It's easy to say that the past few months have been difficult for many businesses. Coronavirus has meant that many organisations are in a state of flux; their marketing and business plans are paused at best or, at worst, in the bin.

This can be scary and we've not been immune from this either.

However, we're here to help clients in every way possible to not only survive during these times but hopefully to thrive. Not only have we adapted to the "new normal", but we've also taken several new approaches to ensure that whatever is thrown our way, we can deliver for our clients and be your outsourced in-house remote marketing agency. Whether that is to prepare to get back-up-and-running following lockdown, adapting websites to focus more on e-commerce rather than bricks and mortar stores, or adjusting campaigns to maximise return on investment, we're here to help you.

Prior to lockdown, many of our team already worked from home, ensuring we can be proactive in responding to clients' needs while maintaining a healthy work/life balance. As a result, we are well accustomed to operating in a digital space. Since lockdown, we are engaging with clients over video conferencing software too, and this has led to a significant improvement in information flow, enabling us to become a bigger part of our client's day-to-day operation.

Alongside video conferencing, we've been working with clients to understand how coronavirus has affected their business. This involves analysing their current strategy, whether it is fit for purpose during this period and, if not, working with them to develop new strategies to either temporarily run during the lockdown, and what those plans may look like on the other side of this.

We've then reacted diligently and executed new marketing campaign creative, website design, social media campaigns, blogs and PPC in response to those new strategies.

We hope that we're through the worst of the epidemic in the UK. As the economy comes out of hibernation, we're ready to help our clients reopen to and maximise every opportunity that presents itself. We're your remote marketing agency.

If you're in need of a new marketing strategy, new media representation or a new website constructed, get in touch with Fortico Media now and let's have a virtual coffee!

On both a professional and personal level, a lot has changed for me. For now at least, as a company, we are doing what we need to, taking care of ourselves and our loved ones, adapting to a different way of living and most certainly a different way of working.

The entire team at Fortico Media is working remotely. We are no longer together in the same office, sharing the same space, thoughts and ideas in one remarkable creative setting.

What has replaced that is an arsenal of tools that allow us to work differently. Much like the rest of the world, we too have embraced apps such as Google Hangouts, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams to make sure we can meet in ways that embrace creativity. We also keep in constant touch via Skype, Slack and WhatsApp. At the same time, our recently launched custom project management tool enables us to keep track of ongoing projects even more efficiently.

You might think that so much change would knock us off our stride or force us to take our eye off the ball. Yet we haven't just embraced change, we are thriving on it.

Working remotely is working... It's working because, for us, creativity is and always will be a collaborative process. Coming together to solve problems, deliver the best possible results and use the very best of each person's strengths and qualities is something we've always done. It's part of our ethos and our DNA.

When it came to the challenge of maintaining that during a time when we weren't all together, well... It was always going to bring out the best in us. It has, and I couldn't be more proud of the team and those who are a part of it.

Of course, we miss our offices in Central London; we miss the faces, the coffee shops, the sights and sounds of the place we (at least in a professional sense) call home. But, we don't miss each other, thanks to the technology at our disposal we can all collaborate, meet, talk and manage projects more efficiently than ever...

For the time being, we are staying put, following the advice and guidelines given to us. There's a whole world out there doing much the same. Organisations like ours are now working differently, making plans, creating ideas and adjusting to a new kind of normal.

Our experience has taught us a lot and has stood us in the best possible stead to help companies look at new ways to communicate.

If you have a project, contact me, perhaps we can meet for a coffee over Zoom!

Take care, stay safe.

You might have the best idea in the world, the best business or the finest service in your field, but if the quality of the imagery you share isn’t up to that same standard, then it can all be for nothing.

You might think professional photography and the very best quality images it can deliver are a luxury, an unnecessary expense. You might think about taking them yourself, or using stock images, if it’s good enough for your competitors, why not you?

The fact is, a professional image created by someone who has taken the time to know and understand you and your brand is priceless. High-quality photography can engage your audience in a way that nothing else can. It can build your brand and contribute to success quickly. If your competitors aren’t doing it, right there and right now there is an advantage to be had, and it’s a big one.

Why waste those thousand words describing to your audience what you can do when one professional photograph can show them?

Your online presence, particularly on social media is representative of your brand on a deep level, isn’t it worth investing the time and care with photos as good as they can be?

Bespoke, personal photographs enable your customers to get to know the real you, your company, your ethos. Try getting that same effect from a stock photo.

Boost your search engine optimisation (SEO) and draw people to your pages for longer with optimised images that are an important part of SEO.

Images are assets! Your images can be used across brochures, marketing campaigns, social media posts, building familiarity and driving engagement time and again.

Whatever your industry, successful promotion and marketing always start with professional imagery, the most vital ammunition in building a successful online presence.

If it’s visual content you need, we deliver.

It seems like every time you go on Facebook or Twitter that someone is celebrating an obscure holiday. At the time of writing, it’s ‘celebrate your unique talent day’. So, I am – with a blog post about how social media marketers can use these niche holidays to their advantage.

No matter what industry you are in, whether it is retail, telecoms or even something as bland as insurance, these niche holidays is a great way to engage and connect with your customers and target audience. These holidays are universal (either humorous, silly or informative) and can easily be incorporated into your branding. This can result in some great engagement for your social profiles, such as increased followers, sales and brand perception – which results in a healthy bank balance.

So how can you utilise these holidays to their full potential?

Research of Your Audience and Industry Goes a Long Way

Like any marketing and branding exercise, knowing your audience is fundamental. Research your industry and find out the holidays that are relevant and universal. Websites such as daysoftheyear.com will be helpful to find many niche holidays. While most of them will not be related to your brand or industry, they can be tweaked in your favour. It is also important not to celebrate holidays that will have a negative impact on your brand.

For instance, a dentist should be active on ‘Flossing Day’ (25th of November) and reflect the importance of flossing. On the other hand, a dentist would be unlikely to celebrate ‘Junk Food Day’ (21st July) – due to the majority of junk food causing cavities.

That said, a dentist shouldn’t go out and denounce ‘Junk Food Day’ as they will likely come off as a ‘party pooper’ and likely hurt the brand.

Use Niche Holidays as An Excuse For…

Personality

Social media is built for personalisation and many brands are great at giving an inside view to their company. Niche holidays only enhance this personalisation. On ‘Ugly Christmas Sweater Day’ (16th December), the dentist can come in their most hideous Christmas jumpers and take a photograph for social media.

Because other people will be celebrating the day in some way, it brings a common interest and value – making your brand feel authentic and more relatable.

Deals & Competitions

Christmas is the busiest time for many industries, especially retail. After the Boxing Day sales, revenue drops and there aren’t many other major commercialised holidays to conduct sales – especially in summer.

By using deals that are only available on specific niche holidays, it gives you the element of surprise. Your audience won’t be expecting a discount code on ‘Flossing Day’ and, by creating urgency for a discount for a single day, your audience will share it with their friends and drive traffic to your website.

On top of single days, there are also niche holidays that last weeks and months. These give much more leeway for bigger promotions. For example, a dentist may post a puzzle a week during ‘Brainteaser Month (April 2016) and run a promotion, such as a discount, for the winner of each teaser.

Gain Exposure on An International and Local Level

The great thing about these niche holidays is that those who are interested in the same holiday as your business will be more likely to find you. For example, those who are interested in ‘Floss Day’ will likely be interested in dental health. For a dentist, these are the exact people they would want to target.

However, while these niche holidays are universal and internationally celebrated on social media, a brand shouldn’t neglect those holidays that are local to their business. For example, a dentist in Newcastle may want to post about the Great North Run during the event to increase exposure to the local population.

Take advantage of these opportunities to connect with your audience and your rewards will be an increase in engagement and revenue. We can’t tell you what holidays you should celebrate and what you should do for them, but what we can tell you is that you shouldn’t ignore them – it’s a missed opportunity.

Working in marketing is sometimes like a juggling act. Our roles have a wide variety of responsibilities, from content writing, brand strategy to graphic design. However, many marketers trundle through these roles without realising that many of the repetitive processes can be automated through IFTTT, meaning you have more time to focus on other tasks.

What is IFTTT?

IFTTT stands for ‘If This Then That’ and is a platform for creating apps that can do things for you when certain triggers are set off. IFTTT is enhanced when it can connect different digital applications, websites, smartphones, gadgets together and, essentially, interact with one another. This makes life easier by not having to manually do every little thing.

For small business owners, IFTTT can become your new best friend. With applets (the instructions for each automation), you can reduce the amount of time you have to spend on marketing quite drastically, with a minimal setup and without affecting the quality.

What Can I Do With IFTTT?

There are several premade applets that are extremely useful to marketers. Here are our favourites:

• Tweet your Instagram photos as native photos on Twitter

Instagram allows you to post to Twitter when you upload a new photo. However, this is a link back to the Instagram app. The two platforms don’t get along. With IFTTT, you can instruct the program to take that photo from Instagram and re-upload it to Twitter as a picture – easily saving 3-5 minutes every time.

• Create a Medium story from a WordPress post

If you want to write your blog across multiple platforms, IFTTT can do that. This is one of the most popular applets that allows you to automatically post to your Medium account once you post a blog on your WordPress account.

• Get an email when your company is mentioned on Reddit.

Want to know what people on Reddit are saying about your company. This applet sends you an email every time your company is mentioned, allowing you to respond quickly.

• If someone Tweets in a specific area, add them to a list

This applet is good if you have shopfront and want to know what your customers are saying when they’re nearby or on your premises.

There are many more available on the IFTTT website under the ‘discover’ menu. 

How Do I Create an Applet?

If you cannot find a premade applet for your desired automation, you can simply create your own. To make an applet, you need to choose the ‘if’ and the desired action. IFTTT does the rest. This is known as a recipe.

One useful recipe to marketers would be to monitor and be alerted when your competitors publish a new blog to find out what they’re offering their customers. Here’s an example of how you would create a recipe to automate this process.

• Log into IFTTT.com and click ‘create new applet.’
• You will see ‘if +this then that’. Click ‘+this’ and then select feed.
• Select ‘New Feed Item’ and enter the RSS address for the blog (for example, GLW’s blog feed is https://glw.media/feed/)
• You will be taken back to the ‘if this then that’ screen. ‘This’ will have been replaced with a feed icon. Select ‘+that’.
• Select ‘email’ and then ‘send me an email’.
• You can enter the subject for the emails and what the content are. If you want more details on the email, you can add more ‘ingredients’ which can add the feature image, author and other information.

That’s it! Every time your competitor publishes a blog, you will be the first to know.

Have a go yourself and see what you can achieve with IFTTT. However, be wary that too much automation may lead to depersonalisation and a hollower experience for your followers. Think of it as something to supplement your marketing efforts, rather than a replacement.