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What is a CMS website and why use one for your business?

08/11/2020 by scmarketing

A content management system (CMS) website provides you as the owner of your website the ability to easily make updates to content on your own site. By opting for this type of website, once you have had the initial website designed and developed to your specification then you can be in control of future content rather than using anyone external to do this.

What to consider at web design and development stage?

When you first embark on a new website design with a web developer ask them about a CMS system. As part of your requirements make sure the admin dashboard is easy to follow. It should be simple to upload content, install modules and plugins as well as see user activity.

With a CMS you should also easily be able to add images, which is so important for a website, as well as have the options to add eye-catching call to actions or forms.

Talk to your web design agency about the types of themes available to be able to get the design you want. At Smart Cow, we create a wire frame following your brief so you can see what your website will look like prior to build and we can make changes at this stage based on feedback.

Built for SEO

What’s key for a website once it’s live is being optimised. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an ongoing task that you need to think about when running a business website.

We have a number of blogs where we talk about things like meta descriptions, alt tags and H1 headers. These are key when uploading content to pages or as a blog.

We also cover tips for sitemaps, bot accessibility and URL structure.

You can also check whether a website is SEO friendly, something like Hubspot and its CMS Hub can allow you to work on your SEO strategy as it provides SEO recommendations for content.

Social media marketing

A CMS should allow the capability of integrating with your social media platforms.

Think about whether you will want the ability for people to share posts or pages with the inclusion of sharing buttons. This is a great way to spread awareness of your brand and position you as a thought leader.

Safety, security and support

The security of your website is of the utmost importance. Discuss this with your web developer at initial stages and ensure that security is listed on any proposal you get.

Things to look out for include whether an SSL certificate is included in the proposal cost.

Also ensure you have an updated privacy policy in your footer if you are embarking on a new website.

At Smart Cow marketing, once a website is live and handed over, there is a regular monthly fee for hosting but it’s up to you whether you wish to have support and ongoing maintenance of your site as this is something you may wish to do yourself. Either way, we can provide a website training session for the users who will be responsible for the upload of content moving forward.

Why use CMS for your business?

At the core of a professional web design strategy is about enhancing your online presence. With a swift move for many people and businesses to work remotely, with communication and sales happening online, having the ability to quickly update your website to inform customers and prospects of new opening times, special deals and new services having a CMS website starts to make sense.

It’s also key during this time to position yourself as a thought leader. So, being able to offer timely advice to existing customers and new business leads will help retain clients and improve your lead generation.

Website design Croydon

We’re a web design company in Croydon. Out digital marketing services include creating bespoke websites, SEO, link building, social media marketing and PPC.

Read more about our web design services and get in touch for a consultation or a free website review.

6 digital marketing tactics for accountancy firms

08/07/2020 by scmarketing

With many of us now remote working and embedded in the virtual world, the importance of presence online has never been so important.

If you’re an accountancy practice looking to ramp up online marketing activity or need a little advice on where to start, here’s our lowdown on the digital marketing tactics to think about and incorporate into your marketing strategy.

Website optimisation

We always start with a website review. Take a look at the content and check that it’s up to date. Then delve a little deeper and check whether all the information is on your website that you would except if you were a visitor to the site.

Don’t make it difficult for people to find things. Don’t be fancy. Make your menu and page content clear so that it’s easy for your website users to navigate. Be informative and professional, yet friendly and approachable.

When reading through your current website content, in the back of your mind always be thinking about what people search for when they are looking for accountancy services. These phrases should then become your keywords. Then make sure you have these keywords within content on your website.

Having keywords in your H1 and H2 headers will also help highlight what’s on that page to search engines.

On the backend make sure that you also have your meta descriptions and alt tags completed. This will also help with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Read more about SEO with our blogs, Improve local SEO by creating local content and 6 SEO tips to improve search ranking.

Blogs

Don’t ever think that blogging isn’t for an accountancy practice. With the amount of regular updates for businesses from HMRC, and a lot more right now, there’s heaps of information to be talking about and informing your existing clients as well as your prospects. Be factual with content – offer tips, latest government updates, industry statistics and insight.

Writing blogs or having a news page is a great way to get fresh content onto your website which is what you need to help your accountancy practice be found in search engine results pages.

It’s a great way for you to add in those keywords you’ve researched too.

Google My Business

Make sure you’ve populated Google My Business with details of your firm. This is free to do and at the very least make sure you get the basic information up there about your company, such as website, telephone number, contact email and opening times. This all helps with SEO and it’s another place that you can be found in search.

You can have the chance to add updates too. So you can repurpose your blogs and add the content here as well. It adds quality links back to your website which is another thing that search engines look for to help understand the authority of your page.

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click (PPC) is a great way to help increase traffic to your website. We recommend having a specific landing page created for a PPC campaign so that when people you are targeting click on an ad they will be taken to a relevant page. This helps reduce bounce rates and attracts quality leads.

A well targeted PPC campaign can help give you a real boost in search results and a way to reach your potential customers.

Social media marketing

A Facebook or Twitter account with up to date detail of your firm ensures you have visibility on two of the largest search engines. Whilst it may not lead to direct sales, they are great brand awareness platforms.

LinkedIn is a great channel for accountancy firms. With LinkedIn it’s worth remembering that you’re networking. It’s not about selling it’s about creating that business relationship.

So, if you’re not already regularly posting on a social media platform, perhaps now is the time to explore this for your accountancy practice. Look at your competitors and see what social networks they have presence. It makes sense to be in the same place.

Read our blog on the different social media platforms and how to use them for more insight.

Email marketing

A targeted email marketing campaign can have a significant impact on Return on Investment (ROI). What’s great about email is you can repurpose content you already have from blogs or it’s a great way to highlight updates to services.

But what’s key is that you make your email campaign personal. Really think about the person who has signed up to receive your emails and what they want to hear about. They are a target audience so think about how your email can benefit them. If it’s sharing news about latest legislation that they should be aware of or some interesting stats that can help their business planning or growth, then that’s of interest.

Our blog on email marketing benefits for your business has some further detail on the structure of your emails, through to the importance of mobile optimisation and analysis.

Digital marketing for accountants

We provide digital marketing for accountants with bases in Croydon and London.

Take advantage of our free website review and download our Beginner’s Guide to Inbound Marketing to help you on your digital marketing journey. Or book a free consultation to chat further about your goals for your accounting practice and we can tailor a proposal for you.

Key to success – focus on one thing

08/05/2020 by scmarketing

In a recent interview with the BBC the co-founder of LinkedIn gives insight into the secret to success for start-ups – “focus on one thing”.

Allen Blue said: “Focus your team. Your team can be tremendously creative and innovative, but only if you define the problem they’re trying to solve as narrowly as possible.”

This is invaluable advice for companies wanting to grow their business. It’s important to harness the expertise of the whole team when brainstorming. By constantly looking at ways to solve a problem you will bank other ideas that will help your firm in the long run. So, be open to suggestions but all the time remember that keeping focus on what you are trying to achieve will help you reach a solution faster and improve efficiency.

Solving problems is also about growing your network, which is what LinkedIn is all about and why it came about. This business social media platform is a great way to debate, share and solve solutions. Whether that’s to engage with people you meet at networking events or through the myriad of groups available on LinkedIn. Or perhaps you want to use it to share your tips and advice as part of your marketing strategy to improve your SEO, LinkedIn increases your network and therefore your expertise as you have a knowledge base at your fingertips.

Social media for your business

If you haven’t already explored LinkedIn for your business, perhaps now is the time.

There’s over 700 million LinkedIn members so it’s a significant social platform to tap into and a great way to continue conversation with a new business lead by asking if you can connect on LinkedIn.

But when you are on this social platform and you’re completing your profile or sharing posts, just remember Allen’s advice to focus on one thing. This is a great reminder to target your marketing communication to your audience for successful brand awareness of your products and services.

Watch the full interview with Allen Blue on the BBC.

Digital marketing mix

We’re a digital marketing agency based in London and Croydon. If you need support for your online marketing plan, encompassing your social media strategy, then book a free consultation with us.

The aim is for your business to become a lead generation magnet which is why we recommend a mix and match approach to digital marketing. Following a review of your current marketing activity we’ll look at ways to improve SEO to help you rise in search engine rankings, work on your content marketing for your website and social media as well as implement any paid search as and when deemed necessary.

Social media resources

The secret of a successful inbound marketing strategy

07/31/2020 by scmarketing

At the centre of any successful inbound marketing strategy will be a true understanding of your target audience. Knowing what your prospects challenges and needs are will help you steer communication to them. Tailored content provides your target customer with the knowledge they need to improve their business or their daily lives. So, how do you go about ensuring that your marketing communications are targeted to your audience?

Understand your customer

Understanding your target audience is crucial to increasing opportunities to attract, engage and convert your leads. How can you write content for your inbound marketing campaign if you are unsure who you are writing too? It’s important to remember that when you write content you need to make it personal. A great way to do this is to think that you are writing to an individual. It’s not just a blog on a page to fill space, it’s about formulating a way of approaching your content that will enhance the user experience and build brand awareness

To help tailor your content to your target customer, create an online persona. This is vital to run a successful inbound digital marketing campaign.

Creating an online persona of your target audience and using it as a reference for when you write content. Whether that’s for your website, social media, email marketing, or any online marketing communication, it provides you with a guide so that content is relevant, language consistent and it will aid your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy.

How to create a profile of your target audience

Create an imaginary profile of your target audience. So, think of your ideal customer and start to build information around them.

Do a little research to get a feel for the demographics of your prospects including their job roles. You can do this with the communications tools already at your disposal such as looking at your social network insights pages – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all have very interesting data-driven statistics at your disposal.

Then look at creating a profile. We usually opt for a one-page design with short and punchy detail. So, here’s some key steps to bring your persona to life.

Create a profile description of your target audience – start off with a name, age.
What are your persona’s key identifiers?
Consider your character’s goals.
Imagine what challenges they face and create solutions around these. All the time thinking how your product or service will help them.
Add in a line highlighting common objections that you may hear from your target persona. This will also help you write content that resolves their problems.

At this stage you will already start to see a character form. In our personas we always like to include a quote from the person to bring the character to life.

How do you help your target audience?

The final aspect of your persona is adding in your key marketing message, this should be something you want to get across in all communication. Then add a few points on how you will help your potential customer. This helps you really focus your marketing messages as these are key points that your customer wants to hear about as you will be helping solve their problems.

Increase leads for your business

A persona is one of the first things to create as part of your marketing strategy. If you think it’s time to revisit your marketing plan so that it supports your business in becoming a magnet to good qualified leads, we can help build that inbound marketing strategy for you.

Where an inbound marketing agency in London and Croydon, if you need help with your inbound digital marketing planning, book a free consultation with us.