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WHAT IS A CONTENT FUNNEL

WHAT IS A CONTENT FUNNEL?

31 October 2022 / Lucy McGhie

A content marketing funnel is a visual step-by-step system that helps marketing brands attract potential customers. The funnel helps guide those customers through the journey of awareness, to consideration, and then to conversion or a paying customer. At each stage of the funnel, the user intent is different, meaning that your content will follow different goals and results.

EXAMPLES

Middle Content Funnel: Consideration

Normally in this phase, you are starting to build a deeper relationship. Your content generates engagement and leads, and the customer is more aware and actively considers your product or service. This phase’s content focuses more on providing in-depth product or service information. Don’t forget to show case how your product or service will be better than your competitors and why the customer should choose you!

EXAMPLES

Bottom Content Funnel: Conversion

Your customer is ready to buy. This content should reinforce to your customer that they are making the best choice, choosing your product or service.

EXAMPLES

And lastly Beyond Content Funnel: Retention

This is the final stage, Well done on the hard work your leads are now your customer!But the work isn’t over. This is the stage where you need to ensure your content will keep your new customer engaged, add value and support your customer.

EXAMPLES

Announcements/updates
Help articles
Personalised/performance emails
Surveys/polls
User forums
Blogs/guides
Tools for continued learning

It is essential to create content that works for each stage; not all your customers understand what to do.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and not sure where to start, The Right MIX will be at your service. We can help create the content you need for your brand and show you how to create awareness for your brand, generate leads and convert the customer to buy!

1st November 2022

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Stir up your digital marketing strategy!

August 17, 2022 / Christa Nuijs

Comfort can be a creativity killer and once you have used a social media strategy for too long there is a risk of your content getting stale and losing its momentum. Take a moment to review your content engagement and conversions and see if it is time to stir up your digital marketing approach.

Here are a few ideas to blow some fresh air into your content!

1. Change up the format

Have you been posting regularly, but using stills only? Maybe it’s time to add videos to the mix. Reels are getting a lot of traction and attention and draw the scroller’s attention. They are also subjected to a different algorithm than your static posts and have a wider reach. If you’ve been putting off videos because you have no movie editing skills, fear not! You can create movies with stills too! Convert your images into a presentation with eye-catching filters, labels, headings and a catchy tune. Apps like Canva, Inshot and Animoto make this incredibly easy and fun to do. It will surely stir up your own creative juices and get new views to boot!

2. Let’s get personal

Authenticity is the word of the moment and people want to know why they should buy YOUR product or service and not that of the competition. Let them get to know you, your team, the story behind the product, why you set up the business, what your day looks like, how you use the product, and your passion. Again, video messages are great for this. Even if you don’t like placing yourself in front of the camera, you can add a personal touch by creating the story from your point of view, using audio only, filming your hands or writing your views in originally created blogs and articles.

3. Celebrate your customers

Start leveraging your success stories and shine a light on your existing clients. Give them a voice by using their testimonials, and ask them to send a video or picture of them using your product. If you are B2B, take this chance to cross-promote each other and highlight their mission, explaining why you are honoured to have them as your client. Make sure your clients share these spotlights on their own channels, thereby increasing your reach immediately.

4. Evolve, baby, evolve!

Speaking of clients, are they still the same target group as before? What is their age range now, and how do they interact? Because while 10 years ago your target audience may be lived on Facebook mainly, the new generation may have migrated to other platforms such as TikTok. Not only the digital location of your clients may have changed, but the key message they are looking for might also have evolved too. Have you? Again, being comfortable with what you know may be holding you back from acquiring new clients. Step out of your comfort zone, do the research and see where there is room for you to change the platform, update your messaging and make sure you are still relevant.

5. Get a brand make-over

And while you are updating your messaging, why not treat your brand to a bit of a facelift and revamp? A new stylised version of your existing logo or brand style can generate new buzz. Create a bit of hype around it; you’ve earned the attention! It will also allow you to recirculate content with your updated look. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel time and again, but tweaking it with a different style does wonders. Get inspired by these latest logo trends!

6. Finally, fresh eyes see more

Last but not least, dare to take a step back and let a third party look over your current strategy and branding profile. When we are too close to something, we may lose perspective. This is not an easy thing to do, especially for all the solopreneurs out there. We know, everyone in our team has been there, and we don’t like to give up control. But letting someone else give input will create room for new and fresh ideas. Contact The Right Mix for a free 1-hr consultation on how your strategy can be stirred up!

1st September 2022

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Our Top 8 Podcasts for the Digital Marketer

August 10, 2022 / Mar-Loes Mantoua

Podcasts are a really convenient way of staying up to date on all marketing-related current affairs. But with over 850,000 active podcasts globally, how do you select those that are most useful to today’s digital marketer? Our team at The Right MIX has selected these podcasts as our favourite top 8 to get you going.

1. The Digital Marketing Podcast

The Digital Marketing Podcast is an advert-free, weekly digital marketing podcast with listeners in over 190 countries worldwide. Already on episode 298, this long-running Podcast is a must for all digital marketers. It combines interviews with global experts, together with the latest news, tools, strategies and techniques to give your digital marketing the edge.

2. Social Pros

Social Pros is one of the most popular marketing podcasts in the world and was recently named the best podcast at the Content Marketing Awards. Listen for real insight into the real people doing real work on social media.

3. The Social Media Marketing Podcast

For over 8 years, The Social Media Marketing Podcast has been offering a weekly 45-minute show hosted by its founder, Michael Stelzner. It is a great podcast for both beginners and intermediate users on everything social media marketing.

4. Everyone Hates Marketers

With a name like this, you cannot help but want to listen to at least one episode. And once you do, you’ll be hooked. The Everyone Hates Marketers podcast has reached over 1 mln downloads in the last 4 years for a reason. Louis Grenier (who likes to speak in the third person) interviews guests or shares his own no-fluff, actionable marketing insights so you can stand out—without being sleazy.

5. Casual Fridays

Casual Fridays is a social media-focused digital marketing agency serving hotels & resorts and consumer-facing brands since 2009. Their top-rated social media marketing podcast discusses digital marketing and social media marketing trends, actionable strategies, and tactics that marketers in the entertainment, hospitality, and tourism industry should be aware of.

5. Casual Fridays

Casual Fridays is a social media-focused digital marketing agency serving hotels & resorts and consumer-facing brands since 2009. Their top-rated social media marketing podcast discusses digital marketing and social media marketing trends, actionable strategies, and tactics that marketers in the entertainment, hospitality, and tourism industry should be aware of.

6. The CMO Podcast

im Stengel hosts The CMO Podcast, providing a unique look at the thought process and motivation of the CMO. Through personal and revealing discussions Jim and his guests paint a picture of this demanding position that very few understand, yet affects the entire consumer experience.

7. Perpetual Traffic

Perpetual Traffic hosts Kasim Aslam and Ralph Burns explore effective paid traffic strategies for generating leads and sales. With their own experience in the space as well as that of other industry experts they bring a well-rounded perspective on the latest news and trends in paid media.

8. Marketing Over Coffee

Last but not least in this list of podcasts, Marketing Over Coffee. As the title suggests, the short 20 min episodes are great with your morning coffee for lots of valuable takeaways on all things marketing. Creating a really pleasant listening experience on a range of marketing topics, be sure to give this one a go.

1st September 2022

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Free Online Tools We Love To Use

June 30, 2022 / Lucy McGhie

To help us manage our business we make use of a large variety of marketing apps every day. But with so many to choose from, where do you even start? Whether you are an individual marketer or a member of a marketing team, the tools listed below have great free options and work for pretty much everyone. Read on or check out this reel on why we love the following free tools!

1. Canva

Canva was founded in Australia by Melanie Perkins in 2021. It is a free graphic design platform that allows you to easily and quickly create posts, videos, presentations, letterheads, zoom backgrounds, and much more. You can use pre-built templates and drag-in elements to customize your image, and thanks to Canva’s integrated social sharing, it is easy to quickly share them directly to your social media platforms. If you’re new to graphic design and want to learn about branding or how to incorporate Canva in the virtual classroom, there are free video tutorials on their website. Click here to see a fun tip on how to create an engaging video on Canva.

2. Giphy

Giphy has allowed us to become more playful with our social media posts. Our marketing team has fun finding new and fun Giphys to add to our posts. The most viewed and used Giphy is jasmine masters – “I oop gif’ with 419.1 million views! Giphy can also be accessed through Canva making it very accessible to use. If you need help creating a Giphy Click Here.

3. Asana

Asana is an amazing free online tool and has helped The Right Mix team stay on track, keep projects organised, and hit deadlines. Asana also lets you know who is doing what, and by when, and you will always know the status of work happening across your team. It is a great free online tool to use in your business. We have found 5 great and helpful tips that you can find on Asana:

You are able to see your to-do-lists,
@ mention your teammates, tasks, and other projects,
Document your process and projects,
Keep context clear by storing tasks in multiple projects folders and
Color-coding your work so you can find it easily.

4. Meta

The Facebook company is now Meta, and Facebook Business Suite is now Meta Business Suite. Meta Business Suite is a free tool from Meta that lets you manage all of your connected accounts across Facebook and Instagram in one place. The Right Mix uses this free tool every day for our Facebook and Instagram platforms, where we upload and schedule our content in advance, tag profiles, and add hashtags. It has really helped our team to manage our workload and ensure that our content gets posted at the right time every day. Click here to see our reel on why we love Meta!

5. Zoom

“Zoom’s highest daily count of meeting participants was 200 million in March 2022!” Zoom is easy to use and fits any business’ budget. It has helped so many businesses keep going as well as connected many people all over the world. We love Zoom as it enables us to create recurring meetings for our weekly check-ins, record our calls in case one of our team members is unable to join the meeting, gather information from meeting attendees about themselves before they join the call, and team members can share their screens to see what work they have been busy with. Did you know that Zoom offer Annotation Tools that let all the meeting participants draw and highlight what’s on-screen, which can be immensely helpful when discussing visual materials, such as mockups, graphic designs, and so forth. Check out this blog for more Zoom shortcuts that could be helpful when using zoom.
https://zapier.com/blog/zoom-tips/

5. InShot

InShot first launched in 2014, and in just over 7 years, has passed a major threshold of global downloads. InShot is an amazing free tool – it is a video editor and video maker with professional features. You are able to add music, text, emojis, transition effects, slow motion, and more! The list is endless with what you can do on this easy-to-use, free app! We use Inshot almost every day to create social media reels creating fun and engaging content quickly and easily. Click here to see our reel on why we love to use InShot.

1st September 2022

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Hurray for Heuristics! UX Rules of thumb you can’t afford to ignore!

30 May 2022 / Christa Nuijs

Whether you are building your own website or application from scratch or using any of the templates from site or app builders such as Wix, WordPress or Shopify, it is important that you are aware interface rules of thumb, or heuristics, that improve the usability e of your site and enhance user retention. The last thing you want is visitors to your site to leave before completing the desired actions because they were annoyed with the interface and user-“unfriendliness” of the site.

To ensure best practices it is worthwhile to subject your site to a heuristics evaluation. Here are some of the criteria you should look out for which will make your site or app more user friendly and enhance the overall experience interacting with your brand.

1. Polite & interesting

What is the tone of your website? Is it friendly, guiding, and engaging? Is your message clear and not overly long? Or has it a touch of a condescending “I know best” tone. Treat your web visitors as if they were a potential client you are meeting in person. Don’t bombard them with too much information. Instead, stick to the point in a warm and polite manner!

2. Common sense and match the real world

It should go without saying, but there are plenty of website where common sense has left the building. Call to action buttons hidden on the other side of a page, navigational labyrinths that take you not where you want to be etc. Use common sense when designing your website flow. If it deviates to far of how the process would develop in the real world, people will get annoyed and leave your site.

3. Don’t force your client / Give them autonomy over the process

Give your web visitors the time to browse and discover. Don’t force them into a subscription or a sale every step of the way. Don’t force them to the check-out if they are still looking for more options. Your visitor needs to feel in control. Take that away from them and they will abandon that shopping basket in an instant.

4. Be forthcoming and don’t waste your visitor’s time

Time is something none of us have enough of and the last thing your potential client wants is to get frustrated by your site because they can’t find an answer, they don’t understand what the next step in the process is or they are guided through unnecessary and irrelevant side processes. The more straight forward the process is, the more likely your client will return. Let them know what is next, what it involves and how long it takes, so they can make a risk/reward evaluation. They may decide today is not a good day to take this action, but when they have time they will return. However, if they are stopping halfway through, annoyed with the length of the process they weren’t prepared for, they may decide to not come back at all.

5. Visibility and confidence

How to proceed through your website should be clear, visible and guided with a confident tone. If your web flow keeps repeating questions, if it displays broken links or if it seems to question itself it reduced the tone of confidence of your site, your brand and it diminishes the confidence the potential client will have in you.

These are just a handful heuristics you can check for. To read more about this and how to apply these to your interface, check out Jakob Nielsen, who compiled the original 10 usability heuristics.

There are more UX tips and tools you can apply to the design of your site or app. Use this UX Design Principles Check List to improve the interaction of your brand experience instantly.

13th June 2022

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UX Design Principles Check List

17 May 2022 / Christa Nuijs

UX Design is all the rage, but what does it actually mean and how can you start improving the user experience of your app, website or service delivery without having to study for 6 months or hiring a specialist?

Here’s a Check List you can use to evaluate the UX design of your product. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg and a deep dive into user-testing and prototyping is recommended for a greater chance of success, but this list will give you a sneak peek into the most common UX design principles.

1. You don’t have too many features

When it comes to good design, “what if” is not a good question to ask. It will lead to unnecessary features which will most likely only benefit a few fringe cases of your target audience. Too many features will only confuse most of your users.

There is even a proper law for this, Hick’s Law: Too many options will increase the time a user takes to make a decision. And that’s something you want to avoid… Because in that increased decision-making time, they could very well choose the option to just bail out and discontinue the action.

2. You design for a specific use, for a specific audience

Tied in closely with the danger of features, is how you determine your use cases. Another “law” you can apply here is the Paradox of Specificity – the more specific the use for a certain audience is, the more likely it will cover the needs of other users too. A famous example is the roller trolley. This small hand luggage suitcase was designed as an overnight bag for aviation personal only. Needless to say, it has worked its way into the mainstream effortlessly. And as you are reading this article on the internet, it is worth noting that the World Wide Web was designed initially purely as a way for academics and scientist to share research.

3. You apply an appropriate tone of voice

The voice of your app or site design is imperative. To make sure you are striking the right balance, check out our article on heuristics and apply these rules of thumb!

4. You make use of conventions

There is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to good design. Green is go, red is pay attention, and everyone knows what these buttons mean:

Especially when it comes to controls, to reinvent conventional design is a) a waste of time, b) a waste of money and c) most likely leads to a loss of users, as you will need to re-educate them on what they thought they knew. If it has no added value to your product other than to “be different” it is best to be different in other key areas. Not in the conventions that have been tried and tested.

I encountered this recently with my favourite body lotion. For some reason, this large luxury chain decided to redesign the bottle top. I can no longer twist and open the full cap, instead it only opens the cover at the top. It doesn’t add anything, and it confuses the action that I have taken for most of my life when opening a bottle. Closing it is not easy with lotioned hands either and even causes spillage. I am not amused and now get annoyed every morning when I apply the lotion.

5. Your user understands how to use the controls and what happens next.

Your users don’t like guessing. They want to understand and perceive what a design element does and be able to predict what will happen next. If there is a big red button, they understand that they can press that and if that red button says “buy now”, the user knows immediately what will happen next. There is no need to be enigmatic and ambiguous in your design. Like with conventions, put your attention to differentiate yourself in other places, not where the user expects a certain process.

6. Your feedback is relevant, timely and easy to understand

We all like to be kept informed about the process and if we are doing it right. So put your user’s mind at ease, let them know that their action has been registered and what is happening next or tell them if their action was incorrect and why. Feedback is your platform’s true voice, so make sure it is clear, relevant and to the point. Ideally, keep them informed throughout the process and not at the end only. Inline validation makes for a swift and smooth flow. Nothing is as annoying as completing a form and action only to get a response right at the end that somewhere in step 3 you had made a mistake and need to scroll all the way back.

Good design should not be noticeable. Good design should feel natural, easy, understandable, and comfortable. However, users will spot bad design immediately, as it deviates from what they expect the process to be. But with the above points, you can avoid those pitfalls!

13th June 2022

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Supporting the change makers

Author / Christa Nuijs

After a couple of years as a working adult, it is not uncommon to experience a moment of disillusion and start to question the purpose of our nine to five. Whether it’s watching a hard-hitting documentary, a pandemic that disrupts the status quo or just questioning your life’s decisions at the height of your midlife crisis, many of us come to a point that makes us question the purpose of mindless mass consumption, soulless capitalism or empty frivolity in business.

For me, that point came when I joined a charity with the naive ambition to truly make a difference on the frontline, only to realise that the people running the NGO full time were much better equipped for this. Their unwavering passion and dedication, not to mention working extreme hours to help others in harsh conditions, was such an inspiration and something I sincerely doubted I could commit myself selflessly to for a prolonged period of time. But it turned out that my experience in communication, operations and administrative management was of incredible value to them. I realised that supporting those who helped others is not only where my strengths lay, but also where I wanted to apply my expertise.

And I was not alone in my belief that every business should use its unique value proposition to help those that are making the world a better place. Together with my partners, we built our business with that motto in mind. And while we have been operating under our new name, The Right Mix Ltd, since only six months, we have been offering our services in operational support, marketing and design to NGOs, Non-profits and Purpose Driven SMEs for over four years. At that time, we were considered quite niche to only accept clients fitting that description. We had to take a leap of faith, as we knew that the budgets of such clients would be smaller than larger corporate clients. But it’s been nothing short of remarkable and satisfying on so many levels to engage with organisations working towards, among others, educational equality, environmental sustainability and gender gap reduction.

We are seeing a shift to “do good” in other companies too. Previous short-term feel-good Corporate Social Responsibility exercises like an annual staff beach clean-up or kindness walks handing out food to the homeless, are starting to be complemented by more in-depth and long-term support to NGOs, such as pro-bono business consultancy, IT support and accounting. It is even more heart-warming to see the business model we have implemented being increasingly adopted by other start-ups, who are dedicating their full suite of services to support cause-driven enterprises and organisations. We believe that the official agreement of the 17 UN Sustainability Development Goals has been a great incentive, as it gives companies a clear blueprint to follow, with concrete goals to achieve.

Finding purpose and balance in your work life is not new but merging job satisfaction and connectivity with a higher sense of urgency to help the world and all its inhabitants definitely seems an integral part of the current zeitgeist. Moving away from the traditional, profit- or consumption driven business model is not only more accepted, but it may also soon be expected and considered the norm.

There’s only so much control we have in this world and in this life to truly make an impact. And if you cannot be at the frontline, which honestly not many of us are fully equipped or willing to do, using your own talents to support those that are, is the next best thing to make a tangible difference!

13th June 2022

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Print vs Digital Media

27 Apr 2022 / Mar-Loes Mantoua

Companies have been shifting their focus from print to digital marketing for many years now. Print, however, has proven to be more resilient than expected. And with Asia-Pacific the largest region in the print advertising market in 2019 – and expected to remain in this position till 2030 – can brands disregard print when determining your marketing strategy? Here are the main advantages for each:

Pro digital:

Digital ads are processed more quickly than physical ads
Interactive ads to connect with your audience
Digital media has a further reach than print media when properly executed
Digital media is much quicker to market and errors can be rectified more easily
The costs for paper, printing and postal services are rising, making digital a more cost effective option

Pro print:

Physical ads are more effective in leaving a lasting impression
Print is considered a more secure source of information with digital having a propensity for fake news and misinformation
Digital fatigue has set in after 2 years of lockdown and restrictions
The tactility of print offers brands the opportunity to make a meaningful physical connection with customers
Customers return to print media items they receive multiple times, and these items remain in the home for over a week
Development on new print technologies

It is fair to say that although print media has been losing ground for many years, it still has a role to play in a marketing campaign. Print scores impressively high for audience attention and brand recall versus social media, and can be well used to boost digital channels. There are many new technologies in print media, allowing it to be more unique and original than ever before. Marketeers should take advantage of these opportunities and use a fair part of print creativity in their media mix.

These 17 print ads that Hubspot put together provide some great inspiration on how to incorporate print into a digital strategy.

29th April 2022

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10 practical steps to analyse SEO

20 Apr 2022 / Mar-Loes Mantoua

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, has an enormous impact on the success of your business. Your SEO strategy determines how easily your target customers can find you. You want to be at the top of those search results lists, don’t you?

Here are a few simple and practical steps you can implement to make sure your SEO strategy is on point!

1 . Check your visibility on google

Yes, we are focussing on Google here as they hold over 90% of the total search engine market share. Is your business website ranked on the first search engine result page on Google’s? How can you ensure that your website will be visible on Google and be ranked on this essential first page (75% of people never scroll beyond the first page of search results)? Here’s how: Ensure that each page on your website targets specific topics and uses keywords to make this known to Google, who notices relevant websites that are best suited to specific searches.

Keyword research is the foundation of any good SEO strategy. If you know how to use keywords effectively, you can develop content that attracts more people to your website.

2 . Check URLs and Meta description

An effective URL (basically the address of your webpage) should tell your audience what your website is about, show the audience where they are on your website page, and if possible, it should include your target keywords. Users might decide whether to click or skip your page based on these alone.

The meta description appears below your link in Google. This description needs to be engaging, descriptive, and includes your target keywords. A solid meta description can help convince your searchers to visit your page. Altogether, a compelling meta description and SEO-friendly URL can improve your appearance in search results.

Title metadata is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of a browser window and as the headline within search engine results. Make sure your title and meta description are unique for every page.

3 . Analyse titles and headings

Your title and headings are essential, they are there to tell the audience what they are about to read, help the audience find what they are looking for and whether the content is of value to them. You’ll need to create magnetic headlines that attract your audience. The title of your page should include the content, have the main words of the content in your title page and the content should not be too long nor too short. This will help your overall ranking on Google and help reduce your spam score (see point 5).

4 . Evaluate incoming links

Link evaluation is about setting priorities and goals for the links you want to pursue and do well. The right links can help drive traffic to your website. If someone adds a backlink (external links leading to your site) to your website, their readers are likely to click on that link. The right links can also help your website rank higher. This is because links tell search engines that your website has authority on a certain subject, therefore the more links your website has the better your website will rank on the search engines. Of course, these links need to be valid ones and useful to readers. Bad backlinks will result in a higher spam score (see point 5).

5 . Analyse your spam score

How do we lower our spam score and what are we doing wrong to increase it? When we overuse SEO’s capabilities, we start to over-optimise our website, making it hard to read. This leads to bad User Experiences (UX) and can increases the site’s spam score.

The higher the spam score, the less likely Google will be able to crawl your site, view your pages and rank your website. Only up to 5% is acceptable for SEO when reviewing your spam score. A few tips on how to reduce your spam score: The meta description length is important (also see point 2 above). If it appears too long or too short this can be considered a negative point for the site. The site fonts should be fonts recognised by Google. Luckily most are, but if you have a fancy font, this could be another reason for your spam score to increase. Lastly, the number of pages your site has, as well as the content on those pages, will link directly to your site’s ranking and will either gain a positive or negative score.

6 . Check your internal links

Internal links are links that point from one page to another on your website. They are there to make customer journeys as easy and as straightforward as possible.
Remember that a “Click here” link has no search engine value beyond the attached URL, whereas descriptive links rich with keywords will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to. Always use descriptive links by linking keywords—it not only improves search engine optimisation, but also adds value to your readers.

7 . Investigate for broken links

A 404 is a “page not found” error, is something you do not want your customers to come across. This is usually caused by broken links and/or broken images within your site. For example, if a page on your site is linked to an image or content that has been deleted, anyone who clicks on that link will get a 404 error on their screen. Keep up to date with your links and replace those that have since been deleted.

An easy way this can be done is using a spreadsheet on excel. Check all links in your website and record your link findings, e.g. if there are any broken links or how many internal links etc. These will then have to be fixed and upgraded. Make sure you upgrade them on other social media platforms as well, ensure that relevant SEO related backlinks are preserved where possible. Link upgrading is a big task but the last thing you want is a customer coming across a broken link on your website. They will simply move onto the next company on their list to get the information they are looking for.

8 . Analyse your web content

Quality, original, comprehensive, authoritative content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content.

To analyse the web content, you need to do a content inventory of all the content that you have created for your website. You want your user to have a good experience on your website, content is the most important, so make sure that it is always organised, relevant, and up-to-date. Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh. We suggest you check your content on a set schedule and make updates as needed.

9 . Audit your images

Always describe your image and video media using alt tags, or alternative text descriptions. They allow search engines to locate your page, which is crucial—especially for those who use text-only browsers or screen readers. Pictures attract and appeal to customers AND Google likes them. Ensure that when you have images on your site, you have appropriately named the image with a description.

Google looks at your URL structure so keep it organised. Create folders/ file names for your images by topic or keyword – https://the-right-mix.com/the-right-mix-team/ . Lastly use original images where you can. Google prefers original content including images! Therefore, using stock photos that other people have used on their websites will not help your SEO.

10 . Check your page speed

Page speed is an important part of user experience. But as important is the fact that Google uses site speed (and as a result, page speed) as one of its signals used in its algorithm to rank pages. How can you increase your speed? By optimising your code, including removing spaces, commas, and other unnecessary characters, as well code comments, formatting, and unused code.

You can also increase your page speed compressing your images, the larger the image size the longer it takes to load your site, hurting your ranking on Google. Or try lazy loading – a strategy to identify resources as non-blocking (non-critical) and load these only when needed

Lastly, check for common mistakes that could be slowing down your website. Improve your server response time. Your server response time is affected by the amount of traffic you receive, the resources each page uses, the software your server uses, and the hosting solution you use. Find bottlenecks and fix them.

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free SEO tool that scores your desktop and mobile page speed on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 being the fastest.

Social media

11 . Analyze current content and engagement

When creating your content you need to be thinking and ensuring that it is specific to your target audience, do they want to see this? Will my content benefit or help my audience in any way? AND is your content up-to-date with the current trends? If you can tick all of these boxes this will help ensure that your content will be engaging with your target audience.

12 . Analyze current sharing options for users

Is your content shareable? You want to be posting content that is valuable to your audience. You want engagement, get more likes, get more shares and gain more followers. If your content doesn’t promote this then what is the point? Here are a few types of content that will give your users something to share; Infographics – are the most socially shared form of content. Interactive content – this is producing content that your users can better engage with. Content that evokes a strong positive emotion – If your content doesn’t evoke an emotion for someone or create a personality then it most likely won’t get shared. Lastly, content with images – image-rich content is extremely sharable. Now you know a few shareable types of content which one are you going to use first?

13 . Analyze social media profiles

Do the research and find who your competitors are, and who is your competition? From there find out what platforms they use, once you have narrowed down who your competitors are. The next step is to gather data, analyze your competitor’s activity and create a competitive analysis. Now with all of this information you are now able to compare your profiles to your competition and use it as a guide to help gain that competitive advantage.

14 . Check your images for SEO and social media

The images that you put out are just as important as any other content that you put out. There are many things to think about before you upload your image on social media. So make sure it will benefit your SEO. First of all, is your image the correct size? Too big and it will take too long to load you need to try scaling down without losing too much of the quality. Optimizing image file name, before uploading any image, you must name the file with the relevant, descriptive keywords to get the most out of your SEO power. Include captions, this may not have a direct impact on your SEO, but they are visible on your social media and they can add to the user experience. Using unique images, and unique content is better for your SEO. And lastly, ensure that your text complements your image, the copy on the page will help search engines determine the relevancy of your images and therefore improve your SEO

15 . Check current client relationships through active conversations

This is essential for building your client’s trust. So, how do you do this? Keep records of communication between potential and existing customers, understand what your client’s goals and wants are, and keep those in mind, keep your clients in the loop and up to date with any changes, communication is key and clients like to know what is going on and lastly follow up on every meeting an email follow up or just a phone call this will help build the relationships as well as help the communication. These small tips will ensure that there is no confusion or miscommunication on any projects/ deadlines or missed goals.

16 . Evaluate your social media marketing operations

Goals? Matrix? Get SMART about your core objectives, ensure that they are; specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and have a time frame, this will help keep you on track with your goals and objectives. Focus on having interactive content when creating a post, social media is a form of socializing the more interactive your content the better. And lastly, Set priorities for your list of tasks

17 . Check social media post captions

Are they compelling? Are they relatable? – When it comes to social media captions the copy needs: an engaging hook that will draw in your audience, Emojis to bring your text to life and add a bit of fun, a CTA (call to action) this will encourage and help interaction, language that reflects your brand personality and lastly bitesize text and easy to read when scrolling through social media.

18 . Analyze keywords and related keywords for relevancy

This is a great way to help identify what your target audience is searching for and the keywords that they are using to search these things. After doing this analysis you will be left with the relevant terms and phrases for your SEO and you will get a better insight into your target audience.

19 . Analyze hashtags for relevancy

Identifying the relevant hashtags is essential when it comes to social monitoring and engagement. By ensuring this people searching for those specific keywords can easily find your post and might end up following your account. Hashtags aren’t some simple trend, hashtags help to increase engagement.

20 . Check above against competitors

It is always a good idea to see what your competitors are up to. While analyzing your competitors, you should know what you are looking for and why or how this will help your business. This is not about stealing your competitor’s ideas, but rather figuring out what their strengths and weakness are and finding out what your competitive advantage is. A few tips are: analyze your competitor’s SEO and social media strategy, find out your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses.

28th April 2022

Uncategorized

April Fools’ Day

1 Apr 2022 / Mar-Loes Mantoua

At The Right MIX we love April Fools’ Day and we are not the only ones. It has become an increasingly popular marketing opportunity for corporations to show their lighter side.

Check out our personal favourite April Fools’ Day ads from previous years below and let us know your favourite ad of 2022 after today 😉

Uncategorized

WHAT IS A CONTENT FUNNEL?

Top Content Funnel: Awareness

EXAMPLES

Middle Content Funnel: Consideration

EXAMPLES

Bottom Content Funnel: Conversion

EXAMPLES

And lastly Beyond Content Funnel: Retention

EXAMPLES

Stir up your digital marketing strategy!

1. Change up the format

2. Let’s get personal

3. Celebrate your customers

4. Evolve, baby, evolve!

5. Get a brand make-over

6. Finally, fresh eyes see more

Our Top 8 Podcasts for the Digital Marketer

1. The Digital Marketing Podcast

2. Social Pros

3. The Social Media Marketing Podcast

4. Everyone Hates Marketers

5. Casual Fridays

5. Casual Fridays

6. The CMO Podcast

7. Perpetual Traffic

8. Marketing Over Coffee

Free Online Tools We Love To Use

1. Canva

2. Giphy

3. Asana

4. Meta

5. Zoom

5. InShot

Hurray for Heuristics! UX Rules of thumb you can’t afford to ignore!

1. Polite & interesting

2. Common sense and match the real world

3. Don’t force your client / Give them autonomy over the process

4. Be forthcoming and don’t waste your visitor’s time

5. Visibility and confidence

UX Design Principles Check List

1. You don’t have too many features

2. You design for a specific use, for a specific audience

3. You apply an appropriate tone of voice

4. You make use of conventions

5. Your user understands how to use the controls and what happens next.

6. Your feedback is relevant, timely and easy to understand

Supporting the change makers

Print vs Digital Media

Pro digital:

Pro print:

10 practical steps to analyse SEO

Social media

April Fools’ Day