The Pit Stop. #7

The number six is a weird one. In China, it’s considered to be a lucky number due to its pronunciation being similar to their word for flow. Meanwhile over here in the western world, we chuck three of these bad boys together and get the number of the beast.

Fortunately, this is the sixth edition of The Pit Stop, so with any luck, we’ll flow right into some Digital Marketing questions and we’ll leave this article having learnt something new.

You know the drill. I’ve given my colleagues 100 words to answer a question relating to their department. It’s concise, it’s insightful, it’s The Pit Stop #7.

• Should brands get involved with causes?
• How do I make sure my content is strategic?
• Can we integrate Apteve with our third-party CRM?
• Why do I need to clear my cache?
• Does our domain have to match our brand name?

Should brands get involved with causes?

Jonathon Aalders - Copywriter

I’m pessimistic when a brand jumps on a cause, do they care or is it just marketing?

Nike’s backing of Colin Kaepernick was brave, firmly planting their brand on one side of a polarising issue. Despite the boycotts, Nike didn’t suffer, sales boomed by 31%.

Compare this to Pepsi’s misguided Kendall Jenner ad. Handing a police officer a Pepsi, Kendall quenches his thirst and eradicates prejudice. The brand apologised but there was no sentiment, just an attempt to cash-in on global problems.

If you stand for nothing, you fall for everything. Just make sure you’re invested in your cause.

How do I make sure my content is strategic?

Stephanie Tabah – Marketing Manager

Map out a grid with three audience personas down the left and your stages of sales funnel across the top.

Next, start thinking about the different types of content that would help guide each person onto the next stage of the funnel.

You’ll often find that there is overlap between them, but when you plan your content calendar you can ensure you are ticking as many of those boxes as possible.

Can we integrate Apteve with our third-party CRM?

Emily Sharples – Project manager

Using Apteve means we can integrate with numerous APIs including job boards like Broadbean, CRMs such as Chameleon and other marketing platforms similar to Mailchimp.

However, to be able to this successfully, there are three key steps:

• Organise your data and ensure field mappings are correct
• Check the connections between Apteve and your systems
• Ensure there are open lines of communication between us and the third-party system

If this is all sorted, then we can begin pulling your data through to your site as soon as possible.

Why do I need to clear my cache?

Chris Waring – Developer

When you first visit a website your browser temporarily saves a copy, so it loads faster next time. Larger changes, such as new pages, are recognised by the browser and a new version will be loaded & stored. But smaller changes, you may not see immediately because you’re viewing the cached version.

You can override this and clear the cache in your browser to force load a new version, this is done with a hard refresh and on most browsers the shortcut is CTRL+F5.

This won’t affect other users, but each operating system & browser has a different cache expiry, so the stored version won’t last forever.

Does our domain have to match our brand name?

Daniel Gripton – Head of Content

An exact match for your brand will always be best for a domain. However, between availability, companies with similar names and wanting consistency across a group, this isn’t always possible. In these instances, you should consider domains that don’t include your name.

A relevant alternative or keyword can ensure recall and recognition. Meta titles can put your brand in search results and browser tabs. Extended Validation SSLs can put your name next to your URL in visitors’ browsers.

Done right, it won’t affect branded search performance either. Look at B&Q’s www.diy.com.

If you have something on your mind or want to read a specialist’s perspective on the work they do, why not help to shape future editions of The Pit Stop? Tweet us your questions, reactions or requests @VennDigital.

Until next month, bye for now.