by admin | Nov 5, 2022 | Uncategorized
We are often asked what are the benefits of an outsourced marketing team so we thought we would put this quick guide together to look at some of the benefits.
What is outsourced marketing?
Outsourcing is simply having a third-party company involved. An outsourced marketing team can be used in addition to an in-house team for a particular skill or support your business whilst you develop the need for an in-house team.
We become your marketing team and help get your marketing activities off the ground!
Benefits of outsourced marketing:
There are many benefits to outsourced marketing, a major one being you’re not held to a long-term commitment. Marketing support can be flexible to support your needs and budget and allow you to grow and adapt. Marketing should not stop still.
If you are looking to start marketing for the first time, you can outsource the activities to get you up and running and then work with us until you need to develop an inhouse service.
At Creationz, we help support businesses develop their in-house team and provide a coaching and mentoring service to support where possible.
Another benefit, linked to flexible support, is that outsourced marketing can be a lot more cost-effective than employing a staff member – especially if you do not need anyone full-time. Therefore, it saves you a lot more money and once your marketing is up to speed you can easily assess what your needs are – more outsourced support or it is time to employ someone.
Outsourced support also allows you to try new services with a small-time frame to see if it could be beneficial – email marketing, blog writing, and social media support spring to mind.
By having an outsourced marketing team, you do not need to train an employee or send them on regular courses to widen their skills, as you will have access to experienced marketers – often with a wealth a knowledge to help you shape and define your marketing activities.
Marketing is moving at a very fast pace so you can be assured you are keeping up.
It is very valuable having an outsider’s perspective for the business as they might spot an opportunity you may have missed or not thought of.
Also, often companies carry out the same marketing activities as they have always done, and a fresh pair of eyes can help spot new opportunities. Working on the business instead of the business and give a fresh perspective.
How can it help my business?
Outsourced marketing can really help your business if you don’t’ have the expertise in-house. We are able to work for you if you already have too much to do without taking on marketing activity, we take the pressures off you.
Outsourcing your marketing will show you what is needed, what budget is required and how you can get the results you need.
We run our services to add value to any client we work with and take great pride in seeing businesses succeed.
Further Reading:
5 Mistakes to Avoid on Social Media
Are you a Marketing Magpie?
Are Testimonials Important
Do I Need a Marketing Plan
by admin | Sep 1, 2022 | Uncategorized
Christmas is an important
time of year for almost every business and presents itself as a fantastic
marketing opportunity. It can either lead to a huge increase in sales, or a
quiet spell as people focus their attention elsewhere. No matter what the
festive period brings to your business, it is vital that you have a festive
marketing plan in place in order to take advantage of the opportunities that
present themselves. According to Deloitte’s annual holiday retail forecast,
sales are projected to “result between $1,147 billion and $1,552 billion during
the November-January period.” With an increased portion of this falling online
due to Covid reducing footfall in shops.
Let’s take a look at the
basics of putting together a Christmas marketing plan.
- It’s never
too early start
It’s seems strange to start
thinking about your Christmas Marketing plan in September, but the truth is it
is never too early. Your larger competitors will have their festive marketing
plans drawn up and ready to implement, with the aim of securing vital coverage
for the must have gifts. The idea here is that your festive marketing plan
takes time to research, write and implement, and it should be part of your
early autumn calendar every year.
- There is
no one size fits all
When planning your festive
campaign, there is no one size fits all, you have to change up your approach
and see what works for your business. Some of the most effective holiday
campaigns use a mixture of blogs, videos, social media, competitions, giveaways
and more. Look back at what worked over the year and tailor it to fit in with
your festive marketing campaign, whilst mixing in success stories, tips and
helpful content.
- Understand
what your customers will be looking for at Christmas
The first step in drawing up
an effective festive campaign is understanding how your potential customers are
going to behave in the run up to the big day. You have to understand how your
customers behave throughout the year and refine this for your Christmas
planning. Ask yourself questions such as what their spending priorities will be?
Will they be more interested in products or services? Will they do their
Christmas shopping early or late? Once you know the answers to these questions
your marketing plan will begin to form itself.
- Stay on
brand but lighten up
The festive period is meant
to be light and fun, of course stay in line with your brand image, however, it
is a great opportunity to give your clients that feel and childlike wonder. You
can stick with your tone, feel and brand colours but make everything more
festive and inspiring. Change up your social media account, as this is a prime
location to advertise your holiday discounts, specials and competitions
Once you are ready to
implement your marketing plan, putting it into action should be relatively
straight forward. However, it is crucial you monitor the results of your plan
so you can see how it shapes up against the targets you set.
by admin | Jul 1, 2022 | Trending
High-impact marketing doesn’t have to be high-budget. Inflation is unfortunately having a huge impact on how much we are all able to spend at the moment, so this is the perfect time to make sure that the basics are doing their job. Conscientious business owners will be trying to save money wherever possible, and rightly so in such uncertain times. But being money conscious doesn’t have to come at a cost to your marketing strategy. Here we discuss some of the foundational elements of marketing your business effectively, and how you can make the most out of the cheap or free tools available to you. Read on for our money-saving marketing ideas.
1. Google Business Profile
The lowdown
Formerly known as ‘Google my Business’, Google Business Profile is a fantastic and FREE tool to increase the visibility and accessibility of your business via the world’s biggest search engine. The information you enter and update as part of your profile can appear in Google’s Maps, Search and Shopping functions, making it an essential element of your marketing strategy. So many people use Google as an easy and quick one-stop-shop for their needs, so it makes perfect sense to position yourself as a business where you know your target audience will already be looking.
Why we love it
This service features a ‘Create Post’ function, allowing you to easily add information about offers, new updates, events and products which will be visible on your profile for a week. We recommend that you take full advantage of this by posting something new every week in order to maximise the visibility of your profile. An effective strategy is to ensure you are rotating the aspects of your service that you advertise each week to give an accurate picture of the breadth of your business.
Now you know
Start by reviewing your profile and ensuring all of the information available is up to date. At a time, convenient for you, slot 10 minutes each week into your diary to complete a new post for your profile and this will increase your visibility to avoid your voice getting drowned out among your competitors’.
2. Email marketing lists
The lowdown
Social’s may be king in this day and age, but don’t underestimate the power of your own email marketing list. Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok can be fabulous platforms to connect with your customers through, however they don’t belong to you and as such it is wise not to be totally reliant on them. Every day there is another story about a business owner or influencer’s account being taken down or hacked. If these social platforms stopped existing or performing in the same way, do you have other established routes of reaching and communicating with your audience?
Why we love it
Email lists are a great way to transport your content directly to the inbox of your audience. You can drip feed content in a variety of formats to keep things interesting and creating a regular email which goes out on a weekly or monthly basis will keep your audience looking forward to hearing from you. Email lists are an opportunity to tell the story of your business, you can combine sales, humour, personal updates and relevant news to engage with people on a deeper level and in a longer form than social media allows.
Now you know
You can use your online followers as a basis for building your email marketing list, think about how you can maximise your conversion from online engagement into your email marketing channels. Think creatively about how you can encourage people to sign up, but under no circumstances can you add people to your lists automatically. It is crucial to abide by GDPR law and maintain a positive public image. Offers of discounts or exclusive content can be effective methods of enticement.
3. Your own website
The lowdown
How many times do you leave a website without even bothering to look around, because the layout is off-putting or inaccessible, or the content is out of date? Your website reflects on your brand, so it is important to keep it refreshed and up to date.
Why we love it
Refreshing, maintaining and updating your website doesn’t need to be a mammoth task. Websites are split into pages, and just like the layout of your website, it is easy to make this a manageable task by tackling one page per week. Your website can effectively communicate the style, feel and values you want to leave your customers with, so putting the time into getting those correct is worth the potential impact.
Now you know
The first things we would recommend that you review on your website are:
- Do you have enough ‘calls to action’?
- Are you linking through to your email marketing?
- Do your internal links work?
4. Social media
The lowdown
More than half of the world now uses social media in some capacity, making it a massive resource pool for your business to take advantage of. Social media is wide ranging, with different platforms offering different benefits and audiences. Your business might not mesh well with every platform, but there will definitely be at least one which suits your business and its needs. Platforms now also offer analytics, allowing you to easily monitor how effective your usage of your chosen social media channel is.
Why we love it
Social media channels are a cheap, wide-reaching marketing tool, allowing you to grow your audience through consistent and effective use. You can use your channels as funnels to filter your audience through to other areas such as your website, blog posts, YouTube videos or to sign up to your newsletter. Social media will be accessed by your customers in short bursts each day – meaning that the best way to communicate to them is in short, easy to digest chunks. This will keep your brand relevant and at the forefront of your audience’s mind. The nature of this method of communication means that it does not need to take a long time to produce and share effective content.
Now you know
Invest a bit of time in reviewing your social media and coming up with a refreshed strategy. Questions you should be asking yourself include:
- Is our messaging/voice as we want to be heard?
- Are we using the right platform(s)?
- Can we improve our bio/business information?
- Do our graphics look the way we want to present ourselves?
- Is what we are already doing working (analytics)?
All of these ideas can be executed quite simply without the need for an expensive marketing team. However, if you are looking for a more in-depth review of your marketing strategy, support with content creation or any other aspect of marketing your business help is only a phone call away. Call us on 01158376260 and we can find the right package for you and your budget.
by admin | May 19, 2022 | Trending
BeReal is the latest social media app (yes, there’s another new one…) however, this one is different to the others! For a start, it currently doesn’t give you the option to share stories and it also encourages users to share an authentic, in the moment, unedited version of themselves online.
So, how does BeReal work?
The idea of BeReal is super simple. Once you have the app, you get a daily notification telling you that it’s time to “BeReal.” You then have a couple of minutes to capture and share and photo of what you’re doing, in that moment. If you post after the two minutes are up it shares how late you were posting, so no cheating and waiting until you’re doing something exciting.
The notification comes at a different, random time every day, adding to the app’s authenticity.
The app has no editing or filter features, you can simply snap and upload.
You also have the option to comment or react with a “RealMoji” on posts shared by others. The “RealMoji” works in a similar way to reactions on Facebook, but uses a selfie of you captured in the app rather than an emoji.
Why is BeReal popular now?
There are said to be many reasons it is particular popular, especially amongst Gen Z:
- You can only see posts shared by others if you have posted yourself that day, meaning only those engaged with the app can use it, this means there is a lot less uninteresting content to scroll through.
- It’s a lot less polished than other forms of social media such as Instagram as users are not incentivized by likes or engagement.
- The app promotes a filter free and less toxic relationship with social media than we are used to being promoted in 2022.
Are you using BeReal? We’d love to know your opinion of the app! Get in touch with us info@creationzmarketing.co.uk
by admin | Dec 14, 2021 | Resources
As we head into the Christmas break, the talk of 2022 and planning a strategy for the New Year is hot on the lips of everyone. Certainly, after the year we have all faced it is totally understandable that plans need to turn to next year. However, it is really important that we take a few minutes to review this year to ask ourselves:
What marketing did we enjoy doing in 2021?
What marketing worked this year?
How do you feel your marketing activity has performed?
It is only when we have taken stock to review what has gone before, that we can truly look to the future. We need to learn from the success and those instances when marketing didn’t work quite as we would have hoped.
With this in mind, we have put together a quick, easy to use 2021 Audit template packed full of questions to help you take a few moments to review the year and be sure that you are spending time, effort and money in the right places.
Download your copy today:
Further Information:
If you would like any further information on how Creationz Marketing can help, call us on 0115 8 376 260 or email info@creationzmarketing.co.uk
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