The UK's economy shrank by 20.4% in April alone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are forecasting the worst world recession since the Great Depression of the 1930's. The uncertainty of the economic landscape ahead of us all is a concern for many businesses. However, there are ways to help your business prepare for whatever is around the corner and completing a full marketing audit (assessing all marketing activity, benchmarking effectiveness and developing new strategies), is a sensible...

You've dived into your Google Analytics and you know where your website visitors are coming from and how they find and use your site. You also discover that your bounce rate is really high. Is this a problem and if so, what can you do about it? What exactly is a bounce rate? A website bounce occurs when a user visits your website, views just one page and then exits immediately. They essentially 'bounce' off your website. Your bounce rate is calculated by dividing all single page sessions by all...

Since the UK lockdown, time spent online has increased exponentially. In fact, UK daytime internet usage has more than doubled. Consumers spending more and more time online will, and has, created opportunities for some businesses, notably ecommerce businesses. The key for these businesses is retaining new customers in the short term and beyond the lockdown period.  Email marketing Email marketing is an effective and cost effective channel for retaining new customers. There are a variety o...

In these challenging times, it’s essential that businesses keep talking to their customers; this really is not the time for marketing 'radio silence'. While cashflow may be a concern for many businesses, the great news is that marketing doesn't have to involve big budgets. In fact, there are lots of highly effective and impactful, low cost marketing activities businesses can (and should!) utilise.  Email marketing  Mailchimp offer free email marketing up to 2,000 subs...

The digital marketing landscape is continually changing, making it difficult to know where to focus your time. So here's a round up of the digital marketing trends we think everyone should keep an eye on during 2020.Google's speed addictionYour website needs to (ideally) load in under 3 seconds! Any longer and less pages can be crawled by Google, which can have a negative affect on your search rankings. Check your website loading speed and if it needs to improve, look at compressing fil...

B2B ecommerce is seriously big business. The global B2B ecommerce sector is forecast to be worth £5.2 trillion by 2020. As digital savvy Millenials take over senior buying and procurement positions, businesses need to be ready to meet and service their needs.  Historically, B2B digital marketing has been slow to evolve, falling behind its B2C counterpart. However, in recent years there's been rapid growth in B2B ecommerce sales, so it's a proposition that deserves serious conside...

So you’ve launched your brand spanking new website and it's received fantastic feedback. But does a website have a 'shelf life' and if so, when should you start thinking about developing a new one?Let’s be SMART about itIn principle, the success of a website can be measured against its intended purpose. Was it developed to attract new customers? Is it an eCommerce site that needs to deliver a specific ROI? Maybe it adds credibility to your business or service? Or perhaps it's purely...

You’ve been on the food market circuit for a while and perhaps even have a couple of local retailers stocking your products, but how do you grow your stockists and reach new retailers potentially hundreds of miles away? The time might be right for you to start talking to food and drink wholesale distributors.Working with food and drink wholesale distributors can be an effective way to reach a wide network of retailers and can significantly aid your business growth. However, there are several...

So, you've been cooking up a storm in the kitchen and your friends and family are raving about your culinary skills and now you’re ready to see if there’s a place for you and your scrumptious new product on the food market. However, bringing a new product to market can be particularly tricky in the food and drink industry. With so many choices out there already, you need to make sure you get it right first time.Where do you start with launching your new product? Find your USPHow does y...

Wondering how much you should spend on marketing your business? In short, there’s no definitive answer. It’s often recommended that you spend 10% of your turnover on marketing if you're planning for growth. Here’s what that would look like for businesses with a...Turnover of £120,000 = £12,000 marketing budget Turnover of £500,000 = £50,000 marketing budget Turnover of £3,000,000 = £300,000 marketing budgetIn reality, the 10% figure is far from gospel. If you search the...

New privacy regulations are coming in next year and many companies are unprepared. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will come into force on May 25th 2018. Although it might seem a long way off, the new regulations are much more involved than current UK Data Protection Act rules, so there’s lots for businesses to do in preparation. Although it's unlikely, those who don't comply could be hit with huge fines – up to 20 million euros or 4% of turnover, whichever is higher.Who is a...

In the previous blogs to this series we’ve shown what PR is and how it can help your business. Now we’ll show how PR works as part of an integrated marketing strategy. What is an integrated marketing strategy? It’s how all the different marketing activity you are doing (or planning) fits together, so that each activity supports the others and shares the same messages. The often-quoted ‘rule of seven’ says that potential customers need to hear or see your marketing messages seven t...

We saw in our first blog of this series that PR (Public Relations) is about reputation, and that many companies and organisations employ PR companies to build, protect and maintain their reputation. Why does my business need a PR Strategy? Having a PR strategy means that you are thinking about what you want customers and other groups (such as suppliers and the media) to believe about the products and services you supply, and about your business in general. Whichever sector you operate in yo...

PR (Public Relations) is about your reputation, and how you are (and want to be) perceived. What is PR? Many companies, organisations and individuals in the public eye employ PR companies to build, protect and maintain their reputation, as it is their most valuable asset. A ‘public’ is anyone who ever has or ever will form an opinion about a company, organisation, or individual, and could include customers, potential customers, suppliers, staff, the general public, and of course the me...

Every time we work with our clients to create a marketing strategy and plan we use the same five steps. Here’s what our process looks like... 1. Learning about your business Before we start work on a marketing strategy for our clients, first we spend time getting a deep understanding of their business and their goals for the future. We’ll have a face-to-face meeting where we'll aim to find out:The history of their business. Who their customers are. What products or services the...

In our experience, businesses that come to us without a marketing strategy often have one thing in common – they’re spending money on marketing but not seeing a return on their investment. This frequently happens when an opportunity for marketing presents itself, perhaps the chance to run radio ads or advertise in a local magazine, and the business decides to invest. Yet when this is done outside of a marketing strategy, the activity often doesn't have the desired impact. For example, if you...