The Green Umbrella Marketing Blog

Marketing Blogs For SME business owners and business leaders

The GU team and George the Giraffe

We Had A Blast! – Recruitment Agency Expo

This is a slightly different article from the usual opinion and educational pieces I write. The first half of this week was spent in London at the Recruitment Agency Expo, and I’m not going to lie… two days later and I’m still cream-crackered. My brain is slow, my feet are still throbbing, and I’m 100% convinced that it’s not just me that’s feeling that way! This event is one of those ‘not to be missed’ in the event calendar because of the opportunities it brings.

LinkedIn No-No's

LinkedIn Message No-Nos! STOP sending these LinkedIn messages

It’s no secret that I see personal LinkedIn messages as the ultimate way to align your Linkedin Marketing and Social Selling strategies so that you can experience the kind of success that impacts the bottom line of your business. I’m always sharing hints and tips around best practice and what good looks like. However, over…

How to generate leads using social media

In today’s digital age, social media continues to be a powerhouse for businesses, offering unparalleled opportunities to connect with potential customers and drive sales. For SMEs in the UK, leveraging social media platforms effectively can be a game-changer in generating leads and boosting revenue. However, many business owners struggle to handle the complexities of social media marketing.

How to use Instagram and Get the Results that Matter!

It would be far too obvious for me to kick this blog off by saying that ‘everyone’ uses Instagram – that would be an absolute generalisation, and I’m sure a few of you would be shaking your head saying, “Not me!” indignantly. But the fact of the matter is that globally, this is one of the most popular social media platforms used daily, and so if we can get our heads around how to make this platform work from a business perspective firstly, those that do use it can accelerate results and secondly, those who don’t use Instagram can learn valuable lessons that could be applied across other social media platforms!

Facebook Marketing in 2024

Remember when it was really easy to use Facebook as a marketing tool? When I look back, I think, ‘Wow – we had it SO easy!’. Unfortunately, as the years have passed by, it has become more and more difficult for the untrained eye to maximise the impact of Facebook on their businesses.

content ideas and where to find them

Content Ideas and Where to Find Them

Having spent most of the last few weeks hanging out at events and with various groups of aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners, both within the recruitment industry and in other sectors, one thing is clear. One of the first questions that come from the audience is, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ Now, I’ve…

Social Media - Features vs Benefits

Features vs. Benefits in Social Media Marketing

Nothing is more powerful in marketing, and especially in social media marketing than promoting the benefits of your products or services over their features. And yet, so many business owners confuse the two or struggle to make distinctions.

Recruitment Marketing Congress

Recruitment Marketing Congress February 2024

This virtual event will help recruitment marketers focus their time, energy, and resources on the activities that really make a difference.

Speak to your audience

Multi-Generational Social Media Marketing – How to speak to everyone in your audience on social media

2024 is set to be a year of learning curves to ensure you’re reaching the right people, especially for those of you marketing in the B2B space. It’s the year Generation Z surpasses Baby Boomers in the workforce, introducing a blend of five distinct generational cohorts simultaneously for the very first time. What does that mean for you as a marketer?

Is your website copy boring?

How to Improve Website Copy to engage your audience

The way you communicate online plays a pivotal role in connecting with your audiences, the language you use is a crucial element that can significantly impact engagement and understanding of who you are as a business, why you do what you do and most importantly whether or not you’re the one a prospect might want to do business with. This is especially true when it comes to your website copy.

2024 - It's time to thrive

2024 – It’s time to thrive

Blimey… what a year 2023 was on all fronts – business and domestic!!!

Each year I sit down between Christmas and New Year, as many of you already know and many of you do yourselves, and set my intentions for the coming year. Usually, I release an article before the 1st January, sharing some of what I come up with.

Top 10 most read marketing articles in 2023 from the GU Blog

Top 10 Blogs 2023. It’s almost Christmas, so I thought I’d share with you our most-read blogs of this year.

Why Running A Business is Like "The Walking Dead"

Why Running A Business is Like “The Walking Dead”

I'm not one for watching TV much, and I am certainly not the type of person that watches horror films, so how on earth did ...

LinkedIn for Business, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly [webinar]

I keep hearing that LinkedIn is just a recruitment tool.  Although it is a brilliant tool for recruiters, it is also one of the most ...
How many chances do we give our employees?

How many chances do we give our employees?

What do people say? – "Please give me a second chance", or "I deserve a second chance", but in some circumstances, it can take more ...
4 Creative Pinterest Strategies for Small Businesses

4 Creative Pinterest Strategies for Small Businesses

Do you have millions of dollars to invest in an outrageous marketing campaign? Thousands, maybe? If you've just started a small business, that’s hardly the ...
Attracting and Maintaining Millennial Recruitment Professionals

Attracting and Maintaining Millennial Recruitment Professionals

I was recently asked to give a talk in Birmingham on the topic of Millennials. I have a good understanding of social media and modern ...
Why Small Businesses Stay Small – The Fear Factor – Part 1

Why Small Businesses Stay Small – The Fear Factor – Part 1

Before I get into this, first let me say there is nothing wrong with being a small business and staying at the level you are ...

Are you Making These 10 Social Media Marketing Mistakes? [Webinar]

Social media can be a bit overwhelming, and if you do it wrong then it could be extremely costly to your business.  There are some ...
Five Simple Ways to Have a More Productive Day at Work

Five Simple Ways to Have a More Productive Day at Work

Click play to listen to the audio version of this blog. I don’t know about you but this year seems to have been busier than ...
Seven Common Facebook Advertising Mistakes

Seven Common Facebook Advertising Mistakes

Facebook advertising works a treat as a cost-effective way to get your brand seen and attract the right visitor traffic to your website. The trick ...
Twitter Webinar April 2017

10 Insider Secrets to Grow Your Twitter Account Fast

Join us online for this 30-45 min webinar on the secrets of Twitter - 3rd April 2017 @ 12:15pm. What will you learn? Lots of ...
Shouldn’t Dave be thinking like Donald? Knowing what you don’t know - Why small business owners should listen to the experts

Shouldn’t Dave be thinking like Donald? – Why small business owners should listen to the experts

Remember Donald? No - not that Donald … although he’s possibly just as loathsome. On this occasion, we mean Donald Rumsfeld, the most dangerous man ...
Are You Just Posting Content On Social Media? Big Mistake! Social media strategy

Are You Just Posting Content On Social Media? Big Mistake!

If you are the social media manager for your company, or perhaps you have been the designated social media person for the business (as well ...