We all knew a change was coming, and finally, it’s here. We’re talking about the Google text ads that you see at the top and bottom of Google search pages.

Google are saying that this is the biggest change to happen since it launched 15 years ago, instead of having the 25 character headline followed by 2 x 35 character limit descriptions, the new format makes the ad 47% bigger.

So instead of one headline you get two, each at 30 characters, and then you get 80 characters for your description – so all in all your ads have increased to 140 characters – that’s a lot more real estate for you to get your unique sales message across.

With a mobile-first ethos, this change means that your ad will appear bigger and better on any mobile device, and according to Google when they tested the format at the start of the year the click-through rate increased by 20%.

The other change is the display URL, you don’t have to write the whole URL anymore, Google will make the start of the display URL the same as your destination URL, and then you have the option to add two 15 character extensions.

Now you do have until 26th October to make these changes, but our advice is to get it done straight away. Claim that top spot before your competitors, after the 26th they will only have the option of extended ads, but it will be harder for them to catch up with you if you get there first!

When you log in to your AdWords account, go to the Ad tab, and you will see that you can toggle between the standard ads (what we have known for the last 15 years) and now the new extended ads just complete all the blank spaces as normal and hit save!

Now do rethink the entire message of you Ad, don’t just simply think up a second headline as it may not make sense, with 140 characters to play with you can get a little more creative.

Carve out some time in your diary this week to get this job complete, and you’ll leave your competitors wondering what happened!

The post Stand Out From The Crowd (at least for a few months) appeared first on JCK Marketing.

Basically all ads on the right hand side have gone completely… which means about 70% of advertisers that used to appear on the front page now don’t.

What does this really mean for Google Pay Per Click moving forwards?

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Firstly the description for you, a hashtag is simply a word (or collection of words without spaces) used on social media sites that is preceded by a hash sign (#). The reason for it is to identify your message as being part of a specific topic, so in effect its a label that brings specific content pieces together that others can identify with.

Why are they important?

Hashtags are searchable, and companies tend to follow certain topics by the hastag (#) that will group them together. this means that even if they are not following you on a particular social media platform they can still see your messages. This is a really important way for you to amplify your messages to people that are interested in your topic.

Similarly hashtags are used to cover events and trending topics of news. So in real time you can keep up with news stories that are of interest to you, of course if you are running the event then this is a great promotional tool you can use to generate more buzz about your day.

Interestingly, in some instances hashtags are actually replacing URLS in advertising campaigns for some of the Worlds biggest brands to spread their messages. Whilst at The Hennessey this year (Newbury Race Course) across the loudspeaker all through the day, they were asking visitors to upload a selfie to Twitter using the hashtag #GoldCup. This is simple but very effective marketing at its best, and not a single URL in sight!

Hashtag Formation

It’s easy to create a hashtag, only letters and numbers are supported, punctuation spaces and other characters are not. So as an example content marketing would become #ContentMarketing or Legs 11 would become #Legs11. For me using Uppercase at the start of a word is more visually appealing to the eye and makes it much easier to read, however its not important as #ContentMarketing will also reveal results for #contentmarketing

You can create as many brand specific Hashtags as you want, and also use some that are already in existence. The best hashtags are ones that are easily remembered by the users (for example #Legs11)

Tools to help you

There are literally hundreds of tools on the market place today that will monitor and analyse hashtags. But there are two tools that we use a lot for initially finding hashtags and then also monitoring them on different platforms

Hashtagify.me: You can see very easily last months / weeks and breaking hashtags on this platform. You can also put in the search bar your main keyword (which you think should be a hashtag) the platform will then display similar types of keywords that are hashtags. You can keep drilling down until you have a collection of terms that are useful in your market. So we used the term contentmarketing to find the other related terms you see here

As you can see, immediately we have some hashtags we can use for marketing our content.

The second tool is

Tagboard Once you have linked your social media accounts you can create a tagboard that groups hashtags from all accounts together (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram /G+ /Vine / Flickr) and presents them to you. From here you can easily share them onto your platforms. Its a very neat highly relevant content curation tool.

So be a dummy no more and make sure to put hashtags in your online messages!

The post The Dummies Guide to Hashtags appeared first on JCK Marketing.

Of course, this has led to people ‘stuffing’ the image Alt Tags and descriptions with keywords, even if the image isn’t relevant to the keywords. Now though, this looks as if we will be in for a change as images will need to be targeted towards the image content and not just a string of keywords.

Following on from all the recent algorithm changes that have targeted the text on a website, and over-optimising keywords, this seems to be the next logical step in Google providing absolutely contextually relevant information to the user search query, regardless of if they are searching for web content or a related image.

We have always told our clients to describe the image properly when using the Alt attributes. If your image is of a ‘black dog’ then that’s what you should write, and not put in your keywords which could be something like ‘Best Dog Groomer in London’ – Your text doesn’t describe the image and therefore it’s falsely labelled. This has always been important for users that need to use a screen reader  who rely on this information that will be read out to them so that they can understand the context of the image.

Now then, of course, if you can get any of your keywords in the description of the image then good on you, as long as the image content is absolutely what is being described then you’re onto a winner!

This technology is not ready yet, but we don’t think it will be too long before its launched. Our advice, if you have been stuffing your images with keywords, now is the time to do some housekeeping… and of course moving forwards please use the alt attribute and description wisely!

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As a committee member for most part of the evening I was ‘on duty’ which meant that my mind did have time to wander a bit on all of the activities that I needed to accomplish ‘post’ event, and it got me thinking, I wonder how many of the businesses in the room had actually put in any thought at all about maximising the PR an awards ceremony can produce (even if you’re not the overall winner!)

My guess was not many of them, now there’s a missed opportunity.

So what can you do to make sure when these events happen in your business life, you are ‘at the ready’. Go through these 7 steps to make sure you are prepared.

1. Create some consistent Messages To help build brand awareness, credibility and consistency put together the list of key messages that you want to get across at every opportunity. Write them in a paragraph (that can be inserted at the end of a Press Release) and also as key sentences that you can take with you if you are being interviewed.
2. Have a media toolkit This should include the biographies of any of your key personnel, with up-to-date photos of them (really get professional ones – it makes a huge difference) Also a copy of every logo type that you might need, and other photos that could contribute to telling a story. Have them all at the ready
3. Have a policy in place for proactive stories Write out the process that you go through when launching a proactive piece of PR. Know the contacts you can send the story to, have a predefined online process as well, so that you know what social media you can share the story through and at what time intervals.
4. Have a policy in place for reactive stories This will be different from a proactive release, but could be the difference required from turning bad press into good press.
5. Know your audience and the press they read You’ll want your stories to appear in the correct trade magazines and newspapers. Know which ones make an impact on your clients and start getting to know the journalists well, get it right and they will soon start courting you for newsworthy content
6. Use Photography These days news is not news without images. Do yourself a favour and get to know a local photographer that can initially take some photos of your staff and some ‘stock’ photography of your business. Keep on friendly terms with them so that you can approach them for any press opportunities. Do not just leave it to a mobile phone to capture the shot, its just not good enough.
7. Post PR Activity Identify what action it is that you want potential visitors to do if after they see the Press Release they do actually contact you, either through the website or in person. Have the content and process already mapped out and in place. This could be promotional videos or materials, or specific vouchers. Whatever it is maximise the full potential of any leads that come your way.

Press coverage can really accelerate brand awareness and should not be left out of your overall plan, a while ago we put together a list of Press Release ideas that are still valid to day – you can see the list here and take a look at these two links as a starting point for local coverage

1. The Newspaper Society Website : find out local contact details
2. The Radio Now website

Now back to my day, where I’ll follow my own PR policy….now where’s my media contact list gone….

The post If you build it they will come, but only if they’ve heard of you appeared first on JCK Marketing.

Now onto the more important information about advanced re-marketing, which is where you can implement different strategies through different combinations of audience lists that you build up in your campaign.

Different Strategies that might work for you

Retarget users by product type This course be a service type as well. You can create a list of visitors to a certain page or pages of your website. You simple create a page per unique URL that you want and then create an advert that is relevant for the particular area. So as an example if you were a language academy and you wanted to target those visitors that were interested in your French Course and also your Spanish Course, you would create two lists and two series of Ads that pushed the visitor back to the correct page. This can be a great strategy for those types of products or services where a bit of research is required first, or they can’t be purchased on line.

This kind of marketing can be genius, if you are really wanting to target your audience, you can set up a list for each of the products on your website, and create an advert for each one of them, you’ll have a highly targeted piece of marketing, to a user that is definitely wanting what you have to offer.

Retarget shoppers You can use another list for users that have actually purchased product on your website, you simply use the thank you page URL as the one to create your list from. Now you have the ability to maybe sell more to an existing client. Whats more you can set up another list that will target them perhaps 30 days after the purchase, just as a prompt that you are still about.

Retargeting an abandoned shop Another form is to re-target someone that started the buying process but gave up half way through. You can capture these individuals and get them to come back to you – of course you will need to make sure you exclude the people that did make a purchase.

Sitewide Audience You can of course just target everyone that finds your website, this can work for those companies that really want to complete some Brand Awareness, but of course is not particularly targeted. Some companies start with this and then get more creative once the adverts are up and running (you have to have 500 people to remarket to)

Campaign Specific Targeting You might want to turn this on and off for particular campaigns you are running, or at certain times of year when you could capture a few more sales – typically though you would use one of the above methods and tailor the adverds accordingly (say for a Christmas campaign)

If structured correctly (you do need to still identify geography / times of day and frequency), this can be one of the most cost effective ways to advertise your business, so get creating your lists today!

The post Advanced re-marketing, get your audience coming back for more appeared first on JCK Marketing.

At 83 pages long, this piece of research is a bit more than bedtime reading, so we thought we would share a few of our thoughts on what we think are the most important points

1. Technical Architecture – This is really important – Your site needs to be up-to-date, quick to load, and have an optimal internal linking structure. If your site doesn’t tick this box, you need to address this now. If any of these factors are not present then it will have a negative effect on your site.
2. On Page Best Practice – Please make sure your meta tags are completed (unique per page) and also you have the relevant Heading tags on your page.
3. Page Content In Searchmetrics words “Content is no longer an addition to, but is the main focus of, SEO” . In general page word counts are on the increase as is HTML length, so if your site has any ‘thin’ content now is the time to get rid of it.
4. Page Content Keywords – Correlated and semantic keywords are now important. Its important to write naturally, for your user and include all the different types of keywords that should appear naturally together. (e.g if you are talking about weight loss it would be reasonable to expect to see the words diet and exercise on the same page)
5. Rich Media Including images and video all help to make the content more relevant and so increase your chances of success.
6. On page Analytics For the first time, user signals were measured, and it will come as no surprise that a high click through rate and a high time on site have an impact. Also watch your bounce rate, the lower the better!
7. Backlinks Still of course important, but quality and not quantity wins out. A diversified backlinking profile that has been built naturally will win every time.
8. Brand Google loves brands, and now is the time to make sure you are turning your business into the brand to go to for your niche.

Social metrics were lowered a tiny bit this year (the number of +1’s you have for example) but what is listed is clear.

Make your website the best “Search Experience Optimisation” that you can. For everything that you do, make sure that you are completing that task with the user in mind. If you are just completing a piece of work for the Search Engines now is the time to stop. More than ever, up-to-date, fresh, media rich content, that entices visitors to your site to interact with you, is the way forward. If all this frightens you, give us a call and lets help you make a plan!

The post Our thoughts on Searchmetrics SEO Survival Guide 2014! appeared first on JCK Marketing.

So whilst it is impossible for us the give you an exact recipe of the web design that will work for you and your company we can certainly give you some thoughts that will help you along the way, so here goes

• Without question, you have to know your audience (or audiences) work out what they are going to want from your website and deliver on it. this might mean a lot of research whilst you are at the design stage, but it will be worth the investment of time if your website turns into a lead generating machine.
• These days your design needs to work on a range of devices, from a mobile phone and iPad through to desktop machines. There are some great responsive designs you can use to manage this process for you, or if your site is not responsive remember to design a mobile version of your site that can be used.
• Colour is important, and while we all have our favourite colours so you won’t get it right for everyone, do give it some serious consideration. For example you wouldn’t build a medical site in red, the colour promotes danger and mistrust to a degree, so be careful!
• Fonts are also important, when people read, typically they do not read each letter but more the shape of the word which the brain then interprets. If you use difficult fonts, or italic text a lot these shapes become disfigured so rendering your site difficult to read. Also bear in mind the size of the font and space around it, make it a pleasurable reading experience even for those that have poor eyesight.
• With design, know what you can take out, sometimes websites can be over designed and so they lose their way. If you can identify bits you can lose, typically you’ll be left with what is important to your brand, and that will work perfectly.
• Your website home page should identify with your customer, they need to land and think ‘yes that is me’ make sure you have identified your clients carefully and have depicted who they are on the home page.
• Images are important, it is worth investing in some good quality images so that you can have your own library of resources, a badly shot, low lit image will have a detrimental effect on user experience.

Your content should follow the age old rule of marketing, the golden rules of communication which are:

A – Attention : I – Interest : D – Desire : A – Action

And finally, your website should be a non-judgmental, trusted resource that users feel confident and comfortable using. Ask yourself the question, “would I give this company my credit card details” – if the answer is yes you’re on the right tracks!

The post 7 Factors that are important in website design appeared first on JCK Marketing.

I have come up with what I believe to be the top 6 most important factors needed within a Brand

1. Whats your one thing? You need to ask yourself a few questions….What is your organization all about? Are you simply selling a product, or do you stand for something consumers can relate to? Consumers like to know that your company has a passion, and is not just trying to make a quick buck off them. This is your USP (unique Selling point) and something that most business’ struggle to convey.
2. Think about other industries and compare yourself to them. This is quite a good thing to do, if your business was a supermarket which one would it be? Tescos? Sainsburys? Waitrose? – Once you have aligned yourself with one, get yourself a list of words that describe that supermarket… you’re bound to find a few that relate to your business. What does the supermarket stand for? how do they market themselves? what colour and fonts do they use? Do this a few times with other industries (cars / clothes etc) and you’ll soon get a picture of how you want your business to be conveyed.
3. Continuity is everything. Regardless of how you ‘touch’ you clients or prospects you need to maintain your client experience as people like to know what to expect. Whether its how you answer the telephone, write pages on a website, or how you handle a customer support issue, its the experience that will keep customers coming back for more. If the experience is in-congruent it initiates a feeling of mistrust, so be consistent – always.
4. Your brand logo reflects your values. This is really the face of your brand and should only be created once you know what your brand value is. Your logo will become the one symbol that your clients will recognise you by, so make it a good one. Choose your colours and fonts carefully, they do make a difference. Clients will make judgement (even if they don’t realise it) on your logo. If it looks homemade then perception will be that everything else about your business is also cobbled together.
5. Position your company and brand as a leader. Once you have identified what it is that your company stands for, actually the rest of it will roll. Once you know how you can differentiate yourself from your clients then to form a tag line, to enhance all your literature with the correct wording and images will become easy and clients will start to get an emotional attachment with your lead for your USP. Seriously, take time to understand your competitors and work out what it is that makes you different.
6. Stick to the guidelines. This again comes back to consistency, once you have spent the time and energy creating your visual brand (colours, fonts and images) for goodness sake don’t start introducing more, leave your logo alone, stick to your font and colour palette and make sure every employee in the company knows what they are so that the whole company is consistent. Be compliant with your own brand!

Remember branding includes everything a company does, get it right and your brand awareness will rocket for all the right reasons, get it wrong and your reputation could be tarnished forever!

The post 6 Tips to help you develop your brand appeared first on JCK Marketing.

Getting the best of both Worlds

In our opinion the best route of course is to write the headline with your audience in mind, but if SEO is really important to you then of course there are a couple of things you can do to try and get the best of a great headline and SEO exposure

1. Write the headline of your blog post with your keywords inserted
2. Make sure your Meta data title has the keyword included
3. Write your Social Media message and description with a really strong promise and call to action

That way you are getting your keywords known, but you are also tempting the user to click through.

Let’s give you an example

Let’s pretend that you run a weight loss business and one of your chosen keywords to rank for is “lose weight camps uk” that’s quite an uninspiring keyword phrase but it is what you do, and there are a lot of searches a month for it, so would be worth some investment so you write an article about how your weight loss camp is the best way to start losing weight. Let’s walk through how you could make all the relevant parts of the articles important headlines work for you using the process detailed above.

The headline of your blog; Inserting the keyword into your headline this could read; Lose weight camps UK location, specialists on hand to help you succeed from the start

Meta data title again with keywords; Lose weight camps UK location, specialists on hand to help you 

Meta description, compelling call to action: Lose between 10-20 lbs per week at a top weight loss‎ camp in a UK Location. Book today to kick start a healthier fitter you

Social media message, compelling message: Kick start a healthier fitter you lose between 10-20 lbs per week, specialists will help you succeed.

The first two will take care of your SEO requirements, and the second two are more encouraging for users to click through. Typically it’s because you are giving a promise of something great. Numbers also work well in social media messages,

• 5 top tips to improve your health
• 1 golden rule to follow everyday
• 10 beauty secrets the celebrities know

all of these would work to get some clicks through to your website – of course your article has to deliver what it promises once they land!

Another headline formula

This is another way you can write your headlines. A survey compiled by Kissmetrics came up with this formula SHINE. Every time you write a headline you should make sure it complies to one of these:

S is for Specificity
H is for Helpfulness
I is for Immediacy
N is for Newsworthiness
E is for Entertainment value

For the complete article take a read over on Kissmetrics write up here.

Tool to help with your meta data

Finally you can find a useful tool here that enables you to view how your meta data will be seen in the Google search results page, its also quite handy as it will do a character counts for those all important tweets.

It doesn’t help you write the headlines, but hey we can’t do everything for you!

The post Making The Headlines appeared first on JCK Marketing.