If you’ve read any of our blog posts concerning SEO or website copywriting, you’ll have probably stumbled across the term ‘website meta data’ before. If you work in any aspect of digital marketing, you probably already know that it’s a vital component of any SEO strategy – but what exactly is meta data when it … Read More
Content Marketing
20 ways to level up your website copy
Nobody wants a website that doesn’t convert, so why would you cut corners when it comes to writing your website copy? After all, it’s no secret that your website copy can drastically affect your SEO efforts. Add to that brand loyalty and consumer buying decisions, which can be directly influenced by the words on your … Read More
Writing copy for new websites – Our content checklist
Your website is your storefront for the world and one of the best sales tools your company can use. First impressions are everything. You need to be sure your site creates the right impact on the potential customer. As well as an attractive and user-friendly design and layout, writing compelling website copy is integral to … Read More
Don’t flout these 5 fundamental rules when it comes to PPC ad copy
“How can I say everything I need in such a short space?” This is a question that every rookie pay-per-click ad copywriter asks themselves. It can feel a bit like being a chef cooking for a banquet on a camping stove in a cupboard. It’s a tight squeeze. You’ve only got a few ingredients to … Read More
Learn from these 5 mistakes before you start email marketing
Your inbox competition is fierce. As the world goes online, the maths are simple. More businesses are simply sending more emails to keep their businesses front of mind and their subscribers engaged. Email marketing is still your most solid bridge to your customers. But it can quickly become your weakest link if nobody is reading … Read More
SEO audit tools – a guide to the best
If SEO is part of your content strategy, and we guess it is because you are reading this post, then you’ll need to run regular health checks to make sure your site is optimised. Every content marketer ought to know that an optimised website is crucial attracting high quality organic traffic and providing a great … Read More
How to create a buyer persona
Are you worried that you’re not getting the right content in front of the right people at the right moment in their buyer journey? To achieve your content marketing goals you need to be able to use personas to target specific buyer types with tailored content. Enter: the Buyer Persona.
3 reasons you need to stop avoiding customer personas
Know your customer. This is the first rule of content marketing. It’s a rule that most brands don’t follow. But the reasons businesses avoid developing customer personas are not borne out of an individualist streak to break the rules. It’s usually just down to a lack of know-how or the time to invest in working … Read More
How to write effective eCommerce newsletters
You’ve worked hard to build your email subscriber list. You’ve probably invested in marketing automation software. But are you worried that you’re wasting time sending newsletters because you’re not seeing the results you hoped you would? Does that sound like you? You and your team are busy running your online shop, fulfilling orders and supporting … Read More
How to request a guest post
As a website owner, you’ll know that you need written content. And lots of it. Because a website without the right words is just a silent movie. Don’t get us wrong. We’re big fans of the old black and whites. But we’re doing the day job here. Words are our thing. It’s the words on … Read More
Should I accept guest blog posts on my site?
This question is one of the hardy perennials in the content marketing herbaceous border. This year is no different. Marketers, SEO ninjas and blog copywriters are always digging deep to find answers on the best inbound marketing strategies. And when it comes to whether you should still accept guest posts on your site, the answer … Read More
Food & Drink Content Marketing – 4 Essentials For Success
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are” Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin I’m into food and drink. It’s no secret. I spend most of my time thinking what I’m going to have for my next meal. I’ve got a side hustle running a hipster catering company called More Gravy, I ran … Read More
How to Turn Your ‘About’ Page Into a Lead Generator
“If people like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you” – Zig Ziglar When was the last time you reviewed your website About page? If the answer is closer to ‘last year’ than ‘last week’, you’re not alone. Along with the Contact page, About is one … Read More
How Can I Tell If I Need More Content On My Site?
“Great content is the best sales tool in the world.” – Marcus Sheridan Industry gurus are constantly waxing lyrical about the importance of content. It’s the king (Bill Gates). It’s the kingdom (Lee Odden). It’s the lifeblood of your marketing strategy (Neil Patel). If you own a website, you already know all this. But are … Read More
6 Point Checklist For Getting Your Business Online – Fast
“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence — it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” Peter Drucker As COVID-19 storms through 2020, hurling our habits and treasured systems against the wall, we all know we have to change to survive. From the domestic adaptations needed to successfully work from home, to … Read More
7 ways to make your content investment go further
“Content Marketing is all the Marketing that’s left.” Seth Godin If you want your online business to succeed, you have to invest in content marketing. But, with uncertain times ahead and online competition becoming ever steeper, you need to squeeze every last drop out of your content investment. We’ll show you how. Repost your content … Read More
How To Report SEO Results to Your CEO
SEO is a long-term marketing strategy with literally hundreds of actions required to make it a success. But how do you distil this into a report that matters to your CEO? As a marketer, you may well be fonder of graphs than most, and capable of immersing yourself happily in reporting dashboards for hours at … Read More
How Often Should You Be Emailing Your Newsletter List?
Despite the meteoric rise of its cooler siblings, email marketing is going nowhere, and continues to provide businesses with a significantly higher ROI than any other marketing channel (Campaignmonitor). With email, possibly more than any other marketing channel, the devil is in the detail. And timing is the most important detail of all. Here, we … Read More
What to Write About During a Global Crisis
You’ve carefully mapped out your content for the year and then there’s a global pandemic. What the hell do you talk to your customers about now? Way back when you were creating your 2020 content calendar (you do have one, right?), you no doubt planned timely pieces relevant to the year’s key events. Depending on … Read More
Is Blogging Still Relevant?
Here at Big Star HQ we like to answer a direct question with a direct answer. And the answer to this is yes. It’s a yes because blogging can be your most effective content marketing tactic. The fact that 57% of marketers say they plan to increase their blogging efforts tells us that it’s still … Read More
How to optimise your blog layout for conversions
Are you investing a lot of time and energy in blog content but not seeing anything like the new leads and sales that you thought you would? Don’t panic. We’ve put together an essential checklist to help you optimise your blog layout to make sure you are doing everything you can to encourage visitors to … Read More
How to write screen-reader friendly content
As a business you want to provide an inclusive user experience so that your content is accessible to everyone. This includes people with sensory, cognitive, learning or physical difficulties that use assistive technology like screen readers. There are almost 14 million disabled people in the UK (22% of the population). People use screen readers for … Read More
Complete guide to brand monitoring
Let’s start with what is pretty much a given. People are talking about your brand online whether you are monitoring (and listening) to these mentions or not. If your company has a social media presence (and you’d have to dig pretty deep to find a brand without one) you will need to be actively monitoring … Read More
17 reasons you need to invest in content marketing in 2020
Are you hesitating to invest energy and money into content marketing? Well, consider this: no one ever won a game of Monopoly by cautiously navigating around the board without buying Pall Mall, Park Lane, or a station or two. As a business owner, you may be playing a delicate financial balancing game. But, if you … Read More
Content Marketing Analytics – What To Measure
What’s the return on your content marketing efforts? Is your strategy delivering the results you’re looking for? Is your content relevant and valuable? If you’re a B2C brand and stumped for answers, you’re not alone. 41% of B2C marketers cited the inability to measure content performance as a significant challenge, according to Content Marketing Institute. … Read More
5 content marketing mistakes to avoid in 2020
A recording artist like Kate Bush knows her audience. She’ll experiment, challenge and push boundaries with each new release. But her fans know that her distinct voice, artistry and sound mean that every album is unmistakably Kate. When you think about it, content marketing is no different really. Your business establishes its own distinct voice … Read More
Beyond Google Shopping: 3 alternative PPC platforms your Ecommerce businesses should be considering
Don’t get landlocked on Google Shopping – because your customers aren’t landlocked on Google. As an Ecommerce brand, you should be on the look-out for ways to diversify paid media spend in a bid (quite literally) to get your products in front of consumers on their favourite platforms and shopping sites. If you’ve done your … Read More
5 ways to make your eCommerce emails dramatically better
“The test messages were entirely forgettable. . . . Most likely the first message was QWERTYIOP or something similar” – Ray Tomlinson Tomlinson in 1971 was the first person ever to send an email. He sent the message to himself. Fast forward almost 50 years and you don’t need to stray far from your own … Read More
What Google’s BERT update means for content
We hope you haven’t got Google update fatigue because this is important. Google has made a giant leap in the way it understands the nuance and context of longer search queries with the release of its BERT update in its ranking system. The update means that Google will better understand one in 10 search queries. … Read More
7 (Challenging) Reasons Why Content is King
Ok, so ‘content is king’ has become a huge cliché. But we need good clichés, especially when they’re true. “The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.” ― Terry Pratchett Thanks, Terry. We miss you. Content is king. It’s also the kingdom and the … Read More
How to hire a copywriter – 5 killer questions every organisation should consider
If words matter to your business (and they should) then finding the right person to write those words is as important as the steps you take to hire the rest of your team. Quality content is the heart of your marketing strategy: we’ll show you how to hire a copywriter who will keep it beating. If … Read More
Thin Content – the Complete Guide
Producing unique content that is optimised for SEO is part of a good copywriter’s DNA. Building a high quality website and sharing this valuable content is critical to the success of a brand’s marketing strategy. Showing the most relevant results to users is part of a search engine’s reason for being. When these three elements … Read More
