Hashtag stories to battle against COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the walls of businesses. Companies are figuring out strategies, battling with the virus to sustain their business in the market. With the outbreak of COVID-19, companies are wandering around to figure out ways in thresholding their position in the market. Moreover, the consumer search behaviour has changed as other than information on COVID-19 they want to know more about the health and wellness sector, emergency services, work from home tactics and DIYs.

This global crisis has majorly hit small businesses due to limited budget and lack of cash reserves. This can be a bit challenging to survive. Social media marketing can be a smart move, especially for small businesses to get the brand noticed and build relationships with people quickly.

With the emergence of COVID-19, Facebook and Instagram saw a 40% increase in usage as users tuned into live events, shared updates and supported one another with memes and content.

Instagram and Facebook Live views are rapidly increasing two times every week in this pandemic.

People First Marketing, a well-versed social media marketing agency, has the top 5 practical tips that your startup business can incorporate and give the cut-throat competition for various enterprises:

1. Support towards other businesses

Posting #supportsmallbusiness hashtags a new feature on Instagram. Posting these stickers as an Instagram story by merely mentioning the businesses you follow will show how much supportive, empathetic and alert your business is towards other companies in the global crises, COVID-19.

2. Shop online versus in-store

Promote your brand by posting products at discounted prices and offers, conveying the message to your audience that we are together in this pandemic. You can take the help of innovative and motivational posts and hashtags. This strategy can sustain your loyal clients and also encourage other people to follow your page.

Chipotle, a restaurant chain decided to offer free delivery services along with it going live for lunchtime concerts with musicians like Luke Bryan.

3. Educate and entertain through IGTV

Depressed in isolation, people are looking out for ways of entertainment and education. Hence, in such a scenario, you can conduct fun games/events online or a Q&A session live. Later on, post it as a story which will stay for 24 hours and also upload it on IGTV. For instance, nail polish brand Olive & June hosted live boot camps in which they shared manicure tips.

4. Engage with your target audience

Use interactive stickers like polling and Q&As to engage with the audience in finding out what your audience wants from business. Use the new Instagram “Stay Home” stickers on stories to encourage your followers to stay home. With the stickers, you can post recipes, work-out regimes, etc. Orea, a cookie company, is using creative stickers to encourage their audience to stay home using video chats.

5. Keep your customers well-informed.

Ensure to post your website URL in your business bio on Instagram. This will be an excellent place to let your clients know about your working hours, delivery services and precautions your business is taking during Coronavirus.

Florist Flower Bodega, a floral art studio appreciated all the messages they received in their direct messages via a post in Feed and shared their answers through FAQs related to supporting people during social distancing.

HITTING THE NAIL ON THE HEAD

We know that the pandemic is going to end, don’t know when but what we know is that taking specific measures for the benefit of the audience will win their hearts. Ultimately, it is about leading our small businesses to achieve larger scales with time. As what we count now will definitely have an impression in the minds of people.

People First Marketing, a preferred social media marketing agency in the UK, offers services with the changing trend in the market. We would be delighted if you can join hands with us so that we can assist you with our client-oriented strategies that will help you to thrive your business in COVID-19 pandemic.

Google’s Next Algorithm Update ‘Page Experience’ Coming Next Year!

Pages with 6 seconds of load time increase the website bounce rate probability by 106%, while 1-10 seconds load time increases website bounce rate probability by 123%. Even if you miss on a few seconds, you’re bound to miss a huge chunk of visitors.

This statistic rightly say how vital user experience is! Think about it!

This is an opportunity for business people to increase page engagement and sales as Google provides necessary tools and reports to optimise for Core Web Vitals to enhance the experience for visitors and the conversion rate. Trust a professional Digital marketing agency for the same!

Unlike the past algorithm updates, Google has made the announcement such that you have an ample amount of time to adjust your website accordingly.

What is page experience?

Page Experience Update deals with various elements like page speed, mobile-friendly, safe browsing, HTTPS, intrusive interstitials and cumulative layout shifts.

It measures aspects of how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page, how quickly it loads, how well the page is displayed on mobile phones, how ads are shown on the page, etc.

Google believes that this will contribute to business success on the web as users grow more engaged and can transact with less friction. The main motive behind this is to understand the ‘usability of your website’.

In a nutshell, this update enables user-friendly sites to rank higher than sites that aren’t user friendly.

What are Core Web Vitals?

The Chrome team has introduced a new program known as ‘Core Web Vitals’. It’s a set of real-world, user-centred metrics associated with speed, visual stability and responsiveness to help site owners measure user experience on the web.

It works by measuring:

i) Load time
ii) Interactivity
iii) Stability of your content

Google will be tracking these metrics to use in its ranking:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – It measures the loading performance. The LCP of your website should occur within 2.5 seconds of when the page first starts loading.

First Input Delay (FID) – It measures interactivity. Your website pages should have an FID of less than 100 milliseconds.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – It measures visual stability. Your pages should maintain a CLS of less than 0.1.

CLS is a new metric that ensures that the page is stable when it loads. For example, it looks for images, content, the placement of buttons as the page loads.

You need to work on these elements to boost your user experience.

Let’s move ahead and understand why this update is essential?

In simple words: This update will help in ranking of the sites really well.

Google knows that most of the sites don’t have large brands. With this update, you can still rank. The mission is to show the sites that users prefer.

Google has also clarified that “great content will still rank highly well in Google’s result pages, despite a poor page experience”. A good page experience with relevant content increases the chances of visibility in SERP.

It’s time to pull up your socks and get help from a preferred Digital marketing agency situated the UK.

Key Takeaways:

• Google will go live with its new algorithm update named ‘Page Experience Update’ in 2021.
• Nothing is new except for the core web vitals.
• Core web vital metrics aren’t super new outside of ‘Cumulative Layout Shift.’
• Google will provide at least six months’ notice period before rolling out.
• It removes the need for AMP.
• For mobiles, top stories will be available for non-AMP pages when this goes live in 2021.
• Page experience scores will play a pivotal role in the top stories’ selection.
• Google said great content is still more important and pages that have great content can still rank well with poor page experience.

Optimise your web pages now to get better rankings on Google and other search engines. Get… Set… Go!

People First Marketing is a preferred Digital marketing agency in the UK. We are equipped with proven strategic SEO and Social Media Strategies. We have an experienced team who have been providing digital marketing services for over 12 years with optimum customer satisfaction. Contact us today!

Making your First Business PPC Plan? Learn about the 6 Major Elements!

Just like adding a cherry on the cake, considering PPC campaigns to your digital marketing plan shall generate better ROI for your business. The below mentioned elements will help you get started with your PPC marketing plan.

So, here are 6 PPC elements, from a preferred PPC agency in London, which have been tried and tested to ensure that your entity rises to the next level.

1) Select the right keywords

Keyword research is the foundation of your campaign. Proper research of keywords that are relevant for your campaign is worth investing your time and efforts. Tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner help you with the keyword research suggesting different keywords for your campaign, which you might not have considered.

The trick is to find keywords that fit your budget, have high search volume and are relevant to the products or services you are trying to sell.

If you’re not sure you’ll be able to do it, then you could hire a PPC agency in London, known as People First Marketing.

2) Keyword bidding

After you have selected keywords for your campaign, bid on them. The higher the bid, the higher PPC will rank. Tools like Overture can offer estimates on the bid price of your selected keywords.

3) Select your campaign type

– A search network campaign is required when you want new customers to find your brand when they search.

– A remarketing campaign will bring back people to your website and keep your service on their mind.

– A display campaign will develop brand awareness

– A call-only campaign wherein people will call for your business.

Test them all!

You might have only a few campaigns initially, which is great. Lesser the campaigns, more manageable it will be. Start small and only expand when it makes sense to make it large.

4) Well-crafted ad copy

Ad copy is the actual text that one writes for your AdWords, Bing or Facebook ads that will attract people to click on your ad. The ad copy should be short, precise, and a clear call-to-action so that users exactly know what they are asking for once they click on your ad. Using terms like “Only 3 Days left”, “2 Items left in Stock”, “Free Delivery” shall help you in drafting successful ad copy.

Ad extensions like phone calls, site links and structure snippets are a few of the ad extensions that you can utilize to drive the efficiency of your ad.

5) Landing Page Relevance

Once users click on your ad, they expect to be directed on the landing page that specifically relates to what they had clicked on. You need to design landing pages that reflect the keywords from your PPC ad, showing products or services that your visitors were searching Google for with a clear CTA like “Book Now” or “Buy Now.”

6) Website analysis

The champions of the PPC game are marketers who regularly update their set-up. Monitoring your campaigns will help you to analyze which part of your campaign is working and which isn’t working.

– Test Keywords – Highlight keywords that are working and replace underperforming ones.

– Test Ad Copy and Visuals – Conduct A/B testing by creating multiple ads and comparing them with each other, which shall help you in improving your copy to generate better results.

– Test landing page offers – Test landing pages to see which one converts best.

If you are thinking of including a PPC campaign to your digital marketing plan, then contact us at People First Marketing, a reliable PPC management company in London to know more about our services. We shall help you to build and manage your PPC campaign to get better ROI for your business.

How to handle PPC campaigns during Covid-19?

With the emergency situation worldwide due to the hit of a pandemic, Covid-19 business economy is trembling. If we draw our attention towards the advertising domain then it is also suffering, but let’s understand how to change with these rapidly changing trends. PPC Management Company has an immense role to play to sustain the reputation of businesses.

Here are the 4 tips to help you manage your PPC campaigns during this epidemic:

1) Business value proposition and messaging

With the tremendous hit of Coronavirus, the search result for people is changing towards the agendas of the pandemic. Many businesses can promote different products or services which have more demand in this pandemic environment, resulting in increase in their rankings.

Social distancing, work from home, essential items and medical services and schooling at home are some of the significant areas wherein businesses can focus on the temporary basis to increase their ranking potential.

Determine messaging whether it is a good fit in this changing scenario like messaging people about your company’s response towards the virus, displaying sensitive images with people in group, add curbside pickup details. Sitelinks and call-outs are the ad extensions that can be used to convey information.

2) Budget and expenditure

During this national emergency, businesses will have to shift their budgets towards those products or services that have more relevance. They will need to study the review budget v/s expenditure and apply to the campaigns wherein it is required.

Google’s Smart Bidding feature offers an automated bidding feature. To meet the advertises’ goals platforms like Google automatically adjust CBC bids.

3) Search behavior

With the motto of social-distancing world-wide, people are researching and buying online and avoiding to visit markets. Services that can be delivered virtually shall be the most beneficial one.

Businesses can communicate benefits like curbside pick-up, free delivery, porch drop-off etc. to the customers by using ad extensions.

Consider keywords like job/unemployment, vaccines, home schooling, or any related consumer searches if you are B2B. And avoid Covid-19 related keywords like pandemic, epidemic, death, corona, coronavirus etc.

4) Medium of communication

Social distancing has encouraged people to stay at home. Staying at home diverts them to consume more content from news and videos with the help of online communication tools.

There has been a 50% increase in messaging, reported by Facebook. Voice and video calling have doubled on WhatsApp and Messenger. Many people who had abandoned Facebook due to privacy issues have returned to Facebook.

It’s an opportunity for advertisers as the revenue for digital ad platforms has declined which means advertisers have less competition and increase in market share in their prescribed budgets.

The advantage to reach more people through PPC and paid social ads is now developing and here comes the significant role of a PPC agency.

Opportunities that are worth exploring now as people are consuming more content:

• Display ad expansion on the Microsoft Audience Network and Google Display Network.

• YouTube ad placement option.

• Pinterest for consumers discovering products for purchase.

• Twitter should be careful with the negative remarks on the platform as that can affect brand reputation.

Are you yet baffled in coping up with your marketing tactics in these crises?

Keep your worries aside as People First Marketing, a PPC Management Company situated in London will guide you with the strategies that can be incorporated for your PPC campaigns. Connect with us today!

5 Social Media Marketing Tips to Achieve Maximum ROI

Social media marketing can be a driving force to boost your brand by building quality leads and driving sales. All you need to do is strategically create, implement and measure the overall plan.Since social media is a stable area of digital marketing for business of all shapes and audiences, you need to stay updated with all the latest developments to survive in this ever-shifting landscape. Rely on a professional social media agency in London to meet your digital marketing needs!

After all this practical advice, it’s time to master the art of social media marketing. We help with a few tips to get started with the launching, running and optimising your social media campaigns.

Tip #1: Use ‘Call’ buttons in your Facebook ads

Ditch the landing page for a Facebook ‘call’ button. Probably, you will be losing all your potential audience (forever!) if your loading time exceeds your audience’s patience. Adding a simple call button will directly take the visitor to your page without bothering them.

Tip #2: Create your campaigns on life events

The thumb rule of social media marketing is to target the right people at the right time. This makes your campaign relatable and incredibly effective. We all know what ‘Life Events’ look like on Facebook.

Create something creative and exciting around life events like your ex-bf getting married, first experience of being an aunt, your dream job, #BFF stories, etc.

Reflect on all stuff that makes you feel happy and can be used as the basis of a marketing campaign. Weave your story on people’s lives to create timely and genuine advertising targeting people during periods of significant changes.

You can leverage the power of these life events and place your ads accordingly.

Tip #3: Give your visitors a cohesive visual experience

Your website’s look can make or break your target audience. You can change the way consumers view the web in general by creating an aesthetically pleasing landing page and placing your ads accordingly to generate lead and revenue.

Develop winning landing pages with unique headlines that justifies your unique selling proposition (USP), hero shots of all your products and services, bullet points highlighting the benefits and appealing CTAs (call to actions) that force your user to plunge in and get started.

All your ads should be well-designed and suit the appearance and messaging of your website from beginning to the end. A reliable social media agency in London will be able to help you with these nuances.

Tip #4: Attract more and more influencers

You have to woo influencers to promote your products and services on various social media platforms to draw attention. This is a powerful way to drive high ROI and gain trust.

The idea behind this is simple! Humans trust humans and bringing an effective influencer on board can generate noteworthy returns.

People learn about new products through social media. About 76% of Gen-Z follows an influencer on social media and 52% of them trust social media influencer for product or brand advice. Keep this mind and team up with a successful follower that belongs to your niche and come up with a campaign that makes a lasting impact on your audience.

Tip #5: Build actionable hashtags

Along with helping users to find relevant content, hashtags can be used to build a community of loyal fans. You can also use the same hashtag across various social media platforms. This will help you to cross-pollinate your brand message through different social campaigns.

Global footwear brand, Nike has been using this technique wherein they did well with their #ChooseYourWinter hashtag featuring ‘Nike hyperwarm base layer’ for athletes.

The result: The campaign became extraordinarily popular and garnered wide social sharing.

Later, they started with another movement with their #runfree hashtags.

People First Marketing is a leading social media agency in London. We are a team of skilled social media marketers who have spent years in the industry and have helped thousands of business owners take their business to the top through our end-to-end solutions. Get in touch with us today!