If you ever log out of Facebook, you’ll notice the home page proudly declares “Sign Up – It’s free and always will be.” 

That’s true if you only want a personal page to keep tabs on family, friends and to secretly check what your high school classmates are doing now. Not so if you’re marketing your business on Facebook. It costs time and money to build a Facebook audience if you want to effectively advertise online.

Word of mouth referrals are powerful. 
​
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, if someone is willing to refer your business to their family, friends or colleagues they are investing a little bit of themselves in you. If you're deciding between two companies, and your friend says one of them was awesome, how likely are you to choose that business?

I’m yet to meet to meet a business owner who doesn’t value word of mouth referrals, but not a day goes by where someone questions whether their company needs social media. Why?

​What's the most important word on your website?

Not just your website. Across all your marketing material there is one word, more than any other that will engage potential customers, and convince them you can solve their problems. 

​Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to educate, engage with, and provide value to your customers. Not sure what content marketing is exactly? Check out my Why Content Marketing? blog.

With content marketing, the emphasis is on creating quality, not quantity. This means developing a strategy takes time, but the results from posting crafted, polished material that reflects your brand far outweigh posting something hurried and rushed every single day.

The good news with content marketing is, you can re-purpose and re-use a lot of the material you create. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time. Here’s a step-by-step guide you can use to create your own content marketing strategy.

The truth is hashtags are a powerful tool for spreading your message and engaging with people online.. So… What are Hashtags?

​Content marketing is one of the most cost-effective, measurable, results driven strategies available for businesses. What other options are there if you want to boost your reach, educate your audience, and improve your online rankings all at once. 

So, what is content marketing and how much do you need?

In life and business there’s only one thing you can rely on to be constant. Change.
In particular, you can always trust Google to review their precious algorithm that chooses which websites get found and which don’t.
​
No matter how big or small your business, these changes will affect you!

Whether you’re excited or dreading the coming of the silly season, most businesses will be winding up for the summer break. 
​
For many Christchurch businesses, this involves a change in opening hours. Perhaps you’re taking more time off than the stat days? Maybe you have a summer special or message you want to promote to your customers. What’s the best way of doing this?

It’s a question asked by many Christchurch business owners, and fair enough. If you’re spending money on anything in your business, you want to have an upfront idea about how much to budget and what kind of return on investment you will receive.

​Will a PR campaign be worth it?

Businesses love good publicity and some positive PR. A feel good boost in local Christchurch media informs people about the awesome work you’re doing, so they look more favourably on your company.
​
This doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of planning, targeting, and measuring so you make the biggest impact and the best result. If you’d like to raise the profile of your Christchurch business, Inform PR has four tips for success and pitfalls to avoid.