Why Brands Need to Get Serious About Blogging

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on September 13th, 2017

For any brand or business that thinks there’s no place – or no need – for a blog on their website, it’s time to reconsider.

There still exists a prevailing misconception amongst some professionals that blogs are only for personal use or showcasing opinions, and have no real business value for the enterprise. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the word itself – “blog” (a truncation of “weblog”) – that makes the idea of blogging sound silly, corny, and not worth the effort or investment.

Categories: Blogging / Vlogging, Branding, Digital Marketing, Marketing

Top 3 PR Fails: What We Can Learn from What Went Wrong

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on July 18th, 2017

Good PR (public relations) is all about persuasion. It’s about persuading an audience to support your position in the market, recognise your accomplishments, promote your messages, and, ultimately, purchase your products.

However, when it comes to PR, there are some subtle yet significant differences to what might be considered out-and-out marketing. PR people don’t buy adverts – that’s the marketing department’s job. They also don’t do things like hand out free samples at the shopping centre in town.

Categories: Marketing, PR

Vlogging vs. Blogging: Which Is Right for Your Business?

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on July 6th, 2017

Whilst blogging has exploded into a multi-million-pound global industry over the past decade or more, today, the rapid rise of video marketing has swept in a new format – vlogging – that business leaders now have to consider as part of an ongoing and ever-evolving content marketing strategy.

The benefits of blogging remain clear. From an SEO (search engine optimisation) perspective, a regular, well-written blog has become the cornerstone of online discoverability for SMEs and corporate giants alike.

Categories: Blogging / Vlogging, Digital Marketing, Marketing

Crowdfunding Made Simple: Part 1 – Understanding Crowdfunding for Scale-ups

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on June 12th, 2017

Welcome to the first instalment of what will be a two-part series of posts unpicking the basics of crowdfunding. In this post, we get to grips with crowdfunding for scale-ups, and take a look at some of the platforms that are available. In Part 2, we’ll be talking about how to launch a crowdfunding campaign, and the best practices for maximising results.

If there’s one thing that’s almost universally true for all businesses, it’s that if they want to scale-up their operations, they are going to need funding to do so.

Categories: Crowdfunding, Digital Marketing, Marketing

What Is SEO and Why Is It So Critical?

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on April 21st, 2017

Search engine optimisation – SEO for short – is critical for any business with an online presence. Today, that means every business.

In my last blog, I made the case that in 2017 and beyond, your website is the most important and valuable marketing tool at your disposal. That is true. And, since it is, ensuring that your hardest working marketing tool is discoverable on the web renders SEO just as crucial.

Categories: Digital Marketing, Marketing, SEO

Why Your Website Is Your Most Important Marketing Tool

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on April 10th, 2017

When all things are considered – your social media marketing, your content marketing, your email marketing, your traditional outbound advertising, your printed brochures and other marketing materials – your website still stands head and shoulders above the rest as the most important marketing tool you have at your disposal.

Why?

Because all else points to your website. That’s why.

No matter where and how a prospect discovers that your business exists – a tweet, a blog post, an ad in the back of a newspaper, a recommendation from a colleague – he/she will always validate your existence by looking up your website.

Categories: Digital Marketing, Marketing, Website

5 Tactics for Inbound Marketing Success

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on March 23rd, 2017

Today, traditional outbound marketing has fallen by the wayside – and for good reason. Who really likes a quiet evening at home being interrupted by cold calls from pushy sales people? And what about all those TV commercials in the middle of our favourite shows, or marketing emails that we never signed up for invading our inbox?

No. Many consumers have simply had enough of businesses forcing such marketing messages upon them – especially in such invasive and unsolicited terms.

Categories: Digital Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Marketing

Appealing to Customers with Emotional Branding

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on March 3rd, 2017

Successful branding is much more than just a logo, a strapline, or a certain colour scheme that’s associated with the products we sell or the services we offer. No, branding – or rather good branding – is far deeper than that. Good branding is all about forming an emotional connection with our customers.

You may ask, what’s so “good” about emotional connections?

Categories: Branding, Marketing, PR

5 Easy Steps to Improve Your Online Brand Reputation

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on February 15th, 2017

You’re going out for dinner, and want to try out somewhere different you haven’t been before – how do you decide where to go?

Today, such decisions are usually informed by online searches. In this example, we would take a look at restaurant reviews and choose one with high ratings and a good reputation. It’s a simple enough formula for the restaurant trade – but does the same thing apply to your enterprise?

Categories: Digital Marketing, Marketing, PR

Brand Strategies: Striking the Balance Between Centrality and Distinctiveness

Posted by Eilis Cope MCIM on February 8th, 2017

There is what is perhaps an eternal dilemma at play for companies in the process of developing a brand strategy. On the one hand they want to ensure their brands are central in their category – i.e. to be the brand most representative of its type (such as, say, Coca-Cola is to soft drinks, or McDonald’s is to fast food) – on the other, they want their brands to be distinctive, standing out from all the rest.

Categories: Branding, Marketing