Marketers may never feel they’ve fully cracked search, but just as strategies were starting to settle, along comes AI to quietly disrupt search completely. A drop in brand website search traffic later and we’re no longer experimenting with AI search – we’re right in the thick of a transition period.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) is hot on the agenda right now. Savvy startups are putting socially conscious activities at the centre of their work as more and more investors have ESG as a priority.
Once upon a time, public relations tactics were all about crafting a press release, pitching to journalists and building up a great contacts list. While these strategies are still important, today’s always-on world commands us to think more creatively.
When restrictions on travel and working together took hold on the world, it forced events and campaigns (which are essential to marketing) to frantically be reshuffled and moved online where possible. Sales strategies and marketing plans had to be reorganised to adapt to the new normal of the marketing world.
Startups are looking to make their mark in the busy online world as everyone competes to be more visible to their audiences. Traditional PR is an essential part of the strategy to manage online reputation, brand awareness and promotion of a business but have you thought about combining this with SEO to level up your presence? Businesses often separate PR and SEO, but why? Blending PR and SEO together achieves better results as PR promotes the brand and SEO concentrates on ranking and traffic.
Entrepreneurs: let’s be honest, all of us probably spend a little too much on social media. It’s easy to get lost on Twitter or on LinkedIn, scrolling through and seeing what everyone else is sharing, what is trending, and posting your updates.
Let’s not beat about the bush: social media has tonnes of benefits. It empowers people to stay connected across huge distances, it has kept people motivated during crises such as the coronavirus pandemic (you thought you could read a blog without that being mentioned?), it empowers quick and simple customer service, and for businesses, it’s a free way to demonstrate your brand values.
Many startups know what building a culture means in their startup, and most founders will – smartly – work to prioritise that closely to ensure their company culture is warm, positive, and creative. But few know what building a digital culture means. Without a digital culture, your business will struggle to scale, and will struggle to expand internationally. It’s often ignored and that means you can make it a real positive difference between you and your competitors.
When a startup has a headache, it is far more critical to the business than if it was a corporate. Why? There are quite a few reasons…
‘How to prepare your brand for the next stage of growth’: Many of us have tried a digital detox for ourselves: whether we’re trying to get back to nature, not ignore our families, or just step away from the phone for more than an hour! It is often far harder than we think, no matter how many influencers go on about it – ironically, on social media.
Congratulations! You are officially moving from the status of startup to scaleup. It’s a big move that brings lots of opportunities, and you have managed it because you have been successful. What that success looks like will be different for different companies. For some, it’s because of sales: either a few big global sales, or in other cases, huge numbers of small scale sales. For others, it will be because you’ve landed investment. In some parts of the world, grants allow a startup to accelerate their growth and really anchor themselves in the market.
