Writing about tech when it’s your main offering you’re never be 100% sure what level of tech knowledge your audience has. As a small business, you most likely rely on your content to make it through to your audience so you can generate more business, so you can write more content, so you can generate more business.

One way to mitigate the issue is to tune your writing has to cater to a wide range of possible knowledge. Then comes the concern that your writing will ‘dilute’ the power of your tech. But there are ways around this.

Here’s a few ways to make sure your content always hits the right marks. 

Publish different kinds of content. 

A good content strategy doesn’t build itself on one kind of content only: it works in different types of blogs, surveys, personal posts, outbound links. This will help on two fronts – it’ll keep your audience engaged if they’re not quite sure what they’re going to read about at any given point in time, and it’ll make it a lot easier for you to put out excellent content every time. 

Consistent brand voice. 

People follow your brand for a reason, and that reason may vary between audience members. The only way you can capture and hold their attention without knowing why they follow you is to make sure that your brand is as much itself as it can be – and that means creating a consistent brand voice for your audience to connect to. The familiarity can help push a connection to audience members that will take the heavy lifting out of establishing trust between your brand and your audience. 

Light on the jargon. 

This doesn’t mean don’t use any kind of jargon: as a company with a specific purpose, sometimes you have to call a spade a spade. What is important is to make sure that the jargon you use has a place and a purpose in its use, and you’re not just throwing out difficult concepts for the sake of establishing yourself as the cleverest brand in the room. Your audience needs to know what you’re talking about. Your audience also has other things to do. 

Think deeper about current issues. 

One of the best things about the tech industry is that it’s a constantly growing, adapting, changing industry, and good ideas come out of nowhere. One of the worst things about it is that it can easily become an industry where thought leadership gets put on the back burner in favour of just giving an opinion on what’s currently happening. For your brand’s sake, go deeper than that. Make new connections, come up with solutions to current issues, think farther than the limits of what’s being spoken about. 

Establish yourself as a thought leader. 

Opinions are great. Thought leadership is better. Establishing your business as someone to follow not to get an opinion, but to get the idea of where the current tech landscape is heading off to is an excellent way to build up both your own and your brand’s social currency – and to keep people following you not for the latest news, but for understanding the latest news and how it impacts their lives. 

Avoid sales speak. 

You have to generate revenue, and that’s understandable – but humans are storytelling creatures at their core. Speaking to your audience as a storyteller instead of a salesman helps you build trust, and making sure that they know they can follow you because you have their best interests at heart, rather than because you want to make a quick sale. 

Use visuals. 

With tech, text can be confusing to follow along, especially when you’re trying to explain a concept that might be better explained with a diagram or a graphic. Besides the ease of explanation, having visuals included in your content breaks up text-heavy feeds, and makes it more likely that your audience will remember and interact with your offerings. 

Follow up and interact with your audience. 

When all you do is publish content, it can be easy for your audience to think of you as only a business. Interacting and following up on your content will help build a connection to your audience, which can then help your content stand out further on their feeds. 

Use your own experiences and case studies.

Tangible proof of your expertise is an excellent way to amplify your position of authority with your audience, and can go a long way towards building your credibility and your business’ ethics online. 

Create interactive content. 

Content, by its definition, tends to be a broadcast rather than an interaction: if it’s a blog, video, or graphic, your audience can’t really interact beyond commenting. However, polls and quizzes can help add a much-needed element of interactivity that can break up a normal pattern of non-interactive content, and thus create a deeper connection with your audience. 

The post 10 Content Marketing Tips for Tech SMBs appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Dos

Online marketing will be perfect for your company if you have a large local or international target and if your offers are constantly evolving; marketing itself is always changing. Here are the five rules of thumb for efficient online marketing.

1. Make a plan

One of the key elements in marketing is anticipation. You have a ton of questions to answer: Who? Where? When? How will you target people? In addition you have to be convinced by your offer before trying to convince anybody else. Make sure your plan is comprehensive and your offer understandable – it’s vital for converting potential customers into real ones.

2. Create a relationship

Make your brand known → Make your brand loved → Make people buy your product
The priority in marketing is to create a relationship between your company and your clients. Nowadays we are challenged to create proper relationships through social media and it can be difficult for a customer to feel close to an international brand. Besides, social media tends to become antisocial media, this is why you absolutely have to adapt your marketing to the different country or the different gender, or age. Be global but act local, thus, your brand image will be loved by clients.

3. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

Competition is positive. It helps your company to continuously improve the service it offers, but in order to do that, you need to know your competitor. Regularly run a search on different social networks and see what your competitors are up to. Don’t try to do the same thing – it would be a waste of time and energy. Rather, try to do better!

 4. Be active

The internet, and our society as a whole, is always changing. According to Wearesocial.com 2078 billion social media accounts are active right now, so you must be too! Online marketing can really be a source of advantages if used well. Indeed the goal is not to be simply noticed, but to have relevant, updated and non redundant content. Your main mission is to catch the attention of the reader and make him want to come back to your website. It is essential for a company to have at least one person in charge of online marketing who will assure the company’s visibility on social media.

 5. Do your own research

Yes, the internet is useful, fast, and comprehensive. But since the internet is accessible by everyone, that means that everyone has the same information, the same “original” ideas. You are not everybody! Do your own research, borrow books from the nearest library, subscribe to a specialised magazine and take a look around you. If you are not taking any risks, nothing will come of your efforts. Obviously, this does not mean acting before thinking, but we’re definitely encouraging you to be more original and less fearful.

Don’ts

As useful and wonderful as online marketing is, that doesn’t mean that nothing can go wrong. A little slip up could easily damage your brand image. It’s all about e-reputation. You may know what you are posting on your blog, your Facebook wall or Pinterest board… but are you aware of what internet users think about your company?

1. Lie

More and more internet users tend to lose trust in brands because of their often exaggerated promises. Nowadays consumers look towards online peers for honest reviews and opinions. They ask questions on fora, they give advice on comparison websites and they share information about products. If you are lying about your products or capacities, you can be sure that it will be made public in the blink of an eye. Your brand will be damaged and it will be really hard to convince your clients that you are honest with them. The result? You risk losing them and any other potential customers.

 2. Spam

Yes, you have to update your content and keep it interesting, but if you post too often, followers might begin to resent the constant barrage of content. Schedule content so it’s spread over the day, not all at once. Users would want to find what they saw previously and show it to their friends so when you fill their feed with spam they would not be able to do this.

 3. Use poor language

The online marketing language can be less formal than a commercial brochure or a business letter, however bad language is banned! You have to take care of your spelling and make sure that the tone of voice isn’t too casual. Of course, adapt your writing style according to your company’s tone of voice. For instance it is not useful to put smiley faces everywhere if you are a professional appliances retailer.

 4. Waste your time

You cannot try to target everybody. By having an online marketing plan which is too vast, nobody will feel concerned about it. You have to focus on your main audience and take care of it. Do not waste your time and energy, instead of reaching everybody you will reach nobody!

5. Forget about SEO impact

Search Engine Optimization is a compulsory step for you to improve your online marketing. SEO is not that complicated, you can easily develop some skills by searching for information on suitable content. If you cannot do that for any reason, you will have to put somebody in charge of, it is true you will spend money to pay someone but it will quickly become profitable. SEO is one of the keys to success.
What you have to keep in mind…
Online marketing through social media is the first impression that potential clients will have of your company. This is simply the mirror image of your values, your work, and your relationship with the clients. Even if you’re not selling products on the internet, you should not disregard online marketing. Having a social media presence will broadcast a good brand image and let the customers know you are there for them!
If you want to find out more about how to improve your social media marketing, why not pop in for a chat over coffee?

The post Dos and Donts of Online Marketing – 10 Before 10:00 appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Automation

You have everything linked up and your Facebook posts go directly to Twitter. This means that most times your tweets are incomplete because the original Facebook post is too long. What’s more is that you’ve got the exact same content on every social media platform – so what’s the point of having different social media platforms? Remember- different platforms, different audiences.

2. #Noonecanunderstandyourridiculoushashtags

Enough said.

3. Yr posts lk smthng like this

Just because you’ve got a limited amount of characters to use it doesn’t mean you’re allowed to murder syntax and grammar! Master the art of being concise while still being precise.

4. You’ve forgotten your manners

Be nice to people, show them you care by replying when they retweet something you posted, or even thanking them for following you. A little bit of courtesy can go a long way!

5. You don’t think before you jump

Don’t jump onto the bandwagon, or latest trend, without firstly checking out what it’s all about – you could end up being in a very awkward situation.
We all remember the DiGiorno incident

6. You mix up accounts

If you’re using a platform that allows you to manage multiple accounts, or have access to your company’s twitter page be careful not to mix up accounts. You don’t want to be posting something highly personal on your business’ page!

7. Keep tabs on who can tweet

You’ve given the account details to so many people at work that you can’t keep track of who has access to the account. This could end badly if someone decides to go rouge after a dispute.

8. You spam

Twitter is great because there’s so much going on that people’s feeds are constantly updated. This means you can post at a higher frequency. That, however doesn’t mean you can’t be considered as spammy.
Posting 20 posts within 20seconds will make you look desperate, inconsistent, and annoying. Plan tweets and schedule them so that you’re tweeting throughout the day.

9. You’re needy

You follow hundreds of people in the hopes that they’ll follow you back and constantly ask people to follow you. Stop!
Create a strategy- interact with people and produce good content and soon they’ll be coming to you.

10. You forget the whole world is watching

The chances are that you’ll produce great content which goes relatively unnoticed. But as soon as you make one mistake suddenly all eyes are on you. Remember that people have lost their jobs, had their lives ruined, or lost all business credibility. Check out the story about Justine Sacco for a clear example.The world is watching and people loves drama – so watch out!
There you go – it really is THAT simple to avoid these mistakes. So go back out there and start working on your strategy. Of course, we’re always happy to help so why not subscribe to our newsletter or pop over for a coffee?

The post 10 Twitter mistakes you've got to stop making! appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. The beginner’s guide to monitoring the right metrics on Google Analytics

Google Analytics doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon – it’s far too useful- so you can be sure that knowing the basics will equip you with the tools you need to figure out future updates and changes.

2. Growth hacking: How to use Twitter to drive traffic to your site

If you need to improve your twitter appeal then this is the perfect post for you. Find out just what you need to do in order to go from zero to hero and really get the most out of your Twitter account.

3. 10 simple growth hacks for your business’ Instagram feed

Instagram can be a great way to interact with your audience – especially if your audience is a slightly younger one. Get people hyped up and inspired with smart and creative posts which will boost your brand’s appeal and drive traffic to your site.

4. FAQ Special – Is your site ready for Google’s biggest update in years?

If you haven’t heard about Google’s Mobilegeddon then perhaps you’ve been living under a rock. We’ll forgive you. Here’s your chance to update yourself on what’s going on in the world of Google and how it’s going to affect you.

5. How to be heard above the noise

From our Office Bloggers series this blog post will give you the boost of inspiration you need to make sure you’re heard above the noise. Find out what it is you need to do to make sure that what you’re saying is useful and impressive.

6. Introduction to Online Advertising – Part 1

This one’s pure gold! We’ve given you a break down of what goes into online advertising, showing you the ins and outs and what different terms mean. Definitely one to be bookmarked for future reference! Check it out.

7. Be Trustworthy: why heart-centred marketing could be your game-changer

With digital marketing becoming more personal and person-focussed it’s important to instil a sense of trust within your brand. If your customers trust you then you’ve got it all. Find out how to be trustworthy and up your game.

8. Independence Day: Why a future-proof WordPress site is the way to go

We build sites to last. We use WordPress for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that it’s future-proof. This makes things simpler for us and the clients. Find out why it’s so important to have a future-proof website and how this could benefit your business.

9. 10 GrowthHacking tips for your next email marketing campaign

E-mail marketing can make or break your campaign. This post provides valuable insight into what you should do to ensure that you’re always on top. Check it out!

10. Simplicity: or how you interact with humans and machines for a winning website

Websites are built to be used by humans, that means that machine and man must interact. This post looks into how to have a website that’s functional but aesthetically pleasing and that will give users the best experience possible.

If these don’t provide you with the information you need to navigate through the digital marketing landscape then why not pop in for a chat? 

The post The recap – Our top ten blog posts you should have read appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Your page lacks information

If you want to be of service then you’ve got to provide as much information as possible. Some pages don’t even give their opening hours so be sure to fill out all the necessary details.

2. Your branding is all over the place

Your profile image is a sleek version of your logo, but your cover photo looks like it came out of the 1980s. You’ve got a kaleidoscope of colours and your page screams chaos. Restore some harmony to your page and apply brand guidelines that will show unity across everything you do.

3. You’ve abandoned your page

This is probably one of the worst things you can do. Don’t start a page only to neglect it after a while. Posts shouldn’t be sporadic, and should follow some sort of regular structure. If people visit your page and see your last post was 3 weeks ago they won’t be very impressed.

4. You use Facebook like a billboard

Okay, so we know we told you not to neglect your page, but that doesn’t mean you should use it as a billboard. Don’t blast your followers with “SPECIAL OFFER ONE TIME ONLY”- this isn’t a market stall. Keep it savvy and engaging, entice your audience and interact with them instead of trying to force sales onto them.

5. Your images are never the right dimensions

Dimensions exist for a reason. A simple Google search will show you that there are dimensions for a profile picture, a cover photo, a Facebook post, a Facebook advert, and an event cover. Stick to the dimensions when creating media to be shared on your page so that everything has a professional look. Don’t use images with low quality and be creative!

(Image source: makeawebsitehub)

6. You’re not communicating

People post to your page but you don’t even acknowledge them, they might as well be talking to a wall (no pun intended!). Interact with your followers and show them you value their input and feedback.

7. You forget you’re a business

We love pages that interact with their customers and followers, but always keep in mind that at the end of the day you’re a business and a certain sense of decorum is required, especially since you represent a brand.

8. You’ve automated too many things

Automation can be handy – especially when you link different social media platforms. But more often than not it can cause some problems. If all of your posts are automated then you risk sounding like a robot. Different social media platforms have different audiences, so automating your Facebook posts to post to Twitter might be a good temporary fix to a neglected Twitter account, but isn’t a long term solution.

9. You’re not paying attention to your insights

Facebook insights provide a great deal of information for your business. If you haven’t checked them out yet then it’s high time you do. You’ll learn about your audience, which posts are the most successful, and can analyse any spikes in page likes in order to link these with any particular efforts you carried out.

10. You think Facebook advertising is as simple as pressing “boost”

We recently published the first in a series of blog posts which will provide valuable information on online advertising. There’s more to marketing than just pressing boost. Familiarise yourself with the different ways you can use Facebook, would it be better to pay for impressions or for clicks? What’s the reason behind boosting your post, and what’s your ROI?

The post Are you making these 10 Facebook marketing mistakes? appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Don’t focus on sales

First things first, you can’t simply join a group and blast everyone with your products and sales offers. You’ll probably end up being deleted. Neither can you create a group and use it as a billboard to post all of your products and services – people won’t pay much attention to you if you do.

2. Be helpful

Perhaps the easiest way to get people to like you is by being helpful. Share useful links and tidbits of information, answer people’s questions (if you know the answer) and provide insider information. This will allow people to feel that they can depend on you, it will also show you’re a nice person who genuinely cares.

3. Be engaging

Similar to the above point you’ve got to be engaging in order for people to like you. Interact with others, be a valuable member in the group. Be the person who gets things going, even if it’s simply by asking an interesting question.

4. Stop, collaborate, and listen

More than just a Vanilla Ice lyric, this is actually a great piece of wisdom! Facebook groups can present great opportunities to network and form connections. You can learn from other people’s experiences, plan things together, and even simply observe what people like and dislike.

5. Share things from your page

If you’re involved in a Facebook group you can easily share posts from your page with the people in the group. Of course make sure what you’re sharing is relevant and don’t force anything onto anyone! Keep it casual and play it cool.

6. Share things from other pages

If you want to show you’re a team player then share things from other people’s pages. Combining this with the above point shows that you think about more than yourself and you’re willing to acknowledge other people’s efforts!

7. Allow customers to communicate

If you’ve got a group for your business’ page then this is the perfect space to allow your customers to communicate between themselves. Never doubt the power of word of mouth! So while it’s important to always offer proper customer service, it’s also great to have loyal customers helping out other loyal customers.

8. Build a sense of community

Based on the above point, Facebook groups are perfect for building a sense of community. So if you sell hiking shoes a Facebook group dedicated to the joys (and pains) of hiking could be the perfect way to interact with your audience whilst subtly marketing your product.

9. Branding

If you’re creating a Facebook group be sure to incorporate a level of branding – you can do this through the cover photo and the occasional posts linked to your product.

10. Get feedback

Facebook groups break down boundaries and become more personal. Don’t be afraid to ask people for feedback, make them feel exclusive by sharing some upcoming ideas (without giving it all away) and asking what they think. Who knows, you might get the best piece of advice you’ve ever hear

The post Using Facebook groups to maximise business potential appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Ignore your emails

Most of us in the office get pop up notifications whenever we receive an e-mail. This means that we’re constantly stopping whatever task we’re doing to check an e-mail. This can interrupt your work flow and it can be hard to get back into the zone. So sometimes we just turn the pop ups off! We don’t suggest you do this for a long time because you might eventually get back to your inbox to find ” IMPORTANT URGENT ANSWER ASAP” casually sitting there from 4 hours ago. But turning off notifications for an hour or two won’t hurt!

2. Track your time

Plan how much time something should take and then do your best to stick to that slot. We use Paymo to track how much time we spend on projects – eventually we figured out more or less how long something should take us which makes planning our day so much easier!

3. Keep things close at hand

Working on a variety of projects means a variety of specifications and needs. Create lists of the different things clients need and keep these close at hand. Some of us tape lists to the wall, others write them on a big sheet of paper stuck to their desk, and two of us have turned their work area into a post-it-note hangout! Call us old school, but it works!

4. Plan, plan, plan!

Busy days don’t just drop out of the sky (okay, sometimes they do!). Plan your week and make sure you make time for everything you need to do. If you’ve got a relaxed day use it to do some behind the scenes work which would simplify things for you in the future. Whether it’s stock image hunting or creating titles for future blog posts make sure that you use those quieter days to their full potential.

5. Have resources

Speaking of stock imagery, we’re always working to improve our database of beautiful royalty free images. But whenever we’re really stuck in a jam we like to use one of the many sites on this great post over at BeeWits. It’s been a lifesaver more than once!

6. Set reminders

Schedule in reminders to remind you about things at intervals (1 week before, 2 days before, on the day). We’ve got a weekly reminder for our 10 Before 10:00 posts, and other reminders for our newsletters. This combined with numerous post-it-notes, and verbal reminders from members of staff ensures we never miss anything!

7. Hold regular meetings

You can’t spend 8 hours a day staring at your monitor isolated in the digital world! Sure you can communicate on Skype, but nothing beats sitting down at a table with a mug of coffee and a notepad. Having regular meetings not only helps you plan work strategies- it also increases team dynamics. So if you can’t remember the last time you had a team meeting it’s about time you have one!

8. Get yourself a whiteboard

We’ve got a white board at the end of the room and we’re proud to say it’s quite a beast! It’s got our marketing strategy fully laid out and whenever we’re in need of some inspiration we go through the (never-ending) list. It provides us with a great visual on the aims and motives behind our work. (Plus who doesn’t love a whiteboard?) If you really can’t get a whiteboard go ahead and write on the glass. Just make sure you don’t use a permanent marker and wipe off any joke comments before client meetings!

9. Lose yourself in background sounds

While we’ve got a very sociable office environment each one of us has a pair of headphones. Sure most of the times we can still hear what’s going on in the room but the music does drown out the office sounds. If music doesn’t work for you why not try rainymood or coffitivity? Sometimes a thunderstorm combined with coffee shop murmurs is just what you need!

10. Feed your brain

We’re massive foodies and over time we’ve learnt that you can’t focus on low fuel. While we advise you to stay away from a giant plate of carbonara, we do recommend that you stop for lunch and have something yummy to recharge your bodies and keep you going. There are many great recipes out there dedicated entirely to feeding your brain so why not carry out a quick google search?
All in all how you work depends on your own personality – are there any tools you find indispensable, or do you have some sort of secret which helps you get through things quickly? Let us know!

The post 10 things to do to maximise work efficiency appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. Be eye-catching

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to refresh your company page is through the use of some new images. Go through your website and change round some of your featured images so as to give the posts a new appearance, making them more appealing to visitors. Don’t be afraid to recycle posts and share them on social media (a perfect way to keep an active social media account if you’re low on new posts).

2. Take a look back

April brings the end of Q2 – the perfect chance to assess your work so far. Did you stick to your goals? Perhaps you need to try something new or make small changes. You can only plan for the future if you look back at previous work and evaluate what worked and what didn’t.

3. Spring time SEO

Go through your website’s SEO – are the keywords you used still relevant? Perhaps some of your posts introduce a different angle. It’s important to make sure that your SEO is an accurate representative of your work. It may be time consuming to ensure that all your pages have good SEO but it will help boost your page to the top of Google – bringing in more business!

4. Unfollow people

We’d normally tell you to engage with your audience and follow people – but let’s be honest, sometimes you need to remove a couple of people from your lists. Perhaps they’re inactive, or maybe you just want to make sure that the people you’re following are important to your company. Either way your feed will benefit from a spring clean – and so will your follower to following ratio!

5. Who are you?

Go through your social media accounts and check the ‘about’ section – does this accurately represent your company? Perhaps you’ve taken a new tone of voice or a new direction. Let your ‘about’ section represent your company’s branding. Also, make sure that the ‘about’ is universal throughout all of your social media accounts so that you’re presenting the same message throughout.

6. So social

Speaking about social media accounts – go through your social media accounts ensuring that they’re all giving off the same message. Check your social media strategy (or come up with one!) in order to ensure that all accounts are getting the same amount of love- there’s nothing worse than a neglected account!

7. Protect your passwords

That’s right – it’s important to update your passwords regularly. Try to change them at least every 3 months even though it’s very tedious- better safe than sorry after all.

8. Explore new options

Don’t be afraid to delve into new social media channels. Take a look at what’s hot and evaluate whether these are relevant to your company – and more importantly, your audience. Maybe try Pinterest or Instagram just to start off with.

9. Social sharer

Is your site social sharing friendly? Take a look through your posts and see whether you’ve made it easy for people to share your posts. Are social media buttons easy to find or do people have to search the whole page just to find your Twitter handle?

10. Your milestones

A lot can happen in a year – especially if you’ve worked hard. Do you have any milestones you’d like to share on social media – what have you achieved and how can that improve your business? Go ahead, show off!
Obviously there’s always going to be a lot that you can do in order to improve your online presence and your digital marketing skills, but these are a few of the basics that you should have covered in order to ensure success. If you’d like to do more and want some help why not drop us a line or subscribe to our newsletter? 

The post Spring cleaning your social media appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

1. 67% of Maltese business owners  agree that social media is important to them >Tweet this<

While certainly a great step in the right direction, it’s interesting that 33% don’t give social media that much importance. This makes us question what their relationship with their clientele is like. If people are wondering why they should bother going social perhaps they should read this!

2. 77% of Maltese Businesses use Facebook as their primary social platform >Tweet this<

In Malta Facebook has always been one of the most popular social media platforms, so it’s no wonder that many businesses would use Facebook as their primary means of reaching customers. However there’s a big difference between simply using Facebook, and using it effectively! Why not go through our guide to using Facebook for business to refresh your memory.

3. 5% of Maltese Businesses still have no website >Tweet this<

It’s 2015 – what are these businesses waiting for? With people carrying out many searches for businesses online a website is an asset. These days having an effective website really isn’t that hard – in fact it’s all about simplicity!

4. 56% of Maltese Businesses do not have a responsive website >Tweet this<

We’ve harped on about this plenty of times, but with Google having recently announced that non responsive websites will be penalised, we cannot help but keep stressing it. Check out our ten reasons why you need a responsive website asap!

5. 72% of Maltese Businesses issue a regular newsletter >Tweet this<

Newsletters allow you to get right into someone’s inbox, and with an ROI of around 4,300% (according to the Direct Marketing Association) they’re highly cost effective. Check out how to growthhack your e-mail campaign.

6. 7% of Maltese Businesses spent their entire budget on online marketing >Tweet this<

One of the best things about online marketing is that when done right it can be highly cost effective! With so many people spending so much time online it’s important to invest in good digital marketing.

7. In 2015 64% of Maltese Businesses will spend more money online >Tweet this<

With Q1 almost over it’s time to look back and analyse your 2015 marketing strategy. How did you spend your money, did it work for you? Keep ahead of your marketing strategy to ensure that you remain in the game!

8. In 2015 52% of Maltese Businesses will shift a higher percentage of their spend ratio to online marketing >Tweet this<

This shows that apart from choosing to spend more money online just because companies have a bigger budget, slightly more than half are choosing to shift the ratios, investing more money in online marketing. Clearly, businesses are starting to realise the cost effective rewards of digital marketing!

9. In 2015 93% of Maltese Businesses plan on tracking their results more than they did in 2014 >Tweet this<

Tracking results allows you to know whether your strategy is profitable or not. Digital marketing is advantageous because you can often get a very clear picture of where your money went and what worked and didn’t. No wonder more people want to track their results! If you find Google Analytics confusing check out our simplified guide.

10. In 2015 87% of Maltese Businesses plan on increasing their social media presence >Tweet this<

As seen before, Facebook is the most popular social media platform in Malta, however never be afraid to branch out and explore different platforms which might work with different audiences!

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1. Take a break

This might sound like the most counterproductive thing to do, but if you’ve been staring at your screen for the past hour then it’s safe to say you’re not going anywhere. So take a break – brew yourself a cup of tea, and stretch your mental muscles by focussing on something else for a few minutes.

2. Look back

Okay, break over – sit back down  and take a moment to re-visit old posts, check the analytics and find out what worked and what didn’t, after all a little bit of pruning can make all the difference!

3. Plan

Now that you’ve figured out which aspects work for you, start planning a strategy. Decide on how frequent your posts will be, whether they’ll have themes, or whether they’ll be split into a series or categories.

4. Visualise

Imagine what your audience would want to read about, check out what the latest market trends have been and what kind of articles people shared. Think of what kind of end result you want your post to have – this will help you decide on your direction of writing.

5. Skip the title

Don’t confine yourself to a title before you’ve written a single word, it will only limit you. Try having a general idea of what you’d like to write about and then work around that. Adapt the title to your content – never the other way around!

6. Skip the intro

Seeing as we’ve skipped the title, why not also skip the intro and leave it for last? Get started with the main elements of the text and your intro will form itself…just don’t forget to actually write it!

7. Go back to basics

You’re obviously going to be writing your work digitally, but sometimes it’s easier to draft it out on a piece of paper first. Jot down a variety of points, drawing inspiration from different sources. This gives you a different perspective and makes adding ideas and notes much easier. Plus, it’s always rewarding to scrunch up the paper or rip it into shreds before tossing it into the (recycling) bin.

8. Ask for help

You don’t have to go it alone, ask a colleague or friend to read your work, suggest ideas, or provide helpful edits. It could be that you just need a fresh pair of eyes!

9. Prepare in advance

Sometimes you know you’re going to have a tricky topic to deal with. Start working on it in advance so that you can tackle it in stages. This gives you time to go back and re-read your work, change the layout, or add better images.

10. Go into isolation

We’re not talking about becoming a nomad – but if all of the above hasn’t helped then it’s time to sit down, block out all distractions (like e-mails, your phone, or Facebook notifications) and just get into the zone. Maybe music will help, or a big mug of coffee – find what makes you work and use it!
We’ve shared our knowledge with you, now it’s up to you to make it work. If you’re still completely stuck why not drop us a line and maybe we can offer some solutions.

The post Beating a Content Marketer's Nightmare – Writer's Block. appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.