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January 12, 2023November 15, 2016 by Jennifer Esty

Digital Transformation Event 2016 – Oxford

By Jennifer Esty | November 15, 2016

We still have places available for our free digital transformation event in Oxford on November 24, 2016 from 6pm.

Join us for an evening with industry experts from Google, Act-On, and Sharp Ahead to:

Understand the digital transformation opportunities available for your business
See how paid search can quickly enhance your digital presence
Explore the impact marketing automation software has on efficiency
Hear first-hand how Oxford Innovation digitally transformed their organisation

(Not to mention networking, nibbles and drinks.)

Designed for B2B marketing and sales decision makers, this digital transformation event will take place in Oxford on Thursday November 24.

The event will begin at 6pm.

More about the digital transformation events speakers:

Hear directly from the experts at Google how digital marketing can quickly and effectively drive awareness, influence purchase consideration and increase sales.

Marketing Automation experts Act-On will take you through the new buyer’s journey, focusing on the stages of modern marketing and how to turn your customers into advocates for your products and brand. They provide top tips for content marketing, email marketing, lead nurturing, marketing automation and more.

Find out how Oxford Innovation achieved a 90% reduction in client acquisition costs, a 400% increase in qualified sales leads and are 110% ahead of target for sales.

We surveyed the digital presence of over 500 UK B2B companies. Based on this we think most B2B digital marketing in the UK is broken – that is, poorly done and hurting sales. Dr John Woods will present the survey findings along with quick fixes that B2B digital marketers need to know.

January 12, 2023March 24, 2016 by Jennifer Esty

Preparing for the Easter holiday: quick tips for B2B marketers

By Jennifer Esty | March 24, 2016

Easter weekend is nearly here, and you’re probably looking forward to a few days of hot cross buns and chocolate eggs, but who is looking after your marketing while you’re away?

If you have an agency helping you out, you might not be too worried. However if you’re looking after it on your own or with a small team, some of whom are also on holiday, there are a few things you can do to make sure all the hard work of the past few months isn’t compromised by a week away.

Using AdWords?

If you have Google AdWords campaigns running, download the Google AdWords app (not AdWords Express).

This handy app gives you top line campaign information including:

Stats
Bids and budgets
Real-time alerts and notifications
Call a Google expert
Act on suggestions to improve your campaigns

Schedule content

Not all of your potential customers will be on holiday, so don’t let your content go stale while you are away. You can schedule content for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. There are loads of tools you can use, including HootSuite, Sprout Social and TweetDeck. Check out this article by Capterra, complete with a handy comparison chart for more information.

Using Facebook?

With Facebook Pages Manager you can view and respond to comments and private messages from your phone (as well as see Page Insights) and the Facebook Adverts Manager allows you to edit your ads and budgets, get notifications of when ads are finishing and keep an eye on your spending.

Still send emails

Most email platforms will allow you to send emails scheduled for a specific time. Marketing automation platforms also allow you set up automatic email sends based on user behaviour. So you don’t need to stop your lead nurturing over the holidays or let potential leads go cold while you figure out what to do with all that leftover lamb (incidentally, the BBC do a nice list of recipes).

Think about your website

As with email most content management systems have an option to schedule content, so you don’t have to leave your Happy Easter message on your website until the 11^th of April. Nothing screams ‘I’ve gone on holiday and don’t care about you right now’ like outdated seasonal content. If your website CMS doesn’t have a schedule function, consider putting your best performing content on the homepage while you’re away, or at least don’t leave up information about an out of date event (or a picture of an Easter egg) during your break.

Check with your Sales team

Finally, just before you leave, make sure there is a plan in place to deal with inbound leads. If you have a small sales team who are also on holiday, make sure someone will be monitoring the group email address and you have an answer service in place so the phone doesn’t go unanswered.

Happy Easter!

January 12, 2023March 4, 2016 by Jennifer Esty

Google yourself and your company – It’s Friday afternoon!

By Jennifer Esty | March 4, 2016

It’s Friday afternoon, so make yourself a cup of tea and Google yourself- and your company.

Why?

Narcissism aside, it’s a good idea to find out how you and your company look to potential customers Googling you for the first time.

First, make sure you use an incognito window so you won’t see personalised results- a better simulation of what potential customers will see if they haven’t previously visited your website. (In most browsers, just click the top right hand menu and choose ‘New incognito window.)

What are you looking for?

Let’s start with you. Depending on how unique your name is, it might be more likely that a lead will Google your name plus your company. Try that- does your LinkedIn profile come up? If it doesn’t, update your profile immediately (this definitely counts as work in case anyone spots you) and make sure your most recent experience reflects the company you work for and the relevant responsibilities that a potential customer would be interested in.

Keeping in mind this can can sometimes signal to an employer that you’re looking for a new job (not to mention attracting unwanted attention from recruitment agents), consider warning your manager first and/or selecting No for ‘Notify your network’ on the right hand side of your profile page.

Now to Google your company.

Here’s a quick checklist:

1. How does your site rank for your branded search (i.e. searching your company name)?
2. Are any of your competitors running paid ads against the search?
3. Are sitelinks displayed? (Sitelinks are navigation links into specific parts of your site, i.e. your products or services.)
4. Can you see phone and address information?
5. Can you see your social media links?
6. Look at your My Google Business listing, has someone from your organisation claimed it? If yes, does it accurately reflect your business information, does it include photos of your business? Opening hours? Reviews?

What next?

If all looks in order, then congratulate yourself (or your marketing team) on a job well done and consider taking yourself off to the pub early.

If not, make it your priority on Monday morning to sort out the above. And as always, if you need help or expert advice, feel free to get in touch on 01189 485 766 or join us for one of our Digital Transformation events.

January 12, 2023February 27, 2016 by Jennifer Esty

What Google SERPs changes mean for your B2B company

By Jennifer Esty | February 27, 2016

The past few days have been busy ones for #serps, with digital marketers and search experts reviewing what is arguably the biggest change to Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) in years.

First, just in case you’ve been too busy to get into the details, a quick summary of the changes:

Up to 4 ads will now display at the top of Google search result pages
No more text ads on the right-hand column (note that other ad types are unaffected, for example product listings)
Up to 3 ads will now be displayed at the bottom of pages
The changes only affect desktop and tablet, mobile remains unaffected (for now)

So how these SERPs changes impact your paid ad campaigns?

The truth is no one knows for certain yet (except Google, who most certainly tested these changes to ensure commercial advantage).

A few things we do know:

For organisations bidding on highly competitive keywords, CPC (cost per click) is bound to go up.

That said, one of the reasons Google rolled this out was poor click through rates on right-hand text ads, so it’s likely if your ads were displaying over there, your campaign probably wasn’t optimal anyway.

But if you were previously happy to coast along on the right hand side with fewer click throughs but reasonable conversion, it is now imperative that you review and refine your paid search strategy, and quickly—just because it worked last week doesn’t mean it’s been working this week.

Another impact is that the changes might mean organic results for your keywords are pushed further down with a fourth paid ad appearing above any organic results.

That said, according to a Google spokesperson quoted in The SEM Post, this will only affect a small number of “highly commercial queries”. So for B2B companies with extended and complex sales cycles, this may have very little real impact—if only in the very short term.

So while the critical points for success will remain the same (high quality content, positive user experience, a focus on quality scores, and close monitoring of conversion rates), marketers ignore the changes at their own peril.

If there was ever a time to analyse and improve your paid search strategy, now is it.

Finally, keep an eye on more changes to come as something will no doubt replace the right-hand text only ads.

January 12, 2023February 14, 2016 by Jennifer Esty

Digital Transformation Events for B2B Companies

By Jennifer Esty | February 14, 2016

We still have places available for our free digital transformation event in Reading on June 9.

Join us for an evening with industry experts from Google, Act-On, and Sharp Ahead to:

Understand the digital transformation opportunities available for your business
See how paid search can quickly enhance your digital presence
Explore the impact marketing automation software has on efficiency
Hear first-hand how Oxford Innovation digitally transformed their organisation

(Not to mention networking, nibbles and drinks.)

Designed for marketing and sales decision makers, this digital transformation event will take place in Reading on June 9.

The event will begin at 6pm.

More about the digital transformation events speakers:

Hear directly from the experts at Google how digital marketing can quickly and effectively drive awareness, influence purchase consideration and increase sales.

Marketing Automation experts Act-On will take you through the new buyer’s journey, focusing on the stages of modern marketing and how to turn your customers into advocates for your products and brand. He will provide top tips for content marketing, email marketing, lead nurturing, marketing automation and more.

Find out how Oxford Innovation achieved a 90% reduction in client acquisition costs, a 400% increase in qualified sales leads and are 110% ahead of target for sales.

Digital Transformation Event 2016 – Oxford

More about the digital transformation events speakers:

Preparing for the Easter holiday: quick tips for B2B marketers

Using AdWords?

Schedule content

Using Facebook?

Still send emails

Think about your website

Check with your Sales team

Happy Easter!

Google yourself and your company – It’s Friday afternoon!

Why?

What are you looking for?

Now to Google your company.

What next?

What Google SERPs changes mean for your B2B company

So how these SERPs changes impact your paid ad campaigns?

Digital Transformation Events for B2B Companies

More about the digital transformation events speakers:

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