1. Sprinkle Your Content with Magic Make sure your brand stands out by posting beautiful, festive content. Use Christmas hashtags such as #{Your Brand}Christmas. Post Christmassy reels with festive music.
2. Christmas Collab Ask other small businesses to collaborate over the festive season – pooling resources helps when you’re on a tight budget, plus you get to share audiences and increase your reach.
3. Use Delivery Deadlines to Create Urgency Make sure delivery times, cut off dates and all shipping information is prominent at every touchpoint: pop-ups and announcements to inform your visitors when they land on your website; make use of page banners; ensure the same messaging is used across all channels including social media, email marketing, website etc.
4. Last Minute Shoppers Make sure you are optimised to show up in ‘Near me’ and ‘Local’ searches – those last minute shoppers will need somewhere that can do same day collection or delivery so offering in-person pickup could be the difference between a sale or not. Update your Google Business Profile – include holiday opening and closing times and any collection information. Consider running location based paid campaigns.
5. Christmas Competitions Takes a bit of planning but it doesn’t have to be complicated. You could run a daily giveaway over the Twelve Days of Christmas, hold competitions where customers receive entries when they share, like and tag your posts or run a Christmas themed BOGOF offer.
6. Support a Local Charity There’s no better way to engage with your local community than to support a local charity. Create connections and build trust while giving back to a charity and highlighting your community spirit and boost brand awareness.

Don’t let the silly season get you down, we are always on hand for any creative remedies, marketing or website conundrums. Contact us to find out how we can help your business with creative Christmas ideas, Google My Business ailments or some content magic! Book a Free Consultation >

What is AI?
First off let’s just clarify what we mean when we talk about AI in this particular context – we are not discussing some super artificial intelligence, that AI currently being deployed anywhere and everywhere are language learning models (LLM’s) and they work by feeding off human-made data they access from the web. Nothing is sacred, they crawl the web, scraping data whenever they come across it. They are basically prediction machines, completing a sequence with the most likely answer – learn more here: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-ai-works/

So the AI we commonly see being integrated into offices and workplaces is basically a pattern recognition tool, whether that be a piece of music, a video clip, writing or an image – the user inputs a prompt and the AI gives its best/most likely answer. As the technology improves so does the output and it’s definitely getting harder to spot the difference between human-made and AI. But how does this impact creativity? Proponents for the technology say it allows them to be creative by being able to bring their ideas to life. I would argue that has always been the case – just pick up a pencil and draw, an instrument and play or a pen and write- what’s stopping you? The problem is that we want everything at the touch of a button, people don’t want to wait and learn or spend money on employees when they can get a machine to do the job in half the time.

What Can Generative AI Help With?

• Struggling for ideas for new content? LLM’s can give you fresh ideas to help when you’ve got writers block. Remember, it’s all about the ‘prompt’ – be as clear as possible with your wording to gain optimum results!
• Need some design inspiration? AI can help users explore different ideas when trying to come up with a concept or design – take care that the outputs are not infringing on any trademarks or copyright.
• Utilise AI as more of a tool to help enhance our thinking, rather than using to as an alternative to actual human creativity.
• Speed up mundane tasks that would take a person a large amount of time to complete – typical case uses include 3D Visualisers who need to make changes to scenes and environments but don’t have the time needed to complete the tasks by themselves. "I wouldn't have been able to complete this task on time without the help of AI…clients put unrealistic timescales on jobs because they think AI can speed EVERYTHING up.”

Why You Should Use Caution When using AI
Your customers have chosen your brand because they have forged a relationship built on trust – when you start to use generative AI to write content and create images you are risking breaking that trust if you are not diligent. It’s imperative that you carefully proof all content before you post it – the software you use produces images and text derived from a massive pool from the web and even if you feed it your own data there is still a risk it will mislead or hallucinate. We see badly thought out content rushed out all the time, often as a result of using generative AI l – this Christmas ad recently made the news : https://archive.ph/USngO

Copyright issues aside (well, the big tech companies seem to think they don’t apply to them anyway) there are other issues that arise when we use AI for creating imagery, text and music. Is it really creative to type a prompt into a machine for it to spit out an image or piece of music which is basically just a bit of a rehash of preexisting works that the AI has been trained on? Personally, I don’t think so, although I know many people who find LLM’s really helpful at drafting pieces of writing or coming up with ideas for art and design. On hearing that people are using AI to write emails or letters I was pretty baffled – is it really that hard to write a sincere email or letter? I understand that life is hectic and that we are constantly looking for ways to save time, especially on mundane tasks.

The thing is, for most creatives, their jobs are far from mundane and AI is solving a problem that was never there. In the past we dreamed of a future where robots would do the boring stuff like cleaning or ironing, or the less popular jobs like refuse collection. We were promised a utopia where we could live out our lives creating art and music but it seems the opposite is being shoved down our throats. Instead of fostering a lifelong love of learning and creating we are watching as the world becomes reliant on technology to do the thinking and creating for us. We are getting to a point where homework is being completed by AI and university degrees are accomplished because of ChatGPT – a dumbing down of the population. That sounds pretty scary to me!

Written by Louise Lockhart Digital Sorceress & Global Head of Crayons at Creative Remedy.

WordPress
WordPress has two versions – WordPress.org which is free, open-source software and WordPress.com, a paid for alternative with different plans to choose from depending on the requirements of the user.

Originally developed as a tool for publishing blogs, WordPress.org has evolved to the platform we know today that allows you to create any type of website you like! WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS), perfect for people to build their own website! Free to download you would need to pay an annual fee for third party hosting. It does require a bit of technical knowledge so is more suited to those who are more website savvy.

WordPress.com Includes managed hosting, taking care of the tricky technical side so that your website is optimised for speed, security, and performance. There are a variety of plans available to suit most needs and budgets. This is perfect for most users who don’t have the necessary skills to build their own website from scratch.

WIX
WIX is a really easy to use, intuitive website builder. Perfect for even the most technophobe among us, WIX can help you create the perfect website for your business. It has loads of options depending on your requirements, you just need an email address to get started with the free plan. You can personalise your website to suit your brand – choose from a range of templates or use the AI options!

Its main downside is that once you’ve picked a template you can’t just switch it out when you fancy a new look! WIX allows you to have as many sites as you want in your account so you can choose a new template and then import over elements and pages before transferring your domain name and plan. 

Weebly
Another user friendly website builder, Weebly is another great option for beginners. Its drag and drop features make it a breeze to use and the affordable plans make it easy to see why it’s such a winner with many small business owners. Their ecommerce side is fantastic for any budget conscious small business.

Squarespace
We can’t talk about website building software without discussing Squarespace. It has gorgeous designs to wow any visitor to your site, it’s intuitive to use, great analytical and e-commerce tools and free SSL certificate. On the downside, Squarespace doesn’t offer a free tier, unlike the majority of its competitors. You can try it for free but you only get two weeks to see if it’s right for you.

With drag and drop features, this is a super easy platform for beginners. Like Wix, it has an AI tool which allows you to input a few details about your brand and business so that Blueprint AI can generate design suggestions.

As you can see there are loads of options when it comes to building your website and you can be as hands on as you like. 

If you need more advice and support on building your perfect website we can help you – from advising on the right type of website for your business to offering bespoke design, domain name registration, website hosting, one page websites, Content Management Systems (CMS), e-commerce websites, website optimisation, email hosting, bespoke website functionality.

Take a look at fast food restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King or KFC – it’s no coincidence they all opted for bright red in their branding as red is well known to make us feel hungry!

So what do your brand colours tell us about you and your business? Let’s take a look at some popular colours and see if you’re giving you the right message to your customers:

Red
Well known as a colour that acts as a warning for danger, red can also be a sign of anger, pain and aggression. Conversely, red also symbolises love, passion, energy and power.

Uses: as a call to action (CTA) to urge customers to act quickly. Physically, it can make you feel hungry so is a good choice for fast food brands.

Orange
Orange is associated with bravery, fun, confidence and warmth. Negative connotations include immaturity, sluggishness, frustration and ignorance.

Uses: It’s fun, adventurous aesthetic is perfect for outdoor brands. Its eye-catching hue is another great choice for CTA and is also a great way to make your print marketing stand out.

Yellow
Bright, zingy, fresh – yellow is the epitome of ‘happy’ and is a perfect choice for brands that want to stand out as positive and creative. Use with caution though as the colour is also often associated with cowardice and fear.

Uses: Independent travel consultant? Stand out from your competitors with a bold, yellow logo! The association of yellow with happiness and warm, sunny escapes is perfect to attract new clients. Yellow is also a great brand colour for fitness instructors and gyms as this colour makes us feel energised and optimistic!

Green
Green is associated with health, vitality, and environment. Often thought of as the perfect colour to portray positive health and well being. Negative connotations include envy and boredom.

Uses: Great in your branding if you want to convey freshness. People associate green with ‘Go’ making it another great choice for a CTA!

Blue
In 2015 a YouGov survey found that blue was the most popular colour in the world. Different shades of blue will elicit different reactions – pale blue is associated with calmness, clarity and serenity while dark/navy blue has connotations of trust, reliability and seriousness, making it a perfect choice for businesses such as banks and insurance companies.

Uses: Choose blue in your logo to convey a dependable, trustworthy brand.

Indigo
This colour – a deep, midnight blue – is symbolic of sincerity and integrity and is another option when you are trying to convey trust and tradition. It also pairs perfectly with bright colours such as magenta or turquoise which will help lighten the mood and energy.

Uses: Branding for traditional businesses such as funeral directors, educational institutions, banks.

Violet
Violet is often thought of as a regal colour. It symbolises wisdom, wealth, spirituality and sophistication. Negative connotations include depression and moodiness.

Uses: Stand out from the crowd with violet branding/logo. Violet is evocative of mindfulness, relaxation and well being making it a fantastic choice for Holistic Practitioners and Yoga Instructors.

It’s important to remember that colours can mean different things to different people – neurodivergent people may not react in the same way as someone who is neurotypical. Likewise, people with colourblindness might also have a different experience or reaction to the one intended.

Need help choosing the right colours for your logo, brand and marketing? Book a consultation and find out how we can help you pick the perfect palette.

How to measure marketing ROI
There is a simple formula you can use to measure marketing ROI but first you need to gather certain metrics:

• Number of leads: How many people converted to a lead?
• Lead-to-customer rate: From those leads what percentage converted into customers? Eg if 10 leads out of 100 converted into customers that gives you a lead to customer rate of 10%
• What is the average price of your product?
• How much did your marketing campaign cost? Include costs of the ads including staff costs of those who worked on the campaign.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
CLV is another useful measure of ROI – a simple formula for calculating your CLV is:
CLV = (Average value of a transaction) x (Average number of transactions) x (Customer lifespan)

CLV is a great marketing analytic because it tells you how much a customer is likely to spend with you and gives you insights that will help you plan your marketing strategies.

But ROI isn’t just about financial measurements, you can also get a good indication of ROI from other sources:

• Increased brand awareness – A big marketing push is common among startups to increase brand awareness and carve a space in the market.
• New social media followers – While increased numbers alone doesn’t necessarily mean positive ROI, if the new followers are your target audience and are engaging with your content then they are more likely to become customers.
• Email newsletter signups – Email marketing is a valuable way of reaching both new and existing customers. Use email marketing to send personalised offers, deals and new products and services. Tracking sales attributed to email subscribers can help you decide whether to invest more or less time in your email marketing.

How you can Improve your ROI

• Set Clear SMART Goals: Be specific about what you want to achieve and set a deadline (and stick to it)
• Track your metrics: Google Analytics is great for keeping you up to date with important metrics such as sales, website traffic etc.
• Analyse the right metrics: There’s no point focussing on metrics that don’t help you achieve your goal. Wanting to increase revenue? Focus on conversion rates and CLV. Looking to increase brand awareness? Direct traffic and social media mentions will give you good insights.

Is your business marketing in need of a boost? Creative Remedy can help improve your ROI with a bespoke prescription for your business. Get in touch to find out more.