Writing website content isn’t always easy. Not only do you have to think about the words on the page, but also how to boost SEO. After all, you want your web pages to drive relevant traffic to your site to generate leads. This may sound daunting to some, but luckily, there are plenty of methods to improve your content marketing skillset. Take a look at our 13 essential tips below that will improve your writing skills and help your website rank in organic searches.  1. Define your reader’s personas  First of all, you need to understand your audience so you know who you are trying to attract. This is the key to writing a successful blog post, especially if you want an impressive conversion rate on your site. How do you define your target audiences’ personas? Ask yourself a few basic questions, such as: What is the age group of your audience? What is the professional status of your audience? What is the buying habits of your audience? What is the interest of your audience? Once you answer these, you will be ready to identify your audience. This, in turn, will shape how you write. 2. Understand the search intent for your content  Another important factor that you need to consider is your audience’s search intent. Search intent refers to what the user is looking for within their Google search. Use the most popular search queries for your benefit, and shape your content format, key message and the desired call to action that you need to include in your content. 3. Set a clear smart goal Every page of your website as a rule needs to have a clear call to action. Prior to writing the content, you need to define exactly what this will be. Think about what you want your audience to get out of it, whether it’s clicking on another link, downloading an item or even getting in touch with you directly. Being clear on this before the writing stage will help you map out your content and consider how you will direct your audience to the desired action. 4. Offer your audience solutions Websites that offer clear solutions to specific problems typically rank in the top three Google searches. Therefore, web copy should provide answers to key problems that resonate with your audience. This is where research is your best friend. Search for problems that your business will be able to provide solutions to. Ultimately, this is the key to your web page ranking high in a short amount of time. 5. Look for content opportunities and gaps This goes hand-in-hand with number 4. When doing your research for your specific industry-related issues, you may not find relevant solutions. Good news! This means you have a unique selling point that should be included on the website. Having no competition essentially means that your webpage will rank fast. Especially if you have fast good on-page SEO on organic search results.  6. Analyse your competitors It’s always good

We’ve all heard of Google. In fact, we’d probably go as far as to say we all use it.  Organisations of all sizes across all sectors are tapping into digital marketing to generate new leads and greater brand awareness. This includes charitable organisations too, perhaps more than ever before, thanks to the Google Ad Grants programme, which provides non-profits with free Google Ads. What is the Google Ads Grant programme? We aren’t going to major on it too much in this blog because, given the fact we’re a Google Partner agency, we’ve already written an introductory blog right here. But what we will say is that the initiative essentially involves you potentially receiving $10,000 in free Google advertising a month for your organisation. Many charitable organisations are using this free marketing opportunity to increase brand awareness and attract more people, who are willing and actively looking to donate, recruit volunteers and share their stories far and wide. If you haven’t already done so, take a look at our first blog for insight on who can apply for the funding, how you go about doing it and some initial pointers on creating a Google Ads action plan. How do Google Ads work? Again, we aren’t going to take up too many paragraphs delving into this detail because the focus of this blog is to provide you with practical measures for successfully using Google Ads (plus you can always get in touch with our SEO team who are more than happy to answer any queries you may have). Simply put, Google Ads is a marketing platform where you can present tailored digital adverts to searchers using websites across the Google network. This includes Google Search itself, YouTube and other websites that have display (or image-style) placements on their websites, like this: When it comes to using Google Ads for charities, you must advertise on the Google Search network in order to be eligible for a grant. Once you’re all set up, you can create specific ads and keywords or key phrases to target people who are searching for related topics. Note: While there may be various different ad formats, not all of them are covered by Google Ad Grants, so make sure you do your research beforehand. If you’re unsure about anything, get in touch with us on the contact details below. 3 top tactics for using Google Ad Grants to generate increased donations and awareness: Tactic 1: Optimise your Google Ads In doing so, this makes sure they’re relevant to your website copy and the keywords you are using. Google Ads have a quality score that determines if your ads are eligible to be displayed based on a user’s search. Tip: Link your ads to related landing pages. If the landing page isn’t relevant, it will have a negative impact on your quality score. Tactic 2: Choose the right keywords  Selecting the right keywords is a fundamental part of getting started with Google Ads and making sure your activity performs. Use

Social media for photography companies is a must-have marketing tactic. But so too is an understanding of the marketing and sales funnel. And when you combine the two together, a social media/wider digital strategy that’s aligned with the buyer journey (AKA the marketing and sales funnel), converting leads and generating brand loyalty is easily achieved. If you haven’t had a chance to read part one and part two of our ‘Best practices for brands in the photography market to use social media to increase sales’ articles, it’s important you know the basics about the top and the middle of the marketing and sales funnel right now, at the very least. Feel free to read our articles on these two stages of the funnel when you get a minute. In the meantime, to quickly recap… The top of the marketing and sales funnel is: The awareness and recognition and research phase (also known as the Top of the Funnel or TOFU). TOFU social media tactics include: Generating relevant content, doing it regularly and creating a sense of community The middle of the marketing and sales funnel is: Where buyers consider and evaluate the various different options available to them (also referred to as the Middle of the Funnel or MOFU) MOFU social media tactics include: Sharing case studies and reviews, giving prospects a behind-the-scenes look at how you work and showing them how you can solve their pain points and challenges. Now let’s focus on the final part of the marketing and sales funnel… This is the commitment/conversion/purchase phase (also known as the Bottom of the Funnel or BOTF). It’s the moment prospects convert into customers, who hopefully value your services and products so much, they reward you with brand loyalty, which also involves recommending you to others.  3 wider digital strategy tactics for converting prospects into customers: #1: Live demos Are great, especially if you stock photography equipment and want to show people how they work and the benefits of using them. These demos don’t have to be too long either, the main thing is they clearly show potential buyers the product in detail and address any product or functionality queries they may have. #2: Consultations Consultation sessions are literally just one crucial step away from getting prospects over the finishing line and encouraging them to use or buy from you. Whether you offer a 15, 30 or 60-minute consultation, it’s entirely up to you. The main thing is that prospects are given something tangible (a clear solution or actionable advice) at the end of it in exchange for their time. #3: Case studies Are a tactic that can also be classed as MOFU marketing activity because they help people weigh up the various different options available to them. You know how good you are at photography or how your products are of a superior quality and offer great value for money, but if you get your loyal customers to say this for you, this form of brand loyalty is

Traditional marketing methods are still around for a reason because they’ve been tried and tested by countless Professional Services organisations and deliver results on multiple levels and multiple occasions. But they’re traditional. And in today’s rapidly-developing digital era, while there’s still a place for some traditional marketing tactics, the entire marketing dynamic has evolved and taken on a whole new momentum, not to mention, new direction. While it may feel somewhat unsettling to think about replacing your proven marketing tactics with more digitally-savvy strategies, it’s a move that’s guaranteed to pay off. At the very least, you’ll generate the same type of results as your traditional activity. At the most, your marketing campaigns will fly! More importantly, embracing new marketing measures will help relieve you from the pressure of single-handedly generating leads by attending networking meetings or relying on your connections for word-of-mouth recommendations. And more important than that, you can actually take some time away from your business, be it a few days or weeks, and when you get back, you’ll find relevant contacts ready to connect with, due to your marketing campaigns still working as hard for you as to when you left them. Lead generation is constant, and when you’re focused on running your Professional Services company, there’s only so much time you can dedicate to it – even less if you’re off sick or take some annual leave… And that’s where all those modern-day marketing techniques come in, of which there are many. But for the purposes of this article, we’re going to talk you through four of them: Lead generation tactic 1: SEO Search Engine Optimisation, SEO for short, works by making you visible to your potential customers on Google and other search engines. There are several ways you can use it to your advantage, such as: Using on-site SEO techniques to make sure your site is fully optimised – so that it appears in people’s search results. Developing content for your site that demonstrates your expertise and knowledge will help you rank higher too. The key is having information on your website that’s relevant to what users are searching for, so you appear in their online searches. Placing your thought leadership insight or wider content on external, high-ranking websites – in doing so, the backlinks will help boost your website’s authority over time because of their high-performing status being linked to your site. Constantly strengthening your SEO presence – in fact, this is something we highly recommend you do. SEO isn’t something you can dip in and out of. The most effective SEO campaigns are refined in line with the latest algorithms and wider search guidance, which is a constant moveable feast.  SEO takes time and commitment, it won’t happen overnight. But it is something that will reward you over time. It can be one of the most effective digital marketing efforts you implement to help increase your lead generation. If you want people to find you and not your competitors, SEO is geared