customer communications Archives - Cool Blue Interiors

September 24, 2020

Building an audience for an online event

Making the most of your social channels.

Social media can give you fast access to a wide audience. Honing, targeting and investing in high quality content is the trick to see real results. Think attention-grabbing video, eye-catching photography and unmissable graphics.

LinkedIn can be a highly effective tool for profile raising, whether that’s through ads, groups or publishing teaser content on the company’s page.

Paid ads on social media channels will help you target the right people. If you’re looking to attract a particular age group, geographical region or those with specific interests, for example, LinkedIn and Facebook in particular give you the tools to do so.

Social channels are also the ideal place to build anticipation ahead of an event. You can drip feed content – perhaps short insights from the speakers to whet audience appetites or a first look at the guestlist to entice eager networks.

Promoted posts can help to boost interest at key moments in the run up to your event, such as speaker bookings or programme reveals.

Think email

Email marketing can be a powerful tool in your pre-event promotional toolbox. Use it sparingly to deliver key selling points via content that’s tailored to your audience. Give people something useful that steals and then holds their attention. For example, that can be sales hacks from one of your speakers or a 30 sec tutorial from an expert guest.

A website that works hard

In the virtual world, you can live or die by the quality of your website.

This is where your audience can access information, acting as your shop window. Whether it’s eye-catching graphics, engaging clips of speakers or professional photography there are a number of ways to make your site stand out – all of which keeps people from wandering away from your page and losing you a potential sign-up.

And remember to make it mobile responsive. Last year more than 52% of worldwide mobile traffic was via smartphones.

Make all the key information – time, date, lineup etc – immediately visible. Your website should be the one-stop shop for potential attendees. You don’t want them drifting off elsewhere out of frustration.

Put a sign up link as a rolling banner across the site, so that users are constantly encouraged to register.

It’s also important to think about search engine optimisation (SEO) – that’s how visible your website is to online audiences. Using a keyword planning tool like Google Ads can help you discover what words people are searching for most so you can use them in the content on your site – ranking your event page higher with search engines.

Website Design

Ready to roll?

Although we will be missing the friendly, face-to-face element of events for the foreseeable future, there’s no reason you can’t make the most of online events for your business, boosting your overall marketing reach in the process.

We’ve helped a number of clients make the shift to online events and marketing. Contact us today to find out more.

Published by Cool Blue Interiors in Uncategorized

Tags: brand communications, brand experience, customer communications, events, social media, virtual

July 10, 2020

How has lockdown shaped upcoming trends?

As the epicentre of our lockdown, our homes have naturally felt the force of these changes more quickly than other areas of lives and it’s already clear to see that what we need and want for these spaces has shifted.

home working

From our perspective there are three big factors that will shape upcoming interior trends:

1. Working from home

Firstly, working from home is here to stay. In the short term, many of us are still working remotely due to Covid-related restrictions but looking to the future, it’s likely that many companies and employees will choose to implement a more flexible type of working.

It goes without saying that home offices are trending and will be for some time, but drill down into this a little bit further and we can pull out what this actually means for our homes.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a dedicated space that can be used as a home office so our existing living spaces are going to need to become multifunctional. This means furniture that can bridge the gap between living and working, providing practical solutions that look good too. For example, there’s a gap in the market for stylish office chairs that will fit seamlessly into a home environment, but still offer ergonomic support.

In the longer term we’re likely to see people moving further away from cities in search of more space and this will come with a whole new set of considerations for brands and retailers too.

interiors

2. Online channels are leading the way

The second big thing that’s influencing upcoming trends is the fact that we’re spending even more time online and this is where we’re gathering most of our inspiration about furniture and styling.

A quick glance at a recent Google trends report reads like an Instagram feed, with line drawings, house plants, mosaic tiles and dried flowers among the most searched for interior trends between March and June this year.

Trends are being formed by influencers and audiences are buying into them with more confidence than ever before.

sustainable

3. Is it sustainable?

Last, but by no means least, the lockdown has forced us to think about sustainability in a number of different ways. Not only in terms of the environmental impact of our purchases, but in terms of our local communities and national economy too.

We’ve reconnected with the businesses on our doorsteps but we’ve also seen how quickly they can fail. As a result, the power that we have as consumers is evident and this will undoubtedly shape where we spend our money.

We are now all the more likely to seek out brands in which we can trust, which have a history of ‘doing the right thing’ and that are transparent about their practices and the provenance of the materials and labour that goes into their products. In other words, there are economic, social and ethical dimensions to sustainability, which is a big leap forward from where we were only six months ago when the word ‘sustainability’ was easy to say and hard to think about. Today, that conversation and thought process has accelerated to something like warp-speed.

Get in touch with us on 0191 375 9150 to find out how we can work with you.

Published by Cool Blue Interiors in Uncategorized

Tags: brand communications, brand experience, customer communications, furniture retail, retail, sustainability

May 13, 2020

The Power of Pinterest

Why brands need to get up to speed with this undervalued social media platform

With almost 300 million active users worldwide, Pinterest usage is at an all-time high and any brand with an online presence should be paying attention to this.

With consumers stuck at home, many are whiling away the hours scrolling through inspirational and aesthetically pleasing content on their phones, meaning Pinterest has really come into its own.

Figures from IPA Bellwether show that the coronavirus pandemic has led to UK marketing budgets experiencing their biggest reduction since the 2009 crash. But it’s important that brands don’t shy away from marketing, especially since evidence points to the fact that consumers are still willing to spend. A survey by global ecommerce solutions provider, PFS found that 65% of consumers had purchased more products since the lockdown began.

The trick is to use budgets wisely by focusing on areas where there is the greatest chance of engagement.

If more people than ever before are turning to Pinterest, brands should be adjusting their strategy to mirror this move, where relevant and possible.

Pinterest vs Instagram

Alongside the meteoric growth of Instagram, the global reach of Facebook and the rise of millennial favourites such as Snapchat and Tiktok, Pinterest often gets forgotten, but it has a very valuable role to play.

Consumers frequently turn to Pinterest early in their purchase journey, and they’re often looking for something specific. Unlike Instagram, Pinterest is essentially a search tool, which gives the platform huge potential.

Pinterest has been slow to utilise this potential – both in terms of sales functionality and analytics, but momentum is starting to build and the number of users now engaging with shopping on Pinterest has grown 44% YOY.

Last month Pinterest added a new ‘Shop’ tab, which allows users to filter boards and search results to show options that are not only available to buy, but in stock too. If a user is ready to complete a purchase, Pinterest just made this journey a whole lot easier.

Build for the future

Even if you’re a brand that’s not offering delivery or in-store purchases right now, there’s still a strong argument for building your profile on this platform, ready for when the lockdown starts to ease. This is especially the case if you’re selling furniture, kitchens or bathrooms - big ticket items that require your customers to be inspired and guided on their purchase journey.

Whilst at home consumers will be planning longer-term updates and larger renovations and you can bet that they’ll turn to Pinterest for inspiration. You want your brand’s content to be on those boards and to ensure that each pin is linking straight to your website, so when everything is back up and running the user’s journey to your door is as frictionless as possible.

We’re experts in connecting your brand to new customers. Get in touch with us on 0203 751 0802 to find out how we can help you.

Published by Cool Blue Interiors in Uncategorized

Tags: coronavirus, customer communications, furniture retail, inspiration, interiors, lockdown, pinterest