Live from the workshop

Live from the workshop

Live From The Workshop – B2B Marketing Expo ’18

20 talks, 2 days, 9 coffee-fueled GIANTs

Last week saw us unofficially sponsored by Take That as we screamed WE ARE GIANTS throughout the halls of the Excel Centre – B2B Marketing Expo 18.

Over the two days we were in London, alongside Sleeping Giant Media, we delivered around 20 back-to-back courses and masterclasses to hundreds and hundreds of people. Every course was sold out, and every course finished with a lot of smiles and notepads overflowing with new found knowledge.

Being part of the leading European Marketing Expo gave us the opportunity to share a quick taster of each of the courses we deliver. Inspiring people to not only do it for themselves, but to cut the cr????p and do it properly.

Head Boy Danny and Professors Sam and Holly were the ones delivering the workshops on this occasion, and what a great job they did considering their time limitations. Each workshop could only run for 20 minutes before a quick changeover to the next. Trying to teach a room full of people something new that they could take away and apply to their business the same day is a challenge in that time frame, but they smashed it!

Unlike other masterclasses going on at the expo, we weren’t there to share “hacks & cheats” because we don’t believe in them – similarly, most platforms out there are tackling these on a daily basis so that would mean everything told would soon be outdated. There were even three algorithm updates to social media platforms whilst we were stood in one chat! Digital is far too fast pace to repeat the same jargon over and over again. Instead, we shared the way we do things at GC. Honest, reliable, genuine and effective.

Our talks were attended by some pretty big names… Crabtree & EvelynArgosCancer Research UKFujitsuRICSVodaphone and SO MANY MORE.

First up was Holly, who delivered her workshop ‘Just Google it’ where she explored the practical takeaways businesses could action with regards to their SEO – “I enjoyed how many people attended the talks and how engaged they all were. Had some fab questions at the end which I always enjoy because you know its when people have really understood/taken something away.”

Professor Sam stepped up to deliver ‘Leapfrogging your competition’ A workshop based on how you can use PPC (or SEM) to get ahead of your competition in search results. The session drove a lot of questions, with audience members being able to submit their questions via an app live to the presenter. 

Social Animal saw a special inclusion into our programme at the B2B. The most popular workshop in our curriculum normally saw the speaking area bursting with people. Danny took the audience through a journey of two years of Giant Campus, and explored our very own Social Media Mantra, that looked to avoid the use of hacks and cheats in search of a more ‘honest’ approach.

A live demo of video creation took place for ‘Lights, Camera, Action, Sales’ that saw GC Prefect Amber and Danny join forces to show the crowds how they can use free apps and software to up their video game. This piece of showmanship was received really well by the crowd and no technical issues arose (which for a live demo is always a bonus)!

Rounding off the GC workshops was Sam again, this time with ‘The Numbers Game’ a look at the world of actionable insights and metrics, that Google themselves would have been proud of (well, Google Analytics liked our tweets about the session, so they must have been!). Sam said: “Awesome questions and tuned in audience. Never expected so many to be attentively listening to analytics, but the turnout was astounding!”

The energy and passion demonstrated in these workshops, as well as a set of slides to please any graphic designer, ensured our learners left enthused by the subjects they had just witnessed. Head Boy Danny said: “It’s always fun to bring our programme of training outside the ball pit. To create condensed workshops was a real challenge, to ensure we didn’t lose the educational integrity that we pride ourselves on. We are over overjoyed by the reaction each workshop got, and it is a format we want to use again at our own events in the future.”

As well as delivering the awesome workshops, we also got to enjoy meeting loads of businesses and individuals who realised the potential in training their staff to understand the world of digital marketing. We made friends with other exhibitors, had a very successful swag hunt, met plenty of old faces and managed to stand out amongst the rest by playing some banging tunes throughout our intervals.
We’ve had some great feedback on our courses already:

Had a great day at the @ExCeLLondon going round the #MarketingExpo18 very informative talks given by @GIANT_campus . Time to put the lessons learnt into action ! Loved the Lights, Camera, Action masterclass????

“I really enjoyed your social animal talk! Inspired me to improve my campaigns I really like your work????

 

Jonny Buckley@Jonny_Buckley

“It’s key to have a balance between scheduled and reactive posts” – @danny_windsor

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See Jonny Buckley’s other Tweets

 

 

Jonny Buckley@Jonny_Buckley

Been most excited about this class today. Especially for my own YouTube channel!

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See Jonny Buckley’s other Tweets

 

 

After a couple of full on days, we took a break from our social media to give our fingers and your feed a rest, concentrating on contacting our new friends from the expo. But don’t you worry – we’re back now and raring to go (despite someone putting the clocks forward, ugh).

This week we are delivering our sold out Content, Content, Content workshop in Canterbury to over thirty people. Preaching the benefits of content marketing and showing how easy it is to make quality content with the resources you already have.

If you’re interested in knowing more about our courses, check out our website, pop us an email on hello@giantcampus.co.uk, or give us a call on 01303 765394.
Amber Vellacott

Amber Vellacott

Content Marketing Lead

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Errors in Search

Errors in Search

Spelling & Grammatical Errors In Search

making the most of human error 101

Depending on the facts and figures you look at, there are around 10 million misspelt search queries every single day.

This accounts for 10 to 15% of search queries being misspelt – which is a fairly significant number when you break it down (and enough to make 10 to 15% of the population’s English teachers shake their heads disapprovingly).

Once you get over the fact that apparently many of us struggle to spell, it opens up a new thought process – what can we do about this, and can we, as online whizz-kids, use it to our advantage?

Bad spelling vs good SEO

In the world of digital marketing, understanding the terms and phrases people use when they search is big business. From semantic keyword understanding to using tools like Answer the Public, digital professionals are always looking to understand what real people are saying – and how they’re saying it. But what if the words and phrases they’re using aren’t spelt correctly?

This is where you can make your mark. Tweaking your SEO efforts to allow for errors in search terms may offer new possibilities for those looking to rank for relevant terms – particularly in competitive industries, where competition for main keywords is fierce. Take those same main keywords, and spell them wrong, and you’ve got your in.

One thing to remember is that this tactic doesn’t work for everything. No one’s saying you should start randomly misspelling all of your keywords in a bid to hit the top of the SERPs (Search-engine result page). One, Google will spot that a mile off, and two, if no one else is spelling them like that, then you’re going to look a bit silly. Well, really silly.

The key here is to target strategic misspellings. These are the words that people commonly get wrong, such as ‘jewelery’, or ‘buisness’, or ‘accomodate’. Here, we share our top tips on how you can find these, and then use them to your advantage:

Do your research

You know your industry, so it might be that you can identify popular misspellings fairly quickly. If you need a hand, look in blogs and forums, or use Google searches to help you find out what terms other people are using – and then think about all the ways you could get them wrong. Tools like Answer the Public are another great way to find out what questions and phrases people are using, based on the keyword that you enter; they often throw out some interesting spellings, too.

You can also find tons of keyword typo generators online if you need a helping hand. You simply tap in some of your main keywords, and it gives you a list of possible misspellings. Genius (oh, the irony).

A great example of this is Giphy, the home of quality giffage. Their website isn’t spelt in the way most expect, and you’ll find that they’ve covered themselves for this. Type in ‘Giffy’ incorrectly to Google and you’ll still see Giphy sitting at the top of the SERP. Similarly, if you use voice search and ask for it to open ‘jiffy’, you’ll still get Giphy. Clever, right?

Check the volumes

The key to making the most out of these misspellings is that they’re spelt in a way that people actually use. If you’re just spelling things wrong for the sake of it, you’re not going to get very far. You can use the Keyword Planner in Google Adwords to get search volume data and trends around a range of keywords, including misspelt words, which will help you narrow your list down to the most popular mistaken terms.

Don’t overdo it

One thing to be aware of is not going too far with the errors. Sure, some nifty little uses of super common misspellings in title tags and headers can be a clever way to get ahead, and give you an edge over the competition. But that edge starts to soften fast if you go OTT, and start sprinkling your site content with every slang term nd txt tlk typo under the sun. Not only does it look a bit naff, but it could cost you in terms of credibility and authority in the eyes of potential customers.

The idea of targeting misspelled keywords isn’t a new tactic. In fact, some major players have been making waves in the world of shoddy spelling for years. Snickers are one of them, thanks to their 2013 “You are Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign, where they created a list of the top 500 search terms. Then, according to Search Engine Watch, they used an algorithm to spin through common misspellings of those words until they had generated a list of 25,381 different misspellings. In just over two days, Snickers managed to get 558,589 ad impressions on those misspellings. Big numbers, based on little mistakes.

The misspelt keywords that brought the most traffic through the Snickers campaign were: wether, amazin, definately, wierd, and facw. Now, it may not be that you can use these in your campaign, but if you come across your own list of words or phrases that your customers struggle with, history shows you may be onto a winner.

how to spell gud
Head back through the Giant Campus archives to read one of our previous blogs on the importance of good spelling online – and whether it has an impact on how people feel about you and your brand.

Liz Quinn

Liz Quinn

Digital Creative Manager

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BrewDog – Causing a stir

BrewDog – Causing a stir

BrewDog Causing A Social Media Stir

how hopping on a trend can attract attention online

BrewDog caused a stir on social media this week.

This week see BrewDog relaunch their famous Punk IPA as Pink IPA. 

In this blog, we take a look at the marketing impact of this campaign, and the reaction it has faced on social media since.

We’ve all been down the pub when someone that strikes up that conversation. You’ve had a couple to drink, and someone gets all philosophical. Dave suddenly thinks he can solve world hunger, and explains (between a mouthful of half chomped crisps and the cheapest ale he can get his hands on) that “the problem with today’s society is that there’s no community anymore”.

BrewDog

@BrewDog

We’ve created a beer for girls. And it’s pink. Because women only like pink and glitter, right?

????‍♀️

Lets show that enough is enough with stereotypes.

View image on Twitter
823 people are talking about this

 

 

We all know a Dave.

BrewDog is today’s Dave, and Dave isn’t just drinking in the pub, he’s running the damn thing. But why is this a bad thing?

ICYMI, ahead of International Women’s Day on Thursday, BrewDog has announced that for the next four weeks it’s rebranded its Punk IPA as Pink IPA – “Taking Aim at the Gender Pay Gap”. Not only will they sell the delicious nectar of the Gods (I’m assuming; I’ve never tasted it…) for 20% less for those identifying as women – tackling two current issues at once – but they’re also donating 20% of the proceeds to the Women’s Engineering Society and 9to5.

They’ve put a shot across the bows, and people have sat up and taken notice. The office this morning has been buzzing with conversation, with comments from “That’s hilarious”, and “Dammit, we can’t buy it online!”, to “That’s going to ruffle a few feathers”, and “But why does it have to be pink??”. And our office isn’t the only one.

That’s going to ruffle a few feathers

Twitter is alive with comments on both sides of the fence. Everyone seems to agree that something needs to be done, but the execution is up for debate. Is it sexist to use sexist advertisement to beat sexism? While BrewDog claims to have released the Pink IPA satirically, could it have been done without the “Pink Beer for Girls” slant? Yes – it’s going to be cheaper for women – and yes, money is being donated to women’s charities; but why couldn’t they do this without all the hoo-ha?

BrewDog

@BrewDog

Well, that escalated quickly…https://bit.ly/pink-again 

View image on Twitter
241 people are talking about this

 

 

If you’re a regular follower of us at Giant Campus, or just have a bit of knowledge around brand engagement, the answer will come as no surprise:

Because. It’s. Marketing.

For goodness sakes, people.

In this case, by causing a stir, it serves multiple purposes.

 1. It’s getting the issues out there. We’re all aware on some level of the gender inequalities. In this case, it’s the gender pay gap. By serving beer in a pink label, appealing to women who “only like pink and glitter, right?”, it’s starting the conversation again. It’s tapping into society’s feelings and making sure the issues aren’t just washed away with a cold brew of amber coloured goodness. 

 

2. It’s helping a good cause. Ok, this one is obvious. They’re giving discounts to women AND donating to women-lead initiatives. On top of that, with everyone talking about it, you just know sales are going to skyrocket. More sales = more money. More money = higher donations. Although, it would be stupid of them not to give some of it away, especially considering everything’s in goddamn pink…. 

3. It’s boosting brand engagement. All publicity is (arguably) good publicity. And as far as marketing campaigns go, this one is a doozy. Have you Googled it? Pages of articles, all of which have an opinion, thousands of comments or shares or tweets – I mean, seriously. When Doritos announced a “crunch-free” crisp to appeal to women (we all know that women need to keep quiet in order to be a lady…), there was all of the engagement, none of the support. What BrewDog have done is create an open forum for discussion, set themselves up for an increase in sales, donated money to worthy causes, and increased their brand engagement. One label change and a couple of pages on their website, and the world has gone crazy over it.

Okay, yes – the pink label and “beer for girls” is a little demeaning if you take it that way. But take it as the joke it’s intended, and it shows you how good marketing can not just boost engagement and sales, but it can get the conversation started. Of course I’ve heard of BrewDog, but strangely this is the first time I’ve actually wanted to try their products.

I really hope the taste doesn’t disappoint after all of this.

To see the full reaction take a look at the BBC news article or check out what BrewDog have to say for themselves.

Danny Windsor

Danny Windsor

Brand & Marketing Manager

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