No amount of paid media is going to turn bad creative into good content. – Gary Vaynerchuk

For my first Switchversary last year, I blogged about what Switch is, this year I want to write about the importance of producing good content.

In the past two years at Switch, I have had the opportunity to understand the difference between boosting a post and creating good, quality content. See, most people believe that allocating a boosting budget to a post is enough to reach the desired target audience and get them to engage. Excuse my French, but that is bullshit – you will reach your audience and force them to consume something that they might not be interested in seeing, but you can’t be certain that they will engage with your post.

Nowadays there are still so many people who would rather post a floating image of their product on Facebook and spend money boosting it than investing their money in good, relevant, content.

 Here’s why you need to start investing in quality content rather than boosted curated or low quality posts.

Good Content: Paid VS Organic Reach

If it were up to me, I would never boost any sort of content (sorry, Mark Zuckerberg) – this is because I truly believe in organic reach and engagement. The difference between Paid reach and Organic reach is in the word itself: with paid you are spending money in order to reach your audience, whereas with organic it’s the audience finding you thanks to Facebook’s algorithms and the engagement of their friends with the post.  

It’s quite simple when you think about it – if you create good content, your audience will want to engage with it and share it with friends. In this way, your post will grow in reach automatically. When you share a post just for the sake of putting content on your page and then boosting it, you are basically throwing your money away,

Why would you want to reach your audience but NOT get them to engage with your brand?

This is exactly what we did with Kinnie: we’ve worked on a strategy to produce content that was more relevant to a local audience and to the brand itself. We’ve identified different content streams, all of which had different objectives and target audiences. Some of the content streams were more relevant for an older audience, whereas others directly targeted people in their twenties. Some pieces of content were more informative, and others were simply used to reinforce the message that Kinnie is a great local drink.

Exhibit A: We produced a series of recipe videos to show creative ways through which people can consume Kinnie – this is because we like to think outside the box and believe that Kinnie could be showcased as more than just a drink, but as a delicious ingredient too.

Exhibit B: To reinforce the culture and origins of Kinnie, we’ve launched a series of streams that solely aimed at showcasing the beautiful islands. We did this by snapping images of Kinnie around popular locations, but also by producing short videos that showed in deeper details beautiful locations around Malta, Gozo and Comino. It’s a combination of consumables and wanderlust – and what could be more engaging than that?

Instead of using high budgets to boost posts, we invested the money into creating quality content. The result?  With more than half the number of posts and less  boosting budget than the previous year, we’ve increased the Page’s total reach by 80%, the average organic reach per post by 370% and the Page’s total engagement by 47% in just under a year.

Want to find out more about how we achieved these numbers? You can contact us here – the coffee’s on us.

Good Content: Aspirational VS Irrelevant

Let me use Max Factor Malta as an example. We’ve been working with this cosmetic brand since 2014, but we’ve always had one main problem: we wouldn’t have relevant content to work with. We’ve had to use the content produced by Max Factor International to promote products/events/promotions on the page, and although it is aesthetically beautiful, the content just did not make sense for the Maltese market.

Most of the visuals involve Victoria’s Secret models using the products – and it’s no news that using overly-photoshopped models to promote cosmetics doesn’t quite work anymore. This is why we have launched the Max Factor Squad – a six month campaign which features six Maltese influencers who promote the brand locally. This was one done by producing high-quality visuals in our studio – a variety of videos and images that are being shared on social media and used to reinforce the message at point of sale in stores.

https://www.facebook.com/406671259436256/photos/a.461503730619675.1073741828.406671259436256/1055886301181412/?type=3&theater

When comparing the figures from June to August 2016 (period without local campaign) to the June to August 2017 figures  (period with local campaign), we have noticed that the Max Factor Malta Facebook’s Page’s total reach increased by 226%, of which 285% was the organic reach increase, along as a 350% increase in Engagement.

Good Content: Virality VS Dormant

I think that every agency, marketing executive and freelancer has heard the sentence ‘I want this to go viral’ at least once in their career (I’ve heard it approximately 47 times in the past three years). If creating content that goes viral was so easy, we’d all have over 500K likes on our images/videos, but it’s not. Virality just happens, and most of the time it hits when you least expect it. One thing that we can certainly do is increase the chances of a post performing well – and how do we do that? That’s right, by creating good content.

Start by defining your story (be it emotional, funny, serious, interesting etc), see how you want to say that story, and then produce it. Always keep in mind your audience – who are they? What do they like to see? Will they understand the message behind your story? You should always make sure that:

1. Your story makes sense to your viewer
2. It triggers a feeling – this is how you’ll get your audience to engage with it

This always makes me think about this one great advert, from Christmas 2015 – and if you’ve already seen it, it’s worth watching it again:

Good Content: the key to success

I can’t emphasize this enough to our clients: create good content and you will see results.

It’s very difficult for us marketers to work with brands that resort to stock photography and images of floating products in order to communicate a message. We no longer live in the era where we need to fight over a magazine spot – the challenge now is to produce content that is better than what others are creating, and I am not only referring to your competitors. As consumers, we are constantly thrown some sort of advertisement our way (boosted posts, sponsored posts, Google ads, banner ads etc etc), that we now manage to filter it all and carefully choose the ones we want to look at.

So: do you want to stand out from the crowd with good content, or are you okay with being filtered out with your boosted post? It’s all about making the transition from simply having an online presence to leaving an impact on your audience. If you don’t know where to start, we can help. Get in touch today.

The post The power of good content appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Why?

When writing content you might have one of those days where you stare at your monitor, desperately seeking inspiration. You re-write the same paragraph about 5 times, never happy with what you’re producing.
Just as you’re about to say FTSIQ you realise that perhaps it’s time for a new approach. So you decide to create a list based blog post.
Creating a list allows you to break down the writing process. Instead of trying to write paragraphs you’re condensing everything into bite sized information. This not only makes it easier for you to write, it also makes it easier to read.
You can of course elaborate on what you put into your list. It can be a simple no frills list where you mention the salient points and leave it at that, or it can be a list where you go into detail about the separate topics. Either way it provides a clear cut structure and helps you stick to the point. You won’t go off at a tangent and won’t run the risk of losing the gist of what you’re writing about.

How?

Of course there are lists and then there are lists. the internet is full of click bait articles with headings like The ten secrets you need to know about pasta that will change your life only to present you with a list full of useless information which you knew anyway.
A good list takes time. Here are a few things to keep in mind

1. Know your facts
   Don’t get caught out. Make sure you know what you’re talking about. Verify any stats and where possible link to your sources.
2. Length
   You can make your list as long as you want – but as a general rule try not to have a list with a random number of items – eg 23
   Go for 3, 5, 7, 10, 20, 50, 101… you get the point. These numbers look good and have an element of harmony which is more eye catching. What’s more is that writing with a pre-defined amount of points in mind helps to guide your writing.
3. Provide useful information
   People want good content. Just because you’re writing a list it doesn’t mean you can skimp on content. If you don’t have enough to talk about for a 10 point list then just go for something shorter.

These are just the basics, there are of course other things to keep in mind based on the article you’re writing.

The results

Lists are perfect for building engagement. People naturally skim through text, so if you’re writing paragraph based articles readers will probably rush through what you wrote. With lists they’ll still skim, however with each different point you re-capture their attention.
Lists are shareable – people find them useful because they automatically insinuate efficiency. It’s almost like we look for answers to life’s biggest mysteries in lists. They increase engagement and also keep people coming back for more.

To sum up

If you’re looking for a new way to boost content engagement, or are lacking inspiration about what you should be writing, then it’s high time to dabble in the world of lists. In the meantime, why not check out one of ours?

The post L is for Lists appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Information made available by a website or other electronic medium- The Oxford Dictionaries
Defining the word is easy – but actually understanding exactly what it entails and how to include it in your marketing strategy is a whole other level.

What?

Though ‘content’ trends more on Google, the term ‘content marketing’ is steadily rising in popularity. This is because of the trend in inbound marketing which revolves around the creation of content in order to attract readers, followers, and, therefore: buyers.
From 2014 onwards there was a sudden surge in the use of content marketing – leaders in the industry started to realise that digital marketing couldn’t function the way traditional marketing does. You couldn’t simply shout at people in order to sell your product – the internet can’t just be used as an extension to billboards. If you really want to be successful you’ve got to engage your audience.

But how?

Content is whatever is found on your website or social media platforms. It’s anything you produce or create – from images to text to video. Great content inspires and generates interest – great content is shareable. So the main aim for you and your content should be for it to be interesting and shareable so that it creates discussions about and around your brand.
One of the best (but not easiest) ways of doing this is through a blog. These days most websites have a blog which is used as an extension of their brand. That doesn’t mean that everyone with a blog is using it properly. Posting once every blue moon won’t get you anywhere, neither will boring content which doesn’t provide any value.
The first thing you’ve got to do if you’re serious about your content is to come up with a content marketing strategy. Plan out the next three months’ content with an easy to understand schedule with clear deadlines. Don’t be afraid to plan topics in advance, but do allow for some posts which are relevant to things happening at the time.
 
For your blog’s content to be successful it must be actionable, interesting, and engaging. Remember that you’re not talking at your readers… you’re engaging in long term dialogue, and if you work at it you’ll see the same people interacting with your brand over and over again, these are the most loyal people who will take your brand to the next level.

Why should I care?

• It makes your brand more human, it shows who you are, and can be used to establish you as a leader in the field.
• It’s great for your SEO because fresh, frequent content will help you rank higher in search results since it shows you’re more than just an advertising space.
• It directly drives traffic to your website, and can boost overall engagement with your brand.

This is of course just the tip of the ice berg and there are many more reasons as to why content is king. It’s a world of many interconnected layers waiting for you to explore it – so if you haven’t delved into the world of content it’s about time you did.

The post C is for Content appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Value

Your content must provide value to the audience you are targeting. Moreover, if you really want to make a hit and get your content shared, it must significantly exceed the expectations of the user who happened upon your content.
Value comes in all kinds of forms. Whatever your industry, website, product, or blog – your primary goal is to provide very specific value to your target audience. Creating valuable content can be done via tutorials, advice for your industry, recipes, free resources, awesome content full of information, entertainment (humour, music, video), cutting edge news value, tools, imagery, commentary, fashion advice – any website for any industry can provide lots of value via the content on their site.
Think about the websites you yourself visit and see what kind of value these sites offer. Let’s start with the big ones.
Facebook – provides entertainment value for “normal” users whilst offering marketers a very targeted audience to market to.
Google – provides exceptional informational value through giving you access to the right information when you need it. It also offers marketers a very good opportunity to market their wares at the specific point when a customer is searching for them.
YouTube – provides entertainment and informational value to the end users whilst providing very good exposure to video publishers.
Your favourite news website – provides information on international and local news value.
Your favourite daily site(s) – trending and topical news about topics which interest you.
The real reason for visiting these sites if you had to think a little bit about it – they provide essential value to your everyday life at the point which you need it.
So on to the question you need to ask yourself as a content provider…

What is the essential value your audience is looking for?

Figure this out – it may be a simple question, but the definitive right answer is probably not very simple. Once you’ve figured this out – give your audience this value in the form of your content. And if you want your content to stand out – you need to give it to your audience bigger and better than your competitor.
Let’s give a few examples of providing essential value via your website

Switch Digital

We are a digital marketing agency. Our target demographic is small businesses who want to do digital marketing. So our blog (tries to) provide essential topics and content for those who are trying to figure out digital marketing – content such as “A Social Media Primer – ”, “10 simple growth hacks for your business’ Instagram feed” and “Why are people not seeing my Facebook posts any more” provide essential reading for our demographic.

BeeWits

We are an upcoming project management service for web designers. Our target demographic is web designers. So we create and share content which provides real value for web designers. Examples of some our awesome, high value content for web designers are “101 awesome tools for web designers and developers”, a quotation generator for web designers, and “The Ultimate Web Design checklist”

Switch

Our 3D designers follow these blogs: Dezeen, Contemporist. Our graphic designers follow The Fox is Black, Bored Panda, and Blood, Sweat and Vector. The reason why they follow these blogs is because these blogs provide essential inspirational value.
Being a bit of a geek I follow XKCD.com, and also The Oatmeal. Not for their value in Product Management but for what I believe is very particular entertainment value.

Let’s go on a tangent to completely different sites.
Airbnb – AirBnB provides exceptional value to two specific kinds of people. Those people who have a room/place to rent and don’t have enough clout to attract sufficient customers to their service by themselves, and those looking for cheap accommodation in the places they are travelling to
Booking.com – again, besides being a one stop shop for all your hotel booking needs, it enables small hotels to piggy back on the popularity of the site to get additional exposure and bookings than they would have been able to get if they were going it alone
TripAdvisor – Whilst customers can be well advised about the place they are about to visit, service providers can ensure that their good service is well-rewarded by getting even more exposure and customers
Amazon – widest choice and cheapest prices for nearly anything for customers, whilst being a massive opportunity for small business selling their goods
Look around you, reflect on the sites you visit, and understand the value that site provides to you. Now – figure out how to provide that essential value to your own target audience.
The more value your content provides – the easier it is to hit the spot with your audience – and the more likely it is that they will come back to you for more… Even for offline goods and services, content of your website can still provide much value for your specific customers. Just take your specific industry, and write content about questions or concerns your customers typically have.
…and yes, they will eventually give you their money. Which brings us to our next topic.

Value in your sellable goods

Whatever you are selling, whether it is expertise, services, consultancy, freelancing, digital or physical goods – you must be providing MORE value than you are selling your product for. If you aren’t providing sufficient value at the price you are selling for – you are going to have a hard-time selling. Value in sellable goods of course comes in various forms, operational efficiency, increased productivity, entertainment value…
So the question you’ll need to figure out when you are selling goods is:

• Am I providing enough value for the price I’m selling my product?
• How do I provide more value than my competitors?

At Switch Digital / BeeWits – one of my primary concerns as the Product Manager of new SaaS products, is ensuring that the product(s) we are developing deliver value to our customers.
Whether those customers are readers of our blogs, users of our free tools, or paying customers of the services we develop – we need to ensure that we provide enough value to our customer that they come back because they want to, not because they have to. With BeeWits – a project management service for web designers – we want to offer exceptional value to web designers. Rather than provide a generic project management service, we provide a service which is specifically tuned for the needs of people designing websites. And more than anything, we want to provide the service at prices which given the improved efficiency of our customers, will make it a natural selection for our demographic.

The post Creating valuable content appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

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.

You care

Start by working on having a genuine care and concern for your customers’ goals, objectives and needs. This is the foundation for everything you hope to build with them. It can work with B2B too, if you keep in mind that there is a person sitting at the heart of every business decision.
As marketers and brand stewards, client relationship is key. The structure and goal of individual campaigns may change from time to time, but if you think about it a little, there is always one constant: We are all seeking to move a person to take action, to buy our product and to do business with us. Ultimately, those people won’t do business with a logo or a mission statement, they’ll do business with people they know, like and trust.
If you keep this relationship in mind and speak to them truthfully, as regular people, using a voice that is both clear and authentic, you’ll begin to build that trust you’re after.

You collaborate

Social platforms are here to stay, and as we’ve said over and over again, it’s no longer an option for brands to avoid the social media landscape. The most successful companies to use it won’t be the ones using social to market to their customers, but those marketing with them. (Last week’s post was all about ‘being social’ as opposed to ‘doing social’, if you missed it.)
Giving customers a seat at the table has never been easier or more important, and this is where collaboration with affiliates comes in.
According to the 2014 Ipsos Social Influence Study, user-generated content is more memorable to readers, and 50% trust it more than they trust other media. In fact, millennials trust peer reviews a lot more than they trust professional ones – think about your online shopping habits: don’t you check the user reviews before you place an order?
You can use peer reviews to your advantage to make your brand more trustworthy. A collaborative approach that focuses on including your customers will make the conversation around your brand more positive – a refreshing change to the old approach of interrupting clients to blast them with one-way messages, don’t you think?
This is exactly why we at Switch Digital are in constant contact with the largest network of bloggers on the island. Through collaboration with bloggers, we’re able to encourage and, to a certain extent, manage the creation of quality blog posts that generate trustworthy brand awareness among blog readers.
Tapping into resources like this could get your brand well on its way towards becoming a household name through effective endorsements and quality affiliate marketing.

You inspire

Heart-centered marketing is what won President Obama his 8 years in office. The same strategy can also sell anything from an idea, to a service, to a bottle of water.
By getting to know your customers through the collaborative dialogue we just discussed, you’ll learn what it is that drives them on an emotional level. More importantly, you’ll be able to give them exactly what they want. You could speak to them with confidence, knowing that that you are offering something they find valuable. Just like Obama did.
The results will then speak for themselves: People will give you ‘likes’ because they actually like you, not because you badgered them into it. People will know about you because you’ve taken the time to get to know them. People will appreciate that you have invested in the relationship and listened to them. And when you then speak from the heart with the intention to better your customer’s life in some way, you will leave people feeling inspired.
TL;DR – What’s love got to do with it? As it turns out, a whole lot.
Finding the authentic voice of your brand and respecting your customers enough to develop and cultivate a real relationship with them will lead to a win-win scenario which seriously pays off in terms of long-term equity and loyalty. Heart-centered marketing FTW!

The post Be Trustworthy: Why heart-centered marketing could be your game-changer. appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Great to (almost) get to know you

We’re used to getting plenty of content against no apparent payment. The internet has dramatically increased the spectrum of services we’re no longer prepared to pay for. And we’re also used to having part with varying amounts of personal information in exchange. How often have you spotted something you really want to read more about, only to U-turn when faced with a form you’re expected to fill out? The trend towards increased information requirements has finally peaked, and the more clever content providers have started to reduce the request to tolerable levels. 2014 should see a steady decrease in the amount of information requested of us. If you’re hosting valuable content behind an info-request wall, it is time to seriously consider making your offering more attractive by being slightly less annoying.

I care as far as I can care

Our generation has inherited a planet that was mindlessly assaulted by our predecessors. Unfortunately, we’ve also inherited the guilt associated with that harm, even if we are doing more than all our ancestors put together to set our green globe back on track. We are now made to feel guilty for consuming practically everything that has a measurable footprint. This goes beyond its weight in Carbon. The footprint includes the practices employed for manufacture and the way employees are treated along the way. 2014 will see a rise in the demand for guilt-offsetting products and services. The most sought after will be zero-guilt, where the benefit to society or the environment associated with a particular purchase offsets the sum total of guilt associated with it. Show you care and present products that are visibly guilt-free.

I’ll get my watch to talk to your shirt

We have expected more connected devices for several decades now. Douglas Adams predicted a smart-device that taps into Wikipedia when he wrote the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the seventies. The trend for 2014 will go beyond connected devices used as communication and media consumption devices. It will see smarter, more bio-aware devices that relay data about your health to your medical carers. Cars that read your pulse, helmets that detect impact direction and shirts that detect breathing and movement will all be connected to the web for instant transmission of health-related information. As we’ve come to expect, the rich will have access to the finest healthcare first. But refer to the previous trend – we’ll see a much quicker cascade to affordability this year.

There is an ‘I’ in tribe

I have the ability to influence my immediate surroundings. I can wear headphones to make my world sound better, for instance. I can leave home an hour early to beat the traffic. But with more connected devices in everyone’s pockets, we are able to use information from across the tribe in any space to shape impromptu gatherings. Smart DJ software can read the musical tastes of everyone who has checked in to a bar and influence the playlist accordingly. GPS traffic data from multiple devices along the same stretch should shape traffic news. A percentage of vegetarians at any one beach should tell the right food truck to head that way…

The post Trends in 2014 – Connected and responsible appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.