Marketing Guidelines for Safeture Partners
Guidelines exclusively produced for Safeture Partners.
Marketing Guidelines for Safeture Partners is a document filled with insights and practical tips on how you can conduct marketing activities with limited resources.
This guide will cover the following parts
Analogue vs digital marketing
Analogue marketing refers to conventional marketing actions that do not include any digital platforms.A few examples of analogue marketing channels are:
Broadcasting (TV, radio, etc.)
Print (magazines, newspapers, etc.)
Telephone (telemarketing, SMS marketing, cold calling)
Direct mail (postcards, catalogues, flyers)
Outdoor advertising like billboards (flyers, brochures, posters, etc.)
Meanwhile, digital marketing is all about using different online platforms to spread awareness about your business. It is about having a presence in various digital spaces. This involves for example social media platforms, emails, websites, search engines and so on. Here are examples of digital marketing channels to use:
Social media platforms
Emails
Websites
Search engine marketing
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Remember who your target audience is.
Consider whether your audience is inclined to consume analog or digital marketing. Perhaps your audience requires you to use both approaches!
Now that we’re done with the introduction, let’s move on to the fun stuff!
Communication plans
Gather all your marketing efforts in a communication plan. Its purpose is to compile information on how to effectively communicate with stakeholder’s. It often includes elements like:
Benefits of communication plans
Situation analysis
To create a good starting point for your marketing, it can be beneficial to evaluate your current situation. You can use classic methods such as SWOT- or PEST analysis to do this.
Communication goals & objectives
Set an overall goal for your marketing, explaining what you wish for it to achieve. Breaking down the goal into more granular objectives can make achieving it easier.
Key stakeholders
Define anyone or any group that may have an interest in your business. This can be internal stakeholders, for example the management, or it can be external, like clients, public opinion or investors.
Communication channels & methods
Decide on appropriate channels and methods for reaching your audience. This can be, for example, email, in-person meetings, or social media.
Tone of voice
This involves for example, choice of words, level of formality, or language adapted to the recipient’s prior knowledge of you and your business. A useful trick is to imagine a real person – his or her age, education level, background, etc. – and communicate as if you were talking to that person.
Create timetable
A communication plan often includes a timetable for when you will communicate different marketing activities. This creates structure, as well as increasing your chances of a continuous flow of marketing efforts.
One of the greatest benefits of developing a communication plan is that you can ensure consistency throughout your marketing efforts.
It will function as a support document when conducting marketing activities, thus improving the efficiency when performing the activities.
Defining the aforementioned elements in advance, will permeate all coming communication actions, which ultimately will increase your trustworthiness.
Writing content
Tips on how to write engaging content
Regardless of if you are writing for analogue or digital channels, you will have to produce content. What is important to remember when doing so, is to make it engaging for the reader.
Try to understand your customers – examples of this can be what are their most common pain points or how you can help them to succeed in their jobs. This will facilitate you in writing relatable content. Also, for each piece of content you produce, there are two questions you should ask yourself.
“Does this content fill a gap? Is the content relevant for the target audience?”
Food for thought when writing content
Know your audience
Key characteristics? What industry do they operate in? Stereotypical industry behavior? Channels they retrieve information from? Company size? Organizational structure? Most importantly, try to define your audience’s key problems. Asking and answering questions like these can guide you when writing content.
Use headlines and subheadings
Don’t underestimate this, there is power in using headlines in a structured way. It makes the content more reader friendly and search engines (like Google/Yahoo/Bing) can more easily interpret what is most important about your content. It will also make it easier for people to find your content online. We recommend you include focus keywords and write by the motto “The shorter, the better”.
Storytelling
Use storytelling as a method for writing your marketing content. This entails speaking to the audience’s emotions, making the content meaningful and convey first-hand experiences. Ultimately, it will unify and lead to a deeper connection with the audience.
Avoid fluff
Stay away from filling your content with fluff. Only include what is truly relevant for the audience and for the purpose of the content.
Content types
Emails
Newsletters
Industry articles
Blog posts
Podcasting
Webinars
Contest
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Basics of SEO
Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, refers to the process of optimizing content that you publish online to make you more findable and popular. The goal of SEO is twofold. One, to benefit the user search experience. Two, to rank as high as possible in the search engine results.
Create campaigns around initiatives. For example, create several posts about the same case study, and highlight different things from the case in the posts. Generally, the more you post the better, but quality over quantity of course.
Practical actions for basic SEO work
- Use relevant keywords in titles
- Write and use meta descriptions
- Headline structure (H1 for main heading, H2 for subheading, H3-H6 for even lower headings)
- Descriptive URL’s which includes keywords rather than random numbers
Social Media
Do I have to use all of them? No.
PLATFORM
TYPE
CHARACTERISTICS
Social networking
Social networking
Photo sharing
If you want to explore additional platforms, you can look into, for example, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, Tumblr and Reddit.
5 tips for enhancing your social media content
- Tagging: tag people or businesses to increase more entries to your post.
- Hashtags: hashtags work like keywords, add hashtags relevant to your post.
- Location: social media platforms can offer the chance to add a geographical location, which puts your posts even more into context.
- Co-sharing posts: some platforms allow you to co-share a post with another person or business. This can increase the reach of your content.
- Comment/likes/sharing: answer or react to people’s interactions with your post to build relationships. Show them you’re not just a “ghost”.
Images
Why images are crucial for your marketing
To increase attention to your content, images can and should be used as a strategic part of your content production. Images are usually the first thing one notices when looking at content and can complement and add value to your content. In fact, statistics indicate that content can perform more than 90% better if it has images.
How to choose the right images
Use images that have a clear association to the content. Ideally, images should fit the content theme, have a clear focus and in as high quality as possible. They should draw a person’s attention.
Practical image size guide
Use proper image size depending on what channel or platform it will be displayed in. Here are some recommendations on image sizes for different channels, specified in the image format “pixels”:
- Web Hero Image: 1280 x 720 px
- Web Banner: 250 x 250 px
- Logo (square): 100 x 100 px
- Social media icons: 32 x 32 px
- Social media images: 1200 x 627 px
If you want to include your images in your SEO work, it can also be a good idea to work with the image information. That is, to form descriptive image file names.
Copyright & image libraries
Note: images are automatically subjects of copyright, meaning the person or business that created a certain image holds its exclusive rights to copy or reproduce it. Therefore, you cannot legally use images you find on the internet however you want. Here are some online image libraries you could use, either free or for a small payment.
- Getty images
- Pixabay
- Pexels
- Unsplash
Call to actions (CTA)
What is it? Why should I use it?
A call to action, also known as CTA, is a marketing term referring to the next step you want your customer to take. You want to use CTAs to ensure that your customers are taking actions after reading your content.
Using CTAs is a way for you to steer customers in the direction you want them to go in their customer journey, for example to watch a demo video or registering to your newsletters. CTAs are usually displayed as buttons or hyperlinks.
Examples of CTAs
- Learn more
- Buchen Sie eine Demo
- Subscribe to our newsletter
- Follow us on LinkedIn
- Hurry! The offer expires in 2 days!
- Try for free
- Herunterladen
- Sign up
- Get started
Marketing Campaigns
What does a marketing campaign entail?
A marketing campaign is about managing a set of interconnected activities, step by step. Set a clear goal, for example brand awareness, to create a red thread through the various activities of the campaign. Remember that marketing campaigns are cyclical work, meaning that you should continuously work on creating and implementing campaigns.
6 simple steps to create a marketing campaign
Set marketing objectives and a key message
For example: a) attract 50 new leads b) increase web traffic with 15% c) improve average ranking on Google
Brainstorm campaign approaches
Build a campaign around, for example, a) Video snippets b) contest c) quizzes
Select channel appropriate for your audience
For example: a) emails b) social media c) print
Develop your offer and associated CTA
Examples of offerings: a) free trial period b) Access to an e-book c) product discount
Create budget
Do you need to allocate monetary resources to social media for paid ads? Photography fees? Print material?
Track your campaign
Do this by, for example, a) collect social media reports b) follow email submissions/responses c) Gather the data in an excel or similar, to follow up on what works and not.
Public relations (PR)
What should I use public relations for?
Most businesses dream of the news media (for free) writing long (positive) articles about how great their business is. Such an article is worth much more than paid campaigns. But of course, it’s not easy to get a journalist to spend their time on your particular business.
The first mistake is often forgetting that the recipient of a press release is actually a journalist, not a prospective client or possible partner. The content must therefore be written in such a way as to interest the journalist; the sale comes later. Every newsroom receives perhaps hundreds of press releases every day, all of which look pretty much the same. Dare to stand out and tailor your message to the recipient, preferably geographically.
If you use a service to send press releases, it is important to follow up on the results. It’s not enough to send your PR message to 1,000 editors, what matters is how many publish it. Also distinguish between automatic publication, where everything in the release is published immediately and read by very few, and edited press releases where the journalist has rewritten. These always get a much better ranking.
Before you start: What is the purpose of the PR?
Decide why you should do PR. Is it to interest new or existing customers in a product, build your brand, form opinions on a particular issue or attract potential employees?
Strengths and weaknesses
Analyze your strengths and opportunities, such as having a skilled spokesperson or a high level of public interest in your issues. Also, identify weaknesses and risks, such as having limited resources or a poor reputation with journalists.
Audiences
Identify your target audiences and find out more about their prior knowledge, attitudes, and media consumption.
Social issues
Are there social issues to which you can link your core activities? Identify the problem and show how you yourself contribute to the solution.
Message
Decide on a central message that should be a common thread in all your communications. Break down the main message into a few concrete sub-messages.
Channels
Based on your target audiences, decide which are the best channels to get your message across. Follow your primary media closely to learn what material, what kind of news, and what language is most appropriate.
Spokespeople
Identify a spokesperson you want to profile by quoting them in press releases. The spokesperson should want to make contact with journalists a priority. You may also wish to introduce one or more experts whom the media can contact.
PR targets
Set concrete and measurable objectives that you monitor regularly. This applies to the impact of traditional media and key figures for your digital channels. Use the monitoring to change and improve your PR work continuously.
Business objectives
Describe what business objectives you want your PR objectives to contribute to. Usually, business objectives are about financial results, but they can also be about, for example, increasing customer satisfaction or employee satisfaction.
Calendar
Draw up a calendar of all your PR activities. Identify what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and who is responsible. Use the calendar as a planning tool and update it regularly.
Ten tips for writing press releases
The press release summarizes your news in a short format, which is also useful when you have to offer the news exclusively. A good press release contains both a sharp news angle and the company’s message.
The headline is the most important
Develop an interesting headline that summarizes the news in one line.
Summarize first
Write a 3–4-line preamble that includes the company name and summarizes the news. The headline and preamble should be directly copyable by the editorial team who wants to make a news item.
Comment on the news
Write a short quote immediately after the preamble commenting on the news, drawing conclusions, and giving your opinion. In this quote, the spokesperson should be introduced by title and company.
Provide facts in the body of the text
Allow one or two short pieces of bridging text to complement and expand on the content of the preamble. The source text should be neutral enough for journalists to lift it straight into their text.
Deliver the message
In the second quote at the latest, highlight one of your key messages. Use quotes for subjective interpretations and messages, not for additional facts or figures.
Finish with the background
Put background information and a possible methodology description at the end of the news story. Journalists like to have the most important things first, and editorial text is generally shortened from the bottom up.
Offer bonus material
Be generous with bonus material in the form of infographics, tip lists, and fact sheets. If the material does not consist of links to the website or press room, you can put it at the end of the press release, after the contact details. When adding images, use neutral images, not selling ones.
Insert contact details
Include the name, title, mobile number, and email address of the contact person and spokesperson. Make sure that both are available when the press release is sent out.
Introduce the company in a ”boiler plate”
Conclude the press release with a short, factual presentation of the company's activities. The description should be standard, neutral text that is useful for journalists.
Quality-check the text
Go through the entire press release, paragraph by paragraph, several times. Ensure a good flow of language, delete all unnecessary words, and make sure the text is no longer than one A4 page.
Tracking your results
Why is it important to track results?
Measuring the progress of your marketing and content activities can shed light on valuable insights. It is a great way to learn what activities and content are doing well, and areas that needs improvement.
Measuring your progress can lead to insights regarding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). For instance, customer acquisition costs, leads, customer satisfaction, traffic on your social media platforms or website, etc.
Tracking tools
- Social media platforms often have built-in solutions for statistics that are free to use.
- See if there are any tracking plugins to the program your website is built on.
Marketing activities with Safeture
Possibilities
- General basic marketing support
- Co-branded material, for example, videos, flyers, cases, etc.
- Collaborate on writing copy together, for example, case studies.
- Give feedback on your content production and website.
- Events
How to send requests to Safeture & what the request needs to contain
You have the possibility to send requests to the marketing team at Safeture. We discuss each incoming request to determine if we have the resources, capacity, and competence to assist you with it.
Note: remember to clearly define your request and set the scope of the request. It will benefit both yourself, and Safeture’s marketing team in processing requests.
- Define content type (e.g., case study/video/social media post/etc.)
- Define topic + scope
- Raise questions you may have
- Time frame
- Send an email to: marketing@safeture.com with “Marketing Request” as the subject line.
Tips on tools you can use to get your marketing started
TOOL
WHAT IT DOES
PRICE/MONTH
LINK
https://www.canva.com/en/
Trade shows
Depending on your organization and your target audience, participating in, and exhibiting at trade shows could be an effective way of meeting your potential clients and talking to them directly.
Trade shows come in all sizes and formats, usually, the bigger the event the more expensive it is to exhibit. Find your niche and research a fitting trade show. Some examples of trade shows Safeture regularly visits and exhibit at are:
