Dipping my toe in the world of work
My work experience and internship at Constructive Marketing This summer, I got the chance to work as a Content Creator Intern at Constructive Marketing. It started with a few days of work experience from June 16th to 19th, then officially started with a paid internship from July 2nd to August 28th. The whole experience gave me a look at what marketing’s all about; from strategy and planning to social media and content creation. It also helped me grow a lot, both creatively and professionally. Previous Experience I’d just finished my A-levels in Media Studies, Business and History, so this came at the perfect time—right in between finishing school and starting my next chapter with an apprenticeship in insurance. Before this, I’d already had a bit of marketing experience, volunteering with the Worthing Scout and Guide Gang Show’s 2024 production, “Gee it’s a Wonderful Life,” doing photography, social media and content. Work Experience Before the internship properly began, I spent a few days with the team in June as work experience to get a feel for how everything worked. It was a great way to ease in and I got to see how content is planned, created, reviewed, and posted. Internship with a small business During the internship, most of my time was spent creating content for client social media accounts. One of the main projects I helped with was to help set up the social media accounts and make posts for a new client, Ainsley Building Contractors, with creating other social media posts for businesses such as Wall Bros, Cheesmur and Heaton House, as well as creating branded magnetic signage to go on the side of a van for Sight Support Worthing. While doing this, I used design software to design graphics, edit photos and a scheduling platform to plan and schedule social media posts. What made it even more interesting was the chance to work on a mix of different businesses. Each one had its own voice and style, so I had to keep adapting my approach. It definitely kept things fresh and pushed me to think more creatively. The experience and what I learned One of the biggest takeaways as a content creator intern, was learning that your first draft is rarely your final one. I learned how important feedback is and how to use it to keep improving until the content really hits the mark and the different variables for each platform. The best part was the variety. No two days were the same, and I loved turning ideas into actual content that matched each brand’s purpose. It was super rewarding to see my posts go live and know I helped shape a company’s online presence. I’m really grateful to the Constructive Marketing team for being so welcoming and supportive. I learned so much during both the work experience week and the full internship, and I’m really excited to take everything I’ve learned into whatever comes next.
SEO vs GEO – What are they and how do they differ?
What is SEO? SEO—short for Search Engine Optimisation—is the practice of optimising your website and its content to improve visibility in search engine results. It’s been around for many years now and most people will have heard of it, even if they don’t understand it. SEO is mainly about two main things: helping search engines like Google understand what your content is about, and making it easier for users to find your site and decide whether to click on it from the search results. At its core, SEO is about alignment; making sure that what you’re offering matches what people are searching for. It involves both technical elements (like site structure, page speed, and mobile-friendliness) as well as content elements (such as keywords, headings, and internal linking). SEO also includes off-page factors, such as backlinks from other trusted websites, which signal authority and relevance to search engines. From the user’s perspective, SEO helps ensure that the right information appears in search results when they type in a query. This includes optimising page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs to clearly communicate what the page offers, with the aim of increasing the likelihood that a user will click through to your site. Once they arrive, well-optimised content helps them quickly find the answers they’re looking for, whether that’s making a purchase, reading a blog post, or finding contact details. Ultimately, good SEO bridges the gap between what people are searching for and what your site provides, driving organic traffic and supporting your broader business or content goals. The exponential growth in the use of AI has, however, introduced a new search kid to the optimisation block. Welcome GEO! What is GEO? Somewhat confusingly, there are two types of GEO, Geographic Engine Optimisation, which has been around for a while and refers to maximising the benefits of local search tools such as Google Business Profile, and the new kid on the block, Generative Engine Optimisation. This is the one we’re discussing in this article. Generative Engine Optimisation is an emerging content strategy designed to optimise digital content for AI-powered search engines and platforms. Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on optimising content to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs), GEO is specifically tailored for generative AI systems, like those used in large language models and AI assistants. As these systems increasingly shape how users access and consume information, businesses and content creators must adapt their strategies to ensure their content remains visible and influential in this new environment. At its core, GEO is about making content easily discoverable, understandable, and usable by generative AI models. These models don’t just crawl web pages and return links; they collect information from across the web to generate summaries, answers and recommendations in response to user queries. For it to be included in these AI-generated outputs, it must cover the 4 following content pillars: This means, if you want your content to be found in AI searches, it’s important to craft content that aligns with the way AI interprets language and prioritises information. Emphasise clarity, factual accuracy, contextual relevance, and structured data that can be dissected and reused effectively. GEO represents a shift in digital strategy, where content is no longer just optimised for human readers and traditional search engines, but also for machine interpretation and synthesis. This includes using precise language, incorporating well-labeled metadata, and addressing topics comprehensively to increase the chances of content being surfaced in AI-generated answers or overviews. As AI becomes the interface through which more users interact with the web (whether via search engines, digital assistants, or chatbots) the visibility of content will increasingly depend on how well it is positioned for these systems. In this sense, GEO complements traditional SEO rather than replacing it. While SEO ensures your content ranks well on search platforms like Google and Bing, GEO ensures your content is considered and referenced by AI models generating natural language responses. The goal is to maintain and expand your digital presence across both traditional and generative interfaces. As AI-driven search continues to evolve, understanding and implementing GEO principles will be essential for anyone looking to stay relevant and visible in the digital landscape. What can they both achieve? 1. Visibility and Discoverability Both SEO and GEO aim to increase the visibility of content. In both cases, the ultimate goal is to help users find your content when they’re searching for information. 2. Content Quality Matters High-quality content is essential in both strategies. 3. Keyword and Topic Optimisation Both SEO and GEO rely on understanding user intent and optimising content accordingly. 4. Structured Data and Clarity Clear, structured content benefits both SEO and GEO. 5. Focus on User Intent Understanding and meeting user intent is central to both. 6. Performance Over Time SEO and GEO are both long-term strategies. 7. Content Freshness and Relevance Both strategies value up-to-date and relevant information. 8. User Experience (UX) Matters The three UX pillars of good content presentation, page speed, and mobile friendliness all support SEO rankings and therefore they indirectly support GEO as well. AI models can sometimes detect signals of usability and credibility based on how content is written and structured. As AI develops, these detection powers will most likely increase to improve its generative outputs As SEO and GEO both aim to connect users with the right content, albeit through different delivery mechanisms, they should be seen as complementary strategies. What’s more, as AI-driven tools grow in influence, integrating both will become essential for digital success. So what are the differences? Summary SEO and GEO serve the same overarching goal, making your content more visible to users, but they operate in different arenas. While SEO drives traffic by encouraging users to click on links from traditional search engine results, GEO focuses on securing mentions within AI-generated answers, where users may consume information without ever visiting your site. By combining both strategies, optimising for traditional ranking signals and ensuring your content is structured and AI-ready, you could maximise your visibility across
5 Practical Marketing Tips For Time-Poor Trades
You’re a builder, carpenter, decorator, roofer, plumber, electrician, heating engineer, landscaper and you’re trying to grow your business. How can you do that when you’re busy on-site though? We know that you might run your business on your phone but also that you’re not glued to a screen, so we’ll keep it simple and practical. Build your brand using these simple pointers You are an expert at what you do and your customers love you. You can spot a dodgy roof tile or a leaky pipe from a mile away but when it comes to marketing, things can get a bit… well, confusing. Don’t worry though, you don’t need a marketing degree to get your name out there. We’ve put together this list of our top five things you can do to get your marketing working harder for your business: 1. Don’t Tell Them, Show Them: Visual Content is King Forget long, wordy adverts. People want to see what you can do. That means snapping photos and videos of your projects. Before-and-after shots are gold! A quick video showing you fixing a tricky plumbing issue? That’s going to grab attention. Think about it, if you needed a new bathroom fitted, wouldn’t you want to see examples of a company’s past work? 2. Get Local, Get Found: Google Business Profile is Your Best Friend When someone searches for “plumber near me” or “builder in [your town],” you want to be at the top of the list. That’s where your Google Business Profile comes in. It’s a free tool that lets you list your business on Google Maps and search results. 3. Social Media: More Than Just Cat Videos And Holiday Snaps Pick a few key social media platforms and do them well, understand which ones your potential clients are using and use them too. Facebook and Instagram are great for visual content. LinkedIn is fantastic for connecting with other professionals and potential commercial clients. 4. Ask for Reviews and Recommendations We all know a good recommendation goes a long way. But these days, people look online for reviews. Platforms like Google, Facebook, and Checkatrade are vital. 5. Keep it Mobile-Friendly: Everyone’s on Their Phone Most people will find you on their phone. If your website is hard to navigate on a mobile device, you’ll lose potential customers. The Bottom Line: You don’t need a huge marketing budget. Focus on showcasing your work, getting found online, and building trust with potential customers. By keeping it simple and focusing on what matters, you can grow your business and keep those projects coming in. And if you need any more help then why not contact your friendly specialist marketing agency!
Maintain now or regret later
Why you need a maintenance package for your website At Constructive Marketing we always say “a website is never finished” and a maintenance package goes hand in hand with that statement. We understand that as a business owner, you’re very busy so keeping your website up to date is probably at the bottom of your priority list. The problem is, if your website isn’t maintained it becomes outdated and a target for malware which could be disastrous for your business By having a maintenance package, you’re paying an expert to carry out these updates for you, keeping your website secure and working efficiently. They can also update the content on your website too, making sure that your main digital storefront is kept up to date. Bespoke Maintenance Packages No two websites are ever the same from the design to the plugins and software used to make the website work, as a result a maintenance package should always be able to adapt to the website it is servicing. It’s also worth mentioning that whoever designs and builds your website does not have to maintain it. When looking for website maintenance providers, make sure you check that they have expertise in looking after other websites built using the same type of platform. Also make sure there are no hidden charges. Be clear with your needs so they can price appropriately. The maintenance packages we provide can include software updates, content changes and website security. By having a maintenance package in place it ensures that there is always someone on standby to fix any issues that occur with your site. This includes things that are out of your control, such as server outages and errors. If these are left unattended they can be severely detrimental to a business’ online presence. So having a friendly team at the end of the phone to quickly fix these issues is not only really helpful but could also save you from potentially losing income Disadvantages of not having a Maintenance Package By opting to not have a maintenance package in place, your website is vulnerable to security threats, viruses and even malware. If any of these issues were to occur you would either have to spend your time attempting to resolve the issue or pay a large hourly rate (as an emergency call-out) for someone with experience to fix the problem. The hourly rate in question would most likely be more expensive than paying for a maintenance package in the first place. A maintenance package is essentially a warranty for your website which ensures there is someone to resolve any issues you might have. The requirements for needing a maintenance package always comes down to how much time and expertise you have to update and maintain your website. If, like most people in business, you are time-poor and the answer is very little, then we would recommend that you absolutely put one in place. If you would like to talk to a member of our team about maintenance packages then give us a call on 01903 686858 or email web@constructivemarketing.co.uk
KIP: Getting Results On Social Media
Social media is an essential marketing tool for businesses, but it can be difficult to use it in the right way to see the results you want. In this Knowledge Is Power article, we’ll talk you through the three main components to success on any social media platform. Before we do that though, it’s important to consider who your target audience actually is and that your business probably doesn’t need to be on every single social media platform. This is a mistake we see time and time again. So the first step to achieving your social media goals is identifying which platforms to be on. What social media platforms should my business be on? At Constructive Marketing, we look after a wide range of businesses’ social media channels and each one is on a different mixture of platforms. For businesses that operate in the B2B market, LinkedIn, Instagram and X is usually the way to go. Whereas one looking to target individual consumers needs to be on Facebook and Instagram or even TiKTok or X. This is only a general recommendation and where ‘knowing your audience’ really matters as you may find that a specialist platform, like Etsy, could benefit your business.. Of course, things aren’t usually that simple and for some clients we find that a two-pronged marketing approach works best for them. For example, some of our clients predominantly serve the B2C market, but can also supply to businesses. For them, a mixture of social feeds with varying content is the way to go. If you’re not sure where to start, it’s best to speak to an expert to make sure you’re on the right track. The Three Main Components Of Social Media Success With a combined social media experience of over 20 years, our social media team identified the three main components you will need for social media success. The great thing about these components is that they apply to each of the social media platforms and to any social media strategy. Regardless of what you want to achieve and on what platform you want to achieve it. 1: Accuracy The first thing to understand before you start using social media for your business is who you are trying to reach. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, sales, website visits or something else, you need to always start with that question – who am I trying to reach? Then you can move on to ask, ‘what is it I want them to do?’ This is the cornerstone of all marketing and is especially true for social media. The main aim of each platform is to show its users content they are most likely to engage with (and therefore keep them using the platform for longer and more often). So making sure that the content you’re creating will be liked by your target audience is key. This may seem like an obvious point to make, but you’ll be surprised by the amount of people that don’t do this. More often than not, people get carried away with creating content they like creating, or content that they would like to see in their own feeds. Rather than what is best for their target consumer. 2: Consistency There are two ways that consistency is important to social media success: the amount of posts and the quality of the posts. Posting consistently is crucial to get the attention of any of the social media algorithms. Think of it like knocking on the door of a packed networking room. Eventually, you’ll be let in and be able to meet everyone inside. Algorithms look for consistent activity so if you’re posting the same amount of times each week, your content will begin to appear to more people. Making sure that the quality of the content is always good is the other way that consistency is key. We’ve written a whole blog post on why content consistency gets great results. In that blog post, we also give a couple of client success stories that show that it works. 3: Time One of the misconceptions of social media is that it’s a quick fix that will secure sales straight away. Yes, a tiny percentage of posts do ‘go viral’ and create a huge buzz but in reality that’s not the case. Building interest and reputation through organic social media activity is a long game. Remember that, above all else, the aim of social media is to build a relationship with your current and potential customers, and this takes time. You wouldn’t walk up to a complete stranger, ask them to marry you and expect them to say yes, (unless you’re on ‘Married At First Sight’ of course!). It’s the same with social media; why should you expect people to buy from you after you’ve put out just one post asking them to? Instead, you need to take the time to build a relationship with them and gain their trust before they even consider becoming a customer. Your post also needs to direct that potential customer to a credible source of more information, such as a specific landing page on your website. There are lots of different factors at play that impact the time it will take so it’s important to trust the process. One of the mistakes business owners make is cutting their social media budget too early. Implementing these components into your social media It’s best to put the components into practice in the order we’ve listed them in. Identifying who you’re trying to reach and what you would like them to do is an important first step to getting the results you want from social media. We offer a diagnostic service that involves a half-day meeting with one of our experts to identify where you’re going wrong and what you need to be doing instead. Once that’s been done, we’ll produce a non-obligatory strategy that we can help you implement or you can take elsewhere. If this sounds like something you
Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Be Using WordPress
The first thing to think about when it comes to creating your new website shouldn’t be what it is going to look like but rather what you are going to use to build it. There are a couple of website builders people tend to gravitate towards when building their first website, those being Wix and Squarespace. While these do offer their own benefits, there are a few reasons why WordPress should be your first choice. Here’s our top 3: 1 – Easy to use and customise These simple website builders offer basic features for people who aren’t experienced in web design to build a website quickly. While these options may seem cheaper and easier at first, where these website builders fail is when it comes to expanding on your website with additional functionality and accessibility options. Something a website should do as your business evolves. This is where WordPress comes in, its ever-expanding library of plugins and themes far surpasses that of any other site building platform out there. How we’ve done this for a client – We built Woodstock Day Nursery a new website in a user-friendly website builder. This means that staff can make changes to the website themselves which is important to them as a busy small business. Once the website was completed, we delivered a training session for the staff to make sure they can use the website builder to make any changes they need to. It’s worth mentioning that 30 minutes of website changes are included in our website maintenance package. So even if you can do most of the changes, anything you can’t do we can do for you as part of the monthly fee for keeping the website secure. 2 – Security When you are building your new website you want to be sure that it is protected against malicious attacks. This is where the multitude of security plugins available on WordPress come into play. One popular example is Wordfence, a plugin which periodically scans your website for issues and security breaches. It can also send you notifications when users log in to your website. This can help you figure out who is accessing your website and when exactly they did it. How we do this for clients – Whenever we have a maintenance agreement with a client we always ensure that we add security plugins to the website. This is to ensure that the site is protected against malicious and harmful attacks. These attacks often include creating a backdoor into your website for unauthorised users to access, defacement of the website and slowing down the load times of the website. While these security plugins aren’t guaranteed to stop everything, they do protect against the vast majority of attacks. 3 – Data Data portability isn’t often something people think about when creating a website but it definitely should be. Being able to export your whole website and move it seamlessly to another location such as a new domain is a massive timesaver, and WordPress makes this very simple. Other website builders such as Wix make this process much more difficult than it needs to be, as they don’t want you to take your website away from their servers. This means that you can’t export your website to another host if you are unhappy with the service they are providing. Flexibility is what WordPress is all about. Being able to design your site how you want, with the ability to move it to a new domain in an instant, all while making sure your site is secure. What more could you ask for! How we do this for clients – We use WordPress for all of the websites we build and this allows us to easily transfer a whole website onto another URL. The huge benefit this has is that the website ‘in progress’ is a live site so it looks exactly how it will look when it’s transferred to the main URL. Rather than having to view the site in an editor which may not be showing you exactly what your site will look like when you hit ‘publish’. Personally, we couldn’t recommend WordPress enough. If you want to find out more about why you should be using WordPress give us a call on 01903 686858 or email our web development team at web@constructivemarketing.co.uk See below for some examples of websites we’ve built for a variety of clients. Clicking on one will take you to the site:
3 Easy Things You Can Do Right Now To Improve Your Social Media Marketing
As we head into 2024, you may be looking for quick wins you can do to get your social media marketing off to a good start in the new year. In honour of National Mentoring Month, we wanted to give you three easy things you can do to do just that. When we’re delivering social media training, we always like to give people a couple of ‘constructive nuggets’ that they can come away with and implement straight away. Which is what we hope you get from this blog post. So, without further ado, here’s what we suggest: Use authentic photo and video One of the things we see time and time again with all our clients is that when we use authentic photos and videos in their posts, they get a lot more engagement. With most of us having smartphones with fantastic cameras on them, getting quick snaps of the work you’re doing has never been easier. If what you do involves improving a space, a great thing to do is get a photo before you start work and a photo after – preferably from the same spot. This will allow your social media audience to see your work and compare the results. Which acts as a great portfolio for you and is something you can easily implement into your posts for better engagement. Make sure you’re using your banner photo space A mistake we see all too often is businesses not using the banner photo space they have on their Facebook, X or LinkedIn profiles to showcase what they do. This is something that can be easily fixed with a great photo of your product or service that will act as a centrepiece for your feed. As an example; you could use a before and after photo – as we suggested in our first tip – to really demonstrate what you do. There are free versions of image software like Canva that allow you to make sure that your photos fit in the given space. Which will ensure it crops well and is easily visible. Use hashtags properly If your business is on Instagram, X or LinkedIn, hashtags can be a powerful tool to help you reach the right people. Next time you write a post for your business, try to include hashtags that are: It’s important to make sure that you don’t overuse hashtags and keep them relevant to the audience you want to reach to maximise their potential. If you’re already doing these things and your business is still struggling to benefit from social media, it might be time to speak to our social team. They will be able to help identify where you’re going wrong and establish a social media strategy that works for your business. Give us a call on 01903 686858 or email social@constructivemarketing.co.uk.
Content Trends To Look Out For In 2024
And how your business can start maximising them now! As 2023 draws to a close, it’s important to be looking ahead at 2024. Over the last few years, the content marketing industry has been growing rapidly and 2024 will be no exception. Statista predicts that by 2026, the industry’s revenue will reach $107 billion. The short of it is, if you’re not yet using content marketing as a tool to grow your business, you’re missing out. The good thing is that it’s never too late to start and with a new year on the horizon, now is the perfect time to get going. As content marketing specialists, we understand that the term ‘content marketing’ covers a huge amount of topics, techniques and theories. So, what should a business be paying attention to most as we head into 2024? To make things easier, we’ve listed the top three content marketing trends of 2024 and how your business can make the most of them now: 1. Video marketing We know you’re probably not surprised to see this at the top of our list. Video marketing has been growing exponentially over the last few years and it’s only going to get bigger. This is mainly due to the shift in just how much video content is produced and consumed everyday. At one time, video marketing mainly referred to online content with the exception of TV ads. Now, businesses are using other channels like DOOH (Digital Out Of Home) billboards to reach their target audience with video marketing. Video personalisation We’re also likely to see more personalisation come to video marketing. In previous years, personalised content was something that wasn’t used for video, but in 2024, it’s thought that this will be explored more. Businesses will likely be capitalising on it as a way to form a better connection with consumers. Short form videos These short, ‘snackable’ videos have become one of the most consumed forms of content in the last year or so and this is only set to grow further into 2024. Businesses have rightfully begun to use this form of content as a way to reach their target market and the need to do this is only growing. How can my business use video marketing? We often work with businesses that are reluctant to jump on the video bandwagon as they feel that a video can’t be made from what they do. This really isn’t the case! Video marketing doesn’t have to be something that’s scary to do, if you’ve already got photos of the work you do or the product you make, you already have the content you need to make a video. With a few clever animations, you can really capture an audience’s attention. Don’t have the time to put it together? We can help. Even if the work your business does is very hands-on, you mostly likely have an HD video recorder in your pocket. Just taking one minute to film what you’re seeing on the job, or a quick demonstration of a completed job filmed on your phone is more than enough to be getting on with. Just recently, a client of ours sent through a video of a product they had just installed in action and it has quickly become their most engaging post on LinkedIn. 2. User-Generated Content Authenticity and credibility have only increased in importance and will continue to do so well into 2024. This is mainly due to a societal shift in being less trusting post pandemic (when the public was most vulnerable) and the economy experiencing a shrinkage post pandemic. Both causing people to be extra careful with where and how they spend their money. With more and more information available for consumers to inform their buying decision, the process is taking longer. As a business, it needs to be a top priority to build consumer trust and make sure that you’re the business that consumers choose. Which is where User-Generated content comes in; the easiest and possibly the most effective way to build trust among consumers. What is user-generated content and how can I use it? User-generated content is as it sounds, content that has been produced by a user/ consumer. The most common form of this type of content is reviews and testimonials. By managing the community engagement your business receives through its marketing channels, you’ll be able to create a sense of belonging and trust among your consumers. Customer reviews are paramount We always tell our clients that one of the most powerful things you can do is collect customer reviews. These are like gold dust and serve as a good conversion tool as 47% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. The amount of reviews a business has can also influence how trusted it is among potential customers. Sharing customer reviews with your target market is a great way to use user-generated content and make for a great social media post too! 3. Meaningful content Something we’ve always said is the principles of marketing stay the same, it’s the channels in which we practise these principles that evolve. Meaningful content making it on the content marketing trends list for 2024 is proof of that. While it’s always been key to produce content that resonates with your target audience, it is now more important than ever. As we’ve mentioned, consumer trust has declined so it’s never been so important to make sure the content you’re putting out builds that trust with your potential customers. That, paired with the fact you’ll need to stand out among the rest of the noise, means that meaningful content is certainly going to be a trend for 2024. How can I create meaningful content? Understanding your audience is the only way to make meaningful content that resonates with them. Think of it like giving a gift, how can you give someone a gift they’ll like if you don’t know them that well? Understanding your target audience
Why Content Consistency Gets Great Results
Spending big advertising budgets with little ROI? Here’s how content marketing can help It can be tempting to want to spend big on digital advertising, but in our experience, it often overpromises and under delivers. At Constructive Marketing, we consistently produce high quality content to achieve clients’ business goals – and it works What is good content? Before we dive into why it works and the results we’ve achieved for clients, it’s important to understand what we mean by good content. What you think is a good piece of content may not be what your ideal customer is looking for and therefore may not resonate with them. Resulting in you not getting the results you want. We have written a whole blog post on what makes good content, but in short you need to ask yourself these three questions: We dive into these three questions deeper in our blog post so it’s well worth a read to help you improve on your own content. Why does good and consistent content work? There are two main reasons that good and consistent content garners good results, the first is that by consistently providing good content to consumers, you build up a good relationship with them. Which builds their trust in you and ultimately converts them in one way or another. Whether that be to sign up to receive more content from you. Or for them to purchase a product/ service from you. The second reason it works is because the algorithms love consistent quality! LinkedIn, for example, shows companies/ users that post consistently at the top of other user’s news feeds. With users spending an average time of just 7 minutes on the platform, you’ll want to make sure your content is near the top of their feed to increase the chances of it being seen. It’s important to remember that consistent doesn’t mean constant so it’s important to only commit to an amount of posts a week that you can stick to. Whether that’s once a week, twice or even three times a week. Whatever it is, making sure you can stick to it is the key. You also need to bear in mind that posting consistently isn’t a quick fix, but you will see results after a short time. As long as you’re consistently posting good quality content that resonates with your audience. In our experience, it’s like a snowball effect – once the ball starts rolling, it quickly picks up pace! Client success stories It wouldn’t be right for us to preach about being consistent with good quality content if we hadn’t seen fantastic results from it. So here are a couple of success stories we’ve had within the last six months. Propelling Cheesmur’s reach We are really proud of the fantastic success we’ve achieved with Cheesmur’s LinkedIn page. Over the last three months (July-October 2023), the page has had way over 27,000 impressions and has an engagement rate of 88%. Which is 84.5% above the average engagement rate for LinkedIn company pages. Earlier, we mentioned the snowball effect and Cheesmur has definitely experienced that with their follower growth having an increase of 8.5% when compared to the previous three months. Now, Cheesmur is consistently reaching, on average, over 300 construction professionals every day on LinkedIn alone and it’s thanks to consistent posting of good quality content. For Cheesmur, this means our content team works with the contracts Director and site managers to receive information about current projects. Which our team then turns into engaging social media and Google posts. We also develop the more detailed projects/ topics into long form content for their blog. All of which improves both their brand awareness through multiple channels; social media and Google. You can read the full Cheesmur case study here. Getting Admor on Google’s page one without spending a Google budget With our expert knowledge, we were able to take Admor’s budget and make sure that the content we produced for them was placed in the right place to achieve their goals. The result was that their dental software website moved to page one of Google and they began to get more traction on social media. You can read more about the initial stages of the strategy in the case study. Since then, Admor has trusted us with looking after their other brands. So we’ve implemented a content marketing strategy that spans across all three of their brands. The new strategy has only been in place a month (September-October) and has already achieved way over 285 impressions. With an engagement increase of 4,200% when compared to the previous period (July-August), we think it’s safe to say that encompassing all of their brands into one strategy has been a success. Let us help you too! We would love to help you implement a strong content marketing strategy to help you achieve your business goals too. Give us a call or email us letting us know what it is you’re looking to achieve. So far, we’ve helped businesses increase brand awareness/ engagement, sales and even helped over 20 become award winning!You can read more of our case studies here.
KIP: Branding
What is a brand? Why is it important and how can you start managing yours? One of the things that we do for clients is manage their brand reputation to make sure that they are represented in the correct way across all marketing channels. This can take a variety of forms as every channel requires different management. In this Knowledge Is Power article, we’ll be taking a deeper look into branding. We’ll explain what a brand is and give examples of the ways in which we manage our clients’ brands to give you a better understanding of how you can be managing your own. What is a brand and why do I need one? We hear the word ‘brand’ being thrown around a lot, but what really is it and why is it important to have one? In short, a brand is the identity of a business or ‘the sum of how a product or business is perceived by those who experience it’. The most important thing to remember about a brand is that it is one of the things that separates you from your competition. It also helps you to build a strong relationship with your customers. Both of which are very important when it comes to establishing yourself in your market. How to manage your brand When talking about branding, people often think about the huge international ones like Coca-Cola or Amazon, but every business has the opportunity to have a brand – including yours. There’s lots of components to a brand, but we’re going to be looking at brand personality and the elements you need to think about in order to manage it. As well as real examples of how we put theory into practice at Constructive Marketing. Be consistent As we’ve mentioned, a brand is a way for you to differentiate yourself from your competition. As such, it should be recognisable among others. The key to this is consistency with everything that you do. From the quality product or service you provide to the customer service and of course, your communications. There are two main elements of communication that people will recognise most – your visuals and your copy. Consistency with your visuals can be achieved by adopting brand guidelines and sticking to a template for social media posts. If it’s difficult to stick to a template for social posts, simply using your logo on all the images is a good idea so that consumers recognise it’s your business. Not to mention that by exposing your target audience to your logo, you will be reinforcing your brand to them. How we do this for clients For Cheesmur, we developed branded social icons that we use across all platforms for specific post types. For instance, if we’re posting about a finished project, we’ll use the ‘Cheesmur project complete’ logo. By doing this, a style can be established which allows Cheesmur to be recognised in people’s news feeds. Posting consistently with this style allows the Cheesmur brand to be reinforced to its followers. It also shows their target audience that they are actively working on and completing projects. Manage the tone of voice Although visuals are recognised quicker, the way your writing sounds when you’re representing the business is also important. A lot of people like to think of a brand as a personality and so the tone of voice in text is important. It’s how your business sounds and it needs to align with your brand values. Make sure that the copy you write for all channels is consistent to reinforce your brand and make it recognisable. That’s not to say that the message has to stay exactly the same on every channel as the audience will differ slightly from channel to channel. How we do this for clients Take Wall Bros as an example; the message we’re communicating for them is that they’re local flooring experts that have extensive knowledge on flooring. They also deliver high quality customer service and are traditional in their approach (they don’t sell online). We don’t explicitly say these things, but we convey that message in different ways across channels: The thing that stays consistent across all channels is of course the tone of voice. Which is warm and friendly. Hopefully seeing our breakdown of the different channels and what we do on each of them demonstrates to you how your messaging can be communicated through different channels in different ways. Making sure you’re managing your brand personality is integral to a marketing strategy and helps you achieve your goals. If you’re struggling with managing your brand, or you need help establishing a marketing strategy, get in touch. Our team of marketing specialists are on hand to give you the help that you need.