For most small businesses, budget is not the biggest challenge, focus is. When money is tight, every decision matters more. The goal is not to do more marketing, but to do the right marketing, consistently and deliberately. Here are the principles I use for my clients to keep costs low while still investing in what actually drives results: Be selective with advertising You do not need to be everywhere. Paid advertising should be intentional, targeted and constantly questioned. Before spending anything, ask: Who exactly is this for? What result do we realistically expect? Is this driving leads, learning, or just noise? Focusing on niche, relevant audiences almost always outperforms broad reach when budgets are limited. Keep the tools and subscriptions simple…

Investment in styling your products has never been so important.  When discussing content plans with clients it is natural to talk about themes and words before imagery but imagery is key and has been so important to our client Wipe Easy Tablecloths. Wipe Easy Tablecloths sell a large range of oilcloths and display all the designs in detail but it is the styling of those designs that help the buyer visualise the design in their homes.  You can see how this styled Christmas table setting image has helped to sell this design and has been a well worth investment. "For interiors it's all about the styled image" The styled image has appeared in many forms in a newsletter, on social…

There is so much going on in everyone’s life all over the world that setting the right tone in content right now, is really difficult. When Covid-19 became a global issue way back in February, it didn’t feel right to send “marketing” messages at all and it has taken a while to adapt and re-think communication strategies. The dictionary definition of empathy is as follows: “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another” Empathy is different from sympathy when you feel pity for what the other person is going through. Empathy is about putting yourself in their shoes. People are looking for information, and depending on your industry, there may be several content opportunities for you to dig…

Duplicate content is an issue for all digital marketers and can adversely affect your rankings unless you take specific action.  Duplicate content means that the same or very similar content appears on different URLs, either within your own site or on 3rd party sites. The problem with duplicate content is that Google doesn’t know which of the duplicated pages is most important, so it will be confused about which page to show your potential customers and your search rankings can suffer.  And we all know what happens to businesses when they move to page 2 on Google… Duplicate content is a problem in particular for e-commerce sellers where products are largely the same. One way to avoid duplication is to…

When planning your marketing strategy, it is likely that content marketing will play a significant part in your plan. Content is vital for building trust with your customers and establishing your brand and its values with potential buyers. Content develops leads, converts into sales and can even promote brand ambassadors. However, for content to work its magic, it needs to be compelling. So, how can your business create compelling content to engage your audience? Steps to creating compelling content 1.  Define your audience It may sound simple, but content will only compel if you target it correctly. Not all content is the same, and not everyone will be compelled by the same content. For a start, you need to make…