Get Started with Pinterest for Business

Pinterest

What is it?

Pinterest allows you to create  visual ‘mood boards’ to illustrate products, services and personality. You can ‘pin’ pictures onto ‘boards’ to demonstrate what you do so if you are a retailer this is a good medium for you to interest other people. Blogs, videos, tutorials, infographics, webpages, coupon codes, recommended books, case studies and competitions can be ‘pinned’ for others to discover and re-pin. A ‘pin it to win it’ is a great way to get others to share your pins and get entered into a draw.

How to Pin

1. Pin the most visually interesting aspect of what you want to share.
2. Pin visual content you may have posted on another platform which was received well.
3. Re-pin ideas that inspire you.
4. Create different boards for projects that interest you.

How to Get Followed

1. People will find you through Pinterest’s search, where it is all about ‘keywords’.
2. With that in mind, make sure your descriptions have keywords to guarantee more view, likes and re-pins.
3. If you have a shop you can create a board to show customers how to ‘get the latest look’, ‘10 must haves for Spring’, ‘Easter Treats’ and other themes to attract interest.
4. Add prices and location to drive traffic to your store. Adding a price will ensure your products feature on the Pinterest ‘gifts’ page which is a valuable search tool.

Etiquette

You need a balance of original and curated content which is relevant. For original content you can use www.picmonkey.com to create teaser pins to encourage sharing and www.istockphoto.com for royalty free images.

Add your own picture caption which has one of the following:  a call to action, keywords, link to your website or price.

If you are curating other people’s content, remember to credit them as the source and be aware of copyright infringement.

Getting Started

1. Go to www.pinterest.com and set up a business account.
2. Remember to use keywords in your biography, board titles and captions to get found.
3. Once set up make a note of your URL so you can let others know how to connect with you  eg. http://www.pinterest.com/gmppr/
4. Install the pin button on your browser bar so you can pin useful pages you find online during your day.
5. Ensure the pin button is on all your website pages so others can do the same. Happy Pinning!

Use Instagram to engage with customers

In this article we show you how to create an engaging Instagram contest to highlight your business, product or service for a Christmas campaign.

1. Plan your goals to keep you focused. Do you want more followers, a certain number of @mentions of your Instagram ‘handle’ or a hashtag stream with lots of photo followers?
2. Test your contest and hashtag and make sure there are no other similar ones already running. Use sites like Iconosquare and search similar hashtags like #contest #win and #photocontest on Instagram to make sure yours will stand out.
3. Define your market and choose an angle which will resonate with customers.
4. Do you want a ‘like to win’, hashtag or email-gated contest to get the best results?
5. Choose a theme and contest hashtag and decide on a prize to motivate your audience to participate in your contest.  Ideally it should tie in with your marketing – so if you are promoting free Christmas parking in Tunbridge Wells, for example, theme your contest, hashtag and prizes to what shoppers will recognise and like to win.
6. Decide whether your contest will be on just Instagram or on multiple social platforms to increase your reach exponentially.
7. Do you need a third-party app or will you keep track of your metrics yourself? Check out  management platform such as: Votigo, Piqora or Wishpond.
8. Set your budget and agree how many winners you want, how the prizes will be delivered and your terms and conditions.
9. Now you can build your contest! Give it a short, snappy title and create your visuals for success! Photographs and videos can be used. Have fun and good luck with your contest!

Saving the Date Pays Dividends

This is an earlier blog about attending exhibitions which is just as relevant in 2015!

Gabrielle Argent

Exhibitions are good opportunities to extend your contact book and gather ideas for the year ahead. As an organiser, the success is in the detail and finding suppliers who have something interesting to say. I have always considered exhibitions to be an excellent PR springboard as there are so many tactics available for making a splash. With or without a new product, the spotlight is on your company at a trade or consumer show and your audience wants to be wowed by you – much like a theatre performance. You need to deliver your lines and polish your act to achieve a good review. So why do companies spend money on exhibiting then amount to very little on stage? Show guides, media relations and launch activity build the buzz about your brand. Not an exhaustive list but an essential scaffold of tick boxes to get customers aware. Exhibitions are such…

View original post 106 more words

Content is King

Creating valuable content is the key to moving customers along in their decision process to buy what you are selling.

A content-based SEO strategy will mean optimising blogs, landing pages and website copy which attracts quality leads and boosts search rankings.

How many businesses have a clear picture of who their customers are when posting on social media channels? Creating Buyer Personas is really just another way of identifying target customer groups but it helps to visualise them when creating content.  So you have your segmented groups, now map your content according to where they are in the sales cycle. To create awareness, try blog posts and social media updates. Knowing which social media platforms are most successful in driving qualified leads to your website is a great time saver.

You may have Twitter driving 70% of your social media traffic, but if you know that Linkedin visitors are converting into leads at a higher rate than your Twitter traffic you can adjust your strategy;  Linkedin for lead generation and Twitter for reach and content engagement.

If posting on a certain network gets no visits or conversions, it’s a waste of time as your audience is not there.

10 Top tips for great content

1.       Industry events

2.       Social conversations

3.       Experts in the field or different job functions

4.       Video content

5.       A film or book – link the story to your message

6.       Original research

7.       Topical issues

8.       Personal health

9.       How to guides

10.     Inspirational articles, quotes, people

For more information about creating a content strategy email gabrielle@gmppr.com  http://www.gmppr.com

Marketing our Towns – An exercise in collaboration

Why would marketing a town be different to any other product? The skillset is the same. So which towns are getting it right and how can others benefit?

Sevenoaks benefits from its focus on community and innovation of ideas. The Sevenoaks Town Partnership is proving that collaborative success between Councils and local businesses can attract practical and financial support for joint ventures to benefit the whole community. This summer a vintage double decker bus will increase footfall to all areas of the town by transporting arriving visitors at the rail station to key attractions and shops. Advertising screens around the town will communicate the what’s on of events and boost awareness and attendance. 

These ideas and the focal point of a two week summer festival  and Business Show give a good framework  for businesses of all sizes to showcase their services and products.

Effective teamwork is key to business growth. Businesses which collaborate to ‘fix’ a shared issue can draw on each other’s skills to push retail projects forward. With collaboration tools in place, focused teams with different strengths such as marketing, sales or finance create a ‘virtual project room’ where footfall generating ideas can be put into action.

Collaboration opens the window to ideas and viewpoints. In Tunbridge Wells a new retailers’ forum is gathering momentum, and newcomers are welcome. With regular meetings  ideas, enthusiasm and determination will improve the town’s prosperity and resident community. Did you realize there are six festivals in Tunbridge Wells alone this year? Food, music and entertainment festivals are tremendously important for bringing in visitors but they are great fun for residents too and retailers who make the most of the calendar of events will be the winners. Sharing intellectual resources benefits everyone.

gabrielle@gmppr.com     http://www.gmppr.com

 

Saving the Date Pays Dividends

Exhibitions are good opportunities to extend your contact book and gather ideas for the year ahead. As an organiser, the success is in the detail and finding suppliers who have something interesting to say. I have always considered exhibitions to be an excellent PR springboard as there are so many tactics available for making a splash. With or without a new product, the spotlight is on your company at a trade or consumer show and your audience wants to be wowed by you – much like a theatre performance. You need to deliver your lines and polish your act to achieve a good review. So why do companies spend money on exhibiting then amount to very little on stage? Show guides, media relations and launch activity build the buzz about your brand. Not an exhaustive list but an essential scaffold of tick boxes to get customers aware. Exhibitions are such valuable centres of resource to gather research about competitors too. If you are unaware of your competitors and their strengths and weaknesses how do you know that your services or products deliver? Understanding the challenges and opportunities faced by a client provides insight and ‘tone’ to communicate effectively and can give you a head start on winning new business. Taking advantage of the free training seminars at exhibitions is another plus for saving the date of a forthcoming event. Networking is the new rock n’ roll and whether you love it or hate it, getting out of your chair and working the room will pay dividends.

Marketing to Generation Y

Does your brand stand up to the scrutiny and scepticism of the audience known by marketers as the Millennials? This Generation Y group were born between early 1980s up to the early 2000s, including those still at secondary school up to their early 30s. What makes this group important to retailers and brand owners is their commonality of habits, preferences and values. They are the new generation of influential customers who are shaping our marketing world.
According to research conducted by Ashridge Business School and the Institute of Leadership and MGT, Millennials are academically adept with high expectations for their careers, and are motivated by money and status. Unlike their parents they don’t subscribe to the culture of working ‘long hours’. They value a ‘work life balance’ which puts them in control of their lives. Having grown up in the digital world they can multitask in and out of the online world during the working day, combining personal and business tasks simultaneously. At home they are likely to multi-task between social networking sites, sending emails and watching TV. They are the tech savvy smart phone generation who prefer media channels for entertainment and news gathering above traditional mass market media.
Having grown up in a climate of austerity and recession, their attitudes are less favourable towards the future. They may worry and have a negative view, having witnessed hardship in their formative years. The pressures and stress of getting into a good school or University affect a growing number of Millennials. Could this perhaps account for the apparent rise in stress-related health disorders and demand for anti-depressants amongst this group?
Feel good brands which engage in personalised marketing, such as Cadbury, are seeing their investment paying off as customers seek ‘buy in’ to the magical place of ‘Joyville’.
A study by Woot Media, Generation Y and Brand Loyalty, found that amongst 16-34 year olds their top 10 brands are Cadbury, Amazon, Pringles, Walkers, Heinz, Google, Coca-Cola, Galaxy, Kellogg’s and Facebook.
Marketing to this group of consumers is not an easy task. They see through the hype so keep it authentic and resonate with their niche preferences. Be different, quirky and care about what they need. It’s not just about the money! (Adapted from an article in The Marketer Magazine, August 2013)
Do feel free to contact me on https://www.facebook.com/GMPPRandMarketing and share your views on this topic. You can also Tweet me @gabystapleton and email me: gabrielle@gmppr.com http://www.gmppr.com

Audit your marketing to succeed

Is the responsibility of social media weighing you down? If, like me, you struggle with enough time in the day, it might be a good move to audit your marketing to locate those ‘black holes’ of missing minutes.
A marketing ‘audit’ will get you on the right track and provide evidence for billing. The audit is the blueprint from which objectives, strategy and tactics for a marketing plan emanate. Where on the time sheet does the plan go AWOL? Online and offline marketing tools should be integrated into one cohesive plan and like any sensible map, you will be able to track your starting point, progress and arrival with key performance indicators and SMART objectives along the way. Achievement is the most useful ammunition for negotiating additional staff time and financial resource so you owe it to yourself to track your success.
Let your marketing audit dictate the ‘must have’ communication tools you need and boot out the time wasters. Schedule achievable goals in your plan and make use of time saving features such as bulk scheduling to ‘buy time’ for creative thought and topical interaction. Anyone remember those luxuries?