social media Archives - Bee Digital

Step it up a gear with this bumper pack of 2022 marketing tips

Ant Smith — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 12:29:05 +0000

Remember when everything went virtual and digital from 2020? Well, it’s 2022, it’s still happening, AND it’s getting faster.

So, how do you keep up, stay relevant, and maintain that level of engagement you’ve been nurturing?

Answer: by nailing these key marketing trends for 2022.

Live Streaming video

Got a decent following on your Facebook page?

Start a Facebook or Instagram Live video, such as a sneak peek of a new product feature, or a Q&A.

If your followers have notifications switched on they’ll know when you’re about to stream live.

PLUS, Live videos are given priority in news feeds AND you can edit and share a recording of the Live video on your page afterwards.

Focus on short-form video content

They’re perfect for our ever shrinking attention spans, easier for your audience to digest, and they get more shares.

Instagram Story videos have a 15-second limit, Instagram video posts to your profile have a 60-second limit, and TikTok clips can currently run for up to 1-minute.

Ideas: an ‘unboxing’ of your product, behind-the-scenes intro to your business, or face-to-camera videos revealing top tips.

Micro influencers

If you’re trying to reach out to a macro influencer (someone with between 100,000 and 1M+ followers) you’ll probably be just another vanity metric.

Don’t focus on reach; think about the engagement the influencer will offer.

A micro influencer (a user with 500-100,000 followers) adds more authenticity because they know what they’re talking about, they’ll more likely engage with you and your niche target audience, and they’ll be more active with posting content and reacting to comments.

Invest in community

This is playing the long game. Instead of purchasing cold lists , create a Facebook Group.

This enables you to build brand loyalty and nurture strategic relationships (including identifying future brand ambassadors). It also means you have an audience you’ve created that is actively engaged with what you’re selling.

Note: you won’t see results for at least 6 months as it requires regular monitoring, posting content, commenting, and sparking conversations… but the result of your investment is pure gold.

The post Step it up a gear with this bumper pack of 2022 marketing tips appeared first on Bee Digital.

What does iOS15 mean for your marketing machine?

Bryan Plumb — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 15:09:05 +0000

Hello everyone! It’s Bryan from Bee Digital Marketing Ltd… and I come bearing news.

iOS15 has launched… and that is important to those of you working in the education sector.

You may be asking “Apple, why are you doing this?” I thought so too. Then I thought more about it, and sat down to record this quick video to help explain:

What the new email privacy update actually means (minus the jargon).
How email pixels are about to become massively flawed.
Why you must ignore email open rates and spikes. (It’s pretty pointless now).
Why current email models are poor… and remembering what the point of sending an email really is.
What you need to focus on instead. (It’s not open rates. Stop looking at open rates!)

Good luck!

The post What does iOS15 mean for your marketing machine? appeared first on Bee Digital.

Stop reaching out the wrong way with your outreach strategy

Ant Smith — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 11:24:53 +0000

Ever been on a bad date?

That’s essentially what a bad outreach strategy is: it starts with hope but quickly ends in a bitter anti-climax because the other party is just not that into you (or your brand).

Imagine you’re a professional clown on a first date (that’s right, you’re a clown).

You’ve met someone for drinks, you’ve been chatting to them for an hour or two and they seem really interested in what you do, and vice versa.

Feeling positive vibes, you arrange a second date and surprise them by making them a balloon animal before their very eyes… only to see a horrified expression on their face as they quickly reveal they have globophobia (a fear of balloons).

Sorry, but they’re really not that into you.

Just like a date, if you don’t put together a proper outreach strategy from the start and reach out to the wrong audience – it doesn’t work out.

Here’s why and how you can avoid the same deflated balloon-animal-effect in marketing…

The power of 3

3 quick wins

Whether you’ve never had an outreach strategy before or tried, failed and chosen never to repeat the same mistake again – here are 3 quick outreach wins to help motivate you from the get-go:

Increase your traffic → By reaching out to the right influencer, you can increase the traffic to your company website, campaign microsite or landing page due to a retweet or link they have shared with their followers.
Boost your reach → Your campaign or content will be accessible to potential leads who aren’t subscribed to your emails, newsletters or social channels, including niche audiences you hadn’t been aware of.
Improve your credibility → It can be difficult being recognised as a thought leader in your specific field or sector to grab the attention of your audience with rich and relevant content… which is why having a known and revered expert engaging with your content and advocating your brand will up your credibility.

3 mistakes to avoid when doing outreach

There are also 3 things you should avoid when planning your outreach strategy to ensure you reap the above rewards:

Don’t be generic → You don’t want to appear insincere when pitching to an influencer, so avoid any copy and paste jobs. You can draft templates for your communications, of course, but make sure you personalise your messages, don’t include irrelevant information that applied to another influencer you contacted and don’t send out the same email to multiple recipients in BCC.
Don’t be selfish → It’s easy to ask for something that benefits you… but reaching out is about establishing a partnership. It’s all about quid pro quo. If you present your pitch as an opportunity and outline what you can do for them (e.g. sharing their content or offering guest blog space on your site) the response it’s going to be more favourable.
Don’t forget to follow-up → One message is not enough. If you don’t hear back immediately, you shouldn’t be surprised. At the same time, you don’t want to take it personally or be afraid of hounding them with a follow-up. Again, like a date, don’t send another message in 24-hours or less, wait approximately 3 days to give them a nudge.

Do it by email

Email is a great way to share content – from promotional messages and sharing content, to welcoming new prospects and customers to your business.

According to Statista, 293.6 billion emails were sent and received each day in 2019.

So, how do you get yours to stand out and get opened?

Campaign Monitor reports that, depending on the email content, subject line and preheader text, the average open rate of a marketing email in the UK is 17.5%, with a click-through-rate (CTR) of 2.4%.

What can you do to improve these statistics?

Optimise subject lines and preheaders → To be more engaging and non-salesy, you can pose questions, use emotive words, personalise with the recipient’s first name… and add emojis to stand out!
Test your subject lines → Which copy is performing best? With larger audience lists, you can A/B split test your subject lines to see which one generates more opens with a sample audience. Then you can check the results to send the better performing subject line to the rest of your audience.
Send at the best time of day → Emails sent over the weekends don’t perform well. Ideally, prepare to send emails on Tuesdays to Thursdays. Mondays are likely to be overlooked as it’s the start of the week and they’ve got meetings, etc. Fridays are no-nos too, as people are already in that TGIF ‘weekend mode’.
Reach out with relevance → Check social profiles, websites and blog sites to discover who would be more receptive to your message. When sending the introductory email, include relevant content, images and links that link your content to the content on their platforms and channels. This will demonstrate an affinity and value to your message.

Don’t forget social

Who isn’t on social, right?

It’s easy to find out who you should be connected with to create a list for your target outreach audience.

Start by searching hashtag topics related to your brand in the Twitter search bar to see which people are using these hashtags in their Twitter posts.

Whittle down which users you want to contact by checking the information in their profile bio and links to any personal or professional website.

Don’t forget to check how active they are on Twitter, along with their number of followers. More followers and frequent activity mean a greater audience your content can be shared with.

A quicker approach is to use BuzzSumo to search for influencers on Twitter, YouTube and online authors to cast the digital net even wider.

Simply enter your key search terms and BuzzSumo generates a list of names and profile handles to reach out to.

Once you’ve compiled your influencer outreach list, map out your next steps:

Follow them, like posts regularly and comment on relevant posts
Send a DM to introduce yourself and mention posts or content they’ve shared that’s related to your own content or brand values
Propose a mutual relationship to share content on a regular basis

6 convincing benefits

If you or your boss aren’t quite convinced and need to know more benefits before you decide to dedicate valuable time to set up an outreach strategy, here are 6 of them to consider:

Higher conversions → With increased brand awareness and more traffic to your site or landing page, the better chance there is of converting visitors to customers.
Rise in SERPs → More clicks on your site from increased traffic to your site will result in higher Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Boost your EAT value → Increasing the Expertise Accuracy Trust (EAT) of your website due to high-quality links between your content and trusted third party experts will be recognised by Google and improve your SERPs.
More new customers and content → Getting influencers to experience and review your products or services will engage new customers with their credible reviews. Plus, influencers love to create new and engaging content, which you can share and repurpose as part of your own content strategy.
Long-term relationships → Not only will establishing a relationship with influencers help the launch of your current campaign – sustaining a partnership with them will benefit your future campaigns and make the outreach process even easier.
Cost-effective approach → Instead of outsourcing consultants or agencies that specialise in outreach strategies, you can generate the traffic you need from your target audience from a shared ad, social post or landing pages for free (based on a mutual partnership agreement).

The post Stop reaching out the wrong way with your outreach strategy appeared first on Bee Digital.

How to run an event… without tears

Terry Freedman, Guest Author, ICT in Education — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 12:05:06 +0000

So you’re considering running a thought leadership style event, with guest speakers, hot ticket debate panels, and energetic social chatter?

It looks easy enough from an audience perspective. But organising such an event…well, let’s just say the journey is not to be taken lightly.

What’s the purpose of the event?

Think through the event purpose. Will the energy expended = good returns for your company/brand?

Is it to provide useful content for the community at large, or only your customers?

Is to generate interest in your product, or to position your company as a thought leader?

Or is it a combination of all of these?

The corollary of these questions is: who do you see as your target audience?

Is it subject leaders? Technical support people? School leaders? Or school finance officers?

Answering these kinds of questions about your audience is the first step in running a successful event.

Who will be the main speaker(s)?

There’s a huge temptation to go for big-name speakers in order to draw in the crowds.

However, apart from the high fees often charged by such people, I think there’s an additional, and possibly even more important, consideration: authority.

Everyone, especially teachers, is time-poor at the moment. Does anyone really want to spend a day, or even an hour, listening to people who clearly have no direct experience of what they’re talking about?

I’ll never forget once at a conference where the organisers, rather unfairly I thought, put on a talk by an unknown teacher at the same time as a keynote speech by a big name speaker.

The latter’s talk was on the challenges faced in running a school, and what to do about them – even though he had never run a school.

The unknown teacher’s talk was about how to teach computing to children with special educational needs.

That’s the one I attended, with no regrets: she was both engaging and well-informed.

Organising a panel event

It is a sad fact of life that no matter how brilliant your speakers, and how relevant their talks, it will all be for nought if the event is badly organised – or if it even looks badly organised.

Scheduling talks

For example, if there are two or more streams going on at the same time, with back-to-back talks, it’s frustrating if the end of one talk in stream A comes slightly after the start of another talk in Stream B.

This is not just a matter of timetabling: I’ve organised very complex conference timetables without any overlap at all (my weapon of choice is a simple spreadsheet).

It’s also a matter of discipline.

The people chairing the sessions need to be willing to end the session if, after several requests to wrap things up, the speaker fails to do so.

Obviously, though, you need to tell speakers and chairs in advance that this might have to happen!

The roles of the Chair

I have assumed that your sessions will have a chair as well as a speaker.

Apart from the fact that it’s polite to introduce the speaker, it’s useful to have an extra “body” in the room who can keep an eye on the chat area or Twitter stream, select people to ask questions and, if necessary, make frantic attempts to contact technical support behind the scenes.

Event times

Another consideration regarding time is whether you can run the event twice, at different times.

This should be possible if the event is an hour-long webinar.

If you have an international clientele, putting a webinar on at different times is, I think, essential – unless you think people in some parts of the world might be prepared to come along in the middle of the night!

In this respect, you will find the world clock useful.

Registration

Registration is important because it means you will be able to contact attendees afterwards, and perhaps persuade them to sign up for your company newsletter or your product catalogue.

Events are a great way to build your list.

Technical support

It’s axiomatic that when you’re using technology, sooner or later something is going to go wrong.

Do not underestimate the need to have one or two people on standby to sort out issues like people not receiving the link to join the event, or a video not playing properly.

Should you charge for your event?

Obviously, there is a business cost to hosting an event.

Virtual events are cost-effective but lose the networking potential. In-person events create a buzz but can cost a lot to run.

Cost is symbolic of value. If you bring an event together that offers value your audience can’t get elsewhere then it’s OK to charge.

You could differentiate your ticket pricing with e.g. early bird prices, exclusive merchandise, post-event ebooks, and invite-only panels.

Publicise it well

There is some low-hanging fruit in the world of edtech, and you’d be silly not to pluck it.

I’m thinking in particular of educational bloggers who are often more than happy to publicise an event that looks potentially useful. Think about what you could offer them to make it easier for them to write about it.

For example, graphics and logos they can put on their website, speaker bios, and perhaps the opportunity to interview some speakers in advance.

If the event is a paid-for one, offer them a free media pass so they can attend and, hopefully, write about it or tweet about it during the event itself.

Social media for panel events

It’s easy enough to spin up a hashtag for the event, but unless you are expecting serious attendee numbers or President Obama is speaking, don’t hold your breath for big numbers.

Some events also have an associated Facebook group. Is that likely to be useful and cost-effective (bearing in mind the ongoing commitment to moderate it)?

Following up

What will you offer attendees after the conference?

A recording of the webinar, or recordings of all of the sessions?

The latter can be quite useful if the conference was organised into two or more streams, as most people can’t be in two places at once.

Finally, don’t forget that your company doesn’t necessarily have to do all the work. Once you know what you hope to achieve from running the event, you could hire an event organiser to get on with it.

But remember not to skimp on the research: caveat emptor – let the buyer beware!

The post How to run an event… without tears appeared first on Bee Digital.

11 Marketing trends in 2021

Terry Freedman, Guest Author, ICT in Education — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 11:10:34 +0000

It’s difficult to predict the future, so please regard this article as a reflection of what may happen and probably should happen in the area of marketing in the coming year.

Do a search on the internet and you will discover that there are many, many articles on this theme, most of which agree with each other only in one or two areas.

The eleven trends suggested here are based partly from that research, but also on the edtech trends identified in Reflections on Technology in Schools in the time of Covid Part 1 and Reflections on Technology in Schools in the time of Covid: Part 2, and the education market.

1. Availability

Now that all of us have been involved in online education, virtual events, and meeting with friends on Zoom, the availability of technology when and where we need it has become more important than ever.

This has been highlighted by revelations that the much-trumpeted laptops for digitally disadvantaged pupils scheme have resulted in fewer devices than promised being delivered, and devices being delivered that were not entirely fit for purpose.

As a general point, then, we have all become more digitally savvy – do you know anybody who has not used Zoom? – and our expectations have been raised.

From a marketing point of view, I think companies would be wise to consider their availability for customers and potential customers. More and more company websites have a live chat option or a chatbot.

They also furnish the visitor with the opportunity to email the company, with a response promised in the next two or three days, but there are those of us for whom that sounds like a lifetime.

In short, we’ve become savvier, more demanding, more used to technology and people being available, and more used to interactivity.

2. Greater use of VR and AR

According to The Times, sales of virtual reality goggles have risen by 350% since the outbreak of the pandemic, in order to escape the reality of staring at four walls day in and day out.

In other words, one beneficial side effect of coronavirus is that the barriers to entry to the world of VR have been lowered. It is no longer the province of geeks and gamers.

How long will it be, then, before we start to see more and more advertisements that cannot be fully appreciated without first donning some VR goggles or a VR headset?

3. Direct appeal to parents

The increased sales in VR headsets and goggles have occurred in the consumer market.

Given that, and given the fact that so many youngsters are now having to be educated while at home, it would make sense for edtech companies to target parents directly.

Arguably, the need for inexpensive but powerful devices has never been greater, nor vast swathes of the population more receptive.

4. More use of AI

I’ve noticed a growing number of services that automate or semi-automate online research, and then either draft an article based on that research and identification of keywords, or provide a list of main points the article ought to cover.

Using AI in this context means, potentially, that more research can be done in less time.

5. More use of AI in both research and crafting content

This is one of the trends suggested in an article on digital marketing in 2021. According to the article:

“67% of marketing leaders already leverage marketing automation tools. Though marketing automation software has existed for years, developers regularly release new digital capabilities. In 2021, this technology will further evolve, allowing marketers to better convert leads, generate personalized content, and track results.”

6. More use of social media

According to search engine watch, the use of social media has “surged” in recent months, so savvy businesses should devote more time and resources into social media marketing.

Large edtech companies do this already of course, but the article is aimed mainly at smaller businesses.

7. Use of ultra-niche keywords

The same article also advises (small) businesses to target ultra-niche keywords in their marketing.

This means acting on the suggestion made in 10 Tips for launching your 2021 strategy, to find out who your typical customers are and the challenges they face.

In other words, general marketing has to give way, to some extent, to much more highly focused marketing.

8. Free content

There is so much free stuff out there that companies will almost certainly need to make more use of high-quality free content, in order to compete.

The quality of some of these freebies is difficult to overstate. For example, some companies (not in mainstream education) have been offering free virtual tours and talks as a lead magnet for their paid-for services.

The free tours are of the same length and high quality as the paid-for ones.

It means that anyone pondering whether or not to buy a tour doesn’t have to go by the reviews and hope for the best. They can literally try before they buy.

9. Reflection of, and accommodation of, the trends of edtech usage in schools

The trends in edtech use in schools covered in the “technology in the time of Covid” articles mentioned earlier suggest that marketing to schools in 2021 should take into account the greater use of flipped learning (which might indicate a demand for short videos, for example), accessibility of technology, and seamless integration with a school’s MIS (because nobody now has the time or inclination to have to re-enter data or export it and import it from one application to another).

10. Flexibility as requirements change

I should think a good selling point for a company itself, regardless of its actual product, is flexibility.

Given that we don’t know from one day to the next whether all, some or none of the kids are going to be in school, or learning from home, or whatever, companies will need to offer a high degree of flexibility in what they offer and how they offer it.

11. Awareness of the changing consumer

Just as we mentioned as a general point at the start of this article, it’s probably the case that even the most technophobic and tech-sceptic teacher has become more confident with technology, more reliant upon it and, crucially, savvier about what it can help teachers and pupils to achieve.

This increased savviness is bound to make potential customers more demanding. Edtech companies who ignore that likelihood in their approach to marketing will do at their peril.

The post 11 Marketing trends in 2021 appeared first on Bee Digital.

7 Merry Marketing Tips to Unwrap Before You Wrap-Up for Christmas

Ant Smith — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 09:00:48 +0000

Antony Smith, Bee Digital

The most wonderful time of year is upon us, with all the festive feelings in the air that couldn’t come at a better time for most of us, right? For some, it means staying in your bubble and Zooming around a virtual tree or dinner table. For others, it’s adjusting to the new Tier 4 lockdown rules we found out about at the last minute over the weekend.

No matter what situation you’re in, before you head off to make those last-minute online shopping purchases and shut up shop for Christmas, why not spread some much-needed cheer ahead of the New Year with these 7 Merry Marketing Tips?

Give your ads festive flair → From organic posts to PPC campaigns – add some fun and festive images or animation to your ads to stand out on those social channels. This can easily be done with free design platforms like Canva or Crello, simply by choosing colourful backgrounds, catchy fonts, photos and cartoons to engage your audience – whether it’s for an ad with a static image, a GIF or as a short MP4.
Create a Merry Instagram story → According to Instagram, 1 billion+ Instagram accounts worldwide are active every single month, 90% of accounts follow a business, and 500 million+ accounts use Instagram Stories every day. This in from Hubspot: “Whether publishers are trying to grow brand awareness, grow traffic to videos or newsletter outside of Instagram, or share sponsored content, publishers are flocking to Instagram to publish fun disappearing content that infuses brand voice and personality without taking up too much of the average techie’s dwindling attention span.” Share your MP4 ad as an Instagram story too!
Run a seasonal promo → Got a promotion or giveaway for Christmas? Create a limited seasonal campaign, incorporating your ads with a festive flair above. You might consider adding e-gift cards/ promo codes to your Christmas sales or throwing in a ‘mystery present’ to email your customers, so they have your brand in mind over Christmas and when they’re starting to think about their New Year strategy.
Send out Christmas-themed emails → It doesn’t even have to be a salesy email – just a nice, stand-alone message that isn’t intended to convert. Instead, send an email acknowledging how your customer deserves a break to relax and enjoy the holiday season after a very unique and challenging 9 months. Add an emoji to the subject line and throw in a GIF of your own (or even a fun one you’ve found that you can share) to show how your brand – and as a human behind your brand – genuinely cares.
Get remarketing to your online shoppers → Now is the time to launch remarketing ads. Why? Your customers will be online searching for Christmas gifts or holiday deals, so you can grab their attention when they are in the frame of mind to shop. From Black Friday sales to other promotions your ad is competing with – your audience are likely to need a nice little nudge to remind them about your offer.
Personalise messages to your segmented audience → Whether it be emails or ads, make sure they have that personal touch. For emails – which subject lines have performed better? Which campaigns have had the highest level of opens and clicks? With ads, what interests does your target audience have? Who are your lookalike audiences? With a customer persona you’ve discovered from Facebook, Google Ads and email data, personalise your message to highlight the interests and pain-points of your customers to ramp-up those conversions by building brand loyalty at the same time.
Make videos for the holidays → What do we love to watch over Christmas? Christmas movies! At Bee Digital, our favourites are Home Alone, Love Actually and It’s A Wonderful Life. You can’t go wrong with a classic… so take inspiration from them and create your own. If you have an in-house designer to produce one – what are you waiting for? Otherwise, reach out to animators and video creators who can turn one around quickly from Fiverr, Upwork, the Freelance Video Collective or others. You can always involve your colleagues to film a sketch or short message to give customers and prospects a fun and unique insight into your company. All you need is a phone or simply hit the record button on your Zoom call!

Not got time to wrap-up 2020 with our top Merry Marketing tips? It’s a good thing this wonderful time of the year takes place every year. Save this list for next December and go full-out festive!

Wait…

We’ve got one more tip we want to share with you.

That’s right, it’s an EXTRA TIP…

Start greasing the New Year wheels → Think about your New Year campaign and start creating email series, plus cold and retargeting ads that are ready to launch at the very beginning of January. Don’t forget to utilise TOFU with top-of-the-funnel blogs, newsletters – and even your retargeting ads – to get your audience eager and excited.

We get that this December will be a time for reflection. But more importantly, it’s a time to look forward to how you’re going to take on the challenge of what 2021 may bring.

From all of us at Bee Digital, we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and stay safe!

The post 7 Merry Marketing Tips to Unwrap Before You Wrap-Up for Christmas appeared first on Bee Digital.

The real reason I joined Bee Digital

Chris Bradford — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 15:33:45 +0000

My Grandad often told me ‘Hard work is its own reward’.

I admit I dismissed this as an old man’s cliche in my early career. You work for the money, or status, or experience. Right?

I didn’t recognise the truth behind this philosophy until I started to better understand what I really wanted from my working life.

I realised it was simply to do interesting work with interesting people.

Work that has value, that comes naturally, so it doesn’t feel like you’re doing it just for the money. You work hard because your hard work delivers value. That feels good, I think.

I’ve been lucky enough to join Bee Digital as Product Director at an incredibly exciting time for the company. They’ve delivered award winning campaigns time and again for educational companies across the last 10 years and are seeing rocket fuelled growth.

But what also attracted me to Bee Digital was their company culture and values.

They have an enviable reputation for integrity, creativity, and customer success. They know the difference between a cold list and building an audience. They get results by listening carefully to their client’s challenges and executing to the highest standards.

It’s a company with serious ambition driven by a super smart team and it’s invigorating to be on that journey.

So now I know my Grandad was right. It’s time to roll up my sleeves and work hard.

(If you want to reach out please connect with me on a growth strategy call or via Linked in. I genuinely look forward to helping you out).

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