Strategise before you pull the trigger.

What is the goal of this exhibition? Is the intent to further establish company branding, increase consumer facetime, or improve overall business profits? It could also be a little mix of all three. Are you releasing a new product? Maybe this exhibit will contribute to market surveys? Or perhaps it is an opportunity to dole out promotional offers to drive traffic to the business.

Bottom line, determining the purpose for attending this exhibition will assist in tailoring the marketing framework to that respective intent.
Determine the design approach.

Stands. Widgets, gadgets, and gizmos. Audience interactions. Giveaway opportunities. Marketing brochures. All of these ideas are individually lucrative, but when each approach is coupled with another the opportunity for success is amplified substantially.

Consider each of the options for promoting the business at the exhibition. However, it is wise to review the event overview information prior to completing the design ensuring that all necessary equipment is available and allowed for use at the event. Also, when designing visual displays, keep the message brief and to the point. Too many words complicate the design and the intent of the presentation.

Show me the money!

Obviously if a company could give away free cars like Oprah Winfrey then everyone in the world would probably be driving new Mercedes on the streets. Unfortunately, reality is a harsh factor and forces businesses to become a little more creative…on a budget.

Lay out design considerations prior to producing material and determine the upfront costs implicit to preparing for this event with respect to your design approach. Additionally, consider the backend financial opportunity as well. It may be worth the initial cost to increase consumer traffic and drive profits higher.

Publicise. Broadcast. Announce. Expose.

What is the point of preparing for an event, smiling all evening long, and handing out a few marketing materials if the event only brings in a few individuals? Obviously the event planners will advertise and promote the occasion to some extent but this shouldn’t limit you to just their strategy.

Reach out on your company’s social media channels, print and post flyers, and tell every joe blow you come in contact with about this exhibition. Increasing the foot traffic for the event is inherently mutually beneficial for both the organisers and your company.

Distribute free recognisable and memorable material

On the day of the event, it is always advisable to be personable and relatable to the audience members. However, is it guaranteed they are going to remember your company and products? No. Not the slightest.

Be smarter than the average company and ensure marketing material is passed out on the day of the event. As an example, rocket fuel companies have been known to imprint their logo onto solid fuel material used for space shuttles. It goes without saying, but be as creative as possible…and keep flammables away from combustibles.

The post Creating Engaging and Targeted Exhibitions appeared first on Graphics & Website Design Portishead.

Though the gym will become less crowded within two months subsiding to its usual attendance level of dedicated weight lifters and many folks will become too busy to take a life changing holiday, this doesn’t mean a business shouldn’t adjust their goals and participate in the new year buzz. This is the moment to recognise upcoming opportunities and challenges in 2016 to grow its market share and truly personalise its consumer content. Below are a few trends to consider when tailoring your market strategy for the new year.

Messaging Platforms vs. Broadcast Social Media Networks

Gone are the simple days of blasting advertisements and promotional videos to a customer base via Facebook feed posts and Twitter handles. A growing trend in digital marketing is the desire for personalised one to one messaging content. Facebook has marked a significant decrease in the number of feed posts occurring daily while the growth of messaging platforms is expected to grow even further than the typical social media markets.

The difficulty with this trend arises in the form of balancing genuine ways to fit a company’s brand into a messaging platform strategy without becoming overbearing on the consumer base. It is a fine line to walk even more complicated by the fact that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, the two largest western messaging platforms, don’t afford any options to advertise via their platforms.

Ad-blocking is gaining momentum

Nothing is more annoying than watching a video or reading an article when halfway through you’re interrupted by an advertisement. Recognising this frustration, Apple has recently joined the fight against disruptive advertisements by adding momentum to the ad-blocking movement. As a byproduct of this movement, ad-blocking software has increased significantly in an attempt to remedy the annoyance.

What does this mean for digital advertising? Simply pushing advertisements will most likely become a thing of the past. Instead, digital marketing strategies will need to consider a more finessed approach taking into consideration the consumer experience on that platform.

Integrated digital marketing strategies are critical

There are so many platforms to choose from when developing an online marketing strategy. YouTube. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Vine. Tumblr. Not only does a company need to decide on which platforms are appropriate for their use, arguably more importantly it needs to decide how the advertising will flow AMONGST each platform. Companies can no longer view each platform as a separate marketing niche, but instead needs to focus on an integrated approach.

Advertisements should flow from each platform easily without any compatibility issues which complicates the entire process. What starts as a formatted YouTube video will need to expand to Facebook and remain compatible for optimal effectiveness. A single video needs to traverse the social media platforms with ease to reach an optimum level of consumer base.

The post Welcome To 2016! Survive By Tackling These Trends appeared first on Graphics & Website Design Portishead.

Some of the suggestions are specific products, while others are simply generic tools that have various solutions. We’ll push you in the right direction and you can make your decision based on price and specific requirements. If you need specific advice, you can always give our office a call.

Google Analytics

Despite it being free and heavily advertised by the biggest search engine on the market, most business owners still shockingly underuse it. And that’s a massive shame, as the amount of data this tool churns out is enough to replace an entire analysis team.

Google Analytics provides so much information that it’s beyond the scope of this article to give you a comprehensive list of everything it does. Let’s just say that there’s more than enough to keep you busy. From lead generation statistics to organic traffic numbers and even real-time figures, Analytics is the complete tracking tool.

Keyword Research Tool

Content marketing isn’t just about creating flowing words, engaging videos, and beautiful images/photography. In order to drive traffic, you also need to ensure that content has a good chance of ranking on Google. And you’ll never make that happen if your keyword research isn’t up to scratch.

The reason keyword research is so important is that it allows you to find ‘golden nuggets’ – keywords that have both high search numbers as well as low competition. Instead of going for obvious keyword (or worse, ones that don’t get search for at all), you can focus on phrases that are relevant and give you a good chance of converting. Popular keyword research tools include Market Samurai and Google’s very own Keyword Planner.

Cloud Storage

If you still rely on external hard drives or internal servers to back up your data, it’s time to creep out of your cave and join 2014. These days, the most effective way to store information is by using one of the many cloud storage solutions available. Best of all, many of them give you several gigabytes worth of storage 100% free.

Not only is this option much cheaper than investing in onsite IT infrastructure, it’s also much more secure. Instead of having all of your data in a single building, you’ve got carbon copies of your files on the cloud. Services such as DropBox are an excellent way to get started, but a simple Google search will return a myriad of options.

Social Media Management

Whether it’s Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Local – you need a social media management tool for your business. It’s difficult to keep on top of the various profiles, status updates, and tweets without a central tool from which you can operate. These tools aren’t just limited to posting, but you can also target your campaigns, see details data that’s visualised for easy digestions, as well as a bunch of other uses that you won’t get from your standard accounts.

All four of these tools can be had for a combination of free and a small investment. And the return is both measurable as it is priceless. You’ll save time on your campaigns, your projects will be targeted for greater ROI, and you’ll also have the peace of mind in knowing that your data is secure.

The post 4 Business Tools for Small Business Owners appeared first on Graphics & Website Design Portishead.

And you don’t want to stick with the clichés – flowers and chocolates won’t stand out, while cheesy videos that aren’t well made or haven’t any depth simple won’t strike a chord with audiences. To give you a little inspiration for your upcoming efforts, we’ve compiled a few cute campaigns that will melt hearts and bring in new leads at the same time.

Isn’t It Tweet – Orange UKs Marketing Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwwCGyGsjcA

This marketing campaign by one of Britain’s largest mobile providers used the power of social media to full advantage. It invited the audience to send in how they met their significant others – the company would then turn the ‘love stories’ into short animations, which could in turn be sent as a present via email.

It was a great success, with many people looking to use the short animations as a unique gift to give their partners. Orange asked people to send in their stories in via Twitter, creating a huge social proof all over the social media platform and beyond. Thousands of people saw the ad and resulting animations, resulting in plenty of new mobile phone and broadband customers.

Love Labels – Innocent

Smoothie giant Innocent thought that cards were just a little boring for Valentine’s Day 2012. That’s why it introduced the idea of ‘love labels’ through a dedicated microsite for the campaign.

The website allowed customers to craft cute and crafty love labels which could then be glued onto the beloved’s favourite smoothie. The label-maker could also be shared on Twitter and Facebook through integrated functionality.

The genius in this campaign is that through providing a free service it generated enough interest for people to jump on board. It gave people a chance to do something unique, without having to do the heavy lifting. The positive side effects were, of course, increased traffic to the Innocent website, additional smoothies being bought for the labels to be stuck on, and not to mention plenty of social media buzz as well.

Valentine Vinny – First Glasgow

Your campaign doesn’t have the global, nor does it require a huge budget to be successful – First Glasgow’s ‘Valentine Vinny’ campaign is proof of that. The investment required was minimal, yet the campaign reached thousands of people through social media.

In its campaign, the local Scottish bus operator asked customers to tweet in and say what qualities make their partner special. The prize for the winner was a bouquet of red roses as well as a dinner for two at a top Glasgow restaurant. The campaign was a roaring success, with customers interacting on Twitter as well as other social media platforms, increasing brand visibility online.

Want Your Very Own Campaign?

If you have any questions on how you can approach your Valentine’s Day campaign, give us a call and we’d be happy to help. We have a wealth of experience in creating campaigns that convert, are shared on social media platforms, and bring the new business you’re looking for.

The post Go beyond flowers and chocolate this Valentine’s appeared first on Graphics & Website Design Portishead.

Some marketing directors make the mistake of placing all focus on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. While it’s certainly important to have a strong presence on these, it would be a massive mistake to leave LinkedIn by the wayside.

LinkedIn is not just about individual professional profiles. Since 2008, companies have been able to add company brand pages, similar to Facebook’s Pages. We’re going to give you four solid reasons why you should jump on this service and give your company a LinkedIn presence.

It’s Popular and Growing

LinkedIn is, plainly speaking, the biggest professional network in the world. It has over 250 million active users and is growing extremely quickly. The company claims it gains an additional two members every second.

In terms of overall popularity, studies have recently claimed that it even beats out social medial stalwart Twitter. While these can’t be considered 100% conclusive, it’s nevertheless safe to say that LinkedIn is absolutely huge and it’s only going to get bigger.

Get Targeted Leads that Convert

Google+, Facebook and Twitter are great platforms but they’re not very strong in driving targeted leads. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is all about giving people the business solutions they are looking for. Both individual and company profiles will have an abundance of links to others in the same space.

This means that if someone is already active or looking for something in a certain industry, it’s likely that your company will pop up as well as a related item. Users that land on your page will therefore be targeted, rather than completely random or accidental. Converting these users is much easier.

Build Relationships with Other Companies

It’s not all about creating buzz amongst potential customers. LinkedIn is also a very useful tool when it comes to enhancing business relationships with other companies. For example, it’s a great way to find new suppliers, distributors, consultants and freelancers. Building your network over time will give you a virtual Swiss army knife and it’s ready to go whenever you need it.

In addition to building up your contacts, people can also recommend and vouch for you. The more of these recommendations you build up, the more legitimate and trustworthy your company will seem. You can get plenty of leads this way, as people place a lot of trust in word of mouth.

Feed the Search Engines

Ranking your website organically on Google isn’t always the simplest thing to do. You may be up against some of the big hitters in the industry, especially when it comes to the profitable keywords.

LinkedIn can prove a powerful ally when it comes to your company’s online marketing strategy. The platform has plenty of clout in Google’s eyes, meaning that LinkedIn pages rank much more easily than your average local business website. You often won’t even need to do any search engine optimisation to get yourself some natural hits.

What does this mean? You can design your LinkedIn page to be a well-oiled funnelling machine, getting potential clients to find you via your profile. It can sometimes be even more effective than ranking your own website. So don’t delay, set up that profile today.

The post Is your company missing the Link? appeared first on Graphics & Website Design Portishead.

It’s that time of year again. Sign up for that gym membership you’ll never use. Stock up on those vegetables as you’re planning to inject some serious healthy goodness to your diet. Cigarettes? Never even heard of them.

Before you focus all of your attention on the self (which isn’t a bad thing), have you actually set any resolutions for your business as well? If the answer is no, we’ve got just the thing. The following 4 New Year’s resolutions will help your business start 2014 with a bang, guaranteed.

New Year’s Resolution 1: Time for a Brand Refresh

Many business owners neglect their brand identity, instead opting to place their focus on the so-called ‘core’ business. However, there’s nothing more important than that first impression and ignoring it is a serious mistake.

Just look at how often the big brands tweak and change their image. Logo refreshes, new sub-brands, and a wide range of other design strategies are implemented to ensure things stay hip and relevant. So why should you not follow suit?

Some say it’s a cost issue. However, you don’t need to invest millions like Nike or Virgin. Give us a shout and we’ll help you find an affordable solution that fits within your budget.

Ask yourself the following question – when was the last time your company refreshed its look and feel? If your brand is still stuck in the 1980s, it’s time to give it a serious makeover.

New Year’s Resolution 2: Creative Marketing

Got the cheesy ‘Happy New Year!’ email that everyone else is firing off as well? Check. Replaced 2013 with 2014 on all brochures and sent them out to all clients just like last year? Check.

Companies tend to make the mistake of keeping around stale material for far too long. Customers are just not going to respond. They’ve seen it all before, so there’s no reason to look twice.

To really stand out, you’re going to have to go beyond the average. Ditch what everyone else is doing and think about the box. Instead of sending your usual mail shot, give it a dash of innovation.

If you’re not quite sure how to ignite that creative spark, give us a bell and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction. We thrive on working with fresh and beautiful design that serves a distinct marketing purpose.

New Year’s Resolution 3: Go Mobile

Type your company web address in your mobile browser and hit go. If the text is tiny and illegible, your images are pixelated and the site is just impossible to use, you’ve got a severe problem.

More and more users are switching to mobiles and tablets as primary browsing devices. If your site design isn’t responsive, you’re going to be missing out on bucketloads of traffic and potential leads. So make sure 2014 reserves a hefty chunk of attention for mobile and tablet compatibility!

New Year’s Resolution 4: Take the Dust Off Those Brochures

When we started telling people to go digital, we’re afraid some took the advice to the extreme. The result? Traditional marketing stalwarts such as the brochure have been left by the wayside, gathering dust in boxes from yesteryear.

Sheepishly smiling just now? Don’t worry. We understand that digital is a major draw for any business – it’s not a surprise, considering just how important technology has become.

The fact that you’ve been neglecting the old brochure could actually work to your advantage. Customers will notice when a shiny new design arrives through the post. Play your cards right and conversions could go through the roof.

The fact is that brochure marketing is still ridiculously effective. There’s just something about having an actual physical tri-fold to look at and customers feel the same way. So bring back the brochure and use it as an additional way to engage your potential clients. Remember – you should always use a wide range of marketing methods for full reach and maximum effectiveness.

Need a New Year’s Resolutions Partner?

We appreciate that implementing some of these strategic New Year’s Resolutions may not be completely straightforward. After all, it’s not your core business. That’s where we can step in and help you. Give us a bell and we’ll be happy to give you a few pointers.

The post 4 New Year’s Resolutions to Jump Start your Business appeared first on Graphics & Website Design Portishead.

Your friendly SEO agency in Bristol can help

Even if you have a killer offer and your mailshots are beautifully crafted and interesting to boot, it doesn’t really matter if no one is there to open them. Don’t worry! Your friendly SEO agency in Bristol has come to the rescue once more.

This exclusive guide will not only help you boost signups, but will increase conversions as well. All it takes is a few clever tweaks to your strategy.

Offer Great Incentives

So how do people actually sign up to your mailing list? If you answer by saying ‘just a basic form field’, then we have a pretty good idea where you’ve made your first mistake.

Think about it this way: users are bombarded with options these days. Whether it’s annoying pop-ups, multiple sign-up screens or inline adverts, there are plenty of punters looking to entice your potential customer. So why would they randomly opt-in to what you have to offer, without getting anything in return?

Remember, users are not there to do you a favour. You’re going to have to entice them to give you their details. Try and look into the psyche of your average customer. What drives them? What would interest them?

For example, if you have a dieting website, why not offer your customers a free recipe e-book when they sign up to your list? It doesn’t have to be a literary masterpiece, just something worth having a look at. People love free stuff!

Use Beautiful (Yet Simple) Visuals

It’s incredible just how many beautiful website designs are out there that really showcase creative talent, but lay bare the shortcomings of usability and marketing basics. Clutter, confusing images and design that just isn’t intuitive will drive people away, no matter how good your site looks.

You want your design to be visually compelling, but also well thought out. Think about how the average user browses a website and where their eyes move when looking at a screen. Drive their interest to an action, in this case signing up to your list.

Combine this with a beautiful sign-up form that really stands out and you have something that will pique a user’s interest.

Free Giveaways and Contests

Have you scraped everything you can out of your standard mailing list incentive? Not quite getting the same results you were when you first released your free e-book? Time to mix things up.

Other than changing your offer up a little bit, why not run limited time offers and contests? There’s nothing like scarcity to drive people to sign up to things. Don't forget as a SEO agency in Bristol we can help with this too!

Final Word: Be Creative!

All it takes is a little elbow grease and creative thinking to get your opt-ins to go through the roof. Think outside the box and the results will come, guaranteed. It’s not always evident at first glance, but making a few simple changes can really make a huge difference.

Still a little confused? Look no further, we are a SEO agency in Bristol and we can give you a complete solution so that you can sit back and enjoy the results. Not only can we implement the strategies discussed above, but we’ll use our ‘secret sauce’ to really give your campaign that edgy kick that it needs. Call today or click here to discuss your project in more detail.

The post 3 Ways to Boost Mailing List Opt-ins appeared first on Graphics & Website Design Portishead.