Development | Weareunity

The ultimate starter kit to creating effective content for your business

Your content is an important part of your business’s success, especially when it comes to the design and structure of your website, for instance.

Your content also aids search engine results, allowing users to find you more effectively, which in turn, will increase traffic to your website. This increase of interest will then result in a more established brand for your business, providing you with the title of leader within your chosen industry.

This is where we come in.

Our experienced content department has a wide spectrum of experience within an array of industries and has extensive knowledge in B2B, allowing our team to create engaging content in the form of website content, blogs, social media and other forms of digital content.

So, you want to know how to write effective content? Well, lucky for you, we are the experts.

We devised this blog to bring you some top tips on how to write effective content for your business, how to reach your targeted audience and gain the results you desire.

Interested? Read on.

Your alluring headline:

Believe it or not, the headline of your content is crucial as this is the element that will lure your audience into clicking your content and reading on.

In order to get that user hooked, you need to make your reader feel one of the following:

Spark a personal interest
Make them feel an emotion
Provide an educational element

Without achieving at least one of the above points, you won’t be able to achieve the results you wish and gain the interest of your desired users.

Here at Unity, we create powerful headlines for our clients by producing core research into their industry and using our traffic-driven strategies.

Grabbing your readers attention:

The golden rule: you have less than 5 seconds to keep your reader interested in your content after they pass the headline. Your first sentence makes the core statement to the rest of your content so you need to make it a powerful and engaging one. This part of your content should grab the readers attention and navigate them deeper into your content.

Research, Research, Research:

Naturally, if you are going to write content about any subject – you need to either have the knowledge at hand or do some research into the topic you are discussing. If you create content that is false or does not include any technical language, your content will not create the level of engagement, nor create the results you wish to gain. If you are within the B2B market, make sure you include aspects such as statistics and data in order to give your content a high level of credibility.

Question: Why are you writing this?

Every piece of content has a purpose – what is yours?

Your content should have one key message that should flow through your content with ease. When you are writing your content, keep this in mind and make sure that you tie in your key points to the purpose of your content at all times. No-one likes a waffler! (They just like eating them).

Wondering why you should write a blog for your business? Click right here for further insight.

Put your best voice forward:

There are many variations of a tone of voice, for instance, if you think of an engineering company, you should use a friendly but technical voice that fits this industries requirements.

It is important to have a unique voice that aligns with your main objectives, target audience personas and branding to create a personal yet insightful piece of content.

SEO – Contents white knight:

If you want to create a good piece of content and you want your audience to find your amazing piece of work while they’re scrolling – then you need SEO.

The best forms of content involves having a consistency of short paragraphs, who aren’t afraid of white space with the odd list to change the frame of the content. Your content should always involve the very latest SEO strategies and you must be in line with best practises.

If you use SEO effectively within your content writing, you will be able to attract a larger audience base and Google will want to rank you higher within their search engine.

Check, edit… then check again.

Once you have created your content (congratulations!) don’t just flick through and publish.

Make sure you read through your work and consider what you can do in order to improve your work, for example:

Are there any grammatical errors?

Could I add more technical terms?
Would an infographic work with this content?
Can I add more keywords?
Is there an opportunity to add more internal links?

After a few edits of your work, with a pair of fresh eyes, you will be able to finalise your content and it will be ready to publish!

How to find your marketing gurus:

The core purpose of effective content is to turn visiting consumers into happy customers who will then turn into returning customers.

Standard content is simply not allowed – you need to publish high-quality content that is pleasing to the eye, produces emotion and educates your audience.

Remember: If you use SEO effectively, search engines such as Google rewards businesses on their great content and ranks them higher in their search results!

So, after analysing your own content – are you getting the results you want?

Here at Unity, we design and develop ROI focused content marketing strategies that are driven by retaining and engaging your audience, in this competitive industry.

Interested? Then Contact Us Today and start your journey of success.

So, what are your thoughts?

Why email marketing is a must-have tool for your business

In today’s society, email marketing is a common tool to use – but not everyone uses this form of engagement.

This engaging tool has been around for a long time and with the adapting likes of social media marketing, video content and other forms of customer engagement, email marketing is still a highly effective pursuit in a company’s marketing strategy.

But how is this possible you may ask?

Think about it, how many people do you know that has an email account. Everyone, right?

You need an email address to sign up for social media accounts, newsletters, favourite online stores for that matter. Pretty much everything on the internet.

As email has such a constant usage in this technology era so this is where email marketing can really take a stand – especially with your business.

We decided to create a blog around this much-talked-about topic to give you the core reasons as to why you need email marketing within your marketing strategy and how you can utilise this tool for your businesses progression.

Making connections last

Keeping constant contact with your current customers and potential customers are vital for updating them with what’s new in your business. You can inform them of your latest and upcoming products to exclusive discounts and promotions and upcoming events.

Within your email marketing list, you will have already worked with/ sold your products to customers so these engaged clients will already have a core interest in hearing from you.

Mobile is on the rise

Nowadays with the technology that we have at our disposal, mobile is king and due to users opening their emails more on mobile devices than that of desktop, a structured and engaging email marketing campaign is key to success.

An attractive, email model will produce and convert on mobile devices to a high standard.

The personal and engaging touch

It would probably surprise you to know that we have had email longer than you think. With 40 years under our belts with this system, it has intertwined into our everyday lives. Users respond to emails due to actions such as checking emails on a daily basis fabricated into our usual routines. This can provide a large opportunity for businesses to explore options such as new customers and subscribers.

Email is easy peasy

Email marketing is a well-known tool and one of the easiest platforms to work with in terms of online marketing. This iconic and valuable asset obtains enriching real-time data such as CTR, conversion rates, customers who have subscribed and unsubscribed etc.

With this data, it is easy to analyse the performance and results of your email marketing ventures easily.

When you acquire a clearer focus on what you are working on and what you wish to achieve, what needs to be changed and what your core focuses should be, you start to see and understand where your marketing efforts achieve when it comes to your campaigns.

Targeted campaigns produce results

Email marketing is a fantastic resource if you need to reach various users, in regards to analysing the form of relationship you have with them currently.

Example: You may have subscribers that have purchased a product from you in the past. With this information, you would produce a specific type of message to that user as they know your brand and products and may be interested in pursuing a repeat purchase.

Another example: On the opposite side of the spectrum, you will have subscribers that have never bought a product from your business. This is a golden opportunity to introduce yourself and your products to users who are considering to buy.

Email allows you to create “buyer personas” which is where you will be able to place your subscribers in separate lists and maximise your marketing advantages. Targeting your audiences with specific campaigns will allow you to address certain buying behaviours and create a more engaging relationship with your subscribers.

There are many reasons as to why you should definitely place email marketing within your businesses marketing strategy!

We hope you found this blog insightful, if you have any queries, particularly if you want to implement email marketing into your strategy, contact us today!

What are your thoughts?

Digital marketing trends to keep your eye on in 2019

December is here, the Christmas music is on in the shops and the money is draining from our banks for Christmas presents.

The New Year is literally around the corner and with the ever-changing world of technology, it pays to stay ahead of the game.

We have some thoughts of our own about what digital marketing trends you will see in 2019.

Read on.

AI chatbots are coming to town

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen significant growth in popularity and is one of the greatest technologies we have seen.

With this major piece of tech, it is transforming the way we connect with brands and also how we purchase them. While we have seen AI systems use pre-programmed responses to answer our questions, AI has improved and excelled in a significant way where businesses can go even further and implement complex requests, have personalised responses for their users and have an upgraded overall experience.

It is an interesting concept to consider that at least 80% of customer interactions may well possibly be dealt with chatbots.

Think about it.

With this concept in mind, it would result in 24/7 communication with customers as well as a swift shopping experience.

When considering the number of queries that are expressed through a B2B buying experience, chatbots can be extremely useful within this area, providing a fast approach with their responses and a good resource to engage with customers with personalised messages and tone of voice.

Chatbots are a system that you should embrace, not fear.

Think of them, especially at this time of the year, as your little helpers. A team of support for your business growth and development.

Voice search is here – and it’s here to stay

It comes as no surprise that 1 in 5 Google searches are now being communicated by voice queries. This behaviour is on the rise, with the expectation of rising a further 50% by the end of 2020.

This tremendous growth is being seen in homes as well as businesses with Siri and Alexa now being part of everyday life. Customers are making shopping lists to ordering items and also listening to podcasts and music through their systems.

Voice Search is integrated into our faculties of life, with stats that would be hard to ignore, especially for businesses.

Tip: As a business, you should think more active in terms of voice search, planning around these new developments and behaviours into your marketing strategies. If you aren’t using voice search – you should implement a plan of action for the new year in order to ‘keep with the times’.

Live Video is live engagement

Live videos aren’t for everyone and can seem rather uncomfortable if you aren’t used to being in front of a camera. Live video isn’t just for influencers and fitness junkies, so if you haven’t already participated on a small training course, skimmed through some YouTube information videos or read up on the subject – why not make this your New Years resolution?

New opportunities have blossomed for thousands of companies who engage with their users and potential customers, due to the on-growing popularity through various social media platforms, we see videos everywhere.

New and exciting videos are in high demand to allow businesses to be able to differentiate their competitions. Which is why the power of live video is key to have within your marketing plan.

With live video, you have access to your potential customers expressing their thoughts and opinions in an instant and connected way. With that raw and authentic connection, it is fascinating the number of users that will connect with you after just one live video.

The opportunities for live video are endless, such as live captures of events you are promoting to live competitions, interviews and ‘behind the scenes’ live videos of a product you may be developing or a simple, insightful way to express more of a humane side to your company.

Just like AI, stats are extremely hard to ignore, users are more inclined to watch a live video 2x longer than a live video that has past the live time and is now a standard video on social media.

Food for thought.

User-generated content = free content!

UGC has been around for quite a while, but in recent years it has been shining brightly as its potential has been realised.

User-generated content is the unpaid content that has been created and shared by users that are fans of the brand. Available to all, typically through the use of social media, there are many directions you can take UGC.

The most common source of UGC is in the forms of blogs, customer reviews, GIFs, photos of experiences with that brand and much more.

By incorporating and embracing free marketing from your users through UGC, your brand will be seen in an engaging way. Brand engagement has a continuous rise every time when you add consumer expression to corporate marketing.

Are you really surprised? It is a powerful form of expression, with your users telling the world how they feel and how they love your company.

One of the most important factors you must remember is trust. By hearing other customers expressing their feelings about your company and services provided – it is a powerful source and you will see a difference in your profits.

For B2B companies, User-generated content means a vast amount of resourceful and influential content in a short amount of time.

With B2B buyers valuing that personal connection within their social media platforms and also becoming more dependent with the research that social media brings, it is a fantastic way to build trust for companies when fellow buyers have created content.

AR vs VR in marketing

We saw IKEA take AR to a whole new level with their app back in 2017 where they gave their users the power to actually visualise what a piece of furniture could look like within their home.

Here at Unity, we predict that the use of AR will excel and surpass the use of VR in business, but the use of both of these systems will be popular in the future.

In terms of VR however, developers are devoted to the technology it possesses and will give businesses and consumers many benefits for engagement and experience.

In recent events, AR has begun to develop on its own terms, by bringing in virtual elements and combining them with the real world, this will give consumers a virtual and engaging experience that would give your business the ultimate advantage of your competitors.

For these reasons, we believe that within a few years, surpassing 2019 and more 2024-25, AR will have a solid platform and a more accepted place within our businesses than VR.

In an ever-growing technological world, there is and will continue to be pressure for companies to ‘stay ahead of the game’ in terms of engaging content and systems to surpass consumers expectations and competitors plan of actions.

As we approach the end of the year, we hope that this blog has given you some enlightenment and inspiration for your companies approach to your 2019 marketing strategy.

What are your thoughts?

If you found this blog interesting, get in touch today!

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has advanced significantly in the past few years through the launch of self-driving cars, flying drones and the most popular, Siri.

But today businesses are keen to leverage AI technology for another purpose completely – Customer services.

Integrating Artificial intelligence with customer service can be a game-changing plan for many businesses. A chatbot service or a ‘customer service agent’ will be available at all times, to intelligently resolve customer requests quickly and consistently, so that businesses can focus on other higher value-added tasks.

Plus, as we see an upsurge in use of digital marketing platforms, it would be a sin not to leverage social media channels with AI. A study by Gartner reveals that an estimated 90% of businesses will use social media for customer service by 2020.

And with 2020 just around the corner, AI is a great opportunity for businesses to implement the technology to allow customers to be transferred across various social media channels. The agents would have access to all the latest information and conversations without the need for customers to start over, thus promising a seamless transition process and a convenient experience for the consumer.

But why stop there…

With smart home applications paving their way for futuristic homes, businesses are developing AI chat agents that will enable the option to communicate directly with smart home devices. This ultimately opens up a whole new level of customer service experience, allowing business to be more accessible through various channels.

Of course, we do have a long way to go before Artificial intelligent devices will outperform humans in many activities, but as businesses are transitioning into the AI focused ecosystem, it is inevitable that self-service technologies and advanced bots will form the backbone of customer care.

AI is no longer the way of the future… It’s the way of today!

Pokemon, schmokemon

OK, OK, OK. I get it. There may be some of you die-hard gamers thinking what on earth is she banging on about? How rude? Does she not get it??

Whilst I will happily put my hands up and proudly claim to not have been sucked into the whole Pokemon hype, I am willing to admit that the whole concept has brought out the innately curious marketeer in me, questioning how can I piggyback off the hype for some of my clients?

For SME’s, there appears to be a quick win through the implementation of ‘lures’. Apparently (and I state apparently because I haven’t tested nor have I tried to play the game), businesses can buy lures to try and entice people to their premises. I am not going to attempt to explain the benefits of this, as a simple search will draw out a multitude of articles already written on the subject matter.

Instead, what I am keen to understand is whether the nostalgic game coupled by Augmented Reality (AR) has relaunched in the industry.

I have always been a fan of AR and been saddened to see the lack of uptake from brands and businesses globally. Yes, there have been some nice campaigns by brands such as John Lewis, Lexus and one of my favourites, Toys ‘R’ Us however, it feels as though that after the hype around AR, the uptake has slowly decreased, possibly because the use of AR applications has never really gone mainstream. Could this be because, the campaigns launched never truly offered the end user any value? Yes, they may have made some of us go ‘ooh’ but did they actually do anything for us?

Bringing this back to Pokemon Go, I have been firing questions around at the Unity office to determine why it is so great:

Its Pokemon – generational ‘thing’ apparently
Gets players out the house – albeit, still glued to their devices
It’s more than just a game – it feels (wait for it) ‘real’
Brings people together. Apparently, going on a Pokemon hunt is considered a ‘date’
Its different. There is nothing else like it at the moment and the timing is great to go outside

Yes, there is the nostalgic element which, considering their marketing, actually began April Fools Day, 2014. But the key point to hone in on is the fact that the game actually makes us do something. Its socially acceptable and encourages players to get out in the real world and chase these little creatures! Some of the guys here have come in the office next morning and claimed to have met new friends, all with the same shared interest…after walking 12 miles in a day!

So how is this even relatable to marketing and how can we, as marketeers, learn a thing or two from this Pokemon phenomenon? Check out my tips below:

Soft launch campaigns – test out your audience to determine success. Instead of spending money on a quirky campaign, do a beta launch. Seed out a video. Whatever it is, remember, Niantics April Fools Day video in 2014:

Merge realities – combining AR with reality is pretty sexy right now. There is a raw consumer hunger for new technologies that can and should be leveraged. Ask yourself if your campaign crosses boundaries and channels. If the answer is yes, consider how you can leverage the current trend and grab consumer data. This data, should become invaluable to follow up marketing efforts.

Add value – Pokemon Go offers players the chance to get up from the sofa and break free from the dark into the wondrous outdoors. Consider how and why your campaign will add value to your consumer and ensure your marketing activity outlines the benefits – not the features.

Consider timings – the game was released in Summer, when the weather is glorious and majority of under 18s on their Summer holidays. Perfect. Would the game be so appealing over Winter? I guess we’ll have to wait and see! Make sure you time your campaign release/launch in accordance with seasons and public holidays and have a plan in place to evolve the campaign and continue engaging with your audience.

I am sure there is so much more to the game than meets the eye – either way, Nintendo shares have increased, the nation is exercising and the platform has finally launched AR into the mainstream. Yay!