03 May

Posted at 08:31h in Social Media

BWD_Snapchat-large

 

Regardless of whether we use Snapchat or not, most of us have heard about the application. The app allows users to share videos and images with each other. The videos then disappear almost in an instant. For many of us, it has become part of our morning ritual to check our social media accounts. For many of us, this would be Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Could the new normal be to check your Snapchat as soon as you wake up, instead?

Snapchat became a favourite amongst teenagers when the app was first released in 2011. As Snapchat continues to evolve and grow, so too do its users. The user base of brands that engage with Snapchat-audiences has also evolved.

 

How Is Snapchat Different?

B2C has predicted the demand or authenticity in the future of marketing technology. This presents an opportunity for brands. They can build and sustain authentic and meaningful relationships with their customers.

Snapchat understands this.

This app is not about showing your best side and standing out from the rest with your impressive photo-ready pout. The photo effects are not designed to give the impression of being professional, as is the case with Instagram. You don’t have the option to edit like on Facebook. This translates to producing and sharing authentic experiences.

There is no news feed on Snapchat. This means that unlike Facebook, you do not have the option of paying for adverts to pop up.

 

Don’t Make A Snap Judgement

So far, it might sound like Snapchat has no appealing benefits. This is because you shouldn’t compare it with existing, well-known apps. It is completely unique.

Snapchat does offer a permanent public space in the form of an online magazine layout in the Discover channel feature. Users can post content (be it text, pictures, or long and short videos) on this space. There is also the opportunity to include advertising snaps between the stories.

Several brands have already taken advantage of the opportunities presented by Snapchat. They can guarantee that people who follow them are in fact interested in the content they produce. These are genuine supporters of the brand.

 

 

How To Get Your Brand To ‘Snap, Crackle, And Pop’

Curated suggests seven ways of growing a brand in an ever-changing world of social media on Snapchat:

  1. You could use ‘teasers’ to share content about the brand, that would typically not be in the foreground of your advertising strategy, such as behind the scenes footage and images. This will further strengthen the relationship between the brand and the consumer on a deeper personal level, resulting in loyalty and a long-lasting relationship.
  2. Instead of sending out promotional emails (which are ignored by most), brands can snap their deals and offers on Snapchat. Consumers have the option to screen-shot the deals and use them either in store or online. This activity is recorded and marketers can quantify the success of a campaign by the number of screen-shots taken or the codes used.
  3. Brands can use the ‘My Story’ feature on Snapchat to create a series of short videos that tell a story. In this way, a brand message is delivered in a more creative and engaging way.
  4. In keeping with the culture of Snapchat, brands can produce content that is fun and exciting, which further makes the brand relatable and fosters authenticity in how they communicate with their supporters.
  5. Snaps can only be 10 seconds longs, which means that you will have to be creative in creating content for SnapChat that is effective in delivering the message you set to get across to consumers and is memorable and stays with them.
  6. Snapchat is also a great platform to run competitions. Audiences can enter by sharing snaps of themselves and how they enjoy your product, for instance. This content can then be shared on other social media platforms to further increase brand visibility and reach.
  7. Filters were introduced to Snapchat to add to the fun and excitement of the app. Brands are now able to create their own personalised filters. If a consumer is at their favourite fastf00d restaurant, for example, they can use the location filter of the eatery and share it on Snapchat. This is another way to build brand awareness through Snapchat.

 

Be A Runner In The Social Media Race

One could consider digital marketing as the linchpin of the industry. It represents the abilities to reach and control critical segments in the marketplace. Snapchat used to be just for teens but this is changing. More mature markets, with spending power, are starting to own the Snapchat experience as their own. Despite what you think and your thoughts about the photo and video sharing application, its popularity continues to grow amongst adults. This makes Snapchat a considerable candidate in the social media popularity race.

27 Apr

Posted at 08:25h in Thought Leadership

dy

The prospect of viewing any analytics software for the first time might be daunting at first. You might be presented with a stream of data that you cannot make sense of. You may begin to question how all this confusing information relates to your business and how do you use it effectively to improve you brand. This however does not have to be a nail biting, intimidating exercise.

Importance of analytics

Unlike conventional marketing digital marketing gives you direct information to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign, this will enable you to see how effective the campaign is. This helps you to adjust the activities as you assess what effective and what not. It is crucial that you ascertain if your current digital marketing endeavours are in fact working and benefiting your business. If you neglect to do this, you might be throwing money down the drain on services that are not effect.

In order to avert falling victim to this, there are a few factors you need to keep in mind to aid you in assessing your digital strategy. The first thing to consider is what you what to measure.

What to consider

Visitors

The number of clicks on your advert and number visits to your website is paramount in lead generation. You don’t have to be a digital marketing maven to evaluate what is important when it relates to the visitors. You need to ask yourself the following questions:

  • Are audiences actually viewing the ad you have set up?
  • How many people are viewing it?
  • Do people click on the advert when they see it online?

This information will help you refine your advertising campaign. If people are looking at your ad but they do not click on it, it might be an indication that the message on the advert is not captivating enough to get the target audience to engage. There may be other factors you have not considered that might be the reason you are not getting the desirable number of clicks.

 Audience activity

What do people do when the visit your site? Which content to they spend the most time viewing? This helps to give more emphasis to what clients need more than just we think client what to see this gives you that platform to make real time adjustment made on real time data.

Likelihood of conversion

It is important you set up clear call to actions that will help direct a potential customer to your desired result. Without a clear nonintrusive call to action, people will see your advert but not know what step to take next. This may drive audiences to consider other brands who have laid-out a better plan to give them direction.

Conversion refers to the action you want an audience or consumer to take. A conversion result would normally mean there is some form of revenue received by your website – this includes sign-ups to your newsletter or products purchased through the site.

Rob Stokes outlines six steps you can take to optimise your conversion rate.

  1. Gather data – You need to collect data about your website to ensure that you make informed decision regarding what needs to be tested and how to go about this. There numerous sources available for this. Deciding on which sources (web analytics data, user data, or customer service) to use should be based on the nature of your specific site and the type of business – what is the one thing you want people to do when they visit your website.

 

  1. Analyse – After you have collected all the data you need; you have to analyse it shrewdly before you can design tests. At this stage, you should be asking the following questions:
  • Who is coming to your site, and why?
  • What are they doing while they are on the website?
  • What should they be doing on the website?

 

  1. Repair what’s broken – You may have diagnosed some issues regarding visitors’ activities on your website during the analysis stage. This should be fixed before taking the next step. Your site should attract the relevant traffic. If you have noted that this is not the case for example, it should be addressed (fixed).

 

  1. Design the tests – By this stage, you should already have an informed idea of which areas on your website need to be tested. Before you start testing, determine the starting point (also known as the null hypothesis), the alternatives and the expected result.

 

  1. Run tests – Implement the tracking code required for testing and also ensure that you include the tracking code on your conversion page. Before you take your test live, confirm that the tracking code does not conflict with other codes on your website.

 

  1. Report & repeat – As soon as you get a result, report on it. Revisit your null hypothesis and compare if they result are what you expected. Your report should include – why you got the result you expected, or why you didn’t. Lastly, you can now implement the best performing solution and plan for you next test.

Digital advertising gives you a platform to measure your digital marketing activity and refine your marketing strategy accordingly. Analytics gives you real time information about the customer and how they react to your advertising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 Apr

Posted at 12:48h in Public Relations

BWD_PR_Sales

 

Public Relations seems to be a topic that many are aware of but aren’t entirely sure how it can benefit them and their sales leads. However, when we delve into it a bit further, we see that it has the potential to have quite a substantial influence on the awareness of your company and hence sales leads could be boosted as a resulted.

 

Before explain the ways in which we can use Public Relations (PR) to increase sales leads, it is important to understand what PR actually is.

 

According to the Public Relations Society of America, “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” In simple terms, PR refers to ways in which a company ensures that their target audience loves them more than their competitors. This is usually done through forms of communication such as getting involved in community events, supporting art or education programmes or involving themselves in any other charitable event that may encourage their specific audience to favor them over others.

 

Examples of Great, South African Public Relations Campaigns

 • KFC : Journey of Hope

• Sanlam’s One Rand Family Campaign

 

Now that we understand what Public Relations is… How can a company make use of it to boost sales leads?

In order to boost sales leads and ultimately see the monetary value of Public Relations, we must not forget that through the impacts it has on the business, sales will naturally follow.

 

Public Relations Benefits

  1. PR Draws Attention
  2. PR Is Useful In Encouraging Interest
  3. PR Stimulates Audience Desire
  4. It Convinces Readers To Take Action
  5. It Enhances Credibility
  6. It Reassures
  7. It Acts As A Foot In The Door

 

Examples of Public Relations Mediums:

  • Newspaper article
  • Radio Interviews, news or feature programs.
  • Magazine Article
  • Television Feature
  • Film Feature

 

When taking the above into consideration it is vital that we ensure that the product or service that you are promoting is up to standard. Although Public Relations is very effective, it will not work if the product it is trying to sell is not.

 

 

 

14 Apr

Posted at 09:21h in Thought Leadership

Did the interview earlier this morning with Dj Mandla and Lungile. We were chatting mainly about digital marketing and tried as much as possible to dissect it within 7 minutes. You’re welcome to have a listen.


DJ Mandla: Thirteen after 8:00. We are chatting to Bongani Gosa, who is owner and creative director for Breeze Website Designers. That’s “BWD.” [inaudible 00:00:11] in this digital space. But we know that a lot of things are happening now on the Internet. In fact, a lot of companies now prefer to advertise [inaudible 00:00:25] Facebook. Remember that whole trend with clothing companies as well?

DJ Lungile: Yeah.

DJ Mandla: [inaudible 00:00:30]. Spree is one of the biggest now.

DJ Lungile: Yeah. No, they’re killing it. They’re killing it.

DJ Mandla: So let’s welcome [inaudible 00:00:34].

Bongani Gosa: [inaudible 00:00:38].

DJ Mandla: [inaudible 00:00:39].

DJ Lungile: [inaudible 00:00:40].

Bongani Gosa: No, I meant to say [inaudible 00:00:42].

DJ Mandla: [inaudible 00:00:44].

DJ Lungile: [inaudible 00:00:44].

DJ Mandla: See, that’s the beauty of working on radio. [inaudible 00:00:50].

Bongani Gosa: [inaudible 00:00:53].

DJ Mandla: No, nice one. Just briefly, [inaudible 00:00:54].

Bongani Gosa: Okay. The company name is Breeze Website Designers, but you must not be misled by the name. It’s actually not a website design company. It’s a digital advertising agency.

DJ Lungile: Okay.

Bongani Gosa: So what we do is that we help companies advertise on the Internet basically. We’ve been around since 2006, so say it’s started off as a website design company, but over time we evolved into a digital agency. And now we’ve evolved into an advertising agency.

DJ Lungile: Okay. So advertising, are you talking traditional advertising? Or is it a mixture of everything? If you are saying you’re an advertising agency, because I understood the digital advertising, and then you said now you have evolved into an advertising agency.

Bongani Gosa: Ah, yes. But maybe we can just maybe…

DJ Mandla: Just break it down.

Bongani Gosa: Or maybe for the sake of our discussion, maybe just…

DJ Lungile: Yeah. Because it is [inaudible 00:01:48]. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that, but it’s fine. And so you do digital advertising. What is that? Because [inaudible 00:01:56] company, or companies and advertising, [inaudible 00:01:58]. What exactly do you do? And how do you boost a company’s mileage, if I should call it that, with what you do?

Bongani Gosa: Okay. In oversimplified terms, digital advertising simply means advertising on the Internet.

DJ Lungile: On the Internet.

Bongani Gosa: Yeah. What we do, I suppose you can maybe call it “content marketing,” which is just a subset of digital marketing. It’s just simply creating content that educates your potential clients about what is it that you do, why should they choose you, and stuff like that.

DJ Lungile: Okay. [inaudible 00:02:39] practical example. Because I think within this digital space there’s just so much jargon, or so much newness to it when it comes to [inaudible 00:02:47]. So if you break it down by example, [inaudible 00:02:51] Fish and Chips. What do you do for me when I come to you as a digital advertising agency?

Bongani Gosa: For [inaudible 00:02:59] Fish and Chips, I suppose the first thing is to create the awareness so that people know that [inaudible 00:03:06] Fish and Chips exists.

DJ Lungile: Okay. Okay.

Bongani Gosa: So the cheapest way would be maybe Facebook, pump a lot of Facebook ads.

DJ Lungile: Yes.

Bongani Gosa: The ads, you will probably need pictures of your [inaudible 00:03:18].

DJ Lungile: Yeah, the branding, the logo, what it looks like, yeah.

Bongani Gosa: Storefront. Yeah. And then after you publish pictures of your shop front, so that’s just the outside. Maybe you want to show people that your shop is clean.

DJ Lungile: Okay.

Bongani Gosa: And maybe take pictures of the back.

DJ Lungile: Yeah. Yeah.

Bongani Gosa: And then maybe you want to show people that…

DJ Lungile: The food I cook.

Bongani Gosa: …yeah, that the food you cook is nice. Maybe you want to also show people that your employees are happy. So you will notice that is content that educates your potential clients about why they should…

DJ Lungile: The business, yeah, yeah.

Bongani Gosa: …work with you. So when we say “digital marketing,” that’s pretty much the [inaudible 00:03:52].

DJ Mandla: Yeah. But I want to go into most, in fact the sophisticated part of that. As when you, what happens normally on the Internet, they say they look at the sites you visit the most and that is how they identify you as a potential client for a particular business. So what’s that system where they align your business? For example, if I surf for tires every now and then, ads that will pop up when I log on would be about tires. Do you guys do that as well?

Bongani Gosa: Yes, we do that. That’s called “pre-targeting.”

DJ Mandla: Yeah.

Bongani Gosa: So it’s just basically placing a cookie on your computer to track what is it that you have been up to, so that you can see targeted ads. That’s why you will notice a lot of times when you log on to, let’s say, Facebook, or maybe Google, or maybe YouTube, you will start thinking that you’re seeing the same ads. But the next person is not seeing the same ads as you, because you guys are looking at different things.

DJ Mandla: Different things every now and then. So that’s the space as well that you explore. [inaudible 00:05:05] who wants to come through to you and maybe just, you know, explain [inaudible 00:05:12] with regards to I’ve got my Facebook. Is there any other platform that you probably explore?

Bongani Gosa: Yes, we work on quite a lot of platforms. I suppose what we tend to do is that we start out by asking you what is it that you are hoping to achieve with this digital marketing thing, because we don’t just want to start posting stuff on Facebook, on Twitter, and stuff like that. You want to say, “Okay, cool. I want to get sales leads. I want to generate brand awareness. I want people to be able to trust me.” So we start with those kind of objectives and then we say, “Okay, cool. Who is your target audience? Where are they? What is the best tool targeting them?” And then we create content around those particular factors.

DJ Mandla: Yeah. Is digital advertising cheaper than your conventional advertising?

Bongani Gosa: Yes, yes, it is. It is way cheaper. And also, the nice thing about it is that you can check where your money went. Unlike conventional advertising that is more of a spray-and-pray approach, but digital is slightly more targeted.

DJ Lungile: Interesting. All right. So people that would like to get hold of you, where do they find you? Where are you guys based? Contact numbers. Of course you are available on the social spaces in [inaudible 00:06:26].

Bongani Gosa: Okay. The company is based in North Riding. Our website is www.BWD.co.za.

DJ Lungile: Okay. Say that a bit slower.

Bongani Gosa: “B” for Breeze.

DJ Lungile: Say it’s “www.B…”

Bongani Gosa: “WD.”

DJ Lungile: BWD.co.za.

Bongani Gosa: .co.za, yes.

DJ Lungile: Okay. Okay.

Bongani Gosa: I’m also on Twitter at BonganiG. And then our phone number is 011-321-0193.

DJ Lungile: All right. But quickly, just before you go, Bongani, how big or how small should my enterprise be? Because one would say, “Esh, maybe this thing is expensive. Why would they come to the radio and talk about these things?” What is, yeah, the scale?

Bongani Gosa: That’s a tricky question!

DJ Lungile: Yeah. I’m asking this because of course we understand the marketing that your working with.

DJ Mandla: [inaudible 00:07:20] digital space.

DJ Lungile: [inaudible 00:07:20] digital space, because…

DJ Mandla: You know? That small, you know?

DJ Lungile: [inaudible 00:07:22]. I’m sure you want to take it out there.

Bongani Gosa: All right. Maybe let me explain it slightly different.

DJ Lungile: Yeah.

Bongani Gosa: If someone, [inaudible 00:07:29], essentially they can do some of the digital marketing themselves. They can’t really come to like and advertising agency.

DJ Lungile: Yeah, yeah.

Bongani Gosa: We will charge them slightly more.

DJ Lungile: Okay.

Bongani Gosa: But if you have, let’s say, a budget of around 20 grand a month, then you can approach a company. Then they can structure some kind of pay cash for you.

DJ Lungile: Mm. Mm.

Bongani Gosa: And then the nice thing about, like I said, about digital marketing is that because you can measure it, after like three or four months, then you can say, “No, this thing’s not working out. I’m cancelling my contract with you guys.”

DJ Lungile: yeah. Yeah, I think that is the best part of digital marketing, that you get a report constantly, whether your campaign is actually working or not working. Unlike putting up a billboard, we never know.

Bongani Gosa: Or sort of, just another quick one. We’re working on the project called [inaudible 00:08:13] Mobile, for a client. So they’re launching an online store for Soweto.

DJ Lungile: Okay.

Bongani Gosa: So you can buy groceries and then they deliver to you.

DJ Mandla: Oh, that’s nice.

Bongani Gosa: The project is going to be launching within four weeks. So people in Soweto are adopting this digital.

DJ Lungile: I can’t wait! [inaudible 00:08:32].

DJ Mandla: [inaudible 00:08:38]. No, it makes you not want to go through that, because it would be nice to just order your grocery [inaudible 00:08:46].

DJ Lungile: [inaudible 00:08:48] not compare prices when I shop now, but it’s [inaudible 00:08:50]. I think we’d truly appreciate it though!

DJ Mandla: No, no, you don’t need to do that. Pick and Pay does that for you.

DJ Lungile: So they say.

DJ Mandla: You take stuff and then you pay.

DJ Lungile: And they pay you.

DJ Mandla: At the end of paying…

DJ Lungile: And they pay you.

DJ Mandla: Yeah, at the end of paying…

DJ Lungile: And they pay you.

DJ Mandla: …it shows you how much money you saved.

DJ Lungile: And they pay you for telling us all of this.

DJ Mandla: No, no, no. But I’m just helping my people, so they understand that they do it for you.

DJ Lungile: Okay.

DJ Mandla: “Price match,” they call it, yeah. So I’ll shop at Pick and Pay through other people, so I don’t have to compare prices!

DJ Lungile: [inaudible 00:09:17].

Bongani Gosa: [inaudible 00:09:24]. Thank you. Thank you. [inaudible 00:09:26]

DJ Mandla: Thank you, my guy.

DJ Lungile: Thank you so much. Have a lovely day.

Bongani Gosa: Thanks, bye.

DJ Mandla: Always the best of luck. Let’s move right along to our music. It’s a Thursday, girls holiday. She calls it just an excuse to get wasted.

DJ Lungile: [inaudible 00:09:39].

DJ Mandla: [inaudible 00:09:40].

DJ Lungile: [inaudible 00:09:46]. Get power.

DJ Mandla: Excuse to get wasted.

DJ Lungile: It is 23 after 8 o’clock. Let’s take a musical break. We come back with Hope for Future.

Announcer: Big Breakfast, every weekday between 6 and 9 a.m. on Jozi FM.

08 Apr

Posted at 14:53h in Thought Leadership

Hey what are you doing these days…? ahhh you know I’m on my hustle. Im sure we’ve all been in this situation before, you run into that old friend that’s never been quite able to get things going, that one guy that’s always “between jobs”. Whether you call it growth hacking, “being on your grind” or straight up hustling, trying to grow your business in innovative, cost-effective ways can yield some surprising results…I mean Ross built an entire career on telling people how good he was at it.

So when your fledgling business is inevitably faced with the age-old conundrum of; how to reach a new audience on what can only be described as a shoestring budget, it may come as a comfort to know that there are creative ways to say, “ HEY LOOK AT ME ”, without using the traditional tactic of simply throwing money at the problem until goes away.

Hey what are you doing these days…? ahhh you know I’m on my hustle. Im sure we’ve all been in this situation before, you run into that old friend that’s never been quite able to get things going, that one guy that’s always “between jobs”. Whether you call it growth hacking, “being on your grind” or straight up hustling, trying to grow your business in innovative, cost-effective ways can yield some surprising results…I mean Ross built an entire career on telling people how good he was at it.

So when your fledgling business is inevitably faced with the age-old conundrum of; how to reach a new audience on what can only be described as a shoestring budget, it may come as a comfort to know that there are creative ways to say, “ HEY LOOK AT ME ”, without using the traditional tactic of simply throwing money at the problem until goes away.

The Holiday campaign

Running your promotional campaigns in conjunction with a beloved holiday is a great way to just onto the hype train created by holidays such as Valentines day, Halloween and the big daddy of marketing holidays, Christmas. I mean regardless of your religious views almost everyone loves ’em some Christmas, besides what kind of monster can resist a sweet Christmas sweater from Nana?

Incentivized Engagement

Some of the most brilliant solutions to a problem are at times some of the most simple and glaringly obvious, So when it comes to finding out how you can grow your company and improve things for your clients the best solution would be to…ask them. What!? you ask, yep simple as that just ask them, the greatest insight into customer is straight from the horses mouth. But these kinds of valuable nuggets of information don’t come easy. Like all good things there is a little bit of give and take when seeking public engagement, if you want people to help you, you need to attach some kind of incentive to their engagement… you know tit for tat.

Coupons

They may get a bad rep because of their association with the hours your aunt spent painstakingly cutting them out of the Sunday newspaper, but Coupons actually work. think of all the times you’ve walked past an item on your way to “just get milk”, and got lured in by that bright 20% off sign? It human nature to sucrose to a “good deal” even if it’s for something we don’t really need or would otherwise buy. The thought of saving 20% has drove many a customer into buying something that they would have ignored 100% of the time. So sometimes an 80% boost is actually just masquerading as a 20% hit.

No matter the method of your madness just alway remember that growth hacking rodent just happen, you need to hustle…hustle real hard.

30 Mar

Posted at 11:49h in Content Marketing, Thought Leadership

website-picture

Top brands around the globe such as Apple, Google, Coca-Cola and Starbucks have not become household names based on the strength of their products only. They were astute enough to realise that to become loved and wanted by the masses; you need to tell the story of your brand. This strategy is echoed by the likes of Ian Rowden, Chief Marketing Officer of Virgin Group who was quoted saying that: ‘the best brands are built on great stories.’ This is because storytelling has the power to stir emotions, engage and captivate people in a way that is second to none. Here are a few top tips for creating a brand story that will make your target audience sit up and take notice.

Never lose sight of the fact that you’re telling a story.

Conventional marketers and copywriters often make the mistake of focussing their content on the cold, hard facts about their products or services. The definition of a story is as follows: ‘A narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader.’

By design, a story therefore serves to form a connection with audiences. Ensure you do so by asking an important question whenever you share any content: ‘Where does this fit into the story of my brand?’

Tell nothing but the naked truth.

To gain your audiences’ trust, make sure your actions are authentic, honest and transparent and that your brand story is a true reflection of that. PR or communication cannot fix operational or other defects and it can never hide the truth. If it does, people will quickly wake up to the reality, distrust you and spread the word as a result.

Let’s for example say that your positioning statement is as follows: ‘Au Naturelle Designs is an eco-friendly manufacturer that uses recycled materials and reclaimed wood to create furniture that is both beautiful and functional.’ Then, to be true to your brand story, you should also never distribute flyers that are not printed on recycled paper.

Be consistent. Consistently.

The best way to reach top of mind status in no time is to repeat your brand story, as often as possible, in as many different ways as possible, and on as many platforms as possible. And to do so consistently. Be sure to define and articulate your brand story clearly and make sure that you keep on telling it in the same way, regardless of the medium you use.

This does not apply to your marketing material or content only; it also includes your style, colours, uniform, offices and every element that forms part of your company. People will not remember you if your story changes all the time.

Get some attitude.

Brand stories cannot be told in the traditional manner that advertisements are done. Your brand is the main character in your brand story and to let it take centre stage; you need to bring it to life with a likeable personality. Decide who you are, what you are like and how you want people to experience you. Then play that role, for real.

Every story has a structure.

When people read a story, they expect an outcome or climax. Always write your brand story or any version of it – just like any good story will be constructed; with an introduction, a middle explanation – and a conclusion.

The introduction will typically be catchy enough to get your audience’s attention – instantly. The middle will elaborate on the offering and what value it adds for your audiences. And the conclusion will be a strong call to action. If people are left hanging, not knowing what to do with the story you’ve shared, you will lose them.

Let your audience beg for more.

Make sure you tell your story in such a way that your audience will want to read more, know more and reach out for more. Share just enough to captivate them, yet not so much that they will not need or want to actively engage with you – in some way. There is no point in creating brand awareness if it does not ultimately lead to sales.

07 Mar

Posted at 07:16h in Copywriting, Thought Leadership

bwd_vision_mission

 

When Walt Disney founded his company in 1923, it was built on his dream to create magic. One of his most famous quotes about Disney is that “If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started by a mouse.”

 

Almost 100 years later, Disney is still synonymous with magical imagination, even though Walt Disney passed away in the 1960s. What has kept the Disney-train on the magical track to success is the brand’s strong and inspiring vision that continues to steer it today.

 

A Future Fuelled By Imagination

 

The word ‘vision’ is defined as “the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom.” In the business world, it means that a company’s strategic vision should be an ambitious view of the future that inspires everyone in the organisation. It must be a statement that uniquely embodies the purpose of the company and how it will impact the future in a profound way.

 

Walt Disney understood this.

 

Instead of falling into the trap that most companies do, they didn’t pen down generic, over-used words such as “We want to be the leading company in our industry by so-and-so date.”
This sentiment is a business objective – not a vision.

 

We’re All Young At Heart

 

If you were in an interview, and asked your potential employer to describe the company’s purpose in one sentence, you wouldn’t be falling over your feet to work there if the answer was something like “To provide innovative and value-based solutions to clients with integrity and purpose-driven passion.”

 

On the other hand, if the response was “To release the inner-child in all of us,” (Disney’s mission) your interest would be peaked immediately – it is unexpected, relatable, unique, and inspiring.

 

What also makes this sentiment so powerful is that it sums up the Disney brand. It has been, and still is, a clear guide for everything this company takes on – from theme parks, movies, toys, clothing, and even retirement villages.

 

Their vision breaks all the ‘rules’ – it isn’t measurable, has no specific target audience, and uses no jargon. And because of this, it’s one of the strongest and oldest brand visions.

 

Beware The Boring Mumbo-Jumbo

 

According to author and consultant William Schiemann, only 14% of employees understand their company’s strategic vision and direction, reports LeaderChat.

 

The main reasons for this is that a company’s vision is usually born in a boardroom by top management – it is then buried somewhere in a cupboard and never shared or explained to employees. If it is, it is usually a sentiment that is generic and meaningless to the vast majority of staff, who in fact, are the brand’s ambassadors.

 

A vision is therefore so much more than a few lines of copy. It must be a company’s benchmark in everything they do. Every step a brand takes, should take it towards its vision.

 

Disney is a great example of a brand that implements its vision throughout– from employee training, to product extensions, to customers’ (they call them guests) experiences. Disney has an entire R&D department called Imagineers with the sole job of dreaming up and designing creative ideas on how the company can turn fantasy into reality. As part of their staff employment procedure, recruiters look for something Disney calls ‘the smile factor’ – people who have the type of smile that lights up their whole face.

 

Shoot For The Moon

 

With a company’s vision affecting so many elements of a brand’s potential success, it is surprising that the majority of businesses invest so little in the process.

 

To ensure that a brand has a strategic vision, a brand strategy is first required as a foundation. This strategy, and consequently vision, should guide the company for at least the next decade. For this reason, it is advisable to involve professionals that specialise in brand- and communication strategy.

 

Once a unique space for the brand has been identified, a sentiment should be crafted by a copywriter that understands the purpose and role of a vision and mission statement. And then, most importantly, it shouldn’t be filed away somewhere on a forgotten server – it should be shared with staff in an inspirational way so that their purpose, and the company’s, lives in their hearts.

 

Ideally, all employees should reply like the janitor who worked at NASA in the 1960s.

 

During a visit to the space centre in 1962, President John F. Kennedy introduced himself to a janitor cleaning the halls.

 

“Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?”

 

“Well, Mr. President,” the janitor responded, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

28 Feb

Posted at 22:21h in Advertising

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To echo the sentiments of Peter Drucker, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing allows you the ability to get quantitative data and analysis of your marketing endeavours.  Measuring helps to quantify whether you are gaining or losing with your website.

Here are a few metrics that are essential to improve the effectiveness of your website:

  1. How many visits does your webpage receive?

You need to continuously keep count of how many people are visiting your website on a daily, monthly and yearly basis? This will help you to identify if there are new people coming to your website and if so, are they visiting your site as a result of your marketing efforts. If visitors are returning to your page, it is an indication that the content is relevant to them.

 

  1. What are people viewing on your website?

The first factor to consider – when you want to get an idea of what content audiences are engaging with – is the bounce rate. This is the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. You need to have a clear picture of whether people visiting your site are satisfied that the information they found is what they were looking for and if the current content on your website relevant to the target audience?

 

  1. How much time do people spend on your website?

You need to know the average time that each visitor spends on your website, this information helps you to gauge the relevance and value of the content to the visitor. How simple or complicated is navigating through your website will also determine the time spent on your website

 

  1. How do returning visitors behave?

How many of the first time visitors return to your website? This is a very important question to take into account – it will provide you with insight to ascertain if the content on your site is geared towards providing one-time solutions or is it providing an ongoing service? Another question to pose is how often do returning visitors come back to view your website.

 

  1. Which pages are popular?

Contrary to popular notions and assumptions, your homepage might not be the most popular page on your website. This is why it is important that you have definitive knowledge of which page audiences are visiting the most frequently. This will help you to repackage your content – based on of the insight you get from the popular pages.

 

  1. How are people accessing your website?

More users are accessing the Internet via mobile devises as opposed to going online on a desktop. It is thus imperative that you ensure that your website is mobile responsive. The smaller screens on mobile devices should not diminish the user experience.

 

  1. Who is visiting your website?

Who is going through your website – is it younger or older audience? This will help you determine if the website is catering for the target audience.

 

  1. Has the website meant its objective?

What is the objective of starting (and having) your website? Is it to sell products online or intended for people to complete contact forms to have a consultant contact them telephonically, for instance.  You need to have clear call to actions that guide visitors to the desired result.

Get optimal value from your website

A website is not just a digital pamphlet of your business. In order to derive optimal value from it, you can use the above mentioned metrics to measure the traffic that’s passing through your website and determine what visitors are doing when they are on the site. This information will help you improve the effectiveness of your website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 Feb

Posted at 06:30h in Thought Leadership

Made To Design

From roughing it in his father’s cow kraal to realising the digital dreams of his clients, Bongani Gosa is celebrating a successful decade in the digital advertising industry.

Selling cos dung to make some cash during his school holidays is what drove Bongani Gosa (33) to become an entrepreneur. This unusual way of earning money was how he developed a sense for doing business and now he owns a full-service digital advertising agency, Breeze website Designers (BWD) in North Riding, north of Johannesburg.

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12 Feb

Posted at 13:35h in Copywriting

bwd_cherise_blog_Google

 

The new year is here.

Although 2016 is already a month old, most of us still have that ‘out with the old and in with the new’ mind-set. Many brands are using this New Year-mentality to their advantage by launching new products, concepts, and innovations.

 

Google is one of them.

 

Their spam-fighting SEO algorithm, Panda, which was originally launched at the beginning of 2011, has re-appeared in full force 5 years later. According to Search Engine Land, Google’s Panda is a search filter that prevents “sites with poor quality content from working their way into Google’s top search results”.
And it is now officially part of Google’s core ranking algorithm.

 

This is great news for copywriters worldwide.

 

Why?

 

Because the Panda algorithm is all about content. So if SEO jargon like ‘anchor text’, ‘bounce rate’, ‘meta tags’, and ‘page rank’ left you more confused than a chameleon next to a Smarties box, you will be very thankful for Google’s Panda. Blogger Jennifer Slegg, writer for the Moz blog, says that Panda isn’t about links, mobile-friendliness, or HTTPS sites – its focus is simply great-quality content. Google’s Panda will reward website pages that are identified as good quality by sending traffic to the page; content that is spam-like or of poor quality, will be demoted.

 

Please The Panda…And Your Audience

Thanks to Panda, copywriters can now solely focus on what they are passionate about – writing impactful copy – and leave SEO to the specialist. This, though, sounds deceptively simple. Writing copy that is engaging, relevant and newsworthy is challenging regardless of the platform, and in an online environment, there are a few additional hurdles to overcome.

 

Here are a few tips and tricks to ensure that you keep Panda, and your audience, happy:

 

Stop Counting

Content is king, not the word count.

 

Many writers make the mistake of adapting an article to a specified amount of words, and more often than not, valuable information is omitted or edited out. Although shorter is sweeter when it comes to the web, this should be used as a guideline for the style of writing.

 

Long sentences are a no-no. Long-form content isn’t. Longer articles can be just as engaging and informative as shorter pieces – it all depends on the quality of the content. According to Quick Sprout, the average Google-favoured blogs are around 2 000 words.

 

Sharing Is Caring

If content is shared on social media, it can have a very positive impact on the search engine ranking. Google references a brand’s social media presence to rank content and calculate overall optimisation, says Business2Community.

 

Not only does this improve the content’s SEO, but if people are sharing your content on other platforms, it means that they see value in what the piece has to say. Relevance is a very important element to achieve when writing. The platform where the content is uploaded should therefore make it as easy as possible for readers to share on other online platforms. Sharing buttons are the easiest way to achieve this.

 

Talk Back

Many brands still fall into the trap of having one-way conversations. When content is published online, it should be seen as the start of a conversation. Many websites incorporate comment sections to encourage commentary from readers. Although some brands are still hesitant about prompting input, this is the soul of online communication – having conversations. Monitoring where your content is shared is key, and responding to the comments is essential. Brands shouldn’t just start discussions. They should also keep them going.

 

Dear Reader

The most important thing to remember is that you can’t write quality content if you write for yourself – it is all about your readers. Make sure your content is fresh, original, easy to digest, and interesting to your audience. This means that you have to understand them and what makes them tick.

 

Also remember to reference any sources you use so that readers can click through to additional information on the topic. In doing so, you avoid plagiarism, increase’s your sites SEO, and… the Panda will look upon you favourably.