobile application. While your monetisation goals will likely have been set before the build, ensure that you create clear KPI’s on what will look like success to you. 

Understanding your audience 

Before you start with any type of marketing campaign, it’s vital that you understand who your app appeals to and dig deep into who they are and why they will want to use your app. 

We recommend that you consider using Buyer Personas to help to understand who your users are likely to be, what will make them keep coming back to your app, and segment your users by intent. 

Find out more about creating buyer personas. 

How to get mobile app installs 

Getting people to actually install your app is the first step on your journey to app success. This phase is all about user acquisition, so is not yet necessarily focused on monetisation. 

Use your audience personas and consider the type of app you have to choose which mobile app marketing strategy will work best for your business.

We discuss some of the best ways to gain installs from mobile app users below

Marketing Your App in the App Store or Google Play 

There’s a lot of competition within the stores themselves.  Apple’s Apples app stores has around 1.96 million apps available for download, and the Google Play store has a whopping 2.87 million apps available for download. 

So making sure that your listing stands out to your ideal customers is key to success. 

Optimise Your App Listing For Increased Visibility - App Store Optimization

When users are looking for new apps to download they search within the app store itself so you need to optimise your listing to ensure your app appears at the top of the results. This is known as ASO (app store optimisation) and works in a similar way to website SEO. If you’re familiar with website SEO, here’s a handy guide to the main differences between search engine optimisation and app store optimisation. 

To do this, you need keywords strategically placed through the app listing’s various sections, and make sure your primary keywords are included in the listing’s title. Don’t compromise succinctness for keywords though – you need to get the balance right.

The App store and Google Play each use slightly different ranking factors to determine how your app will show and draw information from different areas. 

Google play using the description as one of the main areas to take keywords to rank your app for. However for Apple, keywords are not taken from the app description, but it’s still important to make sure that this is written in a way that’s appealing to users.

Choose A Memorable Icon for your app

You need to choose an icon for your app that is memorable, enticing and distinct. After all, it’ll give users the first impression of what you have to offer when they look for your app in the store.  Make sure your icon stands out using contrasting, vibrant colours and a distinctive design.

It can be worth testing several app icons to see which most users respond to in the store, and don’t be afraid to change your icon if it’s not performing as you would like. Even big brands tend to go through several app icon iterations. 

Use great visuals

Be sure to use great visuals to show off what your app can do, and what it looks like. Upload videos, screenshots and images that really give someone searching a feel for what they will get. 

It’s worth noting that a good listing can help you to get featured on things like App of the day. 

Keep Ratings High

Reviews and ratings are used as a key ranking factor so you need to keep yours at 4.5 or above. It’s worth noting that 80% of mobile app users read at least one review before choosing to download an app, so it’s essential that you reply to reviews and take feedback on board for future updates. 

Encourage your users to leave positive reviews, manage any negative reviews effectively and keep your channels of communication open to user feedback. 

Content marketing for a mobile app

Consider generating content elsewhere that is going to be helpful for your app users. Depending on your app this could be as simple as having a single landing page that explains what the app is about, to an all singing all dancing website that supports your app marketing. 

Consider what type of content will best support your app. For example, if you were creating an app that helps users to create good habits, consider blog posts that help to support them.  Or if you have a gaming app, it can be a good idea to create content that helps users understand how to play. 

A further benefit of having an online presence is that you are able to get SEO value out of what is available online, meaning that search engines can pick up on what you offer. 

Advertising a mobile app using Facebook ads 

Paid ads on social media can be a fantastic way to spread the word about your app. The Facebook ads manager, which also incorporates Instagram allows you to directly create campaigns with the objective of getting app installs and direct call to action to install your app. 

Before setting up your ad campaigns, you will need to register your mobile app for Facebook mobile ad apps. Once this is done, you will need to set up your SDK (software developers kit). This enables you to pass app event data (such as installs, day 2 retention, in app purchases) back to Facebook. And you’ll need this to properly implement your Facebook app marketing campaigns properly. 

Info on how to do this can be found directly here 

Once this is set up, you can start to put together your mobile app Facebook ads. Facebook provides you with a range of options when it comes to audience targeting, types of ad, and also the placement where your ad will show. 

When starting out, you are unlikely to already have a lot of data, so use your buyer personas to create interest based audiences. These are audiences who are likely to want to use your app. So think - what other apps might they use, what topics are they interested in? What locations are they likely to be in? 

Once you have valuable data running through your app, you can get a little more clever. You can use that information to start creating “lookalike audiences”- audiences who are “like” your existing users. 

Want to learn more about Facebook ads for app installs? Why not book our Facebook ads training? You’ll get a one to one tailored training session with an app advertising expert. 

Advertising a mobile app using Google Ads 

Google is also a great platform to promote your app. Google app install ads can show in several places across the web including on Google Play, across the display network (for example on a gaming site), and on YouTube. 

App install ads on Google are fairly easy to set up, but do lack the options and control of Facebook ads. You simply upload “assets” which could be images, video or HTML 5 assets alongside your text and logo and let Google do the heavy lifting in terms of content creation. 

Just like Facebook, as you start to drive data you can optimise your Google ads for specific actions which you want people to take. So starting out, this may simply be app installs, but as you continue to drive data through the app, you may start to focus on driving in app actions instead, such as in app purchases, or retention. 

Want to know more about Google ads? Why not try our Google ads training?

Influencer marketing for an app 

Depending on your audience and what your app does, it could be worth considering whether getting an influencer on board will help to grow your business. 

When choosing an influencer, first make sure that they are someone who resonates with your target audience. Consider what platforms your audience use and look at how they perform on that specific channel. For example, if you have a gaming app you might want to look at those who are big on Twitch rather than Twitter. 

Then look at how much engagement the influencer gets. Follower numbers aren’t everything, so look closely at engagement metrics. How many people interact with their posts or videos? Do they have a good reputation? 

Be mindful that you need to be clear on what you want your influencers to do, and how you plan to reward them. Apps are a little different from physical products, in that it’s not just a case of gifting a handbag. So consider planning a careful strategy on what you want them to do, and have clear expectations. 

Mobile App retention

Once you have a strategy in place for your installs and have users flowing through your apps it’s time to look at how many people are staying. 

The truth is, we all have limited space on our phones, in terms of both data and also looking cluttered, so it’s not unusual for a user to choose to delete an app if they are not using it. 

While retention rates vary hugely across types of app, research undertaken in 2021 showed for example that casual gaming apps need to get maximum revenue per user in the first two days as retention rates slip heavily after this period. 

What retention rates you need will depend on what your app is intended to do, and how you generate money from it, but it's worth bearing in mind that, across ALL app verticals an average of over 80% of users will drop off 90 days after installing an app. 

Mobile App Onboarding process 

One of the biggest bugbears for users of any app is when it’s overly complicated or they don’t know how it works, so quickly uninstall. 

When users sign up for your app, make sure that there is a very clear onboarding process that allows them to understand the benefits of the app, what’s included in their version, and how to use it. 

Consider combining in-app instructions with emails or push notifications that help users to get the most out of the app. Be clear in your app messaging in the store and within the app itself so that users understand exactly what they are meant to do. 

If your app includes a subscription or upgrade, make sure that there is enough free content to make the app usable first. It’s all well and good to put improvements behind a subscription but if users cannot see the benefit of the free version first, they are unlikely to want to upgrade, and this can seriously impact on reviews as well. 

Using email to retain app users 

Remember while you to your app is EVERYTHING, for your users it’s likely one of hundreds on their phones, so it’s easy to install and forget. So utilise email to get those who have installed back on the app. 

You can update on new features, or updates that solve problems. Or give tips or run competitions. Using email to contact your user base allows you to increase retention, whether it’s day one or day 30. 

Use push notification to increase app retention

Sending push notifications from your app allows you to “speak” to those who’ve installed it directly on their devices, and can be great for long term retention.

Push notifications should add value to your audience, so just saying “don’t forget our app” isn’t enough. Use push notifications to provide important messages, reminders and tips. 

And be judicious about how many notifications users receive, as they are more likely to opt out of them (or even uninstall) if there are too many. 

(If you’ve ever used Clubhouse - you’ll know what we mean)! 

Incentivise app users 

If you really want people to use your app as opposed to another method of communication such as your website, consider whether you can incentivise app users. Either by offering them specific discounts or benefits. 

Using social media to boost mobile app retention

Accompanying your app with an organic or paid social media strategy can help to really boost your retention rates. 

Depending on the type of app you have and your target audience, you can consider adding things like private Facebook groups as part of your marketing strategy. 

Groups particularly can foster a sense of community that keeps users logging on and wanting more. For example if you have a productivity app, consider adding a group or page that provides users more tips outside of what the app can offer. 

How to make money from your mobile app

While for many businesses, a mobile app may simply be a way to increase sales via other means, for many of those who develop a mobile app, they do it with the objective of making money from the app itself. 

There are several ways in which you can monetise your app, and in many cases, it may be that you have several income streams such as advertising and in-app purchases, so it’s never “one size fits all”. 

However, we discuss some of the ways in which you can make money from your app. 

Free vs Paid apps

Before putting your app live it’s worth considering whether your app should be free to download or whether you expect a user to pay to install it. 

However, paid apps are now incredibly unusual as generally speaking, people are not willing to stump up cash to install an app. There are very very few apps where this can work - looking at the app store now, they mainly sit in gaming categories and are well known. 

Subscriptions

Offering users a subscription-based model in your app can be a great way to make money if you offer really useful content which users are happy to pay to access. 

Examples of subscription based apps include things like Noom (a diet based subscription), Headspace and even Tinder. 

The benefit of subscription monetisation are that you get a recurring revenue stream however it’s worth understanding the commission structure of each platform. Typically the App store charge a standard 30% commission for the first year, and 15% after that, and Google Play does the same. There are some exceptions, so it’s worth looking at each platform separately. 

In app purchases 

In-app purchases account for 48.2% of mobile app earnings - compared to just 14% from advertising. 

In app purchases can be anything from buying lives for a game, to a one off upgrade for a photo editing app to removing ads in certain apps. 

Consider what benefits you can add within your app, and how this can be montised via in app purchases. Again the stores will take around 30% of in app purchase revenue. 

Advertising 

Advertising is one of the most popular ways for app developers to make money on their apps. This means that you get paid when your users watch ads within your mobile app. 

It’s a fairly simple way of adding revenue to your app, as all you need to do is add space to display ads within your app. You will get paid every time an ad is displayed, when people click on the app, and when a user installs an advertised app. 

However, don’t get too excited just yet. Making money from ads requires high numbers, as the average revenue per impression from banner ads is around £0.06, though this rises to around £0.60 for interstitial ads (ones that interrupt the user) . 

It’s wise to consider user experience vs advertising, as too many ads can mean less retention. For some apps using rewarded ads can be a great way to generate revenue - so a user has to watch an advert on your app to get a benefit, such as free lives for a gaming app, or unlock a feature on a different type of app. 

Can a pre-employment background check policy be part of a marketing strategy?

A company’s success depends very much on its public image, especially today when any minor scandal will spread like wildfire on social media, giving rise to a huge backlash and even calls to boycott the company’s products. On the other hand, if a business enjoys a good reputation it will see more interest in its products and services, and this means, of course, larger earnings. Background checks are one of the best tools available to Australian employers if they want to make sure their company has a good name, which is one of the pillars of a modern marketing strategy. Let’s see how this works.

Why does reputation matter?

If you want to understand how can a public scandal affect a company’s image and balance sheet, all you have to do is look at the harassment scandals brought to light by the #MeToo movement.

Big companies, such as Nike, Guess or Barnes and Noble have been hit by harassment claims and their share prices fell instantly. That hurts a lot. If a company doesn’t address the situation quickly, they risk being targeted by even more hurtful boycotts.

You don’t have to be Nike to feel the heat when such a scandal breaks. For a small company it’s enough if the news spreads in the local community. Just imagine for one second what might happen if a female customer comes forward and claims she was assaulted while getting a pedicure at your small beauty parlor. You might as well tell your employees to take the rest of the month off as you won’t be seeing many clients. Or imagine having a customer come into your building to be met by a rude drunk employee. They won’t be coming back any time soon, either.

This brings us back to the pre-employment background checks issue. If you want a reliable employee, don’t be afraid to ask for a background check.

Should you make background checks compulsory?

If you want to avoid bad hires, the answer is yes. The good part is that submitting your present and future employees to a national police check is not a complicated task and won’t put an extra burden on your HR department. Many Australian businesses have started using online police check agencies like the following link for ANCC: https://www.australiannationalcharactercheck.com.au who are fully accredited with the government, so their results are valid.

As an employer, you can tell your HR manager to find such an online agency and set up an account they can use any time they need. All they have to do is access the online platform, fill in the required information, and wait for the criminal record check. Actually, you don’t have to wait much. The police check comes back in 2 or 3 business days and if a candidate has a record you’ll know every offence they’ve ever committed in all Australian states and territory.

All you have to do is eliminate those that have a record and could prove dangerous to your company’s reputation.

A side benefit of using routine background checks is that word spreads and good professionals will be more interested to apply for a position with a company that takes workplace safety seriously. Marketing yourself as a reliable employer will help you attract better people, while those who have something to hide will prefer to stay away.

How Working In Google Workspace Can Benefit Your Business

There is a wide range of services and platforms out there that can make it easier to run a business. Choosing the best one for your business can be tricky. 

In this blog, we are going to focus on one of the most popular platforms that businesses around the globe are turning to – Google Workspace (previously known as G Suite).

Google Workspace is one of the most versatile and flexible platforms on the market, boasting an exceptional range of apps that both small and large businesses find useful.

What Is Google Workspace (G Suite For Business)?

It may have a shiny new name, but Google Workspace is the same fantastic platform, which offers all the productivity apps you know and love. These include Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Google Docs and Sheets, Slides, Meet, and so much more.

There are various Google Workspace plans available, depending on the requirements and size of your business. Even with the very basic ‘Business Starter’ package, which costs just $6 per user per month, you will receive a customised and secure business email address, cloud storage, video meetings and ongoing support.

Other packages include the ‘Business Standard’ package and the ‘Business Plus’ package. Migrating your business to Google Workspace could not be easier with the right help.

The Benefits Of Google Workspace For Business

Google Workspace has everything your team could possibly need to work seamlessly wherever they are. It has become an invaluable tool for businesses whether they are working from home or from various locations due to the ongoing pandemic. In allows a culture of flexibility and enhanced productivity.

Here are the key benefits of Google Workspace:

Better Team Collaboration

The “deeply integrated experience” is one of the new features that came with Google Workspace’s rebranding. It allows your employees to stay connected with each other and with clients – no matter what.

Being able to communicate and connect effortlessly will help your team collaborate on projects and meet deadlines. The apps within Google Workspace allow your employees to work on the same documents and sheets. Edits are saved in real-time and files can be shared with each other.

Aside from using Gmail, the handy chat system and Meet feature allows your team to communicate with ease.

Customised Business Email

Did you know that Gmail is the worlds most popular email? With Google Workspace, you and each of your employees will be able to create an email address that is customised to the business. 

For example, it could be employeename@companyname.com. If you have a start-up or small business – this will demonstrate professionalism and increase brand awareness.

Plus, your team will be able to access their work emails, wherever they are! This is useful if your team are working remotely or if someone is away on business.

Better yet, all email addresses and files are owned by the company, not the employee. So, if an employee leaves, you have full access and control of the email address they were using.

Added Layer Of Security

Securing your business online is crucial. But with Google Workspace, you don’t have to fork out for expensive security software packages. Instead, you have peace of mind that all of your data is stored securely in the cloud. 

Google Workspace features comprehensive built-in security. Your team won't have to back up data or save it to different devices. It is all saved automatically to the cloud – and can be accessed at any time from any place.

Improved Employee Productivity

Employee productivity is a worry for any business owner, especially if your team is working from home. But with Google Workspace, the way your employees work will be transformed. 

Having everything they need at their fingertips ensures your employees can spend time working on what matters. Missing emails, infrequent communication, lack of collaboration and missed deadlines will be a thing of the past once you migrate to Google Workspace.

Abundance Of Storage Space

Because Google Workspace is a cloud-based platform, you have an abundance of storage space for your files, documents, calendars and emails. 

Plus, it is possible to migrate your data from your current storage solution over to Google Workspace, meaning you will have everything you need in one secure place.

Cost Effective Packages

As mentioned previously, there are various Google Workspace packages available depending on your needs. Your Google Workspace package can be tailored to your business size and number of employees. 

You can choose which features and apps you are most likely to use. This means you are never paying for features you don’t need. Plus, this flexibility with pricing means your Google Workspace is scalable and can be adjusted as your business expands.

Integrating Digital Marketing & Public Relations

There was a time when a company’s marketing team and PR team worked parallel to each other. Aware of each other’s presence yet never really crossing over. However, as the world turned digital, it became apparent that integrating digital marketing and PR made a lot of sense.

If you are yet to combine your digital marketing and public relations, you may be missing out!

Differences Between Digital Marketing And Public Relations

PR is used to increase brand awareness, create a buzz when launching a new product, form a positive brand reputation and deal with negative press. It achieves these goals by generating positive media coverage and creating relationships with industry publications.

The overall goal is to ensure the brand stands out for the right reasons to the people who matter including the target audience, stakeholders and potential partners.

Whereas digital marketing is used to directly sell a company’s products and services to new, existing and potential customers. It uses a variety of tactics, from search engine optimises to social media marketing, to convert web users into leads and convert leads into hard sales.

Similarities Between Digital Marketing And Public Relations

Although they are different practices, there has always been similarities between digital marketing and public relations. Both practices aim to boost brand awareness and enforce a positive brand image.

Plus, both practices aim to increase web traffic and use some of the same channels to do so, including social media and search engines.

In addition, digital marketing and PR often target similar audiences. The audience targeted by PR may be broader, but it still includes potential customers.

Benefits Of Integrating Digital Marketing And Public Relations

As both marketing and traditional PR have become accustomed to the digital world, the lines between the two have blurred. And the common goals between the two seemed to have aligned. Through integrating digital marketing and public relations, a company can:

Enhance Brand Consistency

The digital world is overflowing with businesses just like yours. To stand out from the crowd and strengthen your USP, you need a strong brand identity.

Integrating digital marketing and public relations can help ensure that, wherever it appears (on or off the web), your brand is consistent. This includes using the same logo, brand colours, straplines, messaging and tone of voice. 

Reap The Benefits Of Collaboration

When your digital marketing team and PR team come together, magic happens. For example, marketing experts can provide analytics to help improve future strategies and campaigns. Whereas, PR pros can help the marketing team stay ahead of the game with current, exciting campaigns.

Improve Search Engine Rankings

SEO is a fundamental part of digital marketing. A lot of work goes into getting a company website to the top of Google. Anything that helps increase the company’s position on SERPs is great in our book. And this includes PR.

Getting an article about your business published in a huge online publication, or on the website of a leading industry, influencer can help boost your search engine rankings.

Build Positive Relationships

With the right contacts, it can be much easier to achieve amazing results with your digital marketing campaigns. And your PR team are sure to have positive relationships with useful contacts within the industry.

Boost Marketing And PR Efforts

Digital marketing tactics can be used to boost the efforts of your PR team – and vice versa. For example, a collaboration between your PR team and content marketing team can lead to truly amazing content that is sure to be placed in valuable online publications that will reach the best possible audience.

Top Tips For Integrating Digital Marketing And Public Relations

Here are our top tips for integrating digital marketing and PR:

Make The Most Of Content Marketing

As we just mentioned, content marketing can enhance your PR efforts. With the help of your content marketing experts, your PR team can create kick-ass content to pitch to journalists and publications. Plus, your PR team and digital marketing team can align their content calendars/strategies to ensure the same messaging is going out.

Target Social Media Influencers

Aside from targeting journalists, your PR team can also work with your digital marketing team to target social media influencers. Building a positive, mutually-beneficial relationship with social media influencers in your industry can work wonders for your PR. It can boost your brand awareness and encourage your target audience to trust your brand.

Take Advantage Of Back Links

Having a link back to your website on another website demonstrates to Google that your website is trustworthy and relevant – especially it the other website has a higher domain authority.

When pitching press releases and articles, your PR team can boost the SEO efforts of your digital marketing team by including links back to relevant pages on your company website.

Utilise Email Marketing

When it comes to PR, email marketing can be overlooked. But is an excellent digital marketing tactic that can be used to build strong relationships with your audience.

For example, if your company is doing something for charity (which is always great for PR), ensure you share it with your audience in an email newsletter.  Plus, email newsletters allow you to tailor content to specific audiences, which can be incredibly useful.

Shout About It On Social Media

Aside from targeting social media influencers, your social media channels can also be used to showcase and amplify your PR strategies.

For example, you can create and leverage a campaign hashtag, share published articles onto your social media channels and create social media posts that are in line with the brands current messaging.

This article was created by ec-pr, a London-based B2B PR agency that make technology brands visible, valued and understood. They have a 100% track record of delivering clients with regular feature length coverage.

Brexit and Facebook Advertising

Today’s guest post is from Babs Jamieson. Babs is the Founder, CEO and Solicitor at Jamieson Law, the innovative, different approach to legal services.

Facebook has announced that UK users will be moved from being overseen by Facebook Ireland, to the company’s Californian headquarters post Brexit.

It’s thought that after the Brexit transition is completed, however, British users will be covered by the Californian rules of Facebook's headquarters.

Babs Jamieson of Jamieson Law - shares further details in this easy to follow video.

The benefits of cloud accounting for a small business in the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the many benefits of cloud accounting software. Accounting software ensures financial clarity doesn’t have to be lost as a result of remote working. With accounting software, you gain access to accurate, real-time financial information even when you can’t visit your accountant in person.

Access the latest figures

You can access your key financial information from anywhere as long as you are connected to the internet. You don’t need to head to the office during the pandemic just to find out where you stand during the pandemic. Your accountant can talk you through the figures that you see on your screen to give you a rich understanding of your situation even when you’re doing business from home.

Easy to use

One of the biggest benefits of cloud accounting software is that it's so easy to use. This means anyone who needs access to your latest financial information can get it without having to see you in person. Your remote workforce can easily get to grips with many of the best cloud-based software systems you may be relying on to keep business moving.

Cut down on paperwork

Another big advantage of using cloud accountancy services during the pandemic is that you won’t have to deal with anywhere near as much paperwork as you may have done in the past. If you need to retrieve an important document such as an invoice, you’ll be able to simply bring this up on your screen rather than head out to the office to find it.

Robust security standards

Accountancy software is also ideal for small companies that are worried about cyber attacks. When you place your financial information in the cloud, you get the highest standards of data encryption, password protection and so on. This is much more secure than leaving your information on your office servers when your business premises aren’t currently open for business.

Make better forecasts

If you’ve applied for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan, cloud accounting can be incredibly helpful. It gives you quick access to accurate financial data that makes it easier to make forecasts and keep the authorities up to date with your current position. The best software also integrates with various other applications to make your business more effective. These can include payment management and processing software, document management software and many more.

Various packages available

Not every company’s needs are the same, which is why the big cloud accounting software companies offer a range of packages to meet various needs. If you only need a basic package, you should be able to get one for a modest monthly fee. However, bigger packages are available if you need more from your accountancy software.

Find the right accountancy package

A leading accounting company like StriveX can help you if you need assistance with finding the right cloud accountancy package during the pandemic. Although the news of a potential vaccine has been welcomed, it could be some time before the business world returns to normal. Even outside of a pandemic, cloud accounting can offer a wealth of benefits to your business whilst making it compliant with the Government’s Making Tax Digital scheme.

About the Author

StriveX are accountants in Reading. For more information about using cloud accountancy software during the pandemic and beyond, talk to StriveX today. Whether you’re starting from scratch or wish to move from another software provider, they can assist you.