Category Archives: Marketing

Website Development with 12 Months Free Hosting

Website Development with 12 months FREE Hosting

Are you ready to take your online presence to the next level? At Focus Ecommerce and Marketing, we specialize in crafting bespoke websites on two of the most powerful platforms in the digital realm: Shopify and WordPress. Whether you’re an ambitious entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, our expert team is here to turn your vision into a stunning reality.

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WordPress

WordPress Development

Renowned for its versatility and customization options, WordPress is the go-to choice for building dynamic websites and blogs. With thousands of themes and plugins at your fingertips, you can create a truly unique online presence that reflects your brand’s personality and resonates with your audience. Plus, with its user-friendly content management system, managing your site has never been easier.

Shopify Development

As a leading ecommerce platform, Shopify offers unparalleled simplicity and scalability. From sleek storefronts to seamless checkout experiences, Shopify empowers businesses of all sizes to thrive in the competitive online marketplace. With its intuitive interface and robust features, you’ll have everything you need to showcase your products and drive sales.

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Website Development

Custom Design and Development:

Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to revamp your existing site, our talented designers and developers will create a visually stunning and highly functional website that sets you apart from the competition.

Ecommerce Integration

Ecommerce Integration

Ready to take your online store to new heights? We'll seamlessly integrate Shopify or WordPress with your ecommerce platform, ensuring a smooth shopping experience for your customers and maximizing your sales potential.

Responsive Design

Responsive Design:

In today's mobile-first world, it's essential to have a website that looks great on any device. Our responsive design approach ensures that your site is optimized for desktops, tablets, and smartphones, providing a seamless user experience across all platforms.

SEO Services

SEO Optimisation:

Stand out in the crowded digital landscape with our comprehensive SEO services. From keyword research to on-page optimization, we'll help you climb the search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic to your site.

Special Offer

special offer

Ready to elevate your online presence with a stunning website on Shopify or WordPress? Contact us today to schedule a consultation with one of our expert developers. Together, we’ll unlock the full potential of your online business and help you achieve your goals. Let’s build something amazing together!

 

 

Terms & Conditions

  • WordPress site must be hosted with Focus Ecommerce.
  • WordPress hosting applies to Focus Ecommerce Basic package.
  • Shopify hosting applies to Basic package.
  • Site cannot be moved to another provider within the initial 12months.
  • Additional costs my apply.
  • Focus Ecommerce reserves the right to withdraw the offer at any time.
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Success Stories:

From beginning to end, working with Focus Ecommerce was an absolute delight. Their team showed a profound comprehension of our vision and objectives, and they contributed a degree of creativity and knowledge above and above what we had anticipated
Alan Crawford CEO at Environelle
What impressed us most was the scalability and reliability. As our business grows, we're confident Focus Ecommerce can scale with us, ensuring maximum uptime and performance.
Elizabeth Rose Fashion| Focus Ecommerce
Michael Busby, Director, Elizabeth Rose Fashion
Have nothing but great things to say about Ivan. He has helped me take my business to the next level in terms of marketing, social media, expansion and growth. Honestly. I would still be poodling along if Ivan hadn't given me a well needed push. Strongly recommend
Jessica Curtis Director at The Costumier

Effective SEO

Search Engine Optimisation

Effective SEO

What is Effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? It refers to a set of strategies and practices aimed at improving your website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal of SEO is to drive organic (non-paid) traffic to your website by optimizing various aspects of your site to align with search engine algorithms. Here are some key components of effective SEO:

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SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, effective SEO is a crucial aspect of digital marketing and online presence for several reasons:

Increased Visibility: The primary goal of SEO is to improve a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). When your website ranks higher for relevant keywords, it is more likely to be seen by people searching for information, products, or services related to your business.

Organic Traffic: SEO helps generate organic (non-paid) traffic to your website. Unlike paid advertising, which stops delivering traffic once you stop paying, SEO efforts can continue to attract visitors over time, making it a cost-effective long-term strategy.

Credibility and Trust: Websites that appear at the top of search results are often perceived as more credible and trustworthy by users. SEO can help you establish authority in your industry, leading to increased trust among your target audience.

Table of Contents

1. Keyword Research:

The practice of identifying and selecting relevant keywords to target in your SEO efforts.

Identify relevant keywords and phrases that your target audience is likely to use when searching for products, services, or information related to your business. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find valuable keywords.

2. On-Page Effective SEO:

On-Page effective SEO, also known as on-site SEO, refers to the practice of optimizing individual web pages on a website to improve their search engine rankings and visibility. It involves making changes and improvements directly to the content, structure, and HTML code of a webpage. The primary goal of on-page SEO is to provide a better user experience and make it easier for search engines to understand the content of a page. Optimize individual pages on your website by incorporating target keywords into elements such as titles, headings, meta descriptions, and content. However, avoid keyword stuffing, as it can negatively impact user experience and rankings.

3. High-Quality Content:

Content Optimization: Focusing on improving the quality and relevance of the content on a website to improve its search engine rankings

Create valuable, informative, and engaging content that addresses the needs and questions of your audience. High-quality content attracts both visitors and search engines, leading to higher rankings.

4. Optimized Images and Multimedia:

Use descriptive file names and alt text for images and multimedia content to make them searchable by search engines. Optimized media enhances user experience and accessibility.

effective seo

5. Mobile-Friendly Design:

Ensure your website is responsive and mobile-friendly. With the mobile-first indexing approach, Google prioritizes mobile versions of websites for indexing and ranking. 

A mobile-friendly design, also known as a responsive design or mobile-responsive design, is a crucial aspect of web development and design. It ensures that a website or web application is accessible, usable, and visually appealing on various mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

6. Page Speed Optimization:

Improve your website’s Technical SEO by optimizing loading speed on image sizes, reducing unnecessary code, using browser caching, and utilizing content delivery networks (CDNs). you can check page speed for free by visiting https://pagespeed.web.dev/

We see a lot of slow websites, WordPress sites in particular where people have opted for the cheapest hosting solution, like many things you get what you pay for, if your hosting is costing pennies then likely your not getting a very good level of service, you’ll be on a server with 100’s of other websites of whom could be using all the bandwidth, rederring you site slow or even unusable. Check out our hosting service here

Wordpress speed test results

7. Technical Effective SEO:

This aspect of SEO deals with optimizing the technical aspects of a website, such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and structured data. Also address technical issues that might hinder search engine crawlers from indexing your site properly. This includes fixing broken links, optimizing URL structure, and creating an XML sitemap.

8. Backlink Building:

Earn high-quality backlinks from reputable websites in your industry. Backlinks serve as “votes of confidence” from other sites, indicating your website’s authority and relevance. However, don’t be tempted by phishing emails offering you 100’s of back links on ‘so called’ reputable websites. Your links should be on relevent websites, do not use a scattergun approach.

9. User Experience (UX):

Design your website with a focus on user experience. User-friendly navigation, intuitive design, and fast load times contribute to higher rankings and better engagement.

10. Local SEO (for Local Businesses):

If you have a physical presence, optimize your website for local search by creating and maintaining a Google My Business profile, acquiring local citations, and gathering positive reviews.

11. Regular Content Updates:

Keep your website updated with fresh, relevant content. Regularly publishing new blog posts, articles, or product updates signals to search engines that your site is active and valuable.

12. Monitor and Analyze:

Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your website’s performance, traffic sources, keyword rankings, and other important metrics. Analyze this data to identify areas for improvement.

Remember that SEO is a long-term strategy, and it requires ongoing effort and adaptation as search engine algorithms evolve. Focus on providing value to your audience, adhering to best practices, and staying up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and guidelines.

Looking for Help With Your SEO

Our search engine consultants will collaborate with you to outperform and outrank your rivals.

They will delve into your business and goals. Extensively research the target market using the insights provided. identifying which search terms should be targeted to achieve your objectives. We will carry out a full audit of your website to assess if any technical issues exist that need to be fixed. In conclusion we plan an effective SEO strategy with realistic and measurable targets in place.

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effective SEO. How to Increase Website Traffic - SEO Services Colchester
Email Marketing Automation That Matches Your Ambitions

Twitter Easy Tips for Success

Twitter Easy Tips for Success

Take a look at our simple top steps for using Twitter successfully. There is much more to squeeze from Twitter for your personal brand and business, so if you want to know more drop me a message. See our website as well.

TWITTER PROFILE

Twitter Tips | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing
  • Research shows it is better to use something close to your own name
  • For example I have converted mine to @mick_latter
  • This supports your personal brand
  • You need a strong BIO that’s states up front what you can do for people
  • Use a strong personal photo
  • The Banner photo is a chance to show your company

TWITTER CONTENT

Twitter Content | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing
  • Short, sharp and snappy.
  • Aim for 70-100 characters not the full 280.
  • Always use media to attract Text only is a fail.
  • Video is a winner.
  • Use hyperlinked content sparingly.
  • Twitter prefers content that runs on their platform.
  • What does your target audience want to see and engage with?

TWITTER HASHTAGS

Twitter Hashtags | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing
  • Use them! 3-4 per post.
  • Place at the end of your text – they are references to your content not to drive people away.
  • Research your Hashtags first.
  • Use ones that relate to you and will get you engagement.
  • Couple of tools:

TWITTER @TAGS

Twiiter Tags | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing
  • Twitter is designed for interaction.
  • So @tag someone into your conversation.
  • Check if they are actually active on Twitter – when did they last post? Don’t waste that @tag.
  • Only include 1-2 @tags in a post.
  • Place at the end of your post or people who read your content might click that @tag and you have lost them.
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If you’re looking for help & advice on social media or any other digital marketing or ecommerce issues, please do get in touch

mick@focusecommerce.co.uk

 

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Phone: +44 (0)3337729241
Email: info@focusecommerce.co.uk
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If Marketing be the food of all business then play on!

If Marketing be the food of all business then play on!

Marketing Services Driving Execution | Focus Ecommerce & Marketing

Here at Focus Ecommerce and Marketing, our marketing services are driving impact and change.

Our marketing services embrace innovation and creativity whilst keeping our ethos of consistent, joined-up marketing solutions in our sights. Turning brand potential into business performance. Priding ourselves on differentiating clients and their products in an increasingly saturated market. We embrace innovation and creativity whilst keeping our ethos of consistent, joined-up marketing solutions in our sights. Our in-house marketers and work with, and act, as a true member of your marketing team. We can do everything in house or complement your existing internal team.

Fully Managed Marketing Service

Maximise your potential with a fully managed solution:

Having difficulty managing or maintaining your marketing? having trouble getting real results? or simply want someone to manage it for you! Our fully managed marketing team can help you, all while driving better ROI (Return on Investment) across all channels of your business. From the outset, we will agree the core strategy with key deliverables plus we have many methods of keeping you in the loop but as a minimum, we will provide a weekly report, weekly catch-ups as well as a quarterly review.

Integrated Marketing Service

Ideal for businesses that already have a small marketing team:

You may already have a Marketing Administrator who looks after your social media, but is struggling to deliver a fully joined-up marketing campaign. Or your business would benefit from some assistance with design or copywriting. Perhaps, you are simply looking for a website maintenance solution, but want to direct the activity yourself? Ultimately, we will work with you to understand what you need from us and dovetail where necessary, to perfectly complement your business’ existing skills.

TAILORED MARKETING SOLUTION

If you need fresh eyes and a fresh approach!

We also engage with clients to modernise specific elements and ensure that a marketing strategy is working as anticipated. It could be a new website, a product launch or perhaps assist with a communications plan during a merger or acquisition? We have experienced in-house design, web and copywriting professionals who will be fully briefed on your company profile to ensure we can provide the best possible service.

Book a consultation with one of our team at info@focusecommerce.co.uk or at +44 (0) 3337729241

Visit our Marketing Services page for more details on the services we can offer – View Here

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Does email marketing work?

Does email marketing work?

When it comes to communicating about your brand or selling your products, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective methods. With studies showing for every $1 spent, email has an average $42 return on investment (ROI). When shoppers are ready to buy something, they often look for emails from their favorite stores.

Email Marketing | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

How do I get an email list?

To see the highest ROI you need to build and maintain an engaged subscriber list, made up of people who want to receive your messages. Building a clean list can be time consuming work at the outset of your email marketing strategy. There are lots of ways to find people who’ll look forward to getting your emails, but here are a few that perform the best.

To build an email list:

  • Create a signup form on your website. When people come to your website for the first time and like what they see, they’ll want a way to keep up to date about your brand. Create a form for newsletter signups and install a pop-up to collect customer data from your visitors.
  • Use a good old-fashioned signup sheet. Whether it’s at an event that you’re hosting or attending, or in your brick and mortar store. When you’re surrounded by people who are interested in what you do, provide a place for them to sign up and learn more.
  • Drive signups through social media. If you have an engaged social media following, tapping into that resource can be a way to increase your list. So share your signup form on your social channels. Also look to use paid social media ads to drive awareness of your sign up page.
  • Host a contest or offer discounts. Often you’ll need to give people an incentive to sign up for your email list. Contests work well if trying to drive awareness, promote these on your social media or on 3rd party sites. By offering discount code for a first purchase you’ll not only increase your email database but also increase your chance of conversion.
  • Make your emails easy to share. When your create beautiful, compelling email, with a lot of valuable information people will want to share them. Include share buttons and social media post builders that let the word about your emails spread quickly.
  • Build a landing page. Landing pages offer one more way to grow your email list. Using your best imagery and content, landing pages give people a clear call to action to drive email signups.

Can I buy an email list?

NO. You should NEVER buy an email list.

 

Purchased lists are ineffective, If you send emails to a list of people whose contact info you bought, many of the emails will get identified as spam and you’ll also get high unsubscribe rates. Also you will find the data is often just garbage, massively out of date.

 

  • Email platform systems do not allow the upload of such lists and it’s important that all users abide their Terms of Use, which enforce anti-spam laws. 

  • Don’t use third-party lists. This includes purchased or rented mailing lists, and lists scraped from third-party sources, including public websites.

  • Always get permission. Everyone on your list should have opted in to receive emails from you, and their permission should be express and verifiable. If you use an email platform signup form options, you can track the permissions.

  • Include an unsubscribe link. Federal anti-spam laws require you to give people a way to unsubscribe from your list in every campaign you send.
Email Marketing | Focus Ecommerce & Marketing

Email marketing tips to get you started

1. Create an email marketing plan.

To make the planning part easier, here are some best practices you’ll want to consider when devising a strategy for your email marketing.

 

Define your audience

Regardless of what you sell, you should have a clear idea of who your audience is in order to effectively communicate with them. Segment users within your audience so you can send them personalised and targeted emails that help increase engagement, build a trustful relationship and generate greater ROI.

Signup sources

Understanding where your subscribers initially signed up for your list is valuable data. Knowing where customers joined your email database can give you a better idea of how to communicate with them and where you might want to focus your marketing efforts going forward.

 

Segments and groups

The more relevant the campaign, the better the results. So once you’ve identified smaller groups of people within your larger audience, you’ll be able to create groups and segments to send more relevant and personalized emails to your recipients. There will be times when you’ll want to send to your entire list, but by segmenting your users you can significantly increase the click-through rates and e-commerce orders your campaigns generate.

 

Decide what to write

Now that you know who you’re writing to, it’s time to think about your content. What do you want to say to your audience? What is your content marketing strategy? You’ll want to send emails with purpose, that really speak to your subscribers, so always keep in mind what they signed up for.

 

Establish your sending frequency and goals

There’s nothing set in stone about how often you should email your customers, but sending too often subscribers are likely to stop opening your emails or unsubscribe altogether. Some users that run a blog or news website might choose to send daily updates to their subscribers, while other users only send twice a month so subscribers stay excited and interested about their emails. Choose to send your email campaign at a pace that suits you and your customers. Check the unsubscribe rates and the click through rates to adjust the frequency as and when its needed.

 

Email Marketing Calendar | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Make a schedule

A good way to make sure you’re staying on track is to create a content calendar to schedule your campaigns, blog posts, social media posts, and more.

Your email marketing schedule will depend on your industry, the types of content you send (content marketing strategy), and your sending frequency.

For more advice on email marketing why not get in touch to see how we can help you add email marketing to you business  – Contact us today

How To Get The Best From Facebook

How to get the best from Facebook?

Facebook is the most-used social media platform in the world, so if you get it right you can reach the most people, in theory………………

Facebook facts | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

How to get the best from Facebook? Being the most used it can be the hardest to get reach that audience and engage them. As so much is going on and there are many factors and tools built into Facebook’s user interface and the algorithm that decides who sees what.

Facebook is looking at allowing users to turn off the algorithm that controls what it thinks users wants to see, allowing a return to seeing more content but in a chronological feed as it previously used to show content on our Facebook newsfeeds.

Target audience knowledge

What you do need to know is information about your target audiences. Where they are, what they like and how to engage them.

Facebook algorithm

The basis of Facebook’s News Feed algorithm, which defines how far and wide your posts reach has 3 key elements:

Who posted it?

How often a user engages with a profile or person plays a role in determining reach and you getting the most from facebook. If you regularly like or comment on posts from a Page, you will be shown more of that content as the system knows you are interested in it. If you interact with particular people more than others when they share links, you again will or could be shown more of their content. So, you can see engagement in your content is critical.

Facebook facts | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

When was it posted?

Understanding when your audience and followers are online is critical. Initial responses to your posts need to be quick to make sure the system continues to show the content to other followers and users. If no early engagement then the reach will die out very quickly. You must punch in and grab attention among the people who initially see it. Use the inbuilt Facebook insights for some basic insight or invest some decent external insight tools.

How likely each user will engage with it

Facebook is constantly analysing its users to see what they like and what their habits are. Facebook will also estimate how long it thinks users might watch a video for, or read an article, as further indicators of likely engagement. All these factors relate to how your content might get seen or in many cases not seen by your established audience or your new target audiences.

Trending news

Trending news is now the most shared content type on Facebook. But posts that trigger an emotional response, prompting users to like, comment or share with their friends also do very well. Think about the language and the media content to trigger engagement. Call to actions (CTAs) can be simple as words.

Other content that works well is informing, how to, humour. But are any of these about what your organisation is about. Humour is a particularly hard one to pull off! What will get users engaging with your content? Probably the hardest one to crack and stay in lane at the same.

Content we know does well on social media.

  • Cute animals,
  • Practical Hacks,
  • Inspirational content,
  • Food and recipes,
  • Music videos,
  • Quizzes,
  • Travel and Adventure.

Content posting guidelines

Shorter text descriptions are the way forward, no one will read long paragraphs of text, current best practice is only 25-60 characters! That is hard to work with. More than 80 characters on the mobile App generates the dreaded ‘See more’ which an exceptionally low percentage of users ever click. So, you must get your message over quick or at least try and entice them to click the see more to find out more.

Facebook facts | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Video is King

And old statement now but one that is true and becoming more so, particularly on Facebook. Facebook encourages you to post 3 min + videos as it is trying to win the online video battle with the likes of YouTube. It never will. But your audience is probably unlikely to watch your videos for that length. Top tip which currently works, place a holding image at the end of your shorter video when editing it and extend that holding image past the 3 min mark. It could be your CTA details, website link or similar.

Hyperlinks

When you compose a post on Facebook with a hyperlink it should auto generate a link preview. But if that preview is not what want you can delete it and add your media which will leave the hyperlink in place as just text. But do not post all your content as outwards from Facebook, Facebook wants users to stay on its system for as long as possible so if all your posts drive traffic outwards, it will start to display it to less people.

Hashtags on Facebook

Do they work, yes and no and time will tell. The system now recognises them but how well they return results is a bit hit and miss. But it is worth persisting with them for now as they bring enough value to justify the effort. Top tip place them at the end of your text as they are reference tools, for people to find your content, not click away and then you lose them. Plus, it makes the limited space for best text delivery 25-60 characters easier to write and on mobile will probably be hidden in the see more section. Not a problem as they are reference tools!

How often should you post content?

This depends on your audience, find that balance that one keeps the audience interested but does not annoy them with constant your brand in their newsfeeds, or they will switch you off and ignore. My advice on how to get the best from Facebook is 1=2 posts a day and if your audience is more active on certain days than others focus on those days.

Here to help you

Get in touch if you need any help with social media? Are you using it, are you putting a lot of time into and getting little back? Social media is there is help you raise awareness of your brand, drive website traffic, engage your potential audience, customers, and clients. But it is not as clear cut as just posting content occasionally and we can make all the difference: Learn about how we can help you here

Contact us today

Phone: +44 (0)3337729241
Email: info@focusecommerce.co.uk
MON-FRI 09:00 - 18:00
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Pushing Instagram to help your brand shine through

Pushing Instagram to help your brand shine through

Instagram Top Tips – like many other social media channels is an ideal tool for advertising your business, idea, or event. But there are some key points you should consider.

Instagram Top Tips | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

First Steps

The first of our Instagram Top Tips is to convert your Instagram to a business account via the settings option. This opens more options for a business, better targeted reach, advertising, and insights into your Instagram activity.

Via Facebook connect your Business Facebook page to your Business Instagram account if you have a Facebook page. Do it now.

Instagram Top Tips | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Use Professional-Looking Photos

Generic photos will not cut it and will not attract attention. Instagram is a photo-sharing social media platform, so it is important to share visually pleasing content. Take photos, edit them to make them stand out from the crowd. If you cannot do this then consider outsourcing to someone who can.

You can take a new photo through the App or select one from your camera roll. Then there are multiple options to personalize your post. You can add a filter, tag other users, write a caption and add a location. Another option is to also turn off comments on this page with the advanced settings, but you want engagement,. So we suggest do not do this but monitor your posts in case you need to engage.

Facebook Creator Studio | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Schedule your Content

Currently you cannot schedule content on Instagram directly, but you can through several schedule tools and even through Facebook, using tools such as Facebook Creator Studio (You will need to a have Facebook Business page to do this).

If You have a Facebook business page there are also now various Facebook business page tools coming online which allow management of content to be posted to your Business Instagram account.

 

Schedule your content so it hits users’ newsfeeds when they are most active. Once it publishes remember to monitor it for positive and negative comment management, or in case someone asks a question as they expect a quick response. Social media is not a Mon-Fri, 9-5 task.

Other schedule tools we recommend are Hootsuite and Later.com to name a couple.

Instagram Stories | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Stories Feature

Instagram Stories is one of the channel’s most popular features to the user. These photos and videos currently disappear 24 hours after they are posted. Businesses should leverage Instagram Stories to market their products and services, getting their messages to followers that otherwise might not see regular Instagram posts in their feed due to the latest way that Instagram shows content to the user.

You can post recorded videos, still photos, live videos, videos that loop back and forth called Boomerangs. You can also add stickers to spice things up but do not overdo it and stay within your brand. You can also add very useful user tags and hashtags to drive engagement.

The stickers for polls, questions and sliding bars make it easy to interact with your users and get feedback. A good idea is to use the questions feature to hold a weekly Ask Me Anything series, a great way to engage with your audience.

 

Another way to draw attention to your brand is with Stories Highlights, which stay on your profile until you remove them. Use them wisely and select your best moments on Instagram and products if you want to attract attention.

 
Instagram Live| Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Why Not Go Live

In addition to Instagram Stories, users can take and stream live video that disappears, like Facebook Live and Snapchat. You can give customers a live look behind the scenes of interesting aspects of your business, show products or answer live questions through the comments. Like anything live there is more risk running live activity, from internet drop out, poor sound, to much camera movement, so our advice is test and get good at this before you attempt it or outsource and get help from a professional. Once the video ends, it lives in your Instagram Stories for 24 hours.

You can of course upload a video you have taken or shoot one directly through the app to post. If you choose to shoot or upload a video, you can still add filters and change the cover.

 

Interact and Engage

As with any social media platform, it is important to engage and interact with your followers on Instagram.

  • Liking content is a simple way to connect with other users. To like a photo, either double tap the image or tap the heart button under the post.

  • Commenting on posts. just the comments button and the app will take you to the comments page for that photo.

  • Mentioning another user using the @ symbol to tag other users in your Instagram comments or post captions.

  • You can tag users before you post content. Tap Tag People before sharing your photo, and then tap where in the photo you want to add a tag. The app then prompts you to type in the person’s name to search for their account. Once you have tagged other users in your photo and shared the image, other users can tap on the photo to see the people who are tagged.

  • Direct messaging to other users we have found to be a great tool on Instagram and other social media platforms: To access Instagram Direct, go to the homepage and tap the button in the top right corner. Here, you can send private instant messages, photos, and videos to other users. To send a new Direct message or DM as they are called, tap the + button in the top right corner and select Send Photo or Video, or Send Message. Once you have sent the message, you and the recipients can message back and forth. Users who are not already following you will be asked whether they want to allow you to send them photos and videos before they can view your DM.

Instagram Hastags | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Get in on the Trending Content

Hashtags are a great way to help users find content on Instagram. Hashtags can include letters and numbers, only. So do not use other symbols, as they do not work.

 

Relevant hashtags can be a highly effective tool for getting noticed. However, make sure you are using the right hashtags for your brand. Run some tests, searches and see what others are using. Use a tool like Ritetag.com to find the best results and other options.

Look at trending hashtags or popular weekly hashtags such as #WednesayWisdom or #ThrowbackThursday. These will be busy and hard to get noticed but if you need a fille or stuck for content ideas. it is a good way forward.

 

Instagram allows a maximum of 30 hashtags in a post or comment, but we recommend approximately 10 hashtags per post. The fewer hashtags you can use to get quality responses, the better. Using a lot of popular hashtags might earn you a lot of likes from other users, but it probably will not increase your following all that much, and the interactions you get will likely not be from people who are interested in your brand but rather those who just saw and liked your image.

 

Get in amongst the hashtags and branch out and experiment to find which ones work best for you. One good idea is to create a custom hashtag for your brand and use it all the time to drive engagement. Overtime it will start to get noticed and pull our content to other users.

Instagram Hastags | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Using the Paid for Advertising Options on Instagram

Like on other social channels paid advertising is becoming a must to get exposure to your target audience, especially for non-established brands fighting the sheer amount of content on Instagram.

 

There are three formats for advertising:

 
  • Photo ads. These look like regular photo posts, but they have a Sponsored label above the photo. They also have a Learn More button in the bottom right corner under the photo.
  • Video ads. Look like regular video posts, but with a Sponsored label on top.

  • Carousel ads. Feature multiple photos that users can swipe through.

  • All three ad formats appear in users’ home feeds.
Instagram Hastags | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Selling on Instagram

As recently as November 2020, Instagram added the Shop tab, which allows users to discover and purchase products from brands directly through the app. All a user has to do to complete a purchase is name, email address, billing info and shipping addresses. Instagram (or in fact Facebook who own Instagram) will then save that data for future transactions. There are the usual methods to pay such as credit card and PayPal.

Small businesses can also generate Shoppable posts to sell products through Instagram. A business simply creates a product catalogue connected to their account. Then you tag the product. To create a shoppable post you must have a business account and you must sell physical goods that comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies. We do suggest you read the policies to avoid issues further down the line. You can create your catalogue through Facebook, Shopify or BigCommerce currently, but we suspect more options will come online as Instagram develops this area of business.

Instagram Top Tips | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Few More Points to Note

  • Links to websites etc. do not work in Instagram captions or comments. The only place you can share a working link that takes users to a website is in your profile. If you are trying to direct people to a specific webpage, you can change the default link in your bio.

  • Make sure you BIO is strong and has a link to a page on your website you want them to land on. This might not be your landing page but could be a product page or a focused content page.

  • Stay on brand. Make sure your posts relate to your brand. It can be tempting to share photos of food, fashion, and animals because they’re popular on the platform. It can make you look disjointed and confuse your followers and turn them away.

  • Run giveaways and promotions. Post an image advertising your giveaway, sale, or contest, and ask users to repost that image with a specific, custom hashtag to enter. You can then search that hashtag to see who has reposted it and pick a winner. Remember to check the current policies for running a contest or sweepstakes, both on Instagram and your own company views.

  • Respond to other users’ comments quickly! When people comment on your photos, reply to them they want you to engage them and its look to engage. Interacting with customers and followers shows you are paying attention and care about what they say.

  • Embed Instagram posts on your website. Most websites can have an Instagram feed added to every time you post on Instagram in appears on your Website, keeping it fresh and engaging. From the desktop version of Instagram, you can get an embed code to add specific images and videos to your company’s website.

  • Look for and engage potential influencers for your brand to promote your business. It does not have to be necessarily users with huge follower numbers, although that can help, but other users will have different followers to you, and you can reach into their audience circles with your brand using influencers. This extends your reach. If you need help on this get in touch, we can help.

  • Share your posts directly to your story. With this feature, small businesses can interact with their followers while promoting their products or services. If another user posts a photo of your product or service then share if to your story, instant content, and a chance to engage your audience.

  • Use polls and other features in your stories. Instagram offers many interactive features that you can use to build online conversations and relationships. For instance, you can use the interactive questions sticker in Instagram Stories. This feature lets followers submit questions for you to answer. This is a fun and simple way to interact with your followers.

  • If you have long content, then engage IGTV. IGTV is a feature that shows long-form, vertical videos. IGTV is available in a stand-alone app and within Instagram’s app, and each video can be up to an hour long. If you get creative, you can use IGTV to market your business. Only go to this space if you have the content and capacity.

  • Use Reels. Only launched in August 2020. Reels are short-form videos (no longer than 15 seconds) that you can edit with audio, effects, and creative tools. You can use Reels to feature new products, promote your service, quick messages. This area will develop in time so come back as it gains popularity for updates on how to make this work for you.

Instagram Warning | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Do not be tempted to go off and buy Instagram followers. What you ask? Yes, you can buy thousands of followers and likes for your content even comments, for just a few pounds but Instagram is now wise to that and will:

The Instagram system will delete them as fast as you buy them.

They will not add value to your account as they will not engage your content.

Users have got wise and see when followers are real and false, so it makes you less credible as a brand.

Eventually Instagram may even shut your account down.

Final Points

  • You should also share posts to your story and be sure that your posts fit in well with your brand.
  • To get the most out of Instagram, be sure to interact with other users, use hashtags thoughtfully, post quality photos and use the Stories feature.
  • Stay true to your brand and aims.
  • Post regular content, we recommend daily.
  • Look at the paid options to get real engagement and potential traffic to your website and sales.
  • If you need help in this area of business, we would be happy to talk through the options of support with you.
 

For more advice view here or contact us 

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Getting the Most Out of Twitter

Getting the Most Out of Twitter

Is Twitter optional for your organisation or company? For marketing and raising brand and message awareness the answer is a simple NO, you need to be using it and owning the space for your brand and message.

Getting the most of Twitter | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

The basic issue of getting the most out of Twiiter is standing out in all the noise. You need to have engaging content the audience want to see, regularly post content (and I mean at least daily), keep up with new content trends, find your gap n the market and build an audience.

Twitter is a giant chat room. Most people are there for conversation, jokes, or education. And you can’t spend all your time talking about yourself.

Good content is more likely to be retweeted and engaged with, which clearly increases your reach and audience.

Who Is Your Audience

  • Too many jump on Twitter and just try to reach anyone and everyone. You want your tweets to hit home with the right people, so you need to understand who they are, how they use twitter and how to reach them.

  • Target specific keywords and hashtags that suit your ideal buyer and people you want to engage. see what types of content they have shared in the past to see how you might engage them.

Use Twitter Advance Search Functions

  • It lets you narrow your search to find exactly what you’re looking for.

  • If you’re listening for generic terms or popular phrases, this helps you eliminate some of the noise.

  • The best part is you can save your searches – up to 25 per account. It’s like having custom hashtags, just for you.

  • Create a handful of useful searches and revisit them each week. This is an easy way to follow conversations in your specific niche.

Use a monitoring tool. These take all of the work out of social media listening. Set up alerts just like you’d build an advanced search. Receive daily reports about conversations on social media, plus real-time alerts when keywords are trending. A good tool for this is Mention

 
Getting the most of Twitter | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Talk With Your Followers, Not at Them

Think about your brand’s personality and tone as your brand’s mood from day to day. Voice doesn’t change – this is how you want your brand to be represented, always. But tone changes with context.

Remember you cannot always be on a selling your products and services approach it will annoy the audience. Offer wider value.

We suggest 70/30 rule on content. 30% of your content can be promotional, but 80% of your content should be interesting and engaging to your audience.

Use Relevant Hashtags.

Hashtags are Twitter’s way of bundling information together by keyword.

People who have selected to follow certain hashtags or search with that Hashtag are interested in that content and in general that content only. If your content suits a certain hashtag, you’ll reach an audience that’s keen to engage with it.

Getting the best from your Hashtags:

  • 3-4 hashtags per post only

  • Keep them short

  • The more precise, the better

  • Make them easy to remember and easy to spell

  • If you’re creating a campaign hashtag, be original, but do not expect miracles from your bespoke hashtag.

  • Look for trending tags but maybe look at ones that offer a chance for your content to get exposure

  • A good tool for hashtags ideas is ritetag.com

  • Don’t use irrelevant hashtags; you’ll look foolish

When to Tweet

  • Twitter is time-sensitive

  • Even with Twitter’s new display algorithm for users’ newsfeeds, only the beginning of the user’s stream is affected at this time

  • And it’s optional. That means you’re still relying largely on timing to get your content seen.

  • It may feel like the whole world is constantly online, but some times of the day are busier than others

Best time to use Twitter | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Add Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

Call to actions on Twitter | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

You want engaged followers. Every retweet is an opportunity to reach a whole new audience. But people don’t engage with a piece of content just because they feel like it. Tell them what you need from them.

 

Use engaging language that prompts an action.

Getting the most of Twitter | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Text on it s own does nothing on Twitter. It has grown as a visual tool as much as any other social media channel. And video is now playing increasing importance on twitter to attract audience attention.

Place text on the images to get attention, brand your media with your logo and make sure you have the rights to use the media.

Getting the most of Twitter | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Be Personal in Your Language

When appropriate, name the person tweeting. It gives a more personal feel to your tweets. You can do this by tagging them into your conversation.

  • Reassurance

  • Authenticity

  • Emotional connection

  • The best brands on Twitter don’t sound like brands. They sound like people.

 
For more advice on using social media view here or contact us

Global Digital Analysis Jan 21

Global Digital Analysis Jan 21

Digital Around the World, Essential Headlines for Mobile, Internet and Social Media Use

  • The world’s population stood at 7.83 billion at the start of 2021. The United Nations reports that this figure is currently growing by 1 percent per year, which means that the global total has increased by more than 80 million people since the start of 2020.

  • 5.22 billion people use a mobile phone today, equating to 66.6 percent of the world’s total population. Unique mobile users have grown by 1.8 percent (93 million) since January 2020, while the total number of mobile connections has increased by 72 million (0.9 percent) to reach a total of 8.02 billion at the start of 2021.

  • 4.66 billion people around the world use the internet in January 2021, up by 316 million (7.3 percent) since this time last year. Global internet penetration now stands at 59.5 percent.

  • There are now 4.20 billion social media users around the world. This figure has grown by 490 million over the past 12 months, delivering year-on-year growth of more than 13 percent. The number of social media users is now equivalent to more than 53 percent of the world’s total population.

Access to website by device

Global Digital Analysis| Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

How users access content

  • 98 percent of the users of any given social media platform use at least one other social platform

  • The audiences of individual social platforms are also subject to significant overlaps

  • 85 percent of TikTok users aged 16 to 64 also use Facebook

  • 95 percent of Instagram users also use YouTube

Global Digital Analysis| Focus Ecommerce and Marketing
Global Digital Analysis| Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Why do people use social media?

When you are planning a marketing using social media, consider the following:

 

  • Target audience who do I want to engage?

  • Why are they using social media?

  • Which social media channels might that target audience be on?

  • How can I reach and engage them?

  • What types of content are they engaging with?

Global Digital Analysis| Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Data supplied by Hootsuite

 

If you need any advice on the use of social media, campaigns, advertising, setting up accounts and pages, training or need to outsource your social media to an expert, and we are here to assist in that area.

 

For more advice view here or contact us 

 
Mick Latter

Mick Latter

The Beginner’s Guide to B2B Content Marketing:

Beginners guide to B2B Marketing

Read our guide to B2B content Marketing to learn the Tactics You Need to Know to Get It Right the First Time

B2B content Marketing | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

B2B doesn’t have to mean boring. All too often, B2B content marketing is assumed to be dull, boring, and massively uninteresting when compared with B2C.

But scratch that – For many B2B brands, content marketing provides the backbone of their customer acquisition strategy. When a solid strategy in place, it can be a phenomenal growth engine.

At Focus Ecommerce and Marketing, we will show you everything you need to know about driving growth for your business with content marketing.

What is B2B Content Marketing?

B2B content Marketing | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

B2B content marketing acts as a critical elemental tool that leverages content as the core strategy to engage with prospects and customers.

The content surges typically in digital formats such as blogs, videos, articles, buyers’ guides, white papers, research reports or even social media posts, which is intelligently framed so as to entice its target audience with purposeful, focused content around topics of their interest.

Since the B2B purchase cycle is more complex than the B2C purchase cycle, buyers in B2B buying panel tend to do more research around the company, its products, its reputation, certifications and more. That’s why B2B marketers try to provide informative, non-promotional content that helps buyers make informed choices.

Who is Content Marketing aimed at?

B2B marketing campaigns are aimed at individuals with control or influence on purchasing decisions. Hence the content is also customised to provide relevant data and facts to the individual.

B2B Content Creation

The content-focus of B2B content marketing is to make sure that it is useful and practical for other companies. B2B content marketing has to be engaging and compelling over a sustained period, ensuring it can keep pace with the evolution of the buyers’ journey and beyond.

B2B Content Marketing Implementation

B2B content Marketing | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

1. Identify your ideal audience

It is important to have an in-depth understanding and analysis of your target audience before you kickstart your content creation that will entice and attract prospects.

2. Create buyer personas

Segment the audience as per the stage of the buyer’s funnel. This is where the reader personas become significant. You have to identify potential buyers from the people that are visiting your website. By the use of Google Analytics, you can find out their necessary demographic details, such as name, age, gender, location, as well as recurring themes of interest.

Regularly coming up with new content ideas can often be one of the most significant challenges for content marketers. Here is a crucial insight which you can implement in your overall content marketing plan.

3. Content always works

Create content which will always be useful to your B2B audiences. Typically, content itself should be elaborative; it should cover the entire gamut of the topic so that your readers can stay on your content page to get all the relevant information.

Now there are many ways in which you can position your content to rank high on Google and generate traffic to your website. Such as leveraging social media insights, testing topical themes with content snippets on social media and finding topic popularity trends with Google Trends.

 

If you would like to find out more about content marketing, how we can help your business attract and maintain new customers, contact Sue Moscatelli or Ivan Latter at Focus E-Commerce & Marketing. Sue has over 25 years of experience in B2C and B2B marketing from branding, positioning, tone of voice, positioning through to promotional activity, POS, sales support tools, events and sponsorships.