The UK's economy has encountered persistent challenges since the pandemic, intensifying worries for businesses amid uncertainties in the economic landscape, further exacerbated by increases in living costs, material expenses, and the ongoing repercussions of Brexit. 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 st...

After a year at Cognique, we speak to Kim about her first year working agency side, her love of people, storytelling and building relationships.  Have you always been interested in marketing? That’s a very good question and the answer is 'yes' (there’s a bit of a story)! When I was in Year 10 at school, doing my GCSEs I had a business mentor who worked as a Marketing Manager in a local business. It was such a great initiative and I ended up doing work experience with her and just found som...

Investing in our people and their development, is something we continually support. Kim & Amy headed to brightonSEO for two days, their first in-person conference since they joined Cognique last year. Here’s what they got up to in the fun packed city of Brighton… brightonSEO here we come We’d booked our tickets, found an Airbnb with a seaside view, figured out the tube to get across London so we didn’t miss our connecting train. We were ready… As we headed down to Brighton, cracke...

A digital marketing strategy details how a business can achieve its goals using marketing – giving the business focus and helping it achieve buy-in from key stakeholders. Almost any business can benefit from a digital marketing strategy, but it can be particularly beneficial for businesses that are:Looking to grow Seeing a decline in sales Launching a new product or service Moving into a new market Looking to target a new audience Seeing increased competitor activityMarketing can be highl...

We specialise in providing bespoke website design and digital marketing for OMBs and SMEs. Winners of the Somerset Business Award Small Business Of The Year 2021, we are enjoying a period of business growth. In response to increased client demand, we have recently expanded the marketing team with Marketing Manager, Kim Barnard who oversees the marketing team and Amy Scriven, in the role of Digital Marketing Executive. Combining their skills and enthusiasm will help take Cognique to the next lev...

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...

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 consideration. ...

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...

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...

The benefit of modern technology is that it’s now easier than ever to track the performance of your marketing activity and therefore its return on investment (ROI). That means you should be able to see the impact of online marketing activity on things like website traffic, leads/enquiries and sales. If you don’t measure the performance of your marketing spend, there’s a good chance your marketing activity isn’t delivering value for your business. Where to start With a virtually never ...

The start of a new year provides an excellent opportunity to understand more about your company’s marketing activity. These questions should provide a good basis for finding out how you are performing, how your marketing activity could be optimised this year and what your marketing team need from you. What is the marketing strategy and how is it tied to business goals?What are the aims of the marketing strategy? How does the strategy support our business plan? What are we doing diff...