Absolutely Mama & Beaches Resorts have joined forces to bring you a slice of the Caribbean in the heart of Chelsea in this exclusive reader event.

Our family focused bi-monthly magazine Absolutely Mama is delighted to work with the Beaches Resorts, the “World’s Leading All-Inclusive Family Resorts”,  for The Beaches Brunch Club on 26th July at Sandals Luxury Travel Store in Fulham Road.

Beaches Resorts is the family-friendly arm of Caribbean resort company Sandals Resorts, who told us that when choosing a magazine dedicated to affluent mums and families in London and the UK, Absolutely Mama was the natural choice to co-host the event. Family travel is a popular section in both Absolutely Mama and absolutely-mama.co.uk, so what better way to help our readers plan their break and have the Beaches experts on hand to achieve the perfect all-inclusive Caribbean break.

With a few spaces still available, don’t miss the chance to book your free space today and bring the kids along to be entertained with a host of games, activities, food and drinks, while  grown ups can kick back in the calm surroundings of the Luxury Travel Store with a Mimosa or a mocktail.

You can expect interesting talks from experts and influencers in the Beaches Travel Clinic, plenty of food and drink to brunch on and the chance to win big prizes from phil&teds, mountain buggy, EF Medispa, Hari’s Hair and £200 off holiday voucher for Beaches Resorts at the end of the event.  Each attendee will also walk away with a goodie bag filled with treats for tots to teens without forgetting the mums.

Zest Media, publisher of Absolutely, London’s fastest-growing group of lifestyle magazines, is expanding its digital division. Following the highly successful launch of absolutely-weddings.co.uk and absolutely-mama.co.uk, an exciting opportunity has arisen for a digital designer intern to work alongside our UI Designer. The role is based in our offices in Old Street and is for a minimum two month duration.

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

● Help build and grow a leading brand, working collaboratively with the senior team as well as executing your own visions independently.
● Bring your designs to life.
● Communicate your ideas and vision.
● Refine your work through rigorous iteration.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

● The foremost quality for this position is creativity.
● You believe in creating elegant fashion and compelling designs. The details matter to you, and you do not stop till your designs are perfect.
● You know that a good design requires research and multiple iterations. As part of that, you’re able to accept feedback and make rational decisions.
● The details matter to you. They really matter to you.
● You can work independently and reliably.

SKILLS:

WordPress is your best friend! Proficiency and experience in Adobe Creative Cloud with a good eye for typography.
We welcome experience with front-end development (HTML, CSS and Java) and understanding of interaction design, UX and UI principles.

Please send CV and portolio to [email protected] accompanied by a covering letter.

When the Electoral Commission launched its Snapchat geo filter across the UK to encourage Britain’s youth to register to vote in  the General Election it received a mixed response. The filter, which carried a voter registration message to encourage engagement and conversation among young people was called a ‘gimmick’ by some, while others praised the Commission for reaching out to this elusive audience. At the time their research showed that young people were typically less likely to be registered than older voters, with only 69% of 18-34 year olds correctly registered in the UK compared to 96% of those aged 65 and over.

“By working with Snapchat we can get this important message across in a new way and help ensure fewer people lose their chance to cast their vote” a spokesman said. And why not? With the average user spending 30 minutes a day on Snapchat* it appears to have been key in attracting this demographic to not only engage but to actually vote.

After all 3 candidates in the recent French elections used it to take questions, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn seems to have been the main benefactor of adopting Snapchat, and as reports are of a staggering 72% turn out of the youth vote this platform may have changed the way we approach politics, voting and social media.

If you would like to optimise your social media activity or turn your handles into revenue generating tools, Zest Media can help. For information on our social media management service contact us here. We’d love to hear from you!

*’eMarketer Releases New Snapchat Usage Numbers’, eMarketing, 07/06/2014, https://www.emarketer.com/Article/eMarketer-Releases-New-Snapchat-Usage-Numbers/1015324

To ensure your content is reaching the right people on the best forums, you’ll need to strategise effectively. From the awareness to the decision stage, people will be digesting content in a variety of ways. We take you through the key stages your potential customer will traverse on their way from stranger to active business promoter.

Attract

At the attraction stage, a customer may not yet be aware of your brand. Your job now is to alert them to what you offer. Below are some of the best types of content to utilise at the attraction stages:

• Blogs

Blogs are a great way to attract new customers. By creating informative content you’ll be providing your potential customers with guidance and answers to their questions, and, at the same time will build your brand awareness.

• SEO
  By ensuring you are using focus keywords, meta descriptions and so forth effectively, you’ll be building your SEO levels and climbing up the Google search pages.

Convert

By the time you’ve reached the convert stage, the potential customer will be aware of your brand. The job here is to collect information about your potential customer in order to build your database and convert them into leads. Below are some of the best types of content to utilise at the convert stages:

• Whitepapers
  Offer educational, consultative, downloadable content such as whitepapers to your client that requires them to enter information before the content is released. You get contact details; they receive the information they need.

• Landing pages
  Ensure you’re sending potential customers to the correct landing page through calls to action.

Close

Once you’ve got your potential customer’s attention and contact details, it’s time to close the deal. Below are some of the best devices to utilise at the close stages:

• Email

One of the best ways to keep in contact with your new client is by sending them informative emails. By regularly staying in touch with relevant content, you’ll be able to close the deal when they are ready to make the purchase.

• CRM
  Use your CRM system to monitor the customer information you have, and make sure you are tailoring the content to the right client. 

Delight

After you’ve won their business, your next goal is customer retention. If you provide your client with top-level service, you’ll ensure repeat business and turn them into business promoters as they recommend you to friends and colleagues. Try sending them surveys and calls to action, to ensure you’re getting feedback and keeping in touch.

Get in touch to learn more about Zest’s content services.

To ensure your content is reaching the right people on the best forums, you’ll need to strategise effectively. From the awareness to the decision stage, people will be digesting content in a variety of ways. We take you through the key stages your potential customer will traverse on their way from stranger to active business promoter.

Zest had the pleasure of attending the B2B Marketing Expo at London’s ExCel Centre last week. With a lineup of marketing specialists and keynote speakers across the schedule there were many insightful ideas and intriguing strategies to be heard. Eighty of the industry’s most recognised companies got involved, including the IDM, Google and Digital Doughnut. The seminars and lectures were packed with great bite-sized tips that would give any Marketer the tools they need to elevate their campaigns and profiles to the next level.

Amongst all the discussions and analysis of emerging trends content marketing remained one of the hot topics.

Here were our three key takeaways from the day:

1. Let your brand do the talking

To establish a reputation and build trust, companies should always have consistent but transparent values across all of its content and communications. Customers need to believe in a brand, so that they come to you instead of you going to them.

2. Sell a story

Give your content a narrative, so that it can be relatable and give your brand a character. Stories and personalities are what people remember, even when they forget who told it.

3. Build relationships

Don’t use content only to make sales. People don’t like to be talked at, they want to be entertained, educated and inspired. Building personal connections with your target audience will encourage engagement and will ultimately increase website traffic.

Our verdict is that the B2B Marketing Expo is a recommended event for any marketers who are looking to find out the latest educational content and networking opportunities.

By strategizing a bespoke content strategy, you are pinpointing exactly whom you are targeting, at what stage in the buyer journey you’re targeting them, and the method you’re utilising to successfully reach them.

Below are some key steps you must incorporate when strategizing your content plan in order to make sure that your marketing output is working.

First up, define your goals. These may be the following:

Marketing goals

You may be looking to increase your website traffic, or the number of leads coming in, or you may be seeking less tangible goals such as building your brand awareness or establishing yourself as a thought leader within your market.

Business goals

You may have clear cut business goals, where you’re looking to grow your revenue or client retention levels.

Other goals

It may be something else entirely, like strengthening your output by increasing the quality and volume of your content marketing.

Secondly, identify your personas (the semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer). Do this by researching the following:

Who they are

This will be their demographics, including their gender, age, location and ambitions.

What they want

These will be their goals – what they want to achieve – and their challenges – the obstacles in their way.

Why they want the product

This will be their objectives – how they make buying decisions and their requirements – and their conflicts, what their frustrations with providers are.

How best to appeal to them

You’ll be working out the marketing message they respond to and the best way to pitch to them buy thinking about where they go for information, what type of content they read and what platforms they engage with.

At this stage, you should be ready to start mapping out your content. Using your knowledge of where your personas digest their content, utilize paid for, owned and earned for online and offline channels to push out your content.

At Zest Media, we brainstorm highly targeted content ideas that incorporate personas and life cycle stages, so the content is reaching your ideal audience on the channels they use, at the times they use them.

Remember, if you don’t strategize, you aren’t sending the right content to the correct customer, meaning your content is failing.

To find out more about honing your strategy skills or to say hello, get in touch.

At Zest Media we were delighted to see our friends at New Scientist Live 2016 pick up the award for Event of the Year at last week’s British Media Awards.

Having worked closely with the team, we understand the hard work and long hours that go into planning an event, and know that this award is thoroughly well deserved.

We are proud to have contributed to New Scientist Live’s success by providing the event’s show guide. The show at ExCel played host to over 22,000 people across four days, so it was crucial that a clear and engaging guide was distributed.

As well as producing the print guide, we also created a digital version that was emailed out to the show’s database. By doing so, we built the New Scientist Live’s brand visibility and provided advertisers with extra exposure.

In order to successfully deliver an own brand publication for a client, we devise and implement a content strategy, create all design elements, organise production and generate revenue through advertising sales. We take pride in our content creation and design skills that enable us to provide engaging event guides tailored to select audiences.

Having worked with a vast range of clients, from luxury hotel groups to London’s biggest outdoor events, we have ample experience fulfilling various commercial briefs and delivering expected content on time and in budget.

We are always excited to create new publications according to a client’s brief and need. Contact us now; we’d love to hear from you!

The Buyer Journey is the process a potential customer goes through from the initial realisation stage, to the decision stage where they make the purchase. It’s imperative for content marketers to understand the Buyer Journey as only then will they truly be able to understand their customer’s approach, needs and values. To help you appeal to your ideal customer, we take you through the step-by-step process a buyer will go through on their journey.

AWARENESS STAGE

At the awareness stage, the potential buyer will be coming to the realisation that they are in need of a certain product by experiencing and expressing symptoms of a problem or opportunity.

The customer will be undertaking educational research to more clearly understand, frame and put a name to what they need, whether they view it as a problem or opportunity.

The content types that work best during the awareness stage include educational content, such as white papers.

CONSIDERATION STAGE

At the consideration stage, the potential buyer has defined and named their problem or opportunity. They are starting to research and understand the various available approaches and methods to help solve their problem or opportunity.

The content type that works best at the consideration stage includes expert guides and videos.

DECISION STAGE

At the decision stage, the potential buyer has decided what their strategy will be and has compiled a list of all available vendors and products. They’ll be continuing to research each of these vendors and products before ultimately making the final purchase decision.

The content types that appeal at the decision stage include case studies and product literature.

To find out more about Zest’s content services, get in touch with our dedicated team.

At Zest we understand the importance of properly planning your content output. From the initial consideration stage, through to implementation and reporting, all are imperative to achieving your marketing goals. To help guide you through the process, we take you through the Six Pillars of Content.

Strategy

First you need to define your goals. These can range from marketing goals (i.e. establishing yourself as a thought leader), business goals (growing revenue), or others, such as simply improving the quality of your content.

Next, identify your personas. Personas are fictionalised representations of your ideal customer, and they are determined by looking at different demographics, their goals, objectives and their response to different marketing types.

After you have collected your goals and personas, it is time to brainstorm your targeted content. Map out your content using your personas and their life cycle stages, so the content is reaching your ideal audience on the right channels at the best time.

Audit

Second, take an objective look at the content you are currently creating. Thoroughly research your offline content (sales scripts), online platforms (blogs), and marketing materials (brochures) to identify patterns and trends in your output.

Then do the same with your competitors’ content; find out what they’re posting, where they’re posting and how they’re doing it. This will enable you to establish your place in the market, and help you on your way to becoming a thought leader.

Create

Next, it’s time to get cracking on the content. Whether you’re writing, designing or filming, remember to structure it so it appeals to your targeted audience.

At Zest Media, our award winning, well informed digital and print editors have experience working for national publications such as Grazia, The Times and The Guardian, and are well versed in working to a commercial brief. When we create content, we optimise its readability, boost its SEO, and speak your personas’ language.

Amplify

Push out your content on the right channels after you’ve researched the best platforms for your personas. These can be through your owned channels, i.e. a blog page or social handles, paid for media channels, i.e. social ads and PPC, or Zest’s owned media channels.

Analyse

Using detailed analysis and reporting, from sources such as Google Analytics, work out what worked well and start plotting trends. This will help you to refine and optimise your strategy to ensure you’re grabbing the attention of your ideal customer. Detailed reporting will also help you map out the next stage of content and brainstorm new features.

Repeat

Taking what you’ve learnt, refine and optimise your strategy. Its time to start the cycle again!