In the latest episode of the Herd Marketing podcast, we visit Ryan, who runs and operates The Beer Lab in Heswall. The Beer Lab is a micropub that specialises in selling a huge range of craft beers and has built up an enviable reputation locally as one of the best pubs on the Wirral. This is down to an ever-changing range of artisan craft beers being on sale, as well as its really good atmosphere.  During this episode, we talk about how the business has reacted to the recent Coronavirus and how by being quick to react, it has managed to not only survive but thrive. We also ''Taste Test'' one of the amazing beers that are available and talk further about some exciting new plans. This includes the opening a new warehouse that will help facilitate the growth of online sales for The Beer Lab.  This new growth and expansion are certainly exciting times for The Beer Lab and we are pleased, as an agency to be working with Ryan and his team on this journey. Herd Marketing has built the new website and are actively working on and managing the paid social media ads on Facebook and Instagram for The Beer Lab. Additionally, we are also managing the Email Marketing campaigns and are already getting some excellent results and a ROI for The Beer Lab.  These are certainly exciting times and we hope you have enjoyed this episode of our podcast. As always, if you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions for future episodes then please do contact us or leave a comment in the box below. Until next time, Herd Marketing - Gather Your Audience. 

Herd Marketing Podcasts

The Beer Lab Podcast with Herd Marketing

Last Friday we visited Katherine Jones at the Social Nation HQ on Stanley Street in Liverpool to record the latest Herd Marketing podcast. Kath runs her influencer marketing agency, We Are Social Nation from here and works with a number of celebrities to manage their social media accounts, in particular their Instagram accounts. In addition to this, Kath recently set up a brand of sparkling wine and Prosecco - called Think Wine. This is a reduced-calorie and vegan-friendly Prosecco and in this episode of the Herd Marketing podcast, we talk about both of these businesses and how they help one another. During this light-hearted and often funny episode - we find out in more detail about Social Nation and some of the interesting influencers that they work with. We also discover more about the Think Wine Group and learn how and why it was originally set up. We gently cover the topic of how the Corona Virus has effected both Social Nation and the Think Wine Group and we learn how Kath has changed her approach to tackling this issue, such as focusing more on the DTC approach to selling. As has become a tradition with guest speakers on our podcast, we close out by asking Kath to talk about some of her favourite books and share with us what she last read. We hope you like this episode and as always, if you have any thoughts, questions or suggestions for future episode please do leave a comment in the box below. Herd Marketing - Gather Your Audience.

Think Wine Group & Social Nation Podcast

In the latest episode of the Herd Marketing podcast and vlog we welcome special guest Mark Waldron from MOVE. Mark joins our founder and MD Mark Baker at the Material Studios in Liverpool to talk about relationship marketing. During this episode Mark W shares his extensive experience of business networking and offers some useful hints and tips on how to grow your business with relationship marketing. This includes techniques and frameworks that he uses within his coaching business that have helped many business owners, both locally and nationally to grow and prosper. https://youtu.be/v3T2gEnbF04 As mentioned in the video and podcast, Mark W organises the Netwalking events in Sefton Park, Liverpool on a Saturday at 07.00am and at the Marine Lake, West Kirby on a Sunday at 07.00am. Both of these events are always very well attended and are a great way to connect with other local businesses and business owners. To connect with Mark Waldron and find out more about him and these events, connect with him here on LinkedIn. I hope that you have enjoyed this episode of the Herd Marketing podcast. As always, if you have any thoughts or suggestions on this episode or for any future ones, please do leave a comment in the box below, Until next time, Herd Marketing - Gather Your Audience.

Relationship Marketing Podcast

Welcome to this episode of the Herd Marketing podcast -today we welcome special guest and LinkedIn marketing guru Pam Case from Linked Online. Pam runs a number of networking groups and training sessions, based around LinkedIn and how to optimise your LinkedIn profile. In this episode we cover some important topics and areas within LinkedIn and explain in detail how these can be used to help generate new B2B leads and sales. Pam highlights four areas that LinkedIn can be broken down into and these include marketing, database, search tool and networking room. Each of these four points is covered in some detail within this episode along with her final top three tips for LinkedIn greatness! https://youtu.be/kIoQfIdOr90 Mark Baker & Pam Case talk about getting the most from your LinkedIn account. To stay up to date with all the latest digital marketing news, trends and best practices, subscribe to the Herd Marketing YouTube channel and/or podcast. We post regular episodes that offer value and insight into the world of digital marketing. Thanks for watching and we welcome any constructive thoughts, ideas or suggestions in the box below. Herd Marketing - Gather Your Audience.

How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn

In today’s blog article we are going to be looking at SEO tips for 2020. This content is available as a podcast that can be listened too and downloaded or in a written article format, as shown below.  When it comes to optimising your website and the amount of organic traffic that you get, using a good SEO tool is unavoidable and also very advisable. There are several different websites and tools that you can use to help improve the search engine optimisation of your website. This includes sites such as SEM Rush, Google Analytics and Ahrefs for example. However, if you don’t have access to these various tools, you can still improve the SEO of your content, website, or other digital media by simply implementing some/all of the following ideas and techniques included in this article.  If you’re someone who is new to owning a website or digital content, you may not fully understand how to optimise your website for SEO. This is understandable, which is why we’re going to provide you with our top SEO tips and techniques that you can use to improve the quality of your search engine optimisation for your website.  What is SEO? At its core, SEO is the practice of using specific keywords, phrases, and other variables hat are placed onto your website in an effort to increase the natural ranking of your website on major search engines such as Google. There are over 200 known variables that affect SEO and each search engines ranks websites slightly differently, depending on the specific type of search ranking metrics that are used on their platform. That is why it’s important to take into consideration the known variables that can affect your websites organic ranking. In the next section, we’re going to provide you with a list of our top free SEO tips that you can use to improve your natural ranking in search engines.  Top SEO Tips for 2020  As stated earlier, there are several different ways that you can approach optimising your website to improve the amount of organic traffic that you receive. Before implementing any SEO strategy, you need to write down all of the relevant information that is important to your business or operations. This includes things such as the location in which you offer specific goods or services, what you do and what your services provide. Shown below is our comprehensive list of free SEO tips that you can use to improve the quality and ranking of your website with ease.  #1 Optimise Meta Descriptions & Page Titles Once you have created a list of premium keywords, you need to optimise your page title in order to bring in organic traffic. This is done by using an HTML element which is hidden in the background of the page and it is usually editable in the website control panel, better known as the CMS or content management system. If you use a CMS website that is built using WordPress, then download and install the Yoast SEO plugin. This free plugin will guide you through how to add page titles, meta descriptions and can also be linked to your Google accounts. The keywords you use should contain important words and phrases that relate to your business and will likely be searched for by people online. #2 Optimise Website Content The main content of your website or page is very important in determining how much organic traffic you get from visitors. There are several different elements to creating content on a page, some of the main ones being headers, body content, and images. Ensure that your content is fully optimised for your end-user and is displayed in a user friendly way. Good examples of this would be writing in-depth product descriptions or a detailed explanation of your services. Do also consider using video and images of your products and services in use.  #3 Web-Wide Distribution  It’s important to create a comprehensive website that utilises the best white hat practices of SEO. Try to also create an entire presence across the web by sharing...

SEO Tips You Need to Know in 2020

In our latest Herd Marketing podcast and vlog, we headed up to Chester to meet with Bikmo and their head of partnerships, Rob Grisdale. For those who are not familiar with Bikmo, they are a bike insurance company who create bespoke insurance packages for cyclists and their bikes. During our visit to their impressive offices in Chester, we had chance to talk in-depth with Rob about the company and learn more about what 2020 holds for them. As an international company with offices in Chester and also in Innsbruck, Austria, Bikmo are industry leaders within their sector. This year has been successful for them and this is represented by their growing affiliations with large business and organisations such as British Cycling and Deliveroo. https://youtu.be/rPzU4Ubw8vU Bikmo Bike Insurance - Podcast and Vlog with Herd Marketing One highlight for me during our conversation was learning that Bikmo had become a B-Corp certified company. This award is a form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and it was fascinating to learn more about this and understand more about their core values. We also spoke about how they are looking at reducing their overall waste and how they impact the environment around them. Rob then explains some measures that they have put in place to try to reduce this, such as encouraging staff to cycle to work and going paperless as much as possible. In finishing up our episode with Rob, we spoke in detail about how they look to support local businesses and retailers within the bike industry. It was refreshing to see a company keen on working with and giving back to local communities by using local businesses within their insurance policies. In doing this it is easy to see why they are doing well - as they have empathised with both their customers and local businesses and have avoided where possible, to become too 'corporate'. We hope you enjoy this episode of the Herd Marketing podcast - we understand that this is slightly different from our usual posts and is not entirely focused on digital marketing, however, we felt this story added value to both our audience and also to Bikmo's customer base.

Bikmo Bike Insurance – Podcast and Vlog with Herd Marketing

In our latest vlog and podcast, we talk about video production and why it is so important to your business and organisation. From improvements in your organic ranking right through to sharing it on social media, video production is a multifunctional part of digital marketing that should have a firm place in your digital strategy. Video production has its roots in content marketing and in turn, this connects well to improvements with your SEO. The main reason for this is that video allows you to transfer a lot of information in a shorter and more digestible way to your website visitors. This is turn has a positive effect as it has been shown to reduce bounce rates and improve UX (user experience). As a result of this, Google and other major search engines can see that you add value to your end-users and as such, may rank you higher. https://youtu.be/98Sxz06bc9k Why Video Production is Important in Digital Marketing One of the great things about video is that it can be used and utilised in a number of different ways. For example, the video in this blog, shown above, will be uploaded onto YouTube and embedded here within this article and will also be used on our other social media channels, such as Facebook. The diversity of video means that you get a lot of value in that you can reuse it in a number of different ways. A popular way of generating more value at present from your videos is to extract and use the audio in podcasts. This can add real value to the end-user, in that you offer them a number of ways to listen to, watch and digest your content. Depending on what your industry is and what products and services you provide, video doesn't always have to be an expensive option. I know of a large retailer who runs a Facebook live video every week and they use it to market new products that have come in and also as a way to clear old stock. These live videos get many thousands of views and once they have finished recording, the video can be downloaded from Facebook and used again in promotional emails or on YouTube. This particular company I am talking about, only use a smartphone and wifi connection, yet manage to talk to thousands of their customers in an engaging way for very little cost. I hope you have found this short article of some use and if you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions for future content, then please do leave a comment in the box below.

Why Video Production is Important?

In previous blog entries and podcasts, we have spoken about the importance of local SEO. For many small to medium-size businesses, local SEO should form part of your digital marketing strategy. In this latest blog and podcast, we are going to look at how, as a business, Herd Marketing is aiming to achieve organic ranking for the search term 'SEO Liverpool'. To do this, we are first going to analyse our current position for this search term on Google, using a variety of SEO tools. At the time of writing, we are currently ranked 11th - so we currently sit at the top of page 2 for this search term. To help us improve this, we now need to undertake some detailed search engine optimisation work and review both our own website and our competitors websites. Having done this research, we have identified a number of areas for improvement and will look to implement both on-site and off-site SEO work. For On Site SEO, this may include tasks such as: Content: Update / amend existing website content and ensure that it is still relevant and adds value to our website visitors. Images: Ensure that all our images are compressed and as small as possible so that website loading speed is improved. Page Descriptions / Meta Tags: We will look to tailor our wording, content, and descriptions in our page descriptions and meta tags, so that they refelct the search terms that we are trying to rank for. For Off Site SEO, this could include activities such as: Links: Using the data obtained from our website analysis, we will look to increase the number of quality backlinks to our website. This will be done in an ethical way, using only white hat SEO techniques. Social Media: As part of our digital marketing strategy, we will use the new content that we spoke about earlier, and will share it across all our social media channels. This, if done correctly, could have a positive outcome in other areas of our SEO, such as back links and improved UX Please note: When we talk about content, we are covering both written articles, blogs, videos and also podcasts. Blogs - Alongside content, blogs from on other domains that link back to your website and talk about a similar subject, can have real benefit to your organic ranking. Reach out to influencers, suppliers and specialists within your industry and enquire about getting some content created. It has benefits for them and also for you, especially if they link back and have good domain/page authority. I hope this podcast and blog has been of some use to you and that you are able to take something away from it and maybe implement it within your own businesses website. If you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions, then please do leave a comment in the box below. For more information on SEO in 2020 and for some useful hints and tips, please do check out our other blogs, vlogs and podcasts. We have covered a wide variety of different topics within digital marketing, all of which try to inform and share our experience.

Search Engine Optimisation in Liverpool

Opening up an online shop or business is both rewarding and challenging. There are a number of important points that need consideration before, during and after the launch of your website. In today's entry, we are going to talk about some of the important aspects of getting started online, that if done correctly, will make your life a little easier and may even improve your online presence. Your Website From the very beginning, it is always advisable to build, develop and create your new website with SEO in mind. This ensures that the very foundations, long term scalability, and future of your website are starting off in the best possible way. This can include things such as writing high-quality product descriptions, taking good images and videos of your products, or making sure that all your website has SEO friendly URL's. Social Media Channels Ensure early on that you have opened and created social media pages, accounts, and channels that represent your brand name. It is critically important that you have continuity across all these channels. What I mean by this is that you are consistant in using the same logo, strap line, branding and messages across all social media sites. Products If you sell physical products that need shipping to customers, it is always advisable to hold a fair amount of stock, as online sales can surge during busier seasonal months such as Christmas or during a major sports event for example. Stock management is one of the hardest aspects of running a successful online shop and from experience, something that requires a lot of planning. Luckily, there are a number of stock management and CRM tools available on the market that will help with this. https://youtu.be/15WUKPNG-uo Order Furfilment Getting orders to customers quickly and safely is a major challenge for e-commerce business owners and it is important to work with reliable partners. Before going live with your site, ensure that your delivery company accounts are all opened and ready for business. Your first orders set the standard for how well you will be perceived and if delivery is good, you will get recommendations - this is the best type of marketing. A solid piece of advice I got given many years ago is, 'It is always cheaper and easier to resell to an existing customer than to attract and market to a new one'. This is still true today and worth remembering. Choose your delivery partners wisely! Paid Advertising It can take some time to build paid advertising campaigns and it is critically important that these are built well and ready to be put live for your launch date. This will ensure that the strategic planning that you have done based on predicted sales, order volumes, website traffic and conversion rates, comes to fruition. Content Whether you sell physical products, services or downloads, your new website needs to have a good amount of user-friendly valuable content. This can be in the form of articles, blogs, good product descriptions, reviews, videos, and even podcasts. There are many benefits of creating and sharing content, from improved organic ranking right through to improved UX (user experience). This entry today highlights some of the important tasks that really need to be in place before you go live and start trading online. Not every point will be valid for every reader and each business is unique and different. However, from experience, I think most of these points are valid. If you think there is something missing here or have any thoughts, ideas or success stories, then please do comment in the box below.

Getting Started with an Online Business

Welcome to the latest Herd Marketing podcast - in this episode, we talk about and discuss paid search, in particular, Google Ads and then we move on to how Herd Marketing came to be and finally, we conclude with our thoughts and ideas on how we think WhatsApp will evolve in the not to distant future. Google Ads offer a great way to increase your website traffic and for many online business owners, this is how they generate traffic to their sites. It's important to remember, however, that PPC advertising needs to offer a ROI and to do this, these campaigns need to be fully optimised. In this podcast, we discuss how we have recently worked on and improved cost per acquisition for a client of ours and how making a number of small changes really helped to improve their campaigns. https://youtu.be/a9gkF22KjBg We then speak about why Herd Marketing was created and how our founder and MD, Mark has worked within a number of businesses he has owned and uses his extensive experience within digital marketing to help develop and deliver strategies for clients of Herd Marketing. Finally, we finish up with our thoughts, views and ideas on WhatsApp and how we think it may integrate in the future with Facebook's new cryptocurrency Libra. As with all our podcasts, vlogs and content, if you have any thoughts, questions, ideas or suggestions for future posts please do leave a comment in the box below and we will do what we can to try and answer or include them in future episodes. Until next time, Herd Marketing - Gather Your Audience.

Google Ads and WhatsApp – Herd Marketing Podcast

In our latest podcast, we visited the Material recording studio in Liverpool and Mark, our MD and Phil Waring, a startup consultant at Nova, spoke about the rise in influencer marketing and how, when done correctly, it can be a great way of increasing sales and revenues. We also spoke about WhatsApp and how we think it may integrate with Instagram and Messenger in the near future. This is an interesting subject and something a number of marketers are thinking about at present. Is email on its way out and will new, instant messaging services such as these overtake email? https://youtu.be/GVZp6j1tySQ Herd Marketing Podcast and Vlog, Material studios, Liverpool, June, 2019 Also included in the podcast were examples of brands and companies such as Rapha and Paul Smith, who recently teamed up to create some new products and items within their respective ranges, and we talk about how their marketing, growth and joint venture work has been beneficial to both parties. We hope you have enjoyed our podcast and vlog and if you are interested in joining us or working with us on future episodes, please do reach out and contact us. We love what we do and are passionate about working with other professional organisations. If you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions on this podcast or if there is an area of digital marketing that you would like us to cover in future episodes, please do leave a comment in the box below and we will do what we can do try and cover it. Herd Marketing - Gather Your Audience. PS: For more information and ideas on creating a social media strategy, do check out some of our other articles and blogs. We post, update and share our latest thoughts on all aspects of digital marketing on a regular basis and release this content in written articles, vlogs and podcasts.

Influencer Marketing and Social Media Podcast

Last week Mark Baker, our MD and Phil Waring from NOVA visited the Material Studios in Liverpool and recorded our first podcast. We plan on making this a regular feature within our blogs and will aim to add value to our readers and listeners with our content and subject matter. During the recording, 'consistency' came up as the 'keyword' of the whole episode when talking about digital marketing. This means that it's important to deliver a regular, concise and consistent message across all of your marketing platforms. So for example, try and post on social media at least once a day and ensure you do this on all the platforms where you have a presence. There are a number of sites (such as HootSuite) that can help you with this, in that they will allow you to schedule posts/updates to be published at a later date. This will in the long term save you time and effort. In this latest podcast, we covered a number of topics, ranging from why Herd Marketing was first formed right through to Ryan Reynolds and his association with Aviation Gin (see video below). We then took a closer look at digital marketing strategy and how we look to approach working with new clients when they come on board with us. https://youtu.be/NjDCH6SiMgo This short video is a great example of marketing done well and is something we talk about in our podcast. We also took a closer look at how we look to approach to digital marketing and how we aim to 'integrate' with the businesses that we work with. To get the best results it is always a team effort and ideally, when we work together, we simply become an extension of your business. We have found over the years that this close working, integrated approach allows for quick, honest and transparent communication between everyone involved and this, ultimately gives you the results you want. If you have enjoyed this article and podcast or have any suggestions for topics that you would like us to cover in future episodes, then please do share your thoughts and comments in the box below. Herd Marketing - Gather Your Audience.

Herd Marketing Podcast

The latest news, articles and trends in digital marketing.

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Herd Marketing Podcasts

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