Alphabet Blog

The pressure to churn out an endless amount of social media content can take its toll on a small business.

It can feel impossible to keep up with the demands for fresh new images, reels, carousels and more on a weekly basis. Not to mention, the costs that need to be taken into account when you need a supply of new brand images every few months.

The solution? Make your images work harder for you and turn them into something completely NEW with a few quick Canva tricks.

This one I particularly love and recently shared on our members' coaching call.

Watch the brief demo where I show you how to take a regular product photo and create a scroll-stopping design with the few clicks of your mouse.

Click on the video to watch now:

PRO TIP: You'll need a Canva Pro account to use the cut-out feature. Honestly? It's one of the best investments I've made in my business! Worth every cent.

PS - this blog contains affiliate links but I'll only ever recommend something I KNOW is worth the...

How is your organic social media engagement looking lately? If it resembles anything like rollercoaster or landslide, you're not alone.

If you rely on Instagram to market your businesses, the reality is that you are at the mercy of the algorithm. Especially if you're not investing in paid ads.

If you want more potential customers to see your content, you're going need to signal to the algorithm that it's YOUR content your followers want to see.

How on earth do you do that? 

By creating content people engage with in the form of: 

Likes

Comments

Shares and Saves

Messages etc.

Do you know what also counts as engagement? Interacting with Instagram Story Stickers!

These are some of the most underutilised but best features for driving new engagement on your account.

They're also a gold mine for finding out more about your audience, and them about you!

ENGAGEMENT DRIVING STORY STICKERS INCLUDE:

QUIZ STICKERS

Instagram’s Quiz Stickers allow you to ask questions...

It all started on Sunday when I noticed the Instagram app crashed every time I opened it.

Then, on Monday, I opened the app and was greeted with this panic-inducing message:

I was then prompted to put in my email address to receive a 6-digit code and then another notification asking for my phone number to receive another 6-digit code to log in to my account.

I did both those things (stupidly, in hindsight) and then was greeted with just a blank screen and the panic that my account had just been hijacked by hackers (even though I have two-factor authentication turned on).

My colleague searched my account and it couldn't be found. *poof* GONE!

Like many, I rely heavily on Instagram to market my business and the thought that 7 years of hard work had just *vanished* was terrifying.

Fortunately, within a few hours my account was back as Instagram rectified the situation. But I was also seeing reports of people losing followers by the bucketload.

*WHAT WAS HAPPENING?!*

I don't know...

Is it that time of the year already?

Black Friday is less than a month away and, for many businesses, it is a date that is usually carved into the marketing calendar a year in advance. Brands often use it as a way to offload excess stock and seek out cash-strapped consumers who are hungry for deals.

But sentiments are changing and the trend towards promoting conscious consumerism is on the rise.

Choosing to do Black Friday more ethically is a great way to build your brand’s reputation and prove that you can Stand Out Without Selling Out.

So, as a small business that is needing to grow sales at this time of year, what alternatives exist if you don’t believe in the mass consumerism of Black Friday?

Let’s take a step back from the consumerist nature of Black Friday and dive into 5 sustainable, purpose-driven alternatives:

1. Showcase Your Values

If you don’t agree with what Black Friday stands for, then create a campaign to educate your audience about the...

If you use email marketing to communicate with customers then you probably have a list of subscribers and use an email platform such MailChimp, ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo. 

And if you are prioritising email marketing, then you may even have a list growth strategy in place. 

But when last did you focus on REDUCING the size of your list to improve your email marketing? 

Say what?!  Here's why... 

It's important to keep a high-quality, engaged email list.

If a large % of people don't open or read your emails, email service providers could categorise your emails as junk mail, even for those who actually want to open your emails. 

To maintain a strong email open rate (30% or more), you need to clear the dead wood from your email list regularly. 

How do you do this? 

 1. Use the filter tool in your chosen email marketing platform to filter out the inactive subscribers (people who haven't...

It's been a few weeks since I've sent my weekly mailer and a lot has happened - this month is flying by! 

I recently travelled to the UK for work and down time with friends and family. 

London is where I started my career in marketing, so it has a special place in my heart and never ceases to inspire me. 

The hustle, the sights, the sounds, the anonymity of walking around huge city of 8 million people where you barely know a soul... and just a change of scenery is so energising. 

I walked about 20km each day just soaking up the sights, revisiting favourite spots and discovering new gems too. 

As a marketer, I'm always on the hunt for fresh inspiration, trends and ideas and this trip was no different! It delivered that in spades.

Scroll down for 3 key trends I spotted when on my travels: 

TREND 1. Automation is everywhere!

From Amazon Fresh to Zara self-checkout, whether we like it or not, humans are being...

We often hear social media gurus saying we need to create content our audience “finds valuable” in order to get engagement and grow. 

That’s all well and good, but the difficulty is figuring out WHAT to post! There’s nothing worse than having to schedule content for the week and then you have no cooking clue what to talk about. Right?! 

Well, today I want to show you my fool-proof method to find the hottest topics related to your niche or industry that your ideal customer is actively searching for and asking for. GOLD! 

Then you can go forth and confidently create content because you KNOW this is what your audience actually wants to see. 

So what are these gems, you ask? 

Google Trends 

This website is amazing for uncovering what people are searching for as it relates to your industry. You can plug in a term and Google will show you search trends related to that term, broken down by region, timeframe, category and search...

I often get asked whether it’s important to still include hashtags in your content… 

What type of hashtags should you use in your posts? 

Do they help or are they a waste of time? 

The short answer is YES! You should still be using hashtags.   

Why? 

Because hashtags help your content be discovered by NEW people who aren’t following you and so help to increase your brand’s reach and awareness. 

Even ONE new person per post is a GOOD thing right? 

Ok, hashtags are probably not going to shoot the lights out in terms of getting you lots more engagement of followers but the way I see it? 

Every little bit helps and it’s better to include them than to not use them at all. 

Ok, so how do you know if your hashtags are actually working? 

Easy! On Instagram, you can click on “View Insights” below your post and scroll down to see how many impressions you got from the hashtags you used. Like...

Today I want to touch on something I know many are struggling with currently. That is, getting engagement and being ‘seen’ on Instagram. It’s getting TOUGH out there, right? 

It is a topic that came up in our recent coaching mastermind session and I know it’s a source of frustration for many small businesses. 

There’s nothing worse than spending an hour perfecting a reel and then you post it and… *crickets*! Ugh. 

But the good news is, there’s always a solution!! 

So today, I thought I would share WHY this may be happening to you and WHAT to do about it if you’re experiencing this. 

But first, it’s important to note that the algorithm doesn’t ‘punish’ you. 

To put it simply, Instagram makes money from our attention by selling advertising targeting its users. 

Like it or not, the more time we spend on Instagram, the more money they make. 

If we create content that users...

In the age of social media, brands require a continuous stream of content in order to remain fresh and relevant.

But there’s nothing worse than investing a lot of money in a photoshoot, only to receive the photos and then not be able to use any of them in your marketing! 

So what’s the secret to maximum return for your money? 

PLAN AHEAD! 

It’s an important investment of both our time and money AND reflects our brand so it’s important that we maximize the opportunity with a well laid out plan before the shoot even begins. 

I recently did a LONG overdue photo shoot to update my image library and here’s what I did to plan ahead. I thought I’d share it with you in case you are planning a shoot in the near future: 

• FIRST, list all the types shots you need and how they’ll be used 

This is the most important step. Provide as much detail as possible. 

For example, if you need a website hero image with white...