For anyone who has to write copy alongside their ACTUAL job, finding time to polish skills can be tough. Practising writing comes way below actually having to do it for real. Don’t get me wrong – writing on the spot and under pressure is great for you. There’s nothing like doing for making you sharpen […]
Anyone keen on shopping (both my hands are raised, somehow, as I type) may have noticed that retail apps like eBay and Aliexpress now offer visual search. Visual search isn’t new. Google’s been offering reverse image search for years, as the MTV show Catfish has been teaching us over and over for seven seasons. What […]
We’re all aware of M&S’s food adverts – the ones with sizzling butter atop caramelised steak or crisply snapping crudités. How those adverts LOOK is how emotive copy should read. Humans are emotionally and sensually reactive things. We cry at films. We find our mouths watering while reading a recipe. Our imaginations are so easily […]
A video is an amazing way for your business to get across its personality and key messages. Yes, you’ve made the right decision! But before you can even get to the briefing stage, there’s a whole lot of work you need to do. Wait – work? Why am I working if I’m paying for a […]
Scary thing, making a joke as a business. Humour is a wonderful way to make your brand seem natural and human but it can so easily go wrong. Trust me: I’ve been there. You do not want to go viral for an off-the-cuff remark that’s reposted out of context on every platform on this internet. […]
82% of people using a search engine click on a brand they recognise first – even if it’s not in the first position.* If you’re a local business doing local PPC ads, that might be just fine. But if you’re a small business appealing for national attention online, it’s something you’ll need to battle to […]
The secret to staying on track with your website results is to check your analytics every day. I know – there’s a million other things to do. One thing I’ve found works for me is setting up a Google Analytics Dashboard for content. It gives me an overview of everything I need at a glance. […]
Pinterest was Instagram before Instagram. Visual, addictive and popular with crafters, artists and designers. But then…actual Instagram. Pinterest never managed to have the community vibe of Instagram; although it was pretty, there wasn’t the same approval-seeking draw. Eight years on, what’s worth a small business’s time? Pinterest’s best features for SMEs 1. Influencer API Now, […]
You’ve got your big brand style guide (you have, right?) but for the people who are on the front line all-day-every-day, you need to create something far more concise. Your brand guide for customer service should be easily referenced while someone is talking to a customer – nothing fancy, nothing pretentious and nothing too verbose. […]
As a small business, you’re in an odd position where you’re both more able to help vulnerable customers than a big corporate – and less. While you don’t have a corporate responsibility budget, you have more sight of who your individual customers are and more control over how you treat them. Without shareholders, you can […]