Love it or hate it (we most definitely love it) TikTok has taken over the world in recent years and has become a digital marketing must-have for both established and small businesses. 

With over 1 billion active users as of 2022, no matter the niche of your business – there is a TikTok audience waiting for you. 

It can be intimidating approaching the platform for the first time professionally, so read on to learn our top tips for a successful presence.

Be Consistent 

Consistency is key when it comes to TikTok – if you’re looking for significant traffic to your page it’s ideal to be posting as often as possible.

You might be thinking, “there’s just no way I can do that!” however, when it comes to business-related TikToks, we recommend setting up a content strategy to make daily posting more achievable in line with your business priorities (product drops etc).

Jump On the Trends 

When it comes to TikTok, trends are the way forward if you’re looking to reach your target audience via the ‘For You Page’. This can include using popular sounds, hashtags, filters, dance trends….the list goes on! 

The algorithm is more likely to promote a video with trending sounds – ultimately leading you one step closer to reaching your audience.

Competitor Research 

As discussed in our previous blog post, keeping an eye on what your competitors are producing is key to a successful TikTok presence. Make note of what sounds, trends & hashtags they are using that have already been received well by your shared audience and attempt to replicate the content in some form. 

Check out our previous blog post for further tips on how Competitor research can benefit your business

Be Authentic 

Last but not least, be yourself! It’s proven with TikTok, that more often than not ‘less is more – so don’t spend too much time on expensive equipment or extensive production; simply, have a laugh and enjoy what you’re producing as that will reflect in your videos.

Brands that aren’t afraid to make fun of themselves bring a real sense of authenticity to the business. An example of this would be SkinnyDip London, known for their phone cases & accessories, often post BTS content featuring videos of their staff in funny/ relatable situations i.e being late for work, making fun of old products etc.

TikTok is undoubtedly a digital marketing marvel, with its almost perfect algorithm bringing thousands of communities together & growing even the smallest of creator platforms. 

Still needing assistance with your brand’s TikTok presence? Our specialist creative team here at Social Nucleus are here to help – Book a call with us today and get your business growing today. 

No matter the size, age or niche of your business, there will be a competitor. And as a business owner, it is important to identify your competitors and keep a close eye on what they are producing so you can ensure your own business is going above and beyond – and ultimately stands out in the market. 

To put it simply, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer”. In today’s article, we will discuss the importance of competitor research and the benefits it can bring to your business. 

Keep up with the trends

Through conducting your research, you will easily be able to identify trends that are working successfully with your shared audiences, which can ultimately be embedded into your own content and strategies.

As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery!

For example, when Snapchat first launched the ‘Stories’ feature in October 2013, it was a social media marvel and has set a new industry standard for the majority of platforms. 

After seeing the success of Snapchat’s feature, Instagram replicated its own version in August 2016 – and in doing so, it has become the preferred platform to use the stories feature due to Instagram making it a staple to their platform, as well as becoming a digital marketing phenomenon. 

Stand out from the crowd 

When it comes to competitor research, it can be easy to become overwhelmed – and can leave you kicking yourself with the “Why didn’t I think of that?”. 

However, it’s also a way to visualise what you’re doing well in comparison to other businesses and helps you identify your USPs, which you can ultimately push in future marketing strategies. 

Set a standard  

Keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing successfully allows you to set realistic benchmarks – in other words, setting a standard for your business to live up to and achieve. 

For example, watch closely to whoever you define as your main competitor(s) and form a benchmark; i.e metrics of how well their Instagram posts do on average (likes, engagement, reach etc) and set that as a goal for your own content to surpass. 

Here at Social Nucleus, competitor research is a key part of the client onboarding process. Our Creative Team conduct competitor research on a monthly basis to ensure our clients are always performing to the highest standards – as the industry is constantly evolving and it is vital to keep up! 

If you feel that your business would benefit from fully comprehensive competitor research, book a call with us today to find out how our creative team can help you achieve your fullest marketing potential.

When you’re building a business, it’s also important to build a brand : a company identity that separates you from the competition, conveys your message and personality, and makes you recognisable in your market sector.

In today’s market, competition is high- more and more brands are coming into existence, and we have so much choice with our interests and needs. So it’s more important than ever to present your business’s originality and stand out with clear, cohesive and professional branding. This will present you as a strong market contender, and make your target audience remember you.

Read on to find out what to consider when upping your branding game, and why branding is more important than ever.

First of all, what do you need for effective branding? 

How your brand makes your customers feel depends on your market, target audience, product line and brand identity – but there’s always an opportunity to stand out amongst your competitors. 

It’s important to keep things consistent, sticking to your brand guidelines across all your business’s creative output, website, social media and internal/external communication.

Visually speaking, here are the factors to pay attention to:

1. Distinct logo : create a symbol or graphic that is visually appealing, simple and original, and effectively represents your brand identity/the products you offer.
2. Brand colours: establish an attractive colour palette – this may be one dominant colour, or many colours used equally across all media.
3. Brand fonts : decide your typeface (eg serif, sans serif) and whether you will use the same or different fonts for headlines and body text.

Considering your business’s brand voice, it’s important to establish a clear, consistent TOV (tone of voice) across all written copy. Ask yourself : how do you want to make your audience feel? 

Your TOV could be:

1. informal or formal (ie chatty/familiar/exclamatory vs serious/informative/distant)
2. punchy/to-the-point or more descriptive/flowing in style.

Either style can engage your audience, depending on your product line – but it’s important to set your TOV and stick with it, to create a consistent brand voice.

Next, why is branding important?

1. It increases brand recognition : with a fully coordinated brand design and colour palette across all creatives, including your logo, your brand can be recognised in seconds.
2. It strongly establishes your brand in the market : memorable, original branding will stick in people’s minds, allowing your brand to increase in mind share amongst your competitors. Most of the time, when people first come into contact with your brand, they’re not looking to buy straightaway – but eye-catching, professional branding will greatly assist in making them remember your brand at the point they wish to purchase products/services you offer.
3. It increases brand loyalty : strong recognition and memorability builds loyalty. Utilise great branding to impress potential customers and build trust in a clearly established brand. 

Branding is a continuous process – it requires routine evaluation to ensure branding is fresh, relevant and original in ever-changing markets. By paying attention to the factors above, you’ll be well on your way to presenting yourself as a market leader.

Need assistance with your brand development? Our specialist team here at Social Nucleus can help with that – book a call with us today to find out how we can help take your business to new heights. 

No matter the quality and design of your site, or your social media presence, you need to be paying attention to your website traffic, and ensuring as many people as possible are visiting your site. There are a number of ways you can drive organic traffic and, ultimately, boost website purchases- we’ll be going through five of these in today’s article. 

1- Blogging

A blog (like this one!) is a great way to attract new visitors to your site. To create the most effective blog to boost organic traffic, consider your target audience and their needs and questions – what might they find valuable to read? Keep your blog content original, relevant to your brand and engaging- this helps build a loyal audience, plus it increases the chances that your blog gets shares as a useful hub of information. 

2- Active socials with clear CTAs

Be smart with your socials – the goal is to build brand publicity and ultimately drive traffic to your site, in a way that seems natural to followers and visitors to your social platforms. Utilise CTAs that encourage website visits, such as to product pages or to your blog, to initiate visitors’ site experience. Include and draw attention to your website link, and ensure your branding is present on all creatives that you post.

It is also important to consider the different stages of the customer journey, and how your social presence moves customers towards conversion. A portion of your social media content, for example, should address those at the awareness stage, who have just come across your brand via your socials, by building hype around your products/services and informing them what you offer and who you are as a brand, to spark interest and drive website traffic. Another portion should target those visitors who are at the interest/research stage – how can they be pushed to your product pages?

Plan a social media optimisation strategy to drive organic traffic to your website, ensuring content you publish covers different buying personas and the different stages of the customer journey.

3- Pay attention to target keywords to boost SEO

Ensure you are smart with your keywords to rank higher in search results. Consider what your target audience might be searching for, what questions they might asking on search engines, and ensure your copy and content matches likely search queries. This includes keywords in your URL, headings, subheadings, meta title and meta description on search listings, as well as image and video descriptions. The higher you rank in results, and the more relevant and engaging your content looks to your target audience, the more people that click on your site, driving website traffic.

4- Email marketing

Formulating a strong email marketing strategy is a great way to remind subscribers of the products/services you offer and encourage them to visit and return to your site. You can promise and deliver exclusive offers and discounts to subscribers, sending out a regular newsletter that incorporates both product pushes and blog-style emails that offer valuable, relevant content to your target audience.

5- Perform a website audit

As well as ensuring your website keywords boost your on-page SEO, you can further optimise your web content to rank higher in search results, and ultimately boost organic site traffic, by performing a website audit. A site like www.seooptimer.com will tell you exactly how your site ranks in search results alongside any competitors, and factors you should pay attention to and improve to drive greater traffic via search engines. From here, you can develop a website optimisation strategy to boost your organic traffic.

So, that’s five key ways to drive traffic to your website. In need of further assistance in optimising your website SEO and social media platforms to boost organic traffic? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today – we have an expect in-house team who would be very happy to help you scale your online presence and get more visitors onto your site.

The arrival of iOS 14 has meant we can no longer see accurate purchase data on Facebook Ads Manager. iOS 14 users have been granted greater transparency and choice with data sharing, and we are now unable to track users’ activity outside Facebook-owned apps if they opt out of ads tracking. 

This means the efficacy of Ads Manager has dropped as regards to audience targeting and hence measuring ad campaign performance. Ads Manager doesn’t always include purchase values which means ROAS is calculated incorrectly, at a lower value than it actually is. In addition, delayed attribution means we can be without a truly accurate performance report for around three days.

In order to grow your business’s profits, we are making sure to observe complete results and revenue. Instead of being restricted by Facebook ROAS, we’ll be using MER. By using platforms such as Triple Whale, we can include any additional marketing costs which will give us a more accurate ROAS. (We’ll use Facebook ROAS for reference if needed.)

To compare, as an example, Facebook ROAS was calculated at 3 for the same client achieving a ROAS of 16 with Triple Whale. An incredibly significant difference in accuracy that we’re making sure we attend to while tracking your ad campaign performance.

Key data measurements we’re looking at to optimise ad performance, explained :

• MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio) provides higher level analysis of ad spend than simply focussing on the ROAS of individual ads. It’s calculated by dividing total revenue by total paid ad spend from all channels.

• CPM (Cost Per Thousand) helps us see how effective our audiences are. If this is higher, it means Facebook is having to work harder to find potential customers, and hence we need to optimise within the ad group, or test new audiences.

• CPC (Cost-per-Click) helps us determine the efficacy of creatives in driving website traffic. If this is higher, it means that Facebook is working too hard to get users to click on ads – hence we need to switch up the ads we’re using.

• CPA (Average Cost per Action) is calculated by dividing the total cost of conversions by the total number of conversions. For example, if your ad receives 2 conversions, one costing £2.00 and one costing £4.00, your average CPA for those conversions is £3.00.

So, there you have it. Our updated reporting practices to ensure your ad campaigns are fully optimised and high performing. If you need any help navigating your ad reports or wish for more information about our reporting changes, get in touch with us. We have an expert in-house team of paid ad specialists who would love to help you with ads reporting, ROAS, optimisation, and more.

Eye-catching visual content is incredibly important when building and developing your brand identity. When you invest time in creating engaging visuals that impress and inspire on socials, these help forge an original brand identity and make it more likely that viewers remember your brand. Interesting, visually-pleasing creatives give people a reason to follow and engage with your brand – leading to conversions from customers impressed by your social output.

While it’s important to let your creativity run wild with visuals, we’ve put together five tips to follow to make sure you stand out on socials.

1 – Keep it simple to be effective :

It’s important to have a clear focal point, without any overcrowding of imagery and text, so that your creatives are easy to process and quickly obtain information from. If you consider an Instagram user, for example, encountering your ad on their scroll, you have a matter of seconds to get their attention. Creatives that are too ‘busy’ might cause information overload, resulting in this user scrolling past.

Instead, by keeping it simple in layout and content, with minimal text and imagery, you’re more likely to garner interest in your brand/product. With simple yet eye-catching visuals, you can attract attention with ease, and gain brand awareness. With consistency and uniformity, visuals can make you instantly recognisable.

^ This Instagram post by Spotify keeps things nice and simple, with minimal text and graphics to communicate its message. Spotify’s visuals are stylistically consistent, meaning their creatives are instantly recognisable as Spotify-owned. This gives them a strong brand identity.

2 – Use high quality images :

Always aim for the highest image quality (pixels, resolution and aspect ratio) to avoid any stretching, cropping or blurriness. Poor image quality and appearance will not be a good reflection of your brand and your product quality. To build trust, ensure the imagery you use in visuals is always the highest quality.

3 – Less is more with word count :

The text you include in visual creatives should be as concise as possible, and easy to read and comprehend. Whether it’s quote images, text overlays or stylised typography, ‘less is more’ is the way to go. With text, make sure you :

• Have a clear colour contrast between the text and background so it’s easy to read
• Keep line length and phrasing short
• Choose a legible font that fits the tone you wish to convey
• Pair serif and sans serif fonts when you use more than one font
• Remove any text that doesn’t add value to your visual , aiming for less than 20% text in a visual
• Check spelling and grammar for any errors/typos.

^ This simple graphic by Organic Basics uses minimal text organised in a format that is easy to read and obtain information from, with text and imagery clearly differentiated in colour.

4 – Add animation to stand out :

Adding GIFs and videos add engaging movement and narrative to static visuals, which allow your creatives to stand out even further. Storylines maintain interest for longer and lead to increased engagement in a post. Consider including moving images to your social output to boost your brand engagement.

^ This Instagram post by Chamberlain Coffee was converted into a short video with animated graphics, creating effective and engaging content to promote their subscription service.

5 – Include your brand logo :

Finally, where appropriate, it’s a good idea to include your logo, so that social media users associate your high quality creatives with your brand straightaway. Add subtle, yet noticeable, branding to visuals, and change to a neutral/greyscale form if your logo’s original form would make the visual too ‘busy’.

^ This Instagram post by Innocent is clearly yet subtly branded.

To sum up, ensure you invest time in your creatives, keeping them simple, yet eye-catching and visually-pleasing, for effective messaging and strengthened brand identity. Still need some assistance with crafting effective visual creatives? Book a call with us today and discover how our expert team can help you escalate your brand identity and social media presence.

Whatever your business, competition is inevitable. There’s always going to be someone out there, doing something very similar. Customers are often overwhelmed with options, and they want to understand what makes your product better than everyone else’s. This is why all businesses need to identify their unique selling point (USP) to help build your brand image.

However, it’s all well and good identifying your USP, but it’s also equally as important to understand which USP’s actually convert into sales. And thankfully for you, we’re here to identify them. We’ve put together some examples of great USP’s that have been used by brands all over the world, to hopefully inspire you to when taking your next business venture.

• Customer Loyalty

As a business, you want to show customers that you have their best interests at heart, and that is exactly what AVIS did in 1962. For many years, AVIS landed in second place to Hertz when it came to car renting in the USA, until they hired Doyle Dane Bernbach who turned being number two into the best argument for better service. Their USP was the ideas that because they were not yet number 1, they absolutely must put their customers first to get to that top spot. And boy, did it work. Avis’ market share grew from 29% to 36%. Take a look at some of their genius ads below.

(Source: www.dailycitizen.news) 

• Play on pain points

Making your brand stand out from its competitors is always super important and one way to do this, is to play on customer pain points. Now, we’re not telling you to bash every one of your competitors, but if you can playfully hint at your competitors’ downfalls, go for it. M&M tried their hand in this technique in the 1980’s. They introduced the clever, yet playful slogan “The chocolate that melts in your mouth, not your hands”. Now, as all chocolate lovers will know, chocolate melting before it’s even reached your mouth is a big no-no, so M&M’s chocolate coated shell brought an end to this. This slogan highlighted their products versatility whilst also covertly bashing other chocolate brands. It made their chocolate superior, playing on customers pain points and as a result saw sales skyrocket. So, the next time you’re thinking of a USP, always refer back to customer pain points. How can your product solve these issues in ways your competitors can’t? 

(Source: www.pinterest.co.uk)

• Customer Guarantee

As customers, we like to be promised the world, but for most brands this isn’t possible. However, if you introduce a realistic customer guarantee and use this as your USP in the right way, you can benefit immensely. Domino’s Pizza did exactly this in the 1990’s, when they guaranteed that pizza would be at your door in 30 minutes, and if not, it would be absolutely free. Although this guarantee has since been dropped, when it was live, it worked wonders for them. The concept of a possibly free pizza enticed many customers and as a result, drove their sales massively. This is a very good example of using a guarantee to bring in customers, and if you can do something similar, you will be well on the way to creating a very strong USP. 

         (Source: www.dominos.com.au)

• Relatability 

A really strong USP takes into account inclusivity. Most of the time, you want your brand to relate to a wide audience. Excluding certain genders, races, and ages normally isn’t the way forward. Fenty beauty used inclusivity as their USP when launching in late 2017 and created ‘beauty for all’. Founder, Rihanna was very clear from the start that her vision excluded absolutely nobody. She launched with forty shades of foundation, which was astonishing at the time considering usually brands only launch with seven to ten. Today, she has released 50. This inclusivity lead to the brand being named one of the ‘best inventions’ of 2017 by Times Magazine. The brand became available and relatable to women everywhere around the world, and I think we all can learn something from this specific USP.

(Source: www.thinkwithgoogle.com)

• Affordability and Simplicity

In today’s climate, people are always looking to save money where they can, which is why affordability is always a good USP to go for. The biggest mistake to avoid here is to brand your product as the cheapest around, as you’re essentially starting a race to the bottom, which you don’t want to do. It can eliminate a lot of value and credibility from your brand. However, when marketed correctly, it can be a very powerful tool. For example, Dollar Shave Club. You’ve probably heard of them before because they ran an extremely strong marketing campaign upon launching. Razor blades are a product that have been around forever, and you’d think would be very hard to market uniquely unless you were to reinvent the whole thing, right? WRONG. Dollar Shave Club took a completely different approach and marketed the traditional razor but focused on simplicity and affordability. Their shaving packages are completely affordable, and magically arrive on your door step the next day – what more could you need? No other brand in the shaving market tried this approach. Whilst they focused on appearance and blade technology, Dollar Shave Club offered the very opposite. Less blades and less tech. So, it’s important to remember that sometimes, less is more when it comes to your USP.

(Source: www.coolerinsights.com)    

So, there you have it, the USP’s that actually convert into sales. Still looking for some help with your USP and want to get your brand kickstarted? Book a call with us today and find out how our expert team can help you create a truly unique USP.