Tips to improve social media for your small business

With 4.2 billion active social media users in the world, it’s never been more important for small businesses to get their social media right.

So here’s some top tips to help:

Think about your audience

Consider your target audience and which social media platforms they use most. There’s no point spending time creating the best Instagram posts, if no one in your industry uses it.

Using the right platforms will help you build brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, engage with customers and sell online.

Regular content

Posting content regularly will help your business get noticed and targeted content will help with SEO (search engine optimisation) and get you more followers.

But you can have too much of a good thing! There’s a danger of losing people’s interest if you post more than once a day. For many, once a week is ideal.

Schedule posts

It’s worth putting together a plan with interesting content ideas and deadlines. It can be tricky to break away from something when you’re in the middle of it, so creating and scheduling your posts in advance will give you a chance to focus – and make sure you don’t forget to post!

Scheduling posts for key times of the day, when people are most likely to be checking their phones or social media accounts, will help you reach a wider audience.

Mix it up

Changing the format of your social posts is also a great way to boost engagement. If you usually post a photo, try a video or a GIF, adding emojis and hashtags is also an effective way of breaking up text.

Don’t forget to change the tone, style and content of your posts when using different social media platforms. What you post on Instagram doesn’t have to be the same as what you’d post on LinkedIn.

Connect

Social media is a great way to connect and build relationships with your customers. It’s also an instant way to respond to your customers and start conversations.

It’s good to keep an eye on social media trends in your industry, to understand what people are looking for, helping you to create engaging content and remain current.

A simple way to stay connected in your industry is to reshare posts and show appreciation for your staff, customers and industry innovation.

Call to action

Attention spans are short, so adding images is a great visual way of getting your post noticed.

Now that you’ve got your customers’ attention, make sure you follow it up, give them a reason to get in touch.

Check it’s working

Take a step back and see which posts your target audience are engaging with – and to put it simply, do more of them! Posting unrelatable content will cause you to lose followers.

There’s no denying planning, creating and posting attention-grabbing social media content takes time and experience. If it’s really not your thing, why not enlist the help of social media experts.

For a free marketing ideas session with social media experts, contact us on 01962 600 147 or email info@tlc-business.co.uk

/by

Best Length For a Blog Post

Producing blogs is a great way to share expertise, drive traffic to your website and build engagement. If this sounds like something you want for your business, the next question people typically ask is, “what is the best length for a blog post?”

 

Getting the answer to this right is important because it has implications for SEO, engagement and more.

Before starting to write a blog, you must consider the collection factors that will influence how well your blog performs. Your audience, the structure of the post, the topic and the promotional channel are all elements that will determine the ‘perfect’ length for your blog.

You are probably now saying, “that is all great, but how many words should I write?” If so, let’s dive in deeper and determine what the best length for a blog post really is.

 

Is there a perfect length for a blog post?

You probably already knew this, but the truth is, the best length for a blog post completely varies depending on the content you are producing. Sounds like a cop out, right? But a word count does not define how meaningful (and effective) a piece of text is.

 

For example, if the topic is frequently asked about and searched for by many users online, a substantial (we’ll get on to what this actually looks like in a second) blog is ideal. Whereas, if it is a quick promotion of a service or a product you are advertising, it is best to keep it short and simple.

 

“Give us a number!” we hear you shout….

 

Blog word counts and what they are best for:

  • 50-300 words: These are short and snappy posts that tend to get more of the comments. Shorter posts are great conversation starters. They are straight-forward, and although they might not get many shares online, they are easy to read and create on a regular basis. 50-300 words are most effective for selling a product or a service and getting a reader to take a specific ‘Call to Action’ (CTA) i.e. downloading an e-book or signing up to an email list.
  • 300-600 words: These posts are the most common blogging length. They are still quick, easy to read and to the point. This length is a popular middle-ground for social media shares and engagement.
  • 750 words: This length is typically used for professional journalism, especially for newsletters. The length is great for shares on social media.
  • 1000-1600 words: This length is the most popular for blogging platforms and mostly used to address audience questions and solve someone’s problem. According to Medium, a collaborative writing platform, the ideal length for a blog is 1,600 words (or takes 7 minutes to read). A 1,600-word blog can be the perfect length as it gives the writer enough leeway to explain the chosen topic in detail, whilst also keeping the reader engaged. There is an opportunity to get lots of engagement on these posts and a high number of shares on social media. The most significant factor for this length is making sure the topic is interesting and solves a frequently experienced problem.
  • 1,600-2,500 words: The highest-ranking articles on Google are typically around this length. These posts can rank well on search engines. They help a website’s SEO by increasing the time spent on page. They can also encourage a new reader to join your mailing list to receive future insightful content. If the chosen topic is interesting to your audience and addresses a topic that readers are continuously searching around, the blog has a good shot at being a hit.

 

What is more important that blog length?

Relevance to your audience! It is irrelevant how many words your blog is, if it doesn’t address a relevant issue or topic to your target audience. We could write the most wonderfully researched 2,500 word blog on cultivating roses in a small garden, but if we are looking to engage with and build an audience of small business owners, the blog just won’t cut it.

 

So, what is the best length for your next blog post?

Well that depends on what outcome you are trying to achieve. Shorter content (at least 300 words) is the ideal blog post length if you are looking to create regular content on a wide range of topics that encourages visitors to take some form of call to action. It also makes it more practical to create on a regular and consistent basis.

 

Whereas, if you want to create a piece of content that will significantly improve your SEO and position you as an expert on that particular topic, you should consider devoting additional time to creating quality, long-form content of 1,600+ words. Less frequent posts, with deeper, more detailed content, can help you win at the SEO game.

 

All that being said, whilst we understand that having a word count target can be helpful, the bottom-line is, write what you are passionate about. Don’t focus on the length of your posts too much. It is better to produce high quality text with fewer words, rather than ‘rambling’ on for the sake of a higher word count. And with that in mind, I’ll shut up now!


To arrange a free virtual marketing ideas session with our friendly marketing team, call 01962 600 147 or email info@tlc-business.co.uk

/by

Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Marketing Agency

Working with a marketing agency definitely has its benefits, so we’ve put together 5 of the top reasons to outsource your marketing needs:

1) New perspective

An outsourced marketing team acts as a great sounding board for ideas and will make sure you have a consistent joined-up marketing strategy across your business. They’ll be able to suggest tried and tested methods that you may not have thought of, and help generate new creative ideas, so you can start seeing positive results quickly.

If you’ve spent years entrenched in your business, jargon and acronyms become second nature, but they can be confusing and off-putting for new customers. By working with a marketing agency, you can check everything makes sense and refocus on what is most important to grow your business.

2) More time to focus on your business

Developing a marketing strategy, planning content and delivering your strategy effectively – from lead generation and email campaigns, to researching content for your next blog – all take time.

A marketing agency can take the pressure off and do it for you, so you can save time and use your resources wisely, by focusing on the important things (that you know inside out) like running your business.

3) Save money

Although there is an initial cost, when you think about it, working with a marketing agency instead of having an in-house marketing team will soon save you money. You won’t need to spend out on salaries, benefits, training, office space, equipment, invest in the latest marketing tools or upgrade with technological advancements.

4) Expert knowledge

It’s hard to be a jack of all trades, so if you need help with telemarketing, event management, PR, copywriting, design or SEO (search engine optimisation) – hiring a marketing agency could be just what you need, as you’ll have expert knowledge and resources at your fingertips.

Working with a team of skilled passionate professionals, you’ll receive top advice across a broad spectrum of marketing.

Do you have a big event coming up, or a new product to promote, but no experience in design? With access to a designer you’ll soon have something eye-catching that appeals to your target audience.

Are you struggling to get your website to appear high up the Google search rankings?
Having SEO experts on your side will definitely help. You may find PPC (Pay-Per-Click) could also be an option worth exploring.

Are you finding your target audience isn’t engaging with your content?
Social media experts will help to get your posts noticed and copywriters can put together engaging content and help with PR.

Whatever your issue, a marketing agency will work with you to find the best solution.

5) Get results

Good marketing agencies will be committed to understanding your goals and creating a marketing strategy that delivers positive results. With access to the latest technology, they will be able to monitor campaign results and ensure the marketing strategy is working.

So whether you are looking to grow your business, appeal more to your target audience, build your brand awareness and stand out in a crowded market, or create engaging content to increase your followers – a marketing agency is well placed to do it all.

To arrange a free virtual marketing ideas session with our friendly outsourced marketing team, call 01962 600 147 or email info@tlc-business.co.uk

/by

CamKids return to school in 2021!

 

You may already know that TLC Business supports ‘CamKids’, The Cambodian Children’s Charity. ‘CamKids’ is a development and relief organisation, dedicated to providing direct aid to disadvantaged children in Cambodia.

Last year was tough on many fronts for everybody, but we are pleased to say that ‘CamKids’ have been able to adjust and continue to provide vital help in Cambodia. In fact, they were able to reopen their schools in January 2021 after a delay from the Cambodian Government due to COVID-19!

We are pleased to say, we received a case study from one of the Students at ‘CamKids’ schools. This is his story and how the charity helps:

/by

What your brand colours say about your business

With what can only be described as a crazy year drawing to a close now, many businesses and organisations are taking the opportunity to review their marketing and ensure it is in the best shape possible for 2021. The common thread that runs through all the visual elements of your marketing activity is your brand and your business’ or organisation’s brand colours are arguably the most prominent element of this.

Every colour has a meaning and is designed to elicit a unique emotional response, which is why selecting the right palette is crucial when building your brand. Along with your typography, tone of voice, company values and unique positioning, your brand colours will help to build a stronger identity.

If you’re in the process of building a new brand, or are simply giving your existing identity a refresh, here’s everything you need to know behind the psychology of some of the most popular colour choices.

Blue

Arguably the most popular choice in corporate design, blue is commonly associated with calmness and security; which makes it a great choice if you’re looking to evoke trust with customers. Be mindful that some shades of blue can be perceived as depressing or cold, so be sure to test a few different options.

Popular industries:

  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Health
  • Consultancy

Brand examples:

  • Dell
  • Facebook
  • Intel
  • IBM

 

 

 

 

Red

Fiery hues capture attention and instil a sense of energy, making them a popular choice for brands that want to create excitement or a warning. Red is often best used cautiously and will commonly be found on call to actions.

Popular industries:

  • Transport
  • Food Service
  • Tech
  • News

Brand examples:

  • Netflix
  • YouTube
  • KFC
  • CNN

 

 

 

 

 

Green

Green is a fresh and versatile colour that is used across a variety of industries. It typically represents the environment or growth, so you’ll generally see it used amongst brands who are connected to nature and wealth. Dark greens are associated with affluence, light greens with peace.

Popular industries:

  • Agriculture
  • Finance
  • Education
  • Food & Drink

Brand examples:

  • Holiday Inn
  • John Deere
  • Starbucks
  • Spotify

 

 

 

 

Yellow

Projecting feelings of fun and positivity, yellow is particularly useful for stimulating energy and catching a customer’s eye. The colour is now synonymous with brands like McDonalds and IKEA, and is popular choice amongst those who want to influence and boost sales.

Popular industries:

  • Retail
  • Travel
  • Logistics
  • Toys

Brand examples:

  • Hertz
  • Nikon
  • Ikea
  • Mcdonalds

Black

Encompassing power and sophistication, black has been harnessed by many luxury brands. If you want customers to feel like they’re investing in a premium product or service, it’s a great choice when used sparingly. It can even be used as a basis for imagery themes, with some brands choosing to use black and white photos across their identity to set a specific tone.

Popular industries:

  • Automotive
  • Fashion
  • Finance
  • Tech

Brand examples:

  • Apple
  • Nike
  • Uber
  • Chanel

 

 

 

 

Orange

Combining the cheer of yellow with the boldness of red, orange is a colour that is commonly associated with life and excitement. Many brands use orange for call to actions or areas of a website they want to draw attention to.

Popular industries:

  • DIY
  • Entertainment
  • Food & Drink
  • Construction

Brand examples:

  • Fanta
  • Mastercard
  • Nickelodeon
  • Soundcloud

 

 

 

 

 

Purple

Long associated with royalty, mystery and indulgence, purple is becoming increasingly popular to create a high-end appeal. Many companies use it as an accent colour in graphics or to attract attention to call to actions.

Popular industries:

  • Beauty
  • Food & Drink
  • Property
  • Tech

Brand examples:

  • Cadbury
  • Yahoo!
  • Twitch
  • Claire’s

 

 

 

 

Making a choice

While it costs next to nothing to choose a colour, making the wrong decision can cost you in the long run. Ultimately, the best brand colours for you are the ones that fit with your target audience and business values. It’s a difficult task – and one not to take lightly. But that’s where we can help!

At TLC, we deliver creative solutions that have a big impact. Get in touch today to find out how we can ensure your brand colours become one of your biggest assets. Call us on 01962 600147 or email info@tlc-business.co.uk for a chat and some fresh ideas.

/by

Marketing: 5 ways to make the most of working from home

We all have them – those tasks that you never quite have the time to complete because they’re always getting pushed down the to-do list. That is until now…

If lockdown has freed up some of your time, now is the perfect opportunity to give your business a marketing spring clean and make constructive use of the new ‘normal’. Here’s how.

Take your business digital

You may have embraced working from home – but have you made it work for you? Organisations big and small have been adapting their usual offering, with many going virtual to ensure they can still provide a level of service to customers. Some have taken smaller measures and are embracing what social media can do to connect them with new and existing customers, for example, while others have completely flipped their services to fit the digital space.

Here at TLC, many of our campaigns are managed and implemented digitally already, but we’ve also recently gone a step further by switching the delivery of our Marketing Ideas Sessions over to Zoom video calls. You can book your free slot with us here!

Review your marketing strategy

Creating content, executing campaigns and making your way through your marketing plan is all well and good – but only if it’s generating results. Ideally, you should be reviewing your marketing strategy on a regular basis in order to identify what could be tweaked to encourage more bang for your marketing buck.

Some key areas to review are:

  • Email marketing
  • Social media
  • Paid advertising
  • Conversion rates
  • Google Analytics

So that you can continue to monitor performance consistently, set up reports to monitor conversions (sales, enquiries etc.) in line with individual campaigns. Google Data Studio can help.

Audit your website

In a world where Google’s increasingly stringent requirements can make it difficult to keep up with rules and guidelines, you want to make sure you’re doing all you can to maximise the benefits of your website. An audit will allow you to identify if your website is optimised to achieve your business goals and what areas could be improved upon.

HubSpot’s Website Grader is a great free tool that can help you with your initial assessment and will grade your site on various criteria, including:

  • Website performance – page speed, browser caching, image sizes etc.
  • Mobile optimisation – font sizes, responsiveness and tap targets
  • SEO metrics – meta data, permission to index etc.
  • Security – HTTPS and javascript libraries

Another useful tool is Google Search Console, which helps you to:

  • Confirm that Google can find your site
  • Fix indexing problems
  • Review search traffic
  • Troubleshoot errors
  • Identify backlink sources

Upskill your team

If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of businesses to sign up to the government’s newly-introduced Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – or your employees simply find they have more time on their hands during lockdown – consider ways in which you can upskill your team and boost their knowledge.

There are plenty of eLearning courses available for industries of all shapes and sizes, varying from free 20-minute how-to videos to longer, recognised qualifications. Taking the time now to get your employees up-to-scratch will pay dividends in the long-term.

Get involved with local initiatives

Very few companies prioritise community work but demonstrating the conscientious side of your business is actually a simple and effective way to strengthen your brand. Those that do so are more likely to win customer loyalty and even attract talent.

Whether you fundraise for local food banks or the NHS, or even get involved with a volunteer scheme to deliver medication and essentials to vulnerable members of the community, your actions will have a lasting positive impact for months to come.

By using your time wisely, you can ensure your business stays connected and relevant for when life returns to normal. If you’re looking for some help and advice on how to get on top of your marketing whilst working from home, give the TLC team a call on 01962 600147 or email info@tlc-business.co.uk.

/by

Annual ‘Marketing for SMEs’ event enjoys a great turnout

TLC Business Winchester Marketing for SMEs seminar
The team at TLC Business extends its gratitude to the guests who attended our ‘Marketing for SMEs’ event on Thursday 13th February at Holiday Inn Winchester. We hope we achieved our aim and created a useful and enjoyable session full of pointers to help you improve your marketing in 2020.

During the event, TLC Business’ Managing Director, Josh Spencer, presented the latest marketing trends SMEs can use to help increase enquires and grow their businesses. Josh touched upon topics such as effective use of social media for SMEs, changes to SEO and how to rank in search engines, and why remarketing should not be overlooked as a conversion strategy.
 
We saw SMEs from across Hampshire and beyond, from a diverse range of sectors, attend the event with a view to discover how their marketing can be improved in 2020. Sectors included accountancy, IT, PCB assembly, marine engineering, and insurance.
 
If you missed this year’s seminar and would like more information on future events including our free marketing ideas sessions, let us know by emailing Sophie at sophiewells@tlc-business.co.uk or give us a call on 01962 600 147. 
/by

B2B marketing strategy: What marketing methods should you be using in 2020?

Introduction

Every successful business in 2020 should have a marketing strategy. A marketing strategy will define the marketing channels you will use as a business to reach, connect and engage with your customers and prospects to generate leads. The marketing channels you use should be appropriately chosen to get the biggest bang for your buck and specific to your business and the sector you’re in, but also, your choice should take into consideration your goals as a business. Ask yourself what do you want to achieve through your marketing? Is it growing your customer base and expanding your audience? Is it to generate more leads? Or for customer retention purposes? Whatever your aim is, firstly you must have a good understanding of your market, where you sit in that market and who your audience is, in order to identify the right marketing channels for you.

Where do I start?

First-things-first, a review of your competitors will help you to establish your company’s positioning and determine where you sit in the current market. If the market seems very crowded and everyone (including you) looks more or less the same, offering the same products or services, you need to consider how to stand out (in a good way!) and offer something unique to attract your customers, or as we call it – a USP (unique selling point). Whereas, you might discover you operate in a gap in the market, in which case you have something unique that nobody else is offering.

When you have reviewed your competitors and established your position and any USP you might have, you can then identify your target audience. You may have multiple customer profiles that you wish to target for your business, based around different products or services. You will need to consider your audience’s business type, age, gender, location, sector, job role, interests etc., to have a better understanding of what marketing channels you need to introduce into your marketing strategy. Your audience will also determine the type of messaging you use and what your marketing should look like.

You should use your review of your competitors to assess what marketing channels and techniques other businesses are using, as well as to find out which ones they are using well and which are not so effective. For example: what is their website like? Are they publishing new content regularly? Are they using social media? If so, which platforms are they using and how often are they posting? Do they send a newsletter? Have they got re-marketing ads set-up? Do they have pay-per-click adverts on Google? And so on. This will benefit you when you come to planning your marketing strategy and deciding which channels and techniques you should be using or could be doing better on, as well as which ones to avoid.

What’s next?

There are a multitude of effective marketing channels and techniques you can use within the B2B sector to connect with customers and prospects, but before you jump into doing all of them at once, you should create a marketing plan and select the channels that are going to be the most cost effective and beneficial for the results you want.

A marketing plan will also help you to plan for the costs and resources associated with each component and establish whether you will need to hire someone or outsource a marketing specialist to help you. Remember, just because one competitor might be doing everything, this does not mean you should and doing so could be a major waste of your time and money. Find what works for your business.

Some examples of marketing channels to consider for your 2020 strategy

To explain further, we’ll be putting together a series of informative blogs focusing on different marketing channels you could consider, including website & content creation, all things Google (SEO, paid search and remarketing), email marketing & telemarketing, social media and last but not least offline advertising and direct mail.

Keep an eye out on our blog and follow us on social media to make sure you don’t miss which channels will be best for you, to help you deliver your 2020 marketing strategy!

/by

The TLC Business Annual Marketing Lunch 2020

Essential Marketing Insights for SMEs ‘How to get the most out of your marketing buck’.

It’s that time of year again for the TLC Business Annual Marketing Lunch, where we will be providing SMEs in Hampshire with useful insights, tips, guidance and advice around how to get the most from their marketing budget in the year ahead.

This year’s free annual marketing seminar will be held at the Holiday Inn Winchester on Thursday 13th February 2020 from 12pm-2pm. Full details of the event can be found below but if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Spaces for this event are limited, therefore you must book your place in advance to confirm your attendance.

You can book your place here.

Please note: this event is not eligible for other marketing or creative agencies.

Event details:

Date: Thursday 13th February 2020
Time: 12pm – 2pm
Location: The Monarch Suite, Holiday Inn Winchester, Telegraph Way, Morn Hill, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HZ
Refreshments: Buffet lunch & refreshments provided
Price: Free

Topics we’ll cover:

– Social media – how to make it work for your business
– PPC (Pay per click advertising) – why it is an important part of your marketing mix
– SEO (Search engine optimisation) – the fundamentals
– Email marketing – is it still relevant?
– Content – what should we be creating?
– How to stand out from the crowd
– How can I find out what is working?

We hope to see you there!

 

/by

A lovely early Christmas gift for TLC from our client

,

Christmas came early for TLC today! One of our clients very kindly surprised us with this lovely hamper of chocolates and champagne.

Thank you to all our clients for a brilliant 2019 and we look forward to working with you in 2020!

/by