Digital – Confab Digital Media

Make 2021 the year of measurable results for your business

AdminConfab — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 06:02:23 +0000

Make 2021 the year of measurable results for your business

Make 2021 the year of measurable results for your business

Words: Jessica Turner, Managing Director of Confab

Asking the right questions is as important as answering them

In the words of Eric Ries from The Lean Startup “in the old economy, it was all about having the answers. But in today’s dynamic, lean economy, it’s more about asking the right questions.”

As we start a new year amidst continued global uncertainty, it is essential for businesses to operate leaner, work smarter and ask themselves the right questions in order to stop doing that isn’t working and start focusing on what is.

We would like to ask you a few questions about your digital marketing as we kick off 2021:

Are you tracking results and measuring the ROI of your digital marketing currently?
When last did you compare your year-on-year digital results?
Are your digital marketing efforts directly working to achieve your overall marketing goals, and can you prove this?
Is your digital agency supplying you with monthly reports displaying measurable results, ROI, and is your team paying close attention to these reports?
Have you adjusted your digital marketing strategy since the onset of Covid-19?

Businesses that aren’t getting measurable results from their digital marketing are being left behind

As you answered the above questions on behalf of your business, if you are confident in the answers and they prove you are on the right track for 2021, that’s incredible and we wish you great success as you move into the future.

If, when answering these questions you’ve realized that your digital marketing plan is not as watertight as it needs to be to sail the unchartered waters of 2021 and beyond, then read on…

Our team is amazed (and often frightened) at how many businesses throw budget behind digital marketing yet do not receive intelligent analytics reports from their agency or digital team and worse yet, if they do receive these, do not spend time analysing them.

Many of the clients that move over to Confab Agency after working with another partner previously, do so because they feel they are not getting measurable results (emphasis on the measurable) from their agency.

Intelligent insights are digital marketing imperatives

Our firm belief is that companies should not spend a cent on digital if they will not receive, in return, intelligent insights around how their campaign(s) is performing. One of the many reasons that businesses have pivoted from traditional marketing methods to digital is the fact that it is measurable, quantifiable and you are able to determine your exact return on investment when the right tools and tracking methods are in place. Gone are the days of merely ticking to box to say “our business is on social media” or “we have a website.” Businesses that merely see digital marketing as a nice-to-have or a to-do-list-checkbox are missing the value that this mode of marketing can bring to the table and are being left to bite the dust of their competitors.

How to make 2021 the year of measurable results for your business

If you are not marketing digitally or are spending money ‘flying blindly’ in the digital abyss without seeing measurable results, we have good news: that can change!

Here are a few of our team’s suggestions:

Work with an agency or partner that doesn’t just overpromise, but shows you, in real time, the measurable results you are getting from your budget spent with them.
Ensure that all of the necessary tracking tools are in place across your website, social media, email marketing and other platforms.
Take time to upskill yourself and your team around the Google Analytics dashboard and what the various metrics mean.
Insist on intelligent insights from your agency and take part in a tutorial where your team is taught how to read the numbers and understand the metrics.
Do not, we repeat, do not have a stagnant digital strategy. Your digital marketing approach must be able to pivot, and pivot quickly, as the digital landscape changes (the necessity of this we have seen first hand during Covid-19).

If you are feeling despondent by your lack of measurable results to date or daunted about how to get from where you are to where you need to be, the good news is that we have simple and cost effective offerings and approaches for businesses of all sizes that will ensure they are seeing measurable results, growth and goals achieved.

If you are not marketing your business digitally, or need to expand to more digital channels, we can help. Click here to get in touch.

If you are marketing your business digitally but are not seeing measurable results or value for your money, we’d love to conduct an audit of your digital efforts and assist you in making 2021 the year of measurable results for your business. Click here to get in touch.

The post Make 2021 the year of measurable results for your business appeared first on Confab Digital Media.

How to plan your festive season digital marketing: A step by step guide

AdminConfab — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 11:49:58 +0000

How to plan your festive season digital marketing: A step by step guide

How to plan your festive season digital marketing: A step by step guide

Words: Jessica Turner, Managing Director of Confab

If you are reading this, the festive season is upon us all, there’s no escaping it now. Whether you love or loathe early christmas shopping and the sound of Boney-M echoing through every public space, I personally think that after the wild year 2020 has been, the planet could use a good dose of festive cheer.

First comes Halloween, then comes black Friday and then before you know it you are having small talk at the office Christmas party and finally leaving milk and cookies out for Santa (then don’t forget those Boxing Day and New Year sales). It all happens so fast.

If you are a business owner or marketer, the festive season is an opportunity not to be missed should you be looking to acquire new customers, meet and exceed sales targets or even clear stock. We believe that the success of your festive season digital marketing lies in having the right plan in place, and just like your old highschool teacher always said ‘failing to plan is planning to fail.’

Key dates to bear in mind:

November 28th – Thanksgiving (USA)
November 29th – Black Friday (If you sell anything, this one’s for you)
December 2nd – Cyber Monday (If you’re an E-commerce business, don’t forget this)
December 23rd-30th – Hanukkah
December 25th – Christmas
December 26th – Boxing Day (Boxing days sales are a must!)
December 31st – New Year’s Eve
January – Sales, sales, sales

Steps to planning your festive season digital marketing

1. Define your objectives: As simon Sinek says “Start with Why”

What is your business specifically wanting to achieve this festive season? Take a moment to sit with your team and write down your measurable and tangible goals and objectives. We are firm believers in having fewer, more specific objectives rather than many intangible goals that may only confuse your team and dilute your marketing strategy.

2. Assess your current digital marketing efforts and decide what changes you want to make

What have you done well in 2020 that is working or has previously worked? Maximise on this. What have you done poorly in 2020 or what opportunities have you missed? Improve on this.

Make a list of changes or additions you want to make to your current marketing strategy specifically with the festive season in mind.

3. Define your budget

Set aside a set amount that you want to allocate purely to your festive season digital marketing. Bear in mind that if you are maximising what you already know is working for your business (as per step 2 on this list) then your budget will be an investment that will be paying dividends after the festive season. Once you have your budget clearly defined, then begin to apportion this between your digital marketing channels giving the most budget towards your most successful channels.

4. Define your value proposition

Are you having a sale? Are you launching a new product or range? Are you running a giveaway? Clearly define what your value proposition will be this festive season and then begin crafting your marketing message using your 2020 marketing insights to give you a window into what has already worked for your business.

5. Prepare your marketing collateral

Get your copywriter clicking away at their keyboard. Get your designer sharpening their tools. Get your creative team or agency preparing your digital marketing collateral as soon as possible so that you have enough time for reviews and changes whilst not missing any important deadlines. Every day counts when it comes to festive season marketing!

6. Launch your campaign

Advice we would like to offer regarding the launch of your festive marketing campaigns, is to let your customers know ahead of time that something exciting is on the way. Why not work on a pre-launch campaign for your giveaway or send out an email campaign or bulk SMS a day or two before your new range is released to get them ready and waiting (credit card in hand) for when your campaign launches?

Ensure that you’ve prepped a follow-up campaign after your initial launch to continue reminding your target audience of your festive season offers.

*Remember, this is an exceptionally busy time and businesses are fighting for online space in front of their customers eyes. Make sure your campaign doesn’t get lost in the noise.

7. Make adaptations, Measure and Report

Launched your campaign and it has not been as successful as you’d hoped? Don’t wait until weeks have passed, be front-footed and make adaptations whilst your campaign is running. Stop what is not working and try something new.

At the end of your festive season campaign, make sure you gather and measure your data and pull valuable insights for a campaign report so that you can use these insights for your next campaign (next up: Valentines Day).

Festive Season Digital Marketing Checklist

Have you defined your festive season marketing goals?
Is your digital agency aware in advance of your marketing plans so they are able to meet your deadlines?
Have you prepared a festive content calendar in advance?
Has your website been updated for the festive season?
Are your social media channels looking festive?
Have you utilised your existing database of customers for your campaign?
Do you current customers know about your specials?
Have you defined your festive closing times and are your customers aware of these in advance?

Need help perfecting your digital marketing strategy? We are always happy to help. Book a meeting with us here to chat.

The post How to plan your festive season digital marketing: A step by step guide appeared first on Confab Digital Media.

How to position your business during the Covid-19 lockdown

AdminConfab — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 07:38:05 +0000

How to position your business during the Covid-19 lockdown

How to position your business during the Covid-19 lockdown

Words: Jessica Turner, Managing Director of Confab

Most of the world is falling asleep with thoughts of Covid-19 running through their minds, and waking up in the same way. As we stand together and face this tidal wave-like global pandemic and the economic effects that lie in its wake, there’s no denying that every single business around the world will feel its tremors and experience its aftermath, whether positively or negatively.

As panic and frenzy rises, so does emotional and fear-based decision making and something we are noticing all around us are businesses trying to ‘panic sell’ just as fast as consumers are ‘panic buying’ rolls of toilet paper, but is this the answer to the pressures that Covid-19 is placing on your business? We think there’s a better way…

Here are some of our team’s tips and insights on how to properly position your business during the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa. We trust that these tips will aid you in navigating the uncharted waters of a nationwide shutdown, and ensure that you are able to make the right investments into your business (even whilst it may be unoperational) so that when normality returns, you are poised for great success and breakthrough, for as the saying goes “this too shall pass.”

1. Less selling, more storytelling

The normal knee-jerk reaction to an upcoming period of low business activity would be to try and spread your sales message fast and wide, and that’s what most businesses seem to be doing. Quite frankly, this approach leaves your customers feeling used at best and exploited at worst. This is not a time to try and profit from a pandemic at the expense of your valued customers. Instead of using a time of low business activity to shamelessly sell your products and services at a moment when customers may need them the least, this is a time to start telling your brand story. Be empathetic, be honest and vulnerable, tell your unique story. You may not be able to make sales during this time, but you can build lasting relationships with your customers through storytelling that will be far more beneficial in the long run than losing customers in the short term by trying to gain quick sales wins.

2. If you haven’t gone digital, now is the time and this is the ‘sign’ you’ve been waiting for

If you are a business that has been caught unprepared as the world has turned almost entirely digital overnight, you may be kicking yourself for not implementing online strategies sooner. Whilst you cannot change the past, you can start shaping the future: now. If there’s one key takeout from this Covid-19 moment, it’s that digital is not going anywhere, in fact, the need for it will only increase as we move into the future. You may have been caught unprepared this time, but you can make sure there isn’t a next time by taking action now.

3. Evaluate your current marketing and plan for the future

Did your current marketing channels help or hinder you as the nation began to enter a crisis? Were you able to quickly change tactics and respond to the business changes brought on by this global pandemic? Now is the time to begin evaluating your current marketing efforts and plan for the future. Now is the time to invest in the right marketing tactics and not let fear cause you to opt-out of marketing at all. The businesses that survive and thrive through this unknown period will be the businesses that built wise strategies during times of “famine” to position themselves correctly for periods of “abundance.

Don’t know where to begin creating a digital marketing plan for the future? The great news is that digital agencies (like Confab) will all be fully operational during the nationwide lockdown and are just a video call away if you need to set up an online strategy session.

4. Build up your social media

Perhaps you are using social media. Perhaps you’ve only seen it as a ‘nice to have’ addition to your business. At this moment, social media has quickly become the saving grace and bedrock for so many organisations as they need to rely solely on these online channels to reach their customers. Now is the time to take social seriously, build up your online presence and set a plan in place to ensure that your social media channels are yielding measurable results for your business.

5. Refresh your branding

There’s no denying the fact that when the world returns to normality, and it will, there is going to be more business competition than ever. In the new world, good design will be a key differentiating factor that will make your business stand out in a sea of competitors and win the hearts of potential customers. Is your branding old, tired and belonging to another millennium? The good news is that digital agencies (like Confab) are still designing during lockdown. We need any and every excuse to keep our creative juices flowing and so if you need to chat design, we are just a video call away.

6. Send out a personal (and honest) emailer to your clients

Whilst all of our inboxes are full of mails with subject lines such as “our response to Covid-19” and you may not be wanting to add to the email noise, if your business has a database of loyal customers and clients, we highly recommend that you send out a personalised and honest emailer to explain how your business is positioning itself during the nationwide lockdown. Perhaps you will still be available over email or video calls, let them know. Perhaps you will be pausing your online orders for a time, keep your customers in the loop. Perhaps you are offering discounted products or service when lockdown is over, let your customers know so they can make plans for the future that include your business.

7. Work on your SEO

If Google cannot find your business during a nationwide lockdown, neither can your clients. Digital is the only way that most customers will be able to find and interact with businesses and whilst your products or services may not be offered during a nationwide lockdown, spend time investing in your SEO now, so that when normality returns you are poised for great increase! If you need some help getting started with your SEO, we are here to help.

8. Set up those business systems and take care of that admin you’ve been procrastinating about

In his brilliant book “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” Michael E. Gerber says the following “Simply put, your job is to prepare yourself and your business for growth.”

There has never been a more opportune time to take a moment to pause, think, focus and refocus and then roll up your sleeves and start preparing for business growth. No skyscraper was ever built without meticulous foundations first and business systems and structures are those foundations. Now is the time for pro-activity and not procrastination as you invest your lockdown down time into working “on” your business even at a time when you may not be able to work “in” your business.

9. Your customers are people too

Businesses that stop seeing customers as mere numbers, or emails in a database, but real people who are experiencing the same feelings of uncertainty as you are, are businesses that are ready to properly communicate with their customers during this nationwide shutdown. Speak to your customers during this time, speak to them honestly, share your heart with them, let them into your business process and tell them how you plan to be there for them now and as we rebuild the future together. Your customers are people too!

10. Invest in yourself

Robots don’t run businesses (well some do, but that’s another blog post), people do. If you’ve been feeling worn out, burnt out and lacking inspiration to run your business or fulfil your role, this nationwide shutdown presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to stop, reflect and start to invest into yourself. Take an online course, read a book, read industry-relevant articles, and if there’s one thing to avoid, it’s emerging from the cave of isolation having done nothing but finished more Netflix series than is helpful for one individual to consume in a 3-week period. Last but not least, make declarations over yourself and your business. Declarations such as “I am not alone in this,” “this too shall pass” and “I am a leader who leads well during a crisis.”

So, in closing, we would like to remind you that are you not alone in this, we are here to assist you in navigating the uncharted waters of a nationwide shutdown and global pandemic as best as we know how to. Here’s to rest, refocus, realignment and then rebuilding the future together.

The post How to position your business during the Covid-19 lockdown appeared first on Confab Digital Media.

How to choose the right agency partner for your business

AdminConfab — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 07:30:26 +0000

How to choose the right agency partner for your business

Choosing the right agency partner for your business, no matter how small, can be a daunting task. Essentially, you will be needing to find not only the skill sets that you need to align with in order to creatively and strategically represent your business, but a team of individuals who will understand your brand and business and love it like their own.

Words: Jessica Turner, Managing Director of Confab

We sat down recently and played a game of hypotheticals. Supposing we were not an agency ourselves, how would we (knowing what we do about our own industry) go about choosing the perfect agency partner for our business. Here are some tips we came up with from our little exercise that we wanted to share with you:

1. First, clearly define your own goals and objectives as a business

It will be difficult to know if you’ve found the right digital agency if you aren’t yet clear on your own business goals and objectives. For example, if your goals are increased brand awareness, you may want to find an agency with a highly creative team to assist in helping your brand be the ‘purple cow’ that stands out from among your competitors. On the other hand, if your goals are lead generation and conversions, you will need to look for an agency that is brilliant with strategy, who can assess your business and then develop a precise lead-generation strategy and then of course, execute this to actually achieve the results.

2. Do your homework

If you are living in the 21st century then the chances are that there are a number of digital and creative agencies in your area who you could partner with. The chances also are, that many of these agencies may have a bark that is bigger than their bite. Make sure you do your homework, both on Google and by asking around for agency referrals within your area. Google may lead you to a few worthy suitors, but bear in mind that it’s easy to have a great agency website and a lot harder to deliver excellent agency services that will achieve the results you set out when you defined your goals and objectives. For this reason, we highly recommend speaking to friends or other businesses in your area to get a list of agencies that they have worked with and would recommend.

3. Interview your agency shortlist

Once you’ve got a list of agencies that you’d like to pursue, begin reaching out to them via phone or email and briefly explain who you are and what your needs entail. Your first interaction with the agency will be a telltale sign as to whether they are right for you. For example, if you receive a response that is short, and simply asks for your budget, run for the hills, this agency is only interested in one thing. If you receive a warm response that requests a sit down meeting, you may have struck gold!

Arrange a face to face meeting with your agency shortlist, come prepared with your business and project information and then be sure to ask some of the questions below…

4. Ask for client references and view their portfolio

We are always surprised at the number of our own clients who are happy to undertake work with us without having asked to see our previous work. Personally, I would never outlay money or time with an agency partner without having seen their work either live (in the case of websites or social media) or in a portfolio format. Once you like what you see, you can also ask them for references from some of their current clients. If you’re really wanting to go ‘Sherlock Holmes’ style, you could contact these references and ask not just about the work that was done, but the manner in which it was undertaken. Were they punctual to meetings? Did they meet deadlines? Were you happy with the end results? Were there hidden costs?

5. Explain your needs and ask if they’ve done any similar projects

During your interview meeting, explain in as much detail as possible what your business or project needs are and then find out if they’ve done similar projects within your industry. If they haven’t, don’t let that put you off from choosing them, but do make sure that they are certain that they can deliver on your unique needs.

6. Ask what they specialise in

Just like any businesses, creative agencies have niches. Whilst they may offer a plethora of services, ask which of these they specialise in and where their largest client base exists. For example, we started out as a social media marketing agency and that is still an area of expertise for us. Even within the social media offering, we specialise further into strategic social media campaigns and lead generation from social channels.

7. Ask for a detailed quote

Before you give anyone your ‘yes’ make sure that a line-by-line cost breakdown has been sent to you in the form of a formal quotation. Familiarise yourself with the cost breakdown and ask questions if you need to.

8. No matter how small the project, sign something!

Whether you are needing a simple logo designed or are undertaking a year’s worth of creative services with an agency, make sure you sign an SLA or contact or at the very least, sign the quotation that was sent to you. This will ensure that you know what you are entitled to as the client, but also familiarise yourself with the unique terms of the agency you will be working with. For example, our design service offers 3 reverts on a logo design with any additional reverts being charged for at our hourly design rate. Should you not be made aware of this prior and then receive your invoice at the end of the project for a larger amount than was initially quoted, there may be a sour end to a potentially great working relationship.

We hope that this was helpful to you and makes the task of searching for a new agency partner for your business a little less fearful and a lot more successful!

Related Tag: Digital Agency Durban

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