“The progress of tomorrow is the preparation today.”
Take our “Award Ready” checklist today to see just how prepared you are to shine with your next award submission.
Download here: Reputation by Design Award Ready checklist
How many times have you heard the words ‘challenging’, ‘unprecedented’ and ‘unusual’ recently?
This report outlines seven practical steps to boost your marketing in any economic downturn. I encourage you to think about them all and take action on at least a couple. The great news is none of them cost a cent and they have all been proven to work across diverse businesses and industries.
You’ll discover not only how to adapt your business but also how to put yourself in the best position for the upswing which will occur as our economy recovers.
Download here: Reputation by Design – 7 Free Marketing Ideas
- Pixabay
- Pexels
- Burst
- Unsplash
- Death to the Stock Photo
- Picjumbo
- Gratisography (out there!)
- Getrefe
- IM Free(requires attribution)
- Public Domain Archive
- Foodiesfeed
- Picography
- Raumrot
- ISO Republic
Are you missing a Google review that a client has promised they did for you? At the moment (due to COVID-19), no new reviews are being published to Google My Business profiles – at all.
Happy customers can still post and see their own reviews, but while the reviews aren’t publicly visible, your business or reputation won’t derive any benefit. This is very much like winking at someone you fancy in the dark !
Google has yet to give a time frame when these restrictions will end, so if you have a ‘Get Reviews’ campaign as part of your marketing strategy (and you should!), pivot away from Google temporarily.
Facebook reviews are still functioning as normal, as are the recommendation features on LinkedIn – these two platforms are what we recommend you focus your review requests on in the next short while.
For more information, please contact us for advice.
Given all that’s going on, I need a lie down!
Reputation by Design’s 5th birthday celebrations were a subdued affair – try explaining social distancing to a dog…
A huge THANK YOU to our incredible clients, it’s been such a privilege to work with you. And to my amazing team, family & friends, your support means so much.
We’ve had a fabulous five years in business. Bring on the next five!
According to a recent report by Elite Agent, between 20 and 50 user reviews will cement a company’s reputation as trustworthy, even if some of those reviews are negative (in fact, especially if some are somewhat negative).
Zendesk cites that reviews influence 88 per cent of buyers in their buying decision. And Fan and Fuel Group says 92 per cent of consumers hesitate to purchase if there are no customer reviews.
The reality is that trust in brands and businesses online is at an all-time low. Customers trust each other more than they trust you. Still, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
Building more business in 2020 might be as simple as campaigning for more of your clients to leave a review about your business online.
One of our clients has over 150 Google reviews and attributes 70% of their new business to this FREE channel!
If you don’t know where to start to collect or ramp up your reviews (Google My Business, Facebook, LinkedIn…), or need a better system, please contact us for advice.
Social media – we know we should do it, but only a handful of us actually like it (for business), and even fewer of us have the time, let alone the energy, to come up with the ideas and the images; the headlines and the hashtags. It’s exhausting!
But a recent research report by Deloitte showed that 56 cents of every dollar now spent is influenced by a consumer’s digital interaction with a brand. So if you still think social media is for other businesses, you could be slashing your revenue potential in half.
I see this every day in my engagement with mortgage brokers. I recently had a broker tell me that she’d rather clean the shower than do her social media (which we know will resonate with a lot of you), and others are sporadic at best.
So I thought I’d break down my top tips for utilising social media for profit. And here are my seven key thoughts.
- Get your Google My Business page firing and concentrate on collecting reviews on this free page. We have mortgage brokers who get 70% of their new clients through this channel, for free!
- Be on fewer social media channels, and do them well. Turn off Twitter, but please consider GoogleMyBusiness and LinkedIn.
- Get professional photos taken – of you, your team, your office (if you have a physical presence) and you out and about with clients! These are gold for using across each of your social media platforms because people buy people.
- Optimise the channels you’re staying on. We offer a 51-point checklist to optimise LinkedIn, Facebook, GoogleMyBusiness and Instagram so that your posts – and time and effort – get seen by more people.
- You’ll never be short ideas on what to post on if you follow this plan
- Share 2 pieces of relevant content,
- Post 2 educational pieces such as the story of a client scenario you solved or FAQs you get asked, or use https://answerthepublic.com/ for endless post ideas,
- Post 1 piece about your business, and don’t forget to post testimonials.
- Stop winking in the dark. If you don’t have enough followers, it doesn’t matter how good your content is, very few people are ever going to see it. According to LinkedIn, if you have less than 500 followers, you’re actually ‘algorythmically invisible’ to them. So get engaging to build you followers and connections, but be targeted – numbers for numbers sake still won’t get your messages in front of your target audience.
- Save time! There are loads of social media marketing tools out there that can help. For example:
- If you hate writing, use https://www.rev.com/ to speak and transcribe your story into almost word-perfect blogs, ready to go
- Use free image libraries like Unsplash, Pexels or Pixabay
And finally, remember social media replaces nothing, but complements everything. It’s only going to work if you put the time and effort into it, or outsource it to stay focused on your core business of meeting and servicing your clients.
If you need help to get your social media marketing plan off the ground, call or email us today.
If you’ve been keeping up with the most recent Google news, you might have heard about a little thing called BERT. This is one of the most important updates for Google’s algorithms and ranking system to have been developed in the last decade. It will affect one in every ten searches and dramatically improve the relevance of these search responses. But what is it and what does it mean for your digital marketing strategy?
First of all, BERT is an update that Google has just issued. It’s basically a machine learning enhancement that processes the words in your search relative to one another. Instead of just taking each word on a one-by-one basis, Google will now factor in more context, processing an entire phrase or sentence. Google will now be a great deal more effective at interpreting natural language and nuances of context.
This will dramatically improve the effect of long tail keywords and voice searches. At the moment, it’s only been released in the US. However, it’s set to extend throughout other countries within the next year, which means that this is the best time to start thinking about how to optimise your site in advance. The great news is that there’s not much to optimise in terms of structure of your site or mortgage broker marketing strategy. The biggest impact will come in terms of content.
Essentially, BERT focuses on “long tail, more conversational queries.” These are searches that you might speak instead of typing. Phrases that are more natural to speak. Words like “for” and “to” are often important in our sentences, and yet they’ve been ignored in Google searches in the past. BERT now processes these in context with the phrase and in relation to other words.
One of the keys to understanding this update is that there’s nothing structural needed to optimise your online marketing. SEO is the process of making your site easier to find by search engines. In the past, this could be done with keyword loading and link building. Basically, BERT gets rid of the shortcuts. It boosts the value of your actual relevant content, helping users to find the exact information they’re looking for more quickly. So the key here is user intent for your target audience. If you know what your demographic of interested clients is most likely to search for, then you can craft content to make sure this information appears most directly.
In simple terms: content written humanly, with valuable information, and with direct information about what your client is interested in. Here are three key factors to writing content that both has value for your users and boosts your search ranking to increase your visibility:
1. Make use of Google’s SERP Analysis
SERP stands for search engine results page. A SERP analysis explores specific keywords for their tendency to show up in searches. You can both do an analysis of your keywords and those of your competitors with this tool. Follow it up with the Ranking Analysis from Google’s Content Optimiser Tool. This will provide insights regarding a specific keyword, leading to long tail keywords and other insights. These tools will also show you exact keywords and links that boost page rankings.
2. Make sure your content is optimised and relevant.
This is nothing new. Content has been king for decades. If you’d like an assist with this, Google has a tool called Content Optimiser that will help you to include the long tail keywords that you identified from the previous tools. This also helps you to make sure that your search is relevant to user intent. Even when using this tool, it’s important to remember that value comes from understanding your customers and what they want. You need to offer answers to questions that you know they’ll ask.
3. Continue to refine your approach by researching new keywords and ranking opportunities.
One keyword is great. But it’s not enough. Interested clients will often use a variety of different words to search for your products or services. Keep using keyword analysis and the content optimiser to discover new relevant words and phrases. The ranking of these will change over time and use, so make sure to keep your content optimisation strategy current. Also, by finding new questions connected to a previous search, you’ll have ample subjects to produce more relevant and valuable content.
This is just the beginning. If you’d like to know more about SEO or your ideal digital strategy, feel free to contact us. At Reputation by Design, we know the industry and we’re here to help you get your business to the top.
If you’re looking at Instagram as a tool for showcasing your brand online and building a community that supports your business, there are four key factors that dictate engagement, and therefore performance.
The algorithm that Instagram uses ranks your account and posts on interest, recency, and relationship and how you use the tools. Understanding them is the key to achieving more eyeballs for your efforts.
All the trimmings
Instagram’s algorithm prioritises accounts that use all of its features and tools. And it makes sense – it wouldn’t spend all that time and money developing new technology if it didn’t want you to use it! How? Use different content formats, including stories, videos, carousel posts, ads, and highlights. And try out the new features as soon as they come out, and you will be rewarded in the algorithm. And if we had to prioritise one of these formats, we’d suggest using Instagram Stories daily.
Interest
Interest refers to how much Instagram believes a user will like a post. This relies heavily on a user’s prior history, because Instagram can only judge activity and predict behaviour based on what has happened in the past. So according to the algorithm, users who regularly respond to the same type of content, like cute dogs and yoga poses, will have a lower propensity to suddenly embrace suburb reports and property photos.
Recency
From there it’s on to recency, or how fresh your post is. Fairly obviously, it means a post made today should be higher in the feed than a post made a week ago. A regular posting schedule to improve your chances of being seen is absolutely key.
Relationship
The final main factor is relationship which, as in real life, requires the most effort! Instagram rewards content which promotes conversation. Someone regularly commenting on your pictures is much more likely to see them in the future. Hence the ‘let us know in the comments’ school of thought. By encouraging engagement, you’re more likely to build that network of active followers.
There are three more things that influence what a user sees:
- The frequency of how often someone opens the app. Instagram strives to show the best posts since a user’s last visit.
- Following a lot of people means a user will get exposed to less of any specific person. This is an attempt by Instagram to cast a wider net and increase diversity.
- Usage. Browsing in short bursts means a different algorithm is applied compared to those who deep dive.
To filter or not to filter?
Because there are companies who study this stuff, we know that ‘Clarendon’ is the most used Instagram filter worldwide. One of the reasons for this is that ‘brightness’ is shown to be the key to attract viewers and more important, likes. Instagram has a lot of filters to choose from, so feel free to experiment before deciding on the one that you feel defines you and your business the most – just keep in mind that brighter is better.
If you have any questions, please email us, or hit us up on Instagram ; )
Blogging is one of the most cost-effective ways to maintain a conversation with your target clients and remind them you’re an expert, when they need your services.
At Reputation by Design, we think the red tape and pace of change in most markets and industries today places you in an ideal position as a thought leader and educator. With your clients relying on you to help them wade through this confusion, regularly keeping them informed means you’ll be top of mind when they are ready.
Here are five quick tips for creating a rockstar blog your clients will look out for:
Give value freely
Many facets of our work and home life change faster than Miley Cyrus’ relationship status! Your clients need you to let them know what is happening right this minute so they can make smart decisions.
Every regulation or market update, new technology or breakthrough is an opportunity to connect with your audience. Keep them in the loop and let them know you’re the best source of information. You don’t have to go too deep into details; write clearly and simply so any reader can understand.
Storytelling is the new sales pitch
A story with heart can say so much more than a tagline or a slogan. Successful businesses are increasingly turning to stories to get consumers to form a personal connection with their brand.
As a businessperson, you are the knight going into battle for your fair kings and queens. Share your tales of triumph and highlight the dragons you slayed. Add a touch of drama before the happy ending and get your customers motivated for you to be their next champion.
Give your blog legs
Don’t just write, publish and hope for the best. You need to have a strategy for spreading your post far and wide. Think social media and regular newsletters. You can also put together evergreen blogs and plug them into your automated emails. These will reach new clients without any effort on your part.
Be my guest
Guest blogging is another way to expand your reach. Connect with complementary but non-competitive organisations and arrange to share each other’s words of wisdom.
Don’t forget a call to action
At the end of each blog, it’s important that you remind your reader to take action.
If you’re too flat out to blog (and with a good blogging strategy, you should be!), talk to us. We have specialist copywriting skills that you can leverage. It can be as simple as a quick catch-up to share an outline of what you want to say, then let us work our magic while you focus on your clients.
If you’d like assistance with your social media, marketing plans or client outreach, call or email us today.
