UX Digital Blog

The last two years have been a challenging time for all businesses and that has necessitated cuts to most budgets particularly marketing.

According to Gartner's Annual CMO marketing budget report, marketing budgets decreased by 6.4% during 2020, that's the biggest decline in the survey's history.

72% of marketing budgets are now spent on pure digital channels and that is likely to continue increasing as traditional bricks and mortar business models keep declining and consumers continue to engage with social media platforms and opt for online products and services. 

With so many marketing trends emerging as a result of the Pandemic and budgets being cut across all industries it’s more important than ever to make sure you're using your budget effectively. Take a look at our top 7 digital marketing trends to make the most of your marketing budget post-pandemic.

With more than 47 million people in the UK receiving at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine,^* confidence in returning to ‘normality’ has increased with 53% of UK holiday and leisure bookings now being made for 2022.^± While this means that uptake for the remainder of 2021 is still only small, people are making enquiries and bookings in large numbers for next season.

If you want to grow your business, effective inbound marketing is the most efficient way to grow. The benefits of inbound marketing are well known. You only have to develop content once and it will continue to serve your business forever. In addition, it becomes the cornerstone of your other marketing efforts. You have unique content to share on social media, and content you can use to nurture leads.

Over the last 6 months, most people have experienced different stages of digital transformation and with working from home being the new normal this has driven a high demand for a more secure business email configuration. With experience of this transition ourselves we've been helping many other SME businesses onboard or migrate to the G Suite as their preferred 'best in practice' solution.

There are a number of factors that can negatively impact your eCommerce conversion rates, your store traffic could be high but potential customers are abandoning their carts before checkout or you're struggling to increase traffic and it's keeping your conversion rates low.

You probably already know that there has been an increase in online shopping since lockdown began and traditional bricks and mortar stores were forced to close, after all, it makes sense… if people can’t physically visit your store, going online to buy what they want and need is the obvious alternative.

For many businesses this has been the silver lining to the heavy rain cloud of the Covid-19 Pandemic and enough to even get excited about claiming a larger slice of the growing online shopping pie!

Working from home and using video-conferencing to keep us connected can be exhausting... there's actually a reason for that, and it's called video call fatigue

Between most of us spending a lot more time at home and a LOT more time with our partners and children, you might have noticed you have a little less energy and a little less pep in your step than usual. There’s a scientific reason for the lack of energy you’re experiencing and we’re going to share some tips to help you take on video meetings like a boss!

The coronavirus outbreak has meant an unexpected turn of events for us all, and where some industries and businesses are booming, the reality is most have had to put a pin in their operations and even close altogether until things start to look more stable. Nearly 3 months into lockdown restrictions and we are seeing small, cautious steps back to normality...

The good news is the storm will pass, but the world will be a different place. With that in mind, read on to find out how to make sure you’re ready to come back strong by being aware of the right resources and strategies that will help you 're-open' in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

With the lockdown coming into effect so quickly, you might have felt like your business is 'winging it' and not fully prepared for the shift too remote working. 

The HubSpot CRM platform is the ultimate remote working platform your business needs! Find out how HubSpot keeps your teams connected, maintains productivity, optimises processes, tracks engagement, automates lead nurturing and secures your data (yes it really can do all that and so much more!) 

After two months in lockdown we’re seeing a slight easing of lockdown restrictions, as we take cautious steps back to something resembling normality. Traffic on roads is steadily increasing and people (who can’t work from home) are allowed to go back to work meaning business is slowly starting up again. But what exactly will “normality” look like for marketing and sales post-pandemic?

In this blog we will explore what’s been going on since the COVID-19 pandemic began and how it’s likely to affect sales and marketing in the future...

With major lifestyle changes the likes of which haven't seen since World War II, we have all been left with a lot of unanswered questions, and those questions extend to our businesses and marketing departments too - do we pause, do more, do less, focus our efforts elsewhere? 

If you’re feeling unsure about where to go with your marketing efforts right now, don’t panic. Here are 7 key tips for marketing during the Covid-19 pandemic to help you navigate your way through these challenging times.

Just getting started with HubSpot's free tools and wondering what the heck to do? Read on...

Since the 24th March 2020, the country, and many other parts of the world have been in lockdown in order to combat the virus known as COVID-19. Simply put, the lockdown means only necessary travel for essentials like food and medicine, as well as exercise (once a day) should be undertaken for the foreseeable future.

So in these difficult times read on to see what the UX-Digital team recommend for keeping busy and, bonus see some of the things we have been getting up to! 

In this blog, we’ll dive into the pros and cons of hotel chatbots and a few of the ways your venue can use chatbots to drive bookings, answer questions and give customers an all-around better experience.

Find out what sales enablement is, why it's so important and how it can put your sales team back on the right course...

The Funnel is dead. Long live the flywheel!

For most businesses the funnel has always been a reliable, tried, and tested approach to marketing. But now that tired old funnel isn’t converting the number of leads to customers that it once did and it repeatedly wastes the potential of existing customers, in short, it’s dead and it’s time for a new approach…

Before you can improve customer retention, you have to acknowledge that customer experience sits at the heart of your industry’s business. It is the single largest factor which determines the fate of your hotel.

The personality of your sales team is a major selling point - your venue needs a friendly face. Someone that connects people to your business. However, a friendly face is no longer enough: The average close rate in Hospitality is just 11%. Something isn’t working for venues.

Learn to use HubSpot automation and you’ll gain access to one of the most powerful sales tools in the world! When used to its full potential, sales automation has the potential to make everyone's life easier and give back time to your team. Even better, it has the potential to help your prospects (and customers) too.

HubSpot has an arsenal of tools to enable your sales team to knock it out of the park every time. There’s Lead Enrichment, Email Templates, Meeting Scheduling, Call Recording, Lead Scoring, and Email Open Notifications and so much more.

Generating leads is hard. Generating quality leads is harder still. But nearly every marketer out there struggles to generate enough quality leads to satisfy their sales teams. So, relax and take comfort in knowing you're not the only one.