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…

Your website’s performance is crucial for attracting and retaining visitors. By monitoring key metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and enhance user experience. Let’s explore five essential ways to measure your website’s effectiveness: Bounce Rate What is it? Bounce rate represents the percentage of visitors who land on a page and then leave without interacting further. A high bounce rate may indicate that your content isn’t engaging or relevant. How to measure it? Use Google Analytics to track bounce rate for each page Aim for a low bounce rate - typically below 50% Why does it matter? A low bounce rate suggests that visitors find value in your content and explore further. Goal Conversion Rate What is it? Goal conversion rate measures…

SEO is always changing that is for sure but fortunately Google is now transparent in the best practices they are looking for when ranking.  Here’s a snapshot of what is important for 2022. Domain Trust Google and specialist SEO tools such as MOZ use a variety of metrics to determine domain trust scores. Website age, quality of content, external links and the “stickiness” of a website all contribute to the trust score.  Here’s the best tactics to ensure your trust score is its best for better rankings: Review and test your customer journey to ensure you are providing the best user experience for conversion. Always get independent analysis, simple changes can make a huge difference. New website visitors will be…

We're always keen to pick up on any digital marketing tips so we jumped at the chance to go to the E-commerce Show North yesterday, with lots of exhibitors to speak to and talks to attend. Nothing like a day out of the office to meet new people and to pick up some digital marketing tips! I tried hard to be in three seminars at the same time, but it didn’t work. But here’s what I took away from the ones I did get to: Influencer marketing (panel session) There were lots of great digital marketing tips in this session, particularly for brands considering using influencer marketing to reach new audiences. Be clear on what you want to achieve. Influencers are…

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…