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Category: Industrials

The future of mobile marketing


Written by Zoe Poxon

A recent survey conducted by Flurry revealed that we spend over 5 hours on mobile devices each day. This tells us that there is a vast and engaged mobile audience out there which we could be tapping into, and it’s one that is growing year on year. Pretty much everyone has a mobile device, and there are plenty of ways to reach the right people.

So, what can you do to keep up with this growth and take full advantage of mobile marketing in 2018? Here are some things to look out for.

Google’s mobile-first indexing

In 2016 Google announced that they’re switching to ‘mobile-first indexing’. This means that Google will start to base its ranking of your website on its mobile version and no longer its desktop version (even if someone searches for you from a desktop).

If we look at some stats on how many mobile searches are made today, it’s not surprising why this shift is happening. Mobile search currently drives more traffic than desktop. And according to official Google statements last year, over 50% of searches are made from a mobile device. We can only expect this to grow in the future.

What does this mean for your business? To ensure that your site ranks as well as it can, make sure that you have a few different versions of your site available in different screen sizes, and that each version is optimised for search. You might even want to consider creating an app as the best way forward.

Voice search

Google previously reported that 20% of mobile queries were voice searches. And by this point we’ve all heard of Amazon Alexa and Google Home, which are perfect examples of how far voice search has come and how fast it’s growing. Other sources show that 40% of adults use voice search once a day, and that voice searches have increased over 35x since 2008.

My point is, voice search is (kind of) the new kid on the block, and in the world of mobile marketing, it’s one to watch. It works by aggregating the best and most popular answers that are being searched for around a particular topic. To ensure that you stand the best chance of showing up in the voice search results, make sure your key content is featured on your main website pages. This makes it easier for Google to scan your website and pick out the most relevant content and answers to a query. If you’re lucky, you might even get featured by Google in a ‘Featured Snippet’ – a search result that appears in a card at the top of the results page, which includes a summary of the answer. It looks something like this:

The summary is extracted programmatically from content on the web page. When Google recognises that a query is asking a question, it finds pages with an answer, and shows the top result as a featured snippet.

If you want to feature as top content, a useful tip is to have quality and credible answers to common ‘what is…’, ‘what if…’ and ‘how to…’ type questions on your mobile site. To understand more about how Google determines ad position and ad ranking, they’ve written an article to tell you everything you need to know.

Fast loading websites

Developing a quick and easy user experience is one of the simplest but most important elements of successful mobile marketing. DoubleClick’s research states that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take over 3 seconds to load.

Your website alone is a strong marketing tool as it should hold all your key content that will sell your product or service. Don’t let delays in loading time be the reason your audience is turning away.

Mobile advertising

There are many more specific ways to boost your mobile marketing efforts. You could use mobile advertising on websites, in-apps and on social media. Or try adapting your digital content to make sure it looks great on mobile screens (e.g. social media posts may need to be expanded / images may not appear as good as they do on desktop). And let’s not forget the option to advertise within mobile messaging apps. It’s a great way to reach a growing and hyper engaged audience – Facebook Messenger has over 1.3 billion active users, and with LinkedIn Sponsored Content, you can tap into their audience of over 500 million professionals.

Today, people spend more time looking for answers on their mobiles than on their desktops. Whether B2B or B2C, it’s every brands’ responsibility to provide answers to these questions, and to ensure their websites are tailored to provide a streamlined mobile experience.

If you’re looking to boost your mobile marketing, get in touch today to find out how we can help you.

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The rise of influencer marketing


Written by Zoe Poxon

Influencer marketing is all the rage among brands and PR professionals. In a recent study, which elicited responses from marketers across a range of industries, 86% used influencer marketing in 2016, 94% of whom found it effective. It’s a new tactic and there’s still mystery surrounding it. So, what exactly is it – and should you be doing it?

Here’s how it could help your business.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencers are specialists, or celebrities, that have built and retained trust and two-way communication with their followers. Influencer marketing taps into this already established and engaged audience to promote a product or service. Usually, the best campaigns are those where the influencer creates their own unique content to support the brand and its goals.
From health and fitness to stock marketing, social media is swamped with influencers that we try to emulate. And they’re so easy to find – there’s no need to search beyond the standard social media channels. If you need to, they’re probably not worth following.

Is it worth your time?

For this haircare company, one selfie post from Kylie Jenner enabled the brand to reach her 96.7M Instagram followers, generating more than 1.9M engagements:

This comms trick doesn’t just work on the A-list celebrity scales. If you’ve got interesting and relevant content, it’s worth taking the time to find the right influencers to get your story in front of your audience.

Whilst there is some debate over how to measure the success of influencer campaigns, they can have a higher ROI than traditional media campaigns. Take the Budweiser #GiveADamn campaign during the Super Bowl 50. 50 influencer posts across Instagram and Twitter reached 107M people and cost 13x less than Budweiser’s 30 second TV ad (it reached 114M people, at a cost of $5M).

What are the benefits?

There are obvious tangible benefits including follower engagement, driving traffic, and the creation of more authentic content. But let’s not forget that word of mouth recommendations are more important than ever, and social media makes great content essential and relevant.

With the rise of ad blocker usage (and the fast forward button on our TVs), it’s easy to avoid traditional advertising. This, plus the fact that consumers are shifting their attention to digital platforms, makes influencer marketing a very relevant and effective social media strategy.

What does influencer marketing mean for B2B?

It’s unlikely that the Jenners would share our content, but we can relate to other major influencers in our sectors. Martin Lewis has a huge impact in the energy market – all it takes is one mention on This Morning for a company’s sales to rocket. Similarly, a mention from Ashton Kutcher would certainly spark interest in technology. The tech investor has put money into Airbnb, Spotify and Uber, to name a few.

When we generate compelling and engaging content, we might reach out to journalists or thought leaders in our respective sectors to share or put a unique spin on our stories. We might also use Google Hangouts or conduct a poll, which are great ways to gain valuable audience insights. We can then use findings as the basis for creative content, or a broader marketing approach.

How can influencer marketing supercharge your comms?

  1. Influencers are already talking to your target audience – they have done the ground work by creating an audience (follower base) for you
  2. They have built credibility and trust – followers will be genuinely interested in what an influencer has to say
  3. They are everywhere – every industry has influencers, you just need to use the right tools to find them

Traditional PR channels still have high value. But if you’re looking to really amplify your digital comms; engage the influencers that have already won the hearts and minds of the people that would genuinely listen to your message.

To understand how influencers can support your marketing goals, please get in touch.

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The lunch remains the same: The enduring importance of the journalist lunch


Written by Matthew Sheahan

We live in a time when communications are becoming faster paced and our ways to interact with the world are multiplying. The advent of popular social media makes for a dizzying array of choices and interfaces. Am I out of date because I don’t have a Snapchat account? Does anyone under the age of 30 use email for anything other than work?

As the forms of communications are constantly changing and being updated, face time (no, not FaceTime!) is going to remain important. That’s why every single public relations worker should be taking journalists to lunch and making those personal connections as often as possible. Having that personal connection buys you a VIP table in someone’s headspace. Don’t turn down the chance to put a face and a good memory of a tasty lunch to your name; when a journalist sees your name in his or her inbox and is prompted to respond, you’ll be glad you made the effort.

When I worked as a journalist, I heard from a lot of public relations people. Some were good at their jobs and some were bad. The ones I remember most easily were the ones I had met in person. Those tended to be the better ones to begin with, because they took the time to foster a real relationship and get to know what it was that interested me and informed my work.

Even if I had no particular use for what those PR pros I had met were pitching me, I would make it a point to read through their email, hear them out, and see if their story was useful to one of my colleagues. A select few of them I’d go to when I was looking for a source, to see who among their clients may be able to speak with me about this particular subject or that.

Going to lunch with a journalist gives you another chance to ask them what they are working on, catch up on the latest people moves at their publications or sister publications, and let them know about you and your clients in a relaxed atmosphere. It gives the journalist (and you) a chance to get out from behind the desk for an extended period of time.

Having good relationships with journalists is central to what we offer our clients. Building those relationships is good for business and means we stand a better of chance of succeeding in our campaigns. Just as we don’t form long-lasting relationships with clients without in-person meetings, we’re not going to form the best journalist relationships without in-person meetings either.

Media Relations are key to what we do at Aspectus. Our reputation is going to precede us in everything that we do. We want journalists to have a positive association with us before we reach out to them on behalf of our clients. Our clients want us to know the media inside and out, and you’ll learn a lot more over a lunch than clicking through LinkedIn.

We encourage the team to invite two journalists to lunch every week, and aim to invite a journalist into the office to get their take on the state of media and journalist/PR relationships (over lunch). We keep a spreadsheet of these lunch invitations so we can track them and avoid too much repetition. We often mention going to lunch in a follow-up email after pitching a journalist or in conversation as part of a pitch. We try to make sure it’s a routine part of our outreach. They won’t always say yes and they often won’t respond, but you don’t know unless you ask. Fortune (and fortune cookies) favors the bold.

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Aspectus opens Aberdeen office


Aberdeen, 9th March 2016 – Aspectus, the global communications agency serving the energy, engineering, financial services and technology sectors, has opened an office in Aberdeen to service its growing oil and gas client base.

Aspectus has been active in the oil and gas industry for a number years, successfully operating from its bases in London, Houston and Singapore. Despite the recent precipitous drop in oil prices driven by a global glut in supply, the company has decided that the timing is right to strengthen its foothold in the market.

Aspectus offers a unique approach, which combines content, media and search with the latest analytics to measure the precise levels of engagement its campaigns create. Clients are given a transparent view of how their communications has increased audience engagement, which can be benchmarked against competitors and the wider market.

Alastair Turner, CEO of Aspectus, says: “We understand that in today’s challenging environment, justifying spend on communications is incredibly tough. That’s why at Aspectus we don’t bill for time, we sell business outcomes and charge for the results achieved. Furthermore, we take the risk out of investment in PR by offering performance-related campaigns. We believe we can make a measurable difference to our clients’ businesses; so much so that we’re willing to put our money where our mouth is.”

Megain Buchan has been appointed as account manager to lead the company’s Aberdeen operation. Previously a client of Aspectus, Megain joins the company from ProSep, the oil, gas and produced water specialist. Megain brings over five years’ global marketing and communications experience to the role, having worked for oilfield service companies in Aberdeen, Houston and Kuala Lumpur.

Megain adds: “I’m delighted to be joining the Aspectus team. I have first-hand experience of the impact Aspectus’ innovative campaigns create. The challenge for our clients now is maintaining their relevance in a changing market and protecting the value of their brands. We can help clients use the most effective digital and mainstream communications channels available to reach their audience and motivate them to engage commercially.”

Laura Iley, head of oil and gas at Aspectus, comments: “We’re thrilled to be taking our unique approach to a wider market. We’re committed to the future of the sector and immersed in its challenges, which is why we’ve recruited our team of sector specialists from within the industry. This experience, combined with our creative approach to communications is what enables us to deliver measureable business outcomes.”

Aspectus’ Aberdeen office is located at Leadside House, 62 Leadside Road, Aberdeen AB25 1TW.

About Aspectus

Aspectus, the engagement agency, is an international communications agency specialising in financial services, energy, oil and gas, technology and engineering.

Our work builds brands, increases sales, attracts investment and supports business growth.

We develop creative, integrated campaigns that engage target audiences and we guarantee business outcomes.

That means original ideas and high-impact visual and written content promoted through the most effective channels. We do this all in a way that builds clients’ online profile, integrates search and drives people to your website.

That’s how we create engagement.

Media contact

Rosie Williams
Aspectus
T (Aberdeen): 01224 355056
T (London): 020 7242 8867
T (USA): +1 (646) 792 2375
T (Asia): +65 6597 0954
E: pr@aspectusgroup.com
www.aspectusgroup.com

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Aspectus unveils new approach for driving engagement through communications

London, 16th June, 2015 – Aspectus, the global communications agency, has expanded the services it offers to clients across the energy, engineering, financial services and technology industries. The revamped offering tops a run of successes for Aspectus, taking in new headquarters, senior appointments and awards.

The model incorporates a mix of new, improved and existing services, and integrates them in a way that drives real engagement between clients and their markets. Services now include expanded content development capabilities such as animated videos, infographics, cartoons and other visual content as well as broader search engine marketing capabilities such as pay per click and social advertising.

“It’s a fresh way of creating engagement, but it’s also a case of evolution rather than revolution,” explains Alastair Turner, Global CEO. “We’ve been adding services and changing the way we do things for a few years now. The model is the result of us thinking long and hard about what it meant to integrate everything. We realised that, good as they are on their own, our services have to engage with each other in the right way to drive engagement between our clients and their target audiences.”

This comes at a time of incredible growth and recognition for Aspectus. A re-designed website has been launched to better reflect the services on offer, the UK headquarters has moved to the heart of Tech City in Old Street, London, and PR industry veteran Jed Hamilton has come on board as head of North American operations in New York.

Furthermore, Aspectus has recently been both shortlisted for the In2 SABRE, PR Moment and Financial Services Forum Awards, as well as winning 2015’s In2 SABRE award for persuasive content. Aspectus also climbed to 79 in PR Week’s 2015 top 150 UK agencies, jumping more than 40 places in two years and making Aspectus one of the UK’s fastest growing independent agencies.

Another recent hire has been Otilia Martin, recruited from Hill and Knowlton to head up Aspectus’ Visual Content offering. “What makes Aspectus stand out is its commitment to client business outcomes,” says Martin. “That’s why we are always looking to innovate and go for the most effective option rather than the easiest – whether it’s an article, an infographic or a video – whatever best reaches and influences the audience. It’s what makes us the Engagement Agency.”

– ENDS –

About Aspectus

Aspectus, the engagement agency, is an international communications agency specialising in financial services, energy, technology and engineering.

In our hands communications transforms the way businesses engage with their markets. Our award-winning approach, creativity and market knowledge builds brands, increases sales, attracts investment and supports business growth.

To find out more, visit: www.aspectusgroup.com

Media contact

Alastair Turner
Aspectus
T (UK): +44 (0) 20 7242 8867
T (USA): +1 (646) 792 2375
T (Asia): +65 6597 0954
E: pr@aspectusgroup.com
www.aspectusgroup.com

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Sherborne Sensors selects Aspectus PR for international public relations campaign

August 16 2010 – Sherborne Sensors, a global leader in the design and manufacture of inclinometers, accelerometers and force transducers for military and industrial applications, has appointed Aspectus PR to manage its international public relations. With an initial focus on the UK and US markets, Aspectus will support the development of the Sherborne Sensors brand among its key audiences and elevate its technological capabilities through targeted mainstream and social media outreach.

“We were searching for a PR agency that could really get to grips with the complexity of our products,” said Michael Baker, Managing Director at Sherborne Sensors. “Our decision to appoint Aspectus PR was motivated by its unparalleled track record of delivering effective PR campaigns for companies whose businesses are as complex and technical as ours. We’re excited about working with the team and are confident that their support will deliver tangible benefits for our business.”

Alastair Turner, Managing Director of Aspectus, said: “We are delighted to be working with Sherborne Sensors to help it establish itself as the leading player in the UK,North American and global marketplaces. Our goal is to deliver a public relations campaign which will boost the profile of the company’s unique products in these key markets and showcase the deep industry knowledge that is a key feature of Sherborne Sensors.”

-ENDS-

About Sherborne Sensors

Sherborne Sensors is a global leader in the design, development, manufacture and supply of high‐precision inclinometers, accelerometers, force transducers and load cells, rotary encoders, instrumentation and accessories for industrial, military and aerospace customers. Products offered under the Sherborne Sensors brand are renowned for their ultra‐reliability and long‐life precision within critical applications. Recent acquisition of synergistic technologies by Sherborne Sensors within our inclinometer and force and load cell offerings has allowed customers to benefit from expanded product lines, with added benefits of engineering support, global sales presence, repair, refurbishment and calibration services, stocking programs, and continuous product improvement. For more information please go to: www.sherbornesensors.com

About Aspectus PR

Aspectus is a business-to-business PR and marketing services consultancy, with a strong background in technology, energy and financial services. Aspectus is a full-service agency offering media relations, marketing strategy, event management, market research, direct marketing and creative services. It provides targeted, intelligent, strategic and creative campaigns that push all the right buttons with the right people. For more information please go to: www.aspectuspr.com

Media contact

Amy Redhead
Aspectus PR
T (UK): +44 (0) 20 7182 4081
E: amy.redhead@aspectuspr.com

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Aspectus Appointed for launch of Glenigan Business Market Intelligence

London, 27th October 2008 – Glenigan has appointed Aspectus PR to handle the media launch of its new web-based Business Market Intelligence (BMI) service and Glenigan Index – a definitive measure of the state of the construction industry, equivalent to the consumer industry’s Retail Price Index. The service will give its users access to detailed historical and forecast information on regions, sectors and companies.

Glenigan (formerly emap Glenigan) is already a major player in the UK construction market data sector. Both the new BMI service and the Glenigan Index will provide more in-depth industry intelligence and industry forecasts to help CxO level management plan future strategies and identify areas for growth.

“Traditionally our product offering has been aimed at middle and senior management, but our new service will be much more strategic and aimed firmly at senior decision makers,” says Graham Newman, senior marketing manager for Glenigan. “Aspectus PR will be focussing on securing national broadsheet and broadcast media coverage for the launch of the Glenigan Index which should really help to establish the credibility of the service among C-suite executives.”

“The construction market has always been seen as a barometer for the wider economy and with the fall-out from the credit crunch currently at the top of the media’s agenda it’s hard to imagine a better time to be launching BMI and the Glenigan Index,” says Alastair Turner, managing director of Aspectus PR. “We are delighted to be adding Glenigan to our growing portfolio of B2B clients and I’m confident that the team will be able to deliver fantastic results.”

-ENDS-

About Glenigan
Glenigan combines comprehensive data gathering and exhaustive research with detailed statistical modelling and expert analysis, to deliver a trusted insight into UK construction trends and activity. Its customers include construction companies, manufacturers and suppliers of materials used in construction projects, as well as specialist service providers including recruitment agencies, financial institutions, IT and telecoms companies. Central to Glenigan’s subscription’s service is The Glenigan Index. Published monthly, the Index is a definitive guide to trends and forecasts for the UK construction industry. For more information go to: www.glenigan.com.

About Aspectus PR
Aspectus is a business-to-business PR and marketing services consultancy, with a strong background in technology, energy and financial services. Aspectus is a full-service agency offering media relations, marketing strategy, event management, market research, direct marketing and creative services. It provides targeted, intelligent, strategic and creative campaigns that push all the right buttons with the right people. For more information please go to: www.aspectuspr.com.

Media Contacts:
Amy Redhead
Aspectus PR
Tel: 020 7487 8443
E: amy.redhead@aspectuspr.com

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