Market demand is the total amount of goods and services that all consumers are willing and able to purchase at a specific price in a marketplace. In other words, it represents how much consumers can and will buy from suppliers at a given price level in a market.

Now, how do we determine market demand? What techniques and technologies can we adopt to help us understand what the market is demanding? Can SEO research aid us in determining market demand? People who opt to following their gut instincts when figuring out market demand can sometimes lead to incorrect analogies, which then leads to pointless campaigns, wasted money and time.

What are the benefits of calculating market demand

To help marketers and business start-ups there are great softwares, apps and technologies that gather correct data based on customer behaviours, this information can then be evidenced forecast to help evaluate whether a business venture is feasible or not, we’ll talk about these later.

On top of figuring out whether a product will sell or not, there are lots of other insightful reasons for calculating product demand that will help you make better-informed business decisions. For example, knowing how high the demand for a product is informs pricing strategies and being aware of the type of people who will be interested in your product helps craft marketing initiatives. 

What determines market demand?

There are several factors you need to be aware of when calculating market demand:

• Number of people actively searching for a product like yours
• How many people are willing to pay for a product like yours
• How available your product is for purchase, considering your own company and your competitors selling the same/ similar products

What technology can help determine market demand?

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get on to the good stuff. You are probably wondering what technology is out there that can help you perform your market demand analysis. There’s two great tools you’ll need to make use of:

• Search engine optimisation (SEO) tools

There are countless free SEO tools out there that you can use to gather insights about your product or service. These tools will tell you search volume, so you know how many times on average people are searching for the product each month, and keyword suggestions, which tells you how often people are searching for related terms. SEO tools can be a great source of inspiration as they will help you determine how frequently users are searching for your product and related terms. You can even filter your searches by location and time period which will give you specific brand insights that can inform your focus and decisions moving forward. 

Here are a few of some great free SEO tools:

1. Aherfs’ free SEO tools 
2. Google Analytics 
3. Keyword Hero

• Social Media Platforms 

Social media platforms can give you a wealth of data that you can use to inform all kinds of decisions you make related to products, marketing strategies and your overall brand identity. By simply searching specific keywords you can see all related posts informing you who’s talking about them, the general sentiment behind, where people are talking about them and what they’re saying.

• Social Media Insights

A great way to further understand market demands is on social platforms. Instagram has a built in feature for business accounts called Instagram insights, providing information on customer demographics, high and low content interaction, gains and losses on follower count, post reach and so much more (read more about instagram analytics here). Using this free built in feature on your social media accounts can provide you a greater understanding of what your customers like to see, what they demand for and what type of content really resonates with them. 

What other methods can I use to determine market demand?

There are other, more traditional, methods for calculating market demand. For example, you could carry out surveys or questionnaires either on social media or via email. Aim to reach as many people as possible with this method because the greater the scope you create, the more accurate and informative your market research will be. 

Another promising method is planning and executing experiments which, although these can be expensive and time-consuming, offer very informative results. An example of this might be offering a new product at a discounted price for a limited time which will encourage a large number of purchases. From this, you can determine who’s interested in your product and gather feedback from those who have bought it. 

Thinking up a new business idea can be really exciting, but knowing your idea will work is even better. We hope you’ve found this article useful, and if you have any questions we’d love to hear from you! You can contact us here. 

From May 2021 your website traffic might go down (or up). Why? Because Google is implementing a brand new algorithm designed to change the way websites rank on search results. Google’s aim is to provide a positive experience for users interacting on the web. That’s why they have come up with a way to measure and prioritise user experience. Welcome to the page experience algorithm. 

In this post, we’re going to explain to you what the new algorithm is, and show you how to combat it so that when May comes around your traffic doesn’t plummet. You’re welcome. 

An explanation of the Google Page Experience update

By introducing the following three metrics, Google hopes to decrease common frustrations users have whilst interacting with web pages:

• What speed does the page load at?
• How soon is the page interactive?
• How stable is the page?

By prioritising the webpages that positively satisfy these metrics, Google hopes to recommend those which are easy to use and well-maintained first. 

If you want to really get to grips with the upcoming changes, here’s our breakdown of the technical details…

These are the core web vitals that will impact your site’s traffic: 

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

This is the main metric for page load speed. It measures how long users have to wait before large blocks of content load such as images, videos and chunks of text. Page content that takes more than 4 seconds to load will rank poorly, to improve your LCP measure, consider doing the following:

• Scale down image sizes so they load faster
• Use a size loading optimizer plugin
• Boost server speed

 

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

We’ve all been there, opened a page and tried to click on something before it’s fully loaded, and then by the time it does load, a shift occurs that changes the location of where we clicked. It’s a real pain and this metric measures just that. Unexpected element shifts can cause unwanted interactions, to avoid this make sure elements on your page do not suddenly change in size between the first and final loading. 

 

• First Input Delay (FID)

This one measures how soon you can interact with elements on a page, or how quickly these interactive elements respond to user action. A good measure for this is 100 milliseconds, and anything longer than 300 milliseconds is, well, too long. You can improve on this by using a good programmer to test, audit and optimise the code. 

What will make pages rank high?

Any pages that are tailored to answering specific queries from a targeted audience to influence conversion rates will be ranking high once the new Google algorithm takes off. This is because conversion rate optimisation (CRO) techniques also influence the user experience (UX). Simply put, Google will be looking at how effective your conversion strategies are in prompting users to take the desired action. 

Our recommendation is this:

• Quality content should remain your top priority. 
• SEO continues to be relevant.
• Regular testing is essential.

Combatting the update

We don’t want to worry you, we just want to prepare you… Here are some actions you can start taking to ensure your site continues to rank well after the update:

• Try out the Core Web Vitals report which will identify areas on your webpages that need improvement. 
• To fix any issues reported by the above, such as slow page loading, try Lighthouse and Page Speed Insights. 

We hope this post has helped you get to grips with the changes coming in May. If you need any help ensuring your page content meets the requirements of the new Google algorithm update, feel free to contact us. We’d love to assist! 

Did you know there are over 4 billion email users worldwide? That’s more than half the world’s population and shows that email marketing is an opportunity your business can’t afford to miss out on. Whether you’re a small business with limited resources or a large business with an enormous budget, email marketing is a strategy that anyone can master and benefit from. 

In recent years social media has become the digital marketing tool that everyone’s talking about, and email marketing is often looked at as a thing of the past. However, email marketing is still up there as one of the best. In fact, according to a study done by McKinsey & Company, Email marketing can be up to 40 times more effective than social media. The key to this success is ensuring your email marketing meets the following three necessary elements:

• You do not bombard your recipients with emails. 
• Your emails contain high-quality content that meets the interests of your recipients.
• You include a compelling CTA, (call to action). 

What is email marketing?

Before we show you how to conduct the perfect email marketing campaign, let’s start with a definition of what it is. 

Email marketing is a digital marketing method that uses email to promote products or services and encourages brand loyalty. Email marketing aims to build customer relationships and keep customers engaged between purchases. In it’s simplest form email marketing is a type of advertisement.

So now we’ve covered the ‘whats’ let’s cover the ‘hows’… here are our four steps explaining how you can build the perfect email marketing campaign. 

Step 1. Plan your email marketing strategy

Planning is an essential part of building your campaign. Your emails are at high risk of becoming lost in overcrowded inboxes or getting sent straight to spam. That’s why it’s crucial that you strategise your approach. Here’s a little roadmap of how to do it:

• Define your audience

Just like every other marketing strategy, you must begin by creating your buyer persona. Who will you be sending your emails to? What are their needs and pain points? This is who you will tailor your email content to. 

• Set your goals

Motivation comes from having something to work towards, so research email statistics for your industry and set yourself some realistic benchmarks. 

• Choose your Email campaign type

There are lots of different types of email campaigns that suit different industries and recipient demographics. For example, standard promotional campaigns, newsletters, product announcements, abandoned carts, and more. Decide which campaign is best for your audience.

• Create a campaign schedule

The best way to stay organised and make sure your campaign doesn’t lose momentum is to stick to a schedule. When deciding how often your emails will go out, first consider how often is too often? i.e. don’t bombard your recipients, and secondly, think about what is the right length of time to leave between emails to ensure your recipients don’t forget about you. 

Step 2. Build your email list

Once you’ve finished planning your campaign you can start putting it together. Start by building an email list of eager prospects that are interested in hearing from you. Wondering how to do that? We’ve got you covered.

There are two elements to building a healthy email list, the first involves using lead magnets to lure in potential customers, the second involves producing compelling opt-in forms. Let’s take a look at these in more detail…

Lead Magnets

If you want to generate an authentic list of emails from people who are actually interested in what your business has to offer, then using lead magnets is a great method for naturally attracting these prospects. A lead magnet is essentially a piece of content, related to your industry, that you offer to people for free in exchange for their email address. Examples of lead magnets are:

• Ebook
• Whitepaper
• Infographic
• Template
• Webinar
• Software or tool

Lead magnets are effective for two reasons. Firstly, because lead magnets are related to and relevant to your business, they attract the right kind of prospects who fit your buyer persona and secondly, because they actually work, people tend to be willing to hand over their email addresses if they’re going to receive something of value to them in return. 

Opt-in forms

You’ve created an attractive lead magnet, and it’s drawing interest from potential customers. What next? This is where an opt-in form comes in. Not having one is the only thing stopping your future leads from accessing the incredible asset you’ve designed for them and stopping you from securing their email addresses. 

What is an opt-in form you ask? It’s a digital form containing a few simple fields to be filled in by your prospects. Once the form is completed, your potential customers will be granted access to your lead magnet, and you will receive the information they entered. 

Here are three things to remember when creating your opt-in form:

• Keep it simple

A lengthy form with too much copy and an excessive number of fields to complete will deter your future leads. Only ask for basic information and keep it to the point. 

• Make sure it’s attractive

Your opt-in form is the first thing people see so the design work needs to be tip-top. Consider adding an attention-grabbing header that will excite people and persuade them to sign up. 

• Only add relevant info

Your primary goal is to get people to sign up, but don’t do this by embellishing or through deception. Make sure all the information on your form is relevant and an accurate description of what they will receive. 

Step 3. Send your emails 

After all the time and effort that went into building the perfect email list, wouldn’t it be a shame if your email is sent straight to spam? Well, that’s exactly what will happen if you lose momentum now. Before you send your email, there’s a little more hard work to be done. Don’t worry though, it will pay off. Here are the next things you need to do:

Choose an email marketing service provider

Since you’re going to be sending out a lot of emails, it’s only wise to choose an email marketing service to support you in your marketing efforts. These are simply tools or software that allow you to design and personalise professional-looking emails which can then be scheduled and sent en-masse. They also offer a breakdown of the data so you can analyse your efforts.

Segment your email list

Your current email list can be segmented into categories which will allow you to send more targeted emails. For example, you may want to segment your list according to age-groups, interests or preferences. This will help you to be more personal with your campaign, instead of sending out generic emails containing ‘canned’ copy. 

Craft your email

You might know what the content of your email is going to be, but do you know how to optimise every inch of it to make sure it lands perfectly? Here are our top tips for crafting the perfect marketing email:

• Write relevant and consistent copy

Try and stick to one topic in your email so that there’s a clear, defined point that your CTA will follow naturally from. Also, decide on a TOV (tone of voice) that will be iconic to all of your brand’s copy, and be consistent with it throughout your emails.

• Include high-quality images

How do you make an email look nice? By including high-quality, attractive images that will make it more interesting and break up the text. Make sure they’re relevant to your topic. 

• Add a CTA

A CTA, or “call to action” is a word or phrase that prompts a response from the reader. For example, if the aim of your email is to direct the reader to your website, tell them to click on a link to it. 

• Consider the time of day

The best time of day to send a marketing email is between 8:00 am and 9:00 am. During this time your email has the highest chance of being opened. 

• Insert an enticing subject line

The first thing your recipients will see is the subject line, think of this as your elevator pitch. In less than 150 characters you need to convince them to open your email. Be clear, concise and use enticing language. 

If you’d like to see these tips in more detail, we’ve dedicated an article to just that. Don’t say we never treat you. Read it here.

Now you’ve crafted the perfect email, you should be ready to click send. Once your email has been delivered, the waiting game begins. However, your work isn’t over yet. Next up is email marketing analysis…

Step 4. Analyse your email marketing 

Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaign is going to equip you to make better decisions in the future that will help you to cater for your readers and subscribers and ultimately have a positive impact on your business. Here are four key metrics you should pay attention to when measuring the effectiveness of your campaign:

Deliverability

The rate at which your email reaches the intended recipient’s inboxes. 

Open rate

The percentage of recipients that open the email.

Clickthrough rate

The percentage of recipients that click on the CTA.

Unsubscribers

The number of people who, since receiving your email, have opted out of your email list. 

A/B testing

It can be hard to tell which aspects of your email campaigns are hitting a high note with your audience and which aspects are falling short. That’s where A/B testing comes to the rescue. Here’s how to do it: 

• Choose a variable to test, e.g. CTA, images, subject line.
• Create two versions of the same email, one containing the variable and one without it.
• Simultaneously send each email, one email should go to half of your email list and the other should go to the second half of your email list.
• Now you can measure the effectiveness of the chosen variable by seeing which email performed better.

This article was a long one, we know. But we wanted to treat you to a comprehensive guide so you can make better-informed decisions when crafting your next email marketing campaign. Good luck!

As Always, Good Luck!

Remember the days when you would log in to Instagram to find all the latest posts you’ve missed in a nice chronological order? Those days were bliss. 

These days your feed seems to present in a totally random order, and not to mention the fact that your Aunt is always mad at you for not liking her recent cat photo…it’s not your fault though, it didn’t come up on your feed! In fact, there’s a really simple explanation for this; it’s Instagram’s new algorithm. 

For many brands, the new algorithm definitely came as a shock. Instagram used to be one of the easiest social media marketing tools to navigate. You post a pic, people see it, and hey-presto, you gain customers. Now though, making sure your photos get seen is a little trickier, but do not to fear! We’ve got the low-down on how to beat the algorithm and get your posts ranking high in the feed. It’s all about engagement. The more people you’ve got liking and commenting on your posts, the better it will rank on the Instagram feed. 

How to boost Instagram engagement

Here are some clever ways to get more comments and likes on your posts, and ultimately rank higher in user’s feeds. 

Post frequently

Rarely active accounts just don’t fare well on Instagram, or any other social media platform for that matter. If you want to get people engaging with your photos, you need to get them interested in your account and looking forward to your next post. If you don’t post very often, people will inevitably forget about you, unfollow you, and sadly you’ll fade into the background. 

Host a giveaway

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Am I right? Hosting a giveaway is a great way to entice users to like, comment and share your content. Invite users to enter the contest by engaging with your post, perhaps by tagging three of their friends, (who may then also enter the contest). 

Host a takeover

Hosting a takeover means allowing another company, colleague or influencer to post on your account for a certain amount of time, (usually a day). This is a really clever way to attract their audience over onto your page so you can gather follows, likes and comments from a brand new set of users.

Ask people to comment 

We’ve all heard it before…‘why don’t you just ask?’. It can feel wrong to do it, but actually, asking for something is often the easiest way to get it. 

Applying this method to Instagram, find ways to ask your followers for their input on your most recent post. You could ask for their opinion on something, whether they agree or disagree with a statement, or even ask for their advice.  

Respond to comments

Following on nicely from our last tip, try and respond to comments. You don’t need to respond to them all, but perhaps the ones that stand out to you, or as many as you have the time for. 

Modern consumers love two-way marketing. It feels good to have a conversation with your favourite brands. It will also encourage people to comment because they will want a response from you. 

Post something funny or shocking

Want to really get people talking? Give them something to talk about!

If you post something funny, surprising or provocative, you’re bound to get a conversation started. This tactic will have users commenting about their responses and tagging their friends. 

Post a teaser on your story

Some people browse through their story feed just as much, if not more than they do their general feed. Don’t want them to miss your post? Add a little teaser to your story so they’ll be directed to your post. 

These tips should have you well on your way to beating Youtube’s new algorithm and upping your posts’ engagement. If you’re yet to establish a social media presence for your brand, take a look at this article we wrote on how to build a flawless social media marketing strategy. 

Good luck!

The platform launched in 2005, and since then has grown to become the second most visited website in the world. Yet, for some reason, Youtube is overlooked by some businesses as a potential marketing tool. That’s why we’re here to tell you that Youtube is a great way to engage potential customers, and give you some top tips for raking those views in.

Why is Youtube an effective marketing tool?

• Each month, Youtube gains over 1 billion unique visitors worldwide. That’s a LOT of potential exposure for your business. 
• Most people prefer visual content. Potential customers are much more likely to watch an informative video about your product or service than read a lengthy sales letter.
• Producing Youtube videos is an opportunity for your business to gain trust and establish authority within your industry.
• Youtube is a two-way marketing method. You can interact with your customers in the comment sections beneath each video. This should go down a treat with modern consumers who love to feel connected to a brand. 

How to gain views on Youtube videos

Hopefully, by this point, we’ve convinced you that Youtube has a lot of benefits to offer. Whether you’re new to Youtube or you’ve already started a channel for your business but are yet to gain traction, here are some tips for pumping up that all-important view-count on your videos. 

Think SEO

Youtube is a search engine, in fact, it’s the second biggest search engine after Google. That’s why SEO applies here too. 

Google owns Youtube which means they have similar ranking systems for the content they display. If you’d like a more detailed overview of how to rank high, check out this article we wrote which walks you through the top 10 Google ranking factors – and can be applied to Youtube too. 

Consider Keywords

You need to consider those all-important keywords when writing video descriptions, just as you would on your website. In the first 100 characters of your description, aim to cram in the best keywords for giving the most relevant explanation of your content to your viewers. 

Don’t forget to be creative with your writing too, your description will act as a pitch that can either persuade or dissuade viewers to keep watching your video. 

Create enticing titles

The title of your video is one of the first things a potential viewer will see and it’s one of the biggest factors considered when a person is deciding whether to click on a video or not. So, make sure it captures both the essence of the video, (what the video aims to explain/its purpose), and comes across as enticing. 

WARNING: Don’t fall into the clickbait trap. If your video doesn’t match up to how you’ve described it in the title, viewers won’t want to watch any more of your videos, and more detrimentally, they won’t trust you as a brand. 

(Think SEO here too, insert the most relevant keywords for your video).  

Choose attractive, relevant thumbnails 

As we said above the title of your video is one of the first things a potential viewer will see, and along with it will be the thumbnail you choose for your video. 

A thumbnail could be a screenshot from your video or even a title-based image. When creating your thumbnail preview, aim to intrigue your viewer and make them want to find out more. But again, ensure it’s relevant to the content of your video or you will just end up with disappointed viewers. 

Encourage subscribers

Another way to get your video ranking higher, and ultimately gain more viewers, is to encourage existing viewers to subscribe to your channel. Not only will your new videos appear on their subscriptions page, but having lots of subscribers also means your videos will rank higher in the search results.

Promote your videos on other platforms

If you’re already using Youtube as a marketing tool, or are considering using it soon, there’s a big chance you already use social media as a marketing tool too. If this is the case, you can share your Youtube videos across all of your social media platforms.

Sharing video content on these other platforms is a great way to attract viewers who’re already interested in your brand, and will increase engagement as your followers will hopefully like, comment and share your videos. 

And there you have it. 6 Ways to boost your viewer count and help your brand reach more potential customers. We hope you enjoyed this post. 

Good luck!