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| Office hours: Monday-Friday 8:30am - 5:30pm
| Email | Office hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am - 5:30pm
Download our guide and take some simple, practical steps towards improving your digital marketing in your lunch hour.
Includes tips on Google My Business, paid search, competitor research, LinkedIn and mobile that anyone can implement.
Got your sandwich? Start reading.
It’s Friday afternoon, so make yourself a cup of tea and Google yourself- and your company.
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.)
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.
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?
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.
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:
(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.
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.
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.
Contact us to book your place or read the 2016 Broken Report.
Google is now your home page and just like your website your Google search engine results page it needs investment, specifically to ensure that when people are searching for your brand term they get an experience as well managed as walking into your companies head office reception. Here are 5 things you can do within a week to improve your customers search experience:
A well managed AdWords campaign for your branded search terms is akin to having good receptionist who will guide visitors to what they are looking for.
If you do a brand search and a box appears on the right with a question under it “Are you the business owner?” click it! And claim your Google My Business, this will help customers find your business online and in the real world as well as ensuring your business has influence over another part of the SERP for your brand.
Upload presentations to it to your Slideshare account. Make sure the content is good so people download and share. Google tends to rank SlideShare links highly for branded search terms.
1: The main search result
2: Sitelinks
Google uses an algorithm to automatically select site links it thinks will be helpful to your customers, but it sometimes gets it wrong and when it does you can demote Sitelinks so Google won’t show them.
Google typically ranks well managed Twitter accounts highly for branded search terms.
This isn’t possible for some companies because Wikipedia has a policy of only including articles that are ‘notable’. But if your company does qualify you may seen an uplift in your branded SEO because of a backlink on your brand search term from Wikipedia.
Ready to find out more? Please call on 01189 001920.
Every organisation is different, this is a generic list designed to provide insight on the sort of activities marketing should be providing to generate qualified sales leads.
Please click here for your free printable Marketing Activities Checklist.
Respond to social media: Use a social media monitoring tool (we use Act-On’s Prospecting tool) to place alerts for our brand, our competitors brands and keywords about our offerings. It’s simple, help people find the information they are looking for and some of them will turn into sales leads.
Respond to brand advocates: When a client talks about our brand respond, it makes them feel good, us feel good and builds trust with potential clients.
Follow your customers and promote their success on social.
Don’t use automated tweets: It’s faux, be authentic.
Post upwards of six tweets a day, two Facebook and three LinkedIn responses/shares/updates.
Post at least one blog/case study/white paper per week, but if there is nothing to write about we don’t write a substandard idea just to meet a target.
Summary report on lead generation from marketing blogs, case studies, white papers and social media. The Marketing team will need Marketing Automation software to do this.
Detailed report on lead generation from marketing blogs, case studies, white papers and social media. The Marketing team will need Marketing Automation software to do this.
Attend networking events – not everything happens online! Aim to speak at one event every three months as a minimum. Record the talk and put it on YouTube and SlideShare. This will improve your customers search experience.
Review marketing strategy and amend as requited.
Set goals for next quarter, ensure goals are matched to capability to deliver, adjust goals or capability if there is a disparity.
Implement a marketing automation solution.
Align skills of marketing department with needs of business.
Ready to find out more? Please call on 01189 001920.
Reading Office
The Curious Lounge,
Pinnacle Building,
20 Tudor Road,
Reading,
RG1 1NH
0118 322 4395
reading@sharpahead.com
Manchester Office
CORE,
Brown Street,
Manchester,
M2 1DH
Oxford Office
Oxford Centre for Innovation,
New Road,
Oxford,
OX1 1BY
01865 479 625
oxford@sharpahead.com
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