Graham Carroll

61 Merrion Square South, 
Dublin 2, D02 EW25, Ireland

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When demand slows, many digital leaders instinctively increase or tighten marketing spend, or ramp up activity. While this may be necessary, it&#8217;s important to look at your particular situation carefully before making radical changes to your strategy.
Market conditions are very different to those we all operated in 12 months ago.
Yet despite global uncertainty, the Irish economy is expected to grow by 3.8% in 2023 and 3.9% in 2024.
On the back of a 20% increase in digital advertising spend in 2021, digital channels (video, display) represented almost 70% of all Irish digital advertising spend in 2022, so our view remains positive.
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Consumer behaviour changes faster than businesses can keep up. If you need to make a change to your marketing strategy, before you do something mental, you should consider some of these questions:
<ul>
<li>Are there assumptions behind your offering to customers that should be adjusted or validated?</li>
<li>Do you have an up-to-date understanding of customer intent?</li>
<li>Are there gaps or new opportunities that you could take advantage of?</li>
<li>Are there actions that you could take in the short term to improve conversion?</li>
</ul>
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<h5>&#8220;Just because economic winds may be uncertain, it does not mean you cannot grow business.&#8221;</h5>
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<h3>Where should you focus?</h3>
Your focus will depend on what you sell and the markets you operate in, but the first step is to benchmark and assess your current situation.
Here are three areas I recommend looking at:
<h4>Your Customers</h4>
What is it in your toolbox that you do best and gives you a competitive advantage?
If you understand who your best customers are and their needs, you can focus this advantage on them to increase their loyalty to retain and grow their business.
Tip: Try usability testing on your website or app. Simple surveys with intelligent questions focussed on customer needs. You will always learn something new that you can use to improve your strategy. 
<h4>Data</h4>
Adopt a data-driven mindset, and actively work with quantitative and qualitative behavioural data about your customers and audiences. When you do this, you can test and adjust the approach to your user experience and content.
Tip: Universal Google Analytics will stop tracking data on 1 July 2023. You should install and configure the new Google Analytics 4 now on all of your digital platforms.
<h4>Marketing</h4>
Focus on your highest-value acquisition channels.
Some marketing channels will have a higher return, and when you focus here and improve your conversion rate it will have a compounding effect on your numbers.
You should at all times have a clear picture of the impact all your marketing efforts have on your performance. We call this simply ‘money in, money out’. Know where spend is having the greatest impact and why.
Tip: ChatGPT is exciting but it is unlikely to ever create content suitable for SEO.
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<div id="attachment_14333" style="width: 984px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14333" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-14333" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-250x151.jpg" alt="Look at the data" width="974" height="588" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-250x151.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-700x422.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-768x463.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-120x72.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 974px) 100vw, 974px" />&#8220;What if, and I know this sounds a bit kooky, we looked closer at our data?!&#8221;</div>
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There are two activities I recommend that will help to focus and optimise your digital strategy for growth:
<ul>
<li>Digital Benchmark 
Benchmark reporting is one of our most powerful tools. It uses a combination of audience research, deep-dive analytics and competitor analysis to give a clear data-driven view of where you sit amongst your competitors in terms of visibility, market position, social and content. You will understand areas to improve, new opportunities to target and the places you should focus on to retain and grow business.</li>
<li>User Experience Audit 
A UX audit or review of your website or app will identify performance, conversion and technical issues. It will uncover issues that can be addressed in the short and medium term. By making small adjustments we have seen conversion rate increases of up to 40%.</li>
</ul>
<h3> 
The Friday Method</h3>
It should be obvious, but as an agency, we follow the advice we share, particularly when it comes to understanding our customers’ needs.
Of course, they want to see we have the skills, experience, and creativity to deliver growth. And our rare ability to deliver results across demand generation to user experience and conversion gives our customers a distinct advantage.
But more than this, we have learned that on a human level, our own customers also want to be understood, to be supported, and to get a level of service that shows we are invested and committed to their success.
So, just because economic winds may be uncertain, with some smarter focus on your customers, you can maximise your growth.
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Thanks for reading.
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Sources:
<ul>
<li>The <a href="https://www.esri.ie/publications/quarterly-economic-commentary-spring-2023">ESRI Quarterly Economic Commentary</a>, March 29th 2023.</li>
<li><a href="https://iapi.ie/blog/default/magna-advertising-forecasts-december-2022-update">Magna Advertising Forecast (IAPI)</a>, December 2022.</li>
</ul>
Also, McKinsey&#8217;s <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-ten-rules-of-growth">The 10 Rules on Growth</a> is very good. August 2022 (read or listen).
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Maximising Growth in Uncertain Times

Friday Agency is an award-winning digital agency based in the heart of Dublin city centre. Whether we’re deploying digital strategies, designing powerful web &amp; mobile experiences, or creating engaging brand campaigns – we transform organisations using digital.
We’re looking for a Digital Marketing Specialist to join our team. Someone who loves digital and is bursting with potential.
The successful candidate will have solid experience in executing search and social media campaigns and will have a solid grasp of analytics and reporting.
You’ll be working closely with our Client Services, Digital, and Creative teams to execute, manage and analyze digital campaigns for some of Ireland’s leading brands and businesses. The role will also combine some account management duties.
Brands we work with include Fyffes, Urbana, and Digit Gaming. Attractions like Dublin Zoo and online merchants such as Baby Elegance, Folláin, and Juvi Designs.
<h3>Key Skills &amp; Responsibilities</h3>
<ul>
<li>Minimum 2 years of professional experience working in a hands-on digital marketing role is required.</li>
<li>Implement digital marketing campaigns for agency clients involving a mix of digital channels including Search, Content, Social, and Email.</li>
<li>You have experience building and managing PPC campaigns in Google Ads (and currently, Google Ads certified).</li>
<li>You have experience creating and publishing content on social channels, in particular, Facebook and Instagram.</li>
<li>Work with agency management to align digital marketing activities with projects such as websites and apps, and work closely with our team of talented designers, UX specialists &amp; developers.</li>
<li>Report targets for awareness, engagement, and conversion for client organisations using digital platforms.</li>
<li>You will have experience in SEO, content writing, and link building.</li>
<li>Utilise various analytics tools to acquire insights, monitor competitors, and report campaign results including Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, Search Console, and SEM Rush.</li>
<li>Implement market research activities/processes both internally and externally and report results to agency directors.</li>
<li>Engage clients directly &amp; give outstanding customer service in line with Friday’s values.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Organisational Skills</h3>
<ul>
<li>Self-motivated, you’re comfortable working independently and as part of a team. You thrive in a fast-paced, multi-task environment and maintain excellent relationships with both clients and partners.</li>
<li>Take responsibility for tasks, projects, and priorities to ensure they are delivered on time and to a high standard.</li>
<li>You can solve problems by applying user-centred thinking and logic.</li>
<li>Brilliant time management and task organisational skills.</li>
<li>Strong interpersonal and communication skills.</li>
<li>Adept at budget management.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Desirable Skills</h3>
<ul>
<li>Experience in planning and executing a digital strategy.</li>
<li>Experience creating and executing Content Calendars for social.</li>
<li>Experience of working in a fast-paced start-up culture, preferably agency side.</li>
<li>Possess a 3rd Level marketing or digital marketing qualification.</li>
<li>Knowledge of web technologies – basic knowledge of HTML and CSS would be a plus.</li>
<li>Experience using Facebook Ad Manager to manage social marketing campaigns.</li>
<li>Experience of WordPress CMS.</li>
<li>Company promotion: Experience writing content, particularly content such as blog posts, press releases as well as day-to-day social activity on Twitter and Facebook.</li>
<li>Knowledge of user experience design and UX design process.</li>
<li>Knowledge of marketing attribution and how to implement it.</li>
<li>Be abreast of and contribute to digital marketing trends.</li>
<li>Having fun and an appreciation for good food.</li>
</ul>
Friday is building one of the most talented digital teams in the country. To achieve our goals we want to hire the best.
Permanent Role 
Salary: Negotiable 
Minimum industry Experience: 2 years. 
Our Benefits include:
<ul>
<li>Competitive salary</li>
<li>Flexible Hybrid working</li>
<li>The opportunity to work on exciting projects for a range of different businesses and brands</li>
<li>You will have great training and development</li>
<li>Generous holidays and mobile phone plans</li>
<li>A fun and collaborative working environment</li>
<li>Bike to work and travel TaxSaver</li>
</ul>
If this is you, please say hello and email your CV to <a href="mailto:careers@friday.ie">careers@friday.ie</a>.
(Strictly no agencies. Please and thank you).

Digital Marketing Specialist role at Friday Agency

Have you ever longed to share a romantic cocktail with Leo Varadkar or Mary Lou? Let’s face it, we all have. Well now’s your chance to turn these fantasies into reality.
Re-introducing <a href="https://www.tder.ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TDer</a> – the website that lets you get up close and personal with the gorgeous men and women of Dail Eireann. Created in 2016 and improved and updated for 2020. With all the serious talk about policies and coalition, we wanted to put out a piece on the election and have a bit of a laugh at the same time by marrying it with online dating. Jokes aside, please do exercise your vote on Saturday the 8th.<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-10680 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tder2-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1443" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tder2-scaled.jpg 2048w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tder2-250x176.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tder2-700x493.jpg 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tder2-768x541.jpg 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tder2-1536x1082.jpg 1536w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tder2-120x85.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tder2-80x56.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" />

Introducing TDer for #GE2020

Trust is critical to creating a positive user or customer experience, particularly on digital channels. But it takes trust to create trust — and that’s not always easy…
The level of trust we hold in society, in general, is always changing. There’s been a collapse of trust in many places — governments, the media, fake news, advertising, Brexit, etc.
Edelman has just published their 2019 <a href="https://www.edelman.com/trust/trust-barometer">Trust Barometer</a>, and it reveals some pretty interesting data in that people’s trust has shifted most notably towards their employers.
Here’s a stat for you to chew on from the report:
<blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“Globally, 75% of people trust “my employer” to do what is right — significantly more than NGOs (57%), business (56%) and media (47%)”</blockquote>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-8797 size-full" title="trust barometer" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ezgif.com-resize.gif" alt="trust barometer" width="738" height="417" /> 
There&#8217;s a 16-point gap between the more trusting &#8216;Informed Public&#8217; and the far-more-sceptical Mass Population, marking a return to record highs of trust differences.
<figure class="graf graf--figure"></figure>
<h3 class="graf graf--p"> Building Trust with your Customers</h3>
So how does this relate to creating trust with our customers?
In business, there’s been a rebalancing of the relationship between organisations and their customers for some time. Customers now hold knowledge and power in their hands — simply by what they say about their experience of your product, and we see this play out in real time on review sites and social media posts.
We say here that ‘your customer&#8217;s goals should be your goals’. Think about that for a moment&#8230; if your commercial objectives don’t take account of your customer’s needs then you’ve got a problem.
<blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“It takes Trust to establish Trust”</blockquote>
High on the list of trusted sources is the good old word-of-mouth referral. By focussing more of your attention on existing customers and users, there is an opportunity for them to become your advocates &#8211; doing this will, in turn, add more power to your marketing.
How do we re-establish that trust? What are the things that allow us to measure trust?
In the digital world, here are some of the things that count most:
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf graf--li">Promoting positive online reviews and testimonials.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Clear communication: show you’ve thought of the user, use language that you know resonates with them.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Your website: it should be fast, well designed, secure, and easy to find information.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Highlight the key People involved in the business.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Be consistent with your service and product design.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Open and transparent privacy — a good opportunity to earn trust.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Advertise your work and who you work with.</li>
</ul>
Of course, there’s nothing new here and we’ve been banging the drum on these things for some time.
Ease-of-use, speed, convenience, accuracy and honesty all play a part in creating a positive user experience. But we need to engage much more with the customer and look to improve their experience based on insights and regular feedback.
And therein lies the constant challenge for us as UX practitioners — making the case for the work and process that is necessary to find out what customers really want, and then asking our clients to trust in us to answer those needs.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Building Trust in the UX Process</h3>
As UX designers, our job is to create trust with your customers.
We do this by finding out what they actually want; using research, data analytics, sample surveys and focus groups. (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/importance-of-ux-research/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/blog/importance-of-ux-research/">Read Dave’s post on why research is so important</a>).
The hard part is convincing our own customers and clients first. For example, we are often invited to closed tenders that don&#8217;t include scope for research, or we are pitching for projects where we’re asked for creative without having access to an audience or user information.
Too often businesses make sweeping assumptions on what their customers really want, and this is largely led by commercial objectives and exec level opinions. But in reality, it’s almost impossible to effectively connect with your customers when you don’t actually fully understand what their needs are.
Our answer to overcoming these challenges lies in us providing education and fact-based evidence to challenge our customers, and then work to get that buy-in (trust) from their stakeholders.
Building trust takes effort — creating a good user experience isn’t just about boosting sales and winning design awards. It’s about building a real relationship with your customers where you deliver value that will endure beyond what you simply say, or whatever channels and platforms you build.
Maintaining trust demands a commitment from businesses to keep earning it from their customers across all touch points.
So for our clients, it’s our responsibility to educate them on the advantage of good UX, and the evidence and process they need to trust and engage in. Watch what happens when you build a customer-centric approach into your strategy.
It takes trust to create trust.
Thanks for reading.
I’ll be talking more about trust and UX at the 3XE User Experience Design Thinking conference in Dublin on May 16th 2019. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://3xedigital.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://3xedigital.com/">Check it out here</a>. 
You can download the Edelman 2019 Trust Barometer directly <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer">here</a> (very interesting geopolitical metrics).

Building Trust into the Customer Experience

<h3>Consent, Compliance &amp; the GDPR. What&#8217;s going on?</h3>
With the GDPR&#8217;s arrival, there was still plenty of confusion out there about marketing consent and handling customer data.
And with the recent scandals at Facebook and Independent Newspapers, businesses and marketers are even more freaked that they&#8217;ll have their pants pulled down for non-compliance. Or worse, a hefty fine.
I met with MB Donnelly, Head of GDPR Awareness &amp; Training with the Data Protection Commissioner (Ireland) to help get clarity, and give some of our own guidance around consent.
<h3>Confused.com?</h3>
At Friday there is one question we were being asked all the time: &#8220;What&#8217;s going on &#8211; are we compliant for GDPR?&#8221;
That was usually followed by &#8220;can you help us get compliant?&#8221; and finally; &#8220;I hear we&#8217;ll need to get opt-in consent for all of our mailing lists.&#8221;
So there&#8217;s plenty of confusion. And with some experts directing marketers to seek consent or throw up crazy opt-in pop-ups, that confusion is natural and understandable.
<blockquote>
&#8220;If you&#8217;re not following existing regulation you are breaking the law now, so you don&#8217;t need to wait until May 25th to panic.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The GDPR is not just about consent, granted, but consent and how to handle it is the area where we see the most misinformation.
In short, what GDPR relates to is a set of rules for organisations on how they collect, use and store personal data. Organisations must now be fully transparent about how they are using and safeguarding personal data and must demonstrate accountability for their data processing activities, particularly for marketing communications.
Assuming that you are doing the above correctly at the moment, you only need to move from compliance with the 1988 and 2003 Data Protection (Ireland) acts, to GDPR compliance by updating your Privacy and Data Retention policies.
If not, you are already breaking the law now, and you don&#8217;t need to wait until May 25th to panic.
<h3>Some Clarity on GDPR</h3>
I met with MB Donnelly, the Head of GDPR Awareness &amp; Training with the Data Protection Commissioner Office in Ireland.
We&#8217;ve delivered a number of marketing and engagement campaigns for the Commissioner&#8217;s office over the past couple of years, particularly aimed at driving awareness on the GDPR in Ireland for individuals, and we knew she could help bring some clarity.
What&#8217;s the most popular question that you&#8217;re asked in relation to the GDPR and consent?
The question I am most asked is &#8220;Does the GDPR really apply to me?&#8221; The simple answer is that it does, for every business.
Personal data, and in particular &#8216;special category&#8217; &#8211; i.e. race, gender, medical records, sexual orientation &#8211; these require special obligations. And if you rely on consent, you need to be very careful that you have the correct obligations.
If there is one simple piece of advice you would give businesses on GDPR, what would that be?
Knowing your data. People need to know their own data and understand where it is stored and what it is used for.
Knowledge is not power, it&#8217;s actually a risk. Review your data, know what you keep and why, and be able to show proof of how you came to hold it. There is a handy downloadable checklist on the <a href="http://gdprandyou.ie/resources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GDPRandYou.ie</a> website.
When people hear words like &#8216;risk&#8217; and the penalties that can be imposed for non-compliance they take notice. But do you think that the GDPR initiative will ultimately have the impact it is designed for?
Absolutely I do. There are risks and penalties for non-compliance of course, but organisations should actually see the GDPR as a genuine opportunity.
We are living in a generation of digital (and now privacy) natives. Generally, today’s consumers are more informed about the risks of digital life and, where that trust has been hurt, we see a knock-on effect in terms of falling customer numbers.
So it is in every businesses&#8217; interest to demonstrate that they care about their customers&#8217; information and how it&#8217;s used.
Trust the thing that you&#8217;re building. And it&#8217;s those who are pushing the trust and demonstrating that they take consent and privacy seriously that will ultimately stand out.
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<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mCpUS-wpxAk" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
A video we produced as part of our GDPR Awareness Campaign.
<h3>Audit your Data</h3>
A big part of the drama is that many marketers don&#8217;t have the information needed to make a call on the correct (and compliant) reasons for having and processing customer data.
Getting to that point might take a bit of work, but the process is pretty straightforward &#8211; you need to perform an audit.
Doing a data audit:
<ul>
<li>What personally identifiable information do you hold, and what is it used for?</li>
<li>Do you keep that information longer than is necessary?</li>
<li>Do you hold more information than is necessary?</li>
<li>Can you demonstrate that the user asked or expects that it will be used in the way that you are using it?</li>
</ul>
At least you will know why you are making the decision, which will help you in updating your privacy notices and consent statements. Whatever basis you choose at this point will need to be applied to your current data as well as new data added to your database.
Legitimate Interest 
In the case of legitimate interest, you will need to communicate to your current customers that you have new privacy and data retention policies and give them the opportunity to object to marketing. These should be included on your website and also highlighted on your news or social media channels.
You will need to record what you sent, to whom and when. You should only use data that you have permission to market to, this is a marketing communication, not a service one, so choose the right channel to reflect the permissions you have.
<h3>Getting Consent</h3>
If you know that you cannot demonstrate that all or some of your existing customers have given consent, then you will need to get them to opt-in. That will mean advising them of the reasons you&#8217;re using their personal information so that they can then be fully informed before they opt-in.
You can use a layered approach, where the communication content (e.g. email), or the website landing page they&#8217;re sent to includes the full detail of the marketing comms. Then direct them to your Privacy and Data Retention pages which should set out your comprehensive policy details.
It&#8217;s important to make sure that people are given enough information to help them to make an informed decision on what they are signing up to, and what marketing comms they&#8217;re likely to receive from you.
You do need to record who opted in, what they were informed of at the time they opted in, and include a form of verification (e.g. double opt-in) so that you have an audit trail.
<h3>SO</h3>
You need to decide which way suits you best. If consent is the right way for your organisation, it should be because your use of information presents a risk to the rights of the individual.
You don&#8217;t need to put your business or your customers through the unnecessary hassle if you don&#8217;t need to. But do an audit, get informed and take the opportunity to show that you take data privacy and consent seriously.
For more concrete detail on the GDPR, have a look at <a href="http://gdprandyou.ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GDPRandYou.ie</a> which has a lot of helpful information and resources.
Graham is a Business Director and Digital Strategist at Friday Agency. If you want to check out more of his posts go <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/author/graham/">here</a>.
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GDPR & Consent: Knowledge is no longer power, it is Risk.

I spoke before about the right <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/mixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy/">content marketing strategy</a> being key to winning online, and in particular for inbound ‘intent-led’ search.
In this post, I want to talk about the &#8216;digital customer experience&#8217; and how one of our clients is creating smart content in their space to get in front of and engage with their customers digitally.
<h3>INSURANCE</h3>
Insurance is one of those necessary evils in life for most consumers. Car insurance, health insurance — when we think of them, words like ‘expensive’, and ‘poor value’ might come to mind.
We’ve been working with a smart independent online life insurance broker Nick McGowan of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.lion.ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="http://www.lion.ie">Lion.ie</a>.
With life insurance, being covered is important but isn’t mandatory (outside of mortgage protection). But it is very confusing for consumers, there’s a lot to get your head around which makes it difficult to sell, particularly online.
The challenge for Nick in communicating with his consumers is big — and being online, he is competing against the might and budgets of the insurance giants.
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“the win that feeds the clients they service comes through the quality of content they produce and their commitment to producing it.”</blockquote>
<h2 class="graf graf--p">Designing a digital customer experience.</h2>
Lion’s primary goal is simple: grow online enquiries for their services.
But how do you go up against the giants in your industry with limited resources?
The answer lies in what it is that you can do to differentiate your business in your space. Your offering, knowledge, how you work, your content.
In Nick’s case, Lion is an independent broker meaning they are not tied to any one insurance provider. This gave them an advantage in that they could talk openly about the market.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4045" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/lion-life-advice.png" alt="lion-life-advice" width="1024" height="512" />
So the strategy was also simple:
use content to answer the questions and problems that people have with life insurance and serious illness. And in a way that is informative, easy to understand and often funny and engaging.
Here are 3 simple things that work so effectively:
Informative: the content explains and demystifies life insurance. It answers broad and specific problems that people may have. An automated email series gives you a free ‘mini-course’ on the subject.
Easy to understand: content is written in honest, plain English — no mystery. This helps create trust with the reader. There are also handy audio versions of many posts.
Humour: content is light-hearted, and witty which helps make it even more engaging. This post on <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://lion.ie/life-insurance/how-do-life-insurance-brokers-get-paid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://lion.ie/life-insurance/how-do-life-insurance-brokers-get-paid/">how brokers get paid</a> — is a nice example. It uses humour (and mild profanity) to help inform and demystify this subject in a way that again, helps connect with the user and create trust.
The result of this strategy sees Lion.ie ranking in the top 5 or 6 search results for ‘life insurance’ queries in one of the most competitive sectors — a real-life David and Goliath story.
<h2 class="graf graf--p">Essential components of Digital Customer Experience</h2>
This is how we describe what user experience means in simple terms— it’s what it feels like to use a service, a product, or a system.
There are 3 parts to a comprehensive user experience:
Aesthetic experience 
This is what it looks like to engage with your organisation. Your brand, your product design — the quality of your website’s design and layout for example.
Functional experience 
How well does your service work? Again, on a digital channel— does your website load fast, can I make contact, make an application online, make a purchase, etc.
Experience Design 
Experience design is a critical part that most organisations miss.
It isn’t enough anymore to just look good (aesthetic) and work well (functional). Experience design is emotive — it is where we consider what it feels like to engage in a product or service.
In a digital scenario, this can be a challenge, as you can’t touch or smell the experience. How is your product or service described on digital channels? What do others say about what you do?
The clearest evidence of what it feels like to work with Lion is in the testimony of their customers through online reviews and feedback — this is key to the digital customer experience.
This feedback creates trust and makes it easier for customers to make a decision to choose Lion when they’re looking for their services.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4046" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/content.png" alt="content marketing" width="2168" height="1122" />
Lion.ie have been picking up awards all over for the quality of the service they provide, but the first win that allows them to service those clients comes through the quality of content they produce and their commitment to producing it.
As this writer will confess, committing time and effort to produce quality, relevant content is not easy — but it is an essential ingredient in building a digital customer experience and with the right strategy, the results will come.
If you are serious about creating a strategy for your customer experience, talk to us, we’d love to help.
To learn more about Lion’s content, have a look at their Blog: <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://lion.ie/blog/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://lion.ie/blog/">www.lion.ie/blog</a>.
Thank you for reading.

Creating a smart Digital Customer Experience through Content

Usually, when we talk about user experience at Friday it’s about making content, screens and actions work seamlessly for users. But is our compulsive experience of using of screens (and in particular, smartphones) killing us?
Smartphone addiction is hardly a new phenomenon. I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve seen some stats: the average mobile phone user checks their device 150 times a day and 94% of 18-24 year-olds feel uncomfortable when not carrying their phones with them.
By technology’s nature, our smartphones alert us, let us share our personal content, they sometimes even ring with a call. We get edgy when other people hold our phones &#8211; in many ways they&#8217;ve become our conscious and subconscious.
Update July 2017: Nice post by Una Mullally and how she <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/una-mullally-i-hate-my-iphone-but-i-cannot-live-without-it-1.3140876">cannot live without her iPhone</a>&#8230;
We know it’s a problem when:
<ul>
<li>people are spending 3, 4 and 5 hours a day using their phones.</li>
<li>panic sets in when we&#8217;re without our phones or the battery dies.</li>
<li>we start to recognise issues and talk about cutting down our usage.</li>
</ul>
The effects are also well known. We’re more and yet less connected than ever &#8211; socially networked, but less social in the &#8216;real world&#8217;. Look around you when you’re next on a bus or train commute &#8211; everyone has their head’s bowed.
And device use before and in bed has been proven to lead to poor sleep and insomnia &#8211; but yet we still do it.
<iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Mwpmjf6cwE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h3>Danger</h3>
Most importantly, we&#8217;ve developed the habit of using our phones in situations that are dangerous.
I was walking across the junction of O’Connell Street and Westmoreland Street in Dublin as I often do while going for the dart home. It’s a tricky mess of cars and people and made particularly dangerous recently by the <a href="http://www.luascrosscity.ie/">Luas Cross City</a> roadworks.
One day, a young boy was walking across the road, earplugs in, eyes glued to his phone and strolling carefree across the street against a red light. A taxi screeched to halt, inches from the boy and blared its horn. The kid looked up, mouthed an expletive and kept on walking returning to his screen.
Scenes like this play out every day now, but it can go wrong in the blink of an eye, as it did in the heartbreaking case of <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/coroner-s-court/girl-15-texting-when-killed-by-truck-inquest-hears-1.2728389">Nikita Dunne</a>.
<h3>Designing for Humans</h3>
Insurance companies and car manufacturers are helping by introducing features like Car Mode which takes app features into safer voice-activated and touch-friendly controls.
Speaking Mind also has a nice app which essentially turns your smartphone into a radio, reading out content so you don’t have to look at it when driving or walking (currently only available in the US).
Ultimately I think we can help make a better user experience through technology but we can all play a part as people by making smarter choices.
I like how Rex Harrison puts it in <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-UX-Book-Rex-Hartson-Pardh-S-Pyl/9780123852410?ref=grid-view">The UX Book</a>…
<blockquote>&#8220;the focus should be on designing for the human rather than focussing on technology. ‘Human centred design&#8217; is a good description…&#8221;</blockquote>
I leave you with another video, this one is from the artist Moby where he looks at the subject of smartphone addiction with music and clever animation.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Moby &amp; The Void Pacific Choir - Are You Lost In The World Like Me? (Official Video)" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VASywEuqFd8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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User experience – when the experience is too much

It&#8217;s a Happy Thursday here at Friday Agency. We just got the news that we&#8217;ve been shortlisted for 3 awards at this year&#8217;s <a href="http://eirspiders.ie/">eir Spiders</a>.
We have work nominated for Best eRetail, the new category Best User Experience and we are also in the mix for Best Agency.
Running 21 years now, the Spiders are Ireland&#8217;s longest-standing and most prestigious internet awards, celebrating the very best in creativity and innovation. There is some top work from some of the best creative teams in Ireland.
This year&#8217;s awards will be MC&#8217;d by Panti Bliss and are held again at The Doubletree Hilton on Wednesday, November 30th.
<h3>Awards:</h3>
Best User Experience &#8211; <a href="http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie">St Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral</a>
St. Patrick’s Cathedral is a place of huge historical significance and worship and one of Ireland&#8217;s most popular tourist attractions. Friday worked closely with the cathedral team to research, plan, design and deliver a truly special website for this iconic Irish building.
Launched in early 2016, the new website has been a huge success and won Best Website <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/friday-score-hat-trick-2016-iia-net-visionary-awards/">last month</a> at the IIA New Visionary Awards in Dublin.
Best eRetail &#8211; <a href="http://iclothing.com">iClothing.com</a>
Friday delivered a fresh and modern new user experience for Ireland&#8217;s largest online fashion retailer, iClothing.com.
Having first created a sharp new brand identity for iClothing.com, the Friday UX team worked through detailed planning, wireframes and bespoke UX design for the website.
The core goals were to showcase their products and redesign the user experience to grow engagement, conversion and online sales.
The website was also recently a winner of the 2016 IIA Net Visionary Award for Best Ecommerce Execution.
<h4>Best Agency</h4>
We are thrilled to be announced for Best Agency (10 people) at this year&#8217;s awards. There is some stiff competition in the shortlist and again we feel proud to be in the mix.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-2402 aligncenter" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/eir-spider-awards.jpg" alt="eir spider awards" width="321" height="291" />

Friday shortlisted for 3 Awards at eir Spiders

The IIA Net Visionary Awards celebrate what is most effective in digital technology &#8211; showcasing work that has transformed brands and organisations in Ireland.
Friday are delighted to have won in all 3 of our nominated categories at this year&#8217;s highly entertaining awards show in the RDS.
We picked up awards for Best Website for our work on the <a href="http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie">St Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral</a> website, Best Social Media for the satirical General Election &#8216;Tinder&#8217; app, <a href="http://www.tder.ie">TDer.ie</a> and Best eCommerce for our work on the new user experience for <a href="http://www.iclothing.com">iClothing.com</a>.
<blockquote>&#8220;We&#8217;re delighted to get recognition in the 3 categories, and especially against the calibre of other nominees.&#8221; said David Jackson, Director of User Experience. &#8220;We have to say particular thanks to the teams at St Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral and iClothing for trusting Friday to deliver the vision&#8221;.</blockquote>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-2372 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IMG_9760-e1476102588498.jpg" alt="IIA Net Visionary Awards Winners 2016" width="1276" height="1116" />
IIA CEO Joan Mulvihill was worthy winner of the Net Visionary of the Year 2016. We congratulate Joan and wish her the best of luck as she steps down from 7 great years at the organisation.
Friday&#8217;s winners on the night were:
<ul>
<li>Best Website &#8211; &#8220;Most joyous to look at and splendid to use&#8221; for <a href="http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">St Patrick&#8217;s Cathedral</a>.</li>
<li>Best Social Media Campaign &#8211; for General Election satirical online campaign &#8216;<a href="http://www.tder.ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TDer</a>&#8216;.</li>
<li>Best eCommerce Execution by a Retailer &#8211; for <a href="http://www.iclothing.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">iClothing.com</a>.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>Graham Carroll, Client Services Director at Friday added: &#8220;Part of our manifesto at Friday is to change the fortunes of the organisations we work with. It&#8217;s brilliant when our work is recognised &#8211; proving the effectiveness of user experience and creativity is really important to us and our clients success.&#8221;</blockquote>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2376" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FullSizeRender-1.jpg" alt="IIA Net Visionary Awards Winners Friday Agency" width="640" height="640" />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/bonkers_ie">@bonkers_ie</a> Best eCommerce <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DotieNetVis?src=hash">#DotieNetVis</a> award goes to <a href="https://twitter.com/iclothing">@iclothing</a> ! <a href="https://t.co/YScz1bNFo1">pic.twitter.com/YScz1bNFo1</a>
— Irish Internet Assoc (@iia) <a href="https://twitter.com/iia/status/784499785189494784">October 7, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Congratulations to <a href="https://twitter.com/FridayAgency">@FridayAgency</a> winner of Best Website Design for <a href="https://t.co/JxIk9GxXD5">https://t.co/JxIk9GxXD5</a> at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DotieNetVissponsored?src=hash">#DotieNetVissponsored</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/blacknight">@blacknight</a>
— IE Domain Registry (@IEDR_dot_ie) <a href="https://twitter.com/IEDR_dot_ie/status/784497099740151808">October 7, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/blacknight">@blacknight</a> Best Website Design goes to <a href="https://twitter.com/FridayAgency">@FridayAgency</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DotieNetVis?src=hash">#DotieNetVis</a> ! well done guys ! <a href="https://t.co/pKHXXd1W6f">pic.twitter.com/pKHXXd1W6f</a>
— Irish Internet Assoc (@iia) <a href="https://twitter.com/iia/status/784497128680857600">October 7, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Friday score hat-trick at the IIA Net Visionary Awards

<blockquote>We&#8217;re all users. And the experience we have when we interact with products, devices, and screens plays a vital role in their success. </blockquote>
For me writing about User Experience is both exciting and slightly unnerving.
It’s exciting because, more than ever, the user experience process is critical to effective digital execution across the full gamut of devices and screens.
There’s also a growing expectation from clients to solve their marketing problems through design and user experience.
It’s slightly unnerving because although Friday is fast establishing a reputation as a specialist UX marketing agency, there are no definitive industry standards yet to which I can claim us to be experts.
<h3>The Apple Effect</h3>
In many ways, Apple has set the standard in user experience.
There is often debate around whether Apple’s business model is hardware or software but for me, their entire business centres around user experience.
From their products, software, their stores and their packaging &#8211; looking good and working well has helped to create an unrivalled trust and desire for their brand.
And it has propelled Apple’s rise to becoming one of the biggest companies in the world.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="p-image-1560" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/UX3.jpg" alt="user experience" width="767" height="318" /> 
According to our analytics, there&#8217;s a 42% chance that you&#8217;re reading this post on an Apple device
<div>
<h3>Why is UX so important?</h3>
As an agency, much of our work history comes from designing and building websites and digital experiences for the screen.
While we have always been always passionate about user experience, in the past quite often things like costs, deadlines, and a lack of understanding client-side meant we often had to compromise on the UX process.
</div>
All projects should allow for at the very least a basic level of real-world user testing as part of the process. Although not ideal, where deadlines or budget does not allow us to follow a comprehensive process, we use our experience to validate planning and design decisions.
<div>
At our core, we want to deliver a usability that works for users and delivers on our clients&#8217; marketing goals, that&#8217;s clear. But having a good user experience is no longer a choice: users demand it and the success of your business can hinge on it.
There is more to UX design than it generally sounding like a good idea and creating some wireframes. People are &#8216;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_miser" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cognitive misers</a>&#8216; &#8211; they become accustomed to things working to the point that they don&#8217;t really need to think about it. Driving a car, riding a bike, and using a smartphone app or a website.
In the digital world, when standards have been set so high for technology and content; users, customers, and stakeholders expect that standard every day.
Take booking an airline flight. Whatever the airline, you have expectations that their website will load quickly, that it&#8217;s visual style, content and layout will look and feel right, and that you can easily find and book a flight destination without too much effort.
And provided the price is right a not unreasonable expectation. Right?
But it&#8217;s when something goes wrong with the experience, trust breaks down (or is never established). We have all been there and been frustrated by it. Slow to load, poor navigation, errors&#8230; grrr!
Our expectations are set high and when they&#8217;re not met, we can take ourselves elsewhere in a matter of seconds.
<h3>The UX Process</h3>
<blockquote>“People’s behaviour makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives.”</blockquote>
—Thomas Mann
This is not a post detailing UX process (this will follow soon) but a brief look at key steps in a typical design project that are used to deliver a successful user experience. It is important that clients not only understand the process but then play an active part in it and sign off at each stage.
The following details the process that Friday uses to deliver a digital solution: for example a website, or a smartphone app.
<ul>
<li>Planning &amp; Strategy 
Planning is key and provides the rationale for the approach taken throughout the rest of the process. It will include a series of workshops to understand business requirements, user and technology needs. This stage can include a range of steps including research, user surveys, focus groups, mood boards, analytics, content review &amp; competitive analysis.</li>
<li>Wireframing 
Visual work starts by taking the planning output and using information architecture, sketches to build wireframe layouts. In some cases, user testing can start here by creating interactive high-level UX prototypes.</li>
<li>Design 
At the design stage artwork is created for all key users scenarios in all relevant placements, devices or screens.</li>
<li>Build 
During the build stage, a beta or prototype is developed based on the visuals and functionality of the design.</li>
<li>QA 
When the build process is complete, the project moves to quality assurance and testing where it is tested to ensure it&#8217;s visual is sound and it works as planned. User testing will often occur here.</li>
<li>Feedback / UAT 
Before launch, the project is opened up to the client for user acceptance testing where it is again tested and any issues addressed before release.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Trust</h3>
As users, the trust we have in our ability to use something has a critical role in whether or not we make a decision to continue using it, engage or buy it.
Trust must be established quickly, or users will quickly abandon your product, service or content. As businesses, it&#8217;s important to understand trust and the role trustworthiness plays in user experience and particularly when it comes to conversion rates.
And we&#8217;ve seen a clear shift in the demand for UX planning and design from clients as they now understand it&#8217;s advantage and it&#8217;s value.
<div class="video-container">
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</div>
</div>

User Experience – Designing for Trust

Number 1 on the first page of a Google Search &#8211; it’s what we’re all looking for in life really, isn’t it? 
Even when putting my own name into the goliath Search Engine Google I remembered my glee when I noticed I had pipped the other Gillian Hunt, the American photographer to the top spot. 
Yes indeed, this Gillian Hunt was once upon a time a Number 1 Google Search Result. One of my biggest claims to fame &#8211; maybe… achievements &#8211; well perhaps not. To be honest I had little or no idea why my LinkedIn Profile was ranking above any other search result in Google, but it still made me smile!
For an individual the need to be the number one search result may just be an ego thing **cough cough** but for a business it can mean the difference between success and failure, life and death, kick ass Christmas parties or tea for one… you get the picture. 
Being found on the internet by potential customers is key for a thriving business in today&#8217;s world. And that’s where SEO comes to the party.
<h2 class="graf--p">The basics of SEO &#8211; Optimisation</h2>
Search Engine Optimisation, so really what is it? SEO in its simplest form is a marketing discipline which primary focus is to increase the visibility of a search engine result of your business. 
Now to do it well you need to look at both the technical and creative aspects of your website. But with a strategy in place genuine SEO can improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. 
Sounds easy doesn’t it?
And some of it is; Search Engines want users to find what they are looking for but they need to know your business is the most, or one of the most relevant results given the search terms/words entered into that little white box. 
SEO has a specific set of tactics in it’s toolkit endorsed by the Search Engines that allow their technology to easily crawl your website picking up and indexing all the relevant information, (<a href="http://www.smartbugmedia.com/blog/10-on-page-seo-tips-to-use-in-2015">Read more</a> on some of these techniques). 
That’s one component of SEO “optimising” the relevancy of the site. But hey kids SEO is not all about ensuring you are presented accurately on the web, so search engines can match your relevancy to a search. Oh no… now not only do you need to be relevant, but you need to be popular too! What the?!
<h2 class="graf--p">Domain Authority</h2>
Yes Search Engines decided if your content is shared or linked to from other sites than this is worth a higher ranking particularly if those sites themselves have a high “Authority”. What the hell is Authority I hear you ask? 
Well just like the real world online authority suggests power and control, a site with a high domain authority is listened to by users, people read, engage with, share and link to these type of sites and Google award that site for well… being popular. 
When a popular site with high domain authority links to your site **Bing** your ranking is improved. It’s just like hanging round with the cool kids or even the cool kids mentioning you while they chat to their cool kid friends. 
Feel like you’re in school again? Well it’s not far off it, relevance and popularity is what it’s all about and any SEO strategy worth its salt is going to influence just this, how relevant you are by optimising the site and popular by getting your site links out there into the interwebs.
<h2 class="graf--p">Mobile Optimisation</h2>
So I have been keeping up to date with SEO standards and tweaking my site, linking back to it and getting my content out there in the web, basically trying my very best and then someone mentions mobile. WHAT? With significant Web traffic coming from mobile devices, companies cannot afford to ignore the mobile Web and yet many still do. 
For Google, mobile comprised almost half of all traffic from June to November, with 52 percent coming from desktops and 48 percent from mobile. <a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2388915/why-mobile-web-still-matters-in-2015" target="_blank" rel="noopener">(Read more on mobile and browsers stats.)</a>
That’s a lot of mobile users getting online and you know it because you’re one of them. And suddenly the game has changed for all those sites who have not thought about mobile. As of Tuesday, April 21, 2015, Google has made a massive change to the way it ranks websites. How massive? Seemingly some people were calling it the “Mobilegeddon”, which could be a slight over reaction. 
But maybe not, if your website is not mobile friendly Google have said themselves:
<blockquote>
&#8220;it will have a significant impact in our search results&#8221;.
</blockquote>
So SEO is not just about relevancy and popularity or certainly not just on desktop, all of that now needs to be applied to the mobile web. 
So is your site mobile ready? <a href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Test it here</a> and see how you rate. 
We had to try it ourselves and ohh look… The Friday Agency is AWESOME, but of course we are, that’s our business (and just us… we’re just awesome).
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Friday-Mobile-Ready.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1384" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Friday-Mobile-Ready.png" alt="Friday-Mobile-Ready" width="767" height="477" /></a>
<h2 class="graf--p">Responsive Design</h2>
So what can you do after some good SEO strategies and your site is rating reasonably well on a desktop search but lost down a dark lane of a mobile search? Google’s number 1 suggestion for mobile optimisation is Responsive Design. 
We have spoken at length about Responsive Design in our Journal <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/responsive-web-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mobile Apps or Responsive Websites</a> <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/mobile-apps-responsive-websites-choose/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Responsive Web Development</a> (see what I did there… linking back to our site, good SEO).
Basically it’s building one site that fits all, one URL, one website that adapts for phone, tablet and desktop. Other options are dynamic serving, where Google sniffs out what device is searching and serves up different HTML, but even Google says this can be error prone. 
Of course there is also the Mobile site which was one of the earliest mobile optimisation strategies. But seriously all this sounds like too much work 2 sites, 2 builds, 2 SEO maintenance works to be constantly updating. I’m tired just thinking about it. 
Responsive design &#8211; One site, built for all, users like it, Google really likes it and of course SEO marketers like it. It&#8217;s a simple concept, but so many businesses are still playing catch up. 
Now you may think I have been unfairly Google centric on this post, but really, with all devices included, StatCounter Report’s for the last quarter Google has over 93% of the Search Usage in Ireland and just over 90% Globally… so I thought I might just do that, focus on the big guns, it’s all about relevancy and popularity after all.
 <a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/StatCounter-search_engine-ww-monthly-201505-201507-bar.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-1374" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/StatCounter-search_engine-ww-monthly-201505-201507-bar.png" alt="StatCounter-search_engine-ww-monthly-201505-201507-bar" width="616" height="375" /></a>
If you need help with SEO or optimising your site for mobile through Responsive design and development, give us a shout &#8211; it’s what we do.

SEO –  So you want to be number 1?

As a digital marketing agency, naturally, we work a lot with content and with photography.
But whether you are client or agency side, getting <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/photography-web-design/">good photography is essential</a> and it can take a bit of work from researching, finding, buying, licensing and so on.
There’s nothing new in the notion of free photography but you’d be forgiven for thinking that something free and stock might not hold the best quality.
Not so; check out these 5 cool resources for getting your hands on quality stock photography in a few clicks without spending a cent.
&#8220;Only 5?!&#8221; you say. Well, there are plenty more free image resources out there, but for me, these are the best 5.
<h3><a href="https://pixabay.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pixabay</a></h3>
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/paris-pixabay-843229_1280.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1319" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/paris-pixabay-843229_1280-1024x682.jpg" alt="paris free photography" width="1024" height="682" /></a>
This is a nice atmospheric shot of the Paris skyline. It’s completely free for commercial use and you don’t need to provide attribution if you use it.
<a href="https://pixabay.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pixabay</a> is one of my favourite resources for stock and it has a massive database of images (over 400,000 at time of writing).
<h3><a href="https://picjumbo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PicJumbo</a></h3>
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_copy.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1316" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_copy.jpg" alt="sm_copy" width="767" height="370" /></a>
<a href="https://picjumbo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PicJumbo</a> is another great resource with some top quality images with good variety.
They also have a paid service for $6 per month which is good value and offers exclusive content and complete photo collections.
<h3><a href="https://unsplash.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsplash</a></h3>
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_mountain.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1312" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_mountain.jpg" alt="sm_mountain" width="767" height="439" /></a>
Not a massive resource and more creatively-led content than corporate, but <a href="https://unsplash.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsplash</a> has some fantastic images; cityscapes, lifestyle, nature &#8211; always worth checking in on.
This landscape shot with the dock is great. I would print this and hang it, it’s that good. And, of course, it’s free.
<h3><a href="https://stocksnap.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stocksnap.io</a></h3>
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_bokeh.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1315" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_bokeh.jpg" alt="sm_bokeh" width="767" height="511" /></a>
A good selection of high resolution photography, and they add hundreds more every week. <a href="https://stocksnap.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stocksnap.io</a> has more of a commercial angle, and there&#8217;s no need to give attribution.
<h3><a href="http://deathtothestockphoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Death to the Stock Photo</a></h3>
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_DeathtoStock_Medium7.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1317" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_DeathtoStock_Medium7.jpg" alt="sm_DeathtoStock_Medium7" width="767" height="246" /></a>
The <a href="http://deathtothestockphoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Death</a> guys format is to email you a batch of new high quality lifestyle images on the first of every month.
Some really great photos here, just hand over your email address and you’re in.
<h3><a href="http://nos.twnsnd.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Old Stock</a></h3>
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_launch.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1318" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sm_launch.jpg" alt="sm_launch" width="767" height="517" /></a>
A cheeky 6th resource is one called <a href="http://nos.twnsnd.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Old Stock</a> which has some cool old photos of retro stuff. Also worth a look.
So there it is, a tidy collection of resources for some very good stock content &#8211; free to use.
Granted, you won’t find near the range and volume of images here as can be found at the likes of iStock, but definitely a handy go-to when you’re putting together a digital project, a series of blog posts or even a random photo print for the wall.
Hope this post was helpful. Happy hunting.

5 Inspiring Resources for Free Photography

Following up on my recent post about creating a great <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/mixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy/">content marketing strategy</a>, I want to talk about how you can go about writing great content to fill it.
Let&#8217;s start with picking a topic.
<h3>Picking a topic</h3>
Choosing a good topic to write about is important if you want to grab your reader’s attention. It’s always best to have a content strategy in place &#8211; your strategy should already have a list of juicy ideas to post about.
Try to have a mix of what we call &#8216;stock and flow&#8217;. Stock content is ‘evergreen’ content, that your targets will be looking for over a long period of time. Flow is the type of content that is more day to day and reminds people that you exist.
Also, it might seem obvious, but try to write about content that comes easily to you such as the following:
<ul>
<li>What you work at.</li>
<li>What you know about.</li>
<li>What you’re interested in.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Writing a Title</h3>
A good title is essential &#8211; it’s the first thing people will see and it sells your content.
Unless you don’t need people to find you through search, your title should strike a balance between using clever wording to grab people’s attention and including at least one good keyword or keyword string.
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/friday-writing.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1204" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/friday-writing-1024x768.jpg" alt="writing content" width="1024" height="768" /></a>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
Once you’ve got past the title you need an engaging introduction to draw your reader into your topic. Use humour, tell a story. If you can make an introduction funny or personal, it’s much easier for people to engage in it.
<h3>Make a point</h3>
Identify the goal you want to achieve before you start to write your blog post. This would usually be at the same stage as picking topics to talk about. Whatever your topic, you will want to have an angle or an opinion on it &#8211; this makes it more interesting, engaging (or controversial) for the reader, otherwise it could get boring.
<h3>Depth &amp; Quality</h3>
From the intro, you move into writing a story &#8211; creating a clear and interesting narrative.
Even if you’re writing a simple news piece, you will want to keep your audience’s attention and for them to know that they’re following a story.
Here are some ways of doing that:
Tell a storytelling a story helps engage the minds of readers, to persuade and to help reinforce your points and ideas. I like how Seth Godin puts it: &#8220;Great stories succeed because they are able to capture the imagination of large or important audiences.”
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/rsz_chalkboard-620316_1280.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1217" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/rsz_chalkboard-620316_1280-1024x514.jpg" alt="what's your story?" width="1024" height="514" /></a>
More from Seth on <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/ode_how_to_tell.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How to tell a great story</a>.
<ul>
<li>Add Quotes 
See Seth&#8217;s quote above! A good quote reference will back up your points.</li>
<li>Use Examples 
If you can reference an example, readers will not only come away with an idea of how to do something – they’ll have seen it in action.</li>
<li>Add your opinion 
Facts mixed with your opinion make posts more interesting.</li>
<li>Add Photos 
It’s incredible what a simple image or photograph can do to help make a point, particularly <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/photography-web-design/">with photography online</a>. I’m not just talking about eye-catching title images – but those that actually add value and depth to your posts. If you don&#8217;t have your own photography bank, you can try stock or royalty free or there are some very good stock sites that offer content that is free for commercial use. See <a href="https://unsplash.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unsplash.com</a>, <a href="https://stocksnap.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stocksnap.io</a> and <a href="http://www.raumrot.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">raumrot.com</a> for example.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Publishing &amp; Promotion</h3>
It’s always good to test what works for you and your audience. At Friday, we usually only publish blog posts on weekdays and generally towards the end of the week. Our target audience is working office hours and will mostly consume our content during those periods.
The end of the week can work better to publish, as many people are often busier at the start of the week.
Once you have published content on your website, search engines will pick it up pretty quickly but you’ll want to push it out on through your relevant channels also. For example:
<ul>
<li>Email Newsletters</li>
<li>Social Channels e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn</li>
</ul>
Check out this nice <a href="https://friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/social-media-best-times.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">infographic</a> from SurePayRoll on best times for each.
<div>Courtesy of: <a href="http://www.surepayroll.com/">SurePayroll</a></div>
That’s it, happy writing. If you liked this post, feel free to share it.

Writing great content online

It’s about knowing your audience and building trust.
For anyone who’s not quite sure about what Content Marketing really is, I like how the Content Marketing Institute <a title="Content Marketing" href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put it</a>:
<blockquote>“Content marketing is a marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience &#8211; and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”</blockquote>
But it’s not as simple as just creating content for our customers and waiting for the results. Before you start a Content Marketing Strategy you have to ask (and be able to answer) 3 basic questions:
<ul>
<li>Target Audience: who will benefit most from my content?</li>
<li>What types of content will be delivered?</li>
<li>Goals: what will the outcome be for both my audience, and separately for me / my organisation?</li>
</ul>
With Content, people often focus on the most obvious part (creating it) and don’t quite realise that there’s a bit more to getting the mix right.
Like baking a cake, a good Content Marketing Strategy is made up of different ingredients. Each one is important in it’s own right but they are all interdependent and all necessary to make your content marketing work right for you.
The four main ingredients are:
<ol>
<li>Content Ideas</li>
<li>People</li>
<li>Distribution</li>
<li>Analytics</li>
</ol>
So as Walter White would put it, let&#8217;s cook&#8230;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Content Ideas: Planning &amp; Research</h3>
If you already have a website, there are a few things to consider. Remember that the goal is not just to create awareness, but to also create trust.
<ul>
<li>What are we selling, product or service? Write it down.</li>
<li>If we’re selling a range of products or services, pick the ones you want to market and make a list.</li>
<li>What type of content will appeal to my target audience &#8211; tips, tutorials, video, etc.</li>
</ul>
Research: Based on your list of key products or services use tools to find information on popular content topics related to your business. Such tools include: <a href="http://www.reddit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reddit</a>, <a href="http://trendsmap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter trends</a>, <a href="https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Keyword Planner</a>, <a href="http://www.spyfu.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SpyFu</a> and <a href="http://moz.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MOZ</a>.
From this research you can find what your potential audience is discussing, sharing and engaging in relevant to your goals. Decide how long you want to plan your content schedule &#8211; 12 months is an obvious duration.
Seasons, holidays or any kind of recurring events are an opportunity to plan a content calendar well in advance. For each service or product type or benefit write down titles for different post ideas. Don&#8217;t be afraid to share your knowledge &#8211; sharing brings honesty and builds trust.
Note: Headlines account for up to 85% of engagement rates in written content.
For each content idea, ask the following questions:
<ul>
<li>Is this content relevant to what we do as a business or organisation?</li>
<li>Will it be useful to our target audience?</li>
<li>Will it help us to achieve our goals?</li>
</ul>
Stock &amp; Flow
Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s a stream of regular updates that let people know that you exist. Your news, your industry news, regular information that is of value to your audience.
Stock is the stronger content. It’s the type that is as interesting in 6 months as it is right now. It’s what people find through search building trust and your audience. Try to think of content that has a lasting or ‘evergreen’ value &#8211; that could bring your website good search traffic over a sustained period.
<h3 style="text-align: center;">People</h3>
A good content strategy needs people to power it. In our Dublin office, all Friday staff are encouraged to write about their roles and the services around the work they do.
It doesn’t have to be Pulitzer worthy, but everyone submits subject ideas and writes a good post at least once a month. These posts are then edited and optimised for SEO before publishing on our Journal.
Writing content comes easy to some while others (including myself) agonise over it at times. We often hear a good plan or see one written down and think ‘yep, this looks and sounds great… can’t wait to get started!’ Our plan often starts well, and then peters out&#8230;
Because writing and publishing content doesn’t have a direct or immediate pay off, the plan too easily falls apart. To avoid this, we need a good content plan, we need to write it down, and we must have people to take ownership of the plan to ensure that it is delivered. This is essential.
Build a combination of stock and flow content in your plan, and assign it to different people in a your content calendar with clear and realistic deadlines.
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Distribution</h3>
The first rule of content distribution is having enough quality content in the first place. In most situations you will be releasing content as news items or blog posts, video or infographics and very often from your website.
If you publish content on your website that’s a start, you then want to shout about it to drive traffic through. Here are two key channels:
Email
A lot like social media, people often make their newsletters generic &#8211; a range of different content types that generally promotes their offering.
Give your newsletter more purpose by defining what stage of the customer buying cycle they should be used for. Up to 60% of email is read on smartphones now and when opened it is skimmed over quickly. Avoid ramming in all of your content into one email and instead elect your best pieces highlighted with engaging titles.
Social Media
Most marketers use their social channels to market their content just by posting it and dusting their hands. But it can more than this.
There has been significant growth of some big feeds which focus on doing one thing really well. History in Pics is a good example of this. For example, depending on your market, you might be able to create a few different accounts which focus on doing one thing well, and slowly release your content at the same time.
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Analytics</h3>
Website Analytics
What content is building the most traffic and engagement? It’s important to see link and social share data for each content piece and to analyse how it performs over time.
Google Analytics is the best free analytics tool available for website / app analytics. Moz Pro is a great tool for reporting on your everything from your keyword search rank positions, your domain authority to your social media interactions.
Organic Traffic
Which keywords and what content items are driving traffic to your website?
I would usually look back at least 12 months to get a basis for comparison on top level searches to get an idea of which keywords are performing best relevant to your content.
Keyword Research
While I don&#8217;t completely trust all of the numbers keyword data results from Google’s Keyword Planner, it is a nice tool for generating new keyword and key phrase ideas. The data does give an indication of where opportunities are, especially for traffic that doesn&#8217;t carry high competition.
Google Webmaster Tools will also give some solid data on new keyword ranking or rank position opportunities.
SEO Analysis
Having mapped out your content, you should analyse how strong your competitors are at ranking their content A good way to do this for SEO is to use Moz tools to find out domain authority and inbound links. Competitor analysis is a paid feature for Moz Pro.
For social media, check of how many fans or followers your competitors have and how often they are posting and engaging.
<hr />
Summing up
As part of a solid <a title="The Digital Strategy Battlefield" href="https://friday.ie/blog/the-digital-strategy-battlefield/">Digital Strategy</a>, good content is marketing&#8217;s best opportunity to be truly creative. It does this by being valuable and relevant to your target audiences, it creates trust in your brand, and it builds the permission you need to do business.

Mixing a great Content Marketing Strategy

<div class="video-container">
<div class="video-container">Merry Christmas from all of us at <a href="http://vimeo.com/fridayagency">The Friday Agency</a>. And best wishes for 2015.</div>
</div>
<div class="video-container"></div>
<div class="video-container">We&#8217;ve put together a little video with some of the highlights of our first year at the agency. We hope you like it.</div>
<div class="video-container">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/114968826" width="690" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
</div>
<div class="video-container">You can also check out our festive greeting and other videos on our page at <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</div>

Merry Christmas from the Friday Agency!

Welcome to our round-up of top digital marketing trends for 2015. As ever there are many digital channels to consider but we&#8217;re going to take a quick look at the top trends we think will matter most over the next 12 months.
We’re not just looking at trends, we look at things marketers are doing more of and that you can take advantage of and use right now. Let’s start with Mobile.
<h3>Mobile </h3>
Looking at this year’s growth in smartphone penetration and mobile traffic, having a Mobile Marketing strategy is in fact now compulsory. If your digital marketing is not optimised for mobile you are losing. In the Republic of Ireland, Comreg reports that for the 2nd quarter of 2014 smartphone use rose to 59%, a 14.7% increase in the previous period. Source: <a title="ComReg Market Report" href="http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComRegPR11092014.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ComReg Market Report September 2014 (PDF)</a>.
Google has put a new focus on website mobile-friendly functionality. Mobile usability is now “relevant for optimal search results.” This emphasis is underpinned by the release of a new tool in Google Webmaster Tools called &#8216;Mobile Usability’.
Mobile Payments 
 
Global Mobile payments will rise to $142bn by 2019, but which provider will be the dominant force in payment services?
Retale&#8217;s new mobile report offers some insight:
<ul>
<li>36% have used mobile payments before, over double the 2012 figure.</li>
<li>Almost 3 out of 5 (56%) are interested in using mobile payments when shopping for holidays.</li>
<li>24% say mobile payments are inconvenient relative to cash, credit and debit cards.</li>
<li>Nearly 30% cited privacy concerns as a potential obstacle to them using mobile payments.</li>
<li>53% of ‘young people born between 1980 and 2000’ (there was another term here but I redacted it) have used mobile pay in-store (17% higher than average)</li>
<li>When asked to choose a mobile payment solution they would prefer to use in-store, 51% said PayPal with Apple Pay in third place with 10%.</li>
</ul>
Despite the surge in traffic, mobile website transactions account for single-digit percentages. So while customers do research goods and services with their smartphones they are less likely to use their device to pay for them.
<h3>Content</h3>
Good, relevant content is still a must-have for any <a title="The Digital Strategy Battlefield" href="https://friday.ie/blog/the-digital-strategy-battlefield/">digital marketing strategy</a>. For content to work online, it typically needs to be one or more of 3 things for users to engage and share it: interesting, informative or funny.
As smartphone use continues to grow customers are consuming much more content and at a faster speed.
<h4>What does this mean for marketers?</h4>
The way that users engage content on smaller screens has shifted to a more visual, graphics led way. The rise in popularity of social apps such as Instagram, Pinterest and Flipboard and the ubiquity of YouTube.
For businesses and brands, this means a shift in focus for using photography and in particular video. With the availability of 4G services on smartphones, users are consuming video content while on the go.
In 2015, we will see more marketers planning and releasing highly visual content for mobile. More than this, because of the sheer pace of news these days, it&#8217;s important that marketers own not just the management and release of their content but also as much of the production process as possible. For example, that means taking simple photographs, making video tutorials or filming workshops.
Most people can absorb information faster and easier through video as opposed to by reading. A well-executed video of 60 &#8211; 90 seconds can do a lot more to communicate the value of a product or service than just words on a page. The technology is here now in terms of devices and mobile broadband, the opportunity is to bring that content in that can get to work quickly.
<h3>Customer Experience</h3>
Customer experience has never been more critical to online success. With the marketing shift from the old customer ‘awareness’ to awareness and also ‘advocacy&#8217;, customer experience is key to building loyalty, retention and sales.
It is hugely important to have great content and technology of course, but how we develop, measure and optimise the customer journey on top of this is key to success.
eConsultancy have recently published a new report on the <a title="Voice of the Customer" href="https://econsultancy.com/three-takeaways-from-the-voice-of-the-customer-roundtable/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Voice of the Customer</a>. There are 3 key main steps the report talks about as best practice approach to customer experience.
Listen 
Online surveys are helpful to get honest ratings and feedback on your products or services.
Measure 
Use tools to help track and record information about your customers. Google Analytics, Mouseflow, Trends. Data that you get on bounce rates, devices and drop-offs can help you to optimise the CX on your website.
Act 
Data and feedback are of little use if they are not used and acted on. It is important to plan and review and assess customer experience on an ongoing basis and take action to both address issues and enhance and improve.
Key reference points for understanding customer experience include:
<ul>
<li>Understanding how mobile users research / buy products</li>
<li>Understanding when and where customers use different devices</li>
<li>Using offline data to optimise the online experience</li>
<li>Using online data to optimise the offline experience</li>
<li>Ensuring consistency of message across channels</li>
<li>Having a clear understanding of customer journeys across channels</li>
<li>Training teams in new techniques, channels and disciplines</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h3>Wearables</h3>
Wearables have been a hot topic this year and 2015 will see some big new technology launches. Opportunities are still just available to those at the software/application development stage but it is important to be aware of changes. The big players are in the mix with Google Glass, Apple Watch and Oculus Rift which Facebook recently acquired.
<h4>Oculus Rift.</h4>
In good shape after Facebook’s take over, <a title="Oculus Rift" href="http://www.oculus.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oculus Rift</a> hopes to launch “in months” according to CEO Brendan Iribe. Hardware is currently available for developers and there is big potential here for virtual meetings and healthcare as well as video gaming.
Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe talks with Peter Rubin at the Web Summit, November 2014.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Web Summit Day One - Brendan Iribe in conversation with Peter Rubin" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9tz6gai51Mo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h4> 
Apple Watch</h4>
The jury is out on whether Apple’s <a title="Apple Watch" href="https://www.apple.com/watch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new device</a> will fly. Its release date is set for early 2015 and prices are from around €300 and there is <a title="Forbes iPhone speculation" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/12/03/apple-iphone-6s-release-date-speculation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">some uncertainty</a> of the benefits of owning the watch and iPhone being big enough to justify having one. The potential with fitness apps is interesting and car location devices and electric power level readers such as BMW’s planned car app. Watch this space.
<h4>Google Glass</h4>
Google Glass is a piece of augmented reality technical genius right out of Minority Report. The possibilities are endless. Its biggest challenge is how to get it to work well for people who wear normal glasses. The device essentially works by projecting a semi-transparent prism directly on to the wearer&#8217;s retina.
Check out this brilliant how it works infographic from <a title="Martin Missfeldt" href="http://www.brillen-sehhilfen.de/en/googleglass/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Martin Missfeldt</a>.
Update 15/01/2015: Google is discontinuing the first version of Google Glass with a new version due later in 2015. <a title="Google Glass discontinued" href="http://mashable.com/2015/01/15/google-ends-tony-faldell-nest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More at Mashable</a>.
<h4>In Summary</h4>
The big trend for us in 2015 is mobile content. The evidence is there:
<ul>
<li>Double-digit increases in device usage and specifically website traffic.</li>
<li>Content should be optimised for mobile first, and have a steady balance between visuals (photography, video, graphics) and copy.</li>
<li>Marketers should have as much control as possible of content strategy, management and release and engage experienced creative partners where needed.</li>
</ul>
For more facts and figures on Mobile Trends specifically, check out this interesting post on <a title="the Future of Mobile" href="https://mobile1st.com/ready-for-mobile-cro-marketings-new-optimization-science/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Future of Mobile CRO</a> by Dan Engel.

Digital Marketing Trends in 2015

The Friday Agency has had a whirlwind start to our new adventure and after our first 5 months in business we’re thrilled to announce 7 finalist nominations in this year’s Web Awards.
We’re particularly proud of the nod for Best Agency and to be considered in the mix of some of Ireland’s brightest digital agency talents.
There have also been some interesting new client projects wins recently &#8211; watch this space for more details.
We would like to wish all Web Awards nominees the very best of luck and we look forward to having a lot of fun on the awards night.
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/irish-web-awards-logo-750x375.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-907 size-full" title="Web Awards Best Agency" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/irish-web-awards-logo-750x375.png" alt="Web Awards Best Agency" width="750" height="375" /></a>
The Web Awards takes place on Wednesday 23rd October at the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin. For more details, head to <a title="Web Awards" href="http://www.webawards.ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.webawards.ie</a>.

Up for Best Agency at the Web Awards

A lot of businesses look at strategy and planning in an ad-hoc way. They make reactionary calls as they go when the latest businesses needs and new technologies surface.
Have you ever worked on a project and the scope of requirements are adjusted half way in? For example, someone decides that the business needs a new Smartphone app with geo location and dynamic content&#8230;. just because.
If you’ve shared this experience you’ll be aware how reactionary businesses can be, but there’s an opportunity for some long-term thinking. A plan.
<h2 class="p1">The Digital Strategy</h2>
If you plan to be successful online, it’s vital that you focus on what you want to communicate, who you want to communicate to and how you’re going to communicate it. 
The digital marketing strategy is the plan that ensures your digital marketing efforts are tailored to your target audience, in a way that maximises return on investment. It can take a lot of work and effort to put your plan in place. But like many things in life worth doing, they can be a battle.
<blockquote>
“As you’ve probably discovered, great work makes us uncomfortable…” <a title="Doing the best I can - Seth Godin" href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/08/doing-the-best-i-can-.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seth Godin</a>.
</blockquote>
There are different approaches to engaging a digital strategy. I like to think of it as planning an assault on a digital battlefield. At the core, your strategy should include four steps:
<ol>
<li>Research: survey your battlefield</li>
<li>Goals: Set the Targets and Objectives</li>
<li>Plan your assault: Tools &amp; Tactics</li>
<li>Review &amp; Optimise</li>
</ol>
Within each of these stages, a number of techniques and digital channels can be used, from search marketing to web design &amp; user experience to social marketing.
<h3 class="p1">1. Research</h3>
You can never have too much research. Know your target audience inside-out, find out how, when, why and what they are looking for online. Try these:
<ul>
<li>Surveys / Interviews</li>
<li>Client Workshop</li>
<li>Keyword research</li>
<li>Competitor Analysis</li>
</ul>
Staying on the competition; Competitor Analysis often includes steps found in traditional marketing such as products, prices, etc. There are a couple of important factors to consider:
<ul>
<li>User experience: Gauge the usability or customer service of your business and contrasted it with your competitors and potential substitutes. What are their websites like, how is the buying or engagement experience?</li>
<li>Features/functionality analysis: An evaluation of the features and functionality provided by your business or service compare with the competition.</li>
<li>Reach: how do your competitors rank in search results, for social media loyalty and engagement?</li>
</ul>
<h3 class="p2">2. Goals: Set your Targets</h3>
Where are your marketing problems? Where are the opportunities and how can digital marketing help?
It’s difficult to measure your success if you haven’t set specific goals and targets. It’s not enough to simply “build website sales”. How much do you want to grow and over what time frame?
All goals should be realistic and achievable. Everything you do must be relevant to your customer behaviour. Decide what you want to achieve: Keep current customers? Get new customers, up your average purchase value, or increase leads?
KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) will help to structure your goals and create measurable goals. For example:
<ul>
<li>Increase click through rates.</li>
<li>Increase conversion rates.</li>
<li>Reduce bounce rate.</li>
<li>Reduce cart abandonment.</li>
</ul>
<h3 class="p2">3. Plan your assault: Tools &amp; Tactics</h3>
At the planning stage you should be aware of:
<ul>
<li>What you are doing well and where you can improve across digital channels.</li>
<li>Your Target Audience</li>
<li>Your Competition</li>
</ul>
If you know who your competitors are, you have some idea of how to differentiate yourself in your industry. But it&#8217;s your target customers that should be the strongest influence on your brand or business. Having <a title="The Birth of Friday a well developed brand" href="https://friday.ie/blog/brand-identity-and-the-birth-of-friday/">a well developed brand</a> is important because: 
<ul>
<li>Your business must engage your target audience to drive sales.</li>
<li>Your target customers demographics and buying habits will determine who you are, and therefore what your brand is.</li>
<li>Your brand affects how well you sell or talk to your target audiences.</li>
</ul>
Tools &amp; Tactics
Based on our research and planning, which digital channels are best suited to engage our target audiences? We can break them down into 3 areas: Reach, Convert and Engage.
<ul>
<li>Reach: These are typically off-site channels that build awareness and drive traffic on to your website or web properties: Search Optimisation, PPC, Affiliate Marketing and Social Media.</li>
<li>Conversion: What takes place on your website or app. What features should your website have? What content will appeal to your target audiences? Key tasks include: website optimisation, good user experience, device friendly content, sale conversion, lead generation, testing.</li>
<li>Engagement: Building customers and followers to drive repeat visits and sales. Key tasks: Content marketing e.g. Blog, promotional email marketing, customer support, social media engagement.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/the-funnel-digital-marketing.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-592" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/the-funnel-digital-marketing.jpg" alt="the-funnel-digital-marketing" width="580" height="825" /></a>
<h3 class="p1">4. Review and Optimise</h3>
The final and essential piece of the Digital Strategy jigsaw is to monitor performance and KPI’s.
Google Analytics, Ranking reports, Sales and Conversion tracking. The following graphic uses data from a recent eConsultancy survey which asks what are the top digital channel priorities for companies in 2014.
<a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/key-digital-strategy-channels.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-591 size-large" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/key-digital-strategy-channels-1024x601.png" alt="key-digital-strategy-channels" width="1024" height="601" /></a>
&#8220;Digital thinking should be embedded in marketing strategies as a matter of course. Digital may not be relevant to every marketing effort, but organisations need to properly consider digital and change their culture and processes to become more digitally oriented.&#8221; from eConsultancy&#8217;s <a title="The Modern Marketing Manifesto" href="https://econsultancy.com/blog/62668-our-modern-marketing-manifesto-will-you-sign" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Modern Marketing Manifesto</a>.
At Friday, as an agency we have to be commercially focussed and know where &amp; why money is being made online. We have to understand how to measure and optimise key commercial metrics to be able to help solve marketing problems for our clients. If you need help planning or executing your digital marketing strategy, <a title="Contact us" href="https://friday.ie/contact/" rel="noopener">give us a shout</a>, we can help.

The Digital Strategy Battlefield

Visual impact can not be underestimated &#8211; it’s the very essence of creativity. Creative media; photography, video, websites &#8211; they’re the best way to experience life without actually ‘being there’. In your business, whatever it is that you do or work with, how important is it for you to quickly and effectively communicate what you do in a way that connects with your audience?
Photography and Web Design
When you add a quality photograph to your website you are consciously (and subconsciously) giving potential customers an insight into your product or service and how that offering can help them. By choosing the right photography that&#8217;s relevant to your business, you can take a high quality, usable website design and perfect it.
Content
Good use of photography also makes good content shine, especially when matched up with non-visual content like copy or sound. This helps in situations including drawing attention, breaking up text-heavy content and bringing context to a page or editorial.
Stock vs Royalty Free vs Custom
People often think stock and royalty free photography are the same thing but there is an important difference as I’ll explain below. Choosing the best photography option for your needs is key to getting your project right.
Stock Photography
Stock photography is typically billed in a similar way to a custom shoot; the cost is usually based on how the photography is used. Obviously with stock images, there are no direct costs of getting the shot made. The fee is determined on where the photo will be used (print, web, TV etc) and for how long.
Royalty Free
Royalty free photography lets you use an image as much as you like for a single flat fee. Where cost varies it is usually down to the resolution size you need &#8211; the larger the image, the more it will cost. Once you have paid for the image you can use it anywhere and as many times as you like. however the visual quality of royalty free tends to be considerably lower than stock.
Custom Photography
Custom photography from a professional photographer is almost always the best option. While it’s certainly more expensive than royalty free and often stock but the short term cost is fair when compared to the long term win.
With custom photography, you have control over what thoughts and emotions your website conveys. From a marketing perspective, when potential customers are making a decision to work with you this is crucial.
With stock or royalty free, you will always be using someone else’s vision for an idea or concept that you&#8217;re trying to convey.
If a picture is really worth 1000 words, you will want those words to be yours and not someone else&#8217;s.
Trends
A more recent trend sees photography and imagery are used to define and form web design by use of ‘hero’ or ‘take over’ shots. Take the example of Shopify’s home page below.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-363" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/blog_shopify.jpg" alt="blog_shopify" width="768" height="389" />
They’re using a custom photo to appeal to a target audience, a girl in a store with a tablet device, working in a traditional retail store and using Shopify’s platform to sell online. The text overlay is simple, to the point and clear.
Squarespace also use photography to good effect to showcase their product and convey a sense of quality and easy of use.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-364" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/blog_squarespace.jpg" alt="blog_squarespace" width="768" height="389" />
MailChimp currently use a highly visual home page with quality custom photography to get straight into showcasing their email marketing software, also shouting out how easy it is to use.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-373" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/blog_mailchimp1.jpg" alt="blog_mailchimp" width="768" height="389" />
The photography on the Friday website was planned and taken around our new office, and around our office in Dublin city. It gives a sense of us, our personality and our creativity.
Good photography should be used for the following 3 reasons:
<ul>
<li>to connect with your target audience.</li>
<li>to set the tone.</li>
<li>to showcase products and services and sell effectively.</li>
</ul>
We always recommend that quality photography be high on the list of consideration for any project and it’s important to understand the benefits from each approach.

Author: Graham Carroll

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