PR and social media are often treated as separate activities, but the real impact comes when they work together.

A press release shouldn’t be the end of the story. It should be the starting point for wider content distribution.

Sharing PR coverage across social channels helps extend its reach, ensuring it’s seen not just by media audiences but also by prospects, customers, and partners. Social media is also a powerful way to drive traffic directly to your news and website content.

Equally, social platforms can support PR efforts by building relationships with journalists, showcasing expertise, and amplifying key messages in real time.

The most effective approach is an integrated one, where PR generates credible, third-party endorsement, and social media ensures that content reaches the right audiences quickly and consistently.

In today’s digital landscape, it’s not about choosing one or the other. It’s about making them work harder together.

Many B2B businesses underestimate the value of what they already know.

If you work in engineering, manufacturing, packaging, or technology, your day-to-day knowledge is exactly what your audience wants to understand. The challenge is translating that expertise into clear, engaging content.

Start by thinking about the questions your customers ask most often. These are the foundations of great content, because if one person is asking, many others are searching for the same answers.

From there, simplify the message. Avoid jargon where possible and focus on outcomes. Instead of explaining every technical detail, explain what it means for the customer, whether that’s improved efficiency, cost savings, or sustainability benefits.

Strong content doesn’t just inform; it builds trust. When you consistently demonstrate your knowledge, you position your business as a go-to authority in your sector.

And in competitive B2B markets, that credibility is often what turns interest into enquiries.

In B2B marketing, success rarely comes from one standout campaign. Instead, it’s built through consistent messaging delivered across multiple channels over time.

Too often, businesses invest heavily in a single press release, social campaign, or website refresh only to let activity drop off shortly after. The result? Momentum is lost, and so is visibility.

Consistency builds familiarity. When your audience regularly sees your brand in industry media, on LinkedIn, in search results, and through email marketing, you become recognisable and more importantly, credible.

This doesn’t mean repeating the same message. It means reinforcing your expertise through different angles: project news, thought leadership, case studies, and insights. Each touchpoint adds another layer to your reputation.

Regular content also supports SEO performance. Search engines reward websites that are frequently updated with relevant material, helping improve rankings and drive long-term traffic.

The takeaway is simple: marketing isn’t a one-off activity. The brands that stay visible are the ones that stay consistent.

It’s quite clear by now that the way that we conducted business before Covid-19 is about to fundamentally change post the pandemic.

Smart companies will adopt a proactive approach to understand what changes will occur and be ready to adjust their products, services and strategies quickly to meet current and future customer needs. Others will stand still, expecting to pick up where they left off.

By addressing the business challenges presented by the pandemic, companies can only benefit by aligning themselves in the best way possible to deal with the unexpected going forward and be in good shape to capitalise on the opportunities presented.

Here are some changes that might occur:

• Meetings, conferences & events will go virtual

Global catastrophes tend to bring everything into focus. Much like 9/11 proved to the world that terrorism doesn’t just happen in distant lands, and the 2008 economic crisis showed that even the richest amongst us weren’t invincible, COVID-19 is once again making us think twice – but this time, we’re wary of each other and concerned for our health and wellbeing.

This has resulted in us embracing technology more than ever and make us look at interaction in a different way – for example, instead of asking “can we meet in person?” we might soon be asking “can we do this online?”.

With video conferencing tools such as Teams and Zoom (which has reported a massive 535% rise in daily traffic in the past month) becoming increasingly popular, it’s likely that these will become a dominant practice in the post-COVID-19 office. The pandemic has shown us that business meetings, conference calls and even large events – including virtual exhibitions – can all be done online successfully, which is not only more convenient for many people, but it could be more cost-effective.

• Working from home will be a realistic option

Arguably the biggest change for many businesses is that they are now running (in part or in full) operations from the comfort of their own homes. While this has been undeniably challenging, numerous businesses can see the benefits of working from home in the future, once the current situation de-escalates.

For many businesses, this has opened up a whole new opportunity they never would have realised otherwise. Allowing employees to work at home can increase productivity, and employees feel happier and more valued when they have the chance to work wherever they feel comfortable, which in turn has numerous positive benefits for business.

• Companies will embrace emerging technology

While working from home has been a breath of fresh air for some, it’s been difficult to adapt to for others. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many businesses face to face with technology issues.

As most companies operate in a way that means employees rarely have to work outside of the office, many of them do not have the technology necessary to work remotely successfully. Outdated systems, along with slow broadband, are causing computers to crash, become sluggish down and frustrate employees.

• Content will remain ‘king’

Right now, many businesses are struggling to sell their products or services, so their focus is on slowly informing and educating their customers, hoping for a purchase further down the line. This will undoubtedly change the way businesses market themselves to their customers, as many are striving to become thought leaders and experts in their industry during this time – while people, stuck at home, are craving new content to engage with.  Without investing in developing quality content now, businesses will risk losing out on opportunities in the future. 

• Marketing will become more important than ever 

Once the pandemic loosens its grip on the UK and its markets, it’s clear that marketing will be essential to getting businesses back on track. Businesses continuing to invest in their marketing will see their current customers stay loyal and attract new ones.

Furthermore, as we slowly exit lock-down, sales will be engaged, however with social distancing, fears, a certain amount of reticence and loss of confidence, it will be quite some time before they are back at full speed.

As a result, marketing will have to adopt a much more sales-oriented approach to capture the interest of the client as per the marketing landscape graphic below.

Some pointers on getting your business ready for the post COVID-19 era

• Consult

Assemble your management team and consult them on what they have been hearing from customers. Arrange a meeting to identify what might be changing. What you don’t know about the likely ‘changes’ will set the stage for the next step.

• Gather insight

Develop a plan to ‘take the temperature’ of the marketplace. How can we validate new behaviours we are seeing and hearing, and gather the important insights that we don’t know? Don’t assume anything. Your customers can tell you what they will need, but you must ask them.

In this time of rapid change, it’s critical to conduct customer interviews, surveys, market research or when interacting with customers during this difficult period, train your people to open conversations with, “How can we help you get through this?” and “What’s important to you?” not, “Here’s what we’ve got.” In other words, lead with empathy not competence. Try to be part of the solution to their crisis.

• Re-align

With 2020 plans already made, the large scale interruption caused by COVID-19 will require forward-thinking, new strategies and re-planning on many fronts. Armed with new insights from the marketplace, businesses should look to re-plan and prioritise strategies and tactics in all critical areas. This should include manufacturing/operations, sales, HR, marketing, NPD/innovation, customer service and other key areas.

Understanding what your customers will value in the post COVID-19 business world and acting on it will ensure your survival and success and put you ahead of major competitors. Knowing the customer will sort the post-pandemic winners from losers and also-rans.

It’s also important to note that customers buy VALUE, and value comes from meeting their needs, which comes from understanding their needs, in their words and actions. Focus on providing Value, and Revenue and Profit will take care of itself.

How will your business address the post COVID-19 era?

Contact us to discuss any of this content in more detail.

Your brand is key to telling the world what you do and why you are different from the rest.

Developing a brand identity is obviously important, but keeping your message consistent in everything you do is key to maintaining trust with your customers.

What is your brand?

A brand isn’t just your USP and core values; it is also your logo, tone of voice, typeface, colour palette and style. It is the personality of the business and what sets you apart from your competitors.

Keeping everything in sync

The key to success is to perfectly align your message and your visuals to reinforce your business identity. Having a consistent message and look goes a long way to boosting brand awareness with your customers.

Consistency helps brands feel more dependable. Mixed messages will affect customers’ ability to ‘depend’ on the brand’s message. It also helps build trust and loyalty; to trust someone, you have to know them well, so clearly defining your brand is key.

Customers will remain loyal to a brand if they fully understand and appreciate what the brand has to offer. It takes time and repetition for customers to transition from brand awareness, to brand advocacy, i.e. trusting it enough to buy into it.

This doesn’t mean that every advert you place, newsletter you send or presentation you prepare has to look identical, but there should be a few key themes in sync.

If you get your on-brand message consistent, customers are more likely to recognise your brand in advertising or artwork, before they even see a logo. This is known as brand recognition, or the point at which a brand has provided consumers with a consistent visual or auditory learning experience.

Simple ways to stay on brand

• Your brand should be reinforced through every means of communication, from letter headers, email signatures, business cards, websites and social media. Your logo and style should be everywhere.

• If you have updated your logo several times and still have multiple ones in use, make sure you are just using one. Your employees should do likewise.

• Think about what your colour palette is – are there a couple of colours in your logo that you can feature in other design work?

• Pick a font and font size, and stick with it with all written materials.

These simple steps will help you go a long way to boost brand consistency.

For large companies, or if you outsource some of our design and marketing work, it might be worth drawing up a set of brand guidelines that all employees, departments, and suppliers can keep in sync to keep the brand message consistent.

For help with your brand strategy call us today on 01939 211115 or email info@marblespr.co.uk.

There is little point having a brilliant website commissioned if no one is visiting it. Are you doing enough to drive traffic to your website? If you aren’t thinking about SEO, then this guide will help you achieve some easy wins.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of increasing the number of visitors to a website by improving rankings in the algorithmic search engine results.

The first page of Google search results gets almost 95% of the clicks, so improving your SEO can increase visits to your website and thereby potentially increase sales and your customer base.

The good news is it isn’t complicated, and with a few small implementations, you could be an SEO whizz.

Keywords

These are fundamental to conquering SEO. It’s all about what you do and where you are.

People don’t search for companies in the same way. They won’t just be looking for a packaging solution in Shropshire, it could be a box supplier in Shrewsbury or a glass bottle manufacturer in Ludlow, so devising a list of all relevant keywords is a good start.

This can be a straightforward task of sitting down and brainstorming relevant words. If you start typing in the search bar, you will also see a list of suggestions, which you can utilise.

You can also use keyword research tools to find out what people are using.

Once you have figured out the words that count, ensure you are using as many as possible in your website content, which will ultimately improve your search ranking.

Get your website back office in order

When you choose the page title, this isn’t the same as what you have called the page on your website, its what it shows up in the search results. The page title in the back office settings should be featuring your keywords for optimal SEO.

For example, we shouldn’t be calling our “What we do” page that on the back office. Ideally, we would be calling it “Marketing Agency services available nationwide.” The page title is like an advertisement.

The same goes for meta descriptions that show up under the page title in search results – keywords should be used, as well as enticing wording to draw in the visitors.

Listings and Reviews

Hopefully, your business will be listed on business directories like yell.com, and on social media. This information is utilised to build a picture of what you do.

It is important to search for your business to find these listings and make sure all information is completed in full and is correct. Imagine that the 3^rd party website is the only place a customer might see your business – it needs to be right.

Make sure you are registered on ‘Google My Business’ and ‘Bing Places’ to improve what search engines know about you. Getting reviews on Google helps location search rankings as well.

Blogs and News

Keeping your website up to date with blogs (like this one!) or relevant news and articles that are ideally around 500 words, will also help your positioning with Google. Customers may also end up spending longer on your website if there is plenty of quality content for them to read.

For help with your marketing strategy, including digital marketing solutions, call us today on 01939 211 115 or email info@marblespr.co.uk

We are almost halfway through the year and the packaging world is full of exciting innovations and new designs. Here is a round-up of the key trends we have spotted so far…

Design

Minimalistic – reflecting transparency and traceability – less is more. Slick, simple packaging communicates a clear message.

Soft colour gradients – breaking up empty spaces subtly. This is particularly seen in the craft alcohol sector. Pastel coloured soft gradients are becoming more prominent too.

Vintage inspired – many products want to reflect history or provenance, and an easy way to achieve this is with vintage style packaging, which adds instant heritage.

Key trends

The Global Packaging Trends 2019 report from Mintel highlighted the top trends influencing the packaging world right now. Technology and sustainability are clearly crucial factors.

Interactive Packaging

Interactive elements that incorporate technology is a prominent trend. The latest technology goes beyond QR codes, and now encompasses ‘snapcodes’ for Snapchat, and even Near Field Communication (NFC), which use chips within the packaging to communicate with consumer smartphones.

For example, whiskey brand Johnny Walker released a smart bottle with printed sensor tags. NFC enabled smartphones can connect to the bottle, and be sent targeted messages. The bottle knows where it is in the supply chain, and whether or not it’s been opened. This means whilst it’s still in the shop it can send promotional offers to the consumer, and when it has been opened, it can send cocktail recipes straight to the smartphone.

These interactive elements help brands to connect with their customers on another platform. It is revolutionary for businesses, as it allows them to collect data and measure just how successful a campaign is. The customer can enjoy the added value of an online experience, which can also offer discounts.

Environmentally Conscious

Consumer awareness of sustainable packaging has brought this issue to the fore. Customers want improved clarity on which parts of the packaging can be recycled. If brands also use recycled materials to make new packaging, then this can be a key area to promote, which takes advantage of consumer awareness and turns it into a marketing tool.

Boxing it up

With e-commerce sales going from strength to strength, companies are thinking more about how their product is delivered. What kind of box to use, keeping up with consumer demand, how to make it interesting and impactful, and considering distribution efficiency. It is an opportunity to send a marketing message straight to the consumer.

Plastic Free

The demand for plastic-free has never been stronger. With shops now offering packaging free re-fill options, it’s definitely time for the packaging industry to act. Whether it is finding plastic-free options, using recycled plastic in packaging, or clearly explaining the benefits of plastic packaging for a particular product, it’s an issue and trend not to ignore if your brand wants to remain relevant.

For help with your marketing strategy, call us today on 01939 211 115.

It’s not what you know – it’s who you know

There is a lot of pressure to get out there and network. But often business owners feel fatigued attending endless networking events, seeing the same faces and being faced with a room full of people who are all there with their own agenda.

Networking events are often mixers for professionals looking to sign up new clients, creating awareness for their brand, and seeking relationships with other people that will benefit them. It can feel like everyone is there to just sell themselves.

When you consider the worth of your time, can giving up some of it for networking feel justified?

Finding people on your wavelength

If you have a hunger to meet business owners that could be facing the same difficulties as you, a networking event is a great base to find like-minded professionals, hungry to learn more.

You don’t have to approach it like a sales floor. It can be a space to share worries and find support, sound out ideas to people with business experience, or strike up relationships that can be mutually beneficial.

Defining what your brand is

Pitching your business helps you hone the company’s mission statement and core goals. You might be surprised by the aspects of your business that you find yourself talking about or what sparks interest in other people. It’s a gentle reminder to yourself of what you are all about.

According to a survey conducted by NowSourcing, 85% of professionals say they build stronger, more meaningful business relationships during in-person meetings, so don’t discount the importance of stepping away from your computer to get out there.

Go for it

Some research from the Economist Intelligence Unit found that for 78% of start-ups, networking is vital to entrepreneurial success. So why not give it a go? Here are some top tips that we have found from online research:

• Be curious – ask thoughtful questions and make a good impression by listening to what other people have to say.
• Be yourself – you don’t have to be a walking sales pitch. Keep it casual and share your thoughts, rather than going straight for the hard sell. And smile!
• Be prepared – research who will be attending, and focus your attention on who might be most relevant to you. And always carry some business cards!

Always be ready to network

Ultimately you can network any time from anywhere, from a chance conversation during your work out at the gym, to an online connection via a social media platform like LinkedIn.

Connecting with like-minded people and joining forces with local businesses can give your business access to new resources and strength in numbers. If you get the give and take balance right, the relationship can prosper mutually in the long term.

Why are businesses still not using it?

Analysis of Office for National Statistic results by Turner Little revealed that only 60% of UK businesses are using social media, which goes down to 57% for small businesses.  There is a new social media user every fifteen seconds, and most of the adults you know have accounts – so why are businesses holding back from utilising these platforms to reach their customers and market their brand?

Many small business owners feel they are already wearing enough ‘hats’.  

They are already ‘head of sales’, ‘HR’, ‘accounts’, ‘business development’, ‘marketing’ and ‘product maker’.  Social media can easily slip down the list of priorities when there is so much else to manage, and not enough time to fit it all in.

Cost plays a factor too – paying an employee or engaging an agency creates additional costs, which can be a big decision for a small business.  For those who have tried it, they want to see a return on that investment and will often expect quick results, but social media strategy isn’t like that – growing followers takes time and building a community around your brand is no quick feat. 

If you are someone who doesn’t spend much time on social media, it might be quite daunting to decide how to strategise your approach, without harming your brand with the wrong action.

Why it is time to change

Using effective social media can have a big impact on your brand.  Compelling content will drive new customers to you, increasing brand awareness.  Building relationships with your customers can also increase brand loyalty.  Generating content on industry developments and being seen as an expert can improve overall brand reputation.

Although there is likely to be a cost to pay someone to manage it (unless you have time to do it yourself), it actually costs very little compared to traditional advertising or promotion.

Every platform allows you to see the analytics of your content.  This includes the demographic of the people engaging with you, how many people your content reaches and how people engage with your content.  This can give you an incredible insight into your customers and whether what you are doing is working or not.  You can keep tweaking what type of content you are doing and when you are doing it, to continually improve your strategy. 

If you compare all of this to placing an advert in a journal, when you have no idea who sees it and whether they act on it, then you can appreciate how revolutionary social media can be for business.

The fundamental job of a social media strategy is to drive customers to your website to buy your products. If posting one thing on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter daily can achieve this, then why hold back?

There is a vast array of social media training courses out there, so arm yourself with knowledge and embrace this fantastic opportunity. 

If you need help with any aspect of social media, contact us.

As we approach the end of March, it’s a great time to think about setting goals for the next financial year.  With so many moving parts to a business from infrastructure, to investment in technology, business development and staff retention – deciding on what to prioritise can feel overwhelming.

What do you stand for?

Take time to consider who you are and what you stand for.  Now you are a few, or perhaps many years in from drawing up your initial business plan to having a functioning business, its important to think about the company vision and values, and whether your mission statement needs an update.  Only then you can work on short and long term goals.

Break it down

Chances are some of your goals will be to increase sales, boost profits or win new business – but these are big goals.  Break the tasks down into smaller jobs, exploring the mechanisms to make each one happen.  Is it through a new PR strategy, investment into machinery, or reducing staff turnover?  Create sub-groups for each big goal that help build your overall plan.

People person

It’s easy to get swept up in profit margins and sales figures at the end of a tax year.  Use this juncture to consider the overall morale of your task force.  Are they happy and motivated, or could your staff turnover be better?  Think about how investing in more face-to-face time and resources could improve their job satisfaction.  It is likely that a happier team will improve your figures – increased productivity and reduced costs of recruiting and training new staff.

New business

If you would like to start targeting a new customer or reaching a new market, then consider outsourcing some expertise to companies who know how to do that.  Perhaps a PR, marketing, or social media agency can help implement a new strategy that drives real change.

What’s going on outside?

As robust as your company practices may be, it doesn’t hurt to consider how external factors may affect your business.  Recently the business world has seen the effects of GDPR tightening, Industry 4.0, Brexit, and tax digitalisation.  Whether the effects have been good or bad, it is worth considering what is changing in the business landscape, and what impact that will have on your business, so you can be properly prepared.

Onwards and upwards

Whatever goals you set, make sure they are realistic and manageable.  There is no point feeling even more overwhelmed with an unobtainable wish list, instead of a realistic action plan.  Assess how things are going three or four times a year, and have no shame in modifying your goals as you go to stay on track.