Hangover Stations, Little Red Riding Hood and Tinder

Well it’s our last campaign review of the year, and as we prepare for Christmas there have been some stand-out stunts this week that have really grabbed our attention.

J2O plays Little Red Riding Hood with bus stop commuters

Soft juice brand J2O has created an interactive London billboard, where commuters are stalked by a wolf. All appears normal when someone approaches the billboard, but when the victim turns their back the wolf creeps forward. The stunt finishes with the wolf attempting to break out of its digital cage to catch its victim.

The bus stop billboard has artwork of a black forest all in aid of the launch of their new product offering, Midnight Editions. This is a range that includes fruit juice flavours, spices and chocolate. We really liked this interactive stunt – I’m sure you’re all aware that we are huge fans of a billboard on this blog!

Star Wars takes over

Various landmarks across London were taken over by Disney to mark the premiere of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens. They hired out Trafalgar Square and turned Nelson’s Column neon blue to resemble a lightsaber to mark the film’s release.

The London landmark was transformed as stars of the movie followed a group of Stormtroopers and Darth Vader down the red carpet during Wednesday night’s European premiere at Leicester Square. London wasn’t the only destination to get into the spirit: the Spire in Dublin, a 120-metre-tall structure in Ireland’s capital, was also converted into a lightsabre – a decision taken by Dublin City Council.

Tesco stores host ‘hangover help’ stations

UK retailer Tesco opened ‘hangover help’ stalls in three of its London stores this week, as it was expected to be the country’s busiest week for office Christmas parties.

The pop-ups, located at Canary Wharf, Bishopsgate and Monument Metro stores, opened at 6:30am to provide customers with smoothies and juices. Recipe cards for hearty breakfast dishes were also handed out to customers at the three stores.

Tinder partners with NHS to raise organ donation awareness

Over the next two weeks, Tinder is partnering with NHS Blood and Transplant to encourage its users to sign up for the Organ Donor Register, promoting awareness in users aged 18-35.

A variety of celebrities have endorsed the campaign including reality TV’s Jamie Laing and soap actress Gemma Oaten. Users who swipe right with the celebrities’ profiles will match and receive a message that says “if only it was that easy for those in need of a life-saving organ to find a match”.

CARE Norway #DearDaddy

The Norwegian charity organisation CARE created a five-minute video which follows young women from birth to adulthood. It uses a powerful narrative to illustrate the various forms of sexual assault, domestic violence and everyday sexism so many women experience throughout their lives.

This is a great viral video to relay some key messages from the charity in a powerful way that makes the user sit back and listen.

Source: Branded

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Creating a B2B Marketing Plan for 2016 [infographic]

Don’t get left behind, follow these 7 Steps to Brilliant B2B Marketing!

Many Business-to-business (B2B) companies are already successfully getting great results  using marketing tactics like SEO, PPC, landing page creation, social media and email marketing linked to a CRM marketing automation or a simple email auto response system.

But often B2B organisations are not getting the most from today’s marketing since they don’t have a planned approach based on an integrated inbound marketing plan. To create an infographic showing the latest research on how companies are using inbound marketing, we’ve researched how B2B companies are using digital marketing. The results across different studies show that while many companies are delivering brilliant results,  many could do more.

Our new infographic shows a planned approach based on our B2B marketing planning guide written by Rene Power and I. We originally published a similar infographic back in 2012, and this December 2015 update has the latest B2B marketing stats to inform your 2016 B2B marketing plan.

We hope you find the infographic useful, we’ve included advice on key issues to think through at each step which are relevant to all involved in inbound and content marketing

Recommended Guide: Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing

In this ebook René Power shows you what to review to take your online marketing to the next level if you market to other businesses.

Download Brilliant B2B Marketing.

Source: Smart Insights

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Increasing event engagement with technology

How technology can boost the effectiveness of your event

If your brand has been struggling to make a splash in its sector, it might be time to think about incorporating face-to-face tactics into your marketing methods to show your audience what you have to offer. A study by Regalix showed that 54% of B2B marketers said that event marketing was a significant tool when promoting their business – highlighting the fact that showcasing your brand at an event can have a significant impact.

Whether you’re attending an event or hosting your own tradeshow, event marketing can be invaluable when it comes to boosting your business – ensuring you leave with valuable new leads and industry connections.

Why trust in tech?

The world of technology is developing at an increasingly rapid rate and there is now an array of digital marketing tools that can aid you in propelling your brand to the next level – giving you the edge your business needs to stand out from the competition.

When it comes to event marketing, harnessing the power of tech can throw your business into the spotlight and give you some much needed exposure – and social media platforms provide any number of opportunities to boost your branding.

Social media and event planning

Once your pre-event planning is nailed down, you can begin thinking about how you can utilise popular social media channels to promote your event.

Facebook, Twitter and Google+ provide platforms from which you can promote your brand and ensure maximum exposure. Jumping on industry relevant hashtags – as well as tagging accounts in your posts – means you can be socially active before, during and after an event. If you don’t already have social media accounts with these three giants, why not?

For Twitter users who are showcasing at an event, finding an official exhibition account and tagging them in a post will spark engagement. By confirming that you’re attending and which stand you’ll be exhibiting from, you’ll be giving prospects easy access to your brand – and keep an eye out for event-related hashtags, too.

A good way to promote your event on Facebook is to add hashtags to your post and make sure your company page has posted on the official event page. Add yourself to any relevant Facebook groups and make sure your audience knows where you’ll be and when.

Once promotion is pinned down, it’s time to think about how to engage your audience and make your brand unforgettable.

Event design: popular event tech trends

In recent years there’s been a significant rise in increasing attendee engagement by targeting a combination of the senses. Exhibitors are now experimenting with new technology that will help them to increase footfall to their stands and enhance consumer-brand engagement.

• Wearable tech – this includes items such as a headset that filters out the chaos of an event and immerses the attendee in your brand or wristwatches that can help prospects locate your stand.
• Projection mapping – this can convert the area around you into an interactive screen – commanding the attention of your audience and prolonging the amount of time they spend at your stand.
• Drones – as technology continues to advance, drones are becoming increasingly popular – capturing the attention of attendees from across the room and drawing them to your stand. Technology marketing company Parrot maximised attendee engagement at an event by having their drones perform a synchronised dance – which ensured their brand stood out among the sea of exhibitors.
• Hologram projections – this is an invaluable tool if you’re planning on exhibiting at a number of events. This means the head of your business need never miss another event – allowing them to speak at every event and deliver their message without having to put other projects on hold. Holograms have been growing in popularity since they began featuring at mainstream musical events – and they show no signs of slowing down.
• Digital signage – for a more subtle way of showcasing your brand, you can set up a digital sign. This can create an instantly recognisable image by which attendees can remember your brand – as well as providing an impactful visual representation of what your brand can offer.

The Farnborough Airshow

The Event Networks division of DB Systems was tasked with creating one of Europe’s largest temporary networks at the Farnborough Airshow – setting up internet and telecommunications systems that would allow a wide and varied audience to stay connected throughout the event. This meant that exhibitors, attendees, press and ticketing staff were able to remain in contact throughout the event.

This form of marketing allows exhibitors to incorporate upcoming event tech with their live social media updates, in order to gain maximum brand exposure.

Harnessing the power of event tech will allow you to showcase your brand across a wide range of platforms and help you secure a valuable ROI. So whether you’re exhibiting at a business event or promoting your brand from an exhibition trailer, making your brand memorable means your business won’t soon be forgotten after an event – and following up your leads in a professional and timely manner will be the final stage in executing a successful event.

Thanks to Sam Wright for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Sam Wright is an events blogger, who has worked with brands such as Edmonds and The Events Structure, specialising in exhibition trailers.

 

 

Source: Smart Insights

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Scenario planning for marketers

Marketers should plan for every scenario, rather than only the most likely one

2015 is drawing to a close. Marketers have their eyes set firmly on 2016, and may well be currently drawing up their marketing plans and strategy documents for 2016. However the vast majority of these plans will actually only plan for 1 scenario: business as usual.

It makes sense to plan for business as usual, after all, it’s impossible to predict the future so it wouldn’t make sense to base ones marketing plan around an event which may or may not happen.

Consider the following:

– The future is not pre-determined or predictable

– If it were, there would be no point taking action today, because it would have no effect on the future.

– Full information about the future is never available

But precisely because the future cannot be predicted, you shouldn’t only plan for one scenario (businesses as usual), but rather should have strategies in place ready to deal with all manner of possible scenarios, some of which may involve crises.

‘don’t wait till your in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan’ – Dr Phil

Different types of future

The future is a murky world. A good way to make sense of it and give structure your thinking towards planning for different eventualities is to think about different scenarios and divide them into the 4 p’s. Not the 7 p’s of marketing, but rather the 4 p’s of the future:

• Possible – Anything that might happen.
• Plausible – Could feasibly happen, but unlikely.
• Probable – Likely to happen.
• Preferable – What you want to happen.

Thinking of different possibilities and then categorising them this way can help you concentrate of a set of key scenarios, which you need to plan for.

Brainstorm as many possibilities you can think of, and categorise them this way. Discard any that won’t significantly affect the marketing department or are so unlikely to happen it doesn’t even bear thinking about (think meteor strike). What you are left with is a map of possible futures for your business. These should be planned for so you have a process in place if and when they happen.

Possible scenarios:

What scenarios are likely to affect the working of your marketing department? Some are obvious. A PR disaster arising from an exec mincing his words and coming out with an un-PC gaff might blow up on social media. Your website might be hacked, leading to customer details being leaked, creating a storm of bad PR and recriminations flying around the IT department.

Bad PR can come in a flash, as the Singapore-based ecommerce store ‘SuperGurl’ discovered when the ad director failed to review his graphic designers work and the brand ended up having this horrific call to action button on their home page this Black Friday.

Others may be less obvious because they are not what springs to mind when you think of crises. If you work for a publicly listed company, have you consider how your brand may be affected if a larger rival started buying you out? How could the brand be protected in this scenario?

The scenarios don’t have to be crises either; they could be positive developments that you weren’t expecting. Global news might focus attention on your brand in an unexpected way. Perhaps you are a small business selling sustainably sourced kidney beans. How would you capitalise on a new research report published in the BMJ that links Kidney Bean consumption to lower rates of bowel diseases?

Crisis Management

Many of the potential scenarios you will come up with will involve some form of crisis, which you will need to plan for. If you don’t have a plan in place for these scenarios, when one does inevitably occur it you will be unprepared and team members will be unaware of their responsibilities.

The different scenarios will vary wildly, and thus the responses will need to be very different. However, the crisis management plan, which you should have in place, will always contain a key set of principles.

• Anticipate – Anticipating the crisis is the first step towards planning for it, and possibly avoiding it. Think about the possible ways the crisis could begin or unfold. This can often help ideas for how to prevent the crisis from emerging in the first place.
• Identify – the team members responsible for handling the situation – Detailing responsibility is crucial as it allows your team to respond effectively to a crisis, rather than people running around not knowing who is responsible for what. With a clear structure of responsibility and accountability, staff can get straight down to their roles in solving the crisis. Make sure this plan can still function if certain team members are away from the office. If a certain problem crops up whilst the marketing manager is on holiday, your plan needs a clear back up in place so someone knows its up to them to step up to the plate and take charge of the response.
• Training– Once you’ve identified who is responsible for what in the given crisis scenario, various skills gaps may well become apparent. It may be wise to train up some staff in the basics of certain skills so they can provide a back up in the case of a certain specialist being ill on a day where they are needed. It may also be wise make everyone aware of certain processes or rules which are designed to prevent crises emerging in the first place. For example making sure all staff are aware of social media guidelines may prevent PR gaffs.

Plan to capitalise

“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change” – Milton Friedman

One of the few things which is certain is that 2016 will bring big changes for a vast range of businesses. Many of these changes could present massive opportunities for your business. The problem with a marketing plan that deals only with the ‘business as usual scenario’ is that it is inevitably unable to best exploit new opportunities that may arise for marketing your business from events that cannot be expected.

If you don’t have a plan in place to make the most of it, an opportunity to grab some fantastic PR off the back of a favourable news story may pass you buy, or an opportunity to market yourself off something as simple as a freak weather event that makes your service more relevant may not give you same boost in sales as it could if you had planned for it.

If you are a B2C business, make sure to have agreements in place with suppliers to cope with sudden spikes in demand, less you be left sold out if an unprecedented event causes a massive surge in sales.

Always be monitoring your social streams and those of your competitors to spot trends that your business may be able to capitalise on. There’s nothing wrong with pointing out your own virtues if your competitor has done something sinister and is in a spot of trouble because of it. The controversial / much despised ‘Are you beach body ready?’ campaign by Protein World got a fantastic set of spins off by other brands who were practising their Real-time marketing, which pointed to the fact that they weren’t forcing unrealistic beauty standards on women.

Are you overdue being disrupted?

One thing the last few years have taught us is that industries can be disrupted quickly. Before 2012, no one outside of San Francisco had heard of Uber, and now it’s worth over $60 billion and has totally revolutionised how people get about in cities, much to the anger of established taxi companies. Before Uber no one had considered taxis a business that was particularly likely to be disrupted, expect perhaps by the coming of driverless cars that are still several years away.

The same may be true for your industry. This year may be the year a new app totally revolutionises the real estate industry, banking or legal services. Think it won’t happen to you? Look a the way AirBnB totally disrupted the hotel industry, something which one would have thought could never have moved away from bricks and mortar model. Disruption doesn’t mean doom, it just means you have to position what you offer to sell it in a way that stresses its advantages over what the disruptor is offering. AirBnB may be the world’s biggest accommodation provider, but there will always be a market for luxury hotels. They’re not going away anytime soon. Your plan for this scenario must thus address how you would change your offering in response to disruption and how you would stress your USP.

Conclusion

We all know the overused maxim ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’ (personally I prefer the more alliterative ‘Piss poor planning leads to piss poor performance’). Well failing to plan for a failure is even worse. It is times of crisis where you need a well thought out plan to turn to more than anything. Similarly, if your plan doesn’t take into account scenario’s which can’t be predicted but could allow you to get great marketing results, then you’ll loose out. The best way it to consider all possible scenarios, map them out according to the 4 p’s and then create plans for the scenarios that could have a major effect on your marketing department.

Nothing is certain, least of all in the fast-paced world of marketing. But if there is one thing I can predict 100% for 2016, it’s that something you didn’t think would happen will. It’ll help if you have a plan.

Source: Smart Insights

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The Must-Have Apps for Marketing Professionals [Infographic]

You may already be using many of these apps, but this infographic provides a handy checklist

Let’s face it, modern marketers are extremely busy. Once you are out of your office, it’s  comforting to know that you can stay on top of your work and not lose touch thanks to mobile apps. Apps make it so a marketer’s entire day is filled with opportunities to connect, engage, and share. Now you can get more work done while commuting, waiting or lounging.

With almost two billion smartphones users, in 2015 the buzzword in marketing is mobile. Our lifestyles are officially mobile. For better or for worse, smartphones and tablets are now part of our daily routine. From checking messages to tracking campaign metrics to watching social interactions, apps have become a useful and valuable part of doing our jobs.

There is no shortage of tools for digital marketers, social media gurus and SEO consultants these days. However, many of the major utilities are only available through web browsers or as downloadable desktop software applications. Whether you prefer iOS, Android, or Windows 8 mobile apps; mobile websites optimized for mobile browsers and various device screen sizes, web apps that run from your desktop or mobile browser, the information you need is a click or tap away on your mobile device when you are out and about.

Any bit of information you need is just a touch away. From what’s trending, how people are engaging with you to the latest best practices, the right apps can take your career to the next level. The below infographic produced by M2 On Hold highlights the best apps for busy marketers on the go.

Source: Smart Insights

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Brand Stories: KFC for Christmas: Succeeding at Seasonal Marketing Overseas

One measure of how well you’ve infiltrated your brand into a local culture is how successfully you can align it with local holidays

Seasonal holidays are emotive times, whether it’s a country’s national independence day, saints’ day carnivals, New Year or the mid-autumn festival celebrations in parts of Asia.

Getting the seasonal celebrations right is a big part of aligning your brand with local cultural values and engaging with your audience during a significant time in their calendar. Gift exchange and shared meals are often a big part of festivities and for many brands that represents a big opportunity for sales. Get the holidays right and you have a chance to really bring your brand into every household.

Big brand holiday case studies

KFC is a brand that has managed to transcreate itself with particular success into Japan. The fried chicken retailer ran such a successful seasonal campaign in Japan back in the seventies that eating KFC is now a cornerstone of Christmas celebrations in the country.

Over the decades the brand has continued to repeat the simple message “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” (Kentucky for Christmas!) to stunning effect. With over a thousand branches in Japan, the chain takes order for the Christmas Eve ‘Party Barrel’ up to three months in advance and there are long queues at KFC stores on the 24 December. KFC is now part of the way Japan celebrates Christmas to such an extent that the national airline has even served branded KFC meals for 3 months in the run up to Christmas.

Other food retailers have offered their own take on local holiday customs. The mid-autumn festival (Zhōng Qiū) is one of the biggest holidays in China and Thailand and involves the gifting of mooncakes. Starbucks integrated into this food ceremony in their own way, offering their own twist in the Hong Kong market by offering flavours such as salted caramel.

In Thailand McDonald’s chose not to reinvent the traditional flavours and instead offers the durian andsalted egg flavour which only seems to appeal to the Thai palate! The fast food chain’s biggest twist on the tradition is more about the pricing – McDonald’s mooncakes are significantly cheaper than comparably-wrapped products from other retailers.

Coke boldly tackled the emotional themes of Chinese New Year with a standout campaign that reunited migrant families. This was a clear attempt to link Coke as successfully with Chinese New Year as it is linked with Christmas in the West (remember Coke helped popularise the image of Santa).

In Malaysia the brand achieved a 43% sales in increase by aligning itself with New Year festivities. Incorporating auspicious characters including ones meaning ‘happiness’ and other inspired by symbolic new year dishes into the label design meant that Malaysians were keen to give the bottle a place on their table during the festivities.

Beware the subtleties of difference

Just because your culture shares a holiday with another, it doesn’t necessarily mean your customs are the same. Beware of marketing your own version of a holiday overseas as your brand’s ‘accent’ may show most at these significant times in a cultural calendar.

In Serbia, Christmas is celebrated on the 7th January and it’s uncommon to exchange gifts on that day. Instead there are set days in the preceding weeks to distribute gifts to men, women and children on dedicated days. Any marketing you do needs to be aware of the pace of events like these.

In Brazil it’s too hot for a fur-trimmed suit, so Santa wears red silk. In Russia, forget Santa: it’s Father Frost who hands out gifts. Russians also celebrate Christmas on the 7th January. Since 1992 Christmas has become a national holiday in Russia, as part of the ten-day holiday at the start of every new year.

The Christmas festive season paces itself differently across different cultures: the UK puts out the seasonal decorations especially early but most festivities stop abruptly after the 25th December.

In the Philippines things also start early but the season carries on past Christmas Day with public holidays on both the 28 December and 6 January and additional religious occasions marked later in January.

Be aware that in many cultures (such as Spain, Mexico and Brazil) most of the big family gatherings take place at midnight. Don’t waste advertising money on campaigns for people who aren’t awake! Similarly, you should be aware of how much people start to wind down as a holiday approaches and avoid using business email addresses over holiday periods.

In some parts of Europe, such as Finland, you can expect the main celebrations of Christmas to occur on Christmas Eve, whereas in the UK it tends to be more about the 25th.

In Europe and parts of the Caribbean there’s a spike in seasonal activity on St Lucy’s day on 13 December, with Christmas decorations often displayed. Review the timing of your campaigns to accommodate the pace of the festivities and catch people at the right time.

Winning strategies for local seasonal holidays

1. Don’t make the mistake of merely translating your content into local languages. It’s vital that you also align your message with the expectations and interests of that culture. At holiday time, it’s all about striking the right emotional pitch.
2. Spend a long time observing what the competition are doing and understanding the norms of the season. However, the most successful campaigns are ones that stand out from the herd. Coke’s use of the rural children of migrant workers in their emotive New Year campaign stood out in a market where most advertisers turn to celebrities to front their seasonal campaigns.
3. Testing your campaign, monitoring it and learning from your brand’s experience are of course fundamental. But consider also engaging in qualitative analysis as well as quantitative analytics-based measurement. It’s worthwhile engaging with focus groups, particularly if you are operating in complex cultures where there be multiple cultural identities within one country. China, with its diverse ethnic and regional identities, is an excellent example of this fragmentation.
4. If you’re a Western firm marketing a festivity associated with the West, your brand’s origin may be a key part of its appeal. In Japan, Christmas is embraced as an American festival, which is part of the appeal of KFC at this time. You need to understand how your brand is perceived.
5. Find a solid partner with local knowledge who can guide you during both the initial transcreation of your brand to a new market and the ongoing journey there. This local knowledge will inform your understanding of holiday periods and how best to market your brand during these times.
6. Create dedicated content for that market and that holiday; repurpose existing content from other cultures only with extreme caution and never, ever use machine translations for anything. Purpose-built, high-quality content will boost engagement and benefit SEO.
7. Be on top of the devices your markets are using and the channels they are in. Your content needs to be optimised for these channels and devices.
8. Last, but not by any means least, you need to ensure that you match Christmas marketing with Christmas logistics. Consumer confidence in flexible delivery options and demand for speedy delivery is high during the Christmas period. This can prove challenging for even the largest carriers. So you need to make sure your company can cope with the increased demand and importantly, deliver on time.

Thanks to Sophie Smith for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Sophie Smith is a copywriter at TranslateMedia and digital expert with a particular interest in the start-up scene and doing business in China. Her writing credits include the Independent and the Sydney Morning Herald. An experienced digital strategist, she’s worked in the private equity industry and for a variety of companies including Barratt Homes and Thames Water. In addition to her Oxford degree, she has a masters in digital communications from Manchester Metropolitan University..

Source: Smart Insights

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Website migration guide: building an SEO checklist for moving your site

Any change to a website’s structure can damage search visibility and cause a loss in traffic. Changing domains completely presents a problem – if done incorrectly search engines can fail to understand that the site has moved. A new website might not rank as well as the previous one, or in some cases it won’t rank at all.

Why change URLs?

Switching to https://

Google (Alphabet) wants to make the web safer. Websites using https:// have been given a boost in search visibility over those using the insecure http:// protocol since 2014. Switching to https:// is executed using 301 (permanent) redirects which will not pass 100% of the URL’s link equity or PageRank to its new destination.

The preference given to https:// can counteract this – and the long term benefits are significant – but bear in mind that you are changing every single URL on your website. Old redirects must be updated to point to the new https:// versions as the ultimate destination – the more redirects search engines have to interpret, the more link equity will be wasted and the greater the amount of time your website may be without search rankings.

Going international

A common domain change is from a country specific TLD (Top Level Domain) such as .co.uk to an internationally acceptable .com version.

There are additional considerations to make when changing domains to expand internationally – updating targeting, implementing hreflang tags and more. As well as changing every URL you may be duplicating each page of content for users in other countries also which makes it vital that it’s as easy as possible to present users with the correct version.

Combining a site migration with a change of protocol to https:// compounds the risk.

Rebranding

Changing website to reflect a change in name and message can present problems for search engines. In addition to the technical considerations, it is vital that users are greeted with the experience they expect – confused searchers bouncing back to search results can cause damage to your search visibility as well as your brand.

This is true also of businesses migrating websites into an existing domain following an acquisition or mothballing of a sub-brand. If a searcher clicks a result expecting a particular product or piece of information the new landing page must meet that intent or make it easy for users to click through to a page that will.

It’s widely reported that Google has a “brand bias” and it’s worth bearing in mind that it might not like your new brand as much as your old brand – people aren’t searching for it yet – and when you haven’t got that brand equity built into your domain Google doesn’t have an excuse to keep you at the top of its results.

Site migration SEO checklist

Below are the 30 easy steps required to maximise the chances that your change of website will be smooth.

Planning the migration

Some of the planning required for a site migration could already be done. You should already know which keywords you rank for, which keywords drive traffic and what assets are actually on your website.

Remember: you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

1. Create a sitemap of your new site, building a hierarchical list of all your site pages (including images, videos and other assets)
2. Compile a full list of all the URLs on the current site. This can be done by either crawling the site, extracting from the CMS or exporting URLs receiving traffic from Analytics
   • Make sure you have a list of the URLs you’re using in PPC campaigns. Failing to set up redirects on these URLs will result in sending users to broken links and trash your Quality Score
3. Compile a list of all the URLs planned for the new site
4. Map each individual URL from the current site to new site URLs individually, to be implemented with 301 redirects
5. Benchmark the current website’s rankings to measure progress throughout the migration. 20 or 30 keywords is not enough – use several hundred as a bare minimum
6. Benchmark organic traffic levels (including visits, bounce rates, conversions) per page on the current website
7. Prepare paid ads for keywords that the site ranks well organically for to put live if you run into issues after the site is launched
8. Identify the most authoritative links in the site’s backlink profile to be switched to the new URLs once the new website is live
9. Register and configure the new domain in Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools)
10. Generate an XML Sitemap for the new domain

Implementing the migration

There’s more to “implementation” than waiting for the development team to go live – testing throughout the process is essential.

1. Prepare and test the 301 redirects at page level for ALL URLs from the old to the new domain. This can be tested using crawlers, rather than done manually
   • Don’t forget subdomains!
2. Password protect the new domain and block all crawlers in the robots.txt file to prevent the staging site from being indexed. Use meta=”noindex” tags as well if possible. Failure to do so can cause duplication issues as Google will be able to index the content on your staging site as well as live content. Worse, Google could read the content on your staging site before it can read the content in its new home. Nobody wants to rank below their own testing environment
3. Publish the content to the new domain
4. Check that all pages exist; show correct information; status codes and all internal links are directed to the correct pages
5. Disable the authentication/password protection required to access the content on the new website
6. Implement the 301 redirects at page level from the old to new domain
7. Verify the redirects are working as expected (again, this can be achieved by crawling the lists of redirects using Screaming Frog SEO Spider)
8. Remove the disallow rule in the robots.txt file to allow search engines to crawl the new website
   • Steps 5, 6, 7 and 8 need to be executed as quickly as possible to reduce the chances of a search engine being redirected to a blocked site and rankings dropping as a result. Once the redirects are in place the new domain needs to be available to crawl as quickly as possible
9. Inform Google that the site has moved through the “change of address” option in the old domains account in Google Search Console
10. In the Webmaster Tools account of the new domain, go to “Crawl” > ”Fetch as Google” and crawl the homepage and main category pages on the new site as Google. As this is done click “submit to index” on each
11. Submit the sitemap of the new domain to Google via Search Console
12. Change the URLs in your social sharing buttons so the share counts are carried over to the new website. It’s likely that any SEO benefit you would receive from social shares will be lost, but then it’s unlikely that you actually get any SEO benefit from social shares anyway, so what are you worried about?
13. Reach out to the site owners of the most valuable links you identified when prepping the site migration. Ask them to change the destination of the links so that they point to the new URLs – this means that when a search engine crawls a linking website and follows an inbound link to your site there is no redirect to interpret, which ensures that the maximum possible amount of PageRank or link equity is passed through the link

Monitoring the migration

The sooner you can spot an issue the sooner it can be fixed. Monitoring all your data after a migration is vital for damage limitation.

A hint: if you can monitor 404 errors in your CMS you can fix them before Google is able to find them and list them in Search Console.

1. Check daily for crawl errors in the Google Search Console account of the new domain for at least the first month after the migration has taken place
2. Crawl the old URLs as often as possible to ensure 301 redirects are still working (maybe one or twice per week for the first month after the migration will be enough)
3. Check indexation of both the new and old domains in Search Console (and using a site: search in Google for reference). Indexation of the old website will decrease and then disappear whilst the new will increase (hopefully!)
4. Check the benchmark rankings to ensure organic visibility is maintained and also that the rankings URLs are what is expected (Horizon checks rankings bi-weekly – you should rank check as often as possible)
5. Monitor organic traffic volumes and behaviour of organic visitors using your analytics platform to ensure the new site is still receiving traffic and users can navigate it without issue
6. Continue to update external links that go to the old domain if possible. As stated above PageRank will flow through a 301 redirect without issue, but links are more valuable pointing directly to a URL with a 200 response code
7. Maintain control of the 301 redirects and the old domain at least until it stops being indexed, referring traffic and attracting links.

What do you need to bear in mind?

Changing website will not recover you from a penalty

Before changing URLs you must be sure that your website is not suffering from link issues or algorithmic penalties. A message in your Search Console citing Unnatural Links, for example, indicates a lack of trust in your website. Failing to remove this message before changing URLs implies an attempt to cheat.

Penalties – including algorithmic issues such as Panda and Penguin – are transferred through redirects and will usually result in a further loss in rankings. Failing to recover a penalty before a site migration generally means a huge loss in traffic even from what you received under penalty.

Monitor search rankings and 404 errors

Search rankings must be monitored closely throughout a site migration. This means a thorough keyword research in the planning stage – not to identify your opportunities but to identify the keywords you currently rank for.

Gather as many ranking keywords as you can from tools such as Searchmetrics, Horizon and historic keyword data from Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools, if you are fortunate enough to have some. Check your positions for these keywords as often as possible throughout the launch – and the following months – to quickly spot errors.

When designing a new website you must retain keywords in titles and body copy that you rank well for, regardless of the quality of surrounding content. If you are taking the opportunity to remove poor, thin or duplicate content from your web pages you must replace it with something better or you will no longer be relevant for the terms you were ranking for.

There is more to SEO than keyword rankings, but it’s a guarantee that neglecting keywords during a site migration will cost you.

Old redirects must be updated to avoid losing rankings

A change in URL is achieved by redirecting old pages into new. Old redirects must be updated so that old pages point to the newest destinations directly rather than via a redirect that is currently live. Each time a request results in a redirect:

• Page load time is increased as a newer version is loaded. Bounce rate begins to increase after page load times reach three seconds – force users to wait for 10 seconds as they are redirected from one page to the next and up to 40% will leave.
• A small amount of link authority is lost. The further a URL is located from a website’s homepage (product pages within sub categories within categories, for example) the less PageRank reaches that page to begin with as most of your links will point to your homepage. Forcing Google through more than one redirect on a product page will dilute this further. This increases the risk that product pages will not rank as well after a site migration, or worse, not be added to Google’s index at all.

Links in the top navigation must be updated to reflect their new destinations in order to avoid unnecessary redirects…but also links in blog posts and sitemaps.

Update Search Console and other web properties

External web properties can sometimes be forgotten during a website migration. It’s important to remember to submit a change of address in Google’s Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) in addition to updating your Analytics tracking codes and Google My Business listings. It’s not going to be possible for me to list all the properties you need to check but if you control the links on any platform (Facebook, personal/professional social profiles, even your Moz account) you should update the links if you have changed URLs.

PPC in a site migration

In AdWords you can’t redirect to a different domain in the final URL, so if you are changing web address you will have to create new ads. The final URL has to match the display URL. Tracking codes must be updated too – once this has been done it’s a good idea to attempt a transaction and ensure everything is being reported as you would expect.

As above, ensure you’re not losing any keywords or content that is currently making a page relevant for a specific query. You could see an improvement in Quality Score following a site migration, with better content and a better user experience, but any drops in performance should return to normal levels within a week or two at most.

You’re losing a whole lot of history

Every website has a history. This does not just mean the age of the domain – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, so if you’ve been doing SEO for a while then your website will be optimised. The same is true of CRO – Conversion Rate Optimisation. You cannot know how Google – or users – are going to react to a brand new website that has not been optimised just for them.

This does not mean you shouldn’t always look to make changes to provide a better experience…but bear in mind that your meta data describes what was on your page; your CTAs were a certain colour because that worked with your old design; links pointed to content that was on a certain URL.

A new website is a huge change. Be prepared to see a dip in performance while search engines and users adjust.

Timing is everything

If Christmas is your peak period then don’t migrate your website in November. Even a successful migration can take a week or two to be understood by search engines. Make sure it’s a quiet(er) time for your business.

What can go wrong when you launch a new website?

For an SEO a site migration can be a hard sell. It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say best case scenario is your new website performing as well as the old one – and it should be apparent from the checklist above that the amount of input involved from the person(s) responsible for SEO is not insignificant.

It’s not just dangerous to switch domains – any change in URLs can be problematic.

In June Toys ‘R Us moved their mobile website from m.toysrus.co.uk to http://ift.tt/1IWeXN0, which initially caused a severe traffic loss. A comparison of m.toysrus.co.uk vs http://ift.tt/1IWeXN0 just in mobile search results.

Comparison of m.toysrus.co.uk vs http://ift.tt/1IWeXN0 just in mobile search results.

Mobile traffic to the primary domain is steadily increasing but the site is still feeling the effects of the switch.

The migration from the m. domain has negatively affected rankings for the desktop site too, which we’re estimating is down around 10,000 non-brand organic visits compared to the day before the change took place (down 120,000 visits they day after).

It can take a significant amount of time for Google to understand what has changed following a migration, even if that migration was largely successful and the domain(s) migrating were clean. Conversely Google can be incredibly unforgiving for attempts to migrate domains affected by penalties (in the below case Penguin).

Searchmetrics shows a failed site migration from blue to green. The (comparatively) small drop in visibility on the blue line is likely to be the Penguin algorithm which is one of the major contributing factors to the site never recovering its visibility after launching the new website. For context: outside of search green is arguably the market leader in this industry with a significant ATL spend. Orange is a much smaller brand with almost no spend above the line, but a technically sound website. You’re welcome orange.

Continuing with the same site migration blue still ranks for around 40 keywords 2 years after moving to the new site, so not all of the redirects have been implemented correctly.

…and finally, assuming the trend shown in Searchmetrics continued (disregarding the rest of the awesome work being done) when the two websites were neck and neck in terms of visibility, the newly launched website (blue) is down around 237,000 non-brand organic visitors every single month compared to where it should be.

Should I migrate my website?

Many websites switch domains or URLs without issue and for many brands it’s absolutely necessary to change.

Following a process gives you the best chance of catching the problems before they occur but there is a lot of pressure on those responsible for SEO to make sure the migration is a success. Remember: just because you don’t deal with PSD files and you might not write code does not mean that you should not be one of the loudest voices in the room.

Source: Branded

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Holiday Marketing through influencers [Infographic]

‘Tis the season to be influencing

With the holidays in full swing, so many brands are competing for the attention of the same customers. This is where brands need to get more creative by working through trusted sources, such as bloggers, to get more opportunity to reach and influence their audience.

With approximately 200 million people turning on their ad blockers, it’s clear that marketers need to be less intrusive and put their ad budgets elsewhere. Offers shared by trusted advocates convert at 3x-10x higher rate than actual brands, so there’s no denying the fact that influencers can play a crucial role here.

The Shelf’s holiday infographic highlights the need for influencer marketing during the holidays and how you can ramp up your campaigns through the various social networks, like Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. Read on for more insights! 

Source: Smart Insights

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Key rules when designing mobile apps

UI Design Principles That Every Mobile App Developer Must Abide By

User Interface and user experience go hand in hand and as a designer, you can ensure exceptional UI for your mobile app only when you follow some tried and tested UI design principles. The user interface design for a mobile app is different than web and hence, must be approached in a different manner.

Some principles to follow while designing a mobile app’s UI

It is always advisable to stick to certain principles that are accepted by the designers’ community and aid in designing an appealing user interface. Such a user interface not only attracts the user but also helps retain them in the long run.

• Consistency of the design layout: Different sections of the app must be coherent in design, and there must be a consistency in the design throughout the app. Apps like Evernote, Netflix, and Dropbox deliver great consistency in the design layout. Consistency also applies to the common features of the apps build for the same OS. For instance, if one of the apps on your mobile phone changes the way you delete content and the new way is completely different from other apps, you are bound to get annoyed.

• Clear and obvious interactive element: The design elements that are interactive in nature must be clearly depicted as one. It must be obvious to the users so that they use it when required. Options hidden in menu may sometime be forgotten. A range of A/B tests have revealed that conspicuous menu options are not good for the apps. At least, the key navigation elements must be visible. 

• Single trial learning experience: The term ‘Intuitive’ is often used for the apps to suggest that they are very user friendly. Actually, this word implies single trial learning which means that users understand the flow of the app without remembering the steps. The options should be so placed that the users can infer what must be the next step. 

• Anticipate and answer users’ queries: When the users tap a button, they want to know whether the process has started and how long will it take. As the technology abstracts the actions, the users are usually kept in the dark while the process is going on. Using Toast in Android and iOS, message about completion of a process can be displayed to the users apprising them of the process status. The Gmail app is a good example of such a design as it displays the messages like “saved in draft, message sent, etc. to inform the users about the completion of the task.

• Layered User Experience: The UX should be layered. By layered, it is meant that all the features of an app must not be exposed at once. It should surface out as the users delve deeper into the app and discover new things. This would help in keeping the users’ interest intact for a longer time. WhatsApp offers a good layered experience, as users explore new features as they go deeper into the app.  

• Dynamic filtering: This search pattern filters the data already on the screen on the basis of the keyword that you type. This is one of the striking features of web 2.0. It differs from Auto Complete in the sense that the objects to be filtered are already displayed on the screen.
• Auto complete pattern: This type of search has made the life easier for the users. As the name suggests, it completes the few letter of the keyword typed in by the users and shows the complete word or sentence as suggestions It also saves the effort of the users and thus offers a great user experience.
• In-App Search In-app search feature makes an app more usable for the end users. More intuitive is the in-app search, better is the experience that a user derives from the app. There are proven search patterns that make the in-app search feature a treat for the end-users.
• Recent searches: This search type makes the search field intuitive by presenting the users a list of recently searched keywords. It saves the effort put in by the users and hence, enhance the usability of the app.
• Search criteria form: This is a search pattern where the users can search for the desired information by providing information in a preset pattern. Such search patterns take the input through a form where the users feeds in the query through a set of search filters. Hotel booking is the perfect example for this type of search pattern as the users have to fill multiple set of information to know the room availability and tariff.

Some Technical Guidelines from OS Standpoint

OS Specific Designs

Depending on the mobile operating system, the design must be specific. As with the latest version of Android, Material design must be followed in the apps. Several iOS designs patterns used in Cocoa will be good for the iOS apps.

User Input

Typing on a smartphone is not a breeze. For typing different characters, you need to press the shift button quite frequently. To make things easier for the users, the app must open the most apt iteration of the keyboard. Moreover, the auto-capitalization, auto-correct, and auto-complete mode must also be enabled according to the requirement.

Utilize the true potential of the mobile platform

The mobile device that runs the app might have certain hardware features that might enhance the functionalities of the mobile app. The app’s UI must utilize these features like front camera, gyroscope, high resolution HD display, finger-print unlocking, GPS and few others.

Conclusion

 These UI principles when kept in mind while designing the user interface for a mobile app, will yield superior design layout and offer great User experience. The users of a mobile app need to be impressed within the few seconds after they start using it. Make use of these principles to make the most of these few seconds.

 

Ashni Sharma is an application developer at AppsChopper. She codes most of the time and as part of writing she writes about the new trends, latest advancements in app technology and various other diverse topics. You can reach her on Linkedin

Source: Smart Insights

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Managing Content Marketing: Marketers Vs Creatives

New survey shows better communication between departments is needed to create better content

Content marketing certainly isn’t new anymore. A huge number of brands already have well-developed content marketing strategies and are creating great content on a regular basis. This means there is more content than ever before, and so brands need to publish compelling content to be able to stand out. As the below chart shows, content marketers are now using content to build brands, engage customers and increase sales.

Creating exceptional content isn’t easy, and to create content good enough to get shared widely and compete with the best in the business, you are going to need a creative team that can work well with your existing marketing department.

A new report from the content marketing agency Visua.ly shows what marketers think of the creatives they work with and what the creatives think of their marketing departments. It makes for interesting reading and gives some insights into how marketers can get the most out of their creative teams and vice versa.

What creatives think of their content:

Generally, the content creation teams are pleased with what they are producing. 93% were either proud, very proud or extremely proud.

What marketers think:

This wasn’t true of the marketers publishing the content. Only 37% were extremely or very satisfied with the content being produced, and 1 in 5 weren’t satisfied at all.

What Marketers think their creatives are good and bad at:

Marketers are reasonably satisfied with how their creative teams are doing in terms of consistency and responding to feedback, but have big doubts about their ability to anticipate problems and follow the brief. Less than 1 in 3 marketers thought the creatives had a transparent process, and even fewer thought their creative departments were good at keeping themselves adequately staffed.

What the creatives think marketers are doing well and poorly:

Creatives equally had a lot of problems with how their marketing departments were working. Only 1 in 5 thought the marketing team stuck to the original brief, and the vast majority thought marketers didn’t stick to an established process or brief projects clearly.

Perception Vs reality

Clearly both teams need to consider the others needs a bit better, and perhaps evaluate their current processes in light of feedback from the opposing team. If we compare how the teams rate themselves to what the opposite number thinks, we see big disparities.

Conclusion

Marketers and creatives clearly need to collaborate better and map out their processes in more transparent ways. Creating detailed processes manuals can go a long way to address this, and can also be helpful in the case of unplanned staff absence or talent moving. Listening to what the other team have to say and consulting them when major changes are planned in how content is created or marketed would also be wise. Imagine a deparment with no conflict between creatives and marketers. You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will be as one.

Source: Smart Insights

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Content Marketing: The value of DIY visual assets

Good quality pictures are key to getting your content shared, here’s how to create them

The value of DIY visual assets cannot be overstated – they are simply priceless when it comes to adding value to your content. Visual aids in content marketing have been proven to up engagement and achieve business objectives, such as brand awareness and engagement.

Learn why your content marketing will not only benefit from visual aids, but also how you can achieve these without breaking the bank, and how they can generate increased traffic and engagement for your brand.

Increasing audience engagement with an image

According to Buffer, tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favourites and 150% more retweets than those without – while , Facebook posts which include photographs receive 39% more engagement than those without.

By adding visual aids to your blogs, your content is not only more likely to be read, but you also increase its likelihood of being shared across social media platforms. For example, Buzzfeed have generated 47.5 million engagements including 13 million direct shares of their content – this has now risen to 50 million. Not only are they leading on social engagements for their content, these include people sharing their content. It’s clear that Buzzfeed owe their success in viral content to their visuals.

Visual content not only receives higher levels of engagement, but can also drive growth and even act as a lead generation tool. The more visual content you put out, the more you build an image of your brand being associated with those images. This is vital in building a picture for potential new customers and if you’re responsible for taking your own photographs, you won’t have to worry about compromising on the visual representation of your brand or potentially even confusing customers by re-using imagery – which they’ve previously seen elsewhere.

When it comes to marketing, the proof is in the stats: if you want to have more success with your content, visual aids are guaranteed to increase engagement – giving your marketing strategy a significant boost and placing you ahead of the competition.

When it comes to getting your content noticed, a picture is worth a thousand words – so stop writing and start snapping.

Choosing the best tools

As a content marketer, finding an image to support your text can be frustrating – sometimes leading to a complete re-draft in an effort to match your content to a suitable image. To avoid wasting time searching for the best visuals for the piece, try taking up your own camera and shooting exactly what you need for your article.

You don’t need complicated or expensive kit to take your pictures, a simple point and shoot camera will do the job – or failing that, your smartphone camera can be the perfect tool, and you’ll always have it to hand.

The basics

Picking up a camera with a variety of different buttons and variables can be daunting, but it’s usually easier than it looks. It’s a common misconception that you need to have a high-level camera in order to take visually stunning photographs, or that an intensive course is the only way to learn about photography in extensive detail – but that’s not the case.

There are three basics to photography: rule of thirds, composition and lighting. Once you’ve learnt how these three will affect the outcome of your photograph, there’s no need to splash cash on lens kits or professional lighting (unless it becomes a hobby you want to pursue in your personal time).

Due to the increasing popularity in visual content marketing over the past few years, there are now a plethora of resources available online for those who want to learn more – but for now, we’ll share with you three tips to help enhance the quality of your images.

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is essentially the rule of thumb when it comes to photography – you break your photograph down into nine equal parts by dividing it between two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. Placed on those lines – or in the centre of those intersections – should be the most important subjects you want to focus on within the photograph.

For example, if you’re taking a photograph of a door, you would want the handle of the door placed in an intersection on the left or right, depending on its position. Once you’ve grasped this, composing your picture should follow naturally.

Composition

The placement of your subject focus within your shot ties in with the rule of thirds. If you can manipulate where your subject focus can be within the shot, then arrange it in a space where there are minimal distractions around the subject to take away from it’s importance in the shot.

If your subject’s surroundings are immovable, then try switching up your location to ensure your subject is the focal point.

Lighting

Learning to manipulate lighting to your advantage can be tricky – especially in natural light. This is something even professional photographers struggle with, but natural lighting is always far more flattering for your photographs in.

For outdoor shots, try taking your photographs when the sun is still at it’s brightest. If you’re photographing indoors, have your subject or object placed as close to a window as you possible.

If your photograph still comes out too dark for your liking, then there is another option to create the effect you want.

Case Study: Coca Cola

An example of a visual content marketing strategy that uses both of these techniques is the Coca Cola advert promoting “Love is the way”. As you can see from the image, the tagline itself “Love is the way” is placed on one of the horizontal lines, while the remaining lines break up the photograph and centre the can of coke. The photographer has also purposefully placed the can of coke in front of the sunlight rather than behind – eliminating any shadows that might be cast behind the subject.

Editing your photography

As you can see in the Coca Cola photograph, the background is blurred – something that can be achieved in the editing process.

Again, there is no need to splash out on software like Adobe Photoshop – as most tools are available online, with sites like Pixlr providing essential tools.

Many of these websites have an ‘auto’ tool that detect what the photograph is missing – so there’s no need to spend hours trawling through the tools and learning how it all works. One click of a button should give you the desired effect.

Generating backlinks

Once you get snap savvy, you can maximise the impact of your marketing through the use of your own photographs – and then sharing them to creative commons sites like Flickr.

Using Google’s reverse image search can help you find places that your photographs have been shared – and from there, it’s a case of getting in touch with sites and asking for a link back to your website.

The value you’ll get from investing time in this skill is immeasurable – so start taking your own photographs to support your piece and watch your engagement soar.

 

Thanks to Adam Hope for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. Adam Hope is a content creator for Digitalab, offering photo printing services to professional photographers and enthusiasts alike. With over 65 years in the industry, Digitalab’s experienced professionals, provide high-quality photo printing to help propel brands forward.

Source: Smart Insights

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Master Your Influencer Engagement Strategy

The Art of Listening: Put your Influencers’ Needs Before Your Own

Today there are over two billion active social media accounts worldwide, growing by 12 percent in the last 12 months. For all the media hype that still surrounds the world of social networks, there is one thing people have come to accept: it’s not going anywhere.

Virtual networks are built on the illusion that everyone likes everyone, and everyone can be “friends.” However, what is truly needed in order for people to build meaningful relationships with each other is the synchronicity of shared experience. That’s because no matter how “friendly” your interactions may be, they are not in person.

One challenge organizations often encounter in implementing influencer marketing programs is taking those first few steps to engage with influencers. There’s often this moment of fear that you might not be following best practices, offending someone, saying the wrong thing – we all know the feeling.

Discovering the Right Approach to Influencer Engagement

Reaching out to influencers can be intimidating. What’s the right approach? What should you say and how should you say it? What should you ask for–and when? Understandably, marketers have shied away from creating these connections in favor of driving conversions. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

By understanding what matters most to your influencers, you’re one step closer to connecting with the people your customers trust the most. Thereby connecting your future customers with your brand.

Building Influencer Relationships Starts with Human Interaction

What holds true in the offline world holds true in the online world too. Relationships start to take hold primarily by listening and talking to each other. Before you can engage with influencers, it’s critical to have a good sense of their needs. Yes, you know how often they’re talking about your topic, but what does that tell you about them as people? Because, ultimately, influencer engagement is about human interaction.

Best-in-class Marketers Listen to Prioritize Influencer Engagement

Best-in-class marketers begin their day by listening. Follow in suit, that way you can monitor activity, listen and participate in relevant conversations around your topic, and prioritize your engagement. The key to building lasting relationships with influencers lies in conversations. Make sure to listen regularly to gain golden nuggets of information, which will help you uncover optimal opportunities to engage with them.

Consider These Five Actionable Tips to Help you Listen to and Participate in Relevant Conversations:

1. Become familiar with the content that your influencers create and share online, e.g. blogs, twitter feed, LinkedIn posts, and YouTube videos
2. Get equally familiar with their business sites and offerings (if the two are separate)
3. Comment regularly on their blogs and social media posts
4. Participate in non-work related conversations they are having, if you can do so without coming off like a stalker
5. If you have shared personal interests, then don’t be shy about initiating those conversations or even meeting in person

Build relationships Now – Not When you Need Them for Marketing Campaigns

The hardest thing for marketers to do is aside their tactical goals when engaging with influencers. It is however the only path to success. When you genuinely work towards providing them with value  and expecting nothing in return, all your conversations will be loaded. Give, give, give, before you get. Start more conversations for conversation-sake. Support your influencers by sharing their content and amplifying their message first. Maybe initial conversations don’t directly benefit your marketing strategy, but they let the human on the other end know you’re interested in them.

And above all…

Don’t be in a hurry to ask your influencers to do ANYTHING. The road to influencer engagement is all about the journey, not the destination. If you follow these aforementioned steps, then your influencers will be more than willing to help you at a later stage.

How Luxury Jewelry Brand De GRISOGONO Engaged with Influencers to Reach Millions

To further illustrate this point, take for example the luxury jewelry brand De GRISOGONO who leveraged influencers to engage with a new audience.

De GRISOGONO engages with key influencers all year round but events provide unique opportunities to create impact and to establish new relationships. Prior to the Cannes Film Festival 2015, the brand targeted a very small number of influencers from luxury, lifestyle, and fashion industries, and started building these relationships months before the event.

The team listened to conversations online to get to know these influencers and to offer valuable and mutually beneficial opportunities—from VIP access, photos, and interviews, to producing content featuring them to share with their own social channels.

The De GRISOGONO team uses Traackr to listen to conversations, identify the right influencers, and engage with their communities. Leveraging this insight, the team developed content plans around the events, tracked mentions and live engagement, and measured the impact of each activity. This enabled De GRISOGONO to do what no other brand had yet done in Cannes: Instead of trying to talk to millions of people, they focused on talking to a few influential individuals and indirectly reached millions.

How to Get Started with Influencer Engagement Today

1. Identify the most relevant influencers for your business
2. Learn as much about them as you can by listening and engaging in relevant conversations
3. Engage in the conversation like a human being and remember that making meaningful connections will help your influencers become aware of your brand

People are far more likely to be receptive to what you are saying if they feel you’ve been listening to them. So listen, be empathetic, and respond thoughtfully and consistently.
Learn ways to elevate your influencer marketing practice like never before. For more actionable tips to build relationships and engage in meaningful conversations with key influencers to your brand, download The Marketer’s Guide to Mastering Influencer Engagement.

Thanks to Pierre-Loic for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Pierre-Loic is passionate about turning powerful ideas into reality using technology. As marketing is being re-invented, he co-founded Traackr as a way to ease the transition for the modern marketer. Traackr empowers marketers to build relationships with influencers to impact their business by discovering which influencers move the needle for their brand, manage relationships with those influencers by engaging them in a meaningful context, and measuring the impact. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

 

 

Source: Smart Insights

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