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Social Marketing

Unsure which social channels to focus on?

Identifying the right channels for your business

Nobody could blame you for getting confused over which social channels you should be focusing on, and if you’re like a lot of businesses we speak to, it’s easy to fall into the trap of signing up for all of them and generically posting the same content across all of them.

Before you even think about getting into a social media strategy, what you should be posting, when, how and why, there’s one big factor that businesses fail to consider and that’s choosing the right channels in the first place.

Most social media channels have a very broad range of users with varying interests and demographics, but, there is generally a core audience you can associate with each network – at least enough to know whether it’s one you should put your valuable time into.

Whether we’re looking to work primarily with organic social content for our clients, or a targeted paid advertising campaign, these are the factors we take into account when choosing the networks that will deliver the best return on investment.

LinkedIn

This network is pretty unique in that when a user is on the LinkedIn, they’re usually working or browsing in a professional capacity, or, as you may find, there to send badly constructed sales messages.

Although the content on LinkedIn has become more informal over the past few years, the general tone does tend to be more professional than the other networks. This makes it great for company pages, telling the world what’s going with your business, new team members and job openings.

There are 85 million businesses listed on LinkedIn and over 800 million users which may account for how much more interactive and engaged the communities on there have become.

LinkedIn is a must for B2B and, depending on how you use it, can be very rewarding for B2C businesses especially if you’re looking to raise the profile of your company and attract the best team members.

Facebook

Although the user-base has apparently declined over the past couple of years, Facebook remains the mother of all social networks with over 300 billion users. Even taking into account the recent privacy issues the channel’s faced, it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. If Meta has anything to do with it, we’ll all be wearing headsets or glasses and sharing our perfect lives in the Metaverse.

From a professional perspective, Facebook has a number of useful features including Business Pages, Facebook Shops, Facebook Pay to seamlessly extract money from customers, Book Now options for appointment-based businesses and even Lead Forms that can pre-fill profile information.

On top of the organic options, Facebook also offers one of the most advanced Paid Advertising platforms of any social network, giving businesses the ability to target based on a range of criteria such as age, sex, location, interest, family dynamic and much, much more.

Instagram

Part of the Meta family, Instagram has a different tone to Facebook and is mainly used for sharing images among an audience split 50% female and 50% male users – primarily in the 18 to 34 range.

The main features of this fairly young network are:

Stories – Tell the world a story over 24 hours. Great for events or promotions
Filters – No longer used as much but the network is still synonymous with image filters
Live – Answer questions and engage with your audience live
Influencers – Getting an influencer on board can vastly increase the chance of success
Reels – 15 second videos that can contain multiple video clips
Story Links – affix a sticker to your stories that direct people to your website landing page

With Instagram now responsible for over 40% of Meta’s revenue and likely to become their biggest cash generator over the next few years, instagram’s influence and business tools shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Tiktok

It may be the baby of the bunch but it’s also one of the fastest growing, especially with those under 18 years old, with over 1 billion active users.

Organically, Tiktok isn’t for the faint hearted, you’ll need to be prepared to be impactful and, dare we say, funny to build a following worth having. The content can be a sticking point for many but when you get it right, it’s not unusual for an audience and results to explode.

Despite being new to the game, Tiktok also boasts a pretty good advertising platform, allowing users and businesses to target an audience based on a range of options. However, just like the organic approach, the content is going to be key.

It’s important not to dismiss Tiktok, or any network for that matter, just because it doesn’t align with you personally or your current target market. Even if you’re looking to connect with 25 year olds, there’s a good chance Tiktok’s audience will still be using the channel when they become your next perfect customer.

Twitter

For those that don’t fully understand Twitter, it’s easy to think you simply post some content up to 280 characters long, add in some #hastags and away you go.

Depending on the type of business you’re running, Twitter can be one of the most underutilised channels. To get the full benefit of this network you need to be pretty reactive, jumping on board with the latest trends and engaging in real-time conversations. In fact, the conversational nature of Twitter makes it one of the best customer service channels around.

Just like the networks above, Twitter also has an advertising platform with good targeting options but, unlike the others, does tend to suit a narrower range of business types.

Pinterest

One of the smaller of the social networks at just over 400 million active users, Pinterest is also much more niche and specific with its audience and benefits. That said, they do seem to have begun a journey of development to release a range of features to help businesses to interact, engage and converse with their audience.

Pinterest is more of a catalogue based platform, focusing on visuals and great for sectors such as home decor, food, DIY, fashion, beauty products, travel and jewellery. To get an idea of what a successful Pinterest account looks like, check out Spend With Pennies

Youtube

As one of the oldest channels and not always thought of as social media, there are still people (not many) that can’t believe just how popular Youtube has become.

Considered dormant for many years, Youtube is an absolute must for any business wanting to publish videos – even if they’re then shared on other channels. However, content is one of the biggest challenges.

With such a massive user base it’s impossible to say that Youtube is aimed at any specific audience which puts the emphasis on the creator to ensure that their content connects.

We’ve seen many businesses over the years create channels and upload sales videos, which is fine as a place to host them, but you’re not going to drive sales directly from Youtube using that approach. The most popular videos on Youtube are entertaining, funny or educational.

As well as giving you enough information to choose the right networks, our hope is that we’ve helped you decide what you shouldn’t be doing. The biggest mistakes we see are either businesses spreading themselves too thin, or not properly tailoring content to the audience on that channel. Posting the same content on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter just doesn’t work.

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Paid Advertising

Plenty of Ad clicks, but no sales?

Paid advertising - All clicks. No sales

Are you ready to give up on Paid Advertising because all you see is cost and little or no conversions?

If you are then you’re no different to a large number of people we talk to on a regular basis, and, whilst there can be many reasons for the lack of results, one of the most overlooked by businesses and agencies alike is the website or landing page.

When an Ad campaign isn’t performing well the first place people look is the network, adjust Ad copy, change bidding, remove targeting or stop the campaign altogether but in over 70% of cases nobody bothered to look at the website. After all, Meta, Google, Microsoft, TikTok and others continue to grow in revenue from advertisers so it can’t be all bad.

What’s the real problem?

Again, you can never rule out the Ad campaign itself, but let’s assume for a minute that your campaign is good enough to drive targeted traffic to your landing page.

A landing page should be viewed as a part of the overall sales funnel, to work in tandem with your adverts, and if that part of the funnel has a hole then you could be leaking hundreds of potential new customers. If you are, then Ads can get really expensive, really quickly and force you into shutting down what could be your best performing sales channel. Are you prepared to take that risk?

Why user experience is so important

With an estimated 500 million English speaking websites, the internet has never been busier. Unlike the days when you pulled out the Yellow pages, just about all of these websites are available to users from the comfort of their own home.

This huge availability has shifted what’s important to a user when picking a store or supplier. Just think about it, unless you’re looking for a specific website, how many times have you clicked the back button because it took more than a couple of seconds to load the site content? How often have you found a great deal in a Google Ad but got frustrated trying to access the website and, instead, headed straight to Amazon?

On the flip side, how many times have you contacted a company or made a purchase because the landing page loaded quickly, you found exactly what you were looking for, there were reviews from happy customers and, if you needed more information about the product or service, it was all there with high quality images and you didn’t need to go clicking around?

How to turn your Ads into sales

Conversion Rate Optimisation is actually a huge, data-driven and sometimes technical subject, but there are lots of simple changes you could be making that have a big impact on your conversion rates and help to stop that leaking bucket.

1. Make sure your ads and landing page work together

Your advert copy and any promises or claims made should be mirrored on your landing pages. You’ll also want to make sure, if you’re using a dedicated landing page platform that your branding and messaging is consistent with your main website.

The visitor should know immediately that they’re in the right place so don’t be afraid to have lots of landing pages if that’s what you need in order to make a strong connection with the visitor.

2. Track absolutely everything

At a bare minimum you should be tracking conversions, although you might be surprised how many businesses and even agencies don’t. Ultimately, the more you track, the more information you gather, the better the data you have to improve your landing page, your conversion rate and overall return.

One of the biggest missed opportunities, certainly for offline or service-based businesses, is phone calls. If you ask someone in a busy office how many good sales calls they had, they’ll always underestimate. Estimations are not good enough when making decisions that could dramatically affect your business.

3. Identify with the visitor’s problem, desire and solution

Most of the time a visitor to your landing page will be looking to solve a problem, whether that’s purchasing a product they’re trying to find or maybe they have a water pipe that’s leaking, regardless of their problem the first thing your landing page should do is to identify it. Not only will the visitor know they’re in the right place but it’ll create the perfect link between your Ad copy and your content.

The next step is to understand their desire, make sure your landing page is connected with what they’re looking to achieve. For ecommerce, this could simply be an engaging product description but for service based businesses you could expand more into the outcome a particular offering will create.

Finally is the solution, but it’s not as simple as just saying you’re amazing so they should choose you – you need to give examples. For ecommerce that could be talking about the quality of your product, how long it lasts, why it’s better for them than the competition and for service based businesses you might talk about why people stay with you, the results you achieve and what makes you different.

4. Make it easy to convert

A really common mistake is to make the conversion process too complicated – you need to make it as simple as possible to click and convert, for every second they have to work it out, you’ll begin losing a large percentage of your audience.

For ecommerce businesses don’t try to reinvent the wheel. If you take a look at Amazon or almost any large shopping website, you’ll notice an obvious “buy” button, usually to the right of a product image. It’s there for a reason.

For service based businesses, a good rule of thumb is to have three call to action options, one within view when you hit the page, right below your “problem” section, another right after the “desire” section and finally at the bottom of the page after your “solution”. You’ll never know at what point of the process the visitor is ready to convert so make sure you have a button there, ready to be clicked, at all times.

5. Use social proof

Any business owner will tell you that the best leads and sales come from recommendations and referrals and whilst that doesn’t directly relate to anything you can do on your landing page, the next best thing is social proof.

If you have happy customers then ask them for a paragraph on why they love your product or service and make sure it’s displayed, at the very least, towards the end of your content to reinforce everything you’ve said. You’ll be amazed how much potential new customers will take into account what other people say about their experience with your business.

Enjoy the results

Conversion Rate Optimisation is an ongoing process, you’ll never create the best converting landing page from day one and so you should continue to revise your content once you have the data to do so, but, If you get your landing page right, or at least heading in the right direction then you can start to enjoy increased conversion rates.

Not only should the above tips give you a better Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) but if your landing page is navigable from the main website, you should also see an increase in organic traffic conversions – more enquiries and sales for no extra visitors and zero extra spend!

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Paid Advertising

Top 5 Paid Ad Features

Paid advertising: The top 5 (newish) PPC features

Paid advertising usually makes up a big percentage of a marketing campaign’s budget, whether that’s to target direct enquiries and sales, or to test and build an effective SEO strategy.

2022 saw a good number of changes to options on both new and existing channels, so, to help you keep up with everything that’s been happening, I’ve put together a list of the top 5 newish PPC features you might have missed.

1. New Tools for Facebook Ads

Despite the consumer-facing challenges Meta has faced over the past year or so, they do continue to create new options for advertisers that integrate seamlessly across Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp including messaging and conversion features.

Meta has identified that more than 70% of people want the ability to talk with a business in a conversational way and so their Ad format, which can be published across Facebook and Instagram from the Whatsapp Business app, has been launched.

Meta has also released new acquisition and lead gen options including:

Gated content
Partner integrations
Lead filtering
Quote requests on Instagram

The most effective feature, in my opinion, is the ability to use gated content to capture crucial user information such as their email address to be able to continue the conversation later.

2. Video Ads for Microsoft

Microsoft just won’t give up on increasing its share of the digital advertising revenue and with the growth of their Audience Network, at the end of last year they officially launched their Video Ads.

If you’re an Advertiser in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Germany or France, you can now reach your target market where you might not have been able to before and, of course, you won’t need to start from scratch – you should be able to re-use any Youtube Ads you’ve already created.

Microsoft has released some data to suggest that about 40% of people watch videos on MSN but not Youtube and nearly 60% of people watch MSN videos but not Facebook.
Personally, I’d question those stats but it does give food for thought.

3. No more expanded text ads for Google

Google is probably the only network taking options away from advertisers, the latest being expanded text ads. Although it was 2021 when Google first announced they were taking this feature away, it was June last year when they officially disappeared. Search Ads are overwhelmingly dominated by the Responsive Search Ads format.

For businesses using Google Ads, this was a big change, especially since many advertisers saw their expanded ads perform way better than their new responsive counterparts, but, trying to find a positive out of all of this, it has meant that advertisers and agencies have been forced to rethink their messaging.

Although it’s easy to feel you’ve lost some control over your Ads, the new headlines and descriptions on responsive ads does mean that, subject to believing Google knows the audience best, they’re well placed to mix and match your text to service the best message at the right time.

4. Tiktok’s New Search Ad Placements

Although it’s not fully released yet, and Tiktok haven’t given a timeline for it to be available for all advertisers, last year people started to notice ‘sponsored’ listings appearing in their search results.

Research is starting to show that users of this relatively new platform utilise the network for more and more general search terms – phrases that would have once been used in Google.

Hopefully, very soon, advertisers will be able to target users around specific search terms which, for many, would be game-changing.

5. LinkedIn gets an enhanced campaign manager

For years people have complained about how difficult and convoluted it is to LinkedIn’s Ad campaign dashboard and it looks like, finally, they’ve taken notice.

At first glance it would seem they’ve taken on board the layout of other networks such as Google Ads, giving 5 main menu options – Plan, Advertise, Test, Analyse and Assets.

If that wasn’t enough of a change, you can now also flick between different advertising accounts much easier.

So that’s a round-up of our top 5 newish Paid Ad features, but, no doubt there’s going to be a ton more on their way, so, to stay up to date, make sure you like, subscribe or follow us on social

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Search Optimisation

4 tips for writing a searchable blog

SEO tips: Make your blogs more searchable

Optimising your blog for search engines is a great way to get your content noticed and to make your website visible to wider audiences.

Here are four of our top tips for making your content more searchable.

Optimise for SEO

The best strategy for improving your blog searchability is to optimise your content for search engines.
There are many ways in which you can help climb the search engine rankings:

Keyword research: When planning your blog content, ensure that your copy naturally integrates keywords to help match search terms in Google. When a search engine user looks for a topic relating to your blog using the same keywords, they are more likely to find your site.

Long-tail keywords are three or four phrase keywords specific to what you are promoting. For example “blue long-sleeve organic tee-shirt’. Long-tail keywords are great for optimising for voice searches, and often have lower competition, making it easier to rank for these terms. If you’re creating content that matches keywords and phrases that you think your audience will be searching for, you’ll be more likely to rank higher in the search engines.

Meta-descriptions: Meta descriptions are short summaries describing what your page is about. Meta descriptions appear in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and are designed to inform searchers whether the page matches their query. Meta descriptions are important for making sure that your blog reaches the right audience and can help to increase your website traffic.

Provide the reader value

A searchable blog is nothing without top-quality content. People like to read articles that provide them with valuable information.

Here are some topic ideas for creating a searchable blog:

Answer a question – ‘Are your blog titles SEO friendly?’ ‘Do you need a blog?’ Answering well-discussed topics in your industry can help to make your blog more searchable. A lot of search engine users will search a question in the hope of getting a clear, comprehensive answer.

Give advice – ‘Top tips on how to improve your SEO’, ‘How to create stand-out Facebook ads’. By providing advice in your blog, you are giving the reader valuable information that they can use and share with others. Advice should be evergreen, so it can be searchable (and useful) for years to come.

Industry news – Writing about a well-discussed topic in your industry is a good way to appeal to search engine users. What’s more, if your topics are relevant, it gives your business a voice in the industry. Having an opinion on a well-discussed topic is a good way to drive engagement and get your readers involved in a conversation.

The more relevant your topic is to the reader, the more likely it is to be shared, earning you backlinks and ultimately, increasing the amount of traffic to your website.

Link previous blog posts

When writing new blog articles, don’t forget to link your current posts to past content if it is relevant. Inbound links can help demonstrate to search engines that your page content is reliable and valid. Likewise, if other pages of your website are relevant to your new blog post, don’t forget to link them. Linking readers to other pages on your site helps to direct them to your products or services, and will also demonstrate your website authority to search engines.

External links to other, trustworthy sites are also a great way to boost the credibility of your blog post. Ensure that your blog uses trustworthy sites when linking throughout your text.

Regularly provide relevant, evergreen content

Producing relevant and up-to-date blog content is a great way to climb the search engine rankings. Content that is continually relevant to search engine users is likely to stay valuable for a much longer length of time compared to one-off posts with information that is likely to change.

Evergreen content helps you to rank better and in turn, generate a greater amount of leads because traffic is likely to increase if the information is regularly updated and accurate. While you are updating old blog information, consider removing any outdated content, or information that no longer has relevance.

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Social Marketing

Social media strategies that build trust

Build brand trust on social media

Building your social media presence as a brand can be a really great way to engage with both potential and current customers, build brand trust and promote your products or services.

Why?

Aside from being a really cost-effective marketing strategy, more than half of the world’s population is now on social media. That’s a staggering 3.96 billion people, and it seems to be a figure that’s growing year on year.

Now, how many of those are your potential customers? It’s likely that whichever industry your business is in, your clients or leads are on social media in some form- whether that’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or another platform.

One of the important things we tell our clients whenever we discuss social media is that social is not just about generating sales (although social does play an important role in generating leads and sales), it’s also about building brand awareness and trust.

Sprout Social found that 69% of social marketers held increasing brand awareness as their number one priority for social media. Getting creative with your social media in a way that provides value to your followers is a great way to build brand awareness and trust.

Say you were seeking out a service online, for example, a local gardener or cleaning service. Would you first search online for them to check out their reviews, maybe browse their social profiles to gain an understanding of what it is they offer and how other customers have responded to their services? Probably.
According to Hootsuite, 43% of people search social media when researching for something to buy, a good indication of the role social media plays in the sales process.

So, what’s important when building brand trust using social media?

Find the best platforms

Firstly, you need to identify where your target audience is engaging on social.
Are they avid Facebook users or do they engage better with imagery and videos via Instagram?
Understanding the best platforms to engage with your audience is key to ensuring you’re not investing time and energy into a strategy that just isn’t going to work.

Search relevant hashtags, research your competitors and learn about your target audience before committing to a social platform(s) you want to invest time and money into.

Test different content

You’ll never really know how to engage with your audience unless you put time into trying different strategies.

Perhaps running a monthly competition will boost your sales, or maybe your audience would love to learn more about how your products are created before clicking on a link to your products.

Testing out different content types is a great way to find what works best for connecting with your audience. Remember, what works for your competitors might not be best for your brand personality, so don’t be afraid to push the boundaries and test the types of content and tone that generates the best results.

Don’t forget to measure your results by looking at reach, engagement rates and website traffic and compare them against your business goals.

Engage your audience

It’s all good and well posting great quality content, but responding to comments and engaging with your audience is a whole other aspect of social media management to consider.

Using user-generated content by encouraging your followers to tag your brand in related posts and responding to messages, tweets, questions and comments is a great way to build your brand trust because it allows your audience to see that there’s a human behind your brand. It also helps them to feel valued as a follower.

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Search Optimisation

3 top SEO trends for 2023

SEO in 2023: Top trends to leverage

Search engine optimisation trends are forever changing. Keeping up to date with the latest trends, algorithms and best practises is integral for success when it comes to climbing SERPs.

Search Intent

Google is becoming increasingly focused on not just what users are searching for, but why they are searching for information. Are they looking for tips and advice, or do they want to make a purchase? Perhaps they’re looking for a specific website?

A lot of search intent comes down to which stage a user is in the buying journey. There are several types of search intent, including navigational, informational, commercial and transactional.

Optimising your website pages to answer search queries is a great way to drive more conversions. Make sure you’re taking into consideration what users would expect from each page. For example, if you’re an eCommerce business, you should look to optimise your product pages with keywords that are more commercially driven, such as ‘Buy iPhone case’. Whereas your blogs can be optimised for keyword terms related to informing your audience about your products, or topics related to what you sell, such as ‘Reasons to have an iPhone case’.
Addressing the buyer journey will be key going forward for SEO.

Core Web Vitals

Back in 2020, Google introduced Core Web Vitals, ranking signals that were introduced to measure things like website responsiveness and visual stability.
These Core Web Vitals have become important for measuring the user experience, something Google now considers essential for ranking.

For the rest of this year and beyond, it’s really important to take time to ensure that your website is thoroughly optimised for the user. From mobile responsiveness to page loading speeds. Everything you do should gear towards ensuring that your users are able to navigate your website without any problems.

Quality Content

Circling back to what we said about search intent, high-quality content on your website is key to ensuring that your website provides the answers that searchers are looking for when they land on your website. Writing quality content, whether in the form of blogs, product descriptions, page titles or website copy, can help to index your pages on SERPs.

We recommend establishing a blog strategy to create content that might be of interest to your target audience, but that currently isn’t covered by your competitors. For example, if you provide linen for hotels, you might create content that covers topics such as ‘Why high-quality linen is important for hotel guests’.

The purpose of high-quality content is to ultimately align with users’ search queries and to provide your customers with your expertise so that your business can establish thought leadership.

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Digital PR

Recycling your old blog posts

Repurposing existing content

If you’ve had your business blog for a long time it’s likely that a lot of your blog posts might be out of date, and therefore may not be adding value to your business any longer.

You might not want to delete the content because it helps your business to look more legitimate and shows that you’ve been working on your blog for a long time- so what do you do with the old blogs?

There are a few ways in which a blog might be useful to you as a business. An old blog can still be useful if it provides high-quality information to the reader, or it can be useful in driving traffic through its SEO.

Decide which content is still useful

Before deciding on which blogs to keep and which to delete, first decide on whether your blog has value. Evergreen topics might still be relevant to your readers, but others might now be out of date and no longer useful to the reader. For example, content that is written about technology that has since moved on.

Remember that blog content doesn’t just have to be in date to be beneficial to the reader. Content that is dated back a few years might simply be a well-written or informative blog and can still provide value to the reader. Blogs also help to drive organic traffic, and if a blog has helped drive conversions or increase website traffic- it’s probably a keeper.

Improve or repurpose

Once you’ve made your decision on whether a blog post is useful, the next step is to categorise your blogs depending on what you wish to do with them.

Blogs that are still relevant might just need editing to make them up-to-date with the times, or perhaps you can add in a new paragraph discussing the new service you offer if it is related to the blog topic.

Be sure to pay attention to your grammar and to make any corrections where relevant. Editing is also a great opportunity to improve any SEO relevant changes, such as new keywords, meta-descriptions, subheadings or URLs. Old blog posts can negatively affect your website SEO potential if they are outdated or of poor quality.

The more you can perfect your blog, the better chances there are of people reading the whole article and visiting other pages on your site.

Recycle your ideas

If your blog is particularly old, poorly written or no longer relevant, why not recycle your ideas?
Using the same themes or recycling a title is a great way to create compelling content, and this time around you can be sure to perfect your grammar and use the best SEO strategies too.

Reviewing your old blog posts is a great way to ensure that you’re getting the very best value out of each and every written piece.

Do you struggle to find the time in your busy working day to write well-researched content for your business blog?

At Bigg, our specialist team of Bristol-based writers are dedicated to writing high-quality, researched content specific to your business. Chat to us today about a content package for your business.

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Paid Advertising

Why your Facebook Ads aren’t converting

Facebook Ads not converting?

Facebook Ads can be a powerful tool to help turn potential stakeholders into paid customers. However, despite well-targeted ads, some businesses might still find that they are falling short of their lead conversions.

What could be causing this issue? Read on for three of the top reasons your Facebook Ads might not be converting.

Poorly targeted campaign

Facebook ads provide you with a huge range of targeting options, and if you’re not using this correctly, it could cost you lead conversions.

Poorly targeted campaigns could mean that you are directing the wrong people to your website. For example, let’s say you are running a promotion for a range of cat food products. If your audience is targeting the wrong set of people, you could be receiving clicks from people who don’t actually own a cat, but are just interested in your branding or what you offer- hence the lack of conversions.

On the other hand, targeting too broad a range of audience could be damaging your conversion rate, too. While it’s great to assume that a large number of people would be interested in your product or service, if your audience targeting is too broad, it could be detrimental to your click-through rates and subsequent conversions because you’re not taking into account your audience’s specific interests and behaviours.

To encourage better lead conversions, always pay attention to your audience target groups, and use Facebook’s in-depth targeting options to your advantage. Think about the characteristics of your target audience- the type of products or services they would use and their locations.
People who you know take an interest in your brand might include:

  • Existing customers
  • People who like your Facebook page
  • People who have previously clicked on your ads or interacted with your videos

Your ads and landing page don’t align

You might be getting the click-through rates you need from your Facebook Ads, but if your conversion rates are low, it’s likely your landing page could be playing a part.

If there’s inconsistency in the message your ad is giving compared to your landing page, it could deter potential customers from making a purchase.Make sure that your landing page provides the same message as your Facebook Ads and the images, copy and tone are consistent throughout.

Don’t forget to make sure that your creative and messaging align too. We’re talking about having the same, consistent and high quality branding within your ads as you have on your site. Poorly designed ads could be costing you business!

You’re targeting people who aren’t ready to purchase

Another reason why your ads might not be converting is that you are targeting people who aren’t ready to purchase.

The purchasing process takes time, and it’s unlikely that someone is going to make a purchase the very first time that they see your ad or hear about what your business has to offer. In order to convert leads into paying customers, you need to be targeting people who are further down the marketing funnel who are ready to purchase. These are likely to be people who have been aware of your brand for some time, have expressed an interest in your company in some form, have evaluated the reasons why they might need to purchase the product or service you are offering, and who are ready to make a purchase.

Ads that convert, therefore, should be more ‘salesy’ towards this audience to push conversions and need to entice the customer through a perfect offer. Whether that’s through a free trial, discount code or one-off offer.

If you aren’t seeing your ads convert into sales, it’s likely to be because you’re targeting people who aren’t ready to purchase. Be sure to tailor your ads according to which part of the purchasing process your audience is in.

Do you need help converting people searching for a business like yours into leads?
Bigg are experts in creating paid advertising campaigns that convert.

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Digital PR

The do’s and don’ts of blog writing

Do’s and don'ts of business blogging

As a business, having a blog can be hugely beneficial- not only for increasing your SEO rankings but for offering insights on specific topics, educating your audience about your products or services and providing solutions and answers to search queries.

While it may seem straightforward creating compelling blog material, many businesses are still missing the mark. The best kind of blogs will generate traffic, inspire conversations and even bring in leads.

So, what does it take to write a well-performing blog, and what should be avoided?

Our team of in-house content writers know a thing or two about blogging. We’ve put together some quick Do’s and Don’ts for writing your business blogs.

Do

Provide value

With over 89,000 Google searches per second, it’s integral that your blog offers something valuable to readers. Your blogs should help answer questions, solve problems and inspire conversations. Think ‘how-to’s, tips, research-based content and industry news.

Back up any facts

Facts and figures are a good way of backing up the information provided in your blog, so it’s worth doing your research to find some relevant to your discussions. Statistics help to provide proof of a fact or to back up your points.

Think about readability

Make your blog readable for your audience by considering breaking down your blog into smaller, more manageable chunks. Images are a great way of splitting up lengthy paragraphs.

Optimise your blog

While providing top quality content and advice to your readers is of high importance, keywords are necessary for helping to improve your site’s SEO efforts. Conduct your keyword research to detect the most relevant phrases or longtail keywords to use for your blog. This way, your blog will become more searchable for audiences looking for relevant topics to do with your industry on search engines.

Avoid keyword stuffing as Google may flag this as an attempt to increase your search rankings, and instead use keywords naturally in your blog content or where relevant.

Don’t

Copy from other sources

We are all aware that the copy and paste method is a lazy way of posting content- not to mention poor practice. Plagiarism can also damage your SEO, as search engines may identify duplicate content from site to site. Avoid copying blogs from other sources, it’s always best to use your own, authentic content and let your brand personality shine through.

This isn’t to say that using other blogs for inspiration isn’t okay- researching what your competitors are writing about is a great way to inspire your ideas and give your blog a competitive edge.

Forget to convey your personality

A lot of us enjoy a good read, and blogs are the perfect opportunity to let your brand personality shine through. Take inspiration from your favourite business blogs or writers to find the best style to suit you. Your writing speaks for your business, so don’t be afraid to give opinions, provide knowledge and remove the corporate jargon.

Miss out on opportunities to include a CTA

One of the benefits of blogging is that you can use it as a means of generating leads. While you want to appeal to new audiences, blogging can also help to promote new products and services to existing audiences.

Each time you write a new blog post, consider adding call-to-actions throughout to drive traffic and to promote your products and services- without using too much sales jargon.

Why not suggest that readers sign up for your monthly newsletter so that they can gain advice on your industry and topics?

Forget to promote your blog articles

Blogs also allow your business to have a say on well talked about topics in the industry, providing valuable and shareable information, and establishing your presence in the sector as a resource for helpful information.

While it can be easy to rely on search engines to get your blogs seen, the best way to truly get your blogs seen by your target audience is to promote them.

Social media is a free tool that should be utilised to promote your well-written blog content. It also makes your content shareable which is great for driving traffic to your site. Don’t forget to share your new blog on your social pages, or provide a sample of it in your weekly newsletter emails.

One of the best ways to achieve more readers is to invest in good content writers.
Rather than sourcing someone in-house to write your content, why not outsource your blog writing?

Bigg has a specialist team of in-house content writers dedicated to taking content from creation to action across a range of different industries.
Get in touch to discuss a customised package to suit your business requirements.

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Search Optimisation

SEO for estate and letting agents

SEO for estate and letting agents

As an estate agent, your website is one of the most important assets for generating awareness of the properties you have available to buy or let.

Potential clients are likely to be using search engines like Google as a tool for finding the best estate agents in their local area when seeking out property to buy or let.

If you don’t have an SEO strategy in place, you risk falling behind your local estate agent competitors who will place higher up in Google’s rankings for specific keywords.

If you want to reach clients before your competitors, it’s important to implement an SEO strategy. Search engine optimisation comes with a host of benefits for your business, including helping you build awareness, drive leads and increase website traffic.

Here, we’ll provide you with an overall view of what SEO for estate agents is, and tips for where to start when implementing a strategy for the first time.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimisation is a key digital marketing strategy that helps your business position higher in search engine results pages.

Successful SEO comes down to lots of different factors, including how user-friendly your website is, content quality and site speed.

Google’s algorithm, which identifies which websites should be listed first, is often updated and changed. This, alongside market competition and search trends, is the reason why SEO is an ongoing process rather than a one-time event and something that takes time before you see its effectiveness.

Getting your agency on the first page of Google search results for your area is important.

According to Search Engine Journal, while there are billions of searches made per day, 25% of searchers click on the first organic search result.

Competing amongst other estate agents on Google is a challenge regardless of your location, which is why having an SEO strategy in place is paramount.

How can SEO benefit your estate agency business?

Improves your brand awareness

Are you finding it difficult to get enquiries? Are your local competitors overshadowing your agency?
SEO is a strategy that can be used to increase your brand awareness because it helps your business to rank higher in search results for specific search terms.

Gives your business a competitive advantage

Having an SEO strategy in place can help you to gain a competitive advantage over similar businesses, particularly locally. Greater visibility in search results can help you to gain more traffic over your competitors because you can rank higher on Google. The higher you rank, the more likely you are to gain website clicks over other similar businesses.

Generates organic website traffic and leads

For estate agents, the more traffic you generate, the more likely you are to receive enquiries about your property listings.

By increasing the likelihood of your website ranking higher in search results, you’ll be more visible to your clients. Which, in turn, can drive organic traffic to your website and increase the number of inbound leads you have.

Builds trust

Think about you as a consumer. Do you prefer to see reviews of a business you are looking to use? Have you been put off by a business that has poorly written headlines or is too slow to load?

All of these aspects can contribute to your brand trust.

Trust matters when it comes to making a significant decision in life such as buying a property.
SEO isn’t just about reaching the top of Google search results, it’s also about being able to provide your customers with a positive experience that allows them to have trust in your agency.

Encourages you to improve your website

User experience is one of the most important factors for reaching higher up in Google rankings.
In August 2021, Google rolled out its ‘Page Experience’ update, which implemented signals to prioritise the experience of website users. These signals included things like page loading speed, mobile-friendliness and safe browsing.
Since you need these factors to run a successful SEO strategy, you’re likely to put more importance on improving the functionality of your website.

A cost-effective way to drive traffic

SEO is an organic digital marketing strategy, making it a cost-effective way to get results.
Outside of hiring an expert agency to help you implement SEO effectively, SEO is an inexpensive strategy. One that can help you to drive traffic and increase brand awareness for your estate agency.

It’s quantifiable

SEO campaigns are trackable, so you can monitor how well your efforts are driving traffic to your website. From page bounce rates to link clicks, there’s plenty of metrics that will help you to identify your campaign successes and pitfalls.

Improves your local visibility

As an estate agency, you operate in specific areas, meaning you’ll want local clients to be able to find your properties quickly and easily.

Local SEO strategies focus on reaching audiences in specific locations.
Where to start with an estate agency SEO strategy

Improve the user experience

One of the best ways to start with SEO is to first ensure that your website provides a good user experience to visitors.
Google likes to direct searchers to websites that they know will provide a good user experience, making them more trustworthy.
While there are many different ways to improve your user experience, here are a few important points to consider.

Page load speeds – Are some of your website pages slow to load? Are website visitors likely to get bored or click off your page before it loads? Page speed is an important factor for ranking in search results and for making conversions. Some statistics say that around 40% of people will abandon a website page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

There are many ways to improve your page speed, such as optimising image sizes, minimising the number of HTTP requests and reducing server response times.
Easy navigation – Are your properties listed in a way that makes it easy for users to navigate and find the information they need?
Provide information effectively – What information are you providing your website visitors about the properties you are listing? Make any information easy to read by considering using bullet points. This will also help to make the information more readable for those accessing it on a mobile device.

Provide high-quality content

Well-written website content matters. This will not only help your website to come across as more professional and trustworthy, but it will also help to rank your business by providing searchers with the answers they are looking for.

Long-form blogs are a great place to start for providing information that your audience is searching for. For example, you could write a blog about the best places to buy in your local area.
Providing high-quality content can help to match the queries your audience are searching for so that Google can put your business in front of the eyes of the people that matter most to your business.

While implementing keywords throughout your site is important, it doesn’t outweigh the need for high-quality content. Always ensure that when you’re writing blog posts, your core goal is to answer a question, and not to rank for a specific keyword.

Make it user and mobile-friendly

Mobile-friendliness is key for reaching wider audiences.

Statistics show that over half of worldwide traffic comes from mobile devices. That’s a huge percentage to miss out on if your website isn’t equipped for mobile users.

As well as ensuring that your website functions visually for a mobile device, you should also consider making your content mobile-friendly by making paragraphs short and digestible.

Check your competition

Checking your competitor’s SEO is a great place to start when creating your SEO strategy.
It may help to give you some useful insights into what keywords to rank for and where to make changes to your website.

Start with searching Google for the keywords you want to rank for, and scope out the businesses that are ranking for those keywords.

Perhaps your competitor’s website is particularly well designed, or maybe they are ranking for local keywords thanks to their downloadable content?

Use keywords

Keywords are still an important part of SEO strategies. Ultimately, they help Google to identify what each page offers searchers and whether it answers their query. That being said, using keywords incorrectly can be damaging to your business, particularly if they are used too frequently.

To choose the correct keywords, you first need to understand what searchers are looking for.
What sort of terminology are they using to search for local estate listings? Are they seeking local lettings within a certain budget? Here’s where keyword research and competitor analysis will come in handy.

After identifying the keywords that you want to rank for, you should look to include them naturally in your text, header tags, images, meta descriptions and URLs. This isn’t to say that you should overuse the keywords- think carefully about which keywords are necessary and whether they will provide the page visitor with the information they need.

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