SMS marketing often takes a back seat to more visible methods when a business is considering how to develop a new marketing strategy. Given the clear success rate of this type of customer interaction, it is a mistake not to include SMS messaging in the marketing plan for your business. Successful businesses around the globe are utilizing SMS to reach their customers, both past and present. This technique enables a message to literally be in the hands of many thousands of people in just a few minutes and with a relatively small amount of effort. What is SMS Marketing? SMS marketing is also referred to as bulk texting. This is because a large bulk of text messages are sent at the same time to the desired customer base. This is quick, simple, and very cost-effective. With the click of a button, the same promotional text message will be sent to everyone that the message has been allocated to. This might be a one-way message, or customers may have the option to send a reply if they wish to. How Successful is Bulk Texting? The most amazing part of using bulk sms messaging to reach customers is that it genuinely works on a large scale! A text message appears much more personal than an email or social media post, and that is why as many as 90% of recipients will open and read each message. Compare this with the approximate 30% open rate for email communication, and you can see a clear winner. Furthermore, consider the time that it takes to draft a promotional text message as opposed to creating an entire email newsletter. Trust and Communication Trust and communication are two pivotal aspects of providing an amazing customer experience. If a potential customer does not trust a business or is unable to communicate effectively with them, then they are not going to spend their money on this business. Customers generally trust text message communications because they will have given this company their phone number. This is not therefore treated with the same suspicion as an unsolicited phone call or a random email. Additionally, if the customer has been given the option to reply to the text message, or has received instructions within the message on how to engage with the business, then this prompts ongoing engagement. Doing so opens up the channels of communication and encourages a customer to take action which could lead to a sale. Successful Businesses and Bulk SMS With so many clear advantages to this marketing technique, it is no wonder that successful businesses around the world are using this method. It is easy to outsource this kind of marketing to a reputable agency, thereby saving yourself the time of doing it in-house. Outsourcing this task will also help to ensure that your campaigns are always expertly executed and managed in the most effective way. When you make the decision to start using bulk SMS messaging to promote your business, you may be surprised at just how quickly your customer base begins to...

Looking to improve brand awareness? Whether you are a new startup trying to establish your presence in an industry or you have been around for many years and are simply looking to create a stronger presence, there are a number of strategies to try which should help to increase brand awareness. When you are able to increase brand awareness, you can attract more customers, compete at a higher level and improve the reputation of your brand, so it is certainly worthwhile. With this in mind, here are a few of the best strategies to try if you are looking to increase brand awareness. Get Involved With The Community There is a strong focus on creating a strong online presence when it comes to brand awareness and while this is certainly important, you should not overlook the value of more traditional forms of marketing. Community engagement is an excellent way to increase brand awareness and attract customers from the local area as you can form strong connections, make a positive impact on your local area and establish your brand as an important organization in the community. Hosting events is one of the best ways to do this along with volunteering and partnering with other local organizations. PPC A fast, cost-effective and smart way to greatly increase brand awareness and to direct more traffic to your online website is with PPC. PPC will allow you to immediately become highly visible online and allow you to reach your target customer when they are looking for products/services that you can provide, but it is important that you use an experienced PPC agency in Manchester for the best results. The top agencies will be able to deliver the best campaigns, boost your sales and ensure that it is a smart investment for your business. Encourage Social Media Shares Social media is obviously a great way to get your name out there and to engage with your target customer, but it is also a platform that many brands struggle to use effectively. In terms of increasing brand awareness, the key is to encourage likes and shares so that you can reach the network of your existing followers. There are a couple of effective ways to do this, including: Social media competitions (like and share to enter)Creating and sharing high-quality contentBeing a source for news in your industryStanding for an important cause Partner With Influencers These days, one of the best ways to get your name out there and to increase your sales is to partner with influencers. Influencer marketing continues to grow at a rapid rate and this is because it is such an effective form of marketing and one that will allow you to reach a much larger audience, improve your brand reputation and attract new customers to your business. If you are looking to increase brand awareness, then these are currently the best strategies to try. No matter if you are a start-up or you have been around for a number of years, these strategies will help you to reach a much larger audience and enjoy the benefits that this can...

These days, search powers the internet and having a website that is search-engine friendly and capable of ranking high is essential if you’re to be found by potential clients or customers. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a site to rank higher in the search engine results pages. In truth, SEO is a highly detailed and involved process, but there are still some small changes you can make to your website and site content that could see you enjoying better results in a relatively short time. DIY SEO vs hiring a specialist digital marketing agency While there are some tricks you can employ that may help you achieve better rankings in the short-term, if you hope to achieve the best results you should really look at outsourcing to a third-party professional digital marketing company. Achieving high rankings can take a frustratingly long time if you don’t know what you’re doing – and, even if you manage to get good rankings, there’s also absolutely no guarantee of staying high up in the coveted result pages of Google and others. Also, if you don’t know what you’re doing, there’s an equal likelihood that you’ll harm rather than enhance your ranking. If you’re in any doubt, you should think about enlisting the help of a professional firm like Flyrise that will align your business’ website with its top keywords and execute a plan to get you ranking for them. Simple tactics you can do that will help your rankings All that said, there are still various things you can do yourself that should have a positive impact on your rankings – and will also make the job of a digital marketing company considerably easier should you decide to work with one. Develop a list of keywords and phrases likely to be used by your clients (potential and existing): You know your business and market better than anyone, so you should also have a pretty clear idea of what terms or phrases people might type in to find a firm like yours. Developing a list of possible keywords and phrases will help you populate your pages with words people are likely to use when they search – greatly increasing your chances of Google registering and delivering your content under these terms. Give prominence to your keywords: You will likely be using some form of Content Management System (CMS) so, when you’re titling your page and adding a header, think about the keywords that relate directly to that content and include them in both. Also, you should split your main page content into headers – again featuring these keywords liberally. Remember not to go over the top and start throwing words in repeatedly where they aren’t required or don’t make sense, which is considered spamming. Google’s spiders are now incredibly sophisticated and aim to ‘read’ a site’s content much as a human would. In fact, its bots are now so smart they can recognize poor grammar and structure – which, in turn, Google uses to prioritize pages in listings. Keep sentences short and split long paragraphs: As mentioned, Google now attempts to ‘read’ content and is increasingly frowning upon overly long sentences and paragraphs. Reading long reams of text is tiring on the eyes, and Google knows this. So keep your text concise and to the...

Small and large businesses all share the same interest: they want to connect with their audience through social media. There are many reasons for this, though mainly, it is to: Increase brand awarenessIncrease revenue Social media marketing makes achieving these aims possible – and it is not as difficult as it sounds! Follow these tips to gain a clear understanding of how you can use social media as an effective marketing tool for your business.  Share high-quality content Every successful business regularly shares content on their social media pages – it drives consumer engagement and enables them to promote their products, services, and everything else that is important. It is simply not enough to post content every couple of months out of obligation – that is poor branding. Before you start working on any content, it is a great idea to create a content calendar, which is a tool used by many social media professionals. A content calendar puts all your content plans into one document, which helps you to organize upload dates and who oversees each project. Microsoft Excel is one of the most popular choices for doing this. Here is an Excel function list to get you up-to-date on how to use Excel. Your content calendar should include: The title of the contentA detailed description of what it is aboutCreators (which employees are working on it?)The platforms the content will be shared onThe deadline Now, what makes for high-quality content? High-quality content could be anything from a blog to a product unveiling video, but it should always: Benefit the audienceEvoke emotionBe aesthetically consistent with your brandCatch the viewer’s attention, be it through an interesting title or thumbnailBe posted on the right platform (for example, a ‘How To’ guide is probably more suited to YouTube than Snapchat) Make your brand ‘human’ A popular trend in social media marketing right now is making your brand as ‘human’ as possible. Corporate jargon is often thrown out of the window and replaced with everyday language, often even humor evolving around memes. However, this can occasionally cause controversy – so do not get too carried away trying to be funny. So, make sure to express your personality, regularly engage with your audience, and even show the faces of some of your employees. Analyze your performance A major positive of social media marketing is that platforms (such as YouTube and Twitter) enable your business to see how your posts are performing. For example, you can see how many views your videos receive. Moving forward, this gives you a clear idea of what is working and what is not, so you can make smart changes. It is expected that 92.1 percent of U.S. companies (with 100+ employees) will use social media marketing by 2022, meaning analyzing your performance levels is going to be a valuable tool to stay competitive. Finally… Do not oversaturate A fatal mistake that many businesses are currently making is oversaturating their audience with social media posts. Too many videos, too many questions, too many hashtags – it is not good. It will frustrate your audience and potentially make them leave. Make sure you find the right balance for keeping people engaged without scaring them away. It may take some time, but you will get there in the end....

Many people are working from home these days. If you are managing a team remotely, it can be hard to keep them motivated. Here are five easy ways to help your staff stay positive, productive and focused during the uncertainty of homeworking. Invite Open Conversation The COVID-19 pandemic has made times difficult for many people, and it is hard to remain positive all the time. With this in mind, it is a good idea to encourage open conversation with your staff. Tell your team that you are available to talk if they are having any problems. Make time to set up one-on-one meetings with everyone to check in with them. Some people now have to balance home-schooling with work and family commitments, and they might feel they have a lot on their plate. Encouraging an open and honest conversation about any difficulties will make your staff feel like you are all on the same team, and this will keep morale – and productivity – high. Encourage Socialising One of the main benefits of working in an office is the camaraderie that comes from working together. This has all but disappeared for many, so make sure that social activities are still on everyone’s radar. You could have a group video call with cocktails on Friday afternoons to boost everyone’s mood ahead of the weekend. Alternatively, you could set up a weekly game competition. If everyone signs up to bingo sites, for example, you could set up a leader board with a monthly prize for the best player. See what works best for your staff. Trust Your Employees Now that you are out of the office, it might be tempting to check in with staff more frequently to make sure they are getting their work done. This can feel undermining to an employee and can foster a negative atmosphere. The best way to encourage employees to stay motivated is to tell them what you expect and to let them get on with it. If you want regular updates, tell them – but let them come to you rather than always checking in yourself. Your staff will thank you for letting them do their work without being micromanaged. Send Thanks for a Job Well Done If an employee has been going above and beyond the call of duty, thank them with a small gift delivered to their door. A gift card, a box of cupcakes, or even a handwritten note to say ‘well done’ is a great way to make your employees feel appreciated, and they are more likely to want to keep doing well in the future. Be Flexible Many people are now juggling a variety of difficult family commitments from home, and some of your team members may feel they have a lot on their plate, so you should be as flexible as you can. If someone needs to start and finish work earlier to help out with home-schooling, let them. As long as the work is getting done on time and to a high standard, what difference does it make? Give your team the benefit of the doubt and they will be less stressed and more motivated. Everyone has different needs, so listen to your employees and do what you can to alleviate the difficulties of working from home. This will keep morale high and will allow work to continue as normally as...