Category Archives: marketing

What is GDPR?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and refers to the legal framework that protects EU citizens from privacy and data breaches. The changes in this document are set to take place in the UK from 25 May 2018, and are arguably the most significant changes to  data privacy that have taken place yet.

And in case you’re wondering – the government has confirmed that the UK’s decision to leave the EU will not affect the commencement of the GDPR.

While not all these changes are going to be new to you, they are going to be taken more seriously if your business does not comply. And since we’re busy familiarising ourselves with the new regulations we thought we would share the key changes with you.

WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GDPR?

– Regardless of your company’s location, all companies processing personal data of data subjects residing within the EU will need to comply with the new regulations. Previously, the regulations have been more ambiguous about which territories a business must be located in to be required to comply.

 – If your business is in breach of GDPR, you can be fined up to 4% of your annual global turnover or 20 million (whichever is greater).

– Conditions of consent have been strengthened, and the request for consent must be in an easily accessible form and in plain clear language.

– You may be required to notify any breaches in data protection within 72 hours, if you are in a country that a data breach could “result in a risk for the rights and freedoms of individuals.” In addition, you may be required to notify your customers.

– In an effort to increase data transparency and the empowerment of data subjects, subjects can now request the confirmation of their data being used and further information on where and how it is being used.

 – Data subjects will now have the right to be forgotten, and their data permanently erased.

 – Subjects will now be able to request their personal data and transfer it to another processor.

– Privacy by design must be implemented, calling for the inclusion of data protection from the onset of the design of systems.

– There will be new internal record keeping requirements and some companies will need to appoint a Data Protection Officer.

You may have noticed that many of these regulations have existed in some way previously, so why do you need to stay informed? The regulations have now been legalised with high penalties if you do not comply. Sloppiness and ignorance is no longer an excuse!

For more information, we suggest you visit:  https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/

Fortunately, we have been working on finding an easy solution to staying up to date with GDPR and have a platform that will allow you to capture huge amounts of user data, all 100% compliant. If a visitor requests their data, for example, you can provide them with a custom URL within a matter of minutes. If they decide to request that this data be deleted, the system simply has a delete button to remove the data without damaging the rest of your user data (see more here). 

If you have any enquiries as to how you can make sure your website is up to speed, get in touch

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media is an online stream of content that facilitates the creation and sharing of ideas, whether it be in the form of images, text, videos, gifs, an infographic or anything else available online. Billions of people around the world are searching for interesting and engaging information about the things they love, want or need.

Although there are many social media platforms, the ones which harness the largest online communities are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE USING IT?

Facebook – 1.79 billion active users
Facebook – 3.2 billion likes per day

Twitter – 317 million active users

Instagram – 500 million active users
Instagram – 3.5 billion likes per day

Pinterest – 170 million active users
Pinterest – 5 million pins per day

Google+ – 1.4 billion active users

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

The social streams were all developed for one purpose: to enable users to find like-minded people and share content. For a business, this is a sales dream come true. If you sell a specific product – let’s say iPhone cases – then you will be able to find large communities of people worldwide who are interested in iPhone cases.

With over 1.8 billion Facebook users, your product or service could be very niche and yet, you will still be able to find the communities who are interested in what you do. Social media is not about how big it is or about how many people are on it, it is about how specific it can be. The world is a big place, full of people with different interests, needs and desires. Social media allows you access to them.

If you build a following of interested users, you can advertise your service or product to them multiple times a day at no cost. This becomes a serious consideration if your following surpasses 10K. Print publications would charge over £800 for advertising space at a similar distribution!

And the more targeted you are in building your community, the better the results. If you are successful with your content, then you can build brand advocacy resulting in others sharing and recommending your content to their following.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

Social media is actually a surprisingly safe place. If your community growth and content strategy is tactful then the responses will generally be very positive. We hear of many people worried about getting negative feedback or ‘trolls’ causing problems. The general rule of thumb with ‘trolls’ is to ignore the bad and praise the good.

Social streams move very fast. If you make a mistake, your audience will have moved on and forgotten it by the next day – so don’t draw attention to it. If there is a genuine problem, look to resolve it elsewhere (email, direct message, telephone or in person) and then release the successful resolution story in a positive way. The more positivity you put out there, the more you will receive!

How to get to 10,000 Twitter followers in a year

Quickly building up your Twitter followers isn’t rocket science, you simply need a sound strategy backed by hard work and commitment.

We can’t all have as many Twitter followers as Kim Kardashian, but you don’t have to be a reality TV star to build an impressive following.

Here are four rules to follow to get you on the path to Twitter stardom:

  1. Twitter is self-fulfilling

The more you interact with others, the more they’ll interact with you. But first you need to carefully define your community and follow relevant people – and the following tools can help:

  • Twiends – delivers a listing of twitter users to connect with
  • Ignitwit – add topics of interest to produce a list of people to follow
  • Followerwonk – identifies more potential followers and analyses what content is most effective at attracting them

You can also upload your existing contacts, using your email address book, plus add a Twitter account to your LinkedIn and follow all of your contacts on that channel.

Then it’s time to start interacting. Retweet the posts of those you’re following, send messages and ask them questions. Most will be grateful for the interaction and follow you back. And don’t forget to thank them for doing so.

  1. Content is king

To be truly successful at building up a Twitter following, you need to be creating original content that your community will want to read or watch. Become a news feed for your industry by tweeting links to top stories, plus post up links to your blogs, case studies, company news and other relevant content. Tweets with links are retweeted far more than those without them, while pictures/graphics/videos increase the chance of a post being shared by 18%.

Make your tweets easier to find and double their engagement potential by labelling them with hashtags relevant to your community. RiteTag is a great tool for identifying the most powerful hashtags for your posts.

Offering a discount on a product or service has also proved to be effective with 94% of Twitter users following brands that do this.

  1. Distribution is Queen, Timing and frequency are key

Work out the best time to post your tweets to maximise engagement. Generally, weekend posts generate 17% more engagement and Twitter’s peak viewing time is between 1pm and 3pm. However, your community could have their own specific habits, so experiment and adjust your tweeting to their expectations.

Avoid going tweet crazy, sticking to two to three posts a day – you don’t want people may get sick of the sight of you.

  1. Presentation matters

Make sure you have a relevant, appealing, good quality cover image, a clear and concise biography, and that the style and tone of your content reflects your brand, as this will help to attract the right followers.

Your profile picture is important, too, as personalities perform better on Twitter. Even if you’re representing your brand, consider using a good profile picture of yourself rather than your logo.

  1. External influence counts

Show your expertise and share your knowledge and advice through blogs and add social sharing links to them. If they get widely distributed, you can build a big community from one great piece of content.

Add your Twitter account to key touch points with your community, such as business cards, complement slips, signs, shop windows, email sign off, newsletters, etc, along with Facebook and Instagram where relevant, and display your live Twitter stream on your website.

The great thing is that today you can do a lot of this from your smartphone during your commute or free time. Working hard on your social streams will pay dividends in terms of generating a significant number of relevant followers.

How can SEO improve your online reputation?

In today’s digitally centric world, the prominence of quickly accessible information has drastically changed how human beings behave on a day to day basis.

Phases like “I Google’d it” have become common place, it has changed how we use our brains. We are not longer capable of retaining information like past generations, for every passing year we become inherently more dependant on the encyclopaedia of knowledge online.

The direct effect is that we now turn to the internet, when ever we look for insight into peoples lives, services and products.

Google’s dominance in the search market has also had a drastic effect on how we filter the wealth of information online. Earlier this year they told the world that they are focused on delivering a more comprehensive internet home page especially for you.

If you search for a country, i.e. France, you will now be presented, with hotels, restaurants, travel options and activities that match you past search history.

What this means for individuals and businesses alike, is that we must focus on what information is presented on the results when someone searches for us.

We need to be able to curate the information that is being presented to potential, customers, clients and employers.

It is important to manage any negative feedback that may crop up. The best, easiest and often most effective manner to achieve this is quite simple – Ignore the bad and praise the good.

People make mistakes, they can be small and unimportant or they can be major and have huge effects. But it is vital that we accept that we are not infallible. Fighting to excuse a mistake, explain it or make it go away only gives it more air time.

“Piggate” was a horrendous story, a mistake that would seem somewhat unforgivable. There was little to no comment on this from the Government, and the story fizzled out quickly. Not much is said on this now, as there is so much more news from the Government to report on.

Although you may not have such an affinity for agricultural animals. The best way to improve your appearance in search results is to push as much positive content out into the world. Simply push the negative content off the 1st page, then the second and so on. No one cares what results are on page 300.

What’s the best approach to this? Well, we here at CHC Digital like to look at SEO as a three piece puzzle; embedded data, content and reach.

1. Embedded data, this is really all about getting the basics right. With many developers focused on creating websites that follow the latest trends in design and functionality. It is easy to forget things like meta tags, page titles, page descriptions, structured links etc.

They are still the forefront of in-page SEO, and are the search engine’s “bread and butter” for information on your company. Its worth getting this sorted, right from the get go.

Do some research on competitive keywords, make sure you are really targeting your niche. Targeting “Nice Guy” is not going to serve you well, get a little more focused “Nice Guy london brown hair green eyes six foot one” the more specific the better.

2. Content, most search engines are looking to present “us” with reliable information from the most credible source. Again be specific with your content, write blogs, frequently. Give your opinion, try and integrate some of your keywords. Essentially you need to show these search engines that you are the master of one very specific service or product. They are looking for know-how and insight into what ever you do. Ultimately they are all about building that encyclopaedia of knowledge that we all use on a day to day basis.

3. Reach, the most recent major addition to SEO. Search engines have a tough job, there is a lot of similar content all over the web. A lot is plagiarised from other sources, so how do they determine who the real opinion leader is? Who is the master of their trade? Who’s information will they recommend as the answer to a question? They look to the online community for insight. If your blog has a referral link from the BBC, the search engines are going to see that as legitimate information. Again Google late 2015 told us that they now also rely on the information from the social networks. This allows us a unique opportunity to leverage our communities to benefit our search results. If you write a great blog, post it on twitter and it gets retweeted 100 times search engines now consider that a more reliable source than on that was only retweeted 50 times.

In a nutshell, analyse your website, fix any of the basic issues. Submit your changes to Google etc through the webmaster tools. Build a big community on the social streams, as quickly as you can. Write informed, inspiring and influential content on positive topics about you or your business. Share this content with your social communities, ensure that there is a good back link to your newly optimised site. Given some time and successful sharing, you will see how you can control your own results. This ultimately leads to you controlling your own online reputation.

Finding the Right Approach for Your Business

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 The value of a bespoke suit

Tailoring is one of those unique areas of life that allows people to make quick judgments about you. Right or wrong they will do it. There seem to be three boxes of tailoring that suits fit into:

Your high street suit. The wonderful work horse.Machine washable, this trusty companion has bore the brunt of those Friday drinks, cigarette burns and Donut Jam. It was affordable, if perhaps generic, but it did the job…until one day, after one too many presses, the cheap material splits, leaving you exposed and embarrassed at the bus stop.

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Tailored off the peg. Now that you’ve moved on from the glory of the high street suit, you’re looking for something that’s a little more you. Having a suit tailored off the peg gives you a wider array of materials and patterns to choose from, so it not only shows a little more of your personality, it gets tucked in and let out to fit your unique curves, too. You’re feeling pretty confident in your new suit, but there’s always that one guy at work who shows up to the weekly staff meetings in a bespoke suit. But although you love your suit, over time a few buttons go missing, your points begin to lose their sharpness. All the while, fashion is changing and your own personal preferences and needs are changing, too. You find yourself eyeing Mr Staff Meeting with envy… and so with teary eyes to the local charity shop you go.

The bespoke suit. You venture toSavile Row, where a master tailor explains how he and his team of craftsmen will hand build your suit from scratch. Not only can you choose from any material ever made – even 16th century Tibetan tapestry if your heart so desires! – but it can be in any style too. Say hello to Saturday Night Fever flares! Just how unique can your suit get? Hidden James Bond pockets for your gadgets? Done. What about diamond studded buttons? Too easy.

photo-1444362408440-274ecb6fc730 So do you end up with a Tibetan, Saturday Night Fever, secret agent, oligarch suit? Of course not. Those boys on Saville Row are masters and they make sure your final product is a slick, subtle, elegant, and truly one of a kind masterpiece. No need to worry if you pack on some more bulk: thanks to the master tailor anticipating your needs, there is loads of material to let out. Starting to look a little shabby? Nothing some new hemming can’t fix! Feeling a little outdated next to those young whippersnappers? Don’t worry some new buttons and a trendy waistcoat have you back in the game! Yes, your bespoke suit will cost you a bit of time and money, but it is an outward extension of you and what you’re all about. Your suit is every bit as unique as you are, and most of all, it makes you happy every time you wear it.

So that was nice, wasn’t it? But what on earth does any of this have to do with the world of digital?

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We look at websites the same way a tailor approaches a suit. These days you can use a website builder to create your site. They’re nice, but… a bit like that high street suit. Generic and unaccomodating of the needs of your business. Spend a bit more and you’ll find agencies that will sell you a site on a budget; they’ll start with a WordPress template, then nip and tuck so it fits a bit more nicely. But as your business expands and grows, these agencies will charge you more money to apply a bandaid to your site, hoping they can make some small tweaks to keep you happy.

That is not our approach. We believe in building you a custom site from the ground up, just like the masters of Saville Row, taking into account all of your current needs – and your future needs, too – to create a site that is perfectly, uniquely tailored to your business. But most of all, we want your site to make you happy every time you look at it. Wouldn’t it be nice if your digital space put a smile on your face?

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Digital Marketing & Social Media Manager. Join our crew!

About Us:

We are looking for a top-level social media / digital / brand manager for a London based Design & Marketing Agency. We are a flexible team of talented digital entrepreneurs, driven by originality and passionate about invention. We get excited about converting creative ideas into digital platforms and with our flexible approach; we are proud to offer services ranging from social media campaigns and large scale digital platforms and global reach design & build services. We are now looking to take on an in-house social media / digital manager to work as part of our marketing team to take our clients online presence to the next level.

What will the job entail?

– Introducing and implementing social strategies
– Introducing and implementing digital strategies
– Improving and maintaining social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Vine & LinkedIn)
– Content writing, blogging, content strategy.
– Working with brands and in house marketing teams to improve their digital exposure
– Using social media to attract new followers and build relationships with our clients
– Introducing new strategies for online exposure and consumer interaction
– Working with web team for development of newly acquired websites
– Networking and contact building
– This is a commission based position with lots of potential

Desired Skills and Experience:

-The successful individual will have natural business development ability. This is a fantastic opportunity for an entrepreneurial, ambitious, energetic individual, keen to grow a business.
-The successful individual must be able to stand on their own two feet and must be a self-starter.
-A good negotiator with excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to clearly report to a variety of internal and external stake holders at all levels of organisations.
– Proven track record in content creation and delivery for the digital and/or social media
– Excellent writing skills: catchy headlines, effective call-to-action, captions, etc.
– Solid experience with image editing and optimisation, usability and accessibility standards
– Solid understanding of brand guidelines & clearance in online environments
– Confident, articulate ‘people person’ with excellent communication skills
– Passionate about social media in general.
– Experience in using social media for content promotion
– Understanding of commercial and editorial requirements
– Diplomatic and negotiating skills with the ability to work with initiative and maturity.
– Flexible and open to change in a small business that moves quickly when opportunities present themselves.
– Enthusiasm and good social skills
– Initiative and creative flare
– Social media expertise and experience
– SEO experience (beneficial but not essential)
– CPC experience (beneficial but not essential)
– Entrepreneurial approach and innovative style
– A true team player
– Good work ethic

The ideal candidate should have the following skills and experience:

Social Media: Strategy, planning, activation, branding, live event social, trend spotting, online reputation management, online community management, social media governance, content creation, creative conception, market engagement and content/community curation.

Marketing: Digital, Social, Creative, eCommerce, Agency management, 360 campaign management, Brand & media partnerships, ATL, Affiliate marketing, Advertising and Budget management.

If you think you have these qualities, or would just be interested in a friendly, informal chat, please get in touch!.

Salary: £1,750.00 /month

Is Your Website Beach Body Ready?

Summer is rapidly approaching. Thousands will be flocking to the beach. You better be looking your best. You don’t want the popular kids to make fun of your shoddy physique and poor use of font on your website. Yes, kids are different now. They care about weird things. No need to focus on lifting weights, time to put emphasis on lifting your search engine ranks. Preparing for your big day at the beach can be tricky. Red bikini or yellow? Speedos or mankini? Will your swimwear really make a difference to your appeal? There is a common misconception in the wonderful world of website design, one that makes the price of investing in one appear somewhat unjustifiable when looking to revamp your marketing strategy. Being a digital agency, it’s in our best interest to change that perception and prove otherwise. Here, we write about how beneficial a website could be to your business and the value of doing it properly. The mankini WILL make a difference and your website will also.

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By investing in a website you are automatically minimising the cost of offline marketing. Magazine ads, billboards, lead generators & other offline marketing methods have become somewhat surplus to requirements. A website provides an online, easy to access platform where you can advertise and showcase your business. Even if you plan on using your website as a form of online brochure, the saving on costs for printing that information alone would likely stack up and be saving your business money in the long run. You are thinking; “That is ridiculous! You don’t know what you are talking about?! Go back to talking about swimwear!”. But, We did research to prove that what we are saying is true and we will come back to swimwear later. On average, it costs £40 for 1000 A4 printed flyers (unlikely to fit anywhere near as much information as your shiny new website would on it) & our websites generally see, on average, 1000 visitors per month. With an average cost of £2500 for a brochure site, within 5 years your business would be saving money on printing costs alone and will be getting better results. You wouldn’t spend money on delivery, distribution or design, all of these adding even more cost to offline marketing strategies. Now, what do you have to say about that, wise guy?

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Another problem people face when looking to invest in a website is the cheap, easy to make template websites that are offered online. Something along the lines of ‘No upfront cost and just £49 per month for a website’. We’d be naive to think this offer isn’t one of two things, one, a plausible investment for a business that aren’t interested in making profit from digital/see their website as an expense and account for it. Two, for a business or person that are only using it to direct friends and family towards the website and naive to think the ‘cheap’ offer wasn’t tempting. There are various differences between a bespoke website and templated one. With the templated sites, the look and feel of your site is limited to the templates provided. Couple with the fact the design is limited, meaning it’ll be difficult for you to achieve a design that will make your brand stand out, the SEO capabilities of these sites are dwarfed by that of a custom built website. Custom websites, by their very nature, are more original. You will not arrive at the beach to see Patricia wearing the same flip flops. You purchased them first! Patricia is always copying you. Get your own sense of style, Patricia.

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As we’ve said on more than one occasion, a custom built website brings endless benefits to you and your business. When investing in a custom built website you really can make your site work for you, make it act like another employee. The website can obtain data, attract new potential customers and even provide you with their contact details that will enable you to make a one on one connection with the potential customers. Something that would take an offline an employee a sizeable amount of time and rack up some sizeable expenses for your business. Get in touch with us and let’s put you on a strict digital diet to give you a healthy web physique. And eat a burger, because you are beautiful no matter what!

Be sure to get in touch! with us if you want to take your business to the next level!

For more fun digital tips & tricks, subscribe to our newsletter below or keep reading here

The Importance of Instagram

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We signed a new client last week. They are great and we are very happy to have them but in the pitch, the client asked what the importance of Instagram was? “Is it not just for selfies?”. Of course not, you fool. Well, it sort of is but it can be SO valuable. I decided to write a blog about why my client and your business needs Instagram. The client also said my new haircut was lovely. We shall blog about that next week.

It’s not just where the ‘kids hangout’

Instagram, coupled with Snapchat, the social media platform most popular amongst the serial selfie taker and food photography extraordinaire (of course, we are being sarcastic). The fact Instagram is so popular amongst the younger generation and infamous for the place where teenagers can post content that business owners like yourself would see as pointless. Yes, Instagram does have a huge amount of people from a younger demographic but that isn’t the only age group that enjoy the platform. An incredible 110 million users are over the age of 18, 36 millions of these being over 30 and a further 12 millions are over 50! Instagram can be effectively used to target any age demographic. If you’re company isn’t on Instagram, it should be. Below, we have 4 more reasons why we believe this is the case.

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High quality, easily digested content

If you’re a regular reader of our blogs, you’ll be familiar with the term ‘fish where the fish are’. We use the term when explaining the benefits of social media and that is one of them. Social media allows you to go to your potential customers and makes digesting your content easy and convenient for them. Instagram is possibly one of the most simple platforms out there; you post a picture or video (max 15 seconds) with the option of adding a caption & tagging friends if it’s a photo your posting. Instagram place the emphasis on the photo/video when posting and without a photo/video you can’t post. This means that the quality of content on Instagram is much higher than that of other social media networks because they make posting a photo or video compulsory. The concept is simple and the high quality content means that your content is much easier for your audience to digest. If you post content that’s relevant to your brand, people are able to scroll through your Instagram and effortlessly get an idea of what your business is about.
It’s not a ‘passing trend’. Instagram allows the opportunity to give the audience an insight into your company and supplies another platform to showcase why your company is awesome.

There’s always new ideas for social media platforms popping up here and there, creating a small buzz and soon dying out. Instagram certainly isn’t one of these. With over 300 million monthly active users Instagram is a big player in the world of social media. Amongst these millions of users are 65% of the worlds top 100 brands. With that growth coming in under five years, it’s rapidly becoming one of the world’s biggest platforms. Instagram is here to stay and the amount of users is only going to increase, the sooner your business gets to grips with the platform and utilising the power of it, the better.

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Tap into large audiences easily

The hashtag is a well known social media ‘buzz word’ and Instagram has fully embraced the hashtag. Instagram only allows you to search for one of two things, an account or a hashtag, this makes the hashtag much more influential and effective when used on Instagram. Finding out 2 or 3 hashtags that are popular and relevant to your business can give you access to thousands of people that are relevant and interested in you/your brand. A very effective way to quickly and easily market your business. Make sure when you get a haircut, to use #NewHairDontCare and tap into a huge vibrant online conversation about new haircuts. What is the point of getting a haircut if you are not going to post a picture of it on instagram? Heck, what is the point of doing anything if you are not going to post about it on social media?

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Showcase a more casual side of the business

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that social media is a social space. Social media doesn’t just allow you to market your business and expand your customer reach further than word of mouth or more classic marketing techniques could, it allows you to be social. Social media brings a whole new dimension to the world of marketing, a dimension that having your name plastered on a billboard or an ad in the paper doesn’t have. Social media allows you to interact with customers one on one, in real time and make a genuine connection with them. You can show them pictures of ‘behind the scenes’ at your company and have a much more personal approach. When your company is personable, it will naturally instill confidence in potential customers and give them much more reason to invest in you/your brand.

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Post #Mobileggeddon: A Brave New World

Duck and cover! It’s #Mobileggeddon!

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It is the one week anniversary of the #Mobilegeddon tragedy that struck the digital landscape. As we trawl through the debris of awful and non responsive websites, is there anything to learn? Has your website survived? Do you have any idea what I am talking about?

Well, Google’s most recent mobile update sent the digital world into complete panic. On April 21st Google announced: “We will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.” Google updates their algorithms on a daily basis to keep up with and try to outdo the intelligent SEO specialists trying to cheat the system. Most of the algorithms go unnoticed and unannounced but this one was different. The fact it was announced by Google shows the significance of this change & we have reason to believe that it has in fact, been the biggest change since 2011. The sirens began to sound. Panic filled the streets as websites came crumbling down. Please stay calm, team CHC are here to educate and assist. One at a time, we have enough rations for you all.

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How does this affect you?

Selfishly, all you are interested in how does it affect you. Did you ever hear of women and children first? Anyway, if you are a Google user that regularly makes use of their search engine on your mobile, this will of course benefit you. The update means that mobile searches will rank mobile friendly sites higher than those that are not. This makes the browsing experience for Google’s users a much more enjoyable and easy experience. If you’re a business owner with a website that isn’t mobile friendly, on the other hand, you are probably going to resent this change. With 80% of the internets 3 billion users owning a smartphone, having your site penalised because it isn’t mobile friendly is likely to have a huge effect on the amount of traffic you receive via Google. Shame on whoever built your website to not make it mobile responsive in the first place. Having a website that is not mobile responsive is like having half a haircut and half a haircut will look stupid. I do not care what Paula’s parents let her do with her hair. While under my roof, my rules…..

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How can I resolve this?

Not to frighten you, but there is nothing you are able to do. Your business is doomed.

I jest. As bad as it sounds initially, there is no digital problem that cannot be solved. If you have a website, mobile friendly or not, you’re still going to have an advantage over those that don’t. You’re also going to find making your website mobile friendly, much easier. This change means people are being given the long overdue kick up the backside to update their website and keep up with the advances in the digital world. Don’t get left behind. Resolving the problem that you and your business now face is as simple as making a small investment. This investment will give your site a well deserved face lift and bring it back to its prime. If you could go back to your prime… the teenage years, partying every weekend with not a care in the world, you would, wouldn’t you? Well, your poor website is a victim of ageing that is easily reversible. The poor thing looks drained, he’s struggling with his mortgage repayments, being hassled by the Mrs to get down the gym and stop eating junk food.

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He doesn’t have to suffer like this, he can be young and free again. That, my friend, is something that you can change. So, don’t fear. Mobilegeddon is here, but it won’t affect you for long. Just by reading this blog, you have made a step towards digital excellence & reigning supreme once again. All you have to do now is send us an email (info@www.chcdigital.com) and we’d be happy to help!

As we take time to think about those we have lost in #Mobileggeddon. Let us use this opportunity to build stronger, more responsive and shinier websites. Embrace the brave new world and repopulate it with pretty websites.

Social Media Myths

CHC Digital Website design and Digital marketing London | Mythbusters Many philistines believe that they are social media experts. They hear one or two things about social media and assume that they “get it”. It can be a trickier landscape than you would think. On today’s blog, we are going to bust some common social media and general myths WIDE OPEN. Your life may never be the same. It probably will though. I wouldn’t worry.

CHC Digital Website design and Digital marketing London | Mythbusters
CHC Digital Website design and Digital marketing London | Mythbusters

Customers aren’t on Social Media

“My customers are not on social media”

Boy, oh boy have we heard this one before. As of the third quarter of 2014, Facebook had 1.35 Billion, yes a BILLION monthly active users! Twitters last release of their numbers in 2013 revealed they had 232 million monthly active users (wouldn’t be surprised if that number had doubled by now). Instagram (as of October 2014) had 300 million monthly active users & for all you B2B marketing enthusiasts, LinkedIn revealed they had over 300 million users in over 200 countries and territories back in 2013.

You mean to tell us that amongst those billions of social media users, there aren’t potential clients waiting to be found? Of course there are! With the right strategy implemented and the appropriate amount of time/money invested in to the use of social media you could start to find new customers in a matter of weeks. If that wasn’t the case, the wonderful world of digital marketing & the agencies (like us) that prosper from it wouldn’t be around. Your customers ARE on social media. You may be late to the party, but the party is raging and it is never too late to show up. Ask a family member to drop you around the corner though. It is totally embarrassing getting dropped to the party by a parent.

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You can see the Great Wall of China from space

Sorry folks. Next time you are at a dinner party, best leave this fact behind. Just pray that someone else brings it up so you can take them down a notch. I bet Debra will bring it up. Debra thinks she is sooooo smart…..

Debra: “That reminds me of the time I went to see the Great Wall of China. Do you know it can be seen from space?”
You: “Sorry Debra! It can’t! It can actually be only seen from a low earth orbit and not with an unaided eye!”

That will teach her.

I need to be active on every social network

We can all (well most of us) name multiple social media platforms, even people with the most basic knowledge of the digital world; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest… The list goes on. Naming and knowing these wonderful platforms, each wonderful in their own way, doesn’t mean we have to be active on every single one of them. The key to successfully marketing your business online is being specific. Specific in targeting your audience, specific in the content you post & specific with what platforms you plan on using. Of course, this raises the question, how am I supposed to know what platform suits me best If I haven’t tried them all? By all means, create accounts on several platforms & give them a try but don’t commit to all of them. Become a master on the platforms that will benefit you most rather than a novices across all. If you’re still stuck, send us a tweet (@chcdigital) or drop us an email (info@www.chcdigital.com) telling us what your business is and who you’re looking to attract and we’d be more than happy to point you in the right direction.

Don’t eat and swim

“Do not go for a swim for an hour after you eat” our parents used to yell. Food does not actually increase the risk of cramps. A full stomach will leave you short on breath however. Who are these people who want to go for a swim after they eat anyway? After a meal, I prefer to wallow in self pity.

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I need to choose only one platform

Yes, we said being active on every social media platform is unnecessary and yes we did say that you should be specific. We meant what we said, but lets be more clear. Social media platforms all have the same basic principles, a social space the allows people to easily connect with other social media users easily & interact with them. But then again, we could argue that all foods have the same basic principles, it’s all there to be eaten, right? Lets stay on the topic of food. Protein, helps our body grow and repair itself. LinkedIn, one of the more formal social media platforms, allows us to grow our business network & interact with other professionals. Fibre, it helps us digest our food. Twitter, with its 140 character limit, helps us digest information by making sure it is limited in size. You get the gist. The point we are trying to make is that social media platforms are fundamentally all the same but each have a different purpose & each have different styles. Some will suit you and your business, some won’t. We recommend finding 2 or 3 that suit your business and using them. Although it may not sound very ‘specific’, it is when finding those 2 or 3 platforms amongst 10’s of others.

Bulls hate the colour red

Bulls are actually colour blind. Bulls are merely reacting to the movements of the bull fighter as an interpreted threat. So, the bull does not hate the red, he hates you waving that annoying piece of cloth in his face.

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You don’t have to hashtag everything

If you hadn’t already noticed, we’re food lovers here at CHC and you guessed it. We are going to bust this 4th and final social media myth in a food related style. We’ve all been guilty of overindulgence in the past and will most likely be guilty of it again in the future. We, as food lovers know all too well, the challenge is knowing when to stop. Overindulging in your food is very similar to the overuse of hashtags. It is great to have a small amount of keyword hashtags when posting on platforms like Instagram & Twitter; It can help you tap in to a wider audience/conversations that are relevant to your content and most importantly, you and your business. Great! Then people start to get carried away, they can’t just stop at 3 pieces of cake. They have four, then five and before they know it the enjoyment of eating such tasty food has disappeared and already forgotten. All they can concentrate on is hoping that the nauseous feeling will pass much sooner than it did the last time they overindulged & ensuring they definitely don’t eat anymore food. Unfortunately, when people over do-it with their hashtags, they don’t have their stomach forcing them to stop. That’s why we’re here to tell you! In a typical post it’s best to limit yourself to a maximum of three hashtags and if they can be included in the caption, as opposed to after, that’s great too! Including them in the caption isn’t crucial, we just think it looks much better to do it that way. By limiting yourself to 3 hashtags you’re ensuring that they are relevant, capable of tapping into a larger audience and aren’t being overused. As for the overindulging on that cake, we can’t help you on that but next time it happens, send us a tweet & include 3 relevant hashtags. It’ll pass the time!

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5 brands that use Snapchat

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Snapchat is yet another great way to ensure your business is ‘in tune’ with your target market. The use of it can allow you to go to them and allow them to see your content in a way that suits them. Not the other way round. One of the main benefits of social media is being able to go to the customer. It’s much easier to showcase your business to someone in an environment they’re comfortable with and an environment where they don’t have to do anything to see your content. People will be checking their social media platforms and be active on them with or without your brand’s’ presence, this means that by building a presence and coming to them, you make life easier for them. It takes the consumer less time to look at your social than it does for them to look at your website… you get the gist.

We thought it’d be a good idea to show you how brands are using snapchat as opposed to just telling you so here we go… 5 brands that are using Snapchat, enjoy!

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McDonald’s

McDonald’s, one of the biggest if not THE biggest fast food chain on the planet, have embraced Snapchat and clearly understand its value. They’ve been using the platform to broadcast behind the scenes footage and give their customers an insight in to life behind closed doors. No, when we say behind the scenes, we are not referring to pictures of them cooking their cheeseburgers and frying their chips. They’ve used it to post pictures and videos of well known celebrities and behind the scene snaps of their adverts being filmed using the ‘stories’ function of Snapchat. Snapchat allows you to show an image for 10 seconds. Ironically the same amount of time that it takes me to inhale a McDonald’s meal.

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MTV (UK)

MTV used Snapchat to promote the new series of Geordie Shore (The British version of the US hit Jersey Shore). They, like most of the large brands on Snapchat, used the ‘stories’ function to post pictures of the cast before the show premiered & remind their audience to tune in. Geordie Shore makes me sad. I hope it ends soon.

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Heineken

Heineken went one step further than most other brands, they used Snapchat to make one on one interactions with their customers and rewarded them with exclusive content. They launched a competition, exclusive to their Snapchat, called ‘SnapWho?’. People who correctly guessed the artist were given early confirmation of an act scheduled for the Heineken House stage. This made the brand more personable and rewarded customers for their interaction. A great way to generate positive conversations about your brand and remind people how tasty your beer is! How many times have we received a text message from a friend suggesting a beer which awakens the thirst?

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Michael Kors

The fact that Michael Kors is popular amongst young girls is well documented and makes Snapchat a perfect place for them to be marketing their brand. Snapchat’s main age demographic is between 13 & 23. This makes Snapchat the perfect place for Michael Kors to be interacting with their fan base, that is exactly what they’ve done. MK have already accumulated over 25 million followers across multiple platforms so it was no surprise that their Snapchatting was a hit. Yes, numbers are great, but with a large audience comes a large amount of pressure for them to succeed. They did exactly that. They executed the launch of their snapchat excellently, right down to the timing. They announced their account just hours after their London fashion week show, meaning they capitalised on the conversations surrounding their brands and translated them into numbers. They then posted behind the scenes shots of the fashion show and made users feel like they were getting an exclusive insight in to the world of Michael Kors. An excellent example of a brand recognising their target market, what platform their target market are most active on and capitalising on it.

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GrubHub

GrubHub used the story feature to post a series of tasty photos that act as a trail, leading to promo codes for their online takeaway service. Making this exclusive to Snapchat allows the brand to do two things. They are able to monitor how successful their marketing is on Snapchat and incentivise customers/potential customers to add them on Snapchat so they can access exclusive promo codes. Not only are the promo codes encouraging people to interact with them via Snapchat, it incentivises customers to purchase from them too. Snapchat removes your ‘story’ every 24 hours, this means users would be aware that the promo code would only last a certain amount of time, an excellent strategy when looking to increase sales over a short period of time.

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Rewarding customers for interacting positively with your brand seems to be the common feature throughout. Whether it be financially, with exclusive content or by giving them an insight in to your business. Snapchat is proving to be a dark horse in the world of digital marketing and the brands we have listed are proving that it can be very effective when used properly. Depending on your target market, Snapchat could be a hugely beneficial platform for your brand.

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What Your Business Can Learn From My Tinder Profile

For those of you who are unaware of Tinder (or pretending to be), Tinder is an online dating app that has taken the world by storm. The beast continues to rage with an estimated 450 million profiles rated every day and membership growing by 15% each week. Users are presented with photographs of other Tinderers and you swipe right if you like them or left if you don’t. If both parties swipe right, its a match and you can begin talking. Simple.

We sat around the office joking about social media marketing and how it can apply to online dating. The foundations to a successful online dating profile are very similar to those of a good social media strategy for your business. So, I decided to use my Tinder profile as an example. Thankfully, your business is far more useful and attractive than me so you will be an easier sell! If I can get dates, you can get sales.

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1) Professional Opening

My logic: With this image, the odds of me having a job are strong. It is clearly a professional photograph but I am smiling. I am professional but don’t take myself too seriously. And Most importantly, black and white is slimming.

For your Business: Social media is a more informal landscape but you must have the basics correct. Make sure your logo fits perfectly on your profile and that the relevant links are leading the users to the necessary destinations. Social media allows companies to show more personality and be informal but you need to remain professional.

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2) Be Personable

My logic: I am wearing a “wild” hat. This shows that I have a “wacky” side. I am also smiling in colour which shows that I have the ability to smile and that I am not black and white. I really should trim those eyebrows and get rid of those greys.

For your business: As I keep mentioning, be personable. Do not try to sell to your audience the entire time. Engage with them. Let them get to know those in your business. The more personable your business can become, the more trust the customer will have in you. The more trust the customer has in your business, the more likely they will believe in your product/service and throw loads of money at you.

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3) Build a Community

My logic: Show a picture with some friends to demonstrate that I have the ability to have friends. This is positive PR as it builds the strength in the “Brand Brian”. These people like him, so why shouldn’t you? I am also a proud Irishman so this image very much on brand.

For your business: It is imperative to locate your target market on social media. There is no point in buying “fake” followers. Many purchase followers as it allows you the opportunity to appear successful. You are only fooling yourself. Analyse your competitors, see what they are doing and who is following them. What content receives engagement and what doesn’t. There is an audience for your product on social media. You just need to locate them and plan how to arouse their interest.

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4) Showcase the Experience

My logic: The background is very pretty. It may distract the female from the subject. By showing a beach, we can showcase the experience of being with “Brand Brian”. Perhaps the lovely lady will get the opportunity to walk on beautiful beaches and jump off tyres. This may trigger the memory of the earlier black and white image. “Maybe he is super rich and can take you around the globe?”. He isn’t and he won’t. But this can be discovered at a later date. This was also taken after a year travelling around South America so I have never been so tanned. My lack of tan is no doubt a huge disappointment to the dates upon first meeting. This shall be the first of several disappointments throughout the evening.

For your Business: Social media offers a unique opportunity to showcase the experience of your business/product with a hugely vast audience. You can create an interactive brochure that can be placed in front of both active and passive customers/clients.

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5) Highlight the Positive Side

My logic: Oh, I know. It is so cheap. Cambodian orphans. In my defence, I did work in a Cambodian orphanage for quite some time and it was an incredible experience. But I am fully aware at what a cheap point scorer this is. This image allows the member of the opposite sex to believe that I am not an awful awful person when in reality……

For your Business: Smiling people and social media go hand in hand. If your business is involved in any charity work, social media allows you to sing about it from the rooftops. This will generate support and good will for your business. Social media allows the opportunity drastically improve awareness to your particular charity (the ALS ice bucket challenge for example). Various social platforms also can be used to show the positive working environment in your business. Allowing the audience to see how enjoyable it is to work for and with you will make it much easier to recruit new staff. If your staff are all desperately unhappy, you can photoshop smiles onto them!

Once these elements are implemented in your social media strategy, I have no doubt that all your customers will be swiping right! While your business flourishes, I shall continue in my desperate attempt to find love.

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Preparing For War (Creating Your Digital Strategy)

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War! What is it good for? It is time to wage war on the online world. There is a huge digital landscape out there that is ready to be invaded, and by your business! It is time to create a strategy for your business to conquer the rolling hills of the internet. You cannot just say “I want to conquer Twitter”. It takes carefully planning and be realistic, Twitter is HUGE. You cannot compete but you can invade a small section that is relevant to your industry. You need to arm yourself with the correct equipment, train your soldiers for combat and most importantly, understand the terrain that you are planning to take over.

It is your business. You know it far better than anyone and we keep this in mind throughout the battle. Your digital strategy will affect how you look and how you speak online. It is crucial that the strategy represents you and your brand. For example, you will want to stay away from a fun and quirky digital strategy if you run a tombstone business. Your clients are probably not in the best mood when shopping for your product. Throughout any digital campaign, we stay very close with your business to be positive that every message conveyed is suitable and relevant. We are also very insecure and seek constant reassurance that our clients are happy.

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So how do we create a digital strategy for you?

– Establish the goal

Every business wants something different from their digital strategy. Every business REQUIRES something different. What do you want to achieve from the campaign? Do you want to increase your brand awareness? Do you want to sell lots of tombstones? Before creating and implementing the strategy, you need to establish what you need. Each campaign needs to be carefully tailored to suit each goal.

Are you selling to the public or are you business to business? For example, a particular political party may require it for propaganda. They can create a big audience to showcase what they can do for their potential voters. Potential voters have the opportunity to use a variety of different platforms as an interactive brochure. Alternatively you may just want to use different platforms to drive traffic directly to your online store that sells tanks and missiles. It can be confusing to work out what is needed and the best way to go about this, thankfully that is where we come in! We can craft a bespoke digital strategy that will get the best out of your digital potential. We have an impressive arsenal to chose from and we know exactly when and where to strike.

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– Research competitors

It is crucial to understand what your competitors are doing in this space. It would be naive to enter the battlefield blind. We have a team of specially trained snipers in camouflage who will watch your competitors like a hawk before you launch. What are they doing right and where are they going wrong? Through analysing their online presence, we can maximise your online potential . As Pablo Picasso said “Good artists copy; great artists steal”. We shall steal and then sprinkle some original magic on top to give you a competitive edge. They won’t know what hit them.

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– Create tone and content strategy

Do you want to motivate, entertain or educate? Every tweet, youtube video or update is how your business will be perceived. This is a wonderful opportunity to show the world how great your service is but it is also represents a possibility for a PR disaster if not done carefully. From establishing the goal and researching your competitors, CHC Digital are able to assess and recommend the best tone to adopt and the content that will interest your target market the most. Your target market may respond better with slow infiltration (building trust in the brand) rather than a high impact strike at the beginning (a big sale or discount to announce your business).

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– Analyse Results

The digital world is constantly changing and evolving. What worked yesterday, may not work tomorrow. It is key to analyse every piece of content that is shared. Why did this work and more importantly, why did this NOT work? Constantly monitoring your performance can help drive the strategy and supply it with added momentum when required. Our social sergeants, content chiefs and distribution deputies analyse every move that is made to make sure the next siege on the digital landscape will be stronger than the last and takes no prisoners.

Be careful out there, soldier. We are here to help every step of the way and there will be no friendly fire. We will remain in the trenches with you throughout. Never leave a good man behind.

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4 Reasons Why Email Marketing Can Rock Your World

Receiving spam emails about products you do not want are really annoying. The challenge is to make these emails not annoying and make you think you want the product! Clever email marketing campaigns can re-engage with sleepy subscribers and improve interaction with your already active audience. Here are 4 reasons why email marketing is still as crucial as ever…..

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1) Easy Way To Reach Mobile Customers

In 2014, the amount of mobile users surpassed those who use a desktop. Whether you like it or not, our mobile is now another appendage of the human anatomy. 80% of internet users own a smartphone. The fact is, for many, email is the most commonly used application on their smart mobile. Email is now mobile and released from the chains of the desktop, or even laptop any more. Smartphones are making it easier and easier to send and receive emails. You can interact with your audience on the device that they love/cherish/need the most. The audience WILL check their emails. It is just up to the campaign to make your email worth opening. It isn’t easy to keep the attention of your mobile readers. They will not read just anything. It needs to arouse interest and encourage engagement. Keep your content brief and to the point. Mobile users are exactly that, mobile. They are on the move and have better things to do. Make your message worthwhile and interesting. Your audience will thank you for it.

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2) Won’t Break The Bank

Email marketing campaigns allow businesses to reach a far greater number of active and passive customers at a rate of pennies per mail. For small-business owners on a budget, this makes it a better choice than traditional and much more expensive marketing platforms (TV/Radio/Print). Email campaigns also avoid printing restrictions and costs (not to mention all the trees you are saving!). The glory of email marketing is that you can set any budget. You can spend as much or as little as you want. The reach and results will vary but you will have results!

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3) Targeting, In-depth analytical and tracking tools

Depending on the size of the email database and the ability of the content creator, emails can range from simple to very complicated. Emails can be personalised to include the name of the user and even more. There is a wide variety of detailed and in-depth tracking tools, allowing you to see who has or hasn’t opened your email. It is also possible to see what links have been followed when in the email. A bit creepy? Yes. But it does allow you to profile your ideal customer and discover what stimulates engagement. Email marketing offers insight to those who are not engaging. This information can be crucial when revising your campaigns to better communicate with your audience.

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4) Purchase friendly

We are already very used to receiving offers by emails. Customers have developed an acceptance when it comes to deals via email. They expect and anticipate it. This makes it less of a cold sell and therefore, an easier sale. If done correctly, an email campaign can add value to the customers online experience. You can make the customers life easier with your product while simultaneously educating them about your brand. This means they begin to not only expect offers from you, but to desire them. Email campaigns are a great way to attract active and passive customers while also maximising the opportunity to capture impulsive buyers. There are few digital marketing techniques which customers can go from being alerted of a product to purchasing an item within a few clicks.

And remember, no matter what riches he may offer. Stay away from that Nigerian prince…..

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4 Elements of Digital Marketing

There are many, many, many strands of digital marketing. It can be very overwhelming to even know where to start. I have found many a business owner, hiding under a desk and sobbing over their digital marketing strategy. It is time to climb out from under that desk, wipe your eyes and get cracking. To make this mountain slightly easier to climb, I have broken down digital marketing into 4 elements. To make it even easier for you to understand, I am using the analogy of THE 4 elements (Earth, Wind, Water & Fire). How relevant each strand is to the element will be up for debate but lets suspend disbelief for a small period of time.

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EARTH: Content Marketing (Blogs, Podcasts, Videos)

The basis of any digital marketing strategy. The launching point. The backbone. The earth we stand on. Content Marketing, a broader term than Social Media Marketing, is the marketing of any form of content online that is being used to attract and retain customers. The type of content varies, depending on the client/brand. It can be anything from blogs (useful for SEO), videos and podcasts. Blogs allow you to showcase your level of expertise and flaunt your business model. Videos are a fun way to present information to your target market, easily and conveniently & Podcasts allow you to show that you’re a thought leader and enable you to broadcast your personal views, company news & reviews to your audience. All of these, coupled with a good social media marketing strategy (to generate traffic to the content being marketed) can generate a huge amount of success for your business. Without a solid content marketing plan, you will not be able to fully maximise the other elements. Treat the earth well and your digital marketing strategy will have the potential to grow and grow!

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WIND: Email Marketing

Many marketeers believe email marketing is still the most effective marketing technique. It is hard to argue against it. Like a huge gust of wind, your message flies off into the distance and directly into your audiences email. Email Marketing is a direct form of marketing to a large audience, using email. Anything sent to a potential customer/client can be considered email marketing but the form of marketing that is most commonly considered ‘Email Marketing’ is mass emails sent to a large email list about the latest you have to offer. For more information, see here

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WATER: SEO Marketing

I have absolutely no idea how to compare SEO Marketing and water. What do they even have in common? My earlier attempts were pushing it at best but I fear I cannot make the connection with this one. Water and SEO are both………wet? It will have to do. SEO Marketing is all about your ranking on search engines (Google, Yahoo etc). The general aim is to be on the first page, anything below isn’t usually regarded as a successful ‘SEO Marketing’ campaign. The idea of SEO is to make your company website or related links to be pushed up the search rankings for various key word searches. For example, a flooring company would want their company to be on the first page when people search ‘flooring’.

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FIRE: Social Media Marketing

The most dangerous & potentially lethal element. Social media platforms offers you the opportunity to reach thousands of potential customers. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a handy service that entails using various Social Media sites to generate traffic to the clients website/their brand as a whole. SMM campaigns are usually based around producing high quality, interesting content that arouses interest in the brand and encourages viewers to share. SMM is a very powerful marketing tool that can be adapted to suit anyone or anything you desire. Social Media, unlike any other marketing technique, enables you to accurately focus on your target market and bring your brand to them. Your message has the possibility to spread like wild fire but be careful, social media platforms are also you voice so a silly mistake could leave you badly burnt.

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“I Do” – Social Media & The Wedding Industry

I, CHC Digital, take the reader,
to be my potential client,
secure in the knowledge that you will be
my constant friend,
my faithful partner in business,
and my one true campaign.

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Your wedding day, arguably one of the most memorable days of your life. Everything has to be perfect! Now, as much as people would like to think they can organise the perfect wedding all by themselves, it’s a hard task. That’s where wedding planners come in, wedding planners can take care of all your pre, post & wedding day problems to ensure you really do have the perfect wedding day.

So, how can the wedding industry benefit from the use of Social Media?

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Showcase The Experience

As a wedding planner, there’s no better way to showcase your service. Social media gives you the freedom to create & share content that’s relevant to your industry to people who are interested in your area of work. There are 387 million people with active social accounts in Europe alone, just creating an account online gives you the chance to tap in to such a large audience. Social media, when used correctly, can be used as an advertising platform that can give you access to thousands of potential customers at a much lower cost than you’d find in mainstream advertising (Billboards, Tube ads etc). Social media is a powerful tool and it is there to be utilised. You can create an interactive brochure to flex your wedding planning muscles and demonstrate why without your planning, their wedding will be a disaster.

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Retweet, Monitor & Engage

The benefits of social media don’t stop at being able to showcase your business. Social media allows you to monitor your competitors, conversations about your industry and even conversations about your brand. You can retweet positive comments about the industry or your brand in particular and engage with people who share the same interest. The clue’s in the name, it’s a social space, be social! Share your thoughts on the latest events in the wedding industry, keep in touch with previous clients & recruit new ones. Sharing your thoughts and opinions allows you to be seen as a thought leader in your social space. You want followers to respect your opinion and see you as a resource. So, when the time comes for you to fix Max & Sarah’s wedding, they already are actively following and engaged with your brand. I fear there is no saving that wedding though. A Nickleback tribute band? Really Nick? If you are monitoring & engaging with online conversations based around your line of work, it will encourage others to do the same. If a previous client notices your online efforts, it will encourage them to share their experience of your service with their following. Turn your clients into brand ambassadors. This experience being posted will allow you to retweet, share or re-post it to your following and be seen by a potential customer.

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Content

People don’t go on social media to look at the design of the site itself or enjoy the logo. They go on there for the content. The freedom of posting whatever you like means the possibilities really are endless when posting online. You can use your various accounts to share client news, pictures of the perfect wedding you’ve just planned or tips on planning the wedding itself. As mentioned before, people can showcase their experience with your service and you can include that in your content. You can run contests to boost awareness and increase the amount of people that see your brand & even run polls to get an accurate answer to a burning question your brand has for the public. You can then further showcase your brand by sharing the results of the poll with your following. You can even tap into well known celebrities fandom’s by posting content of their wedding day’s etc.

The moral of the story is, we share everything nowadays. The dinner we cooked, the holiday we just went on and any preparations leading up to your/your best friend’s wedding. The conversations are happening. Get involved. Fish where the fish are! If you work in the wedding industry and interested in chatting about what social media can do for you, please get in touch!

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We shall end with easily the best wedding picture of all time.

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Why Your Restaurant Needs Social Media

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1. Allows you to showcase your food

We all have that one friend that can’t stop posting pictures of her food on Instagram, don’t we? Sure, it gets annoying but, it gets interaction doesn’t it?

Now, Imagine that food wasn’t just something from the local takeaway or scrambled egg on toast that your friend made herself. Imagine it was restaurant quality food that was posted by an actual restaurant, that certainly wouldn’t be annoying, Would it?

Social Media, when used correctly, can be a direct link to thousands of hungry people that could potentially buy your food. It will give your restaurant the opportunity to showcase your food & entice people into buying your produce. Allow the world to get a glimpse of your casino themed steak restaurant, “High Steaks”.

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2. Enhances the customer experience

As mentioned in the previous point, we all have a friend that loves to distribute images of their food on social media & a restaurant is the perfect place for that friend to do that. Jane is dying to share pictures from your Thai restaurant that specialises in seafood, “Thaitanic”. When dining out, people aren’t just paying for their food. They’re paying for the experience. If you encourage your customers to interact with you via social media, you could be contributing to their restaurant experience.

3. Build trust in your brand/restaurant

When encouraging people to share their experience online and your restaurant interacts with it, you are demonstrating transparency and building trust between you and the customer. It shows that you are so confident in the experience you are providing that you are keen for that experience to be shared. If you’re wondering what happens when people don’t enjoy their experience & share it online, our next point will explain how that can be managed too. How do you expect “Tequila Mockingbird” to get started without trust in the brand?

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4. Manage customer reviews

So, you’ve had a bit of a disaster. A few of your customers are unhappy with the service they’ve received at your restaurant and have decided to take to Twitter to vent their frustrations. The way this is dealt with can have a huge impact on the restaurants reputation and could actually work out to benefit you in the long run. By being on Social Media, you can tackle this frustration head on by perhaps offering them a complimentary meal, Finding out the cause of their frustration and dealing with it or simply offering them an apology. Social Media allows you to interact with your customers and showcase the management of your reviews to more potential customers. A bad comment about your restaurant can easily be turned into an opportunity to show how good your restaurant is & how efficiently you deal with negativity. Do not let the haters get the best of “Frying Nemo”.

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5. Online Table Booking

The beauty of Social Media is that it’s so flexible. Asides from the basic look & structure of Social Media sites, it is more or less controlled by the users. This means you are able to do stuff like online books via Social Media. People can just tweet the time, date & amount of people they want to book in for and you can pencil in that booking online. This brings something very valuable to the customer, convenience. People no longer have to go out of their way to book a table. They can do it whilst scrolling down their feed, something they’d be doing anyway. With, or without the ability to book a table. Make it as easy for guests to reserve a table in your bakery, “Bread Zeppelin”.

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6. Fill up seats on a ‘quiet day’

So, you’ve not had many customers in the door and the day’s coming to an end. Why not let your loyal Social Media followers know that there’s a happy hour down at the restaurant, or perhaps offer a discount on their food if they provide a discount code that you’ve posted? Embrace the power of Social Media, don’t ignore it.

There’s hundreds of reasons your restaurant should be putting more effort into the use of Social Media and we hope these 6 will encourage you to start doing so. Don’t pass up the opportunity to improve your restaurant and increase your customer base. Get in touch! and let’s Wok and Roll!

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Some Of Twitter’s Most Entertaining Tweets

January sucks, right? Christmas is over. The weather is getting worse and lets face it, your clothes are considerably more tight than before all those Christmas chocolates. CHC Digital care. We care about you. Yes, you. We want you to smile and not let January get you down so indulge us for a moment. Allow us to cheer you up….if only very briefly. When this blog ends, it will unfortunately be January. Unless you are reading this after January then……CONGRATULATIONS! Wasn’t January awful? But for the rest of us. We are live. In January. Anyway, let us have a look on the lighter side of life.

Twitter, something that we all know and love, it is a great way to discover what’s going on in real time across the globe and famed for being able to show you small, digestible chunks of information on your timeline that are tailored to suit you. You choose who you follow, meaning, you choose what you see on your timeline. But if Twitter was just there to show you small bits of information then it wouldn’t be much fun, would it? For a large majority of Twitter users, it’s not just about the latest news or what Lauren’s watching on TV as opposed to doing her work that’s long overdue. It’s about the fact that Twitter has no structure, it is a place where people can see funny comments, photos or jokes about something relevant to them.

Each year, we tweet nearly 200 billion times. This means that Twitter is such an active platform that when there’s tweets about something in the news or a particular event, there’s funny tweets in equal proportion. We thought we’d spend a bit of time finding some of these small chunks of laughter & quick wit to share with you. Enjoy!

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Case closed.


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50 Cent has clearly forgotten his roots. His grandmother has not.

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Sean Cranbury has saved many people much pain. Thank you, Sean.

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The perfect crime.

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Priorities are everything.

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But goddammit, we will look good in the mean time.

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A point well made.

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A new land. A new life. Good luck, Josh. I reckon you will need it.

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Credit where credit is due.

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Love can be a confusing emotion……and finally….

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Argument OVER.

I hope this helps ease your January blues. Be strong. Its over soon.

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We want a winner. Join our team!

After a really great year and some recent victories. We are expanding once more. We need a Business Development & Account Manager.

We are looking for a top-level Business Development Manager for a London based Design & Marketing Agency. We are a flexible team of talented digital entrepreneurs, driven by originality and passionate about invention. We are now looking to take on an in-house Business Development Manager to work as part of our team to take our clients and company to the next level. The opportunities are infinite. We are a rapidly growing company and we offer great career prospects with multiple opportunities to boost your earnings & lead your own team. We believe in rewarding ingenuity and hard work, there are UNCAPPED bonus schemes in place which will recognise your success. We want a winner.

What will the job entail?

– Take ownership of companies sales by identifying opportunity for brand development within strategically important accounts
– Target key accounts to further develop the brand portfolio
– Manage day to day client relationships
– Having a beer on a Friday
– The breadth of skills required to take a sale from ‘cradle to grave’
– Confidence approach
– An innate desire to be successful and a willingness to make the commitment that this requires as well as the resilience to deal with the inevitable bad days
– A track record of high achievement in previous roles
– Enjoyable, social and challenging working environment.
– Targeting clients, initially creating interest through your telephone sales skills before meeting them face to face to close the deal

Key Qualities for the role:

– A strong desire to succeed and implement action plans to secure results
– Is able to demonstrate a track record of delivering and managing a number of key projects at the same time
– Highly self-motivated with the ability to work on their own
– Demonstrates strong relationships with previous customers
– Self-starting, entrepreneurial & highly adaptable in a rapidly changing market place
– Conversing and negotiating confidently and successfully with senior decision makers in the corporate world

If you think you have these qualities, or would just be interested in a friendly, informal chat, please contact us here

Salary – £21,000 – £45,000.

The Most Promising Social Media Platform of 2015

Congratulations, you have made it to the second week of 2015! And whilst your mood might have declined ever so slightly being as you’re back in the world of work and inevitably, back to reality. The use of Social Media certainly hasn’t. It is time to put down the cake and get motivated.

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So, now the Christmas festivities and New Year celebrations are over, it’s time to focus on what we can do to benefit our businesses in the coming year. Being a digital marketing agency, we thought, why not start with Social Media? How do we know what can benefit your business in the New Year? We here at CHC Digital can actually predict the future. Technically, we could just supply you with lotto numbers and you can become a millionaire but where is the fun in that? We would much rather help you make millions with your business! It will be far more rewarding. You will thank us in the long run. We will include some events that will happen in 2015 to get you excited for the new year.

2015 Fun Fact – London Bus’s will be re-named to “Busy User Transportation Terminals” or B.U.T.T. The change will be relatively unsuccessful and will only last 3 months. The re-branding exercise proved to be a pain in the B.U.T.T.

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Social media experts like ourselves are constantly looking for the best place to be in the world of social media and we thought we’d give you an insight into where that place actually is.

Towards the end of 2014, Instagram reached 300 million monthly active users, 16 million more than its main rival Twitter. This growth has, of course, continued into early 2015 and gives us reason to believe it’ll do the same in 2016. Reason being, although Social Media giant Facebook has over 1 billion registered users, the amount of these that are active remains unclear. What is clear though, is the huge growth that both Twitter & Instagram continue to show.

2015 Fun Fact – In an attempt to strengthen ties with South America, the President of The US will adopt a Llama. Mr. Obama will name his new pet “Osama”. This will inspire a reality TV show. “Barak Obama’s Osama the Llama” will be cancelled after 2 short weeks.

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We feel that going into 2015, as a business, the best place for your company to be is on Twitter & Instagram. Facebook is a good platform to use but to see impressive results, an advertising budget and Facebook Advertising professional is required (in most cases that is). Twitter & Instagram, on the other hand, do not. At most, all that would be needed to see positive results on the both of them would be a professional Social Media manager.

Twitter & Instagram don’t require any advertising budget to access your following, unlike Facebook who, once you’ve gained a large following, then make you pay for that following to see your content that’s being posted on their feed. This reason, coupled with the fact that these two Social Media sites are showing the most impressive growth in terms of active users means that using them in 2015 is surely a no brainer.

2015 Fun Fact – You will get in touch! with CHC Digital & we will help your business reach the next level!

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