Why Should Your Business Be on TikTok?

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

If you’ve not heard of Tiktok, I’m not too sure where you’ve been! It’s the new(ish) video content creation platform taking the world by storm. Whether you’re a total newbie or an avid user, we are about to give you the low down on the latest social media app that has more than 1 billion monthly active users!

With figures like that there’s no question why so many businesses are joining the fastest growing social media platform to promote their brand. Ever wondered how it works and how you can see a profitable return? Here’s the low down on TikTok.

WHAT IS TIKTOK?

So where do we begin? We’ll give you a quick background overview.

Chinese company ByteDance launched TikTok back in 2016, but it wasn’t until 2018 that it made it’s way west and hit Europe and the US – as ByteDance bought the popular lip-syncing video app Musical.ly and combined the two to create TikTok in 2017.

Since then, the app has developed and grown to an enormous scale, with some arguing (mostly the younger generations) that it’s the biggest social media platform on the planet! Being a short-form video content-only app, you can post videos from 15 seconds to 10 minutes all whilst adding transitions, effects, stickers, filters, and augmented reality to your videos.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

As the algorithm of the app essentially goes off engagement and interactions, the way to grow on the platform is by posting entertaining or educational/informative posts. From each interaction, whether that’s a like, comment or share, the TikTok algorithm will push your content to a wider audience.

Sound easy? It does until you remember you’re competing with the millions of other TikTok’s posted daily. But if you’re staying active, posting eye-catching, relevant, entertaining videos and jumping on the latest trends, you are already on the way to TikTok stardom!

Due to its rapid growth, many creators and businesses alike have joined the platform and because of its unique algorithm, lots of smaller companies have been able to grow a large following faster than on any other social media platform. This in turn can see an increase in sales and conversions for your brand or business.

WHY YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD BE ON TIKTOK

With 62% of Tiktok users being aged 16-29, it’s a great way to get your name out to the next generation of entrepreneurs, buyers, young professionals, employees or customers and clients.

Tiktok also has the highest engagement rate of any other social media platform. Both nano to mega-influencers are able to go viral and promote products regardless of the size of the account, which makes influencer marketing on Tiktok sometimes a lot more effective as the creators’ following size doesn’t necessarily matter.

Giving your brand a face or multiple faces makes your business more personable, which will invite people to learn more about it, from showcasing behind-the-scenes footage to teasing new releases or posting entertaining videos relevant to your business. By getting involved in the latest TikTok trends, your business’ posts will reach more people and places from all over the world.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM 2022

It is predicted that TikTok will continue to rise throughout 2022, mirroring the 50% increase in growth each year since 2020.

Not only that but according to Hootsuite, consumer spending on the platform increased by 71% in 2021 and is expected to grow again in 2022.

Taking into consideration this continuous growth, more businesses are transitioning their focus to TikTok as it is a platform where the possibilities of “going viral” are higher than any other social media channel. This substantially increases the chances of a business obtaining organic brand awareness without spending too much from the marketing budget. In addition, 73% of users reported that they feel more connected with brands that use the platform and 63% feel influenced to make a purchase even if they were not planning to.

HOW SHOULD A BUSINESS APPROACH TIKTOK?

Following trends on TikTok but giving it a twist it’s what makes a video go viral. From fashion to accounting, there are many ways you can apply the trends to your business.

Bear it in mind: Trends on TikTok come and go, sometimes within a week or even less. It’s therefore essential you stay ahead of the curve – creating content in real time and jumping on trends to maximise brand reach.

EDGE CREATIVE

If you’re new to TikTok or any other social media platform, the idea of jumping in front of a camera to promote your business can seem daunting. To make it less scary, EDGE Creative can offer the support and guidance you might need to help you grow on these platforms and ease your mind.

Whether it’s helping you come up with the ideas, devising an effective strategy that will help your business grow or filming, editing, and uploading the content – EDGE will be side to side with you to ensure you thrive with the best content. 

Call us on 0121 355 8092 today.

How Can PR & SEO Help You Grow Your Business?

PR and SEO are essential elements to maximising your business growth, read below to find what you need to know:

When it comes to marketing your business, PR and SEO campaigns are powerful stand-alone tools. Both can help build high-quality brand awareness and increased visibility, as well as validate the reputability of your business. However, as the landscape becomes increasingly digital, using these together as part of your wider strategy can offer an innovative way to achieve organic growth.

PR and SEO are marketing strategies to help protect, enhance and increase the reputation of your business. Both approaches do this by increasing visibility, trustworthiness and building quality brand awareness. However, when the two strategies work together, it can help your business gain lots of high-quality publicity, as well as contribute towards achieving your overall business goals.

WHAT IS PR?

Public relations (PR) is the way your business communicates and promotes its organisation to the media and public, and with this becoming more digitalised, it can be tied into your company’s wider strategy.

WHAT IS SEO?

PR differs from search engine optimisation (SEO), which involves enhancing your company website to ensure it ranks highly in a search engine result for a certain keyword. When a brand ranks highly, it demonstrates its reliability to the user and suggests that it contains valuable content.

WHAT ARE THE KEY ALLIES?

Digital PR, combined with SEO, makes a marketing power couple for developing your business’s online presence, building up high-quality publicity, and achieving the best results for your brand. Therefore, writing your PR content should be done with your SEO strategy in mind – but why?

Building backlinks to domains with high authority is a key off-page SEO tactic. Promoting your brand in an online publication can help cultivate credibility, helping Google to recognise your website as a trustworthy and relevant source to your target audience. 

If a news piece or press release linking to your site comes from a website with strong domain authority, it will from a high-quality link. This will have a direct impact on your website’s search engine visibility and ranking – as well as providing a door, through which people can easily visit your website!

WHAT IS THE DOMAIN AUTHORITY?

Domain authority refers to the strength of a domain, scoring a website from 1-100 on how trustworthy it is. A trusted website is more likely to be ranked by search engines and understanding this allows you to target your PR at pages with a high score for domain authority.

Remember: when it comes to SEO, choosing the best channels can ensure that you are establishing quality links to directly impact the outcome of a campaign. No-follow or low-quality links would have none to little impact on your SEO, and by avoiding these you can massively impact the visibility of your business.

EDGE CREATIVE

As an integrated marketing agency, we provide unified and innovative solutions by combining our specialist services to deliver campaigns with maximum impact, including PR and SEO.  Want to maximise the growth of your business? Speak to our expert team today on 0121 355 8092 or email info@edge-creative.com.

The Clubhouse App One Year on: What’s Changed?

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

Joining the social networking scene in April 2020, the invite-only, audio-only Clubhouse app has rapidly become a huge success – surging in popularity and developing fast.

Launched by Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth, the app facilitates the auditory communication for groups of up to 5,000 users and was in high demand when individuals were unable to meet up in person throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

No posts, no photos, no videos – simply audio, Clubhouse is the app revolutionising the the ways of social networking.

PROGRESS A YEAR FROM LAUNCH

Since cementing its status as one of the trendiest social media apps in 2020, Clubhouse has become increasingly popular and only gotten stronger in turn. Increasing its momentum, the app secured funding from Andreessen Horowitz – a venture capital firm – in January of this year. Word is, that this firm has invested approximately $100 million and gave Clubhouse a whopping $1 billion valuation.

Not only has Clubhouse become a financial success, but due to it’s rise in demand, a version of the app suitable for Android should hit Google Play within a couple of months – making it more accessible for businesses and users. The co-founder of this social media success, Paul Davidson, confirmed this rumour and stated that his development team is working hard to bring the invite-only social audio app to the Android family.

Davidson further claimed his intention to make the app open to all, dropping the app’s ‘invite only’ mechanic within the next few months, and opening up the apps potential to everyone. This was specifically to include the ‘many incredible creators’ of the app that are yet to make use of it, and that have a large following on other social networking platforms.

HAS THE CLUBHOUSE APP FACED ANY CHALLENGES DURING THIS PAST YEAR?

Though the Clubhouse app has become a social media masterpiece over the last year, it has faced a few challenges due to its elite status and vast popularity.

Firstly, due to the apps absence on Android devices, fake versions of the app have been created which fools users to download to their device and then infects their software with malware. For example, BlackRock. This is created with the aim of stealing users login credentials, and to date, it is said to have stolen data from more than 450 services including Amazon, Twitter, and Facebook.

Secondly, the app has faced some issues with regard to hate speech and abuse. Users have been given the gift of near anonymity, however some users have abused this, leading to a circulation of negative speech in the social networking world. As a result, the platform introduces community moderation guidelines in October in an attempt to reduce malicious behaviours’ during app use.

EMERGING AUDIO FEATURES ON OTHER PLATFORMS

Due to the vast success of the Clubhouse app, many other social media platforms are following suit and developing similar social audio features. LinkedIn for example is the latest digital platform to confirm that it is working on a social-audio experience like that of Clubhouse.

In contrast to networking, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have released plans to create an audio feature that is tethered to user’s professional identities rather than social ones. This feature is to include a stage showing current speakers. Users will be given the choice to join a room, leave a room, react to comments or request to speak. They are yet to specify a date for public release of this audio networking feature but have stated their plans to start beta testing very soon.

Twitter has also recently launched the feature of hosting live audio rooms in a Clubhouse-like attempt and Facebook is currently working to create a Clubhouse competitor that is expected to launch sometime this year. Spotify has further announced that it has acquired Betty Labs – Clubhouse rival – to launch live audio experiences in the next few months.

EDGE CREATIVE

At EDGE creative, we’re inspired by the success of Clubhouse and through an infusion of both traditional and digital platforms, we devise bespoke marketing solutions that make an impact.

We are passionate about social networking and with social media being one of the most popular online activities, it is important that your social media marketing is up to par. If you’re looking at ways to improve your social media platforms or want to use Clubhouse effectively, we are here to help. Call our specialist team on 0121 355 8092 or email info@edge-creative.com.

The Clubhouse App: Is This the New Age of Social Networking?

In this blog we will discuss what you need to know about the Clubhouse app:

Clubhouse is the new app on the block – it’s invite-only, audio-only and is quickly gaining traction.

Launched at the start of the pandemic by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, the app is quickly gaining recognition and popularity, with celebrity users from Kanye West through to tech giants Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Last month it burst into the mainstream with Elon Musk maxing out the room limit of 5000, resulting in the conversation being live streamed on YouTube.

With everyone unable to meet in person, and the restrictions implemented by the pandemic bringing a new desire to expand your knowledge and be productive with your time, the app holds a lot of potential. It’s combination of the nature of a TEDx talks podcast, a radio talk show and the room-like features of Houseparty offers a platform for sharing information globally, and hints towards a new age of social networking events.

HOW TO GAIN ACCESS?

Access is by invitation only.

A current user must invite you using one of their initial two invites. Once invited, you will receive a link via text through which you can create an account and select your topics of interest. The more information you share, the more rooms and people (therefore, knowledge) you will have access to.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The app allows its users to create conversations in private rooms. A certain number of people talk within a room, and other users have the option to join as a listener. Although many people use the app to communicate with friends, you can also listen in to talks with the famous and influential. Much like a lecture or seminar, you can raise your hand to request to talk (e.g. to ask a question). This allows for a constant sharing of knowledge and topical conversations.

Also, everything is in real-time. Much like a phone call, when a conversation ends, the call is over. The app does not allow conversations to be recorded and stored. You have to catch it as it happens.

THE FUTURE OF THE CLUBHOUSE APP

Currently, the app is very exclusive, which does limit its capacity to share knowledge and connect people across the global. However, for those who have not yet scored an invite, hope is on the horizon. The creators have mentioned that they plan to make Clubhouse accessible to the world in 2021.

This could open the app’s information-circulation potential to the masses, opening the prospect of a new, worldwide method of networking.

At EDGE Creative, we’re passionate about building long-lasting connections with others. This is part of the reason we love our networking events so much.

Unfortunately due to the coronavirus pandemic, we haven’t been able to meet in person. During the last year, we’ve been hosting our own leadership discussions over Zoom, so we certainly understand the attraction to Clubhouse.

If you want to find out more about our events, upcoming leadership discussions or want to use Clubhouse effectively, we can help. Call our expert team on 0121 355 8092 or email info@edge-creative.com.

Don’t forget! Once you’re a member, follow @edgecreative and/or our Creative Director Louise Panayides.

Webinars vs. Podcasts: How Can You Effectively Market Your Business?

When deciding between Webinars and Podcasts, it’s important to consider the following:

The coronavirus pandemic has affected every business in one way or another, regardless of industry or location. Now more important than ever, it’s essential that you reach the widest possible audience for your product or service so that you can increase leads and sales for your business. 

In order to achieve this, you must engage with your clients or customers in as many ways as possible to achieve both your long and short-term objectives. Whether that’s through digital marketing techniques such as social media marketing or SEO, or creative campaigns through billboards and posters, it’s important to implement a marketing strategy that works. 

Over the last several months, people have been seeking alternative ways to engage with content during lockdown. For this reason, webinars and podcasts have become a growing form of marketing and information sharing, especially as they are super convenient and accessible for everyone (even those working from home!) 

WHY WOULD A BUSINESS USE A PODCAST OR WEBINAR? 

Whether you’re a digital marketing agency in Birmingham or a financial business based in New York, webinars and podcasts are adaptable for any type of business. 

Expanding the quality and execution of a brand’s material/ will improve not only brand awareness, but also the quality of the information you are pushing to your audience. Webinars and podcasts can be used as a particularly useful, informative and educational tool, which can improve the authenticity and relevancy of your content, portraying your business as leaders in your market. They can be used for many reasons, including storytelling, collaborations with partners, guest speakers, discussions and debates, Q&A’s and sector-based insights. 

WHAT IS A WEBINAR?

A webinar is an online seminar that takes place in real time with an audience. Often referred to as a conference call, webinars can usually host up to 10,000 participants. Incorporating both audio and visual components, this method of information sharing can cater to a large audience. 

The host of a webinar can share presentations, web pages, resources and various other forms of content to engage with participants, and anyone, regardless of their geographical location, can attend. Often, participants can ask questions, leave comments or interact with the webinar, which as it takes place in real time, the host can respond to. 

WHAT IS A PODCAST?

A podcast is a digital audio recording, which is available for download after it has been recorded. Super convenient, listeners can engage with the podcast content while they are doing other things such as driving or reading. 

Some podcasts may take the style of an interview with multiple guests conversing, whereas others may be solo talks, where the host of the podcast will tell a story, answer frequently asked questions or simply talk about a subject they know well. 

IS A WEBINAR OR PODCAST MORE EFFECTIVE FOR MY BUSINESS’S AUDIENCE?

Good question. The simple answer is it depends! 

Let’s have a quick look at the advantages of webinars: 

  • Visual cues – Webinars contain a visual aspect for participants on the call, allowing information to be delivered easily and effectively. This means that the information may be more memorable for the participants as multisensory learning is taking place.
  • Takes place in real time – Participants may feel more connected to the host, as real time interaction allows those watching to get involved and engage with the host when they have questions, and get instant answers to their queries
  • Focus on your target audience – Webinars will attract a relevant audience, as they require individuals to sign up if they want to attend. As a host, you can also be selective with the invitation list, allowing you to ensure you’re spending your time effectively and directly reaching those you think will take something from your webinar.  
  • Grow your audience – Getting your audience to sign-up allow you to build your database on new contacts for further engagement

It is, however, important to note that webinars can be more time-consuming for the host, as they include a visual component that requires preparation. 

For some individuals, webinars may not always be convenient. To get the most out of attending a webinar, it’s best for the audience to watch in real-time, which can be difficult for those with busy schedules. Fortunately, webinars can be recorded, providing you with an asset that can be used at later dates in your marketing. Perhaps you may want to send out an email with a link, or post snippets on your social media channels. 

Now, let’s review the advantages of podcasts: 

  • Highly convenient – Podcasts are pre-recorded, meaning your audience can listen to your content at a time that works best for them. 
  • Large audience – On average, over 150 million people listen to a podcast each week. If you get the content right, you can tap into this large audience, increasing brand exposure, leads and potentially sales! 
  • Easy to produce – As podcasts contain no visual component, they can be recorded where best convenient for you. The only planning that needs to take place is what is going to be said, as there is no need for presentations, images or graphs. 
  • Versatile – Podcasts can be uploaded to different platforms and you can build new audiences. They can be liked and shared with ease. 

Unfortunately, podcasts are less interactive than webinars, which can make it more difficult for your audience to engage with your content. With no visual component (other than the show artwork), listeners may forget the information, and certain topics may be more difficult to discuss without visual aids. You can, however, add resource links into your show notes and as podcasts aren’t live, you can edit them afterwards to create a higher level of quality. 

When hosting a podcast, it is also much harder to gage the satisfaction of the listeners. This is because when a real time webinar takes place, the host can gage the atmosphere and see in real-time, reactions to the presentation. When hosting a podcast, you can review listens and download statistics, but you will need to actively seek feedback for qualitative data.

SO WHICH IS BETTER?

Both podcasts and webinars contain useful features for both you and your audience. In order to find which is best suited for your business, you must ensure to identify your customers and think about what type of information you would like to convey. 

Don’t just guess! With support from EDGE Creative, we can work together to implement a multi-media marketing strategy that helps you to increase brand awareness, traffic, leads and most importantly, sales. 

Enquire today by calling 0121 355 8092 or by emailing our Content Strategy Manager, Jess at jessica@edge-creative.com.  

Why Are Google Reviews Important?

When researching Google Reviews, it’s important to be aware of:

Google reviews may be the first piece of information a potential client reads when deciding whether to enquire about your services. They can also help improve local SEO. This means it’s important that your reviews show your business in the positive light it deserves.

If you own a small business, you’ll know how important word-of-mouth recommendations are to attracting a chain of new clients. Reviews can showcase these recommendations to a much wider audience.

WHERE CAN I FIND MY GOOGLE REVIEWS?

Your Google Reviews section will appear as part of your Google My Business listing. This can be displayed on the right-hand side of a Google search results page for your business. They also appear in Google Maps.

WHY DO GOOGLE REVIEWS MATTER?

More and more consumers turn to online search when making purchasing decisions. By having high quality and positive reviews, potential customers can get a glimpse into what it’s like to deal with your business. Think: would you purchase something you saw online without reading the reviews first?

Glowing feedback from satisfied customers that highlight your reliability, quality and level of customer service will help generate a sense of trust and familiarity between you and potential customers.

Not only do Google Reviews act as an advocate for your business, but they can also have a positive impact on local SEO. This is because according to Google, “high-quality, positive reviews from your customers will improve your business’s visibility and increase the likelihood that a potential customer will visit your location.”.

HOW DO GOOGLE REVIEWS HELP RANKINGS?

Google Reviews signal that your business is real, functioning and, if they’re positive, trustworthy. This can help influence your ranking by showing to Google that other people are interacting with your business.

When more people interact with your business and click on your website, it signals to Google that you are relevant to the customers who see you in search. This can help increase your rankings – so the better your reviews, the more people are likely to click through to your website.

Reviews also help rankings by providing Google with more content to analyse. For example, if your business offers a particular service that you’re trying to rank in search for, positive reviews that mention that service can make a positive impact on your ranking.

HOW CAN I GET GOOGLE REVIEWS FOR MY BUSINESS?

The answer to this question is simple – just ask for them directly. Get in touch with a customer who has recently dealt with your business and politely ask for them to leave their feedback on Google.

There are no quick fixes to increasing your reviews or star rating. This is because they need to be as authentic and as trustworthy as possible, and by taking the time to reach out to satisfied customers individually, you’ll get better results that will boost your online reputation.

Don’t be tempted to leave fake reviews on your Google My Business profile or pay for positive reviews. Google can spot patterns in fake reviews and can swiftly remove ones they deem to be untrustworthy. This can have a negative impact on your search engine optimisation (SEO).

Remember – when it comes to your SEO process, authenticity is key. The more detail a review is able to give about the customers’ experience, the better.

HOW CAN EDGE CREATIVE HELP?

As a Google Partner, we’ve supported clients across a wide range of business sectors with the management of their reviews. This involves formulating a strategy to assist with driving positive reviews, and responding swiftly to reviews when they come in.

For example, we’ve helped Finance Brokerage Finance 4 Business and Estate Agents Taylor Cole to contact satisfied customers, advising on wording and strategy. This has helped rapidly increase their reviews.

Our work on proactively increasing Google Reviews has also meant that we are now one of the top agencies in Sutton Coldfield for Google Reviews. Just look us up!

If you’d like support with your business’s online review management, whether on Facebook, Trustpilot, Google or Feefo – contact us. Call 0121 355 8092 or email info@edge-creative.com to talk to a member of the team.

Know Your Audience: Why Analytics Should Feed Your Marketing Strategy

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

There’s an old saying that goes, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”.

It’s an age-old question, but it’s still a relevant one. If you’ve got a great website, but you have no insight into its users, then is it really as good as you think? Is it working? Are people using it at all?

When it comes to successful digital marketing, measurement and analytics are crucial to your brand’s growth. This is because a solid, yet ever-learning and evergreen strategy thrives on data, whether that’s generated from testing of past campaigns or analytics tools that give you an insight into how users interact with your marketing.

WHAT ANALYTICS TOOLS SHOULD I BE USING?

There are tons of tools out there that can gather data about how people use your website. The most popular – and well known – of these is Google Analytics.

Every website should be using Google Analytics, as it allows you to view not just how many users have visited your website, but where they came from, how long they spent on your site and which pages they visited.

It also allows you to set up goals which allow you to track a conversion, for example filling in an enquiry form or making a purchase. This helps you measure how well your website is performing, and then make adjustments to guide more users to completing that all-important goal.

There are gaps in this analysis, though. While Google Analytics gives you data on the pages your users visit, it doesn’t tell you much about how the user interacted with the page itself. For example, users could be dropping off a landing page, but the data from Google Analytics won’t tell you why.

That’s where Hotjar comes in. Hotjar is heatmapping software that helps you better understand a users’ behaviour on your website, giving you more data on how users spend their time on it.

By generating heatmaps of popular areas on a page as well as session recordings, you can get clearer data on any roadblocks in your customer’s journey, and adjust your website accordingly.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOTJAR AND GOOGLE ANALYTICS?

Hotjar is no substitute for Google Analytics, but its an important tool that the team at EDGE Creative use to get a better insight into how users are interacting with the websites we build for our clients. It’s extremely useful to use both tools in conjunction with one another, as when combined, they can give a more complete picture overall.

Hotjar allows you to physically see where a user pays attention on a page with heatmaps that track how long a user spends on a certain section – for example if a piece of copy gets scrolled past often, you’ll know that this is an area that needs to change.

From this, you can see where website visitors encounter problems in their journey, where they get stuck before dropping off, and how they interact with individual page elements and sections. You can also garner feedback about website experience through surveys.

WHY DO I NEED ANALYTICS?

By using tools like Hotjar and combining your findings with that of Google Analytics, you can revolutionise how you plan your marketing strategy.

This is because with reliable and accurate insights into how users interact with certain elements of your website, you can predict what is more likely to generate success in the future. The more analysis you do, the more tweaks you can make – which will in turn generate more data to tell you how effective those tweaks have been.

More data means more informed marketing, and with more informed marketing, you can rise above the competition.

WANT TO GET AHEAD OF THE GAME?

At EDGE Creative, we know that creativity is nothing without strategy when it comes to marketing, and strategy is nothing without analytics to back it up.

This is why when we build websites or launch campaigns, we use analytics tools like Hotjar to give us a clear insight into how users are interacting with our clients’ marketing.

If you’d like to find out more about how you can get more understanding of your audience and transform your findings into success, talk to us to claim a complimentary website audit, where we’ll use tools to highlight how visitors are currently using your website and how it can be improved to drive more conversions.

Call 0121 355 8092 or email us at info@edge-creative.com to get in touch.

Instagram Reels: How Businesses Can Use the New Feature

When understanding new features such as Instagram Reels, it’s important to keep up to date with its features:

You’d be forgiven for thinking Instagram’s new feature looks familiar.

Using a new section of the app reminiscent of social media giant TikTok, Instagram have recently released “Reels”, which are vertical 15-second videos equipped with audio and new creative tools.

WHAT IS TIKTOK?

TikTok is a relatively new kid on the block when it comes to social media, and is currently one of the fastest growing of them all according to eMarketer, who forecast that UK users could surpass 10 million by 2021.

The app was initially very popular with teenagers, but its popularity is now extending to other age groups.

The app features the ability to record and edit 15 to 60-second vertical videos, which can be set to music or even the audio of someone else’s TikTok video.

These “TikToks” are then shown to viewers of the app via a “For You” page, which relies on an algorithm that is personalised to a viewer’s interests, based on their location, activity on the app and the content they tend to interact with.

ARE INSTAGRAM REELS SET TO STEAL TIKTOK’S THUNDER?

Harkening back to the early days of Instagram stories, which were designed to rival that of photo and video sharing platform Snapchat, users instantly spotted the similarity of Reels to TikTok.

What’s important to note here, however, is that Instagram Stories are now used by 500 million people a day (Hootsuite, 2020), while Snapchat have a daily active user base of just 238 million in comparison (Statista, 2020).

Also, just one month after the feature launched in August 2020, Instagram has announced that they’ll be increasing the maximum video length on Reels to 30 seconds – setting the app up to rival TikTok’s slightly longer videos.

HOW CAN MY BUSINESS USE INSTAGRAM REELS?

A new feature on one of the world’s biggest social media platforms is a new opportunity for businesses to use it to their advantage.

With that being said, social media strategy is the key to turn that opportunity into a successful marketing avenue.

If your target audience is likely to use Instagram, Reels could be a great way to share additional content.

If your target audience isn’t within that demographic, it’s probably best to consider something else.

When incorporating Instagram Reels into your social media marketing strategy, consider planning around these key areas:

  • Jump on trends that suit your brand’s message

If you want to get in on the action, consider spending some more time browsing through Instagram Reels to gauge what’s popular right now.

If your brand suits the trend, hashtag or challenge, why not give it a go?

  • Show a more “human” side to your brand

Like TikTok, most Instagram Reels feature people. Therefore, it goes without saying that by using this feature, you can show a more human and personable side to your brand and its team.

Why not involve multiple members of your team and their viewpoints?

  • Make it fun and entertaining

Social media is meant to be entertaining. You’ll find that the most popular videos out there will be fun, entertaining and interesting for their audience.

Think: would you scroll past your video or stay for the whole thing? Don’t lose your audience with boring content!

  • Don’t take it too seriously!

As we mentioned above, social media is meant to be entertaining for its audience – but that also applies to creators.

Create content that you genuinely enjoy making and it will shine through to you audience.

Overthinking your content could cause it to appear less natural and spontaneous, and lead you to miss out on those all important off-the-cuff moments that do so well on apps like these.

WANT TO GET IN ON THE ACTION?

If you’re looking to supercharge your social media strategy to include new platform features and trends, our content team can help.

Our social media experts are avid followers of what’s new and popular in the internet world, so if it all sounds far too complicated, we can work our magic to create a social media strategy that makes waves in your industry.

To talk to someone about your brand’s digital presence, social media strategy and content marketing, call 0121 355 8092 or email joanna@edge-creative.com today to learn more.

The (Not So) Secret to Creating Effective Content Campaigns

To help you create more effective campaigns, we’ve developed a list of areas you should regularly consider:

Content can be magical – if you get it right. Most of the time, however, creating an effective content marketing campaign doesn’t happen overnight.

According to Content Marketing Institute’s research into B2B marketing, the majority of businesses find their content efforts to be ineffective. This is because you need to nurture, edit and develop your content regularly in order to make a real impact.

Below, we’ve listed three questions you need to ask yourself to turn your content marketing campaigns around and start making real, tangible results. 

DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE CUSTOMER BUYING JOURNEY?

Regalix found that understanding your customer’s buying journey and developing relevant content assets at each touch point is integral to your marketing processes.

Understanding this journey doesn’t have to be difficult. In general, each customer-buying journey includes various stages: awareness, consideration, decision and delight (hopefully!)

Firstly, your customer will realise they have a problem. This problem is why they search for a solution, and at this stage, they don’t want you to force your brand upon them. Instead, they want to understand their problem and gather relevant, informative material that will help them to develop their comprehension of what they are experiencing. At this stage of the customer journey, the content you create must be informative, such as eBooks, blog posts or infographics.

Then, your customers will experience consideration, where they try to make a decision about what product or service will be best for their problem. They’re still not completely bothered about who helps them achieve their end goal, just how you are going to help them achieve it. Use this opportunity to create content that highlights your unique proposition and emphasise your success stories.

After this, your customer will make a decision on the best business to help them achieve their goal. They’re likely to compare your offering to your competitors to make what they feel is the best decision. This is where you can shout about your brand and business – tell them who you are and what makes you special.

Lastly, your new customer needs to experience delight. You should exceed their expectations and ensure that they receive a positive experience. Here you want to offer future promotions and discounts in order to foster an emotional connection. Get it right and customers are likely to be loyal to your brand, shouting about your business when they know others with the same original problem they experienced.

You should segment your audience based on their behaviour. If a user is visiting your website frequently, they’re aware of your brand. If they’re filling in forms to gain more information, they’re probably considering your product or services. By driving your content to align with the buyer’s journey, you can optimise your campaigns and maximise the success of your content. 

IS YOUR CONTENT WORKING WITH YOUR OTHER FORMS OF MARKETING?

Content marketing costs around 62% less than other forms of marketing and can generate up to three times as many leads. However, this doesn’t mean your content shouldn’t be aligning with your other forms of marketing.

Take search engine optimisation for example. Content and SEO must work hand in hand. With good SEO, your relevant specific content will get in front of the right person at the right stage of their customer journey and provide them with a good user experience.

As well as this, remarketing on social media can be a valuable outbound marketing strategy to complement your inbound content marketing. You can reach people interested in your business who may have visited your website previously and have already seen some of your content. 

DO YOU REGULARLY CHECK YOUR ANALYTICS?

Research shows that most effective content marketers check their metrics at least three times a week (Hubspot). The only way you can optimise your campaigns is by looking at the results you gather; cutting out anything that isn’t working and increasing the amount of successful content you create. If you’re only checking your analytics once or twice every few months, you’re not maximising on your content’s success.

Consider: How many people are reading your content? How often are they visiting? What content are people sharing? How many people are engaging with it?

By gathering this information, you can get a deeper understanding of what is working effectively and what types of content needs more time and affection to nurture success.

EDGE CREATIVE

Getting your content marketing campaigns correct doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. By hiring a content and marketing agency, you can rest assured knowing your campaigns are in safe hands with experts who know what they are doing.

We are currently offering free consultations with a Marketing Director, so that you can develop your understanding of how your campaigns can perform better. If you are interested in this offer, please email our Content Creator Jess at jessica@edge-creative.com.

Why Being a Google Partner Benefits Our Clients

In this post, we’ll cover the following:

When it comes to marketing, recognition from the leaders of the digital world is one of the best indicators of knowledge and expertise within the industry. We’re proud to be Google Partners at EDGE Creative, and since achieving this recognition, we’ve continued to provide clients with successful advertising campaigns.

As our digital team has grown, so have our clients’ advertising campaigns as a result of the hard work and dedication we’ve demonstrated over the years – spanning from ecommerce for equestrian brands to huge national recruitment campaigns for big names within the logistics industry.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR EDGE CREATIVE?

As a Google Partner, we’ve been recognised as an agency to have the skills to launch successful advertising campaigns within search engines. It also means that our employees have demonstrated Google Ads expertise through assessments and certifications.

Being a Google Partner reflects that we’ve successfully delivered revenue growth for our clients through advertising, and have grown our client base significantly. This demonstrates that we’ve earned the recognition, and its something we couldn’t be prouder of!

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OUR CLIENTS?

When looking for an agency to assist with your advertising campaigns, you’ll want to know that the team you’ve chosen has a high level of expertise. Being a Google Partner means that our clients can be sure that they’re working with an agency that has demonstrated knowledge and skill with a track record of success.

Our experience in Google Ads and search engine marketing allows us to offer a more in-depth level of service, with detailed reporting and monitoring throughout our clients’ campaigns. We combine paid advertising with other marketing activities such as SEO, email marketing and social media to deliver a full, omni-channel approach that reaches audiences across a huge range of platforms.

HOW CAN WE HELP?

If you’re looking to expand your business’s online presence and reach a wider audience, search engine advertising is a hugely important tool that can put your brand in front of the right people.

At EDGE Creative, our digital team are strategy driven, and in collaboration with our design, development and content departments, we can offer a full, integrated marketing service that represents your brand’s values.

To talk to us about your requirements, call 0121 355 8092 or email info@edge-creative.com to claim your free consultation with a Marketing Director.

How Important is an Integrated Approach When It Comes to SEO & PPC?

For SEO and PPC it’s important to know these factors before making any decisions:

As an integrated marketing agency, we are often asked “Which is best: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)?” Despite this being a simple question, it doesn’t really have a simple answer.

The answer to this question depends mainly on your business, industry, competitors and overall objectives. You may believe that for you, one works better than the other, but you are more likely to find that an integrated approach – i.e. using a mixture of the two – is what’s best for your business.

It all comes down to your wider digital marketing strategy. Looking at factors such as your customer personas or customer journeys will help you to determine the best place to start.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEO AND PPC?

There are two main differences to consider when looking at search engine optimisation and pay per click advertising:

  • Page positioning – PPC adverts appear at the top of the page, above the organic listings (which you’ll be concentrating on for SEO).
  • Price – An organic (non-paid) approach doesn’t cost when individuals land on your website, however PPC has a cost for each click. 

WHY IS SEO SO IMPORTANT?

Search engine optimisation is the best way to get your website in front of the right people and increase organic traffic. There are many benefits to this approach, which include:

  • Increase visibility, brand awareness and credibility

When a search engine user searches a particular phrase to do with your industry and your website appears organically, you’re directly showcasing your expertise and knowledge in that sector. Do this on a regular basis, and your business will become an authoritative voice around that given subject.

  • Provide your target audience with the knowledge they need

More often than not, a user will turn to a search engine when they want to find out information. By becoming an authoritative voice that answers the questions your target audience have, you can grow your positive reputation. This can deliver further benefits as your brand becomes more memorable, which can mean your customers will skip the search engines and land straight on your website when they’re ready to make a purchase in the future.

  • No cost-per-click

There is also no cost per click when it comes to organic search, meaning they can provide a large return on investment (ROI) over other forms of paid media. This makes search engine optimisation a sustainable method of marketing – your leads won’t dry up completely the moment you stop paying.

There are however, some things to bear in mind when it comes to search engine optimisation. Firstly, achieving visibility and getting to page one of Google’s search results takes time and thorough research. Not only this, but if big global companies like Amazon or Wikipedia dominate the organic search results, it can be difficult to achieve success.

Search engine optimisation also takes time too. You’ll need to build regular fresh and relevant content and carry out research into the best keywords to go after for your business. There are also other factors to consider with SEO such as technical fixes and link building, which can be quite difficult to master alone.

WHY IS PCC IMPORTANT?

PPC can increase brand awareness, traffic and leads easily and effectively. There are many benefits to this, which include:

  • Page positioning

Paid search results are the first thing that a search user will see as they are always before the fold. This means that a user will always see your website immediately after searching, rather than having to scroll down to the organic posts.

  • Offer a targeted approach

You can target your audience through keywords, time of day, day of the week and geography. PPC is relatively quick to put together which means that you can fine-tune and edit the messaging that you want to promote after testing. If something doesn’t work, you can change easily, allowing you to approach your target audience with strategic and effective messaging.

  • Unique approaches available

There’s a range of different types of adverts you can include, which means you can make the most of different formats to boost website traffic. For example, Google allows you to provide visual shopping ads, which is a feature that is not available with organic search.

It’s important to bear in mind that you will have to allocate a budget for PPC, and it can get expensive. Although you won’t have to pay if someone doesn’t click on your website, when people do, it’ll cost you. Paid advertising will require constant investment – if you stop paying, your ads stop working.

As well as this, PPC is quite easy to copy. If a competitor notices that you are running ads, they may also decide to start running ads. This means that competitors can go after the same target audience as you, and if they have a bigger budget, secure more leads.

SEO & PPC

An integrated approach that considers both search engine optimisation alongside pay per click advertising is the best way to ensure success for your business. By using both digital marketing strategies, you are able to drive greater results.

There are many benefits to running both SEO and PPC together. This includes:

  • You can use the testing and research carried out for your PPC campaigns in your longer-term SEO strategies.
  • Remarketing allows you to stay in front of visitors after they have initially landed on your website through organic search. This allows you to customise messaging.
  • You can target your audience at all stages of the customer journey, from research to purchase.
  • You can increase confidence and awareness in your business by having both organic and paid visibility.

EDGE CREATIVE

Want to find out more about how SEO and PPC can work for you? We can help. We are currently offering a free initial consultation for those interested in seeing what search engine optimisation and pay per click advertising can do. Please call us on 0121 355 8092 or email info@edge-creative.com.