There are many different PR processes that can help you monitor and oversee simple communications, but it doesn’t need to be made difficult. If you plan and maintain the basic idea that PR is about keeping a healthy relationship between the clients and the business they are involved with, then it should run smoothly. The main aim being to a hold a mutually beneficial relationship, opening business opportunities to each other.
Social media communications are now a huge topic to include in your PR strategy, and using socials correctly can promote a business’s reputation. Gaining positive outreaching via social media is an easy result but how far can this be pushed? According to ‘Digital Marketing Institute’ there are now 4.2 billion people across the globe who use social media. So, companies are of course delving into all aspects of social media to see how this communication can be pushed further and reach this potentially vast audience. There is a lot to think about, like how social media strongly connects with certain industries and markets, to how many people can be reached and to what countries around the world? The potential is clearly huge!
There are now many tactics across social media to generate interest and keep the communication piece going. Connecting with competitors, clients and subscribers is a good method to build your network. However, another way to do this is by collaborating with social media influencers. Many of these influencers tend to have a massive following and are not called influencers for no reason. Consumers are now more influenced to buy a product if it’s recommended or used by a popular social media influencer, making for a great way to market your product.
But of course, it is not always easy to gain the following of a celebrity and create this relationship. Other ways to push this communication and connection to an audience is guest posting. This is an effective way you can reach varied new audiences that you would not normally connect with. Guest posting is also a two-way collaboration aiding both parties to create strong backlinks and to generate more traffic to their website, but also your content. The website you choose to house your content should be relevant to your work, business or audience to ensure you gain the most effective results. By choosing a trustworthy platform to upload your content, you can research their audience and statistics to make sure your guest posting will be reaching your desired audience. Find the right platform to collaborate with isn’t too difficult with sites like Ai Guest Posts who provide a platform with the choice of 12 brands to choose from so you are sure to find a suitable website for your content.
Social media communication is just one tiny section of what you can include in your PR strategy, but with 4.2 billion people all having access to social media, it seems like a pretty good place to start. Start making those social media connections and uploading your guest posts and watch your web traffic rise!
Would you like to write the most engaging and gripping content? As the internet grows, it seems so does the amount of competition. We are all looking for ways to stand out from the rest of the internet and grab the attention of our desired audience. Although it is not the easiest task to achieve great, quality content, it will be the best way to grab the right attention! With the growth of the internet and accessible online sources, this can be used to our advantage and help find ways to use and implement features into own our content. Quality is not about how many posts are shared, but the characteristics and style of your content.
Target Audience
When trying to achieve quality content, an important thing to consider is to make sure to write for your readers. Make sure the vocabulary you are using, and style of the piece is meant for your desired audience. Keep in mind that the readers will be using your article to find out information, so be educational but try to keep it simple so the piece is useful for them. If you were the audience, how effective would you find it?
Market Research
Doing some content marketing research before you begin writing could help stay true to the intended readers and find out specifically what they are looking for. This will not only help initially, with aiming your content in the right direction but to use the content marketing research continuously will really be key to the success. Make a habit of returning to the key points and ensure it contains all the aspects you think are essential for the readers to take away from your content.
Social Media
Another thing to consider is the way you connect with the audience, be trustworthy. By creating a relationship with your audience, they are more likely to gain trust in what you are saying and source your content in the future. Gaining this audience is very important but again, it is keeping them interested. Your audience will value your content if it is accurate and up to date. No one wants to read old or fake information and become confused from what they are reading. This could have a negative result in loosing the attention of the audience you have worked hard to create. Be transparent and this will maintain customer loyalty and you will be able to determine how good your content is by the reactions to it. Look out for the following type of activity:
Is it being shared on social media?
Has it generated more sales?
Is your web traffic higher?
Is your Google rank higher?
Monitoring these can also work well as a useful tool alongside social media. It can be effective to continue creating strong bonds with your audience and is a fantastic way of connecting to new people who you would not usually be in your reach. Different social media platforms are increasing the type of content you can now post. Being able to upload screenshots, charts, images, and videos gives a large diversity to your posts and enhancing the element of engagement to your audience. It also shows that you are giving value by looking at lots of different sources to present your information. There are many different marketing techniques, including guest posting, that can also aid this progress within your work.
By joining all the aspects we have discussed to create good quality content, will hopefully cement your authority within your niche and boost your content in exactly the direction you would like.
Retail is always one step ahead and that doesn’t just the physical stores – planning for peaks is at the front of every online retailer’s mind too. Whether that’s strengthening your ad strategies, preparing for product launches or being smart about inventory.
It all comes down to staying productive and preparing for the upcoming busy season. Tech plays a vital role in this, ensuring you can offer the best service for customers – from their first website visit, right down to last mile delivery.
In stores this is obviously key but online it is so much more competitive. The competition online starts with exposure to your business and making sure you are the first they have seen! It is important to make sure you are seen before the rest of your competitiors and expanding your online exposure as much as possible. With shoppers becoming less brand loyal online and opting for retailers that can offer the smoothest service and best delivery options, it’s more important than ever to plan out and anticipate customer journey from the very beginning and getting your products out there.
The beauty of being online is that there are many ways you can market and advertise your product to your audience. Things like Google Ads, Social Media campaigns and Guest posts can all help to gain the all important exposure before the crowds, or clicks rush in.
Amazon Prime Day
Amazon Prime Day is taking place as we speak, so although you might be prepared in terms of the stock, if you’re a seller in this space, there are still a few marketing tactics you can use to boost sales.
One of the best ways to encourage purchases is to educate your customers and provide tips around shopping for the two-day extravaganza. Many customers are not aware that they can create personalised deal updates on Amazon – they simply go onto the Prime Day 2022 page and create deal updates for the items they want to follow on there.
On top of summer, sales are bound to be better when this annual event rolls around at the same time for sellers. One of the most common complaints from stockists is having to manually look through full lists of orders to determine what’s on back order and what stock availability looks like. Having somewhere to digitally store this information and create a centralised list can really help with prioritising inventory levels. Here’s where tech, once again, can literally save the day!
Christmas in July!
One of the scary thoughts of peak season for many online retailers is the reminder that Christmas prep needs to start as early as July in order to keep up with an influx of sales. This is almost always a less daunting thought when there is a streamlined fulfilment process in place.
Many retailers opt for an Order Management System , allowing for the continuous tracking and active monitoring of purchases and inventory levels. This ensures the fulfilment process runs smoothly and in turn, so does the customer journey. Not only does this allow you to process orders faster during the busiest periods, but it also removes the risk of the sometimes costly human admin errors that can come naturally when there’s high demand.
Opening up conversations around Christmas can also be helpful, especially if you have larger recurring customers and contracts. Discussing the peak season allows you to plot and plan, formulating your distribution strategy ahead of schedule.
This, along with having the right tech in place for when one of the busiest periods of the year hits, allows you to streamline orders and reduce errors. Most importantly, tech enables you to maximise the opportunity that surrounds this peak period, so you don’t end up with dead stock or the inability to fulfil orders.
Summer sales strategy
Summer is in full swing, and things are already hotting up for many online retailers. Consider packaging up products with summer in mind when thinking about your strategy plan. Certain products such as sunglasses, fans and sportswear, naturally seem more appealing in the hotter months. Put these particular items at the front and centre of your marketing efforts and across your website. It can help to list items under certain themes such as summer, much like Amazon does when it comes to peak periods.
Thinking about your customer journey is also key throughout the summer months. Shopping experiences should be hassle-free and so should getting in touch with retailers. Research suggests that 40% of survey respondents said that they are happy to be contacted by chatbots when seeking help online. Deploying a chatbot strategy could be key to maximising your time when it comes to responding to common questions, where customers are also looking for efficiency so they can enjoy the great outdoors!
Following this, it’s the picking, packing and shipping processes involved in summer fulfilment that should be handled with care. Technologies available such as order management software, ensures users are alerted in real-time when a new order comes in and, information will automatically be sent to warehouse operatives – allowing them to pick and pack the order as quickly and as accurately as possible.
Black Friday
Black Friday, also known as Cyber Week, is one of the most anticipated sales periods for online retailers. Having your ecommerce store set up for an influx of sales this November should be a top priority that you’re already starting to think about.
One of the things that is helpful to do early on, is getting as many customer reviews and testimonials on site by the time this busy period rolls around. Purchase decisions are often made by reading through other user experiences. Customers have lots of sites to choose from when it comes to Black Friday sales and this is a great way to educate them and support them with purchase decisions.
Another top tip is to always have a range of payment methods available on site, so that you can reach a wider range of people when it comes to potential sales. You should also have strong delivery options and an easy returns policy, so that customers can purchase with ease.
Implementing a multi-courier strategy, rather than working with a sole courier will allow eCommerce businesses to offer more flexibility and options. Using more than one dedicated courier will also help to keep costs down.
If you opt to implement an order management system with pre-built courier integrations, then working with multiple couriers won’t even add to your admin burden. These pre-built integrations seamlessly connect with all the data within your platform, allowing it to automatically select the best courier for the job, based on rules you define (delivery date, product value, delivery location etc.)
Post-Covid service levels in peak seasons
Covid-19 had big impacts on order management, fulfilment and delivery processes across the world but now customers are no longer accepting Covid-19 as an excuse for late delivery. Poor customer service and a general lack of efficiency in the order process are not so widely tolerated. Post-Covid-19, shoppers are now spending less online but demanding better service when they do. According to a new study, two-thirds said they had noticed an increase in customer service problems at point of purchase and/or delivery since the pandemic began.
Peak sale periods are a real test on how effective a retailer’s order management and warehouse management systems are in meeting the high demands of customers. This is something that is crucial for retailers to get right, with 63% of customers stating poor delivery would stop them returning to a company.
Implementing technology such as a consolidated order management system can help retailers handle an increase in order demand, whether that’s supporting warehouse employees, or customer service teams during seasonal peaks. A sound order management system provides real-time data and displays achievable KPI’s, therefore reducing any errors and miscommunication in times where demand is high and retailers have to act quickly.
Take a look at our 5 tips that are sure to help grow the amount of traffic coming to your site and elevate your blog to where you want it to be!
Content Marketing Research –
Starting with some quality content marketing research, that is relevant to the current market will be helpful to all aspects of your work. With so many tools readily available at our fingertips, doing some content marketing has never been more accessible. This type of research is all about what audience your content is aimed at, and if this is relevant to them. Tools like social media insights, Google Analytics, and the social media pages themselves are all extremely helpful in finding out more information about your audience. By doing this you will know if your content is aimed in the right direction and includes topics that will keep them interested and engaged.
Link Building –
Link building is a great way to naturally add content which will boost the value of the article and prove to readers the authenticity of the brand. There are many ways to insert links into your content. You can put other people’s links into your work and yours in theirs, known as a link exchange. This method of using links is a way to widen your exposure to different industries and platforms you would not usually reach. There are also do-follow and no-follow links which can work in a similar and effective way to boost your content. A do-follow link is wherever you decide to place that link, it will go back to your site, meaning that you build a stronger presence on search engines. Alternatively, a no-follow link is something that links to a page relevant to the article but does not count towards rankings and SERP’s.
Build a Relationship with Your Readers –
Building rapport with your readers is a great way to keep them interested. If you can accumulate a loyal audience base who are genuinely interested in your work, they can ultimately be the key to help promote your work and elevate it to the next level. By giving your audience things like polls and surveys to complete will give you a better understanding of what they are looking for. Listening to their feedback will help you enhance and develop your work for success in the future. You can also try and create off-site relationships with other bloggers and businesses, through channels like social media.
Share Your Blog on Social Media –
Being in 2022, we are at an all-time high on social media, so why not use this to help you? Sharing your blogs and different kinds of work on social media is a great way to gain exposure quickly. Especially when using some of the tools previously mentioned, like strong backlinks and content marketing research. Simple things like sharing articles that interest you and using relevant hashtags can also be a big factor in promoting your content. Try and take some time to engage in other competitiors work and social media and share theirs too – they are then more than likely to return the favour.
Guest post on blogs –
Guest posts and blogging are another a way to increase traffic to your content and place higher in the ranks. Guest posts are a beneficial exchange for those who are supplying either the article or the site. It is a great way to introduce new content to your existing blog, or if you are supplying the article then it is very effective for expanding your exposure and reaching new audiences. Doing this will validate the nature of your content and give you authority across your industry. If you need help to find sites which allow guest posts, there are many platforms like AI Guest Posts that have lots of brand sites to choose from. There is usually a good range of coverage across different industries and regions, so you are sure to find something which suits your content.
One of the ways to promote your personal or corporate brands is through guest blogging, also known as guest posting. This is a content marketing tactic that involves writing and publishing articles for other websites. Although personal blogging has been around for quite some time, guest blogging is a method which has become progressively more popular to expand a business’s reach and to generate more traffic to their site. It is common for guest bloggers to write on similar blogs to their industry to be relevant and more effective. It can now be seen as a necessary tool in giving opportunities to engage a new, fresh audience and enhance social media presence.
With many aspects in life now taking a strong digital turn, online presence for businesses has never been more important. You must be seen to be heard. With guest blogging allowing you to reach your desired audiences and build on your exposure across new fields, it is important to show that you are providing a credible source for your audience.
The aim of guest blogging is to direct traffic back to your site, it is an effective way to both raise awareness and build authority within your niche. You can do this by improving that all-important SEO. SEO or ‘search engine optimizer’ is the processes used to organically improve the visibility of your sites when someone searches for it. An essential factor of SEO that can be included in your article are quality backlinks. Including different types of links that can be naturally added into your content will boost the value of the article and prove to readers that your article is genuine. If you are struggling to create quality backlinks there are many sites which can help you understand about links and help generate them such as: Semrush and Moz. One tip to make this successful is to keep them up to date with current issues and good links that are natural and come from high quality, relevant sites.
By creating good SEO, this then coincides with a positive effect to the domain authority of your site too. The more quality content that is published by your brand, the more its audience will trust your site and remain interested. As a result of these key guest blogging features, your name and business will become more established to its relevant audience, making you reputable to others and possibly develop great relationships with contacts in your industry.
Guest blogging is a mutually beneficial exchange between the writer of the article, who gains exposure, but also to the site publishing the article. It enables fresh new content brought into their site, keeping their readers engaged with a constant stream of new content available. The first step in guest blogging is to choose the best site that is going to work for you, taking into consideration the target audience of the site and research so you know exactly what their niche is. Analyse any posting guidelines to ensure they match with what you are looking for and likewise, they will accept your content to match their brand. Platforms like AI Guest Posts are a good way of finding sites which welcome posts and they have lots of brand sites to choose from, covering a range of industries so you are sure to find something which suits your content. These types of exchanges are now something which is working for people across all fields, helping to navigate through different realms of business, one post at a time.
I’m sure you will have heard many a time that ‘content is king’! It really is when it comes to attracting visitors to your website. If your site does not contain a blog consider adding this in, the more content your site has the more content available for Google (and other search engines) to index. Your written content should be relevant to your target audience, factual and interesting and ideally articles should be 500 words minimum (for Google indexing purposes). Ensure you are consistent and realistic with the number of pieces you can add to your blog, if one-piece a week is manageable be consistent, post every week.
2. Monitor page speed
Regularly check your various web pages to ensure they are not slow in loading. If any pages on your site are slow to load to a user, you are likely to lose that that visitor and you have an increased chance of them not returning. The faster the page loads, the better!
3. Ensure your webpage is mobile responsive
Today for many websites more visitors reach them via mobile than via a desktop computer or laptop. Ensure that each page loads correctly and can be easily read on a mobile, otherwise users will leave and quite likely not return.
4. Utilise social media
Having a social media page on relevant platforms is important for many businesses. It’s a great place to share your content, details of your products and services and pick up more customers when searching for your firm or services on Google or other search engines. Ensure your social media pages are populated and up to date with things like opening times, your web address, contact details etc. Its also a great place to engage with your customers. On Facebook for example customers can review and recommend your business, encourage your customers to do just that.
5. Link Building, via guest posts
Link Building plays an important role in driving organic traffic via search engines. When you write a piece share it with third parties and be sure to link back to your website, this may be your home page or a specific page within your website. There are a number of businesses that will share your content containing your links on their sites. AI Guest Posts charges a small fee to share your content across a portfolio of 12 brand websites, with prices starting from just £70. Link building is considered by many to be a major part of their marketing strategy.
6. Send newsletters
If you have a database of customers for whom you have an email account, ask them if they would like to opt-in to receive your regular newsletter. If they are engaged in your products and services, it is likely they will be happy to opt-in. Email newsletters are a great way to engage with your customers to detail any changes in your services or offering (perhaps a new website with new functions or any major change in service such as free postage on orders over £50), with offers to entice them back to you or perhaps to gain their feedback on your service.
