We’ve avoided saying it for as long as we could, but it can’t be denied any longer - get ready, Christmas is coming!

It comes around so fast every year, I won’t even tell you how many shopping days you have left. But don’t panic, you still have plenty of time to get your business ready for the festivities, but you need to act now! Christmas is a great time to make meaningful connections with your customers and clients as well as a fantastic opportunity to show off your amazing brand with some top-notch Christmas inspired marketing.

We’ve done some of the hard work for you (we can’t help with the Christmas shopping, sadly) and put together a festive filled guide to get your business in the Christmas spirit!
 
Christmas 2023 Marketing Strategy
If you haven't already reviewed your marketing strategy for Christmas then you need to act now:

• Think about how your customers have changed the way they do business with you. If you’re finding they are more likely to interact with your business online then focus your marketing on those online platforms. However, if you’re finding your customers are embracing being able to do more face-face business then you should turn your attention to printed festive marketing materials that will entice your customers.
• Don’t forget to set a budget when you’re devising your plan. It’s so easy to get carried away but be realistic and stick to your budget.
• Market Research - what are your competitors doing? What do your customers expect and how do you plan to meet those needs?
• If you sell products, do you want to provide a wrapping service? Will you need branded/promotional wrapping paper?

Dec the Halls...
If your business has a physical premises where customers visit then you need to be thinking about festive marketing materials such as boards, banners, posters and decals for the windows. Don’t forget twinkly lights, Christmas tree and, if appropriate, music inside.
 
…and the Virtual Halls
Don’t forget the online window dressing:

• If you have a website with an online shop, then make sure you have a Christmas themed online shop front. You could temporarily change your colour scheme to more festive colours, add a Christmas banner to your landing page or some festive decorations to your brand logo.
• Give your newsletter/email marketing campaign a festive flourish. Include lots of details of any Christmas offers/sales you have planned, consider a Christmas countdown and make sure you include links to your social media channels.
• Run a series of Christmas themed social media posts (don’t forget the appropriate Christmas hashtags!)
• Change your profile pictures/backgrounds to a Christmas themed image.
• Create Christmas inspired content.

 
Get Personal
To say thank you to your customers and to wish them well for the new year, why not send a branded calendar, stationary or Christmas card? Handwritten for that extra personal touch.
 
As always Creative Remedy are on hand to help with any of your branded printing materials including calendars and cards as well as your Christmas digital marketing. Don’t forget the more notice the better, we can’t change print lead times unfortunately!

If you’re a small business owner you will already be well aware of the need for a strong digital marketing strategy. You might be handling your own digital marketing, carrying out day to day tasks such as social media management. But are you truly getting the best out of our digital marketing while trying to run your business? It isn’t easy to split your time between marketing and the day-to-day running of your business.

This is where hiring a team to handle your digital marketing could actually save you time and money, as well as ensuring your marketing is top notch, on brand and working hard for your business.
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Reasons for Outsourcing your Marketing;

Delegate
You might have been managing perfectly well when you first started out but as your business grows it becomes much more difficult to keep juggling all those plates. The money you think you’re saving by handling your own digital marketing is actually not a saving at all, YOUR time IS money and your time needs to be spent where it's most needed- on running your business. Allowing a professional team to manage your digital marketing will not only free up your time but the team will also be much quicker and more efficient too - they already understand all the software, apps and technology required to make your business digital marketing successful.

Objectivity
It’s not easy to think objectively when it’s your own business that you’ve nurtured from scratch but a digital marketing team will be able to look at it from an outsiders point of view, allowing them to find effective communication strategies.

Expertise
When you hire a professional marketing team you have access to all their combined knowledge and expertise. They will be able to advise you on all aspects of your marketing strategy, help you establish your target audience and create the perfect plan. You only have one chance to do a launch- make sure you do it the right way!

Creative Unique Ideas and Thinking Outside the Box
A digital marketing team can look at your business with fresh eyes, spot potential avenues for targeting your audience and they’ll have the expertise to try out new ideas. Your expertise is in your products or services, their expertise is in digital marketing. As with everything, the marketing sector is constantly evolving but luckily for you it’s in their job description to make sure they’re up-to-date with all the latest advancements. They’ll be able to help identify and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and see ways to improve them.

Strategy and Communication
A digital marketing team will be able to help devise an effective digital marketing strategy - they might do a SWOT analysis (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) or set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) and make sure these align with your overall business goals.

Most importantly, your marketing team will know what needs doing and when- less reactive and more proactive thinking.

Hiring a digital marketing team could be the best decision you make for your business. From creating the perfect strategy, trying out new tech or finding exciting and innovative ways to engage your audience.

Do you need support with your digital marketing? Get in touch and book your FREE consultation.

The Local View was established by Cheryl Jakes and her team; Emma, Sarah and Beth in the rise of lockdown. Acknowledging that businesses needed to adapt quickly, The Local View provided a springboard for local businesses to reach their target audience quickly.

The Creative Remedy team; Sara, Louise, Jenny, James, Milli and Ben will be bringing their combined skills and knowledge in design, marketing and social media management to The Local View to help evolve the digital marketing services and online presence for local businesses.

​About The Local View
If you are new to The Local View and Peterborough Business Directory we are an online directory for Cambridgeshire featuring your business profile and local content inspired by you.

• Online Business Profile
• Spotlight Articles
• Advertising Banners
• Business Networking Group (Coming in the New Year)

Why Join Peterborough Business Directory?
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1. Make your business easier to find - All business profiles are Search Engine Optimised and contain rich media content like videos.
2. Good return on investment - More affordable than running your own Google Ads campaigns.
3. Helps build your brand, assisting with credibility and trust - Grow your sales.

Search for local businesses and suppliers, lifestyle and local interest articles. Promote your business through banner advertising, engaging videos and spotlight articles. We share your content on all our social media platforms too. Bringing the Peterborough, Cambridge and Cambridgeshire business community together, supporting the shop-local ethos. Be seen, grow your sales and build your brand.

Leaflet Design and Distribution 
The Local View offers a print, design and leaflet distribution service- we can design and print leaflets, booklets, banners, logos, business cards, compliment slips, menus or something that is a little bit different. Eye catching designs to help your business thrive!

Banner Ads
Header and footer banner advertising are ideal for promoting your new product, service, course or event.

Spotlight Articles
Reach your customers with interesting and relevant news articles that give your readers all the information they need but without the hard sell. A spotlight article includes Search Engine Optimisations, chosen key phrases, an advert and video to promote your product, service, course or event.

What Next?
Creative Remedy is going strong. The Local View is intended to be complimentary, offering digital online services, advertising along with design, print and distribution. All the stuff we are really good at!

Sara says… “We’re all really excited to be involved in this tech start-up, we are focussed on growing our relationships with community lead enterprises in Peterborough and Cambridge. We are investing in our thriving local community to bring you new opportunities and improve your online presence. We can’t wait to see your businesses grow!”

Running a business is expensive - from property rental and the associated bills to employing staff. So, when it comes to marketing your products and services it makes sense to utilise all the free tools at your disposal.

In this month's blog we are discussing the best free online tools available to promote your business on the internet.

Google Business Profile
All businesses should be making the most of Google and most will already be making sure to optimise their website to boost their Google ranking but it’s easy to forget another important part of Google that requires attention- Google business listing. Previously known as Google My Business, your Google Business Profile allows you to optimise the Google listing for your business by adding details such as location, services and products as well as photos of your business. Note that Google Business Profile is only available to businesses that have contact with customers either via a physical premises or meeting customers in other locations (ie consultants, electricians etc).

A Google Business Profile is a fantastic free tool to reach customers that are searching for products and services like yours in their local area.
 
Mailchimp
Free for businesses with less than 2000 subscribers, Mailchimp is an indispensable tool for your email marketing strategy. Mailchimp is one of the best-known email marketing tools and for a good reason. Mailchimp has been helping businesses communicate with their customers since 2001 and their free plan, if you have a designer on board, lets you create great looking email templates, automate email campaigns, follow up leads and convert leads to clients. It also has a fantastic analytics dashboard.

Hubspot
For a free Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool you can’t go far wrong with Hubspot. With Hubspot you have access to tools that help with everything from blogging to SEO, marketing to analytics. It really is a one stop shop marketing software tool. Great for startups and established businesses alike, there’s no wonder Hubspot is such a popular choice amongst many business owners.

Hotjar
With a free basic plan, Hotjar is a fantastic tool for discovering more about your website visitors. Using heatmaps to visualise user behaviour allows you to build up a picture of how customers navigate your website. Over time you can see where you need to make changes to your site in order to improve performance and engagement. 

Typeform
When it comes to knowing where to make improvements to your business, nothing gives you better insight than customer feedback. Typeform is a great online tool that allows you to design forms and surveys so you can collect all the important data you need to help you give your customers what they want!

There are lots of other great tools out there that can help with promoting your business, what tools do you use to help with online promotion? Let us know in the comments!
 
If you are in need of help with your online marketing, contact us for advice.

This month we’re taking a look at the emerging trends in digital marketing for 2022. The pandemic and it’s continuing effect on the way we live, and work has had a huge influence on the marketing industry. These are difficult times in many ways and all industries are having to adapt to the ever-changing landscape.

So, as we slowly step into 2022 what can we expect to see trending in digital marketing?

Metaverse and Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences
When Mark Zuckerberg announced the transformation of Facebook to Meta it was met with mixed reviews. But whatever your opinion on the ‘Metaverse', it can’t be ignored. There are loads of apps that work in augmented reality via the smartphone camera and as mobile devices advance VR will become more accessible too. AR and VR are a great way for consumers to experience products and services and interact with brands!

Voice Search
It was hailed as a digital marketing trend a few years ago but never really took off as predicted, however it looks like it might be finally catching on so you might want to consider including optimisation for voice search in your marketing strategy for 2022.

Personalised Messaging
Targeted marketing is a huge trend for 2022. When you’re planning your marketing strategy for the year be sure to hone your customer lists so you can ensure you tailor your ads to their preferences.

Micro Moments
Closely linked to targeted marketing, micro moments is a term coined by Google to describe the way we make snap-decisions. The key here is to make sure you have a presence on all the same platforms as your customers, using short and snappy targeted ads and personalised marketing.

CSR
Brands and businesses need to show they care about their communities and act with respect and authenticity. Recent reports in the US showed customers will actively boycott companies that have unethical practices or values.

Influencers
During the pandemic consumers put more trust in influencers than they did big brands so there’s no doubt influencer marketing is set to rise this year as well.

Creator Led Shopping
By introducing affiliate revenue Instagram is making it easier for Creators to share and earn money on the products they love.

Clear Communication
Make searching and shopping a breeze with a clean, simple and easy to navigate website. If it’s not clear what you sell or the services you offer then you are going to lose customers so make sure your website communicates well.
 
Takeaway message: This fast-paced industry is not slowing down but don’t panic, there are lots of exciting opportunities and developments to embrace that will help your brand soar in 2022!
 
If you’re not sure your website can stand up to the fast-paced world of 2022 get your FREE website audit here.