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<h6>3 MIN READ.</h6>
That choice. Hire a specialist marketing agency or build your in-house team?
In this piece, I talk about the benefits of the two options and how you can have the best of both. We&#8217;ll also look at some recent stats for context.
<h3>In-Housing</h3>
Here are some of the advantages of having your own full-time in-house marketing team.
Organisational know-how
In-house marketing teams are dedicated exclusively to your brand or business, so naturally, they will know your products, services, and audience. Having this full-time knowledge and focus is key.
A <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/trust-in-business-survey.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2021 survey by PwC</a> found that 77% of European consumers consider trust in a brand as a buying factor, highlighting the importance of maintaining consistency of message and communication. In-house marketing talent is key to this.
Speed
In-house teams are always available, allowing for immediate responses to changing market conditions or unexpected challenges. This can be particularly important in fast-paced industries where timely decision-making and execution are critical.
Control and Alignment
Having an in-house team gives you complete control over your marketing activities. You can directly oversee projects, ensuring they align with your company&#8217;s vision and values.
This control can be especially crucial when your marketing efforts involve sensitive information or require a high degree of customisation.
Cost
Cost is a factor, but it swings both ways and there is value with different options depending on your circumstances.
Unilever announced back in 2017 that it saved approximately 30% on its agency fees by taking some of its advertising in-house and reducing the remit of its agency teams.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-6941 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/13-700x374.jpg" alt="In-Housing vs Agency" width="700" height="374" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/13-700x374.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/13-250x134.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/13-768x410.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/13-120x64.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/13-80x43.jpg 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/13.jpg 1900w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h3>Agency Benefits</h3>
Here, are some of the main advantages of partnering with an agency team.
Expertise and Ideas
Marketing agencies are often home to a team of specialised professionals with diverse skills. This breadth of expertise lets them stay updated with the latest marketing trends, strategies, and technologies.
For instance, in the European context, a survey conducted by the Digital Marketing Institute in 2021 found that 70% of marketers believed that keeping up with digital marketing trends was the biggest challenge they faced.
Marketing agencies can alleviate this concern by providing a pool of experts who specialise in various aspects of marketing, from SEO and content marketing to social media advertising.
Cost Efficiency
Hiring and training an in-house marketing team can be a significant investment, especially for small to medium-sized businesses.
In contrast, partnering with a marketing agency allows you to access a team of experts without the expense of hiring and retaining full-time employees.
This can be particularly advantageous for businesses with limited budgets.
Scalability and Flexibility
One of the key benefits of using a marketing agency is scalability. Agencies can easily adjust their resources to meet your changing needs.
Whether you&#8217;re launching a new product, entering a new market, or need to ramp up activity during a specific period, agencies offer flexibility without the commitment and risk of hiring.
HR
If you are a small company with a small team, there’s a limit to what you can accomplish because of the limited skill sets. For this reason, in-housing can be quite challenging.
Big businesses, on the other hand, have the human resource capacity to handle significant marketing activities.
However, after reviewing various agency prices, some large companies may prefer to cut costs by hiring an agency to handle their marketing.
Should they decide to stick with an in-house marketing team, managing a large team can become a challenge of its own.
With a huge internal marketing team, company leaders have to break silos for easy management. This could slow down communication.
<h3><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-8355 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ab17-700x374.jpg" alt="marketing stairs" width="700" height="374" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ab17-700x374.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ab17-250x134.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ab17-768x410.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ab17-120x64.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ab17-80x43.jpg 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ab17.jpg 1900w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></h3>
Ultimately, the decision between using an agency and building an in-house team depends on your specific needs and circumstances.
We would say it, but the expertise, cost-efficiency, and scalability offered by agencies are important to the success of your <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/strategy/">marketing strategy</a>. However, the in-depth knowledge, immediate availability, and control you get from your in-house team are equally important.
<h3>The Hybrid Approach</h3>
The hybrid approach, where in-house talent and agency support combine, strikes a perfect balance.
By leveraging the strengths of both teams, you can maximise impact.
Advantages of a Hybrid approach
In Bannerflow&#8217;s most recent published in-housing report, <a href="https://www.bannerflow.com/the-state-of-in-housing-2021-report">30% of respondents said that they had chosen a hybrid model</a>.
Building a strong partnership between an agency and a company&#8217;s in-house marketing team gives the best of both worlds and has the potential to transform an organisation into a marketing powerhouse.
Hybrid benefits include:
<ul>
<li>Data-driven decision-making without providing external parties access to a company&#8217;s sensitive consumer data.</li>
<li>Access to industry experts without the need to persuade them to become permanent employees of your company.</li>
<li>Benefiting from top-tier agency marketing tools and insights that might not otherwise be in reach.</li>
<li>With both in-house and external perspectives the collaboration processes make for a better strategy.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Thanks for reading.
If you are unsure about how to build your digital marketing or UX design team, <a href="https://www.friday.ie/contact/">get in touch with Friday</a>. We won&#8217;t bite you. I swear.
Also, we are currently working on a short survey for brand and marketing leads, product owners and senior people involved in marketing. If you would like to be involved in the survey, get in touch with me before the end of October 2023.

Marketing Teams – In-House, Agency and the power of Hybrid

For most, data privacy, consent, and the laws that govern it are about as appealing as watching paint dry. But are the tools we use every day that are designed to help control our consent really working?
Getting around the web is often a pain in the ass.
Newsletter pop-ups, display ads, and location alerts  &#8211; not fun.
And this pain manifests not least in the form of Consent Management Tools and their pop-up controls or Cookie banners. We&#8217;ve all been clicking, or at times ignoring some form of OK, Accept, Reject, etc almost every day for 5 years.
<h3>Consent with the GDPR</h3>
The GDPR is now 5 years old. It is a necessary and important EU directive that sets out laws and guidance on how personal data is controlled, stored and processed.
In front of that personal data sits the consent to have it in the first place, and that&#8217;s what this post is about.
<blockquote>&#8220;Most people are simply not thinking about their privacy or data rights. They just want to move on with their lives.&#8221;</blockquote>
<h3>Transparency</h3>
One of the core principles of the GDPR regulation is that it requires companies to provide consent notices to consumers in “concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.”
But what are the design principles that ensure those notices and their user interfaces are clear and transparent?
Can organisations that design for a myriad of things &#8211; web, mobile, wearables, voice assistants, connected cars and every sort of IoT device really live up to these ever-changing laws and principles?
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Do consent tools even work?</h3>
As is our nature, we tested this out.
In a set of usability tests with 20 people on a compliant consent tool pop-up, we found that the majority of users, 70%, clicked to Accept cookies.
When asked why they chose their action, answers from those who accepted included &#8220;That&#8217;s just what I always do&#8221; and &#8220;&#8230;it&#8217;s the fastest way to get rid of it.&#8221;
The problem is clear. Human nature prevails, and as <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/cognitive-miser" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cognitive misers</a>, through simple repetition, we follow the path of least resistance.
Most people are simply not thinking about their privacy or data rights, they just want to move on with their lives.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-14463" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-250x133.png" alt="" width="500" height="266" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-250x133.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-700x373.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-768x409.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-1536x817.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept-120x64.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/consent-accept.png 1586w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />
&nbsp;
But do consent tools actually work?
We tested this too.
Out of a quick straw poll selection of 12 random websites (May 2021), we found that just 7 of them (58%) did not fire cookies when Marketing Cookies were declined.
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Good Cookie?</h3>
When it comes to content streamers and IoT stuff, many of these services need to collect data from you to give you a better user experience.
For example, Netflix.
When you’re milling around thinking about what to watch next, content streamers use first-party cookies and data to show you content that you might like based on your viewing history, gender, etc.
If Netflix kept showing you the same viewing options every day, including things that you’ve already watched that would get annoying.
While this use of personal data improves the user experience, there are other ways your data is used from deciding what content to produce to more grey areas such as <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/netflix-data-tracking-privacy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how data is shared with 3rd parties</a>.
In the case of Netflix, the only opt-out is to stop using the service.
<div id="attachment_14461" style="width: 936px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14461" class="wp-image-14461 " src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/path-of-least-resistance-250x131.jpeg" alt="" width="926" height="485" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/path-of-least-resistance-250x131.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/path-of-least-resistance-768x401.jpeg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/path-of-least-resistance-120x63.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" />The path of least resistance. (Michael Sankey)</div>
<h3 class="graf graf--p">Privacy by Design</h3>
Despite the clear challenges of getting consent, education for those who process and store personal data is critical.
I spoke some time ago at a webinar hosted by the brilliant <a href="https://fpf.org/">Future of Privacy Forum</a> who invited me to give a talk on consent transparency and designing for trust.
Interesting takeaways included:
<ul>
<li class="graf graf--p">The biggest challenge to increasing User Experience transparency may be encouraging people to make deliberate decisions from a UX design perspective.</li>
<li class="graf graf--p">Designers’ colour and shape choices in User Interface design can be subtle ‘dark patterns.’ These dark patterns might even prevent, e.g., colourblind users from understanding the options at hand.</li>
<li class="graf graf--p">Organisations should ask themselves whether they should be collecting certain data in the first place.</li>
<li class="graf graf--p">Organisations need to take steps to prevent user manipulation, both by UX/UI (e.g., cookie banners) and by algorithms.</li>
</ul>
There&#8217;s a link to the webinar at the end of this post.
<h3>What should change</h3>
This is usually the part where you get &#8216;the answer&#8217; but there isn&#8217;t a definitive one or at least one that will make browsing websites and apps a little less annoying.
Google plans to phase out cookies with its <a href="https://privacysandbox.com/">Privacy Sandbox</a> but consent banners are not going to go away soon, so they may continue to annoy.
But, the real message here is that regardless of what level of consent users and consumers give (or how engaged they are when they do it), as businesses, data controllers and data processors, the responsibility lies with us to ask for, use and store their data responsibly.
There are two things I would advise:
<ul>
<li>Understand where your greatest data risks lie and ensure that your processes around processing and controlling that data are airtight.</li>
<li>Educate and train your staff on the laws and best practices around data protection, particularly how they relate to your greatest risks.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Thank you for reading.
&nbsp;
But wait, there&#8217;s more:
<ul>
<li>A piece I contributed to in the Sunday Business Post on the Death of Cookies: <a href="https://www.businesspost.ie/tech/will-google-kill-the-cookie/">https://www.businesspost.ie/tech/will-google-kill-the-cookie/ </a></li>
<li>You can check out a recording of my keynote with the Future of Privacy Forum here: <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://fpf.org/blog/event-recap-dublin-privacy-symposium-2021-designing-for-trust-enhancing-transparency-preventing-user-manipulation/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-href="https://fpf.org/blog/event-recap-dublin-privacy-symposium-2021-designing-for-trust-enhancing-transparency-preventing-user-manipulation/">https://fpf.org/blog/event-recap-dublin-privacy-symposium-2021-designing-for-trust-enhancing-transparency-preventing-user-manipulation/</a></li>
<li>Note: Consent Tool Usability Tests were conducted in May 2021.</li>
</ul>
And if you want to go full geek, check out this 30-minute piece on GDPR after 5 years from Voice of ESG. It has some sound advice at the end on engaging in training and awareness for your team.
<iframe title="Spotify Embed: Special: 5 years GDPR in the EU" style="border-radius: 12px" width="100%" height="152" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/5xXR5MvBjalaZOLOA2a1tW?si=x072yDeGTjWCT3Rlcfg1XQ&#038;utm_source=oembed"></iframe>

Clickety-click: 5 Years of Consent with the GDPR

If you use ChatGPT to write your blog posts then you&#8217;re turning up to a gunfight with a knife.
So no, you absolutely should not use it for this. I&#8217;ll explain why….
Don&#8217;t get me wrong, AI is incredible and I fully welcome it.
ChatGPT is great for certain things such as text completion, language translation, sentiment analysis, summarising text, and answering questions&#8230; it&#8217;s even a useful tool for a wide range of real-world applications such as chatbots and customer service.
It really is a game changer, but just not for your content strategy.
It&#8217;s no surprise that ChatGPT has garnered a lot of attention in the SEO industry. After all, it&#8217;s a chatbot that utilises natural language processing to answer questions. In fact, it may even be one of the most widely discussed AI tools to date.
When it comes to ChatGPT and SEO, I was keen to wait until the dust settled before forming an opinion.
In a short space of time, it very quickly went from just being an awesome new tool to sudden cries of “SEOs will be out of work now!”.
Which is, of course, total nonsense. In my lifetime I do not expect AI to be able to replicate human emotion or creativity.
It can mainstream some SEO tasks very well, such as keyword and content research, but it should not be used to fuel your content strategy.
<h3>Not capable</h3>
Firstly, it amazes me that so many are jumping the gun in assuming that ChatGPT is the answer to their content drought. And they do so without even asking the very tool that they place so much trust in for no apparent reason.
If you did ask it, it will tell you that it is not capable of creating original content or ideas, not to mention that it recommends you do your own research and not use it as a substitute for a human writer:
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14359" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600.jpeg" alt="Should you use ChatGPT to create your blog posts" width="734" height="407" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600.jpeg 734w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600-250x139.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600-700x388.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1671532184600-120x67.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 734px) 100vw, 734px" />
Of course, many attempts have been made to generate content – in bulk or otherwise &#8211; using ChatGPT, but the results have been less than satisfactory in terms of relevance.
While some of the content produced may have driven traffic, it failed to attract the right audience, and it did not typically generate revenue.
For most businesses, creating content in bulk using AI would be a challenge in terms of maintenance and impact, particularly without a substantial marketing team or revenue.
The cost of maintaining such content would eat into the bottom line, with little or no return on investment.
Furthermore, since generic content is often removed from the buyer&#8217;s journey, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify allocating resources towards its improvement.
<h3>Ineffective approach</h3>
Years ago, many people tried publishing thousands of posts using content mills for as low as 2 cents per word, and it proved to be an ineffective approach. This is no different.
The same is true for using ChatGPT or any other automated tool to produce content. It&#8217;s simply old-school SEO, and these strategies do not work in driving business growth.
The key to success lies in understanding what your audience needs and delivering it with authority, rather than spamming content around non-competitive, high-volume keywords.
The business acumen to recognise that AI-generated content is not the solution required to move the needle is missing.
Most businesses require high-level content that communicates expertise and addresses consumer concerns. Unfortunately, AI is not currently capable of generating such content.
<h3>No acumen</h3>
I recently came across this post on Twitter by a copywriter. It’s grim, to say the least. And the business that chose to do this? There is clearly no acumen on display by this particular client:
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-14360" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751.jpeg" alt="" width="800" height="443" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751.jpeg 800w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751-250x138.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751-700x388.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751-768x425.jpeg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/1673602990751-120x66.jpeg 120w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
You could argue that most blog posts should not be for SEO, and this is true. But even those created for trust, optics and usefulness by ChatGPT will fall very short of requirements.
<h3>Content that satisfies</h3>
It is imperative to reiterate (once more) the paramount importance of creating content that aligns with Google&#8217;s expectations.
While not particularly complex, this is a facet of creating content that is frequently overlooked.
Google places a premium on content that satisfies the following criteria:
<ul>
<li>Offers original information, reporting, research, or analysis</li>
<li>Provides an extensive, exhaustive, or complete overview of the subject matter</li>
<li>Offers insightful analysis or intriguing data that goes beyond the surface level</li>
<li>References and cites other sources rather than simply duplicating or rehashing their content, thereby offering additional value and originality. ChatGPT, for instance, is a prime example of this approach.</li>
<li>Is the kind of content that would prompt you to bookmark it, share it with others, or recommend it?</li>
<li>Is similar to the calibre of content that you would find in a reputable publication, such as a magazine, encyclopedia, or book? This is an essential consideration; Google effectively prioritises journalism.</li>
<li>Offers greater value than other search results pages? Trust me, ChatGPT is not expending such extensive effort solely for your benefit.</li>
<li>Is crafted with care and attention to detail, avoiding any hasty or sloppy errors</li>
<li>Is not mass-produced, thereby avoiding neglect and disregard for individual pages or sites.</li>
</ul>
As you can see this is not the work of AI. This is humans. It’s critical thinking, applied knowledge, originality and opinions.
I have not even yet mentioned the trust factors that Google often references. You might know it as <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/12/google-raters-guidelines-e-e-a-t">E-E-A-T</a>.
<h3>Authority of content</h3>
Google&#8217;s ranking algorithm considers multiple factors when determining the authority of content.
Among these factors are questions related to the author&#8217;s expertise, including whether the content provides clear sourcing, evidence of the author&#8217;s expertise or the website&#8217;s authority, and links to relevant pages such as an author page or an About page.
The algorithm also considers whether the site producing the content is well-trusted or recognised as an authority on the topic. Additionally, the algorithm evaluates whether the content is written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrates a deep understanding of the topic.
Finally, the algorithm checks for easily verifiable factual errors in the content.
Now, do you really want to trust ChatGPT with any of this???
<h3>Not a solution</h3>
ChatGPT is a tool and NOT a solution. It can be an effective starting point.
If you have writer’s block then by all means ask it for suggestions on sub-topics – but you’d best be prepared to write about these topics in an original, thoughtful, and perhaps opinionated way.
Think about a world filled with AI-generated content. It&#8217;s a world where quality is no longer the deciding factor, where homogeneous content reigns supreme.
After all, why bother with a half-decent writer when you can just rely on ChatGPT to generate something similar? But if everyone is using the same tool, where is the differentiation?
If your competitor generates articles on the same topic using the same AI tool, how do you stand out?
The answer: you don&#8217;t.
You&#8217;re left to compete solely on backlinking and technical SEO, which are smaller pieces of the puzzle compared to content itself.
<h3>Often wrong</h3>
But even if you manage to get your AI-generated content indexed, there&#8217;s another problem: accuracy. ChatGPT may be confident in its writing, but it&#8217;s often wrong.
It&#8217;s like using predictive text on your phone &#8211; it can lead to nonsensical statements. Except with ChatGPT, the mistakes can be subtle and dangerous.
It may use insecure libraries in code snippets, or get facts wrong. And let&#8217;s not forget its inability to count words and characters properly. At the time of writing this, if you ask it for ten headlines with 50 characters or fewer, it&#8217;ll spit out ten headlines of arbitrary length, assuring you that they&#8217;re within your parameters.
<h3>Risky proposition</h3>
So, is relying on ChatGPT for SEO content generation a good idea? In short, no. Not really. The lack of differentiation and the potential for inaccuracies make it a risky proposition.
Sure, it&#8217;s an impressive tool, but it&#8217;s not a substitute for human creativity and expertise.
When ChatGPT exploded on the scene, I became very tired of reading articles only to get to the end and be told “Surprise, this was written by ChatGPT!”
This was not clever, it was obnoxious, and I could usually tell that it was written by AI anyway.
Well, I’ll just finish by saying&#8230;
Surprise, ChatGPT could NOT have possibly written this one.
Because it’s actually original and voices an opinion.
If you want to know more about how Friday can help you with <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/">SEO</a> and <a href="https://www.friday.ie/expertise/content-marketing/">content</a>, then <a href="https://www.friday.ie/contact/">get in touch</a> with us now.

Should you use ChatGPT to create your blog posts

Should you use ChatGPT to create your blog posts?

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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>
&nbsp;
<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 loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14333" class=" wp-image-14333" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-250x151.jpg" alt="Look at the data" width="974" height="588" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-250x151.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-700x422.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-768x463.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/look-at-the-data-120x72.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/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

Thankfully, for the most part, the pandemic is behind us, leaving a strange 2-year black hole in the timeline of our lives. While normality for most was put on standby, we saw the transformation of businesses and how customers experience products and services.
There was an acceleration in everything from working from home to digital subscriptions, online shopping, food delivery services and video calling — if you look back, the impact has been staggering.
Most of these products and services already existed but the pandemic acted like a steroid injection of digital transformation and mass adoption. Customers are now a lot savvier, their expectations have risen around websites, apps and the overall brand and product experience.
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Dated Practices</h4>
Assumptions made in the boardroom using outdated demographic data or a hunch someone on the marketing team has is no longer a way to create a successful product or service. This type of thinking has and will usually lead to failure. We’ve been banging this drum for a long time and we have to keep banging. You’d be amazed how much we see businesses, from large multinational enterprises to SMEs still taking this approach. Excuses we hear range from the lack of time, budget or our old favourite “we already know what our customers want”.
Direction on product development needs to come from your customers — they know what they want and they will be happy to tell you if you just ask them. Not properly listening to or involving your customers in your design process will mean your competitors will out-smart, out-rank and out-sell you.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 52%; position: relative;"><iframe loading="lazy" class="giphy-embed" style="position: absolute;" src="https://giphy.com/embed/yoJC2yftYP4kP6Ku40" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">The winds of change</h4>
This had been bubbling a few years before the pandemic, influence was starting to filter down, fueled by the success of design-focused companies. Wider adoption of research and user-focused design processes used to create and promote digital as well as physical products was beginning to have a wider impact.
Brands who had focused on research around their customer or users experience had started to surface as the winners while others have been floating along with limited or no growth. A new standard has been set. Users&#8217; tolerance and patience for friction within a brand experience has been almost wiped out.
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Stand out from the crowd</h4>
In a world dominated by multinationals, brands need a point of differentiation, a unique selling point. Maybe brands offering similar products look to pricing as a way to establish their USP but this is just a race to the bottom.
An example of this in Ireland is the telco, Eir. They offer what is probably the cheapest TV package on the Irish market at just €10 a month when added to your broadband package — price is their standout USP but as we all know, their issues with customer experience have been well publicised. So it is difficult to imagine they have any other sales tools they can use to establish an alternative USP to price. They have boxed themselves into a corner by not focusing on good customer experiences.
The point is that experience is more important than price. Sure, your pricing needs to be affordable but if your customers like the experience, they will be happy to pay a premium. Look at companies like Dyson, Revolut, Sky or Apple.
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” 
&#8211; Seth Godin</blockquote>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Be Inclusive</h4>
If you want to build inclusive products that work for everyone, you simply have to follow a human-centred design process that is grounded in research. Data analytics is extremely important but listening to what real people actually want is the most valuable data you can collect.
I’m not talking about sending out a quick survey and maybe carrying out a bit of user testing on a prototype of your product. You need to invest in bringing the customer on the design journey with you, work smart by digging deep into every nuance of the customer journey and experience both online and offline — sweat the small stuff as well as the fundamentals, a collection of micro insights will be greater than the sum of its parts. Challenge assumptions, validate ideas, optimise the customer&#8217;s journey and increase conversions. This will translate into revenue, higher profits, and will grow your business.
Customer expectations are higher than ever, good experiences are rewarded with customer trust, loyalty and referrals. If you are not already listening very carefully to your customers and involving them in every area of your offering, someone else will do it and they will win.
Inclusive design takes time and effort but the investment will pay off in multiples. Talk to us if you want to know how we can help you with research-focused design, marketing and digital transformation.

If you’re not listening to your customers, you will most likely fail.

I don’t think there is another industry that has embraced acronyms quite like marketing. A handy short-cut for those who understand them and for those who don’t (and are afraid to ask) they are beyond useless. When it comes to marketing and digital performance the 2 biggest acronyms in town these days are CRO and UX.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) and UX (User Experience) are two of the most important areas of focus that drive success online. These terms are used interchangeably, they work together with the same goals but it is important to note that they are not the same thing.
<h3 class="graf graf--h4">What is CRO?</h3>
CRO is a process that focuses on increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a specific action. This action can be anything from buying a product, signing up to a service, webinar or newsletter. CRO takes an holistic look at the full user or customer journey from first engagement all they way past the point of purchase or conversion and optimises for a better conversion rate.
To calculate your conversion rate, you simply divide the number of conversions by the total number of web page visitors. Lets say a web page gets 10,000 visits a month and on average 400 of these visitors end up buying a product, thats a 4% conversion rate — not bad for many industries.
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote">(400 ÷ 10,000) x 100 = 4%</blockquote>
There are hundreds, if not thousands of ways to improve your conversion rate. Every site needs a CRO strategy, you start by looking at the product or service you are offering, do people want it? Is there a value proposition? Is there a strong brand? You optimise and test your content &amp; messaging, user journeys, your ads and how they are targeted. Refine and test your calls to action, landing pages, SEO, SEM and your websites loading speed… the list is endless.
The foundation of any CRO activity is looking at analytics and user feedback. We explore website analytics and learn about the traffic, its performance and look for opportunities. Ideas are brainstormed, prioritised and turned into a roadmap that goes through a cycle of test and iterate where necessary. This is an ongoing process that UX will play a big part in.
<h3 class="graf graf--h4">What is UX?</h3>
Users don’t come away from an online purchase remembering how the funnel made them feel, they will recall the website and brand experience — this is where UX comes in.
UX is a supplement to CRO that aims at easing the user journey by improving the design of the website or App so that is intuitive, enjoyable, seamless and simple. UX removes the friction through research to find empathy with the user and understand the users perceptions and expectations, these insights give design direction from real users or customers, not assumption.
Where CRO will focus on the numbers and the business goals, UX will be an advocate of the user which will help drive the numbers and business goals by working to help the user achieve their goals. CRO tells you ‘what’ is happening, where UX helps explain ‘why’ it is happening and presents actionable solutions.
Gavin and I had a good chat to see if we could come up with an analogy to explain the difference between UX and CRO. This is what we mustered when applying the principles of CRO and UX to a glass of water.
<figure class="graf graf--figure"></figure>
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“CRO will bring you to the water and tell you that you need to drink it, while UX will make drinking the water as easy and enjoyable as possible.”</blockquote>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2121" height="917" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13645" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water.png 2121w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-250x108.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-700x303.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-768x332.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-1536x664.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-2048x885.png 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-120x52.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/water-80x35.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2121px) 100vw, 2121px" />
Not perfect but hopefully you get the idea!
<h3 class="graf graf--h4">Hand in hand</h3>
CRO should not or cannot be carried out without UX and visa versa, each feeds and compliments the other. If you invest in CRO without investing in UX you may drive people to your website but risk driving them into a brick wall, they are less likely to convert if the experience is poor. Likewise, you can have great UX on your website but without good CRO few will get to experience it.
CRO and UX is an ongoing process, the world changes as does user behaviour and thats why a continuing cycle of analyse, test and iterate is needed for ongoing success.
At Friday, our digital performance team work alongside our UX team to get the most out of your campaigns and online presence. Talk to us today about how we can use CRO with UX to attract and convert customers for you.

CRO & UX  -  What’s the Difference?

We create messages every day in order to influence others, often without even knowing it.
It may be one of the hundreds of emails you send to your coworkers, acquaintances, or clients on a regular basis&#8230;
Alternatively, if you work in a digital agency like I do, you can be developing advertising, content, a web page, metadata, or meeting slides&#8230;
Most of these things require a lot of mental work and even time/money, so have you ever considered how effective all of these efforts are from the viewpoint of people&#8217;s minds?
What kind of attention can you really get? How likely is it that you&#8217;ll be able to rewire pre-existing attitudes and opinions? Can you persuade your targets to make a purchase or persuade them that they require something?
As digital marketers, it&#8217;s neuromarketing that&#8217;s going to get us to that place.
<h3>Digital communication</h3>
Web analytics and data are now so easy to produce in the digital marketing field that marketers frequently use them to identify the real impact of advertising without any further science &#8211; and this is very powerful.
But what we&#8217;re actually seeing here are outcomes, which are great for analysis and have their place, but are not genuine causes.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have spent millions of dollars trying to persuade us that their algorithms can uncover and anticipate the quality of each digital communication you send. For them, it is a question of life and death. They&#8217;ve gotten pretty damn good at it, too.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-13620 size-medium" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-250x250.png" alt="" width="250" height="250" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-250x250.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-700x700.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-150x150.png 150w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-768x768.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-120x120.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates-80x80.png 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ig-pilates.png 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" />
Recent events, however, have demonstrated how deceiving analytics may be. Worse, they frequently contain inaccurate definitions, dubious assumptions, and even mathematical mistakes.
They&#8217;re based on behavioral data that provides a skewed picture of how individuals react to messages. They are unconcerned with the unseen &#8216;unconscious&#8217; clicks that occur in people&#8217;s heads.
<h3>Precision targeting</h3>
Procter &amp; Gamble, the world&#8217;s largest marketer, curtailed its Facebook ad spend in 2016, arguing that targeting individual demographics was costly and did not result in a substantial impact.
Facebook (now Meta, of course) and Google both claim to be able to assist advertising in targeting specific audiences. P&amp;G, on the other hand, said that there was no proof that precision targeting was worthwhile.
We continue to see these platforms perform admirably as an agency. But, hey, to each their own.
Meanwhile, Facebook acknowledged in 2016 that it had been overestimating a key video statistic for at least two years. The average time of a video seen was calculated using only video views that lasted more than three seconds. As a result, advertisements&#8217; performance scores were greater than they should have been.
Many advertisers were furious, despite the fact that the social network stated it was a miscalculation of the average time users spent watching videos on its site.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="355" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13624" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/giphy.gif" alt="" />
Sure you do, Mark&#8230;
Google and Facebook don&#8217;t let outsiders evaluate their platforms, so they&#8217;re practically grading their own homework.
Without a doubt, Facebook&#8217;s error was an embarrassment. They issued an official apology and stated that the error in their algorithm will be corrected.
So be warned: online analytics are fantastic, but their utility is limited, and they can be inaccurate at times. However, they are frequently all we have.
<h3>Unseen decisions</h3>
In the near future, neuromarketing techniques will show the nature and effect of unseen decisions, making you a better buyer of digital advertising. As a result, the advertising industry&#8217;s big data players may not be as enthusiastic about neuromarketing as you should be.
And you most certainly should be.
Analytics does not provide a comprehensive picture of what happens when purchasers&#8217; minds are first exposed to advertisements; you must continually test headlines, change visuals, and generally adjust your message several times.
This makes it difficult to figure out why so much of your advertising isn&#8217;t paying off.
And, most significantly, you may choose an ad that is actually kind of unsuccessful but just happens to be the best performer in your test!
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="360" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13626" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/giphy-3.gif" alt="" />
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<h3>Brain persuasion</h3>
A/B testing is a trap that pays media networks billions without providing deeper knowledge of how ads influence the brain. The search for ideal messages through testing can get you to a better place but can also be inefficient, expensive, and contradicts the rules of brain persuasion.
When utilised to influence digital marketing initiatives, a lot of traditional marketing research falls short of its aims, especially when it comes to assessing the impact of the advertising message.
In their own right, surveys, interviews, and focus groups are powerful tools, but they don&#8217;t explain the neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin consumer behavior.
Nonetheless, our responses to most marketing stimuli are explained by the subconscious and preconscious regions of our brain.
That is why, when compared to traditional research methods, Neuromarketing may offer unique insights, a fact that is now widely recognised by marketing and advertising experts all over the world.
<h3>So what is it?</h3>
Neuromarketing employs a variety of methods, the most common of which being functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It also utilises eye-tracking technologies, but most commonly in tandem with other technologies that read changes in brain functions.
The idea is to figure out which portion of the brain reacts to certain pictures, phrases, and slogans, and how that part of the brain reacts.
Integration of neuroscientific methodologies with digital advertising, in my opinion, will be one of the most crucial aspects of advertising and measurement of the same as things like the metaverse increase in usage.
It&#8217;s also known as Consumer Neuroscience and is the scientific study of how people&#8217;s brains react to advertising and other brand-related signals through the use of brain waves, eye tracking, and skin reactions.
It can employ brain imaging techniques like fMRI to show how the brain reacts unconsciously to what it perceives. This detects changes associated with blood flow. Basically, when an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-13623 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-700x350.jpeg" alt="" width="700" height="350" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-700x350.jpeg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-250x125.jpeg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-768x384.jpeg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-120x60.jpeg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re-80x40.jpeg 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DSC_8594-re.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h3>Value and relevance</h3>
It is non-invasive and safe. Although there was some initial skepticism and opposition, the advertising industry has begun to realise the movement&#8217;s value and relevance.
Because neuromarketing technologies track the molecular, physiological, and neurological changes that occur in our brains in reaction to marketing, they go well beyond typical data collecting techniques.
These experimental settings will aid in the analysis of instinctual, emotional, and cognitive reactions without putting the interpretive weight on study participants.
You may not know it, but filling out a survey consumes a significant amount of your brain&#8217;s precious energy. Even getting paid to take surveys does not alleviate this stress.
<h3>Act like zombies</h3>
It is impossible to overestimate the value of cognitive energy. Using brain-based approaches eliminates the need for individuals&#8217; conscious and active engagement. You&#8217;re not asking them to act like zombies; all you&#8217;re asking them to do is relax and allow the messages to work their way into their heads.
There&#8217;s also no requirement for the subjects to say anything. The goal is for the stimulus to have an effect on their neurophysiology. The brain will activate and create its own narrative.
When was the last time you were asked what you thought of a movie you had just seen? It&#8217;s a simple question, but imagine how difficult it would be to respond if you had to use emotional measures to describe how pleased, sad, enthusiastic, anxious, concerned, intrigued, and so on you were.
The same may be said for how we react to digital advertising or even a website. We know these stimuli have an effect on us, but we can&#8217;t be sure how much of an emotional or cognitive influence they have on our brain.
<h3>Difficult to recognise</h3>
According to research, when people are asked to explain their moods on a daily basis, they use an average of three words, implying that emotions are difficult to recognise and express. This clouds user feedback.
There are a few essential research questions that only Neuromarketing can answer.
<ul>
<li>Will my message pique the interest of the brain&#8217;s subconscious?</li>
<li>Will that unintentional influence lead to a purchase or a brand interaction?</li>
<li>Is it possible for individuals to express their true feelings? (We have the ability to fool even ourselves!)</li>
<li>What emotions lead to decisions?</li>
<li>Which of your messages has the most impact on people&#8217;s minds, and why?</li>
<li>Can neuromarketing be used to demonstrate a product&#8217;s or solution&#8217;s unique value?</li>
</ul>
And, perhaps most crucially:
<ul>
<li>Can a brain-based persuasion model lead to improved Return on Investment?</li>
</ul>
fMRI scans have demonstrated that a variety of factors determine how and why customers accept specific brands and buy their items, even if they are more expensive than competitors.
It has little to do with logic or reasonable thought. Humans are sensory creatures that react to the way particular stimuli make them &#8220;feel&#8221;.
<h3>Added value</h3>
Its methodologies can investigate subconscious responses and monitor brain activity in persons as well as their reactions to advertisements that they are unaware of.
Ultimately it can also provide customers with added value.
There have been ethical concerns raised, with some referring to it as &#8220;mind-reading,&#8221; although in fact, it employs volunteer participants in a manner that is not fundamentally different at all from established research methodologies.
Furthermore, discoveries from this field are being utilised to investigate solutions and therapies for, among other things, compulsive online gambling and addictive shopping habits.
<h3>What&#8217;s Next?</h3>
Neuromarketing will become more accessible in time as datasets from earlier studies are utilised to develop tools that do not require the use of a lab or fMRI methodology.
Soon you&#8217;ll be able to submit an image of your ad, a video, product page, or piece of content, etc, and get immediate feedback on how it will affect the subconscious.
This technology has already begun to emerge. We have tested some and we&#8217;ll be first in line when these are more commercially available.

Neuromarketing: The Emotions Behind The Data

It&#8217;s obvious that consumers are now concerned about data privacy.
They are more aware of how their data is gathered, kept, and shared, and they want greater control.
This has somehow been accomplished without actually fully informing consumers about the risks of having their data exposed or exploited, and yet they have mostly decided to accept it. So here we are!
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="400" height="208" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13573" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/giphy-1.gif" alt="Consumer Rights" />
If you&#8217;re busy or simply decide not to read on then at least know this: you&#8217;re going to need some very compelling reasons for customers to give you their data.
Because data gathering has grown so inextricably linked to the current customer experience, brands now face a unique set of problems.
Would e-commerce have grown at the same rate without tailored ads and targeted promotions? Most likely not, because both customers and brands have grown to rely on customisation to improve the modern buying experience.
Could small and medium-sized enterprises have gained the same degree of awareness among their cohorts as the major spenders do without customised or targeted advertising? No, not really.
We <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/how-to-protect-facebook-marketing-performance-cookie-free-future/">recently discussed</a> how Apple has modified how it will manage customer data by strengthening privacy and safeguards for consumers&#8217; information. With such a global powerhouse embracing the trend towards enhanced data privacy, marketers must keep these developments in mind as they plan future initiatives.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-13570 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-700x491.png" alt="Apple Privacy" width="700" height="491" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-700x491.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-250x175.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-768x539.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-120x84.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03-80x56.png 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/imore-facebookprivacy_03.png 812w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
Increased data restrictions will unavoidably limit the methods brands and marketers can use to get information about customers, altering how we design marketing campaigns and activities.
These obstacles can only be overcome if brands focus on the consumer&#8217;s unique and personal traits and make attempts to develop a meaningful relationship with them.
In many respects, these difficulties will benefit the marketing profession by encouraging innovation and adaptability.
<h3 class="p1">Personalisation in marketing</h3>
Aside from using the tech giants&#8217; aggregated predictive models to provide us with more detailed targeting like before, brands will need to focus more on personalised marketing, which is already gaining traction and has become a popular topic of discussion with the introduction of relevant and supportive technologies such as data management platforms, geotargeting, and varied forms of targeted e-mails.
Many individuals now feel that it is an unavoidable baseline for the future of marketing strategy and brand performance in competitive marketplaces.
Because the likes of Google and Facebook&#8217;s &#8220;workarounds&#8221; for data loss (due to fewer opt-ins) will be widely available to all companies, it will be your tailored advertising capabilities based on your earned datasets that will set you apart.
<h3 class="p1">Adapt to technological advancements</h3>
Companies will need to adapt to relevant technology if customised marketing is to operate as predicted.
They will need to get acquainted with new and popular forms of social media, data-gathering platforms, and other technology that not all existing employees and enterprises are likely to be familiar with or able to purchase.
AI is bringing predictive personalisation techniques closer than any other tech trend. Things like <a href="https://blog.hunchads.com/dynamic-creative">Dynamic Creative Optimisation</a> are already helping to relegate tasks like split A/B testing to the past.
Many companies that can afford it have already implemented machine learning, big data, and AI to automate customisation.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="480" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13572" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/giphy.gif" alt="Data Gathering" />
<h3 class="p1">Current business models are being restructured</h3>
Adopting a new marketing strategy customised to the most relevant technology needs budget, time and resources.
To successfully adopt customised marketing, companies will need to organise their planning and communication a lot better.
Some businesses will have to recognise that their present processes and marketing strategies will have to alter dramatically and often.
They will have to reassess how consumer data and information are distributed within the company and potentially beyond that.
Individuals&#8217; geographic locations, potential customers&#8217; prior purchases, and so on will be flooded into company databases, and there may be restraints in how that information is obtained, distributed internally and publicly, and used to improve revenues.
<h3 class="p1">Legal ramifications</h3>
Privacy is always a concern, and in certain places, it is more so than in others, so businesses must overcome any legal obstacles before implementing tailored marketing. In particular, the EU has established GDPR, and you’ll all have heard of that by now. 
GDPR limits the types of data that brands may gather on their customers and provides a means for them to sue companies for violating their privacy. In the United States, California followed suit and enacted the CCPA in 2018.
Now let&#8217;s discuss some of the first measures marketers and businesses must take in order to discover, contact and convert customers in the age of data security.
<h3 class="p1">Get to know your consumers better</h3>
We&#8217;ve all heard that the cookie is on its way out for quite some time. They have lost their charm as customers become more suspicious and privacy regulations become more stringent.
Consumers, in my opinion, have been far too ready to accept that cookies are evil, and yet here we are.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="384" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13574" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/giphy-3.gif" alt="Bad Cookies" />
However, this is beneficial in some respects since it will make some brands less lazy.
Many brands have traditionally depended extensively on background data collecting, which has produced some useful outcomes. With evolving data rules, we will need to get to know our consumers in new and deeper ways. This will have a huge impact on the marketing industry.
Brands and marketers must look beyond conventional third-party data, such as broad demographics or the amount of time visitors spend on a website, to understand their consumers&#8217; unique interests and objectives.
The next generation of marketing will be based on an intentional brand-to-consumer connection in which cooperation &#8211; most likely in the form of data sharing and incentives &#8211; will generate purchasing power.
Consumers want to have relationships with the brands they like, yet many businesses do not prioritise developing this sort of loyalty. Brands may build better consumer connections and loyalty if they strategise and accept these shifts in data privacy.
<h3 class="p1">Restore consumer power via customisation</h3>
Customers demand privacy from companies and advertising, but they also want goods and services that are tailored to their specific requirements. Because of this paradox, as well as new privacy regulations, marketers must understand their clients beyond their clicking and scrolling behaviours.
According to <a href="https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/pdf-77/accenture-pulse-survey.pdf">Accenture research</a>, 91% of consumers prefer to buy items from businesses that provide some level of personalisation. Marketers will find it more difficult to reach customers without third-party data than ever before, yet most consumers will still demand the same level of personalised suggestions, discounts, or promotions.
Personalisation is the answer. They will eventually have more power over which marketing activities they see or don&#8217;t see based on how they interact with a company as personalisation increases.
Brands will have to look for new ways to understand their customers, such as first-party or zero-party data collecting. These approaches will provide more focused insights than any third-party data source, but they will necessitate more effort on the side of brands.
<h3 class="p1">Make clever use of data and technology</h3>
Brands can solve data privacy issues if they use data wisely. They must utilise tools to understand and contact their customers as consumer data gets more difficult to access and marketing technology grows more expensive to use.
They will require technology that spans many channels, collects data in real-time, improves the user experience, and generates reliable data reports. More precise data (collected by first- or zero-party techniques) will necessitate a more sophisticated analysis.
Personalisation will be the bedrock of intelligent data utilisation. Segmentation will give way to direct engagement with the consumer, whether through an AI-powered platform or even things like simple quizzes, competitions or surveys.
Interactive material not only encourages increased involvement but also increases the user&#8217;s enjoyment. At the very least, it enhances the amount of time visitors spend engaging with you, which improves your shareability/linkability and possibly even your rankings.
People mostly want to be involved, therefore good interactive content nearly always enhances your user experience.
This move for interactive content will be part of a larger trend toward personalisation anyway; by allowing consumers to respond for themselves or have their opinions heard, they feel a more personal connection to the business.
Don&#8217;t forget that it may also be used to collect data about user preferences, for example, to enhance products or websites.
<h3 class="p1">Segmentation of customers</h3>
The concept is simple: rather than a limited number of major marketing efforts aimed at broad audiences, it is often preferable to have a large number of small marketing initiatives aimed at specialised consumers.
Customer segmentation is categorising your target customer based on specific characteristics or behaviours, such as demographics or purchasing patterns.
This allows you to more precisely tailor your material to their interests, such as having two separate email lists for large spenders and small spenders and sending various newsletters to each with different items.
You may segment your consumers anyway you choose, but the most frequent divisions are demographic, psychographic, geographic, behavioural, and customer journey.
This technique is excellent for customisation and consumer engagement because your followers will receive material that has been hand-picked just for them.
Aside from email lists, consumer segmentation may be applied to customised advertisements on other sites, categories of blog posts, and social media content for numerous different interests and communities.
<h3 class="p1">Start planning now</h3>
So despite the disruption of nasty and annoying cookie consent notifications, consumers increasingly believe that their data is one of their most valuable assets in the contemporary world, and they want to know that it will be handled properly. That’s not going anywhere.
So this barrier needs to be overcome by using personalisation to satisfy their remaining need for tailored advertising &#8211; and brands must start planning now.
Think about your overall content strategy, your e-mail marketing tactics, newsletter audiences, previous purchasers, social media audiences and website users… segment them all to start planning conversations that they will enjoy.

It’s Time to Get Personal

There are many cities around the world offering smart city solutions. Did you know that Dublin is one of them?
While driving to work may seem challenging at times, Artificial Intelligence is already making it less difficult with things like smart traffic lights and traffic management systems.
AI is actually improving the quality of life for everyone, often without our knowledge.
Advances in healthcare, research, education and other fields have benefited from it, which ultimately aim to boost economic prosperity and life expectancy. AI is a wonderful thing.
And yet there’s a certain level of fear out there about AI.
For example, a few years ago Facebook shut down two chatbots because they began talking to each other in a strange language that only they understood.
People freaked out about this.
But in fact, they merely malfunctioned and were not serving the purpose of supporting human conversations. That’s all. No panic required.
And then there’s those who think that The Terminator is more plausible than it actually is.
So let’s take a deep breath, a reality check, and look at what we’re actually dealing with here.
The Business Transformation Index 2021 <a href="https://expleogroup.com/bti/">report</a> compiled by Expleo shows that almost two-thirds of businesses in Ireland will be utilising AI or machine learning by the year 2023.
Compared to 22% of companies currently using the technology, this is a considerable increase.
Very strange for something that we’re supposed to be afraid of, right?!
<h3>Reducing costs</h3>
In response to the pandemic, 40% of businesses have managed to automate more processes, one out of five people have claimed that both AI and machine learning are important to ensure the success of their business, while 17% of them believe that automation can help to reduce the Covid-19 backlog.
Technology will have a major impact over the next three years on areas such as enabling employees to focus on their business-critical tasks, accelerating processes, and reducing costs, according to a TechPro survey conducted among 200 businesses and IT professionals on behalf of Expleo.
Digital marketing is one area of integration with AI that cannot be ignored, and it’s already happening.
Many of Google&#8217;s algorithm changes are already based on machine learning. Facebook Ads are already optimised this way.
Forget about that <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/how-to-protect-facebook-marketing-performance-cookie-free-future/">cookieless future</a> &#8211; AI predictors will know your behaviours anyway. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
<h3>Must be utilised</h3>
The concept of AI encompasses the use of computing devices and cloud computing in business processes, systems, and daily life operations, as well as the integration of robotics, computer and digital content production in various business processes, systems, and daily activities.
In order to benefit from future marketing efforts, AI must be utilised. The use of AI software is increasing every day as companies use it to optimise their processes, decrease overheads, and turnaround time, and augment productivity.
We are naturally worried that AI will eventually replace humans, but we must remember that AI systems are not yet capable of dealing with emotion, empathy, or critical thinking. There is a very real possibility that it never will.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="512" height="355" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12115" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/unnamed.jpg" alt="robots replacing humans" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/unnamed.jpg 512w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/unnamed-250x173.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/unnamed-120x83.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/unnamed-80x55.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />
Those who become adept at marketing AI software will have a distinct advantage &#8212; technology is evolving at a rate that is unparalleled. One by one, AI is transforming industries. An obvious example is self-driving cars, and then there’s robotics in manufacturing. Very soon, elderly care will use personal assistant robots.
AI can be used to find patterns in data to identify market risks, to measure customer satisfaction by creating virtual assistants, or even to assess thousands of documents across an organization&#8217;s servers to identify compliance.
<h3>Self-learning</h3>
A self-learning system enables Artificial Intelligence to use tools such as pattern recognition, data mining, and natural language processing. Thus, AI has the advantage of being highly scalable in comparison to human intelligence, resulting in tremendous cost savings.
Through the use of browsers and applications, data is collected and manipulated by computer programs that generate and send personalised recommendations based on interests and behavior data recorded by the application. This is machine learning.
Digital marketing and advertising are also becoming increasingly reliant on AI, and this trend is also picking up speed.
Many CRM systems, such as <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/eu/products/platform/solutions/ai-services/">Salesforce</a>, require a high level of human intervention to be accurate and current – but they are AI-driven. A typical CRM system becomes an auto-updating, auto-correcting system when AI is applied to it, which manages your relationships on your behalf.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="770" height="404" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12116" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Artifical-Intelligence1-770x404-1.jpg" alt="CRM AI" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Artifical-Intelligence1-770x404-1.jpg 770w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Artifical-Intelligence1-770x404-1-250x131.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Artifical-Intelligence1-770x404-1-700x367.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Artifical-Intelligence1-770x404-1-768x403.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Artifical-Intelligence1-770x404-1-120x63.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Artifical-Intelligence1-770x404-1-80x42.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" />
Due to the enormous amount of information people leave behind intentionally and unintentionally in social media, AI can hold immense potential for the world of digital marketing.
AI is already saving companies money, providing targeted marketing, predictive analytics, and a better customer experience with enhanced ROI.
Marketing is characterised by rapid change. Digital marketing involves changes that happen in real-time.
<h3>Real-time marketing</h3>
With AI-driven data feeds, real-time marketing involves formulating a marketing strategy based on the most recent historical and current events.
AI will feed data to marketers’ real-time efforts as they leverage current trends and customer feedback to connect consumers with products and services they might be interested in.
Because social media provides businesses with real-time information on their target audiences, real-time marketing is becoming increasingly popular.
Marketing professionals have tapped into that data and turned it into messages and products that they believed their customers would enjoy. With real-time marketing, companies can now analyse all types of customer data to gain a better understanding of how customers behave.
With real-time personalisation, you can make your website visitors feel that they are receiving content that is both relevant and timely, and you will be delivering a more personalised experience to them.
When prospects feel valued, they develop brand loyalty more readily than those who feel like just another lead.
AI’s growth in the past has been stunted by limited data sets, data samples that represent real-life data rather than real-time data, and the inability to analyse massive amounts of data rapidly. However, that is no longer the case.
Look at self-driving cars again &#8211; learning from each other’s mistakes in real-time to prevent any future ones.
AI has also been used for sentiment analysis on social media to predict things like box office performance and election successes.
This real-time data is what gives you Netflix recommendations based on your viewing habits, and even those &#8216;because you also bought&#8217; Amazon impulse buys that you just can&#8217;t resist.
<h3>Relevant to marketing</h3>
This technology encompasses a wide range of capabilities, such as voice recognition, image recognition, machine learning, and semantic search – all relevant to marketing.
It is far harder to win and retain a customer today with traditional marketing or outbound marketing campaigns. The use of Artificial Intelligence is essential for marketers as they engage with customers continuously on an individual basis, delivering customised, insight-driven interactions that foster sustainable competitive advantage in an always-connected, real-time world.
AI, when taken seriously, allows brands to scale and take advantage of a competitive advantage that is very hard to replicate. Rather than focusing on technology, AI is about delivering the right content in the right context.
Of course, many consumer and business products today already utilise AI, including Apple&#8217;s Siri. Siri interprets voice commands using natural language processing (<a href="https://skywell.software/blog/how-does-siri-work-technology-and-algorithm/">NLP</a>).
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-12124 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/100-funny-things-to-say-to-siri-700x568.jpg" alt="Siri NLP" width="700" height="568" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/100-funny-things-to-say-to-siri-700x568.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/100-funny-things-to-say-to-siri-250x203.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/100-funny-things-to-say-to-siri-768x623.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/100-funny-things-to-say-to-siri-120x97.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/100-funny-things-to-say-to-siri-80x65.jpg 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/100-funny-things-to-say-to-siri.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
In the past, marketers were reluctant to use AI in marketing. However, marketers have recently become increasingly confident about its application. As a result, there is a reduction in ambiguity about the results since more and more sectors have already benefited from it.
The topic cannot be ignored any longer.
It is a fact that there is an abundance of data available, which makes process management more difficult if done manually. It creates a human tendency to ignore data and follow intuition instead.
In such scenarios, AI can prove to be a useful tool, since intuition isn&#8217;t always the best guide.
<h3>Create engagement</h3>
Digital marketers are constantly trying to call upon their intuition &#8211; Whom should I contact? Is there anything I should send? What is the best time to schedule my posts? Where will my posts be most effective?
By answering these questions, organisations can create engagement among customers, foster sales, and improve branding. Artificial intelligence can speed up your progress.
With AI, we will be able to do everything we do on a daily basis in a much more efficient, better and faster way. By implementing this, marketers will be able to measure and run campaigns differently from before.
Digital marketing will be shaped by AI now and in the future.
Digital marketing will learn from its own mistakes.
There are numerous platforms that collect and store customer analytics these days as part of analysing customer patterns and profile information to target certain markets and develop automated systems.
As new algorithms become available to analyse behavior and customer profiles, they will be able to design their own outreach strategies, to tailor copy to the needs of specific online customers based on their voice.
<h3>Predictive marketing</h3>
The use of Predictive Marketing will prove useful in this regard.
Marketers can gather more personal information about potential customers by using social media, which helps them to create more targeted campaigns.
New data is generated with every click.
Not only can AI help find your perfect customers by going through multiple piles of data, but it can also predict how hot the prospect is. The marketer can use this time and energy to do other things such as strategising.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-12118 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2018-02-19-at-10_14_41-AM-700x213.jpg" alt="Predictive Marketing" width="700" height="213" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2018-02-19-at-10_14_41-AM-700x213.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2018-02-19-at-10_14_41-AM-250x76.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2018-02-19-at-10_14_41-AM-768x234.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2018-02-19-at-10_14_41-AM-1536x467.jpg 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2018-02-19-at-10_14_41-AM-scaled.jpg 2048w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2018-02-19-at-10_14_41-AM-120x36.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2018-02-19-at-10_14_41-AM-80x24.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<h3>Chatbots</h3>
An AI-driven chatbot provides real-time interaction with users in a natural language, and it can be a very powerful sales and retention tool.
Marketing professionals are becoming increasingly interested in these programs as social media traffic has moved towards private messaging services such as WhatsApp and Facebook. It&#8217;s hard to ignore an engagement opportunity like that.
Chatbots are tangentially related to marketing, as opposed to direct relations. Many digital marketers view them as ways to offer personalised customer service at scale. A chatbot can also assist users in their journey to purchase.
In the long run, chatbots will never have true empathy, but they can be highly useful in certain circumstances if they are trained to prioritise human interaction over robot interaction.
<h3>Content creation</h3>
Artificial Intelligence is used by many brands to automate content creation. The creation of content is now faster and easier thanks to this technology. <a href="https://business.blogthinkbig.com/coca-colas-use-of-ai-to-stay-at-the-top-of-the-drinks-market/">Coca Cola</a> automates its advertising narratives through AI. Context-based logos and music scripts are automatically generated.
SEO and the place of artificially generated content within it is generating concerns and for good reason. Content in this category is typically non-emotional and can be difficult to relate to. A certain amount of human input is always necessary.
<h3>Campaigns</h3>
Digital ads and their delivery are also refined with AI. PPC campaigns on Google and Facebook dominate over 60% of all campaigns in the United States, according to <a href="https://www.digitalthirdcoast.com/blog/google-ads-statistics">some figures</a>. PPC advertisers can discover new advertising channels by using AI.
AI can give advertisers an advantage because competitors may not use these channels, at least not in this same sophisticated way.
<h3>Email marketing</h3>
Both marketers and their customers benefit from AI&#8217;s use in email marketing. You can use AI to create personalised emails for each member of your list based on how they have previously interacted with the brand.
The content they consume, what&#8217;s on their wish list, what pages they spend the most time on, and so on can be leveraged to fit their preferences.
AI could, for example, send two different emails with the most relevant links to each user if one visits links to product pages, but the other skips the links and goes straight for content. It&#8217;s real-time segmentation of email lists!
<h3>Where do we go from here?</h3>
Your digital agency is likely already using AI in many of its marketing tools in order to run your campaigns, so you are likely already interacting with it without even realising it.
Large media agencies have been using technology like this for a while now for buying purposes, but now smaller agencies and in-house marketers have started to adopt it as well across other channels.
Keep reading about it, because it isn&#8217;t going anywhere.
As always, we will keep you updated.

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Marketing

Artificial Intelligence: Changing digital marketing… and the world

SEO - The Best Business Investment in a Recession & Beyond

SEO: The Best Business Investment in a Recession & Beyond

Traditionally, list building was an e-mail marketing thing. It still is to an extent, but there’s so much more that you need to consider now.
Now you can use your customer lists to target subscribed (opted-in) users across multiple platforms including LinkedIn, Google Display Network, Google Search, Facebook and Instagram.
The term ‘list-building’ in itself even implies a list of email addresses that is, at best, sorted alphabetically.
A few years ago, it typically amounted to a ‘Sign Up For Our Newsletter’ field on a website, after which you may – nor may not – get some useful stuff.
Customer lists are a very powerful tool that is under-utilised. It&#8217;s like blindfolded archery &#8211; you don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re missing! Many of you will know this, but there are VERY few brands doing this right.
We&#8217;ll get to that, but let&#8217;s first take a look at how to get started.
<h3>Target them later</h3>
I’m not concerned about signing up for newsletters and I’ll do so when I’m pretty sure that I might get something of value. Privacy is not usually a concern for me because I’m not &#8220;offended&#8221; when I&#8217;m targeted with relevant ads. Or an irrelevant one, for that matter.
I’m also comfortable enough to unsubscribe when the first e-mail I receive begins with ‘Dear [NAME]’, or if it&#8217;s just plain rubbish.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="525" height="408" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10925" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03.png 525w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03-250x194.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03-120x93.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Screenshot-2020-07-08-at-09.55.03-80x62.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px" />
And given that I am happy to take personal responsibility for my own privacy, you can assume that I am not alone. Users are comfortable to sign up. So be good to them, and then you can target them later across multiple platforms with very specific advertising.
I have personally worked with clients who had up to a 5% conversion rate for newsletter signups, so 1 in 20 people were comfortable enough to do so. But beyond this, nothing was being done to segment and target those as they went about their everyday.
These are people who have explicitly said: “Yes, I want to hear more from you.” That&#8217;s the strongest audience that you can get. That’s something valuable for anyone to achieve and it’s also very powerful. Yes, many brands will e-mail them. But most are not nurturing that relationship by taking it out of their Inbox.
Typically, a good basic e-mail strategy will adhere to several simple things:
<ul>
<li>Give a taster of what to expect</li>
<li>Give clear reasons for them to sign up</li>
<li>Be clear about what they will receive</li>
<li>Compose a beautiful personalised welcome e-mail</li>
<li>Do not surprise them by pushing products or services unless expected</li>
<li>Give them some <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/where-has-all-the-good-content-gone/">interesting, original content</a></li>
<li>Always be honest and sincere in all your communications, and you will always make a good impression with customers.</li>
</ul>
What&#8217;s usually missing is that once they have signed up, you will want to segment them based on the information you have about them. There’s e-mail marketing software for doing this but there’s nothing to prevent SMEs from doing this manually and in a way that is GDPR-compliant. And then you can target them with relevant advertising.
You will have a location, gender and any other information that you have asked for at signup, and you should also have their website behaviours. So if you want to show ads on Facebook to female prospects aged 25-35 in Dublin who are interested in buying necklaces but haven&#8217;t done so yet &#8211; you can do it.
It’s important to note here that having a tickbox next to your signup does not make you <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/gdpr-consent-knowledge-is-no-longer-power-it-is-risk/">GDPR compliant</a>. Only good business practices can do that. A tickbox does not get you out of jail for free.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="600" height="400" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10926" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2.jpg 600w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2-250x167.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2-120x80.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/56_say_gdpr_one_more_time_v2-80x53.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />
That’s enough about e-mail marketing. Those are the basics, the requisites that you should absolutely be doing anyway. If you’re not, then give us a call before continuing on to the next part.
<h3>The next part</h3>
So now you’ve got your list of newsletter subscribers and online purchasers. You’ve got them segmented nicely. Let the fun begin.
Firstly, you can upload these lists to the Facebook/Instagram Ads platform. This will allow you to re-target them based on their interaction with your brand &#8211; recency of purchase, non-purchasers, etc. This can be a very powerful cross-selling tool.
Using these lists you can also create <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/164749007013531?id=401668390442328">Lookalike Audiences</a>. Facebook will find users with similar interests and behaviours to those you have uploaded and you can then target them. For example, you can find people just like those who have recently purchased from you. We’ve done this. A lot. It works very well.
There are other ways in which this can be useful. If you have properly segmented your customer lists then you can also use these to exclude those that you do not wish to target. This can prove to be useful when you know what category of products a user is interested in, so you do not want to show it to those who are not.
LinkedIn has also improved this functionality within their platform. In this case, you can upload your contacts list – in the B2B space, this is commonly a prospects list – and specifically, target them with ads.
Using LinkedIn, you can also upload a list of company names. Which means that you can target every company in your sector while you exclude everyone in your own from seeing those ads.
We are currently using these tactics on LinkedIn for a global client and maintaining a very healthy 7% conversion rate.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="342" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10928" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/giphy-1.gif" alt="" />
<h3>Great opportunities</h3>
On Google’s platforms, you can have control over which audiences see your ads across YouTube, Gmail, Google Search, and the Google Display Network through remarketing campaigns – and this includes the e-mail lists that you upload. This presents some great opportunities, including:
<ul>
<li>The ability to bid higher and be front and centre for prospects who have been in touch but did not convert yet.</li>
<li>You can exclude current customers from all targeting if you wish.</li>
<li>Promote your new app to current customers.</li>
<li>Only pay for brand clicks from new customers (note: this one is great)</li>
</ul>
Using these techniques. You can, in short, better tailor your Google campaigns to target more qualified and valuable users who are already aware of you &#8211; and get them over the line.
Your mind may be coming full circle here back to GDPR and privacy because I&#8217;ve covered a lot about targeting individuals. Well, that might be because that’s a topic that has been often misinterpreted.
As I mentioned earlier, your business needs to be GDPR compliant (there, I said it again), not just your website. And furthermore, these platforms use encryption on the information that you upload. In Google’s case, they use something called SHA-256. (designed by the NSA, no less), and your customer is matched using the encrypted data, not the uploaded email or phone number.
To be clear, you can do everything I’ve just talked about and be compliant. So there’s nothing stopping you.
<h3>So, what now?</h3>
Have a clear and enticing call-out on your website for users to subscribe.
Give them reasons to.
Now what you need to do is think about your content and your promotions calendar. Think about lining up 6-12 months of activity so that you can give users a reason to stay engaged.
The next step is simple…
Get in touch with Friday Agency and let us show you <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/">what we can do</a>.

You Might be Ignoring your Most Powerful Marketing Tool…

Adapting Your Business to a Pandemic

It goes without saying that it’s crazy times for digital marketing, but not uncertain times.
Because one thing is certain. If you turn the lights off, nobody will know that you’re still home.
Today I saw a very interesting piece of research by the <a href="https://cxl.com/institute/">CXL Institute</a> in Atlanta, which goes to prove that in the midst of any recession (which this is becoming, without question), those who survive and flourish are the ones who were first out of the gate.
<h2>Past recessions</h2>
Their data looked at past recessions and what separated the survivors from the thrivers &#8211; and it’s very interesting.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="752" height="669" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10742" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/recession.gif" alt="" />
Some may question if it is a selfish response for digital agencies to recommend that you keep your activity running to some extent. For us, it’s not. It really isn’t.
When the government announces (and they will) that the current social and other restrictions are over, you do not want to be on the back foot while your competitors are ready to hit &#8216;go&#8217;. You just don’t.
Thinking in pure &#8220;recession&#8221; terms could be the worst thing to do right now. As morbid as it is to say, there are opportunities in this.
Business owners should be surrounding themselves with information from positive CEOs that are looking for ways to grow leaner and stronger in these tough times.
Businesses could be priming themselves with topical messaging and offerings on social media currently, and seeking SEO gains. They should be engaging long term thinking to rapidly grow when everything returns to normal.
<h2>Bounce back</h2>
Those who bounce back and thrive are right now:
<ul>
<li class="p1">Maintaining some level of brand presence through display/social/search/SEO/content.</li>
<li class="p1">Keeping customers (including potential ones) informed of what’s happening.</li>
<li class="p1">Currently strategizing their activity for re-entry.</li>
<li class="p1">Watching competitor activity.</li>
<li class="p1">Aligning all channels including paid, creative, content and SEO to be ready to hit ‘go’.</li>
<li class="p1">Ensuring your website’s robust performance for when consumers are transactional again.</li>
</ul>
You don’t need to wait for that Government announcement to rebound. It will be reactionary, just like yours. Your own business data, industry trends, search trends, as well as your digital agency can help to advise when and how this is best to do. Some common sense will apply too.
In short, be ready.
Now is the time to use your digital agency to be prepared for when (not if) this passes.
If you have already switched off your digital marketing activity then that’s understandable too, it really is. But don’t forget that this time can be used to reflect, improve, strategise and be ready.
If you need sound and practical advice in the shadow of COVID-19, we&#8217;re still here. And we always will be.

Practical COVID-19 Advice For Crazy Times

Surprisingly, this is my first post to mention toasters more than once, you’ll see why later. In my last post, I discussed <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/how-to-be-persuasive-the-6-principles-of-influence/">How to be Persuasive and The 6 Principles of Influence.</a> Being persuasive is one thing, but how do we actually change behaviour and influence someone to do something and take the action to convert?
The focus of UX design can often be centred around user research and the usability of an interface, how simple and intuitive it is to use. This ultimately increases the user&#8217;s ability to complete a task but just because a user has the ability to do something, doesn’t mean they’ll do it.
In 2009, B.J. Fogg, a social science research associate at Stanford University developed a very simple behaviour model that illustrates the three elements that need to be present at the same time in order to persuade someone to do something. 
I’m going to get a little bit geeky here but bare with me, its very simple. Behavioural change requires a sufficient amount of ability and motivation along with a prompt in order to persuade someone to do something. It is only when all 3 elements of the model are present at the same time that the behaviour can happen.
<h4>1. Motivation</h4>
Motivation is what makes the user want to complete a task. This is the background story, what drives them to do something. This could be something as simple as a user who loves to eat toast needing a new toaster because their old one has broken.
<h4>2. Ability </h4>
In order for a user to perform a task they must have the required ability, the easier the task the higher the ability they’ll have. Ability can range from the user requiring time, money, mental or physical capacity to complete a task. In UX it can be the ability to fill in a form easily or when it comes to the toaster, does the user have enough money (ability) to buy the toaster?
<h4>3. Prompt</h4>
Without an appropriate prompt, the behaviour will not occur, even if high ability and motivation are present. A prompt or trigger can be something that reminds or reveals an opportunity for the user to carry out the desired behaviour at an appropriate time.
A prompt can also help with motivation. Let’s say a user is in the market for a new toaster but they don’t have enough money to buy one. Then, they see a social media ad for half price toasters, this is the prompt that motivates them to buy the toaster because the prompt reveals that they now have the financial ability to buy the toaster. 
Fogg’s Behaviour Model can be used to quickly test the effectiveness of any desired behaviour by asking three simple questions:
<ol>
<li>Is the user motivated enough to do what you want them to?</li>
<li>Does the user have the required ability to carry out the task?</li>
<li>Has the user been reminded to perform the desired behaviour at the right time?</li>
</ol>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-10700 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/graph-700x595.png" alt="" width="700" height="595" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/graph-700x595.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/graph-250x213.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/graph-768x653.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/graph-1536x1306.png 1536w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/graph-120x102.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/graph-80x68.png 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/graph.png 2014w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
Any call to action can be checked against this model to predict its effectiveness, be they toaster ads or otherwise. Remember, for a behaviour to happen, the three elements have to happen at the same time: motivation, ability, and trigger. 
<h2>B = MAP</h2>
Graham recently gave a talk at the <a href="http://3xedigital.com">3XE Digital</a> UX Conference in Dublin around this very topic. He gave some good examples of Fogg&#8217;s behaviour model in practice.
<h4>Prompt with low motivation</h4>
In this example a user is prompted to signup for a newsletter, while the ability is high, motivation is low due to lack of any value being offered. Why would a user want to signup to this newsletter?
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-10702 size-gallery-panel" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Graham-Carroll-3XE-Digital-CRO-UX.001-1260x620.jpeg" alt="" width="1260" height="620" />
<h4>Prompt with high motivation but low ability</h4>
This example creates motivation by offering users a 20% discount on their next order if they signup for the newsletter, great! However, the ability is low as users are asked to enter their date of birth without a reason and it does not tell the user what format the date of birth should be in. Ability will be low because of this.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-10703 size-gallery-panel" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Graham-Carroll-3XE-Digital-CRO-UX.002-1260x620.jpeg" alt="" width="1260" height="620" />
The following error message doesn&#8217;t help either!
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-10704 size-gallery-panel" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Graham-Carroll-3XE-Digital-CRO-UX.003-1260x620.jpeg" alt="" width="1260" height="620" />
<h4>Prompt with high motivation and high ability</h4>
This is what a successful prompt looks like, motivation is high because of the value on offer in return for signing up and ability is high because the user simply has to enter their email address.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-10705 size-gallery-panel" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Graham-Carroll-3XE-Digital-CRO-UX.004-1260x620.jpeg" alt="" width="1260" height="620" />
This is all very simple and obvious stuff but you&#8217;d be surprised how many marketers overlook testing calls to action against this model.
The great man himself, BJ Fogg, explains the simple formula for the behaviour model in this 2 and half minute video if you’d like a quick recap:
<div class="youtube-responsive-container"><iframe id="myFrame" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jsbF9z6adAo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>

Persuasive design: How to make shit happen

Have you ever worn the same thing as someone else to a party?
What if you went to a party and when you got there, over 100,000 people had the same idea?
That’s what would happen if you write a blog post called “how to optimise my blog post for SEO”.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="786" height="511" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9696" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1.jpg 786w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-250x163.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-768x499.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-700x455.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-120x78.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/blog-image-1-80x52.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 786px) 100vw, 786px" />
What’s happening everywhere is that original thought and compelling content is being threatened (or at least drowned out) by those who:
<ol>
<li class="p1">write just to rank</li>
<li class="p1">are too conservative</li>
<li class="p1">have no strategy</li>
<li class="p1">have little to say about their product, service or industry</li>
<li class="p1">have little to say about their company</li>
<li class="p1">are just plain lazy</li>
<li class="p1">fall under all of the above&#8230;</li>
</ol>
Personally, I have a real problem with the overabundance of what’s called “topic cluster content”. This is pushed by the likes of HubSpot, the <a href="https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/10/topic-cluster-content/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Content Marketing Institute</a>, and many more. To explain this concept: you simply find your core topic (that people are searching for) and then you write more blog posts about related sub-topics (that people are searching for).
<blockquote>&#8220;The internet is being flooded by content that has absolutely no value. Content for the sake of content. And it must stop.&#8221;</blockquote>
<h3>Kind of Boring</h3>
So for example, if I was to write about how to optimise a blog post for SEO, then I might proceed to write a piece a week later about how to build relevant link to said blog post. Logical, right? Yes, but isn’t it kind of boring?
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="240" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9712" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/giphy.gif" alt="" />
Writing for SEO is okay to a point, but far too many brands are picking up on this technique and creating content that has little to no value. And it&#8217;s sort of all the same. At best, it might be slightly useful &#8211; but it’s probably been written over 100,000 times before. And much of it ends up in TL;DR territory.
Let’s get to the point of what is considered to be poor quality content, and then stay where you are so that we can discuss what to do about it&#8230;
According to Google&#8217;s own guidelines, your content is of poor quality if:
<ul class="ul1">
<li>It&#8217;s lacking in purpose</li>
<li>It is harmful or offensive</li>
<li>Presents unsubstantiated conspiracy theories</li>
<li>Promotes hate or violence</li>
<li>The page is just a copy of an idea already present on the internet</li>
<li>There are numerous grammatical errors or misspellings</li>
<li>and many more&#8230;</li>
</ul>
And hidden somewhere within their documentation if you look closely enough, there is also this key piece:
<ul>
<li>Little to no time, effort, expertise, manual curation, or added value for users</li>
</ul>
Now that&#8217;s the real problem right there. They do not like lazy content.
Google has felt the need to create guidelines like <a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/eat-and-ymyl-new-google-search-guidelines-acronyms-of-quality-content/">E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) </a>because most people simply cannot follow their advice by writing with honesty&#8230; and for the user.
<h3>Getting away with it</h3>
The internet is being flooded and, over time, ruined by those creating content time and again that has absolutely no value. Content for the sake of content. And it must stop.
The mere suggestion that you should have an opinion can be met with, &#8220;Yeah maybe if we were Ryanair or Paddy Power then we could get away with that.&#8221; A knowing guffaw will usually follow. Well, guess what &#8211; those brands are getting away with it and it&#8217;s getting them a lot of exposure. Their content is often original, has a supporting strategy, dares to create debate&#8230; and come on, they&#8217;re having fun.
Brands who create content with honesty don&#8217;t give much of a sh*t about what people are searching for, or what they will write about next week based on, well, what people are searching for again. They will write with authority, they will have an opinion, an original piece of thought, a tone of voice, a strategy&#8230; all of the core elements that are missing from most content.
<h3>Not just Storytelling</h3>
The next time you sit down and strategise content, think about all of this. And very importantly, if you have a topic then Google it before you write so that you can ascertain if it&#8217;s already been done a million times or not. And if it has then you&#8217;d better make it bloody good or else don&#8217;t bother. Good content is not just storytelling, it&#8217;s telling your story well.
And don&#8217;t be afraid to have an opinion. If it doesn&#8217;t work then life will go on (assuming you haven&#8217;t said something completely ignorant or offensive). But you MUST have an opinion or a voice, or your content will not stand out. It just won&#8217;t.
Furthermore, there are so many blogs that are chock full of articles about products or services and you&#8217;ve got to wonder why these are not just given a logical/permanent home on their website. Your blog is your place to have an opinion or a voice, not to shove a product benefit down someone&#8217;s neck&#8230; again. Let your product pages be great at doing that.
Don&#8217;t focus on what everyone else is saying and then try to say it better. Instead, focus on trying to say what nobody has said yet. Now that&#8217;s something of value. That&#8217;s something I&#8217;ll read. And so will many others&#8230;
<h3>Where to Start</h3>
We know that this is not easy&#8230; you do need to research your audiences, engage with them and better understand their needs, you need a direct line to those with the authority to greenlight and/or produce this content and have the opinion, you need the resources to produce something compelling.
So if you&#8217;re wondering where to start with often limited resources, then:
<ul>
<li>Look at your own industry &#8211; there are surely developments that you (or someone in your organisation) can have an opinion on. Everyone between four office walls has an opinion so be bold, back that up and talk about it.</li>
<li>Read a lot &#8211; If you are not keeping pace with your industry then you may have an opinion that is out-dated &#8211; or that someone has already had.</li>
<li>Do NOT immediately look for what users are searching on Google for. Most searches do NOT end in a purchase, remember? Instead, use informed <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/strategy/research/">research</a> and ask them what they&#8217;d like to see from you.</li>
<li>Is there any industry experts who would be willing to write for you? They will be less afraid of judgment and might even have some credibility to lend.</li>
<li>Weigh up the risks and rewards and maybe just do something cheap but fun. Like that time Friday created TDer, which is still <a href="https://www.tder.ie/">worth a look</a>.</li>
</ul>
With the right amount of effort and willingness, you&#8217;ll not just be creating content that delights your audiences.. but also your audience&#8217;s audiences.
Now go and take risks with your content, because the answer is always no if you&#8217;re never even asked. Don&#8217;t just be like the rest.
Fancy taking a risk with your content? <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Get in touch.</a>

Where Has All The Good Content Gone?

SEO & UX: The Perfect Partners

<section class="section section--body section--first">
<div class="section-content">
<div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn">
When it comes to prototyping there is a range of different methods available to UX designers. From sketches on paper to fully interactive digital designs, it&#8217;s important to know which methods are suitable for different project types and the benefits they offer.
So, let&#8217;s take a look at different prototyping methods, their benefits, and how using smart collaboration they can significantly speed up the design process.
<h4 id="9e38" class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure graf--trailing">Wait, what are Prototypes?</h4>
</div>
</div>
</section>
A prototype is basically an early version of a product, app or website, designed for usability testing, collecting user feedback, and making fast design iterations based on this feedback.
The fidelity of a prototype refers to the visual appearance, the functionality, and amount of interactions included in the prototype. When choosing the correct fidelity prototype for a project its important to consider how this will affect time and cost, and the type of user feedback you want to collect.
<h4 class="graf graf--h3">Why are Prototypes important?</h4>
Prototyping is a key practice in the design process, it allows designers to explore their design ideas and gain empathy for the users of the product or website with the goal of improving the user experience.
Prototyping should be implemented early during the design stage to collect user feedback, highlight user flows and potential pain points early on. Changes made early in the design stage are much easier and cheaper to implement than during development which can cost significantly more to implement.
With the clients and stakeholders involved from the start, we can begin to ensure the design decisions are fully understood and approved by everyone, avoiding unnecessary delays and costs at development stage due to misunderstandings and lack of clarity.
<blockquote>“If a picture is worth 1000 words, a prototype is worth 1000 meetings.”</blockquote>
<a href="https://uxdworld.com/2018/05/20/a-prototype-is-worth-1000-meetings/">Tom &amp; David Kelley</a>
<h2><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-9067 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Paper-prototype-700x442.jpg" alt="prototyping" width="700" height="442" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Paper-prototype-700x442.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Paper-prototype-250x158.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Paper-prototype-768x485.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Paper-prototype-120x76.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Paper-prototype-80x50.jpg 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Paper-prototype.jpg 862w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></h2>
<h4 class="graf graf--h3">Paper Prototyping</h4>
<a href="https://www.creativebloq.com/ux/how-prototype-websites-paper-31514246">Paper Prototyping</a> is a great low-cost way to iterate designs simply and quickly. The process typically involves sketching layouts and wireframes using device templates to create basic representations of screens for usability testing. Although primitive in appearance and not interactive, participants will begin to understand the user journeys, flows and expectations without the interactivity.
Paper prototyping is fast, flexible, and a great collaborative team process, allowing everyone to participate in the design process and focus on concepts and ideation. In a quick workshop, a team can accumulate a large number of design ideas and iterations. It can also be much easier to make decisions, give critical feedback, and erase or change parts of the design when working with sketches.
<blockquote>&#8220;With a paper prototype, you can user test early design ideas at an extremely low cost. Doing so lets you fix usability problems before you waste money implementing something that doesn’t work.&#8221;</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/paper-prototyping/">Jakob Nielsen</a>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Paper Benefits</h4>
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf graf--li">Easy to create with pen and paper</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Quick to iterate</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Low cost and affordable</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Highly collaborative</li>
<li>Test user flows through simulating interactions</li>
</ul>
<h4></h4>
<h4>Making Prototypes Interactive</h4>
Making designs into interactive prototypes can be a quick and easy process using top industry prototyping tools such as <a href="https://www.uxpin.com/prototyping">UX Pin</a>, <a href="https://marvelapp.com/features/prototyping">Marvel</a>, <a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" href="https://proto.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-href="https://proto.io/">Proto.io</a> or <a href="https://www.invisionapp.com/">InVision</a> to name a few, that allow you to simply import designs and start applying hotspots and transitions.
Here at Friday, we use InVision for its easy to use interface, rapid prototyping ability and library of predefined page transitions that allow us to create interactive prototypes for usability testings and iteration quickly. It&#8217;s also a cloud-based platform, allowing access and collaboration with the client from any machine anywhere.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-9179 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Recording-2018-08-23-at-08.47-AM-700x390.gif" alt="" width="700" height="390" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Recording-2018-08-23-at-08.47-AM-700x390.gif 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Recording-2018-08-23-at-08.47-AM-250x139.gif 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Recording-2018-08-23-at-08.47-AM-768x428.gif 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Recording-2018-08-23-at-08.47-AM-120x67.gif 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Recording-2018-08-23-at-08.47-AM-80x45.gif 80w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
<a href="https://support.invisionapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000634946">Via invisionapp.com</a>
<h4 class="graf graf--h3">Medium-Fidelity</h4>
Medium-fidelity prototypes are interactive but with basic styling and limited functionality, typically just clickable hotspots that navigate the user through static pages. This method is highly valuable for identifying user flows and pain points, understanding user patterns, expectations and validating designs through basic interactions.
When user testing with medium-fidelity prototypes we can begin to target more insightful feedback, by creating tasks and scenarios for users to complete we can focus on better understanding how users are influenced by designs and how they interact with specific features.
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Medium-Fidelity Benefits</h4>
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf graf--li">A basic functioning version of an interface</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Validate designs through user testing</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Understand user patterns and expectations</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Allows clients to interact with the product at an early stage</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">User test with a wider audience</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Target specific areas of website or app using tasks and scenarios</li>
</ul>
<h4></h4>
<h4 class="graf graf--h3">High-Fidelity</h4>
A high-fidelity prototype has the appearance of the finished website or app as it would look when live. With much higher levels of detail, the prototype allows testing of UI elements, information hierarchy, layouts and interactions that are not achievable in low or medium-fidelity prototypes.
High-fidelity prototypes can generally be more accurate for collecting user testing data as users are able to interact more naturally with the site or app compared to low-fidelity prototypes. This might include testing specific areas or features such as navigation, button engagement, user flows and time to complete a task.
There are however downsides to hi-fi prototypes, the time required to produce and update designs at this level can be time consuming and make quick user testing feedback fixes hard to implement. User testing with high-fidelity prototypes can also potentially make participants feel less comfortable giving critical feedback due to the high-level look of the designs.
<h4 class="graf graf--h4">Hi-Fidelity Benefits</h4>
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf graf--li">An exact representation of the final website or app</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Validate designs through user testing</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">More accurate for collecting user data</li>
<li>Understand user patterns and expectations</li>
<li>Target specific areas of website or app using tasks and scenarios</li>
<li>Can be used for presentation and pitches</li>
</ul>
<h4></h4>
<h4 class="graf graf--h3">Choosing the Prototype Fidelity for you</h4>
When it comes to choosing the correct prototyping fidelity for your project there isn’t a &#8216;blanket solution&#8217; that suits everyone. It’s important to note that each type has its benefits and should be evaluated based on your needs.
If you are undertaking design sprints or just looking for a fast and collaborative solution, then low-fidelity would be best. If you already have designs and user feedback, medium-fidelity would be a good solution for validating your designs and identifying user flows and pain points through basic interaction. If your project has sufficient budget and a long time frame then you may look to evolve your prototype into high-fidelity for testing interactions, animations, or for presentations and pitches.
If you have a project we can help with and considering using prototyping as part of the process? <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Get in touch.</a>

Prototyping Methods for a better User Experience

It&#8217;s Time to Step Away &amp; Put Your Users at the Centre of Your Content Strategy
For many businesses, creating content can be an arduous task. Usually this is because in-house resources are rather tight when it comes to creating content on a regular basis. Or sometimes, the skillset simply isn’t there. However, another barrier I come up against, or more slows the process down in the beginning, is the lack of understanding in the value of creating content. When I say “value” I do mean revenue!
For an Ecommerce business, for example, the primary goal is transactions and revenue generated. It’s totally understandable. You’re in business to make money!
Where’s the value in creating content? Oh yeah, for SEO. I did that in the beginning, but it took up too much time and I didn’t see the return I wanted.
If you have been creating content (or none at all in many cases), with the sole purpose of your business revenue goals in mind, rather than the user, you could be in for a bumpy ride down the rankings.
Graham said it perfectly in his blog “<a href="https://friday.ie/blog/building-trust-into-the-customer-experience/">your customer’s goals should be your goals</a>.”
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 75%; position: relative;"><iframe loading="lazy" class="giphy-embed" style="position: absolute;" src="https://giphy.com/embed/xUNd9GIay1fKQTSWIM" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
<a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/soultrain-soul-train-don-cornelius-xUNd9GIay1fKQTSWIM">via GIPHY</a>
<h2>Google’s Algorithm Update (March 2019)</h2>
On March 12th Google confirmed that it had made an <a href="https://searchengineland.com/googles-march-2019-core-quality-update-stories-of-recovery-314347">update to its core algorithm</a>. Targeting predominantly those that fall under the Your Money Your Life (YMYL) category, essentially websites that fall under the health segment. As a result a lot of websites saw their traffic deteriorate dramatically. Phew! I hear you say. But wait there’s more.
The algorithm update seemed to favour and reward websites that had content optimised to Google&#8217;s E-A-T standards. These standards put an emphasis on the overall Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness of a site. The higher Google scores you in these areas, the greater the reward.
Although many of the websites initially affected were health centric, there were a large number of other sites across a variety of industries affected by the update. I think it’s important to read between the lines here. Google’s goal, from a user point of view, is to return the most relevant search results to a user’s query. It’s that simple. With artificial intelligence becoming more advanced and user’s expectations of search evolving, your content has to go beyond trying to rank just for those high volume, high value keywords.
<h2>Content Experiences</h2>
Content marketing, it’s about simply creating &amp; distributing, right? Unfortunately not. It’s about creating an experience. A <a href="https://hub.uberflip.com/blog/what-is-content-experience-definition">content experience can be defined as</a>, the environment in which it lives, and how it engages users to take action on your site. 
In layman&#8217;s terms, it is the experience you get, both good and bad, when you interact with a piece of content.
<h3>What’s A Content Environment?</h3>
The environment in which it lives. Essentially the aesthetics of the content. It relates to the overall presentation of the content. Is it structured in a digestible and easy to navigate format? Is it in line with the brand? It’s all about creating attractive content that users want to consume and engage with and ultimately give them a positive user experience. It is about integrating relevant copy, image and video with good quality UX.
<h3>Engaging Users</h3>
You want your content to serve a purpose, for both you and the user. It is important to create content that is as relevant as can be to the user’s query. Once you’ve given them a positive user experience, the next step is for them to engage with you (all going well). 
The more personal the experience the better. User’s want to feel as if the messaging has been tailored to them. If you want to bring your user on a content journey, or simply want to generate leads, then make sure your CTA’s are relevant and natural. Think about what is relevant, and better yet, what fits contextually.
<h2>Creating A Content Experience</h2>
Creating incredible content isn’t about finding high volume keywords and churning out a long-form blog once a month. To create an experience, you need to begin by diving deep into that particular topic and consider all the possible needs your potential customers may have related to that topic.
Remember, you don’t have one type of customer. Your content has to satisfy a wide range of user needs. These needs can be transactional, but also informational.
For me, a content experience doesn&#8217;t have to begin when a user visits your site. It can now begin on the search engine results pages. With SERP features like Featured Snippets, it gives businesses an opportunity to entice and engage users before they even click. As users enter the top of the funnel and begin their research, you can seize the opportunity to be top of mind.
Consider an online retailer selling laptops. Now consider all the different types of information a user might search for around the keyword “laptops”.
They may be interested in;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Brands</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Software</li>
<li>Comparisons</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Reviews</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Storage</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Speed</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Use cases &#8211; for designers, college students</li>
</ul>
User research is a crucial part of developing a content strategy. There are numerous data sources you can use to help research what type of content to create. It’s about thinking outside the box. 
<ul>
<li>Focus Groups</li>
<li>Customer Personas</li>
<li>Your Employees</li>
<li>Keyword Research</li>
<li>Forums</li>
</ul>
<h3>Focus Groups</h3>
If you can, start with a research focus group. This is particularly beneficial in highly competitive, niche markets where there might not be many product or service variations. Getting your customers in front of you can reveal a lot about their needs.
At Friday, one of the first steps we take in the beginning of any project is carrying out user research. Whether it’s driving a UX project, a new web build or a content strategy, research helps create that roadmap. 
<a href="https://friday.ie/blog/importance-of-ux-research/">Don’t base your decisions on assumptions</a>, it’s far more beneficial to just ask.
<h3>Customer Personas</h3>
If you can’t access a focus group, then try and get into the minds of your customer personas. What way do they think? What needs do each of them have? It’s not just about providing a product or service that they need. They may have had a particular thought process justifying why they need it. They may have gone through a series of events which led them to come looking for your product. Whatever the needs, each user has their own unique situation.
<h3>Employees</h3>
Talk to the people that deal with your customers on a daily basis. They will have a wealth of insights into what your customers needs are. 
<h3>Keyword Research</h3>
This should all be supported with in-depth keyword research. In particular, more long-tail keywords and queries. As long as it makes contextual sense. Start with your core keywords and work out. 
Gathering, grouping and categorising all of this data can then help mapping out your content pillars and calendar. The real work begins when it comes to creating and publishing.
<h3>Forums</h3>
Get on to forums relevant to your industry. See what everyone is talking about. They can be a goldmine of information. If you can&#8217;t get in front of your customer&#8217;s this is the next best thing.
<h2>Expertise + Brand = Trust (A Winning Formula)</h2>
When you gain trust, you build valuable, long-lasting relationships. 
Creating content that covers the length and breadth of a particular topic showcases your knowledge, experience and expertise. When your content is in-depth and consistently provides users with exactly what they want, it will positively effects for your brand
When you build your brand and establish yourself as the expert, you’re not only gaining the trust of the user, but you’re also gaining the trust of Google. 
From an SEO perspective, even if you’re not appearing in first position, if your brand is strong enough, and recognised as an authority in a particular field, users are more likely to click on your search result. Why click on a result from a brand you know nothing about, when you know you’ll get exactly what you want from the link in position 3?
<h2>User Intent</h2>
Does your page solve the user’s problem? Does it meet, and hopefully, go beyond their expectations? When you’re content matches the intent of the user, you’re providing them with positive user experiences. 
We don’t just love positive user experiences, Google loves them too. Positive user experiences translate to positive user signals. It’s these <a href="https://www.searchmetrics.com/glossary/user-signals/">user signals</a> that can benefit your organic visibility. Examples of these signals are; 
<ul>
<li>Click Through Rates</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Length of Time on Site</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Lower Bounce Rates</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Number of Pages Visited</li>
</ul>
Of course, these metrics are case dependent. Sometimes a user gets what they need and leaves. There’s no need for any further action. For example, looking for the contact number of a business.
<h2>So What Next?</h2>
Making the shift to creating high quality, user-centric content will pay dividends in the long-run. We’re living in a digital world saturated with advertisements and what sometimes feels like too many options.
Why would you want lots of options, when there could be one choice that solves everything?
If you want to avoid slugging it out in the trenches with growing numbers of competitors and rise to the top, then you need to put your efforts into positively strengthening your brand. You need to gain the trust of your target audience. Once you have that, a lot of the work is done for you in terms of consumers deciding whether to choose you or your competitors.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-9153 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top.jpg" alt="the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top" width="642" height="361" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top.jpg 642w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top-120x67.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top-80x45.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px" />
How do you get there? Start by giving your users exactly what they want, and then give them more. There’s potential customers out there, that you didn’t even know you had. Give them positive, unforgettable experiences and become ‘the’ expert in what you do.
If you&#8217;re curious about creating a user-centric content strategy or would like to know more, then feel free to <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">get in touch with the team at Friday</a>.

It’s Time To Start Creating User-Centric Content

“We’ll go with the website but we can’t afford the SEO right now…”
I still hear this. Often. And realistically, if you can&#8217;t afford to invest in SEO, you can’t afford a website.
This post could have been written ten years ago, but sadly, for some, things haven’t changed so it still needs to be written today.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="320" height="240" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9037" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/O1Lp.gif" alt="" />
What’s happening far too often is that businesses ultimately have a website that is not a sales tool. And it’s because they think SEO is not important, that it’s optional, or that they can invest modestly and still expect to see results. Hell, some even think it’s a scam. And in a way, you can’t blame them if you <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/seo-if-you-think-best-expensive-wait-hire-bad-one/">look at how</a> some so-called ‘professionals’ behave.
SEO drives visibility amongst those who have potentially not heard about your brand. Without it, your website is mostly getting traffic from those who already have.
Without an ongoing investment in Search Engine Optimisation, you might as well just walk out on to the street and show your new website to strangers on a laptop. Because that’s probably the only way they’ll ever see it. And they might be the only people to see it.
<h3>Your First Website</h3>
So, there are two scenarios here. First is that you’re a new brand, perhaps a start-up. You need your first website. You get a few quotes from a few agencies or developers. And hey, you’re a start-up so you go with the cheapest one. Seems like a reasonable thing to do, right?
Well no, it’s really not. It’s wrong on so many levels.
You need to ensure that this website is being built with SEO in mind. They might tell you that your website will be “SEO friendly”, but actually there’s no such thing because you cannot launch a website and expect it to eventually rank highly on Google unless there has been a strategic approach to SEO and content.
A strategic approach to SEO include: getting to know your business and audiences, keyword research, competitor research, a content gap analysis, backed up by a content strategy and calendar… and it should be informed by research too.
And by research, we&#8217;re not talking about clipboards on Grafton Street (in Dublin) here… this is surveys of your actual audiences, focus groups and so much more.
From this information, you can then better understand what your potential audiences want, certainly content-wise.
And of course, there’s that little important part of finding out who they are and what makes them tick, where they engage online and how. This ALL informs SEO.
So if you are launching your first website, and none of the above has been discussed, then no, it is not “SEO-friendly” at all.
<h3>A New Website</h3>
Many websites will go through a complete overhaul, re-design or re-development. They will change their URLs and structure. If you do not factor in SEO at this stage, then you WILL lose traffic. There is no question of that.
So this is where I come back to SEO not being optional…
If you are requesting quotes from agencies for a new website, and they have returned a quote without a recommended investment for SEO &#8211; then tear it up, or delete the e-mail.
If you are disqualifying agencies or developers because SEO is included but you think it’s too expensive, then stop and think. Don’t do that. It’s essential. Without it, you WILL lose traffic and revenue.
If you are migrating to a new website, then allow us to explain WHY it’s so important. But do remember that this is just top-line stuff. There’s a lot more to it&#8230;
If you are changing your URLs, even slightly, then your previous ones all become broken pages. This also means that any website that previously linked to you, and was likely helping your rankings, now points to a broken page.
Also, If URLs change then your referral traffic that has historically sent leads or revenue will also be pointing to broken pages. That’s revenue lost.
This is the ideal time to revise your core SEO elements, so page titles, descriptions, rich snippets, for example. However, if SEO is not included then do not expect this work to be done.
Furthermore, if it’s not in scope then you might end up with some peculiar-looking search results. As an agency, we would never allow small things like this to happen, but some might&#8230;
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="582" height="422" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9032" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09.png" alt="no meta data" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09.png 582w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09-250x181.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09-120x87.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.11.09-80x58.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 582px) 100vw, 582px" />
Website migration is also the ideal time to begin introducing new research-based content. Some of this will come from your overall research initiatives and even <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/user-experience/usability-testing/">usability testing</a>, but then can also be guided by keyword research specific to the audiences we have identified.
So, this can be done right. And a website migration should be seen as a way to correct those past wrongs, and actually, increase your traffic as opposed to just protect what you had before.
We built a new website for a client at the end of 2017. Look at the increase in SEO Users to the website since then.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="800" height="456" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-9034" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02.png" alt="seo success graph" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02.png 800w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-250x143.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-768x438.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-700x399.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-120x68.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-22-at-10.19.02-80x46.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />
It’s not bad, eh?
It’s good to note that the increases above were not just down to SEO. It was a perfect mix of all digital disciplines coming together &#8211; research, content, architecture, design, build… and SEO. It was the result of a brand who know of the importance of SEO as a part of an entirely new website and migration.
So, is SEO optional? No.
Can it ever be? No.
Without it, a brand new website will hardly ever be found. Without it, a new website migration can, and likely will, have catastrophic results.
With it, you should see some great results and that’s all that we’ve seen on our watch.
<a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Get in touch</a> with Friday if you’re planning a new user experience or if you want to improve your SEO. You&#8217;d be in safe hands.

Enough is Enough: SEO is Not Optional

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 loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-8797 size-full" title="trust barometer" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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://www.api.friday.ie/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.
Remember, 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

Whether you’re going through a rebrand, developing a new digital strategy or investing in one for the first time, it’s safe to say that social media will have a part to play.
Before you start to implement your Social Strategy, there are a number of things you will need to consider and our checklist below will help to get you started.
<h2>1. Review Your Current Social Setup</h2>
You can’t create a strong strategy without having a strong foundation to build upon.
Whatever networks you’re focusing your efforts, make sure your social bios are all up to date.
It might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often it is overlooked.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8703 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37.png" alt="social-bio-example" width="411" height="389" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37.png 411w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-250x237.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-120x114.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-80x76.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" />
Update all of your locations and contact details. Depending on the size of your organisation, you may have multiple social pages to edit.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8706 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31.png" alt="social-profiles-locations-example" width="412" height="255" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31.png 412w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-250x155.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-120x74.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-80x50.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 412px) 100vw, 412px" />
Make sure all links are up to date and pointing to the correct pages. I’ve seen this on numerous occasions, particularly when there are a number of older pages that have been forgotten about. Maybe there was a previous subdomain used for a specific area of the business that’s no longer in use, but has now merged under the parent domain or simply non-existent anymore.
Use consistent and “on-brand” imagery across all networks for your profile images and wallpaper. There may be variants of your logo that have evolved over time, so make sure everything is consistent and in line with your current strategy.
<h2>2. What have you learned from previous efforts?</h2>
It’s important to assess what has been working up until now. Analysing the performance of previous strategies &amp; tactics is essential. This can involve collating a lot of numbers if there is a lot of historical data, but it is worth the effort. Diving down and getting dirty with your data will pay dividends when done correctly.
Being critical of your efforts can be difficult, especially for smaller organisations, as there can be an emotional investment. The numbers don’t lie, but it is important to remember the overall objective. Here are a few questions you should look at answering to help you understand performance to date.
<h3>What content has been getting the most engagement?</h3>
Review all of your previous posts and ads across all your networks. You should start to see some sort of a trend. What posts did people like, comment on or share?
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8707 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24.png" alt="social-engagement-metrics" width="726" height="296" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24.png 726w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-250x102.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-700x285.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-120x49.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-80x33.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px" />
<h3>What content has been driving the most traffic to your website?</h3>
Similar to above, analyse the posts and ads that drove the most traffic to your site. Depending on the content, you may start to notice some differences between content that is good for overall brand awareness and content that is better at driving traffic….and hopefully conversions.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8716 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28.png" alt="social-posts-driving-most-traffic" width="662" height="302" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28.png 662w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-250x114.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-120x55.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-80x36.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px" />
<h3>What messaging has been engaging audiences?</h3>
From the data already collected, you could dive down a little deeper to assess was there particular messaging that differentiated those that performed well and those that didn’t. Was it the tone of voice or a particular call-to-action.
<h3>Which media is most effective? Images, Video, Blogs etc.</h3>
Were there particular media that performed better than others? Did your video posts have better engagement than static images? It is important to be honest with yourself as well. Has your media creation up until now done your brand and product offering justice? Did enough thought go into it? You may have tasked the new intern with creating a video for an ad-hoc campaign, and it never lived up to everyone’s expectations. If this is the case, don’t let it deter you from video content.
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune or need a full film crew, but it does need time to plan and to execute correctly. If the recent trends are anything to go by, then you should be investing in video content. According to a report by Cisco, <a href="https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white-paper-c11-741490.html">by 2020 82% of both business &amp; consumer web traffic will be from video content</a>. Focusing solely on the benefits of video in your social strategy &#8211; video <a href="https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/08/video-marketing-statistics">generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined</a>.
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="width: 382px;" class="wp-video">
<video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-8696-1" width="382" height="746" autoplay="1" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4?_=1" /><a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4">https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4</a></video></div>
</div>
<h2>3. Who are your audiences?</h2>
This question can sometimes cause divide&#8230;hopefully not too much. As an established organisation you will have a lot of existing customer data you can assess.
&#8220;Differentiating your audiences is crucial. When you start to create your messaging, you’ll need to tailor it to each audience&#8221;
You may have a CRM which has a wealth of information on who your existing customers are. You may have existing intelligence from previous <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/strategy/research/">market research</a> initiatives. Use this! You could start to see clusters of information that make up several audience groups. Differentiating your audiences is crucial. When you start to create your messaging, you’ll need to tailor it to each audience.
Not all businesses have to a CRM database. Either way, you should be diving into your analytics (and layering this on top of your CRM data if you have can). I’m a big advocate of combining as many data sources as possible.
Use Google Analytics to give you insight into demographics, locations, devices, referrals, interests etc. Combine this with your social analytics data. If you have advertised previously, you could break down the various targeting attributes of the ads that performed best. Dive into this further to see what pages these users like as well.
Sometimes this is just a reaffirming exercise if you feel you have a good grasp on who your target audience is, but you can find some golden nuggets from time to time.
If you don’t have a lot of historical data, you can play around with insight tools based on the knowledge you have obtained, and start getting creative. Combining both cookie-based and user-based data can give you a bit more clarity. Rather than relying on a single data source.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8732 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400.png" alt="social-media-audience" width="760" height="400" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400.png 760w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-250x132.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-700x368.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-120x63.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-80x42.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px" />
<h2>4. What Social networks should we invest in?</h2>
It’s easy to dive straight in and start creating profiles across as many networks as possible. After all, you need omnipresent in an omnichannel world, right? Using your audience research, you should have a better idea of where they like to hang out. If you have been active on numerous networks already, assess which ones have been driving the most traffic or have contributed the most conversions. If you have enough data in analytics, you should be able to get some clarity on this.
Your product offering or service will also play a part in this decision. Perhaps your target market is young, but maybe Snapchat isn’t the best platform to consume your content. It also could be simply down to resources. Do you have the team, the time and the content to publish across all the platforms you’d like?
<h2>5. What are your competitors doing?</h2>
It goes without saying, but it’s important to be aware of what your competitors are doing. It’s not about following their shadow. It’s about taking note of what they’re doing or more importantly what they are not doing. You can both be on Instagram and Facebook, but using their advertising features completely differently. For example, rather than showcasing your product lines in a carousel ad, why not offer an immersive experience with Instant Experience ads. Bring those potential customers on a journey, rather than showing them static images that they’ll forget by the next ad.
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="width: 346px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-8696-2" width="346" height="670" autoplay="1" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4?_=2" /><a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4">https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4</a></video></div>
</div>
Better yet, why not bring that customer-centric, personal marketing approach up a notch and start using chatbots in your Facebook ads.
<h2>6. What are your goals? What should you be measuring?</h2>
Your social marketing goals should be aligned with your overall business goals. These goals can vary greatly depending on your product or service offering, the industry you operate in, competition etc.
Goals can be split between Branding and Revenue-based. In many cases, you will be combining both. Of course, you will want to see a positive ROI and ROAS, but you will want to see your brand grow.
Examples of Branding-based goals include;
<ul>
<li>Awareness</li>
<li>Sentiment</li>
<li>Loyalty</li>
</ul>
Examples of Revenue-based goals include;
<ul>
<li>Sign-ups</li>
<li>Leads</li>
<li>Sales</li>
</ul>
Now that you’ve decided on what goals align best with your overall marketing objectives, you need to decide what metrics you should be analysed in order to measure success. One thing to note is that you will more than likely be analysing data from multiple data sources. For example, Google Analytics and Facebook. There can be discrepancies when comparing both data sets. Google Analytics by default will report last non-direct, while Facebook&#8217;s UI will be solely reporting on Facebook data. In other words, Facebook will report on a conversion, even if the user interacted with one of your search ads after the initial social interaction. Make sure you&#8217;re set up correctly for this otherwise your numbers won&#8217;t add up.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8737 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493.png" alt="social-media-metrics" width="1138" height="493" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493.png 1138w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-250x108.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-768x333.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-700x303.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-120x52.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-80x35.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1138px) 100vw, 1138px" />
Some basic metrics you will be most likely analysing will include;
<ul>
<li>Reach &#8211; The number of users that saw one of your ads. It’s a great way of measuring awareness.</li>
<li>Engagements &#8211; These can be anything from Likes, Shares and Comments.</li>
<li>Traffic &#8211; Number of sessions, number of new users and bounce rate.</li>
<li>Revenue metrics &#8211; sales, leads, Cost per Acquisition (cost per sale, cost per lead etc). ROAS is hugely important in an ecommerce setting.</li>
</ul>
If you are tracking sales or other conversions, you should also be mindful of the attribution windows that are set up. For example, will you be giving a 30-day attribution window to Facebook ads or 7 days? This will depend on the complexities of your overall campaigns.
When analysing the performance of your campaigns you want your data to tell a story. Understanding this story will help you understand your audience, understand what worked and what didn’t.
Tip: To really understand your customer’s journey and to get a better insight into your marketing spend, play around with your attribution models. They can reveal some incredible insights&#8230;and in some cases justify that spend when everyone else doubted it. You will also benefit by ensuring your channel groupings are customised so that everything can be tracked and measured as accurately as possible.
<h2>7. What are your capabilities? What’s your capacity?</h2>
Now that your research is done, and the foundations are laid, you’ll probably start having a few ideas on the approach to your strategy. You need to be realistic. You may have the passion and the determination to get it started, but does your team mirror this? Are the time, resources and skill-set available?
Before you go getting budget sign-off, you need to factor in content creation. You may have a hefty monthly advertising budget to spend, but do you have the content to stand-out and get noticed in a user’s, already saturated, feed? Your targeting may be close to perfect, but if your content isn’t, then the horse may fall flat before even reaching the water.

Laying The Foundations For A Successful Social Media Strategy

I got a phone call recently from a very well-known website. If you work in SEO, you’ll know them. They had a question that can only mean one thing &#8211; it’s that time of year again…
“What are your SEO predictions for 2019?”
And so it begins, a barrage of articles about this very thing.
The contradiction is that these articles are usually written purely to rank highly for queries related to just that, so they are sort of missing the point.
I&#8217;m writing this for our readers, our clients, and anyone who wants something more engaging. And for that reason, this article will be read more than 95% of those junk articles out there &#8211; because, we hope, it&#8217;s a little different.
Lists of SEO predictions usually mention some of the same topics every year. They throw the same shit at the wall and hope that when it sticks they can say &#8216;Aha, we were right!&#8217;.
Most of these lists are about as useful as asking a crystal ball for the winning lottery numbers.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-8385 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SEO_Crystal_Ball-750x400-700x373.gif" alt="" width="700" height="373" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SEO_Crystal_Ball-750x400-700x373.gif 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SEO_Crystal_Ball-750x400-250x133.gif 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SEO_Crystal_Ball-750x400-120x64.gif 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SEO_Crystal_Ball-750x400-80x43.gif 80w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
Many of these predictions also appear over and over again because people often give Google too much credit. Their <a href="https://twitter.com/FridayAgency/status/1058120268936372226">underdeveloped algorithms</a> can&#8217;t keep up with the needs and wishes of SEO professionals. They just can&#8217;t.
If I was to follow suit and mention the usual generic predictions, then I&#8217;d look at the following&#8230;
Voice search. No, not yet. Perhaps not ever, at least not in the form that it’s been sold to you. It won&#8217;t change the world of SEO in 2019. Don’t believe <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/voice-search-simplified/">what you’ve heard</a>.
Visual search. Yes, it might grow. But it’s niche, so get over it.
VR/AR. I’ve seen this in lists of predictions. It has nothing to do with SEO, only the resulting experience of a search, just like content.
GDPR. This is not relevant, so the conversations about how GDPR impacts on SEO need to end now. If you have been ethical all along then it shouldn&#8217;t impact anything, including link building.
Mobile search / Mobile first. Give me a break… we saw that coming fifteen years ago, and that time has already come.
So that’s a taste of the usual predictions and an admittedly very cynical view on them. But this article results from having already seen a multitude of these articles since early in 2018, all with a view to just ranking on Google.
What’s more important to me is what should and realistically could happen. This is where we become predictive rather than pre-emptive for the sake of ranking, something that other agencies fail to do.
If you’ve stumbled upon this article then congratulations, it may provide more insight than those others.
Those other types of &#8216;listicle&#8217; articles, every year, will include very little that surprises you. It&#8217;s content for the sake of ranking for it… it’s clickbait. As <a href="https://sparktoro.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rand Fishkin</a> nicely illustrated for us here.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-8375 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-09-at-11.05.49-700x385.png" alt="" width="700" height="385" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-09-at-11.05.49-700x385.png 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-09-at-11.05.49-250x138.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-09-at-11.05.49-768x423.png 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-09-at-11.05.49-120x66.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-09-at-11.05.49-80x44.png 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-09-at-11.05.49.png 1273w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
Instead, here&#8217;s some realistic advice for the next 12 months&#8230;
Sentiment. This should come as no surprise. Google made the switch some time ago from monitoring keyword repetition and usage to instead looking at synonyms… and then, context… and then, engagement. This year, they will begin to better algorithmically determine your content’s sentiment/intent in as much as that’s possible for an algorithm to do, and you will rank better based on how users interact with it. So it&#8217;s goodbye to content for the sake of content&#8230;
Goodbye Spam. In November 2018, Google spokesperson Danny Sullivan himself reached out to the SEO community to publicly ask for their opinion about what Google can do better in their search results. Responses varied from harsh to <a href="https://twitter.com/FridayAgency/status/1058120268936372226">obvious</a>. But this is definitely a signal that in some shape or form public feedback will begin to matter more. Google knows that their algorithm is not good enough, and robots ain&#8217;t fixing it all.
A Reality Check. SEO professionals will finally realise that Google is all about the user. This has always been the case, they are just getting better at it now. So your bullsh*t spammy techniques will stop working in 2019. Completely. You’ll wonder why. You’ll blame Google. I won’t because I played by the rules all along. Ethical SEO practices should, if Google’s engineers have any sense, finally reap their rewards across all core markets in 2019.
AI. Yes, Artificial Intelligence will change the way in which we conduct keyword research and it will change the way in which Google serve results. So you can expect your rankings to change in the next 12 month. A lot. If you ever wanted to know who decides what content ranks and where, or what gets lost in that sea of generic predictions lists, well that&#8217;s AI.
So there you have it. It&#8217;s not a detailed list of predictions but at least it&#8217;s not generic either.
So don&#8217;t be spammy in 2019, this will catch up on you even more. Be smarter than that. Watch your rankings closely because they will fluctuate a lot more. And create original, compelling content that will engage rather than be skimmed.
If you want to take your <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/">SEO</a> and <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/strategy/content-strategy/">Content Strategy</a> into 2019 and beyond in the best possible way, then <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">get in touch</a>. There are no crystal balls, we just stay ahead of the curve, and that keeps you ahead of your competitors&#8230; and that drives revenue.

What Are Your SEO Predictions for 2019?

I got another e-mail today offering SEO services. And yesterday, too. And the day before that.
They usually offer: SEO services, guest blogging, ‘high Domain Authority links’, an SEO ‘Partnership’, Super Ranking Services (yes, I’ve seen this) and a multitude of other things.
You probably know the ones, and I hope that you’ve deleted them. Here’s a recent one. It’s just great:
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="250" height="166" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6599" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-08-09-at-09.40.44-250x166.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-08-09-at-09.40.44-250x166.png 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-08-09-at-09.40.44-120x80.png 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-08-09-at-09.40.44-80x53.png 80w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-08-09-at-09.40.44.png 553w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" />
Please just make it stop!
This sort of activity is useless at best and usually pretty harmful.
But it’s not stopping. And unfortunately, these e-mails are only a part of the problem…
After just a few random Google searches, I’m still seeing it everywhere. I’m seeing the problem with SEO that has been around for quite some time and seems to be going nowhere.
What problem, you might ask?
The fact that most of them don’t have any idea what they’re talking about.
A few minutes of research will uncover bizarre claims even from Ireland-based companies who could otherwise appear as reputable and might even draw you in because, hey, they’re local!
<h4>Statements That Make No Sense</h4>
There are claims that cannot be backed up, statements that make no sense… all designed to make you part with your cash to pay for SEO services that will do NOTHING. And if they do anything, they’ll do damage.
“We are the number one company for link building.”
Em, says who?
“The more websites that link back to your website, the higher your website ranks on search engines.”
You’ve got to be kidding me…
“Pick the best link building packages to expand your business and increase your ROI.”
A package? Really? What year is this??
“Our link building campaign packages start at €1000 per month.”
Great, take my credit card.
Always remember: In the wrong hands, most marketing disciplines are just a wasted investment. In the wrong hands, SEO can be dangerous.
<h4>They’ll Try To Confuse You</h4>
SEO is a discipline that can require a lot of technical knowledge to get it right, and a lot of experience to make it work.
It’s also quite complicated, and that’s why it’s very easy for so-called practitioners to hide behind things that they can talk about, and sound knowledgeable in, but they do not truly understand it or even have the aptitude for it.
They’ll try to confuse you into believing that they’re the experts, and that you need them.
<h4>Let’s Talk Some Sense</h4>
I could go on and on about this, but let’s talk some sense instead. If you missed it, then give my Podcast a listen below. It’s on this very topic and discusses the multitude of SEO b*llshitters out there – and how not to get burned by one.
&nbsp;
<iframe loading="lazy" style="border: none;" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6286674/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/87A93A/" width="100%" height="90" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
And once you&#8217;re done listening, delete those SEO e-mails. Then consider <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">getting in touch</a>, and getting it done right.

Another Day, Another SEO Email

I&#8217;m going to bring it back to basics for my blog post this week, being so immersed in the world of design and development I sometimes forget that what comes out of my mouth can sound like a load of jargon to some people. The general misunderstanding around the difference between UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) both inside and outside the industry is something that has bugged me for a while. People seem to use these terms interchangeably, without trying to distinguish them in any way. So its time to set the record straight.
<h3>User Experience (UX)</h3>
To most, user experience or UX is a bit of buzzword. It&#8217;s a relatively new phrase for something that has been around for longer than its name. Wikipedia put it well &#8211; &#8216;user experience design is the process of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the customer and the product.&#8217;
User experience comes first in the design process for almost anything displayed on a computer screen. The goal for a user experience designer is to eliminate friction and pain points users may come across when trying to complete a task on a website or App. The process for the user should be as clear, smooth and simple as possible.
As an example, let&#8217;s say we are redesigning an e-commerce website, we identify through website stats that people are having difficulty completing a purchase at the checkout stage and are leaving the website before they pay for anything. Users have given us feedback that they are confused about what they should enter into the checkout form and the wording it displays. This tells us that the checkout process has a poor user experience resulting in abandoned shopping carts.
A user experience designer will spend a lot of time working on strategic planning, competitor analysis, customer analysis, content development, wire-framing, prototyping and usability testing to ensure that the interface works for the user. This process all takes place before a UI designer begins using colour, fonts, photography and design elements to create what the final interface will look like.
Starting UI design without first carrying out UX design would be like starting construction of a building without any well-thought-out blueprints.
<h3>User Interface (UI)</h3>
If user UX design is the creation of how something will work, UI design is the creation of where something works. Its the design of the actual interface users will see when they are using a website or app.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="990" height="320" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6875" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/UIvsUX2.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/UIvsUX2.jpg 990w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/UIvsUX2-250x81.jpg 250w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/UIvsUX2-768x248.jpg 768w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/UIvsUX2-700x226.jpg 700w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/UIvsUX2-120x39.jpg 120w, https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/UIvsUX2-80x26.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 990px) 100vw, 990px" />
UI design is carried out after the UX process has been completed. This is where we take sketches from the UX process along with a style brief and start applying graphic design techniques to apply look and feel and create finished artwork of what the interface would look like. We design compositions of buttons, headings, borders, links and shapes using colour, photography, brand elements, typography and styling that result in a finished artwork of the user interface.
<blockquote>
UI — “What should be the colour of this button?”
UX — “Do we need this button? If yes, why? What should be the position of this button?”
</blockquote>
<h3>Designers</h3>
I still see job listings by agencies looking for UX designers to create finished artwork or UI designers to design prototypes. Generally speaking, in the same way that web designers tend not to write code, UX designers would usually not style and UI designers would not usually plan an interface (there are exceptions to that rule). Instead, the two would usually work very closely together sharing ideas and knowledge to deliver the best possible finished result for the user.
It&#8217;s like Doctors and Nurses or Builders and Architects.
I hope that makes sense, if not let me know in the comments below, I might be too close to this to explain it well.

Whats the difference between UX and UI design?

<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 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 with 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 at 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; 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 business&#8217;s 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.
&nbsp;
<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 for, and what marketing comms they&#8217;re likely to receive from you.
You do need to record who opted in, and 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 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 the Head of Strategy and a Co-Founder at Friday Agency. 
If you want to check out more of his posts go <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/author/graham/">here</a>.
&nbsp;

GDPR & Consent: Knowledge is no longer power, it is Risk.

Display advertising has come a very long way since it was seen as the online equivalent of a print ad. But not everybody has moved with the times.
In the past few years, I’ve seen many display advertising plans for my clients, and they’re not cheap.
Your brand will be on some very popular and respected websites. That&#8217;s great.
It looks good for your brand to be there. It looks great internally that you’ve secured these placements. Your brand, product or campaign will be out there with one million eyeballs on it.
It&#8217;s sort of like this, except you&#8217;re on a great website:<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5390" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/billboard-advertisement-1.jpg" alt="" width="494" height="363" />
Everyone knows about you. Job done.
But&#8230;
Then it doesn’t convert.
And you don’t get a report that’s in any way useful or insightful.
So what happened?
The plan was lazy. In fact, it wasn&#8217;t a plan. It was just an outline of who you&#8217;re going to spend your money with and how many times your ad will be shown.
Your agency did what was promised. They managed to “deliver 1 million impressions to all online readership at the lowest CPM possible.” And to be fair, perhaps you hadn&#8217;t asked for more than that.
There was no strategy.
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Your money has been spent poorly</h2>
When your campaign didn&#8217;t have the desired impact, your response might have been “But who were these readers and what’s a low CPM? Wait, you never even asked me exactly who we were trying to reach!”
But it’s all hindsight. Your money has been spent, and spent poorly.
To put this in perspective, let’s remind ourselves of some facts. Click-through rates for display advertising are relatively low. Most users don’t think they are relevant. Display ads are more ignored than TV, radio and newspaper ads. Many users don’t trust display ads.
So to put it simply, you need: engaging creative, audience relevance, impact, and trust.
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Knowing your audiences</h2>
A good display advertising plan is not enough, you need a strong display advertising strategy. It&#8217;s about knowing your audiences; where they are, what they are doing, what they’re interested in, at what stage of the cycle they are in, what life events are affecting them, and much more. Through knowing this, you can create relevancy.
By looking at your own business and customer base, you can create profiles. And research helps too.
Then, by knowing who you are targeting you can produce creative that’s engaging. You can show creative that speaks to them.
You will now also know where their playground is. If it’s Facebook, Twitter… then video may be a good choice because short, succinct, relevant and engaging video can be very powerful if targeted to the right people. And on Facebook and Twitter, it’s not hard to find the right people.
Segmenting your audiences is not a far cry from psychographic segmentation, as used for election campaigns.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5399" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/pyschographic-segmentation.png" alt="" width="698" height="400" />
When you do find the right people, you will need to know your Goals. What, exactly, do you want users to do when they get to your website? It may sound simple, but tracking even the smallest of engagements can be beneficial.
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Be better equipped to ask the right questions</h2>
Know your website. Is it fit for purpose? Where will they first land, and is the journey to conversion up to scratch? This is hopefully a conversation that you’ve had well before you’ve even considered paying for display advertising.
If you want broad impact, like placements on a major newspaper website for example, then that serves its purpose. But you need to be better equipped to ask the right questions before agreeing your budget, and even your campaign dates:
<ul>
<li class="p1">Who is most likely to be on that website on those dates?</li>
<li class="p1">Within the ABC1 18+ audience, have they done further research into how engaged they are by site section, how more likely they are to be engaged by advertising by site section, therefore affording you more value?</li>
<li class="p1">Is there anything happening offline that may drive more visitors to that website on those dates, so that you might expect extra visibility and value for your investment?</li>
</ul>
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">&#8220;Won&#8217;t that just annoy people?&#8221;</h2>
I’d hate to not give retargeting a mention here. It’s a very powerful support to any campaign.
If you’re spending this money and sending users to your website, then you should be increasing the size of your retargeting audiences and lists with relevant people.
Retargeting is often referred to in negative ways. For example “Oh, it’s those ads that follow me around…” or “Won’t that just annoy people..?”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5392" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/retargeting-ads.png" alt="" width="550" height="395" />
But if done right and creatively, this is still a highly effective technique that can provide ancillary revenue, particularly if your creative is consistent with your campaign.
It’s not just a matter of placing a tag on your website and following people around with ads. I’ll admit that if done that way, it could be just plain annoying. There’s a strategy needed here.
Firstly, segment your audiences by how they have interacted with your website, either throughout the year or while in campaign.
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">If someone has only viewed the home page, then serve them ads displaying a rotation of the different products or services that you offer.</li>
<li class="li1">If someone has viewed a specific service or product, then remarket them with ads specific to that.</li>
<li class="li1">If they’ve added a particular product to their cart then show them this product &#8211; and if you can fulfill it, you could even offer a discount on that product if they return to purchase.</li>
</ul>
All of this depends on one core thing &#8211; you need to know when a user has converted. Without this, you’re serving them ads for a service they’ve already engaged with you for.
And very importantly, you may be serving them an ad offering a discount on a product that they’ve already bought!
<h2 class="graf graf--h3">Remarketing and cross-selling go hand-in-hand</h2>
But the journey doesn’t end when someone has purchased.
So, you’re Carphone Warehouse. Consider someone who has purchased the latest mobile phone from you &#8211; perhaps they may also consider complementary add-ons such as wireless charging pads, a cube speaker, headphones… or even broadband. Remarketing and cross-selling go hand-in-hand.
Even at that, your journey is still not over. If you can tie this into a user’s account data and their upgrade eligibility, then you may be able to eventually sell them a new mobile phone.
Another common myth is that you can only retarget users who have clicked on your Google AdWords ads. Not true &#8211; you can remarket anyone who has visited your website.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-5384 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/retargeting-1024x697.png" alt="" width="1024" height="697" />
Lastly, remember your custom audiences. Create a matrix of those users who have visited one page or site section but NOT another.
For example in the B2B space, you may have website visitors who have read all about what you do, they may have even looked at your pricing. These are keen potential customers. So the next time you have a Webinar, use retargeting to let them know about it!
See? We told you it’s come a long way. So, the next time you see a display advertising plan, read this again. You may notice a few gaps.
<a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Get in touch</a> if you’d like to see how we can help create an engaging campaign for you.

We Need to Talk About Strategic Display Advertising

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 loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4045" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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 loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4046" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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

I first wrote a post covering this topic in 2015 but things have changed a lot in terms of technology and our process has evolved accordingly, so I wanted to revisit my article and update it for 2018.
It’s not easy starting a new web development project if it&#8217;s not an industry you already work in, most people who create websites are usually not web designers or developers. It can be a minefield of technical and marketing jargon and there is a long list of things to consider throughout the project as well as after the website goes live.
If you don’t have a lot of experience in creating websites the chances are you haven’t considered everything that needs to be done in order to make sure you get the best possible results and the process to use. It is important to choose the right team to collaborate with and develop the right <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/web-design-process" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">process</a>, not just for design and development of your website but in marketing and support when the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.friday.ie%2blog%2Fwordpress-websites-10-things-to-do-before-going-live%2F" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">website is live</a>. Good website development planning is key to successful project delivery.
The aim of this list is to make sure you are informed and have realistic expectations of what’s ahead. These steps form part of what we do for any web development project at The Friday Agency but if you can start considering this stuff it will go a long way in helping you get an informed proposal and quote to help you get the best possible results.
<h4 id="e019" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">1. Research</h4>
No matter how confident you are about what you are creating, you need to back it up with research. First off you need to sense check and find out if there is a market for your product or service. How will users want to engage with it online and when you have planned and designed your website? You will want real users to give you feedback (especially if you are selling directly online), more about this later.
<h4 id="4912" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">2. If you have an idea, then have a plan</h4>
Planning is everything in this business. The more attention given to the detail before design and development are carried out, the faster it can become a reality and it will show in the quality of the execution. We would spend roughly 30–40% of our time on a website project in the planning stages.
Give your website careful thought, create a roadmap and establish your goals and objectives. If you are selling online make sure your offering has a unique selling point.
<h4 id="f279" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">2. Create a sitemap</h4>
Create a sitemap, this can just be a list of the web pages or sections showing a hierarchy of content and functionality, a bit like a family tree with the homepage on the top. Also think about the user journey, how they will navigate through the website and the experience you want them to have.
<h4 id="aaad" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">3. Think about content</h4>
Your sitemap will give you an idea of the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.friday.ie%2blog%2Fmixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy%2F" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">content</a> you need to create but when you start to drill down into it you may find gaps or it will spark a great idea for something you didn’t consider before. Content should always be created before any wireframe or design is looked at, see my post about this <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/content-first-approach-creating-website" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>. Also, think about who is going to create the content — be it text, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/photography-web-design" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">photography</a> or video, will you do it yourself or will you need your agency to help with this? Also, have you considered <a href="https://friday.ie/blog/seo-if-you-think-best-expensive-wait-hire-bad-one/">SEO</a> as an integral part of your content plan?
<h4 id="5c04" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">4. Listen to your audience</h4>
Too many times we have seen websites or apps created on what the business owner(s) think will work, the reality is that they, and even the web development agency, will be too close to the project to see some of the most obvious issues in terms of the offering, user experience and messaging. Try to avoid making assumptions, in the end it doesn’t really matter what you think, it only matters what the end user thinks. Usability testing on any project is essential. Real users in front of the actual interface will tell you so much and will often surprise the creators, its well worth the time and effort &#8211; I can’t stress this enough. More about usability testing <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/usability-testing-fancy-why-should-we" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.
<h4 id="4531" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">4. Marketing</h4>
&#8220;If you build it they will come&#8221; — unfortunately, it doesn’t always work like this, there is a lot of noise out there and, like anything, you need to shout for attention. Any website launch should be coupled with <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/the-digital-strategy-battlefield" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">marketing activity</a> — social media, SEO, PPC, online display, email marketing, press releases, sponsorship…and that&#8217;s just the off-site activity you should look at. We’d advise you to also have an on-site content creation strategy — it doesn’t have to be a big deal but some activity with regular website updates will help keep the site fresh for your users as well as the search engines (they love active websites). If you don’t tell people about your website it won’t get any traffic and that would ultimately be a waste of time and money. Marketing your website is as important as building it so talk to us about how we can help you drive traffic to your new creation.
<h4 id="4688" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">5. Ongoing website management</h4>
Your website is live, what now? Web development isn’t just for Christmas, its for life! The software will need to be updated, backups made, security scanning and hosting will need to be managed, and that’s just on the technical side. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.friday.ie%2blog%2Fmixing-a-great-content-marketing-strategy%2F" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Content</a> will need to be freshened up, products updated, QA testing, enquiries responded to and regular activity to promote good SEO is also very important for your website&#8217;s visibility in the long term. Take all of this into account in terms of time, resources and budget.
<h4 id="4234" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">6. Have a timeline</h4>
When does your website need to be live? We can guide you on this based on the brief but it helps if we know your expectations at the start. Try to avoid rushing a project. We would usually split a website project into 4 main stages (with sub-stages within each). Planning, design, development and testing.
<h4 id="4909" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">7. Establish your budget</h4>
Which comes first, budget or brief? Well both, you need a brief in order to get a quote but keep in mind how much you want to spend. If you have a budget, make sure it meets your ambition — for example, a budget of €2,000 for a custom e-commerce website is unrealistic, if you can communicate this within the brief it can help save a lot of time. However, if you have no idea, that&#8217;s ok too &#8211; we can help to guide you.
<h4 id="63cc" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p">8. Write a brief</h4>
If you have followed the steps above, well done — you are organised and ready to write or discuss a concise yet detailed brief that any digital agency can read and get a really good insight into your requirements. This will also start the collaboration process, when there is no confusion the ideas will flow and your project can only benefit from this. Showing this level of thinking and organisation may also bring your costs down, often when everything is laid out clearly the task at hand looks easier.
The Friday Agency is here to help if you need any advice or assistance in creating a brief or collaborating on a website project, <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">talk to us</a>, we’d be delighted to add real value to what you have in mind.

The Essential Website Development Planning Checklist

Getting your organisation&#8217;s tone of voice and personality across online is vital to achieving that personal and friendly experience.
A customer&#8217;s first impression of a business most often comes through their website or social media channels.
Creating your organisation&#8217;s tone of voice starts with your target audiences. Once you understand your customer or market you will maximise your sales proposition.
Who are you selling to or trying to appeal to? Why should they come to you for your service or buy your product? What do you do better than the other guys, your competition?
I&#8217;ve taken a look at a selection of brands and businesses that have mastered their tone of voice online and connect with their audiences on a personal level and in a consistent way.
<h3>AYR</h3>
<a href="https://www.ayr.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Ayr</a> are a women’s fashion brand who have established a fun and conversational personality online with their cool, informal language.
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AYR’s cool, laid back tone of voice carries through onto their social media. They communicate with their followers using a casual writing style, which adds personality and value to what they&#8217;re selling.
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<h2 class="graf graf--p graf-after--h2" style="text-align: center;">DOG STUDIO</h2>
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.dogstudio.be/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dogstudio.be%2F">Dog Studio</a> aren’t shy when it comes to conveying their mission statement and messages online! The Belgium based digital agency has adopted an off-the-cuff tone of voice that feels like you are talking to a friend. They don’t take themselves too seriously with the odd expletive thrown in for shock value.
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Their ‘ballsy’ lighthearted personality goes further in their ‘Join the team’ section where they communicate with the user in a very down to earth manner:
<blockquote>
We already crave you crazy motherf*****&#8230;
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Their contact page features a series of ‘drop us a line’ messages that appear as if someone is typing them to you as you watch. Staying true to their personality they feature some hilarious and tongue in cheek lines.
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Interestingly, they don’t carry this tone of voice into their social media posts where they have the most interactions with followers.
<h2 class="graf graf--p graf-after--h2" style="text-align: center;">PADDY POWER</h2>
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.paddypower.com/bet" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.paddypower.com%2Fbet">Paddy Power</a>, the Irish bookmaker’s have set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd with their distinctly laddish, cheeky and witty personality and tone of voice. This success is down to the company knowing exactly who its target audience is, young men.
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They keep their punters entertained with topical, ballsy, and controversial content to keep them engaged and coming back for more. Paddy Power’s global marketing director, Christian Woolfenden was quoted saying
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“…if we don’t get complaints we’re quite disappointed.”
</blockquote>
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True to form, their social media is just as controversial and provoking. This tweet below in response to journalist and TV personality Piers Morgan.
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So, who are you?
Whatever type of brand or business you have, the important thing is that it has its own personality that is recognisable and memorable so that people respond to it. Once you’ve established your brand’s tone of voice, keep it consistent from your website through to your social media and even your emails, they should all follow the same tone.
Does your website need a makeover or an injection of brand personality? <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/contact/">Give us a shout</a>, we’d love to help.
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Brand Personality Online

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Design is going through a resurgence of appreciation and as a design focused agency, this makes us very happy! We are finally reaching a time where the value of design is starting to be realised by the business mainstream and this allow us to work using a smarter process that clients now buy into.
Businesses from law firms and restaurants to grocery stores and banks are employing design in a way they never did before. The public are starting to demand it and business owners are starting to take notice.
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In the past, design had been undervalued. It was seen by some as a luxury, and was usually reserved for the few who understood its business potential. Businesses focused on their product or service and not so much on their brand or customer experience. They still made a profit and probably didn’t realise the potential of employing design through the user journey both offline or online.
<h3 class="graf graf--h2 graf-after--p">When design becomes a priority</h3>
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Imagine there was a burst pipe in the head office of your business. This is an emergency, right? You call a plumber immediately, don’t question them and pay whatever it takes to fix the issue as quickly as possible. This is a no brainer.
So, if a business has poor branding, design and in turn a substandard customer experience, why is this not seen as an such a pressing issue? Why do some businesses cut corners on design, leave their websites out of date and lack attention to detail in all corners of their business activity?
<blockquote id="0298" class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--p">“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the costs of bad design.” 
 —  Dr Ralf Dieter Speth</blockquote>
A business may still run and even make a profit without good design, if a business has never employed design thinking they will never know the added value it can bring.
I&#8217;m not saying you should throw money at design without questioning it, you need to be smart about what what your goals and objectives. Unlike a burst water pipe needing to be fixed, good design can be subjective. What may look ugly to one person, may look adequate to another or great to someone else. What is not as subjective is consistency of design application and this is where a lot of companies fall down.
A business can employ watered down design, maybe create a good brand/logo with brand guidelines and let the admin people apply the new branding across the company while probably ignoring the guidelines. Application of good design should always be managed by someone who has experience in and understands design. This is where a good agency comes into the mix.
<h3 class="graf graf--h2 graf-after--p">Design led companies</h3>
In recent years design led companies have shown the world how design can enhance their brand, create loyalty and extract maximum potential from a product. Sometimes the product may not even be the best in terms of features but if its well designed with a focus on the detail of customer and user experience it can stand out from the competition. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.wired.com/2015/01/airbnbs-new-head-design-believes-design-led-companies-dont-work/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-href="https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2F2015%2F01%2Fairbnbs-new-head-design-believes-design-led-companies-dont-work%2F">AirB&amp;B is a good example</a>, they sell experiences and have perfected the customer experience as much as they can along the way through design and careful attention to detail.
Since the 1970’s <a href="http://www.apple.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple</a> has always been design-led, and this has come from the top down. Its a huge part of the company culture. From the days of Steve Jobs arrogant insistence on his vision being executed to the tiniest detail to today where Jonny Ive pretty much oversees all visual aspects of every Apple product in both software and hardware. Apple is now the biggest company in the world. You can be pretty sure there are few people working in Apple that do not have at least a basic appreciation of design.
Due to the remarkable success of design-led companies, design has evolved beyond products. Design thinking is at the core of effective company strategy. Companies are learning how to think like designers, and apply design principles to all areas of their business and its workings. The only way this can happen is if it comes from the top. If a MD or CEO does not use design thinking it will be very hard to create a design led company culture.
<h3 class="graf graf--h2 graf-after--p">Research led User Experience</h3>
While user experience (UX) has been around since the dawn of time its only in recent years that it has come to the forefront of digital design and a new process is still evolving. We are a research driven agency and its part of our culture to have all design decisions qualified through research. Large companies are now insisting on research driven user experience work to be carried out on their websites, Apps and UI’s before final visual design starts.
<blockquote id="04c9" class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--p">“Like all forms of design, visual design is about problem solving, not about personal preference or unsupported opinion.” 
— Bob Baxley</blockquote>
When it comes to design everyone has an opinion, who is to say which opinion is the right one? In some cases it can often seem to be the person in the room with the loudest voice or the person paying the bill. As rude as it may sound we have often had to tell clients that it doesn’t matter what they think. The only people that matter are the users, the customers. They are the ones using the product so they are the only voice that really matters. Its not us as the design agency or the client, we are not the target market. Ignoring user feedback is a huge mistake but listening to their views and needs can give valuable insights.
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UX doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. With research there is nothing to debate, it creates proof and makes for quick decisions, meetings don’t turn into debates and the end product will always perform better.
<blockquote id="c0bc" class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--p">“Design based on data brings us back to the essence of design and will leave out all unnecessary decoration.” 
— Jeanne de Bont</blockquote>
This culture is slowly starting to trickle down to SME’s and budgets are slowly increasing to allow the design work to be done the right way using a comprehensive process.
<h3 class="graf graf--h2 graf-after--p">Iterative design</h3>
Another great change in how the design process is changing is the iterative approach. We are coming to the end of the days where a product is created, the design work is done, its released everybody walks away and its left unchanged.
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The process of ‘Research — Design — Test — Build’ should be a repeating cycle of continuous development. You’ll never get it 100% right the first time. Even if you do how will you know unless you do the research and testing.
Iterative design is in some respects starting to replace planning documentation. Iterative prototyping is a good route if you want your project to hit the ground running. Prototyping allows designers and developers to quickly transform their creative vision into a reality, and then perfect it through iterations. This approach can be a hard sell especially to clients who are used to the traditional waterfall way of working but it works and we have found that people quickly adjust and like working in this way. This approach can save clients time, money and resources. The process makes exploring what the user needs and how to get it to them generally much quicker than documentation.
The future is bright and good design is starting to get the recognition it deserves. Its refreshing to see clients demanding that design done the right way, using right the process. Designers have spent years trying to push this process and its starting to become expected. Long may it last, at the moment it does feel like there is no turning back.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Why design led companies are winning

<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 loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="p-image-1560" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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
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<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.
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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.
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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.
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</div>
</div>

User Experience – Designing for Trust

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

Following on from my last post <a title="UX for mobile" href="https://friday.ie/blog/user-experience-for-mobile/">User Experience for Mobile – Take care of your audience</a> I want to bring up the concept of mobile-first thinking. Traditionally, website designers and their customers approach a new website project focusing on it’s desktop iteration, the mobile version becoming an extra goal that is completed at a later date. Now there’s an increasing trend in the marketplace to flip this process and commence with mobile concerns first, before building up to tablet &amp; desktop models. If you still consider mobile web design a niche industry, you need to change your thinking. Mobile is no longer the future nor is it a trend. It’s right now. As the statistics prove, the web has completely broken out of it’s computer-shaped box and into our pockets &amp; handbags.
So why use this method? Read on to find out.
<h3 style="text-align: center;">RISING TO THE CHALLENGE</h3>
I switched to using Adobe Illustrator to design websites a long time ago &#8211; it&#8217;s a great tool for resizing for different screen sizes and being resolution independent, it&#8217;s perfect for creating retina graphics. It was an unnatural concept after having used Photoshop for all my designing years, but now, when I revisit old Photoshop documents in order to make changes to past client site designs, I find it frustrating and I know that I’ll never go back. So recognising that same feeling when first trying mobile-first website design was a good indication that I had room to improve and had another opportunity to master more methods. It’s clear that the approach of mobile-first is a tougher competitor but you’ve got to surrender a bit of comfort for the sake of becoming a superior designer!
<h3 style="text-align: center;">THE HEADACHE</h3>
There are different ways to make design decisions but when planning a user experience for desktop, you don’t have to decide what is the most important thing when you have tonnes of space to put stuff. There are no real hard choices to be made. But when you design &amp; build for mobile the opposite happens. You have very little room, and so the decision-making process is much much harder.
Designing for mobile means simplifying. Sounds easy but it’s not. To create a simple experience; to reveal your content &amp; actions in a way the user will understand; to choose their position so they appear as and when they are needed and not when they aren’t, makes the job a tough one. The screen is tiny, you really have to work hard to figure out what needs to be there: primary content, secondary content, actions &amp; other extra information. Think 2 things: user-experience and enhancement. And ONLY offer up additional information, (the frilly bits) to people when you know their devices can handle it.
<h3 style="text-align: center;">PROGRESSIVE ENHANCEMENT</h3>
So instead of ‘degrading’ a website design for smaller displays, rewrite the important parts of the layout. Then progressively enhance it for serving a rich experience to more capable devices. Consider your vital content. Cut back the content material to it’s most essential components for your mobile experience. It’s a worthwhile exercise: you can display this information in an even stronger way as you deliver it to the desktop design.
To be honest, mobile-first design is not fun and it&#8217;s not easy. You are hit with constraints from the word go. But it’s the way I prefer to work, and crafting a successful web experience that is mindful of user context and device features the best way that I can (no matter how challenging) is really very satisfying.

Mobile-first Thinking

We all want to be more productive, anything that claims to make our lives easier is worth exploring. In 2015 we will spend a lot of time using tools and methods to improve productivity and efficiency and will increase our capacity to get things done. I wanted to share some of the tools and methods we use here in The Friday Agency that we feel are worth a look.
Software has become a utility, a lot of the good services out there have recurring fees and monthly bills can mount up if you don’t keep an eye on it. Make sure everything you pay for is adding value, do an audit every few months to make sure you are not wasting your cash.
As a digital agency, we have an ever-evolving process for how we develop websites and manage digital marketing campaigns, we are always reviewing our processes and there are a number of software tools that help us on our way. We have a checklist of criteria before we take a look think about employing a new tool or method.
<ol>
<li>The net result between time spent managing the tool and the time it saves needs to be positive.</li>
<li>Any software should be cloud-based. We try and stay away from anything that is only present on a single device as we all work from a number of devices depending on where we are at the time.</li>
<li>Collaboration is key, if the tool will allow you to share data and knowledge then it’s a big plus.</li>
<li>Limit the amount of GTD apps (Getting Things Done) you use, how many lists do you really need?</li>
</ol>
<h3>Basecamp</h3>
Basecamp is a web-based project management tool where team members and clients can collaborate. It’s a single place to share files, have discussions, assign &amp; track tasks, and keep up to speed on deadlines. We have been using Basecamp for a number of years and we find it great for projects big and small. If used correctly it can be a really powerful tool for any type of project. Costs start at about €17 a month but we use the package that&#8217;s €42 as it allows us to manage more projects.
<a href="http://www.basecamp.com">www.basecamp.com</a>
<h3>Zero Inbox Policy</h3>
This one isn’t about a specific product but more a way to manage email. We all spend too much time with our heads in our email, my feeling is that people are too quick to hide behind it and a lot of typing time could be saved with a quick call or face to face (remember that?), you don’t save time or build real relationships by only communicating by email.
I use a zero inbox policy, this means that my ongoing goal is to have an empty email inbox, I archive every email that I have read or actioned. This way I know that anything that is still in my inbox needs action. My inbox becomes my to-do list. I have been using this policy for about 6 months and I couldn’t recommend it more. Emails don’t get missed, I never forget to reply to an email and the satisfaction of getting to the end of the day with a clear inbox is great.
Dropbox have a mobile and desktop App called Mailbox (update Dec &#8217;15, now <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/help/mailbox-shut-down">defunct</a>) which will help with this, it has some great features but the search in the desktop Beta I tested was very poor so I quickly went back to Apple Mail until they fix the bugs.
If you do nothing else this year, take on a zero inbox policy, it gets things done and relieves email fatigue.
<h3>Base CRM</h3>
We recently took on Base CRM as a tool for tracking leads and our sales pipeline, its a little too early to give a full review of this web-based service but based on a few months usage it seems to be working for us and is worth the €13 a month. It has great real-time reporting, sends reminders and organises leads based on stages. The UI is clean, intuitive and easy to move around — being visual people this is key to any of the tools we use.
<a href="https://www.zendesk.com/sell/">www.getbase.com</a>
<h3>Bullet</h3>
There are no fulltime accountants working in Friday just yet but we like to be very organised and keep on top of our finances. Bullet is a cloud-based accounting web app that claims to automate your accounting and payroll. Bullet has all the features we need and makes everything from billing, payroll, VAT returns and estimates easy to manage. The Bullet team is always there to help and have even implemented some of the UI and feature suggestions we have shared with them. It has a nice UI and the best part is that Bullet is an Irish company.
Your accountant won’t like Bullet, you will rely on accountants less and less as you get used to the system. The other reason your accountant will not like Bullet is that it is not as flexible as some of the more complicated tools such as Sage, simplicity always requires compromise of features and Bullet are working to get this balance right based on customer feedback.
Bullet is not a not for everyone but it has made running our business much easier. We get great reporting, credit control has improved and payroll is a breeze. Pricing for Bullet starts at €4 a month and builds depending on the features you need.
<a href="http://www.bullethq.com">www.bullethq.com</a>
<h3>Reminders</h3>
Apple have a very simple and usable Reminders App that comes pre-loaded on all iOS and OS X devices. It&#8217;s a To-do list app where reminders can be set based on time or location. So let&#8217;s say I walk out of the office it can remind me not to forget my keys. Lists can be shared and reminders can be set with Siri. I use this every day. Reminders sync beautifully between devices using iCloud and its free to all Mac and iOS users.
<h3>Browserstack</h3>
Testing is a huge part of our day, everything we create has to be tested, retested and tested again on multiple devices, platforms, and browser versions.
Browserstack.com provides a paid service where we can test our work on all the main platforms, browsers and relevant verisons using a single browser. This is a huge time saver. In the old days, we had to jump from PC to Mac to tablet loading up different OS and browser versions. At €30 a month its not cheap but cheaper and faster than having multiple testing stations.
<a href="http://www.browserstack.com">www.browserstack.com</a>
We’d love to hear your views on this and if you know any other tools that do a better job than the ones we covered. Please leave your comments below.
<h3>Update September 2015</h3>
Since writing this post we have started using a whole new batch of productivity services and Apps and I wanted to share them with you. Thanks to <a href="https://disqus.com/by/disqus_QS93RzVyQp/" data-action="profile" data-username="disqus_QS93RzVyQp" data-role="username">Melanie Gardner</a> who posted a comment below we have discovered <a href="http://www.invisionapp.com">InVision App</a>, this is a game changer for presenting and collecting feedback on UI and UX artwork to clients remotely. This really has changed how we collaborate with our clients, well worth the money, check it out.
We have also started using a time tracking App called <a href="https://timelyapp.com">Timely</a> which allows us to see how much time the team here in the studio are spending on a project and it gives us great reporting that shows us if our pricing is working for us and our clients as well as where we can become more efficient in how we use our time on projects. Works great via your browser as well as the mobile app and if you are lucky enough to have an Apple Watch there is an App for that too.
The last is <a href="https://slack.com">Slack</a>, this is a widely used messaging app for team collaboration. This is used by us all every day to collaborate and share thoughts, links, and visuals on what we are working on internally. It&#8217;s like Skype or any other IM client but on steroids with the features you always wanted such as organising chat topics into subjects or projects, Drag and drop file sharing, private groups and it&#8217;s all highly searchable.
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The top 6 productivity tools for a digital agency in 2015

“The Mobile Browser Is Dead, Long Live The App” say <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/04/02/the-mobile-browser-is-dead-long-live-the-app/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/04/02/the-mobile-browser-is-dead-long-live-the-app/">Forbes magazine</a>. Sounds extreme? That’s because it is. They quote a report which says that in the first quarter of last year US users spend an average if 2 hours and 42 minutes of their day on their mobile devices, but only 22 minutes of this time is spent in a browser, the remainder being focused on apps. “If you follow the principle that you need to be where users are, then you need to be building and distributing apps” they say, but that’s a drastic statement. Examining the information in the graph below, you’ll notice that while 86% of user behaviour is app-based, the vast majority of that is consumed by gaming, Facebook, and other social channels. Users aren’t accessing this content solely because it’s available as native mobile apps, they’re accessing social and entertainment channels for leisure.<a href="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mobile_graph.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" size-full wp-image-944 aligncenter" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mobile_graph.jpg" alt="Mobile Apps vs Mobile Sites" width="800" height="727" /></a>
Contrary to what Forbes suggest, building a native mobile app isn’t going to guarantee you any extra users than your existing web presence does, but if your app is useful to your market and delivers content and features that make the most out of the platform then it certainly can do. The main message here is not to make an app for the sake of making an app. As with any sort of digital platform, strategy is key. There are many cases where a mobile or responsive site will make more sense than an app. The most obvious being budgetary restrictions. Designing and creating an app is a heavily labour intensive process, and your app must have separate versions for iOS, Android and Windows devices, amongst others. It’s an expensive route to go down, and alternatives should be considered if time and cost are issues, and unfortunately, they always are!
If your website is designed and built <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/web-design-process/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">properly</a>, (i.e. designed <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://friday.ie/blog/responsive-web-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responsively</a> with a mobile-first strategy) then your website will already look and function well on mobile devices. You can prompt your users to add your website to their home screen. Did you know that you can create app icons for your website so that when it’s added to a home screen you can specify the icon that appears? Once the icons have been designed (in various formats for mobile and tablet), it takes just a few lines of code to add the functionality to your site. With a great mobile site, your web app can look as slick as any native iOS or Android app, and the same site will work and appear the same across all platforms at a fraction of the cost.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" size-full wp-image-946 aligncenter" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ios8.jpg" alt="ios8 App" width="350" height="700" />
The case for native apps is strong however, apps perform faster on devices, and can make use of the devices features, i.e. location services/ camera, etc. Think of Facebook’s check in feature for example or Instagram’s camera integration. Apples new Health features are already being incorporated into <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.macstories.net/reviews/myfitnesspal-adds-healthkit-support-bringing-its-data-to-ios-8s-health-app/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="http://www.macstories.net/reviews/myfitnesspal-adds-healthkit-support-bringing-its-data-to-ios-8s-health-app/">fitness apps</a> to increase their data sources and offer more and better features to users.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-947 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/dff_slide_2-1024x524.jpg" alt="Responsive Site Design" width="1024" height="524" />
<h4 class="graf--h4">Mobile/Reponsive Site — Pro’s and Con’s</h4>
Pros
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf--li">Cost Effective compared to native apps</li>
<li class="graf--li">Design and structure can be updated much quicker than an app.</li>
<li class="graf--li">The coding used will work across all devices, i.e. iOS and Android, so no need for separate deliverables.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Promoting your site as a mobile site will count towards your overall SEO ranking.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Flexibility &#8211; your developer can make changes to your site&#8217;s design or functionality much more easily than in a native app.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Marketing costs are reduced as there is no need to drive users towards a separate app. Users won’t have to go to the trouble of downloading an app, they can connect to the website at any time.</li>
</ul>
Cons
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf--li">Your user must visit the site through the browser or you must encourage them to add it to the home screen so that they are encouraged to revisit.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Your web app has no visibility in any app store, which potentially could be an issue if competitors do have that visibility.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Mobile/Responsive websites have limited access to the devices built in features.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Your user must be connected to the internet in order to access your mobile site.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-948 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/fishie11-1024x524.jpg" alt="Mobile App" width="1024" height="524" />
&nbsp;
<h4 class="graf--h4">Native Mobile Apps — Pro’s and Con’s</h4>
Pros
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf--li">They perform faster than a web app and can work without an internet connection.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Visibility in app stores.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Built-in mobile features give you masses of options in incorporating features into your app, and you can make full use of touchscreen/camera/location/device orientation etc.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Because all native iOS apps need to be authorised and approved, the user has a sense of safety and security when using the app or, crucially for e-commerce, providing payment information.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Once your user has chosen to install your app, it always appears as an icon on their device, encouraging repeat use.</li>
</ul>
Cons
<ul class="postList">
<li class="graf--li">Multiple version of the app must be built for multiple mobile platforms and devices.</li>
<li class="graf--li">There is much less flexibility with a native iOS app, any structural or functional features that need to be re-coded must be re-submitted to the app store for approval, a process that can take weeks, which isn’t ideal.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Cost — The costs for creating a native app is generally much higher than a mobile site</li>
<li class="graf--li">A new strategy is required for marketing and SEO, which must be considered when budgeting for an app.</li>
<li class="graf--li">Users may not always update to the latest version of your app, meaning that any fixes or updates you make may not always be delivered to the user unless they choose to update.</li>
</ul>
Both routes carry a strong case, and the best solution for your business will be based on your content strategy, how you want to deliver content to your users, and how you want them to interact with it. If mobile apps are something you’re considering for your brand right now, then get in touch, we’d love to talk more about it!

Mobile Apps or Responsive Websites: how to choose?

We are still basking in the glow of the fact that at only 6 months in, we can call ourselves an award-winning Digital Agency. To celebrate this, we have decided to share some insight into how we work and the process we use for web design and development.
Our web design process is everything to us, it provides our team of designers and developers and our clients with a transparent and highly collaborative path to launch. Processes establish lines of responsibility, create timings and deadlines, explain costs to the client and because it&#8217;s based on a system where one stage cannot be started until the previous stage is complete, it provides very clear approval milestones.
One size does not fit all&#8230; every project is different and our process is always tailored to suit. However, this is the base process we use to start a project.
<h3>Planning and Requirement Planning</h3>
Planning is the most important stage of any project. All the stakeholders in a web design project need a comprehensive understanding of the work that needs to be done, when it will be done and who is going to do it.
If you have a comprehensive plan when you start something it gives the whole process clarity, a shared vision, increases efficiency, reduces the chances of error and marks out areas of responsibility.
We kick off any web design project by meeting with our client, establishing the team and developing the requirements. We look at the goals and objectives of the new website and any problems with the client&#8217;s current online presence. We look at the competition and where possible, we carry out research by talking to the people who will be using the website.
Output: A detailed website spec and information architecture sitemap
<h3>Website Wireframes</h3>
A website wireframe is like a blueprint. It is the <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/user-experience/ux-design-dublin/">user experience (UX) design</a> without the distraction of colour, typography, photography and style. It allows us to focus on the user&#8217;s journey through the website, the functionality, content structure and interactivity.
Only after we have agreed the website wireframes with the client can the design process begin.
Output: Wireframe sketches for each main web page template in various devise sizes
<h3>Design Brief</h3>
As part of the design process we collaborate closely with our clients to explore design direction. This is usually done through a design workshop where everyone brings ideas, examples and thoughts to the table and we discuss what the best direction is for the look and feel of the website.
We explore the brand, it&#8217;s personality and how it should to be presented online. We look at the competition&#8217;s web presence as well as unrelated websites. Notes are taken and opinions are collated.
Output: A written design brief with visuals to explain design direction, layout, typography, colours and photography
<h3>Artwork</h3>
We don’t believe in surprises at The Friday Agency. With close collaboration, the output of the design stage shouldn’t be a surprise as the client has had input and we have communicated our direction clearly. The expectation of quality is set by our previous work and what we referenced throughout the planning stages. The usual outcome would be that because of collaboration and detailed planning the first design iteration would be very close to the final design and layout.
Design is produced by referencing the wireframes and design brief. We usually start with the homepage on both mobile and desktop sizes and work through the website page by page.
Output: Artwork for each main web page template in various device sizes
<h3>HTML/CSS Markup</h3>
The first stage of development is HTML and CSS markup: this is where we take the website&#8217;s artwork and carry out what we call &#8216;slice &amp; dice&#8217;. The website pages are marked up in clean and efficient HTML and CSS that is responsive across current and future devices.
Images are optimised to load as quickly as possible. We also future proof quality by optimising images for HiDPI or Retina displays. Vector SVG’s are used where possible to maximise load time and image quality.
Output: Browser tested responsive HTML/CSS files for each page template
<h3>Development</h3>
<a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/technology/web-development-dublin/">Web development</a> is when we build the website with the assets already produced. Design and markup is integrated into the backend technology. Databases are set up, functionality is created through code, web servers are configured, security is locked down and content is migrated.
This is the stage of the project with the least amount of collaboration between agency and client: all the planning has led up to this point &#8211; we are building exactly what the client has requested so we combine this with our own input and expertise.
Output: Beta website
<h3>Testing</h3>
When we have a beta website we carry out our first stage testing. This covers user testing, layout, functionality, server, script efficiency and load time as well as multiple browser and device tests. The second stage is to share a beta link with the client so they can carry out their own review. Feedback is collated and changes are made if required.
Output: Final Alpha website
<h3>Website Launch</h3>
When everyone is happy we migrate the website to the live server and launch. In some cases we may do a soft launch, this is when the website is put live but is not announced or advertised. This allows us to get feedback from the public without it being seen by the masses.
Only after a website is launched can a <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation/">Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)</a> campaign be carried out. There is an entire blog post that could be written about how we manage this stage of a website project and we will cover this at a later date in detail.
Output: Live website

The Web Design Process

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://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/the-funnel-digital-marketing.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-592" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/key-digital-strategy-channels.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-591 size-large" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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

Developing a brand identity for your own startup agency is and should be a considerable undertaking. From the outset, we made a conscious decision to use full team collaboration.
We formed a tight huddle, gathered our new family for a briefing and set to work.
Brainstorming is fun but can quickly become laborious. We came up with some wonderfully meaty concepts, but nothing we could all bite into. Voices were raised and opinions challenged (in hindsight bringing us closer together as a new group), but we shared a hunger to hit the streets with something original yet unconventional.
We wanted a buzz, we wanted to create a feeling so we altered our tack and approached the project from a fresh angle.
We wrote a new brief, examined our company values, had countless break-out sessions and narrowed it down to something we were all really excited about. In the end FRIDAY was born out of the lyrics to a song and was devoured by all.
But you know that elated feeling you get at the end of a busy week? We craved this energy every day! In essence, it encapsulated how we wanted to be viewed and understood.
So we ran a survey to gauge how the name FRIDAY might be received (a positive split of mostly yes’s, with some no’s &amp; maybe’s from the industry &amp; the public got us giddy) then shook hands and set off on the road to visualisation.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-585 size-full" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/bp6.jpg" alt="bp6" width="768" height="344" />Keeping the team together for this phase was essential and those without design skills did not shy away. We wanted a visual that was sure of itself, that exuded our energy &amp; wide-eyed creativity and the great work we produce. But because of the strength of the word FRIDAY our mark should be simple.
Each contributor’s vision and every scribble and scrawl was considered. With a deadline jumping up and down and waving it’s arms, we quickly caught up and hit it. Our final mark was simple but had endless possibilities. It was bold but timeless. It made a brave statement. FRIDAY, we fell in love!<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6242" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FRIDAY-48.jpg" alt="" />This branding exercise netted us a great looking identity that is balanced and works very well within several different applications and across all types of media.
It has been just a few months since the launch of FRIDAY but we’re growing up and moving forward fast. Every day, we learn more about who we are and the value we give with the work we do.
If you have any thoughts on the FRIDAY brand, let us know below. But FRIDAY, we’re still in love.

The Birth of Friday

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 loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-363" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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 loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-364" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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 loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-373" src="https://www.api.friday.ie/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.

Photography and Web Design

You have an idea for a new business, it&#8217;s exciting and you just want to jump in and get going before someone else steals the idea. You think you are 100% clear about your goals and strategy, the business plan is all in your head. “Stop holding me back!!”
I’ve been involved in many startups over the years and every time it&#8217;s a completely different experience. No two businesses are the same but all have a lot in common in terms of the process of setup. Here are a few words of wisdom that I would give someone about to start this process.
<ol>
<li>Create a business plan 
At number one, because its probably the most important. A business plan helps you make decisions you have not thought of yet. It forces you to ask yourself valuable questions and may even change the direction of your business. The process gives you the opportunity to take a close look at what the business will be; who it will be targeting; how you will manage your finances, establish goals, responsibilities and strategy. This will save you from making rash decisions when things get crazy. You may even find that writing the business plan will make you abandon the idea.. better now then 6 months after the business is set up.
There are plenty of business plan templates out there, find a good one and try to complete as much as you can. You will need this if you are looking for investment but even if nobody reads it apart from yourself, it&#8217;s an invaluable exercise and something you should read back over every few months to make sure you are on the right track when things get going.</li>
<li>Know your market 
This is obvious but you’d be surprised how many jump in without doing the research. Look at who you are selling to, ask the questions:&#8211; Who needs this product/service? 
&#8211; What are they willing to pay for it? 
&#8211; What is the overall market worth for this product/service? 
&#8211; What share of the market are you after? 
&#8211; Who else is offering this, how are they getting on?The best thing The Friday Agency did as part of our business plan was ask our clients about what they wanted. Use Survey Monkey and get as many one to one chats with people in the know as you can. People will be happy to help if you ask them, don’t be shy.
</li>
<li>Have a USP 
You either have a completely original idea (very rare) or there is already someone else doing want you want to do. You need to stand out from the competition, what&#8217;s the point in being the same? It doesn’t have to be ground breaking &#8211; it could be price, process, how you communicate or the after service you offer. Look for gaps in the market in terms of how people are doing what you want to do. One of the USP’s of The Friday Agency is knowledge and experience. Everyone has that, right? You’d be surprised. Having worked in the digital marketing industry for a combined 60 years we have met a lot of people who hold high positions and may have good management or people skills, but what&#8217;s missing in a lot of cases is real knowledge and passion for how they create what their client wants.
</li>
<li>Be realistic about timing 
Patience is a virtue. Don’t rush into it, think it through. This brings me back to my first point about creating a business plan. What we learned from the process of developing our business plan was that it took about 3 times longer than we thought. We are glad it did because it helped us lay a solid foundation that will continue to hold value for us in the future.
</li>
<li>Choose your partners wisely 
In this day and age most people in serious relationships move in together before they get married (unless of course like me you are Catholic, that would be living in sin!). It gives couples a chance to get to know each other in a more intimate way and find out if they can live together without someone being murdered. The same principles should apply for business partners. Before you set up a business with someone, you should have experience of working closely with them. The Friday Agency came to be by 2 digital marketing companies coming together with a similar vision. We shared an office for almost a year before we launched the agency and worked on several client projects together. This allowed us to establish roles based on the knowledge of each other&#8217;s strengths and because of this we have a great company structure, transparency and solid relationships.
</li>
<li>Get a good solicitor and accountant 
Don’t just go for someone you know, talk to a few accountants and solicitors before taking one on. This should be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Every company needs an accountant but you should do as much of the company accounting as you can yourself at the start. Don’t rely on an accountant to do everything for you, stay on top of it and not only will you save money on fees but you will have a clear picture of where the company is going financially. I have heard stories from accountants about their clients being genuinely shocked when they are told that their businesses were in financial trouble. Until they had their end of year accounts done, they had no idea how their own businesses were doing financially.
Solicitors are a necessary evil, nobody likes paying them but if you are going into business with anyone you need contracts and agreements in place. Conflict resolution processes need to be hammered out, prepare for the worst. We found ourselves in strange conversations discussing things like, what might happen if one of us died &#8211; morbid I know but it&#8217;s likely that if we agree these points in writing now there will be no problems if something bad happens, nobody wants to end up in court, where solicitors are the only winners.
</li>
<li>Brand is everything 
We are a design focused marketing agency, so we are obviously going to spend time on our brand and we can do it ourselves without much cost. No matter what you are doing this is one of the most important parts of the set up process. Your brand tells people who you are, what you do, your personality type and the quality of your work. You could be highly skilled in what you do, a master of your craft, but if your brand is telling the wrong story it could undervalue what you do to a point where it may reduce your business&#8217;s real potential. Invest in your brand.
</li>
<li>Keep costs down 
You have to spend before you earn. Sense check every bit of spending you do. Ask yourself if what you are paying for is going to add real value and help increase turnover in the short to medium term. Don’t splash out to look flash, you don’t need a hot tub in the office! Only hire the talent you really need, each staff member should be earning their salary, expenses plus profit. They should be busy otherwise you are wasting your money. Running a tight ship will ensure you will maximise your potential to grow as a company.
</li>
<li>Recognise your strengths and do what you love 
I have been self employed for 13 years so I have had to work on every aspect of my businesses whether I liked it or not and whether I was good at it or not. This had to change in order give this new business the best possible start, as well as keeping me in a good supply of fun and enjoyment. I wanted to focus on doing the things that I enjoyed, and of the things I liked doing I wanted to focus on only doing what I was good at. There are plenty of things I am good at but I don’t enjoy and visa versa. I forced myself to recognise these areas and my goal where possible was to hand the responsibility to someone who both enjoyed and was good at carrying out these tasks. This basic principle will allow you to have fun at work while working efficiently and also minimise messing things up.
</li>
<li>Have fun 
Ok, number 10 may be repeating what I said in number 9 but its important and who wants to read a Top 9! You have to have fun at work, it&#8217;s not going to be a lol-fest all day everyday but it should be enjoyable, you shouldn’t dread going into work. The only way to have fun at work is to take control of your own destiny and steer yourself in a direction that gives you real satisfaction. Passion is a good place to start: if you don’t have passion for what you do, STOP and do something else if you can.</li>
</ol>