Social Nucleus

Categories
Uncategorized

5 Tips for Successful Summer Campaigns

Summer is finally here! It’s everyone’s favourite time of year…except for conversions. 

Unfortunately, Summer is statistically the least profitable season for online businesses which can really put a damper on your sunny days. 

Due to the hot weather and increase in holidays, it’s the most significant time of year when customers aren’t glued to their screens which inevitably leads to a drop in conversions, open rates, leads etc. 

However, you don’t need to wait for leaves to change colour to start seeing your sales rise again; there are ways to tackle the summer heat, and we’ve compiled our top 5 tips on running a successful summer campaign. 

Summer Sale 

Firstly, probably the easiest way to encourage sales is to simply embrace that summer feeling with themed sales surrounding the season. This could be as simple as using summer-related discount codes or spicing up your CTAs i.e. from ‘Get this deal ✨’ to ‘Get this summer deal ☀️’. 

This would also be the ideal time to launch a themed sale that your audience would not typically expect from your brand. For example, executing a flash sale has been proven to boost transaction rates by 67%.

 

 

Take advantage of key events 

Despite summer not being the busiest time of year, that does not mean you should stray away from capitalising on key events & holidays. 

For example here in the UK, we have a number of events and occasions that are essential to implement in any summer-related campaign 

For example: 

-August Summer Bank Holiday 

-Festival season (Leeds & Reading, Creme Fields, Boomtown)

-Back-to-school season 

Applying any of the above to your marketing campaigns is a fun and experimental way to generate sales. 

 

Marketing dates 

Following on from capitalising on key dates, if you ever find yourself short for ideas it’s always ideal to look into Marketing Dates – these are dates that are hugely influenced by social media and naturally generate brand awareness. 

Fortunately, no matter the niche of your brand there is no shortage of ‘National Days’, therefore you will be able to implement at least one into an upcoming Summer Campaign:

– 4th July America’s Independence Day

-7th July World Chocolate day

-17th July World Emoji Day

– 1st August National Girlfriend Day

 

 Update your look 

Summer is the ideal time to give your brand a quick ‘Glow-Up’ to fit around the seasonal themes, which ultimately will give your campaigns an original fresh look for re-targeted audiences to look forward to. 

Tweaking your look to reflect a ‘summer vibe’ will really help encourage customers to shop further as you’re naturally resonating with how they’re feeling and overall keeping a relevant style to your brand. 

This is the perfect time to experiment with new colours and themes you would previously shy away from- this can simply be a change of background, logo colour or imagery in general. 

 

 

Emojis 

Sunshine, ice cream, palm trees…when it comes to summer the emoji library has it all. Although we understand emojis aren’t for everyone and don’t fit every brand, it’s recommended to implement a pinch of summer into your campaigns to make them even more eye-catching than usual. This would work particularly well with your email marketing as a study has shown that an emoji in the subject line of an email increases the open rate by 29% and the click-through rate by 28% (Medium.com). 

 

Here at Social Nucleus, we appreciate that summer campaigns can be challenging and a particularly stressful time of year for a business owner. If you need assistance with excelling your business over Q3, get in touch today and our team of marketing specialists will be happy to assist you 🚀

Categories
Uncategorized

Trends, challenges and charts: TikTok’s impact on the music industry

TikTok: a powerhouse of content, trends, challenges – and a place to discover new music. This week, we’re looking into the way TikTok has massively affected the way we experience the music industry.

 

Music and audio is central to TikTok – the platform is made up of millions of short videos using songs as a background for constantly changing trends, most often involving dancing or lipsyncing. Choosing the right audio for a TikTok is an important part of the process – neglect this and it could impact the impression rate of the video. 

The listening power of TikTok is incredible – just think of Kate Bush’s resurgence in the charts- with a song from 1985. Thousands upon thousands of the platform’s users heard the song Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) in Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things and reused the song in their videos – and the charts took note. Kate Bush topped the charts 37 years after the song was originally released – beating the likes of Harry Styles and Lizzo (whose songs have a TikTok dominance of their own).

 

^ An example of the thousands of TikTok videos created recently that use Kate Bush’s 1985 track.

 

TikTok has become a place to discover new music, whether it’s from 2022 or the mid-80s. According to an MRC Data study, 67% of TikTok users are likely to search for songs on music-streaming apps after hearing them on TikTok. And radio stations take note of this, playing the songs that people are hyped up about.

We may only recognise some songs from a few bars – as TikTok videos use the catchiest sections of songs, propelling them to a globally recognisable, trending status (think Gayle’s ABCDEFU or Bo Burnham’s Bezos I). Radio plays give us access to the full song, whether it be from global stars or smaller artists getting their big break. The sheer power of the app for music discovery has never been seen before.

 

^ Spotify created a playlist specifically for the TikTok user wanting to find the songs they keep seeing on the platform.

 

Artists and record labels are becoming accustomed to TikTok as a golden opportunity to achieve global success. Songs that ’make it’ on the platform are lip-synced, remixed, combined, accompanied by a popular dances created and shared on TikTok – and when trends fade, many songs live on with new adoring audiences. 

Some may argue that mass TikTok popularity causes songs to lose a little of their sparkle, as they’re overplayed and overshared as a way to get views on the platform. Music has been turned into a tool on TikTok, some may say- a resource to achieve short-lived fame, rather than something to be enjoyed for its own sake. 

Or is music simply being enjoyed in a different way? TikTok has revolutionised how we experience good music – by watching and participating in dance trends, music challenges, creatively using tracks to make entertaining videos that get people talking. Authenticity hasn’t been lost – just transformed, and we should move with the times and enjoy the ride. Passive listening has made way for creative expression.

 

 

Some artists don’t wish to participate- rather understandably in a rapidly changing world. They must deal with record companies wanting to tug at TikTok’s potential to turn a song into a viral hit. It’s certainly advisable to have a marketing strategy that pays attention to the power of TikTok, such as creating music challenges to promote the sharing of catchy new singles. Yet it’s important to preserve artists’ authenticity – by not producing songs solely for the purpose of good performance on the platform. 

Songs don’t need to be ‘TikTokified’ to reach the screens of millions- the algorithm is on your side if your song has good quality production and a memorable hook. Achieving TikTok stardom cannot be made – we have to leave it to the viewers to decide a song’s fate- but more often than not, it’s time will come around, even if not straightaway. Songs like Britney Spears’s Toxic (2004), Time Moves Slow by BADBADNOTGOOD (2016) and Love Shack by The B-52’s (1989) made the rounds on TikTok many years after their original release dates. 

With the new listening power of TikTok, songs will never die – they’ll be re-discovered and loved all over again. Just look at Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill – without TikTok, the momentum would never have begun.

 

Need help navigating the realm of TikTok? That’s where we come in. Our team of digital marketing specialists are on hand to help your brand reach new heights – and TikTok has become an important platform to pay attention to here. Book a call with us today to discover how we can create a bespoke TikTok campaign for your brand, utilising trending songs and sounds to get your ads in front of new audiences 🚀

Categories
Uncategorized

Meet the Social Nucleus team!

We’re taking a break from sharing marketing insights with you this week – we thought it would be good to re-introduce ourselves to you all. Read on to get to know everyone in our UK offices.

 

Will

Will Tickle Social Nucleus

Job role : CEO

Hobbies outside work : Golf

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Lots of dog videos

Alexa, play… Liam Gallagher

Your go-to meal : Chicken Milanese

Dream holiday destination : Bahamas

What’s important to you : Family, friends, business

 

Jamie

Jamie Crichton Social Nucleus

Job role : Director

Hobbies outside work : Golf, Walking the dog, watching football & drinking beer

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Pictures & videos of beagles

Alexa, play…HARRY STYLES 24/7

Your go-to meal : Lasagne with garlic bread

Dream holiday destination : Bolton aquarium

What’s important to you : Transparency, kindness and integrity

 

Katie

Katie Milne Social Nucleus

Job role : Head Of Client services

Hobbies outside work : Shopping, dining out, nice bars & holidays

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Home interiors, outfit reels, Love Island memes, cute cat pics.

Alexa, play… The Saturdays Mix (Always!)

Your go-to meal : Some kind of pasta with loads of Parmesan or asian food – noodles, dim sum, crispy duck yes please!

Dream holiday destination : I want to do a tour of the Amalfi Coast

What’s important to you : Loyalty, transparency, accountability

 

Matt

Matt Sheedy Social Nucelus

Job role : Account Manager

Hobbies outside work : Football, Golf, Walks On The Beach With My Dog (Mowgli)

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Football content

Alexa, play… The Greatest Showman Songs

Your go-to meal : Meat Feast Pizza

Dream holiday destination : Maldives

What’s important to you :  Family, Friends, My Dog (Mowgli) & Ads

 

Anthony 

Anthony Hoodless Social Nucleus

Job role : Account Manager

Hobbies outside work : Football

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : The fellas podcast

Alexa, play… High School Musical (1 & 2…3 was a bit poor)

Your go-to meal : Beans on toast

Dream holiday destination : Mykonos

What’s important to you : Loyalty

 

Abi 

Job role : Business Development Manager

Hobbies outside work : Dining out, walks with my dog Poppy, going to the gym

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Harry Styles, dogs, and outfit inspo 

Alexa, play… HARRY STYLES

Your go-to meal : falafel, pitta and hummus

Dream holiday destination : Hawaii

What’s important to you : Family, friends and Poppy

 

Sarah 

Sarah Benson Social Nucleus

Job role : People Team (HR)

Hobbies outside work : The gym & taking my dog around England for scenic walks

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page :

Unfortunately, nothing, I’m more of a viewer than a poster/influencer!

Alexa, play… Spotify!

Your go-to meal : Nando’s

Dream holiday destination : Maldives or Caribbean

What’s important to you : Family, friends, working hard & enjoying life

 

Phoebe 

Phoebe Moore Social Nucleus

Job role : Social Media Executive

Hobbies outside work : Photography, video-editing and going on coffee crawls around Manchester

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Aesthetic travel content, skincare hacks, fashion content- and cat videos!

Alexa, play… 80s/90s bops, chilled soul, or feel-good pop (it’s a bit of a mix)

Your go-to meal : Pasta al pesto

Dream holiday destination : Southern Italy, Mexico and Argentina.

What’s important to you : Spending quality time with my family and friends, and seeing the world! 

 

Tom

Tom Watson Social Nucleus

Job role : Social Media Executive

Hobbies outside work : Football, Fashion, Gym

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Football, Fashion, gym

Alexa, play… Can’t knock the Hustle, Jay Z or Kanye/Drake essentials

Your go-to meal : Chicken & rice

Dream holiday destination : Maldives, Bali

What’s important to you : Family, Friends & Health

 

Chanel

Chanel O'Brien Social Nucelus

Job role : Graphic Designer

Hobbies outside work : Jiujitsu and Photography

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Baked Oats, Jujitsu reels, memes and pups

Alexa, play… Fugees’

Your go-to meal : Porridge

Dream holiday destination : Iceland

What’s important to you : The people I care about are happy

 

Zoe

Zoe Williams Social Nucleus

Job role : Social Media Executive

Hobbies outside work : Makeup & binge watching a good Netflix series

What you’ll find on my Insta Explore/TikTok For You page : Dogs & Outfit inspo

Alexa, play… 7 Rings by Ariana Grande or Good Ones by Charli XCX

Your go-to meal : American Hot Pizza   

Dream holiday destination : New Zealand or LA

What’s important to you : Doing things that make you happy

 

Chico 

Chico Social Nucleus

 Job role : Office security

Hobbies outside work : Sleeping, eating, going on walks

Alexa, play… Beverly Hills Chihuahua soundtrack (sung by Abi)

Your go-to meal : Anything Ant has brought back from Tesco’s

Dream holiday destination: My bed, Katie’s Desk

What’s important to you : My owner Sarah!

 

And that’s a wrap! We hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about our amazing team. We look forward to working with you – book a call with us today 🚀 

Categories
Uncategorized

7 ways to optimise your website conversion rate

No matter the efficacy of your paid social ads or email marketing campaigns, your website is where the most important step occurs for your business: conversion. That’s why it’s incredibly important to ensure that your website’s conversion rate is fully optimised.

Whether your customer knows your brand from your organic social media presence, or has come across your website and brand for the first time, your website needs to provide a smooth and simple process from your customer visiting the landing page to completing their purchase.

Here’s 7 ways you can boost your website conversions – all proven to optimise conversion rate.

 

1. Add a pop-up to your landing page(s).

A pop-up is a great way to entice customers to make a purchase, advertising a first-order offer or product/bundle discount, for example. You can test different incentives until you reach the highest conversion rate.

Ensure your pop-up appears with a 30 second delay and is easy to close, so that it doesn’t annoy site visitors. You can also set a cookie to make your pop-up message only appear once per user.

The top website pop-ups can reach a conversion rate of nearly 10% (for every 100 website visitors, 10 make a purchase via the pop-up message). Give it a try to boost your conversions.

 

 

pop up on wesb

 

2. Include social proof.

Your customer wants to make sure their purchase will be worth their investment – and customer testimonials and reviews can help build their trust. According to Trustpilot, 89% of consumers check online reviews before making a purchase – and you can make this investigative process easier by including social proof on your site.

By quoting happy customers on your landing page, as well as a dedicated review page and a link to third-party review sites like Trustpilot, you’ll be able to build potential customers’ certainty that your product/service is worth investing in, leading to increased conversions.

 

3. Keep pages simple and easily navigable.

From the first glance, customers shouldn’t feel overwhelmed by a busy and cluttered landing page. It’s crucial to keep your website’s design simple, clear and easily navigable – so that visitors focus on your offering and make a seamless journey towards a purchase.

Don’t include something if it isn’t essential or valuable to the customer journey. Every page and section needs to clearly lead to conversion. Include a headline/subheadings, your product’s benefits/features/USPs, testimonials/reviews and visual creatives/animated content.

The more content your visitors have to scroll through to find out about your products and make a purchase, the less likely they are to convert. Make sure the experience of visiting your website is smooth and straightforward- with minimal distractions.

 

4. Simplify your sign-up form.

When customers begin to fill out a sign-up form to receive your newsletter and create an account on your site, they wish to complete the process quickly. It’s your job to make sure this is smooth- by only requesting essential information. This might just be their email address – leave the ‘how did you hear about us?’ to the post-purchase survey.

You can even add a 3rd-party sign-up service to eliminate any form-filling, such as allowing the customer to use their Google or Facebook account. Ensure you give your customers a seamless experience from start to finish.

 

 

5. Strengthen CTA copy.

Rather than constantly sticking to CTA copy like ‘shop now’ or ‘sign up’, more creative copy can generate greater conversions as it subtly, yet powerfully, entices the customer to progress to the next stage of their journey on your website.

Adding the word ‘yes’ before a CTA psychologically paints it in a positive light, increasing the likelihood that a customer acts on the command;

 

 

Ensure your CTAs are clear and placed throughout your website and landing pages – so that there is always an opportunity to move closer to purchase, no matter how much a customer scrolls through a page. This may be the same CTA incorporated at several points throughout a page.

The sooner a CTA appears when the customer visits a page (ideally without scrolling first), the better.

 

6. Add a countdown timer.

Including a countdown timer on your landing page, added to a sale or offer advertisement for example, is an effective way to encourage quicker conversions. If customers see a timer, they’ll know something is exclusive and only available for a limited time (and therefore more desirable), and their sense of urgency to purchase will increase.

 

7. Offer a money-back guarantee.

Another great way to remove customers’ objections to risk and increase security in purchasing from you is to offer a money-back guarantee. By promising high quality and strong return on investment, a clear money-back guarantee on your website is an effective incentive for customers to move towards conversion.

Whether you boldly display this guarantee in your site’s visual creatives or you add it to product descriptions, make sure it’s clearly visible on the page so you can capitalise from its message.

 

The final thing to do is make sure your website is optimised for mobile– to increase conversions from this platform and improve your Google rankings. On mobile, the experience of viewing your website is different. Less is more on mobile- your mobile site should have further simplified navigation (making use of the hamburger menu). Utilise Google’s mobile testing tool to check whether your site is mobile-friendly and discover ways you can improve mobile performance.

It is advisable to take a look through your website through your customers’ eyes, and see what the experience might be like when you visit for the first time. Ask yourself questions like; is it easy to navigate? Does it make use of clear and well-populated CTAs? What could be added/changed to optimise conversion rate?

Keep in mind websites you’ve visited and purchased from in the past – these can act as strong models to follow to ensure your site effectively generates conversions.

 

So, there you have it. A comprehensive guide of ways to optimise your website’s conversion rate.

Need further help to create an effective, sleek website for your business and boost your online conversions? Get in touch with us today- we’re a team of marketing specialists offering brand development support and creative management, including paid social media ads and email marketing.

We’re experts in all things SEO and site performance- book a call in with us today and find out how we can help scale your business 🚀

Categories
Uncategorized

How to level up your marketing game with key marketing dates

Find out how to utilise upcoming marketing dates to your advantage with this handy checklist.

Got a few key marketing dates coming up that you want to use? Here’s a checklist for you to make sure you take full advantage of these in your marketing output.

We’ll be covering the following in this article :

1.Create an exciting promotion
2.Theme up on socials
3.Engage on email
4.Grab attention on ads

 

First of all, here’s a few dates you need to be paying attention to this month:

1st-30th June : Pride Month

3rd June : Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday

5th June : World Environment Day

19th June : Father’s Day

 

Getting involved with dates like these is a great way to put your brand out there, stay relevant and engage with your target audience. It makes a creative way to reach your ultimate goal: driving website traffic and conversions.

To fully capitalise on upcoming marketing dates, it’s essential to prepare your content in advance, across your socials, website and ads. Then when the date rolls around, your campaign is strong and fully tailored to engage with your audiences.

Let’s go ahead and break down your campaign strategy, so you know exactly what you need to do to prepare for your next marketing date.

 

1. Create an exciting promotion

Setting up a special discount or product offer to celebrate a themed date is a great strategy to boost conversions from new and loyal customers alike. 

This could be exclusive to newsletter subscribers, with a themed code to use at checkout, or for all site visitors. To create a sense of urgency and exclusivity, consider adding a timer to your landing page or newsletter email, counting down to the end of the offer.

Here’s a few examples of landing pages for the Platinum Jubilee this weekend:

 

2. Theme up on socials

Make sure to commemorate the event on your socials, whether that’s Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or LinkedIn. 

Use relevant hashtags to increase your reach, and consider creating an eye-catching graphic that pulls attention on the quickest of scrolls. Add creative captions that are on theme and contain an engaging CTA to drive site traffic, perhaps even promising an offer when you visit the website.

Here’s an example from Paperchase’s Instagram :

If you’re extra keen to capitalise on a themed date, consider a themed hashtag challenge on TikTok. Create a custom hashtag for customers to use on their own videos featuring your products – this will engage your audiences and build brand awareness.

 

3. Engage on email

Your email marketing gives you a stellar opportunity to let your creativity take the stage with themed dates. Create a themed template with creative copy, engaging CTAs and promote any themed offers you’re running. These could be VIP sales on certain products, or code-unlocking bundle deals.

Remember – your subject line is incredibly important if you want to boost your open (and click) rates. Write an attention-grabbing subject line that would stand out in your inbox, making use of on-theme emojis where appropriate.


4. Grab attention on ads

The final part to consider devoting attention to is your paid Facebook and Google ads. Target and attract new audiences with themed graphics, and retarget existing audiences with any on-theme promotions you’re running. It’s a sure-fire way to drive traffic with clear relevancy and exciting exclusivity.

 

All in all – let your creativity run wild, and invest time in upcoming marketing dates to take your brand to the next level. Note down the upcoming themed dates you could use to your advantage and plan ahead – so you’re ready to drive that traffic and sales when the day rolls around.

 

In need of a bespoke marketing strategy to take your business to new heights? Get in touch with our team today – we’re very happy to help your eCommerce brand with social media strategy, paid advertising and email marketing.

Our results-driven method keeps us ahead of the game – perfect for creating high quality, ultra-relevant content for your products/services. Book a call with us today – we can’t wait to find out more about your business.