The same way that you want customers to trust your brand, marketing agencies want you to trust them.  

Some struggle with understanding why hiring a full-service marketing agency is necessary. Apart from the fact that we live and breathe marketing, of course.  Or why it is better than hiring someone in-house who will be there with you. 

So, we are here to clear that out for you. As a marketing agency ourselves, we can highlight the benefits of hiring a marketing agency.  

1. Almost 24/7 support and communication with our clients. Available also on weekends and evenings. If you hire someone in-house, they are simply available during working hours.
2. We know brands, and we understand brands. Having worked with over hundreds of brands, we know what to do and what not to do. Hiring someone in house, they may have experience with just 1 or 2 brands. Our experience tops that by a lot.  
3. Full team. You are hiring a team, not a person. Therefore you are hiring many brains, many ideas, and a LOT of experience, for the cost of hiring one person in-house. Need we say more? 
4. Constant new ideas and updates. Since, as stated before, we work with some many brands, we also get ideas from others. We can implement something that works for one brand, into your brand too. Which may have been something that you never thought about before. We bring you something new to the table all the time.  
5. Good talent. We don’t just hire anyone to work with our team. We make sure that we are hiring the best – so essentially, you are hiring the best.  

When it comes to hiring an agency in Cyprus, we admit that the competition is high. There are agencies opening up everywhere. So how do you choose the right one for your brand? The agency is experience, and client portfolio.  

So, if you are looking for a marketing agency with experience and a large client portfolio, then get in touch with Online Solutions!  www.onlinesolutions.com.cy/contact-us/ 

It’s safe to say that the past 18 months have been a time like no other for the modern world. This has  brought on some new changes to the way we live life, especially in Cyprus.

Working from home is being implemented more, people are taking their hygiene more seriously, and consumer behaviour in Cyprus has changed.

Here are 5 new marketing rules that are required to drive growth in a post-Covid-19 world.

1. You are competing with the last best experience your customer had, rather than with other competitors.

Companies should constantly be thriving to make themselves better than they were before, rather than focusing on being better than their competitors. Customer loyalty has increased during covid-19, so that means it is your duty as a brand to keep your clients through your marketing.

1. The rise of videos

Videos were already becoming more popular on Instagram, but then March 2020 hit and Tik Tok blew up, throwing in huge competition for other channels.

This means brands now have to up their game not just with their visuals, but with videos too.

2. Relationships are everything

Covid-19 is placing a new emphasis on relationships, particularly in B2B sales. It is more vital than ever to build relationships with customers founded on trust, by showing your customers insights and solutions.

With people spending a large chunk of their time online due to lockdowns, marketers now place a higher focus on building and maintaining strong customer relationships online.

3. Being ready for anything

With lockdowns coming and going, marketing managers are forced to be on top of the news and act fast with campaigns.

This teaches marketing managers to work faster and better.  This is a positive outcome one would say, from the pandemic.

4. Online shopping is only going to get bigger

Social distancing and lockdowns are forcing all age groups to shop differently. The dramatic rise in the adoption of e-commerce sees no sign of leaving. We see that the vast majority of consumers who have increased their use of digital services, such as home delivery,  pickup, or shopping via social media platforms, expect to sustain these activities in the future.

Take grocery shopping in Cyprus, for example. Before the covid-19 pandemic, there was no way to grocery shop online. Then, thanks to www.foody.com.cy and other online platforms, online grocery shopping was implemented and all age groups started taking part, including Baby Boomers.

We are already living in an increasingly digital world, and the pandemic has simply accelerated that trend.

Whilst the way that we do business in Cyprus and everywhere, has been fundamentally changed, the goal stays the same. To create customer affinity generate brand awareness, increase leads, and grow.

With the rapid changes in social media, as a marketer you should always be looking out for what’s new.  Especially in Cyprus, where we have such a small community. Trend-setting is easy to follow! 

As a brand, you constantly want to be bringing in new traffic, and the best way to do that is to be relevant. Be up-to-date with what’s happening on social media, and what’s trending.  

Since things are changing and growing so often though, how do you stay up-to-date? 

• Follow influencers to stay up-to-date – they are trend-setters and trend-followers.  
• Sign up to informative marketing websites , such as:
  • www.socialmediaexaminer.com
  • sproutsocial.com 
  • www.hootsuite.com
  • blog.hubspot.com

Some might ask – why are trends so important? 

Trends make you relevant, they make you engage with your audience, and they show a personal side to a brand. Showing a personal side to a brand is always so important.  

For example, according to www.hootesuite.com,  “face-to-face guidance from product experts is the driving force of Clarins’s retail sales and profits. When stores suddenly closed, they needed a new way for customers to consult with Clarins beauty advisors.”  

However, if you’re no good with keeping up to date, get someone who is! As a marketing agency, we are always keeping up with the latest trends on Instagram, Tik Tok and Linkedin. So anything you don’t want to do, we do it for you! If that sounds good, then let’s chat! Get in touch:  www.onlinesolutions.com.cy/contact-us

With every great piece of content, comes a great strategy. At least, that’s how it should be. A brand’s strategy, especially in Cyprus, should define its marketing goals and outline how it can achieve them by bringing the brand’s purpose to life.  

A brand’s content in Cyprus refers to every funnel of their marketing – website, blog posts, social media, emails, SMS, and any other traditional medium. This means that there should be a strategy in place from the beginning of the year, outlining how the content for all of these channels will be cross-posted.  

Here are some tips on putting together a great strategy: 

1. Brand personality & tone of voice should be consistent, but methods should be updated regularly.
2. Embrace failure in order to accelerate success. In other words, experiment. Insights and ideas will arise from small-scale failure rather than from large-scale success. 
3. Review what has worked well in the past, and make sure to experiment with that. 
4. Understand your customer and your customer journey. Take advantage of rich insights from customer data, as it will facilitate help the process.  

A content strategy helps you identify new opportunities.  

If you’re a marketing manager in Cyprus or a content manager, your content should be focused around hot news topics which help in the effort to reach your brand’s target audience. You should identify your target audience before your strategy is put into place. That way you ensure that your goals are set right.  

To help with that, a good content strategy should outline all the ways that a marketer can use to follow news and trends and find story ideas.  

Finally, to ensure that your content marketing strategy remains on target, consider revisiting your strategy, core topics, and team processes on an annual basis. 

Looking for someone to put together your content strategy for you?  Then let’s talk!

SMS Marketing is not dead just yet. People are more attached to their phones than ever. We therefore should not ignore the power of SMS marketing. Screentime during the pandemic increased significantly. 

A changing landscape was brought on by COVID-19. There, where we thought that SMS had died down, it was brought back to life. According to a study by www.hubspot.com, 61% of consumers either increased or significantly increased the daily time they spent on their text apps.  

Some other interesting facts about SMS marketing that will make you re-think adding it to your marketing plan. According to SimpleTexting:

• 62% of consumers have opted into texts from at least one business while 43% of consumers specifically have subscribed to one to three brands. 
• 52% of brands reported increased opt-in rates between 2021. 
• 43% of surveyed business owners and digital marketers who use SMS marketing report click-through rates between 20% and 35%. 

 Tips for Launching a Great SMS Strategy.  

1. Give subscribers what they want to hear: give them what they opted in for. 
2. Less is more! Always in marketing, but especially with SMS marketing.  
3. Know who your audience is. Age is important as well, when it comes to SMS Marketing.  
4. Avoid meaningless texts. Make sure when you send an SMS, it is for either: a promo, something new, or something big.  
5. Keep it light; don’t be too serious. 
6. Make sure the timing the text is sent off is right 

The point is, SMS marketing should be an integral part of anyone marketing manager’s marketing strategy for years to come.