Canary Dwarf

Here are six key areas of digital marketing you should focus on in 2019.
It's not the next big thing, or a trend you can't ignore, these are staples that you need to have in place to give your business a solid marketing base.
https://canarydwarf.co.uk/six-digital-mar keting-basics-2019/
... In this first blog post of 2019, I lay out the essential components of a digital marketing plan, namely:
✅ Your website ✅ SEO & PPC ✅ Video & Photography ✅ Social media ✅ Analytics ✅ Email marketing
Get these right and you'll be on the right track in no time.
Read my 'Top Six' guide at https://canarydwarf.co.uk/six-digital-mar keting-basics-2019/
And don't forget, you can get help when you need it, justask@canarydwarf.co.uk
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If you represent a community organisation in the Forres area and want to learn more about using Mailchimp, Forres Area Community Trust are holding a subsidised workshop, where you can learn:
✅ Basics of template design ✅ Running a campaign ✅ Measuring successes... ✅ What to put in your newsletter ✅ How to get subscribers ✅ Complying with GDPR
Thursday 13 December 11am in the Town Hall.
Places are just £10. Contact FACT to book your place on 01309 674388 or email info@forresarea.org
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Drone HQ – setting up a drone base at Roseisle beach for the Pages of the Sea event last weekend. Keeping all the pilots in one area meant we could talk directly to each other when in the sky and all get the shots we wanted. Team work in action.

Just another day in paradise...
Making this video was so much fun... Handa is a beautiful little island that goes from sweeping white sandy beaches to towering sea cliffs in about a mile and a half. We were there to film a new solar panel installation by AES Solar, and we just had to capture some of the remote beauty in the process.

A man has been jailed in Italy for selling fake TripAdvisor reviews.
The first case where anyone has been imprisoned for a paid-review fraud, so it highlights the seriousness of a practice which undermines the purpose of the review process, which buyers often put their trust in.
https://www.theguardian.com/…/man-jaile d-italy-selling-fake…

Welcoming a new customer in the alternative therapies market. I'll be building them a website and advising on marketing.
Arriving 30 minutes early, I went for a stroll on the beach and took this picture before I visited them.
Marc

We're launching a website for a client who left the country last year and has just returned to restart an estate agency. The website was notable for the fact it held a database of more than 10,000 pictures of local properties without impacting the performance of the website.
As people often ask 'how many pictures can I upload?', this is the evidence that the WordPress system we use is a capable and flexible media management tool.

This week, a new contract is confirmed with a major event outside Moray to provide photography, video and media support at the event and website support all year round.

Wow! I could have told you that I was filming in the Maldives last week. This picture looks like it was taken on a paradise beach somewhere exotic and far away, but the blue skies and crystal clear waters are in the north-west Highlands, where I was making a video for a client.

It's not rocket science, but here's our step-by-step guide to applying for a 'verified' badge on Instagram in four easy steps. Not everyone will get accepted, but if you're a seasoned Instagram user, it might help people be sure you're the Real McCoy.

With Facebook advertising, you can pay for reach, you can pay for likes, and you can pay for engagement. But in this instance, we paid simply for traffic to a product sales page. More than £3k in sales this week from £150 in advertising, and we got 427%, 350% and 627% increase in reach, likes and engagement as a bonus. Does your advertising do that?

E-commerce doesn't always mean 'buy now' – we're working with a client today whose products sell for between £5k and £70k, and the sale always happens on the phone or face-to-face. An e-commerce structure on the website helps to catalogue the products, but a 'buy now' button would almost certainly lose them business.
This is a crucial stage in the customer acquisition process, be careful not to scare them off.

The importance of importing – we're currently updating a huge e-commerce website with 50,000 price increases. The information comes in on a single spreadsheet, and because of the sheer size of the update, has to be broken down into 11 files and each one updated as an individual process. This one is sitting at four hours and there are eleven files, but only one to go!

Does this count? #WorldEmojiDay

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.
Should you need to contact us over the holidays, please email support@canarydwarf.co.uk

Ashgrove Park, Elgin is one of three caravan parks we photographed from the air for this client. This drone shot shows the park off in lovely sunshine and a beautiful landscape.

A parting testimonial from a client yesterday was 'my head hurts' – six hours of intensive desk-based training is hard-going, but it's a formula that works.
Short courses don't sink into the brain as easily, and knowing I've made heads hurt is proof that attendees are soaking up useful and actionable knowledge.
But it's not all hard work, we had a good laugh, a pleasant lunch and long sleep (after the course was over, obviously)
... Marc
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