Could a Mechanic Use Snapchat Marketing?

Could a Northern Ireland mechanic use Snapchat marketing?

Last week, as I sat in my car awaiting the dreaded MOT test early on a Thursday morning, my mind started to wander.

All around me cars sat in three bays waiting to be tested and inside each was an owner worried about their car failing, more trips to the mechanics and more expenses. This happens 9-5 every weekday, every month, every year.

This seemed like the perfect potential customer group for any mechanic in the nearby area.

Can you imagine if a mechanic was allowed, and able to give up his or her time, to stand on the other side of the MOT test centre and talk to the unfortunate owners of cars that had just failed?

It would be the perfect opportunity to sell a solution to a very real and immediate problem.

Targeted Snapchat Geo-Filters

With Snapchat geo-filters that imaginary scenario is a very real possibility.

Mechanics now have the opportunity to target the small area around, and including, any MOT test centre in the country.

As car owners are sitting in bays waiting their turn they could open Snapchat, swipe across the various filters, and see something like below:

This Snapchat filter promotes “Gary’s Garage”, a fictional mechanics on the Lisburn Road in Belfast, and lets everyone at the test centre know about his “A+ MOT Results”.

Easy!

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This same type of thinking could be applied to all sorts of businesses.  

Where are the opportunities?

Also, just remember, if you’re making Snapchat filters for business you can’t include phone numbers or email addresses so get creative when targeting your customers!

If you want to get started on your own just download the Counter Digital “Snapchat for Business” free e-book here!

Great Halloween Marketing Campaigns

Marketing is a constant, year round, process but a holiday like Halloween offers some great opportunities to have a bit more fun than usual.

Consumers will generally accept something slightly different if it fits in with the overall theme of Halloween so why not try something new?

To get the cogs turning we took a look at what some of the biggest brands have done over the last few years.

Pop Culture Vulture!

In 2013 Tide, the American detergent brand, decided to release a series of Vine clips spoofing new and classic Halloween films. In the first of the series we see a Tide bottle slowly being drenched in blood at prom in a direct reference to Carrie.

It might seem strange but it’s just a bit of fun and the takeaway here could be to use classic Halloween movies with your own business.

Since Vine is nowhere near as popular now, why not create some Snapchat stories in a similar vain?

Tell Me Why?

A few years ago Topshop launched a “Trick or Tweet” campaign to promote a new Halloween fashion collection.

The campaign allowed customers to tweet Topshop their best Halloween outfits and the best tweet each day won a gift card worth £100! Not bad for just a tweet or two!

Not every business can afford to giveaway £100 per day during even the smallest of campaigns but have a think about what’s in it for your customer to engage with you on social media.

Why would or should they get in touch?

Giving Value

Tesco’s 2015 Halloween “Spookermarket” campaign was a good example of keeping things light-hearted and fun at this time of year. The main video highlights the power of video content whilst the others show just how useful it can be to provide useful tips in your industry or sector.

What tips and tricks can you offer in your industry? If they don’t match up perfectly with Halloween why not open it up to the entire Autumn season?

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Let us know what you come up with this Halloween!

Getting Started and How to Write Title Tags and Meta Descriptions for SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO for short) can seem like a minefield for small or medium sized businesses without proper resource but with just a few changes you can set your website on the right path.

Title tags and meta descriptions refer to the information you assign to each page on your site that then appears on a Google search results page. In the below image you’ll see the title tag as purple clickable text (normally blue before clicking) and the meta description as light grey text.

Both page elements are important for two key reasons. First, they indicate to Google, via keywords, what exactly each page is about and secondly, if they’re interesting enough, they’ll encourage Google searchers to click on your page rather than someone else’s.

Title Tags

Title tags are one of the most important on-page SEO elements for your website because search engines actively crawl them and because online searchers will see them in results pages.

As a result you can find thousands of blogs out there on how to craft the best possible tags but we’re going to keep things simple in a bid to get you moving.

When writing unique title tags for each of your web pages push your most important keywords to the front (i.e. first word and on), make it relevant and readable and try to stick to under 60 characters.

There is constant debate, particularly this year, on optimum character length so if you really want to squeeze as much as possible out of Google our recommendation would be to test various lengths.

Meta Descriptions

The importance of great meta descriptions is slightly more debatable.

According to Google, although they could be lying, meta descriptions aren’t crawled which means search engines won’t actively penalize you for having rubbish descriptions.

However, because meta descriptions are so prominent in search results (look at the image above) some SEOs claim they are extremely important because great descriptions could encourage more clicks, traffic to your site and so on.

Our advice, as always, would be to test things and see what works for your site.

When writing your descriptions try to aim for a character length between 100-160 and think of it, quite literally, as a tiny description of that unique page. Start with the most important information and work your way onwards from there.

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SEO can seem extremely complicated, and with massive websites it definitely can be, but if you’re a smaller sized business wondering how to get started hopefully this will help.

Give it a go, get stuck in and learn from your mistakes!

Why Your Business Needs Analytics

Digital marketing is full of numbers, data and insights and for some businesses this can be confusing but it shouldn’t be the case.

The clamour for numbers is probably the result of a combination of factors.

For years businesses had very little data available when using traditional media and advertising (print, radio etc.) in the decades that preceded online marketing. Add this to the new fancy bells and whistles of social media and budgets that are constantly being tightened and you’ll soon realise why businesses now want to measure everything.

Measuring tactics and performance can only be a good thing but, if you’re new to this, ease yourself in to the process by changing your thinking first.

Inform Decision Making

To really understand the benefit of all these numbers you need to realise that they are primarily there to inform your decision-making.

Every time you run a campaign and measure the results you take a step closer to better performance in the future with the right thinking.

With Facebook advertising insights you can test which sex, age-group or location gets better results amongst countless other options.

Email marketing figures give you the chance to gauge what type of content and message your mailing list audience actually wants to see and Google Analytics can help you understand your website user behaviour in a bid to increase conversions and more.

Start Now

If this all sounds new and complicated don’t worry. Start to collect data and measure your online performance from today.

If you have a Facebook business page check out the insights.

If you use an email marketing platform take a look at your open rates, click through rates and other factors and if you haven’t got Google Analytics set-up on your website do it now with the help of our handy guide here.

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Good luck and get measuring!

What is an Infographic?

A few years ago infographics were all the rage in the digital marketing world. Everybody wanted to jump on the bandwagon although that trend has slowed down with the massive rise of video content.

Despite that infographics can still be a handy little piece of content to get your message across so if you’re wondering what exactly they are, you’re in the right place!

What is an Infographic?

Essentially an infographic does what it says on the tin – it’s a graphic that represents data (with a massive focus on numbers) via images. It’s that simple!

Keep your own business in mind when looking at the examples below.

What story could you tell with a great infographic?

Focus on Design

IDV Solutions, a software company, provide a perfectly designed overview of UFO signings in the USA. It might seem like a strange topic but we appreciate the depth of this content and the cool colour scheme.

Making a Point

Heng-Chun Liow, a graphic designer, keeps things simple and start with this “Make your choices. It is your life” campaign.

This could be perfect inspiration for a public health body, an organic food producer or anyone else trying to encourage definitive messages.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

We’re no strangers to Game of Thrones here in Northern Ireland so everyone should be able to appreciate The Washington Post’s classic attempt to jump on the bandwagon with this “Valar Morghulis” infographic – a graphical representation of every death in the show.

This was released just as season six started and generated great traffic for The Post. Even the big boys tie in to pop culture for quick wins so why shouldn’t we?

If you do decide to use an infographic for your marketing try to make it unique, interesting and as creative as possible!

Social Media for Northern Ireland Businesses

Social media, in all its various shapes and sizes, has been around for at least a decade now but some Northern Ireland businesses still struggle to grasp the potential of these channels.

If this feels like you, don’t worry! It’s never too late to start and the reality is that the Internet, and subsequently social media, is still in its infancy so you haven’t missed the party.

Here we’ll briefly explain some of the positives of using social media and what it could mean for your business.

Exposure on a Budget

Everyone tries to pit digital media against traditional (local newspapers, leaflets etc.) but the reality is there is a time and a place for everything.

The one massive advantage social media has is scale. With channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat you can easily and quickly spread your message throughout Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and Ireland and further afield if you want!

With £5, £10, £20 and so on you can access thousands of people AND you can target key demographics so you get to stretch that small business budget even further.

What’s not to like?

Opportunity

Nowadays your business is no longer confined to the high street or neighborhood you operate in.

If you use channels like Twitter and Instagram you can reach literally anyone with the right type of searching and intelligent use of hashtags.

Just imagine you sold men’s football boots and wanted to get your name out there but didn’t have much of a budget. Check out the image below! Twitter is free to download and use, and all the search cost was time, effort and thought!

View fullsize

Connection

Years ago many small businesses said they would have jumped at the chance to have the opportunity to connect with so many potential customers, to listen to their opinions and to constantly test things.

With social media we have all these options just waiting to be used yet so many businesses out there either ignore the opportunities, ignore their customers or both!

Each comment on social media from a customer, or potential customer, should be seen as an opportunity to reinforce a connection. Even an initially bad comment can turn into a PR coup with the right response.

On top of that channels like Snapchat and Instagram, with their “story” features, allows businesses the opportunity to give customers a real insight behind the scenes. Check out Irish fresh fruit and veg providers Nudie Foods (nudiefoods) for a great example of how to do it right.

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Are you using social media for your business? If not, why not?

Back to School Marketing Ideas!

The end of the summer can be a depressing time. The Northern Ireland summer has been typically average, holidays have come and gone and months of school and work are just around the corner again.

However, from a business and marketing perspective September is a great time of year! Everyone is back, ready to do business and it’s “back to school” season meaning plenty of new marketing opportunities.

We take a look at what some of the biggest brands are doing. Hopefully it’ll get your creative juices flowing!

One: Consistency with Easons

Easons keep things simple with their “SORTED” 10% off campaign. 

There’s nothing worse than the mad dash to get everything organised the day before which is why Easons have been gently pushing this message since August 4th to catch the early birds.

The stationary stalwarts also provide a lesson for consistency as their social images match with their website content. Consistency is an easily achievable tactic that ensures your priority message, whatever time of the year, remains just that.

Two: Asda Go Emotional

Could “back to school” campaigns become the new Christmas ads?

Uploaded by The Drum / Hosting on 2016-08-02.

It’s unlikely but Asda have decided to go for polish, high quality drama and emotion in this years TV ad. It works for them but smaller businesses might dismiss this type of campaign as something for a massive budget. Not true!

If you sell stationary, uniforms or some other school necessity why not interview kids and ask them what they love about school? Edit these clips together and then post the video on your social channels and website to get people into the “back to school” mindset.

If you don’t want to involve children, ask the mums and dads about their favorite memories of school instead.

Job done!

Three: Tesco Tips!

A quick search on Google will reveal that plenty of parents across Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK are searching for tips on topics like “How to get to school on time” and “school lunch ideas”.

Tesco are well aware of this, which is why “Back to School Tips” features as one of their key digital marketing pillars within their school section online right now.

Think about the questions your back to school customers might ask and then answer them! This can be via videos, blogs, images or whatever else you can think of.

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If this has helped, let us know!

How to Add Multiple Accounts on Twitter

Whether you’re a business owner, digital marketer, blogger or something completely left field you might get to a point where you have more than one Twitter account to take care of.

Luckily Twitter has included a handy little feature on their mobile app to help you switch seamlessly between the various accounts.

To get started you’ll have to add another account and here, we’ll give you a quick guide on how to do that.

First, open the Twitter app on your smartphone, go to the profile page and click on the little two-person icon in the upper right-hand corner. You should see a screen similar to the one below pop up. 

Next, click on “More Options” to see the following screen.

Here you might decide to “Create a New Account” but in this case we’re going to click on “Add an Existing Account” and see the next screen.

You’re almost there! Simply type in your other Twitter account details and hit “Log in” when you’re ready.

Have fun!

5 Ways to Use Snapchat Filters for Northern Ireland Businesses

Snapchat is now a massive social media channel, both globally and here in Northern Ireland, and with that attention comes the opportunity to get your business messages out in front of new eyes and ears.

One way to do this is by using Snapchat’s geofilters feature for your business. Filters can be seen within the app during the editing of photos or videos.

For a step-by-step guide on how to create your own Snapchat filters for business download our Snapchat for Business ebook. Right now we’re going to look at some examples to get your brain cogs turning!

One: Lunchtime Specials!

Many local cafes live and die by the customers in their immediate area including residents, workers and shoppers.

A local café could use a custom Snapchat filter, targeting only the streets around them, to notify people nearby about their weekday lunchtime specials.

How many people do you know who take sneaky selfies during work? You could be giving them ideas on where to eat at the same time!

Two: Snapchat Gigs

Northern Ireland pubs and bars are constantly hosting the best local musical talent the country has to offer but as a customer it can be hard to keep up-to-date with what’s happening, where and when.

It’s also clear, after one look at your Snapchat stories over the weekend, that use of the app rockets up during Friday and Saturday nights out.

Create a Snapchat filter telling people about the next big gig and target everyone who enters your bar from 9pm-1am on the busiest nights of the week!

Three: Changing Rooms

Massive brands like River Island and H&M have acknowledged changing room photography for years with social campaigns, competitions and hashtags so why don’t you?

Selfie culture has been around for years so why not use it to push your brand out even further? Target your shop, during specifically busy hours or days, and have your filter appear any time a customer uses Snapchat within your shop and changing rooms.

You could use this space to promote your brand logo, new incoming lines or the latest offers.

Four: Utilise Key Tourist Attractions

2.3 million tourists discovered Northern Ireland’s beauty and charm in 2015 and massive portions of them went directly to our biggest attractions. 850,000 visited the Giant’s Causeway, 622,000 went to Titanic Belfast and 465,000 went to the Ulster Museum.

If you have a product or service you’d think tourists would love you could target them in the midst of their journey around our country.

Five: That New Car Feeling!

Almost everyone takes a photo of their new car just after they’ve bought it. It’s human nature to boast or feel happy after such an important purchase and that makes it the perfect opportunity for car dealer’s to get their brand out there to a wider audience.

Create a custom filter with the garage logo, target your business and focus on the busiest day of the week to try it out.

How to Set-Up Google Analytics for your Business Website

The Internet, and digital marketing, is a data junkie’s dream nowadays as almost everything can be tracked, measured and improved upon. Businesses and marketers can now follow so much more of the consumer’s online journey towards a purchase and Google Analytics has a big part to play in this.

Google Analytics can help you identify any of number of details on your website including popular pages, underperforming content, user navigation dislikes, conversions and more.

If you haven’t got a Google Analytics account for your business follow the steps below to get started.

First, visit Google.co.uk/analytics and scroll down until you see “Google Analytics” and click “Get Started”. 

After that choose your Google account or create a new one and then follow each step until you see the screen below. Click “Sign Up” to move forward.

This next stage is where you will provide Google Analytics with various details including, most importantly, your website address. Fill in all necessary details and click “Get Tracking ID”.

You should now have your very own tracking ID code. This will be used by Google Analytics to collect information that you will then be able to analyse for business purposes.

If your comfortable, follow Google’s instructions to insert the code in the backend of your website. If not, talk to your web developer and they should be able to sort it out in 30 seconds flat!

After that you’re good to go and Google Analytics will begin to collect data on your website within 24 hours.

Good luck!