Marketing

January 10 2025

A-Z Marketing Terms

In the world of marketing, there’s a lot of jargon to understand, so to help, here is the A-Z guide of marketing terms which may help you next time you are talking to your marketing team:

Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is an online marketing strategy where a retailer rewards external websites or influencers for driving traffic or sales through referrals.

Backlinks – A backlink is a link on one web page that directs users to another website.

CTR (Click-through rate) – Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who clicked your ad out of all the people who saw it.

Direct marketing – Direct marketing connects businesses directly with potential customers, using tools like email, phone calls, and texts to build brand awareness and drive interest.

Earned media – Earned media is unpaid content about a person or organisation generated by external sources like media outlets and publications.

Freemium – Freemium is a business model offering a free basic version of a product or service, with premium features available for a fee.

Geo-targeting – Geo-targeting delivers ads to consumers based on geographic location, ensuring relevant content reaches the right audience.

Hashtag – A hashtag (#) is a word or phrase preceded by the hash symbol used on social media to categorise content by topic.

Impressions – Social media impressions are the total number of times your content was displayed, including multiple views by the same user.

Javascript – JavaScript is a programming language for creating interactive web pages.

Keyword research – Keyword research identifies and analyses the terms people use when searching online, assessing relevance and competition.

Linkbait – Link baiting creates highly valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks from other websites, boosting search rankings and website authority.

Marketing Mix – The marketing mix is a framework which consists of the 7 P’s: Product, Place, Price, Promotion, People, Processes and Physical Evidence. A balanced, adaptable marketing mix is crucial for business success.

Net Promoter score – NPS measures customer satisfaction and loyalty by gauging their likelihood to recommend a company or its offerings.

Organic Reach – Organic reach is the number of people who see your social media post without paid promotion.

Ppc – PPC (pay-per-click) advertising means advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked, essentially buying website visits.

Quality Score – Google’s Quality Score assesses the quality and relevance of your PPC keywords and ads, influencing your CPC and ad position.

ROAS – ROAS measures how much revenue is generated for every pound spent on advertising: ROAS = Ad Revenue / Ad Cost.

SEO – SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) improves a website’s visibility in search engine results by optimising its technical configuration, content, and link popularity.

Text Ad – Text ads are online advertisements using text to promote products/services, typically linking to a website and appearing in search results, social media, or banners.

Unique Visitors – Unique visitors represent individuals who visit a website at least once within a given timeframe.

Vlog – A video blog is used to share personal perspectives and experiences.

Website Hosting – Website hosting stores website files and applications on a server, making the site accessible online.

X – X, previously known as Twitter, is a microblogging and social networking service.

Yutube Ads – YouTube ads are video, banner, or text ads that promote brands, products, or services on YouTube and partner sites.

Zero-party data – Zero-party data is information customers willingly share with a brand, such as preferences and purchase intention.

Written by Ellie Roberts

Marketing Assistant Manager

Ellie is our Marketing Assistant Manager who works alongside our Marketing Managers; she helps support the team by creating social media content and email campaigns whilst completing many more marketing tasks to assist in delivering marketing strategies and plans to clients.

Unwrapping The 12 Highlights of 2024

websites@idomarketing.co.uk

Unwrapping The 12 Highlights of 2024

This year has been full of many different achievements for both us and our clients and with 2024 coming to an end, lets unwrap some of of them!

1. Lydia Was Announced as the Marketing and Communications Ambassador for the IOD

An outstanding achievement from our Director this year, Lydia was announced as Marketing and Communications Ambassador for The Institute of Directors. Upon being appointed, Lydia said:

“I am excited to bring value to Kent IoD members by sharing my marketing expertise via round table events and conversations at networking events.

I also want to support the Chair and other ambassadors with improved marketing of the Kent IoD region and communicating their valuable knowledge on their respective industries.”

2. We Launched The Gets

The Gets had yet to be launched when they first came to us, with many years of combined experience and an idea for eight powerfully facilitated team workshops. We began with a Bigger Picture session to dive deeper into their industry before developing their marketing strategy. Once complete, it was time to get started; we created a logo for them alongside their brand guidelines before starting on their website (which our website developer has since said was one of his favourites to work on this year). As a team, we love nothing more than watching people’s ideas come to life and helping them to do so!

3. We Boosted Brand Visibility With Video Content

Philip Jones came to us with a brief wanting to create a stand-out updated video to be used as a showcasing piece. With the brief in mind, we sourced the following:

A videographer
Location
Model

We then set out a plan for the day, which allowed us to create content for different areas of the client’s marketing. The main video is now used on their Amazon page, and other snippets have been used in social media posts and ads.

4. Created Powerful Partnerships: Inspiring the Future

Throughout the year, we have partnered with both our local college and University – Canterbury College and The University of Kent on several occasions. Lydia and Ellie have talked to many future-generation marketers, with one of the most recent talks being about ‘A day in the life of a Marketing Manager’.

We have also had four work experience placements join us this year, helping to give them even more insight into what we do here as a team and get a taste of agency life!

5. We Had a Marketing and Branding Day With a Client

After completing our Bigger Picture session with one of our most recent clients, we kicked off their strategy by hosting a marketing and branding day.

This gave us an opportunity for a creative session to help collaborate and inspire both the client and ourselves. We spent the morning reviewing their brand, defining assets and colours whilst keeping the day as interactive and creative as possible. From this, we could develop clear brand guidelines. We then had a game of darts and some lovely food in Canterbury before our afternoon session, where we had our website kick-off meeting and discussed key milestones for the next 6 months!

6. We Judged the Kent Business Awards 2024

This year, I Do Marketing judged the Kent Business Awards for Best Small Business in Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone; our Director Lydia said she felt ‘so inspired’ when interviewing the finalists, summarising the interviews as ‘just WOW’. It was a fantastic night celebrating all of the finalists, you should all be so PROUD of yourselves.

7. We Leveraged Tech for a Better Client Experience

We know just how precious time is, especially when running a business and with technology continuously evolving to make processes more efficient, we wanted to utilise this for our clients to ensure we make our processes as efficient as possible.

So this year, we have introduced new ways for our clients to approve content and report to improve both the visual display of our work and the time it takes to complete these processes.

8. We Achieved an ROI of 2000% on Google Shopping Ads

Eyelash Excellence is an award-winning eyelash extension and glue provider.

We ran Google shopping ads, which linked directly to their e-commerce site. We optimised them weekly depending on the results from the previous week.

We also would put forward recommendations on these. We liaised with the client based on their goals, which were discussed during our monthly meeting with them (for example, during sale periods, these would be altered). These results saw a 2000% ROI on one of their shopping ad campaigns.

9. Ellie Became a ACIM Member and Lydia Maintained Her Chartered Marketer Status

Education is critical to us here at I Do Marketing, as the marketing industry will always continue evolving with new technology and trends. As there are also no regulations for our industry, it is essential for us at I Do Marketing to be a part of CIM; this helps us be accountable, maintain our training/education and gives our clients the confidence to know we are doing this. The year Ellie became an ACIM member, and Lydia maintained her Chartered Marketer status!

10. Began the Journey to Becoming a B Corp

By becoming a B Corp, you gain more than a certification; you have a clear demonstration of their social and environmental impact. ESG is so important for every business, and that’s why this year, we wanted to begin our journey to becoming a B corp.

We have started our journey, so why don’t you. Find out how to become a B-corp here.

11. Hosted a Mental Health Panel for Local Businesses to Be More Equipped to Help Their Staff

We collaborate with Canterbury Innovative Center to run a monthly networking group – Innovative Networking. In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month in October, we held a mental health panel where local businesses attended to hear how they can support their staff with any problems they may be facing. Our panel consisted of Health Colthart Vita Occupational Health, Nicky Russell from Blossom Home Care, Ellie Williams, and Wayne Smith from Take Off.

12. A Winning Strategy: Competing With High Street Supermarkets on Google.

We have had the pleasure of working with John Howe Turkey Farm for many years, and we have seen year-on-year success. Recent successes have seen them compete with multiple high street supermarkets on Google; last year, we helped them achieve a 60% increase in sales, and this year, we have seen an additional 20% increase on top of this.

We’ve had such an incredible year here at I Do Marketing, and here are many more achievements for both us and our clients during 2025!

Written by Ellie Roberts

Marketing Assistant Manager

Our Marketing Statistics 2024

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Our Marketing Statistics 2024

2024 has been a whirlwind! We collaborated with many of our fantastic clients to develop a strategic marketing plan that aligns with their overarching business and marketing goals.

We worked closely with our clients to develop amazing content, including case studies, social media posts, blogs, brochures, campaigns, product launches and more. But that’s not all. We’ve also shared our marketing wisdom through talks and workshops and attended nearly 60 networking events.

We’re so grateful for the opportunity to work with such fantastic businesses. Let’s dive into the highlights of our 2024 journey and celebrate our achievements together!

Our yearly round-up of key statistics for 2024:

We manage social media accounts for A LOT of our clients. Not only do we create monthly content plans, but we also engage with our client’s audience on their behalf.

Our team of marketing elves has been hard at work all year, creating over 12,000 pieces of social media content 😱 for us and our clients. That is an incredible amount of content, and it was an absolute pleasure to work with our clients and share their amazing products, services, success stories, and company updates.

12,320

Social Media Posts, Stories and Reels Created

In addition to social media content, we have written hundreds of blogs, articles and news stories for our clients. 102 blogs/articles, to be precise.

As part of our client’s marketing strategy, we plan, research and write content for our clients based on industry relevant, trending topics. We also optimise the blogs for search engine optimisation (SEO) and publish them on our clients’ websites.

To keep us going this year, we drank A LOT of coffee. Our team have consumed almost 15 kgs of coffee this year. Our wonderful local coffee roastery, Harbour Coffee Co, based in Folkestone, has supplied us with freshly roasted coffee beans monthly with our monthly subscription. A must in our office!

Caffeine-fuelled, we have also supported several clients with their ongoing website updates, maintenance, and SEO. We ensure that our clients’ websites are optimised to appear in Google searches for relevant keywords. We and some of our clients have achieved 2.24 million Google impressions, which refers to how many times I Do Marketing and our clients have appeared on a Google search.

2.24 Million

Google Impressions

Beyond digital marketing, we have helped several clients with branding projects. We worked closely with 6 new clients on their brand identity, messaging, and positioning, designed logos, and developed brand guidelines.

For example: The Gets, a new business start-up.

In addition to the strategic marketing services we have provided to our clients, we have also been on-the-go in Kent, hosting talks and workshops and attending networking events.

This year, we have:

Attended 58 Networking Events
Hosted 7 Marketing Workshops
Presented 14 ‘The Bigger Picture Process’ Presentations
Hosted 4 Work Experience Students.

Plus, there are hundreds of meetings and consultations, too many to try and count.

That is just a snippet of what we have been working hard on in 2024. In addition to this summary of key statistics, we’ve also compiled a highlight of our proudest moments from 2024 to celebrate our achievements. Check it out now!

Are you looking for a strategic marketing partner in 2025 to deliver your marketing? Get in touch.

Written by Hannah O’Toole

Social Media Marketing Manager

Her day-to-day role at I Do Marketing consists of Social Media Management, Content Creation, Campaign Generation and Digital Marketing. She has worked in Marketing for the past 14 years, in many different countries and across a variety of industries.

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Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing

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Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing

Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to reach their customers directly. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your customer base and build long-lasting relationships. Think of your email marketing campaigns as the perfect opportunity to cross-sell, share company news, announce product launches, showcase your latest projects and drive sales.

“Around 361.6 billion emails are sent every day in 2024” – Oberlo.

With billions of emails sent daily, your emails must stand out. For those new to email marketing or who would like to implement it as part of their marketing strategy for 2025, here are some key ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of email marketing.

Let’s start with the Do’s.

The Do’s

1. Do Have a strategy

Like anything in business and marketing, a clear strategy is key to its success. Email marketing is no exception. From setting objectives to segmenting your audience, email content, frequency, follow-up and measurement, it is crucial that you have a clear plan for every email campaign.

2. Do use bespoke and branded templates

Designing an email template that aligns with your branding is a great way to ensure consistency. It makes your email easily recognisable among your customers and will save you a lot of time every time you send an email.

3. Do write compelling subject lines

The first thing your customer will see is the subject line of your email. In most cases, the subject line will determine whether your customer will open your email or not. That is why it is so important that your subject line is concise, intriguing and relevant to the email content.

TIP: Don’t be afraid to use emojis in subject lines. 🤩

4. Do animate your graphics

Adding animated graphics, such as GIFs and videos, to your email content is a great way to capture the reader’s attention and encourage engagement with your content. In the above example, we have added a gif to the header of our email. The GIF is short, fun, and catches the reader’s eye, which encourages the reader to scroll further.

5. Do personalise your emails

Once you have a clear strategy and have segmented your database, you can start to personalise your emails. This does not just mean addressing the email to the customer, for example, Hi {John}, but you can speak directly to their needs with ‘products you may also like’ or perhaps send them a discount code on their birthday.

6. Do send yourself a test

Always send yourself a test email first before sending your email campaign. Check that all the links work and that all images, gifs, and videos load correctly. You wouldn’t want your customers to click on a broken link or be unable to view your email correctly.

7. Do analyse email performance

Analysing your email’s performance helps you gain insight into your customers and their behaviours. This analysis enables you to optimise your email campaigns to achieve your desired results and overall goals.

TIP: Email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp and Constant Contact are brilliant tools for taking your email marketing to the next level.

The Don’ts

1. Don’t send too many emails

Nobody wants to see their inbox flooded with emails from the same contact. Sending too many emails can be frustrating and result in customers unsubscribing to your mailing list. Your emails could also be marked as spam. Email campaigns should be frequent and timely to meet your customers’ needs.

Want to know what makes a ‘good’ marketing email? Read now

2. Don’t purchase an email list

Purchasing data for your email list is not a good idea. Not only do you not know if the data is correct, but you could be breaking the law by contacting people you do not have permission to email.

3. Don’t send to all contacts

You might want to send a blanket email to your entire database with a new product launch or important company news; however, this should not be your approach with every email campaign. Email marketing is better when segmented and personalised with your marketing strategy in mind.

4. Don’t send to non-subscribers

You must respect your customers’ wishes regarding communication. Some customers might be happy to receive marketing and promotional emails; however, if some have expressed that they do not want to be sent marketing emails, this must be respected.

To sum up

There are many benefits to utilising email marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy. It provides a direct communication link to your customers, which can help you retain existing customers and nurture new leads. To get the best return on your investment in email marketing, follow our Do’s and Don’ts.

Case Study Examples:

In this example, we have added a GIF to the footer of the email to capture attention and encourage visitors to leave a review online.

In this client case study, we added an emoji to the subject line that is applicable to the topic and will stand out in the reader’s inbox.

We designed email templates for another client to create consistent, on-brand email marketing campaigns.

Ready to start email marketing? Get in touch with us to see how we can help.

Written by Hannah O’Toole

Social Media Marketing Manager

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Social Media Trends for November 2024

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Social Media Trends for November 2024

1. Linkedin is testing a new top navigation bar

LinkedIn is testing a new app layout to improve its user experience. The new layout would place all of your navigation options at the top of the screen.

This means all your notifications would be up along the top of the screen instead of having some down the bottom and your inbox alerts up top. Moving them all to one place could make it much more convenient!

Source: Click here

2. Instagram will be downgrading video quality on less viewed clips

As usual, Instagram’s Head, Adam Mosseri, has been sharing his updates. In a recent Q and A, he explained how Instagram will begin to reduce the quality of Reel posts if they have not been viewed for a long period.

But don’t worry. If the platform can see that your reel is starting to get more engagement after the quality has been downgraded, it will then increase the quality again.

Mosseri said: “In general, we want to show the highest quality video we can when someone is watching a Story or Reel […] But if something isn’t watched for a long time, because the vast majority of views are in the beginning [after initial posting], we will move to a lower quality video, and then if it is watched again a lot, then re-render the higher quality video”

Source: Click here

3. How the TikTok algorithm works

With Tiktok becoming an increasingly popular social media platform, it’s more important than ever to know how its algorithms work, so here are some top things to think about when creating your content for the app:

The more likes and comments a video has, the more likely a video is to be pushed out to a larger audience.
Using trending audio can increase engagement and boost views by up to 30%.
Use keywords in your captions.
If your video has been watched all the way through, it is more likely to be ranked higher.
Videos with faces and a good hook will help to keep people watching.
Post at an optimised time; it is suggested that between 6 pm and 10 pm is best.

Source: Click here

4. Instagram is moving the location of story highlights

Instagram is now changing the location of its story highlights on your grid.

The highlights will no longer be located under your Instagram bio; however, they will now have their own section within your grid, similar to your reels.

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, has said: “We’re trying to figure out a way to improve the profile and get more of the content above the fold, and simplify it […] You will still have control, you can still pin things, there’ll be a dedicated Highlights tab, but we don’t need to have pogs and squares and have it be all complicated and pushing everything down.”

Source: Click here

5. Linkedin has realised some top tips on short-form videos

It is clear to see that LinkedIn is currently pushing video content more on its platform, which comes as no surprise with the current success of Tiktok; the platform has released some tips on video creation; here’s what they have to say:

Keep it short, vertical, and always use captions – Under 2 minutes is the optimum time, no less than 15 seconds.
Your content doesn’t always have to be exclusive to LinkedIn – unlike other social media platforms, Linkedin does not penalise you for sharing the same you have already shared on different platforms.
Include strong accompanying copy – it’s always best to summarise your key points within the caption, as this helps to provide context to your audience; aiming for a minimum of 50 words is recommended.

Source: Click here

Written by Ellie Roberts

Marketing Assistant Manager

AI For Directors

IDM

AI For Directors

Are you looking to save time? Who isn’t!?

We were recently at an event with 35 Directors and over 50% said they are using AI in some way for the business. Nearly all of the directors, bar one could cite examples of their own use or their teams use all for the same reason: To save time.

The primary benefit of AI for directors is time savings.

According to Consultancy UK “the UK is behind the curve when it comes to AI expertise – with only 1% of current leaders having specific knowhow in this field”.

The trouble is the ‘field’ is vast. AI seems to be integrated into everything. Directors need to understand it, test it and usually pay a subscription before you can use it properly. Investing the time and money required to save time and money is sometimes a commitment that is too far.

The biggest concern mentioned was the quality, which would put the authenticity of the content they publish under question. Directors and leaders worry that relying too heavily on AI might result in content that lacks the personal touch, originality, or depth that human-created content typically offers.

The primary concern of AI for directors is quality.

For example, someone using AI to reply to their emails- the main problem of using AI is the fear of when the reply doesn’t sound like them. AI might struggle to capture the nuances and emotional connection a human creator can provide.

What ways are Directors using AI?

Some of the use case examples include:

Research
Using it like a search engine
Blog writing
Tweeting
Developing course content
Social media caption writing
Scheduling calendar tool
Operational – client journey critiquing
Meeting minutes
Email nurturing campaigns

During the event, there was open discussion amongst the Directors. One person suggested AI would help them to sound more professional’ in their social media content. While another said it was a game changer for his business and life: He is severely dyslexic, and he told the group that AI helps him write the quotes/proposals for the jobs he goes to survey. Undoubtedly, this is a huge benefit to him.

What other ways can you use AI as a Managing Director?

This next section has been researched and sourced from ChatGPT (November 2024) We have added comments from our team about these points of reference in the purple boxes. You’ll notice we haven’t changed any of the content, so it is American English – which is usually a sign of AI use in UK articles/content.

As a Managing Director, AI can be a powerful tool for streamlining operations, enhancing decision-making, and improving overall productivity. Here are some additional ways AI can be utilized:

Strategic Decision Making: AI can analyze large datasets to identify trends, opportunities, and potential risks. This data-driven approach allows Managing Directors to make more informed, strategic decisions based on real-time insights.

Supply Chain Optimization: AI can improve the efficiency of the supply chain by forecasting demand, optimizing inventory levels, and suggesting improvements for logistics. This reduces operational costs and ensures smooth operations.

Automated Reporting: AI can automate the creation of performance reports, project updates, and KPI dashboards. It can also summarize complex data in easily digestible formats, saving time spent on manual reporting.

We use AI for creating report We use Porter an integration with Google Looker Studio. Integrates seamlessly with Google services like Analytics, Sheets, and Ads.

Financial Forecasting: AI can automate financial analysis, identify cost-saving opportunities, and predict cash flow patterns. It can also help in budgeting, identifying areas of overspending, and optimizing resource allocation.

All of the above is what AI is brilliant for… Taking your data and interpreting it for you.

Market Analysis: AI tools can scan the market, including competitors and industry trends, providing valuable intelligence that helps directors refine business strategies, discover new opportunities, and stay ahead of the competition.

AI tools will scope all of the available sources you give it or just the entire internet. Be wary of the answers/data of the latter – it might combine the wrong info or give false results purely owing to the vast amount of answers it could give. We did a test for competitor analysis, and it pulled data on businesses that had gone out of business in the wrong locations and different niches. This can be worked on with the right prompt, but it still gave out-of-date information.

Human Resource Management: AI can assist in hiring by screening resumes, conducting initial interview rounds, and assessing candidate suitability based on data-driven insights. It can also help with employee performance evaluations and suggest professional development opportunities.

Employee Well-being: AI can analyze employee satisfaction surveys and feedback, identifying areas where the workplace can improve in terms of morale, engagement, or work-life balance, which can be used to drive HR strategies.

Let’s not forget AI is not human, so if culture/fit is important to you, this is hard to replicate, so consider this. Also, professional development opportunities are different at every business!

Customer Insights: AI can analyze customer data and feedback, allowing directors to better understand customer needs, improve service offerings, and personalize marketing efforts. It can even predict future customer behavior, helping to tailor sales strategies.

Innovation and Product Development: AI can help in identifying market gaps and customer needs, assisting in the development of new products or services that meet those demands. It can even simulate product performance or predict customer acceptance rates.

This bit is exciting, with enough data this can give you a great insight into your customers.

Risk Management: AI can help identify and assess potential risks, such as market shifts, regulatory changes, or financial vulnerabilities, enabling proactive measures to mitigate them before they affect the business.
Contract and Document Review: AI tools can quickly scan contracts, legal documents, and agreements for compliance and potential risks. This saves time and ensures that the company avoids legal pitfalls.

The results of these could be broad and should be checked before you make big, expensive decisions.

Internal Communication: AI-powered chatbots or virtual assistants can streamline internal communication, providing quick answers to common questions and directing team members to the right resources. This enhances productivity and reduces bottlenecks.

Time Management: AI can optimize schedules and workflows, ensuring that the Managing Director’s time is spent on high-priority tasks by automatically organizing meetings, reminders, and tasks based on urgency and importance.

Personal Assistant: For busy Managing Directors, AI-powered personal assistants can help manage daily tasks, such as sorting emails, setting reminders, or tracking key business metrics.

The three boxes above are entry-level ways to work with AI, and it is great for directors to have a taste of the AI experience!

By integrating AI into various aspects of business management, managing directors can free up time for higher-level decision-making and strategic planning while driving greater operational efficiency and innovation.

We’re back; this is I Do Marketing experts now, not ChatGPT. We hope this article has been helpful. In our honest opinion, AI still needs to be used cautiously; the results can be powerful, but it always needs to be sense-checked – for now anyway!

Written by Lydia Mckeown

Marketing Director

Lydia founded I Do Marketing in 2016 and has chartered marketer status. Lydia acts as a Marketing Director for a select few of our clients and works with the team on the client’s strategies. She does lots of consultations with new clients and runs our discovery sessions. She also writes client marketing plans and strategy which feeds into all of the marketing we produce or plan for our clients.

Your Guide to B Corp Certification

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Your Guide to B Corp Certification

B Lab is a non-profit network transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet; B Lab UK leads economic systems change to support their collective vision of an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.

Their purpose is to redefine success in business by building a community of engaged businesses, raising awareness of the B Corp Movement, and influencing change in the UK economy.

Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.

A Strategic Move: B-Corp Certified

Becoming a B Corp is not just a certification; it’s a strategic move that brings numerous benefits for our clients. It helps them build relationships and stand out in the market. Most importantly, it allows them to demonstrate their entire social and environmental performance, showcasing their commitment to sustainability and social impact.

The B-Corp Journey Explained

Racheal Carley founded Carley Coaching in 2021; with a career in development training and a background in social entrepreneurship, she used her experience in business and passion for social impact, personal development and love for the outdoors to support purpose-driven leaders to achieve their goals.

We spoke with Rachael Carley to get an insight on how to get started on your B Corp journey.

The best way to get started on your journey to becoming a B Corp is to create a free account with B Lab UK.

Their online tool is called the Business Impact Assessment or “BIA”, and this is where you can measure the current impact of your business. – find out more here.

The BIA is also a brilliant tool to help you understand how to improve the sustainability of your business in the five areas B Corps are assessed in.

The questions and supporting information within the tool can help you learn more about sustainability best practices, decide how ambitious you want to be, and prioritise the areas that make sense for your business. You can also use the tool to set goals and create a plan.

Over time, you may feel inspired to improve your sustainability in areas you may not have considered before!

There are also many resources on the B Lab website to help you understand the B Corp standards and the process of becoming certified. – find out more here.

There’s even a free online course on how to use the BIA!

Find out more here.

B Corp certification is a little different from other Environmental or Sustainability certifications in that you’re assessed in the areas of your Governance, Workers, Environment, Community, and Customers – it’s all about demonstrating how you engage with your stakeholders and provide a positive benefit to them.

A unique part of being a B Corp is the requirement to make a legal change to your company’s Articles of Association.

The change commits a business to publish an Annual Impact Report and consider the interests of society and the planet alongside the interests of shareholders when making important decisions.

Most companies will need to take some time to improve their score before they have the 80+ points required to become B Corp certified.

People sometimes ask what motivates me or other companies to be B Corp certified. I’ve noticed a few reasons that come up consistently. Here are three of them.

Firstly, most B Corps genuinely believe that businesses can and should be a force for good. All B Corps sign a “Declaration of Interdependence” at the point of certification, making B Corps a movement of businesses working towards systemic change. It’s great to feel a part of this community!

Secondly, B Corp certification provides a framework for delivering high standards of social and environmental impact that is trusted and respected. The rigorous certification process gives customers, workers and other stakeholders confidence in company performance. A commercial benefit to this is that B Corps tend to outperform their peers in talent attraction, staff retention, and ability to attract and secure funding, investment, customers, and loyalty.

Thirdly, there is accountability. Most B Corps will have their social and environmental pledges at the forefront of their minds because they are made public. A commitment to continual improvement and a requirement to be open and transparent about progress can result in businesses that have a very clear mission and vision, with identified performance indicators and sustainability plans. Generally speaking, this makes B Corps very aware of their social and environmental impact and leads to systems and processes that ensure sustainability is at the heart of all they do.

A quote from Roland Stanley from Dragon Coworking who has just completed my Be More B programme –

‘Becoming a Bcorp is essential to growing our company and showing the world our true values and motivation to do good. Our local community, members and team are all part of our journey, and with Bcorp, we can show who we are with one accreditation’

Becoming a B corp has many benefits as stated, to get guidance on starting your B-Corp journey, contact Rachael Carley today.

Website

For more information on how to advertise and shout about your B corp journey, book in a free consultation with us:

Free Consultation

Written by Rachael Carley

Director of Carley Coaching

Marketing Trends 2025

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Marketing Trends 2025

As 2025 approaches, it’s time to strategise your marketing efforts. But in order to put the most effective strategy in place, it’s best to know what will attract your target audience and work most effectively. We’ve done the hard work for you and put together what we believe will be the top five marketing trends in 2025 for you to follow.

1. User Generated Content

User-generated content is on the rise and will continue to be so in 2025.

User-generated content (also known as UGC) is content that a person rather than a brand has created; this could be an image, video, review, etc. User-generated content comes in two forms: organic and paid.

As a person has created UGC, there is much more trust linked to this type of content; many people feel the brand’s content can be very sales-based and biased.

86% of consumers are more likely to trust a brand that shares UGC compared to 12% who are likely to purchase a product promoted by influencers.

UGC Organic	UCG Paid /Influencer
Higher trust	Higher reach
Personal content	Brand content
Free	High fees
May not get in front of your target audience*	Can be targeted
Harder to track results	Trackable results

Organic UGC does not just provide more trust to brands but is also more cost-effective; influencer fees are becoming higher and higher, and with the study above showing its effectiveness, it’s a no-brainer!

*Paid UGC, like Influencer arrangements, need to be with the correct partners. You need to consider their following and how this will be a positive or negative association and reach for your campaign. If you choose the wrong one, it might not yield the results you wanted.

UGC has seen a rise in popularity, especially amongst platforms such as TikTok, with more people than ever having a platform to share their opinions on almost everything, with more people viewing this content.

With that being said, UGC will continue to rise in popularity throughout 2025 and is something we recommend brands include in part of their marketing strategy 2025.

UGC paid/Influencer = paid or gifted to generate content.
UGC organic = not paid or gift and chooses to generate content.

2. Video content will continue to rule

We’ve already mentioned that TikTok has dramatically influenced other social media platforms. TikTok has seen a massive increase in the number of users worldwide, with the platform number growing year on year. Since 2020, the number of users has increased and is set to reach 955.3 billion active users by the end of 2025. This growth has influenced other social media platforms like Linkedin and Instagram to push video content on their platfroms.

Each month, when researching the changes/updates made on each social media platform, we have seen a theme across them over the past few months: the presence and emphasis on video content.

For example, Linkedin has recently launched its version of a for you page; similar to TikTok and Instagram, there is now a designated space within the platform to watch video content.

As well as this, Instagram has significantly emphasised the success of video for your platform, with its CEO sharing constant tips that primarily centre around perfecting your reels.

With these updates made and the continued rise in the popularity of TikTok, video content should make up a large portion of your social media strategy if you want to algorithm to be on your side in 2025.

Video tips for each platform:

LinkedIn	Instagram	Facebook	TikTok
Always start with a strong hook, have a structure and keep videos to 30-60 seconds long.	Ensure your reels are over 30 seconds – the algorithm favours these, use trending audio and a catchy tagline and emojis in your caption.	Even on Facebook, ensure your videos are reel size (1950 x 1080) and keep your them short (15 seconds).	Keep videos to 21-34 seconds long, overlay concise text, make your video accessible by including captions and use trending music/sounds.

3. Continued rise of AI

AI is no longer a buzzword, it is here to stay! We had to feature it in ourtrends, which we discussed last year for 2024. So why are we including it again a year later?

AI’s rapid growth in marketing continues; a recent Salesforce report found that 75% of marketers are experimenting with or using AI within their work.

The future of AI-generated content is uncertain, but we can expect advancements in content creation, user engagement, optimising segmentation and personalisation, and so much more.

As AI continues to evolve and be more and more present across applications which marketers are using on a daily basis (for example, on Linkedin, AI can help you when writing a post, or Canva can help you to create an image purely from describing what you want to see), we cannot not include it within the trends of 2025 as we know it will continue to be used and become more prominent as time goes on.

To find out more about AI and its role in marketing, check out our blog here.

4. Sustainable marketing

Sustainable marketing is a strategy that promotes both products and services that are environmentally and socially responsible. Consumer sustainability concerns are rising, with over 40% of consumers actively selecting brands with clear environmentally friendly values. Research has found that 34% of people will go as far as to boycott brands if they have any ethical concerns. This is why it’s more important than ever to have an ESG policy in place. Find out more about the changes you can make to improve your ESG policy here.

With sustainability concerns growing year on year, it’s clear that this is not just a passing trend but a new way of life. It’s something all brands will need to consider, and we can expect to see a continued emphasis on brands making sustainable changes in the future.

There are many different things you can do to help increase the sustainability of your business; these can include:

Create socially responsible products.
Promote fair labour practices.
Partner with charities.
Become third-party certified – such as B Corp.
Invest in your community.

The key is to make it part of your business, not just a social media campaign. Start with your team, get everyone involved and integrate into your business objectives so it filters down through everything you do. Check out our ESG article here.

5. Personalised marketing

It is estimated that we see between 4-10k adverts every day; we are bombarded with so many ads that it is more than likely that you scroll past them or, in some cases, you do anything to ignore them actively. So, cutting through the noise is more critical than ever.

Did you know that the 2nd post on your LinkedIn feed is always an ad, then every 4 posts after that is an ad too. Ads are everywhere. These ads are personalised in the sense that they are relevant to the data the platform has about us.

Personalised marketing is a strategy that can help you engage more with your audience. Personalised marketing uses data to tailor your customer’s specific messages, interests and preferences. The aim is to make each customer’s brand experience as relevant, unique, and engaging as possible.

Examples of different types of personalised marketing strategies include:

Segmentation-based personalisation
Event-triggered personalisation
Omnichannel personalisation
Real-time personalisation
AI-based personalisation

Find out more about personalised marketing here.

As mentioned, with the increasing number of daily adverts, the need for businesses to evolve and do more to reach their audience is becoming more pressing. Therefore, it’s not a matter of if but when we will see more personalised marketing strategies being implemented by brands, and the start is now.

2025 is the year to get on trend!

We believe there will be a number of different, exciting trends for brands to get their teeth stuck into this year; ensure to include these top 5 trends within your marketing strategy to help increase your brand awareness:

UGC – establish trust with your customers and let them hear about how incredible you are through people who love your brand.
Video content will continue to rule – utilise video across all social media platforms, but remember this needs to be different depending on its platform.
Continued rise of AI – use AI with caution; it should be used as a colleague who is helping you in the office, not as a tool to do all of the work for you.
Sustainable marketing – sustainability is more important than ever; if you still need to start thinking about your ESG policy, 2025 is the year to do so; it’s not going anywhere.
Personalised marketing – With the number of brands trying to capture consumers’ attention, now is the time to personalise your advertising effort to make your audience feel special.

We are excited to see what 2025 brings for the marketing world, in a constantly changing industry, we are sure to see new technology and applications which will continue to further our industry!

Written by Ellie Roberts

Marketing Assistant Manager

Social Media Trends for October 2024

IDM

Social Media Trends for October 2024

1. Vertical grid display on Instagram

You may have already seen this feature within your Instagram grid; however, they are now testing out a vertical grid display, meaning that your entire image will be displayed on your grid (1080 x 1350) as opposed to the previous square image (1080 x 1080) for many people this will be a relief as you will no longer have to worry about your image being cut off in your gird view!

Adam Mosseri, the chief of Instagram, explained – “We’re actually testing a vertical grid, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, for your profile, instead of squares. Now, squares are from way back in the day when you could only upload square photos to Instagram. And I know this can be annoying for some of you who really spend a lot of time curating and making sure everything lines up, but I would really like to do better by the content [creators of] today.”

Source: Click here

2. Linkedin allows you to edit scheduled posts

After many years, Linkedin has finally added a feature which allows you to edit scheduled posts.

We’ve all been in a situation where you go to read over a post scheduled and spot a slight mistake or realise you have missed out on an essential part of your caption.

With this new update, you can save significant time when needing to fix these mistakes!

Source: Click here

3. LinkedIn Removes Its Top Voice Badges for Collaborative Articles

LinkedIn has announced the retirement of ‘Top Voice’ badges for Collaborative Articles. This move may impact user engagement with the platform’s AI-driven content initiative, launched back in March 2023.

LinkedIn stated, “Since the launch, we’ve seen more and more people coming together to share their insights and learn from each other through collaborative articles. With this growth, we’re also hearing more feedback from our community. We’ve learned that it is challenging to maintain the highest quality standards for our Community Top Voice badges, as they are currently awarded automatically to contributors, and not manually awarded by our team.”

Source: Click here

4. TikTok Updates Search Ads Campaigns with Keyword Targeting

Last year, TikTok introduced a ‘Search Ads Toggle’ for ad campaigns. This feature allowed ads to appear in relevant search results.

However, this meant that the toggle was only a placement and not a separate ad option. Advertisers could switch it on to have ads appear in related searches but couldn’t target specific keywords.

TikTok’s updated search ads appear the same in the app; however, this has allowed for more control on the advertiser end.

Source: Click here

5. Instagram Launches New Profile Cards

Instagram’s new profile cards are here!

After a successful trial with Instagram creators, these digital flip cards are now available to everyone.

They are customisable, allowing you to create a personalised profile overview.

To find them, go to ‘share profile’, and then you can scan the QR code or explore the profile overview to connect instantly.

Source: Click here

Written by Ellie Roberts

Marketing Assistant Manager

AI In Marketing

websites@idomarketing.co.uk

AI In Marketing

Artificial intelligence has many uses across different industries. From diagnosis prediction in the medical field to automated tasks in the IT industry, AI has great potential as a tool. In this article, we will explore the uses of AI in the marketing industry, which tools can be helpful with your marketing strategies, and the potential pitfalls that come with artificial intelligence.

Overview:

4 uses of AI in marketing
Disadvantages of AI
Marketing Director’s View Of AI

The Uses of AI In Marketing

Below are 4 uses of AI that could be helpful for your marketing efforts:

1. Research & Content Creation

AI can write many different types of content that you will use regularly within your marketing campaigns:

Social media captions
Email copy
Blog copy

Although this can be incredibly useful, be cautious of inaccurate information. AI should only be used as a tool, not a complete solution.

AI Tool: ChatGPT is one of the most popular AI platforms. It can write content, gather research and provide insight when asked questions. Remember to always check where it has got its information from in order to confirm that it is accurate. You’ll also find it available on the platforms when you write a post, for example, LinkedIn.

2. Customer Support

As artificial intelligence has become more popular and advanced, businesses have been using it to enhance their customers’ support experience. Tools such as chatbots can answer users’ questions and recommend content that can be useful to their users based on the conversations they have with them.

Here are a few advantages to using AI within your customer support process:

Support can be personalised to enhance individual users’ experience
Provide support in multiple languages
Automatically recommend products or packages based on conversations with users
Gather important and informative information for users with ease

Ultimately, customer support and chatbots can be faster and more efficient with the automation functionality that artificial intelligence provides.

AI Tool: Tideo is a customer service chatbot that uses AI in order to provide efficient and accurate support to users around the world.

3. Analytics

Artificial intelligence can aid in data collection and analysis. Analytics is an incredibly important aspect of marketing as it allows marketers to see what strategy is working, where improvements can be made, and what type of audience has the highest engagement with their content.

AI can be used within analytics for several different uses, including:

Data collection
Data analysis
Error reduction
Discovering analytical trends

AI can be a very resourceful tool to use when analysing your marketing data and also frees up resources so that your marketing team can focus on more strategic tasks.

AI Tool: Google Analytics uses AI to provide predictive metrics, anomaly detection, and clear and concise insights generated from data that has been collected.

4. Photo Editing & Graphic Design

AI has made strides in photo editing and even graphic design. From upscaling images with limited quality loss to creating entire images with generative AI, graphic design is now even more limitless.

Here are a few uses of AI within graphic design:

Generate entire images
Expand images by generating around the edge with AI
Select and fill portions of your image to make edits
Increase the size of small images by using an AI image upscaling tool

Marketing is analytical, strategic, and very visual.

Although allowing everyone to design is fantastic, it does saturate the market with a lot of AI art that can be seen as obscure, inaccurate, and visually jarring.

With AI generated art, the user is completely at the mercy of the program they are using, which relies on them communicating with it in a clear manner. Without practical artistic skills and genuine creativity, the human element of graphic design, and art in general, is diminished in the presence of AI on its own.

AI Tool: Canva has many AI features including; an object eraser (Magic Eraser), image generators (Magic Media), and an animation generator (Magic Animate).

Disadvantages Of AI

Inaccurate Data: AI systems are only as reliable as the data they are trained on, so if the data is outdated, or biased, the AI can produce inaccurate or misleading results.
Lack of Creativity: Although AI can generate patterns and automate tasks, it struggles to think outside of the rules it has for itself, making it less effective for tasks that require creativity.
No Human Touch: AI lacks emotional intelligence, which can make interactions feel impersonal and lead to a lower-quality user experience.

Marketing Director’s View On AI

Top take-away: Don’t ignore AI.

Ignoring AI would be like when Blockbuster ignored the tech innovation at the time of the rise of Netflix.

As the technology landscape changes businesses need to be monitoring this and riding the wave. Being on the fence with AI for business is not a long-term sustainable approach.

A couple of things to consider:

How are your competitors using it.
Could the AI tech bring new entrants to your market?
Could it change the cost/quality of your product/services?

At this point, you might be wondering if AI could replace your business, team or product/service. The answer really comes down to this…

AI is not likely to replace humans with AI…
but it will replace humans without AI.

– Lydia Mckeown, Marketing Director

Written by Denham Thompson

Web Developer & SEO Specialist

Denham maintains and updates our current clients’ websites, as well as designing and developing brand new professional sites for new clients and their businesses. He has 8 years experience working with clients in varying industries and loves applying his knowledge to help our clients succeed.

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1. Lydia Was Announced as the Marketing and Communications Ambassador for the IOD

2. We Launched The Gets

3. We Boosted Brand Visibility With Video Content

4. Created Powerful Partnerships: Inspiring the Future

5. We Had a Marketing and Branding Day With a Client

6. We Judged the Kent Business Awards 2024

7. We Leveraged Tech for a Better Client Experience

8. We Achieved an ROI of 2000% on Google Shopping Ads

9. Ellie Became a ACIM Member and Lydia Maintained Her Chartered Marketer Status

10. Began the Journey to Becoming a B Corp

11. Hosted a Mental Health Panel for Local Businesses to Be More Equipped to Help Their Staff

12. A Winning Strategy: Competing With High Street Supermarkets on Google.

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Marketing Trends 2025

1. User Generated Content

2. Video content will continue to rule

Video tips for each platform:

3. Continued rise of AI

4. Sustainable marketing

5. Personalised marketing

2025 is the year to get on trend!

Recent News

Social Media Trends for October 2024

1. Vertical grid display on Instagram

2. Linkedin allows you to edit scheduled posts

3. LinkedIn Removes Its Top Voice Badges for Collaborative Articles

4. TikTok Updates Search Ads Campaigns with Keyword Targeting

5. Instagram Launches New Profile Cards

Recent News

AI In Marketing

The Uses of AI In Marketing

1. Research & Content Creation

2. Customer Support

3. Analytics

4. Photo Editing & Graphic Design

Disadvantages Of AI

Marketing Director’s View On AI

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