The latest from Fortifi

Whether you want to brush up on your SEO skills, delve into the world of video marketing, or learn about what's new in SEO this year, attending conferences is one of the best ways to stay on top of the latest trends taking the marketing world by storm.  As well as connecting with other professionals, you can discover new tools and learn from the world's best thought leaders at these events all across the country. Whatever you want to get to grips with in 2020, we've pulled together a list of our favourite marketing events and conferences next year. VidCon London Are you interested in taking your video marketing to the next level in 2020? Then it might be worth you checking out the VidCon Industry Track. Designed for businesses looking to get ahead of the video trend, you can make sure your business is ready for the future of online video and learn how you can build innovative strategies with talks delivered by leading creators. In 2020, industry track attendees c...

How much time do you waste per week manually replying to enquiry requests that come through your website? Typically these are 'thanks for getting in contact with us' emails. They help you establish communication with the prospect, whilst giving you time to get back to them. Or do you have a software-based product where you email new users details on how to get started with their new app?  Manually replying with the same emails over and over again can take up hours of your week. They are vital in keeping that prospect or customer engaged, but copying and pasting the same email every day can seem incredibly counter-productive. Well, that's where autoresponders come in. In this article, we will delve into the world of automated emails and show you where you can be using autoresponders to save your business both time and money. What are autoresponders? An autoresponder is a sequence of automated emails, delivered in pre-planned successions and timed interv...

Being a marketer can be an incredibly overwhelming and tough job at times. You may be a sole marketer who manages many aspects of the department, or a dedicated blogger, social media expert or SEO guru. No matter your work, having the right tools under your belt can make your life easier and enable you to be more effective in your role.  In this article, we'll be going through five of the best tools and apps that you as a marketer can use in 2020 to take your marketing game to the next level. 1. Ubersuggest A free keyword research tool at heart, Ubersuggest shows businesses how to succeed in the world of SEO. You can check out both yours and competitor website to see how they are performing, indicates areas of improvement, top SEO pages, keyword suggestions, content ideas and backlink data.  We use Ubersuggest every day here at Fortifi to track how we are getting on and look out for what our competitors are doing. We can also find out where our customers...

What is customer service? Customer service is the support you provide to your customers, bother before and after buying your products and services. By providing good customer support, you are more likely to retain customers and in turn, grow your business. Customer service today goes beyond traditional email and telephone support. Web, text message and social media are now all mediums by which businesses can offer customer service. A lot of businesses today also recognise the 'always on' culture of today and offer self-service support which is available 24/7, wherever they are in the world. As more channels open up, staying on top of customer service can be a tricky task for small businesses and it becomes more than just answers customer questions. Check out our article on the difference between customer service and customer experience Small Business Customer Service vs Enterprise Level Customer Service If you take a look at a small business customer service ...

What Is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate receives a commission from an advertiser in return for promoting a product or service to potential customers, that then results in a sale. As a business, you can use affiliates to work as an extension to your sales department. It is typically a three-step process, as shown below.  Examples of affiliate marketing in practice today are typically through social media influencers and paid promotions, but there are also websites such as Skyscanner and PC Magazine which operate on an affiliate marketing model. In the B2B world, industry influencers are just important and this can be just about anyone who you are using to promote your product to your target audience. If you want to find out more about affiliate marketing, check out our article on affiliate marketing .  What Is Affiliate Marketing Software? If you decide to manage your affiliate marketing programme in-house, i...

What is Customer Experience?  Forrester Research defines customer experience as to how customers perceive their interactions with a brand's employees, systems, channels and products. In essence, customer experience is the result of every interaction a customer has with your business, from navigating your website, talking to your customer service team and receiving your product or service. Every stage of the buyer journey, from awareness to purchase, and beyond, contributes to the overall experience your customers receives. The two main areas of customer experience that you need to be aware of are 'customer perception' and 'interactions with your brand'. Customer perception looks at your customer's impressions and awareness about your brand's offering. The quality of your offering, your brand's positioning, website and physical store are just some of the touchpoints that make up your customer experience. As the number and complexity of touchpoints ...

You've taken the big move to go freelance. It's a new and exciting world that comes with its own set of challenges. Starting out on your own can be tough, and growing your presence can be a difficult task. You need to get organised and build a community of loyal customers in those early days. The last thing you need to be worrying about at this stage is the time and resource it will take reach out to prospects, complete those tedious administrative tasks and chase up on un-paid orders. What you need is a CRM software that gives you everything you need to run your organisation from one place... and of course, an affordable one. There are many options out there and searching for one right for you can often be like looking for a needle in a haystack. So we have boiled down down some of the key features you can get inside an affordable CRM system, all for just £7.99 a month . CRM A CRM is a basic tool that you need to build successful relationships and increase your ...

Imagine walking into a supermarket, and there were no shop assistants. Who would you ask if you wanted help to find something in the store? You wouldn't have a physical store without shop assistants, so why run your website the same way?  What is Live Chat Software? Live chat is an online, real-time communication tool that you can add to your website. It gives your website visitors the ability to chat with your team right there and then, without waiting days for a reply. Whilst it is still seen by many as a customer support tool, it can also be used in sales, giving you access to real-time communications with potential customers on your site, when they are most engaged with your brand, products, and services. Live chat can be used by businesses of any size and industry, with any goal in mind. You could be looking to increase website conversion rates, seeking to gain an advantage over your competitors, or you may have a strong focus on customer support. Live chat en...

For this article, we sat down with Pete Heslop, Managing Director of Steadfast Collective , to chat about the importance of building a memorable online experience and how companies of all sizes can digitise their business for today's audiences. Emily: If people head over to your social media channels or website, they will see that you use the term 'smart creative' a lot. What do you mean be a 'smart creative'? Pete:  A smart creative is a term coined by Google's Eric Schmidt and he defined a smart creative as someone who doesn't chase compensation and they want to a do a lot more than what they are already doing. So a smart creative could be someone in marketing, it could be a developer, or it could be a designer, it could be anyone, even if they are not in the creative field. There are 3 elements to it. 1. They have the technical ability and they understand what they are doing. 2. They are really driven , they really care about the results and...

For this article, we sat down with Christopher Perry from City Catering Southampton . Chris is a Marketing Technologist, specialising in bridging the divide between marketing and technology, The Business Warrior Podcast host, Emily Digweed, spoke with Chris as they explored how Marketing Automation Systems are changing the way we run our businesses today, and how they will continue to affect our operations in the future. Emily: So Chris, what's your take on marketing automation systems today? Chris: So back in the day, this technology originally focused on automating email marketing and as you mentioned, today we have this plethora of tools which help us create seamless sales experiences and time-bound marketing workflows. Most importantly, it is all about moving someone who is interested in your organisation's services to paying customers and to advocates. This is generally driven by a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) which forms the central hub...