Bluestep Solutions, Author at Bluestep Solutions

Briefs are so important (and not the underwear sort, although they’re important too).

A clear and detailed brief can be the difference between receiving a first draft that makes you huff in frustration or a first draft that makes you smile; between painstaking rounds of amends or nailing it first time.

The thing with any sort of creative work is that it’s subjective and that means there are a million and one ways of interpreting a piece of work and deciding whether or not it’s ‘good’. All designers will think what they’ve produced is great work, otherwise they wouldn’t send it to a client in the first place.

However, whether it meets your objectives or not is a different matter and that’s where your perfect brief will help. Here are a few things to consider when briefing an agency with a new project:

Detail, detail, detail

Give all detail that you think is relevant. This information will help a designer to build a picture in their minds of what you want them to do.

Of course if it’s a simple A5 flyer you’re after with an agency who knows you inside out, you probably don’t need to write 500 pages on your company’s history but essentially, all necessary detail gives your brief context.

Give background information

Why do you need what you’re asking for? Have you done similar projects in the past that/haven’t worked?

This section can also be used to cover the scope and scale of your project, your intended audience, examples of other work you like, what you don’t like and the branding tools (logos, colours, straplines) you want to include, as well as the key decision-makers the designer will need to work with.

What are the objectives?

What is the most important thing that you want this piece of work to say or do? Designers often get briefs from clients asking for 25 messages to be included in the work but told to ‘keep it punchy’.

Most communications pieces can only ever effectively convey three messages: any more and you risk it becoming confusing, chaotic and frankly, not something that your audience is going to get any value from.

If you’re clear about your objectives and your priorities it will help a designer know exactly which the most important aspects are to convey.

Be specific about what you want and when you want it

This is where your deliverables come into play. Is it for web or print? Portrait or landscape? Are there particular dimensions it needs to fill? Do you need different versions creating for additional channels?

When do you need it for? And this doesn’t just mean when is the final deadline but what are your deadlines in order to get there? If you’re on holiday for a week within the project and so will need to feedback before you go, include this. If you know it takes your head honcho two weeks to review anything then buffer this into your interim deadlines. A project usually requires multiple stages of sign off so it’s best to ensure that everyone has capacity to fulfil their requirements in order to get there.

Talk it out

Always arrange a time with your designer to discuss your brief, even if it’s just over the phone. It allows any questions to be asked and fully considered and may even shed further light on what your overall expectations are and even if there are limitations that might affect your project. It’s far better to address any issues up front, rather than discover them in the nail-biting hours before sign off!

It may look like a bit of effort but getting your brief on point from the off will really help your project in the long-run. Like with all things, you get what you put in.

With that it mind, we’re off to get some salad *sighs pushing cake away*

It seems to be an age-old question that many people and organisations are faced with. Do we go freelance, or do we bring on an agency?

We’ve put together some key differences and information into what both can offer, to help you make a more informed decision. Both are great avenues to go down and neither are a bad choice, it depends more on the nature of your project.

The perk of freelancers is you can be pretty confident they are somewhat of a specialist in their field. If you are seeking some advice on a project, or dedicated help, reaching out to a freelancer is a great idea. In addition, the involvement you take in the creative process is greater. By cutting out project managers and other parties, working with a freelancer means you can closely oversee your work directly with the person bringing it to life.

Using an agency means you will get a team effort and collaborative approach to your project. If it’s creativity and innovation you’re after, the perk of agencies is the diversity of the workforce with different eyes on your project providing a range of opinions and guidance.

Where a freelancer may experience creative blocks and struggle from time to time, an agency has the ability to bounce ideas off each other to come up with a range of creative solutions.

Agencies often provide dedicated account and project managers, allowing for stellar organisation throughout your project. What’s more, with an agency, you have the freedom to go back at a later date and add to your campaign in different areas. The agency will be familiar with the brand, tone of voice and how it fits into what has been done previously.

Ultimately, our advice is to do your research and weigh up the considerations needed to make your project a success.

TOP 3 THINGS TO CONSIDER

1. Size of project

Agencies will often come with dedicated account managers, so you know that the project is in safe hands. We recognise that with a large-scale project, such as a full marketing campaign, it can be very time consuming if you try and manage this through freelancers. On the flipside, if you need a quick-fix or a very specific project, a freelancer is a great choice to provide you with what is needed.

2. Project deadline

If you are on a tight turn around and need the work fast, this can influence the decision between agency and freelance. Being reliant upon a solo freelancer does come with its risk if you have caught them in a busy period. That’s not to say that agencies don’t have busy periods, however the higher number of people involved means that of ten others can pick it up and it can be managed better in a short amount of time.

3. Your Budget

Freelancers will often be more cost-effective and flexible. If your budget is super tight, a freelancer may be your answer. However, that is not to say that agencies won’t be flexible in their pricing, they just have more elements, like overheads, to consider. Even with agencies, there can be a sizeable difference between a large and small organisation when it comes to how they operate. Larger agencies may result in them outsourcing the work themselves, so you end up paying for the freelancer work and the middleman!

The Who, What, When, Where and How we helped to support Macmillan with the World's Biggest Coffee Morning, including some lovely 'mmm' cake bunting.

The Brief

Macmillan came to us for the second year in a row for help refreshing the components of their fundraising pack for the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, one of the most high-profile fundraising events in the charity calendar.

With an already-iconic brand and recognisable design, it meant thinking outside the box for some fun ideas to get people excited for their cake sales.

And not only that, the order was for over 1.5 million units!

The Solution

After a bit of head scratching we came up with the idea of adding some lovely ‘mmm’ cake bunting to the components of the fundraising pack. A nice way to tart up a tarte!

We also provided badges, table cloths, cake flags and hanging bunting on the mass scale that was required!

Thanks to our transparent supply chain, rigorous due diligence and commitment to ethical sourcing, Macmillan could rest assured that their fundraising packs were in safe and moral hands.

The Results

Macmillan have raised over £13.5million to-date (October ’18) as part of the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning and we can’t help but feel proud to have played a part in such an integral event for the charity.

As well as successfully meeting the brief for a pack refresh, we ensured Macmillan got their 1.5 million items ethically produced and shipped on time and to budget.

Right, now who’s for a cuppa….

We recently created a video for our client, the NSPCC, and it got us thinking about how brilliant video can be as a marketing vehicle.

The NSPCC video was designed to demonstrate the wonderful benefits of running the marathon on their behalf. It captures everything from the cheers to the tears, the strength and the triumph, and can be shared and shared to inspire other budding runners to sign up.

Carl, our video production guru, says “Videos are great ways of explaining stuff. Whether it’s a product or service or a complex message, a video is a slick, visual way of communicating it to your audience.

You can give your perfect pitch anywhere, anytime, without even having to be there!”

What’s more, websites with video are actually 50 times more likely to be ranked on Google’s first page. What do you think people will click on first: the text link or the inviting video thumbnail?

In fact, there are loads of stats that prove video is one of the best ways of getting an audience to engage with you:

55% of people watch videos online every day (MWP)
Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store (ThinkWithGoogle)
4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it (Animoto)
54% of senior executives share work-related videos with colleagues weekly (TubularInsights)

So there you have it; video is officially awesome!

If you think video could help you with your next marketing campaign, then get in touch with us today!

We are absolutely over the moon to have won not only one but TWO awards at the SME Northamptonshire Awards last night!

Held in association with the Business Times, the awards are a sought-after accolade of achievement celebrating the hardworking and enterprising SMEs of Northamptonshire.

The first award we won was the Service Excellence award which celebrates outstanding assistance and advice to clients. The judges said “A company very strongly focused on meeting the needs of its diverse range of customers.” We pride ourselves on going above and beyond for our clients. In fact, our whole ethos is about being an extension of a client’s team, so this win was music to our ears!

As if that wasn’t enough, we also took home the award for The Overall Winner! This is essentially the crème de la crème; the big finale award, and we are thrilled to take the title for 2018.

Having recently celebrated our 8^th birthday, this was a wonderful way to mark the occasion.

Ben Skinner, Bluestep Managing Director, said “This was a really proud moment for the whole team. It was a brilliant night and unreal to have won against some amazing talent. A true highlight for the year.”

We are now looking forward to going to Wembley Stadium in 2019 for the SME National Business Awards Final, where all the 2018 winners compete on a national scale. Fingers crossed!

Wow, what a summer it has been! As well as enjoying the scorching hot temperatures, the Bluestep lot have kept busy inside and outside of the office. So, what exactly have we been up to?

Charity Softball League

This summer, Bluestep headed to Hyde Park for the annual Charity Softball League final. It was another great year, with an amazing turnout of many fabulous charity teams. As a sponsor of the event, Bluestep provided the food, as well as the laughs and great chat…and a coconut shy!

The Softball event also saw the finale of our Flip cup challenge. This year, we tasked the charities with getting their flip on. In teams, everyone has to go around in a circle drinking a beverage and then flipping their cup over. Once it lands successfully, the next person can begin. Simple enough, right? You can watch the highlights of the challenge here!

Bluestep Party

To celebrate all the hard work and effort the Bluesteppers had put in for another crazy year, Bluestep partied in style, and boy do we know how to party!! The teams battled it out through 24 holes of crazy golf followed by cocktail making at Revolucion De Cuba. Whilst the sangria was flowing, the teams went head to head shaking up some rum-based cocktails which were judged by the professionals on the taste and presentation. The evening concluded with a delicious Cuban spread (and of course a few more cheeky cocktails into the night)…Cheers!

Birmingham Design Fair

A few weeks back, the Bluestep design and digital team headed to the Birmingham Design Festival. It was a true celebration of the design industry, full of big names in the field with top-notch talks, advice and fun workshops.

The festival was also a great chance to let the creative juices run wild and the team came back full of inspiration and motivation. There were many highlights of the festival. We learnt more about variable fonts (which we blogged about here!), women in design and designing when based outside of London, each with inspirational personal stories.

Alpaca My Bags

We all know that sometimes you need a break from being creative, and what better way to relax and unwind than… alpaca walking? Yes, you heard correct. The management team spent the afternoon trekking through the beautiful Northamptonshire countryside with some furry friends at Arkadia Alpacas. Sadly, we weren’t able to bring one home as an office pet!

Alice Says “I Do”!

September saw our own Alice Goddard tie the knot to become Mrs Threadgold! It was a beautiful day for a beautiful couple followed by a 2-week honeymoon to Mauritius – Congratulations Mr and Mrs Threadgold!

100% Design

The Bluesteppers headed down to the big smoke for the annual 100% Design Fair at Olympia, London. We were there to support our luxury lift client, Aritco. Bluestep designed and created an interactive configurator app for Aritco to use at the show and online, for their massive 2018 competition to win a home lift. We took this to the next level if we do say so ourselves, aiming to provide a slick user experience. You can check it out in action here.

As well as showing support for our client (and taking starring roles in their promotional video – Hollywood here we come?), we spent the day in awe of the amazing interior designers and companies showing off their best products and skillsets. We left feeling excited and inspired!

Phew, so there we have it! Summer 2018 was a great one. But now that’s all over, did someone say Christmas?!

When keeping up with the ever-evolving market, brands often seek to refresh and rebrand themselves. Whether this is a minor tweak or a complete overhaul, as designers, we always get excited to see how agencies tasked with the job have brought a vision to life and the creative direction they have taken.

We asked the design team for their thoughts and opinions on some of the most recent rebrands and redesigns to hit the market.

John Lewis Partnership

Pentagram has recently given the iconic British company John Lewis Partnership, home to John Lewis and Waitrose, a revamp. Placing emphasis on their business model, whereby every employee (all 85,000 of them) have a stake in the company, ‘& Partners’ has been added to the names.

Inspired by the original pattern for the brand that was originally created in the 60’s, the parent brand, John Lewis and Waitrose are unified by the use of ‘brandlines’ – with a variety of weighted lines for each entity.

So, what do the Bluestep designers think?

“The new style has transferred well across the brand materials whether that be the logo to tote bags, using the same essence of their brand allows continuity, but keeps the different section of the companies fresh. By rebranding the companies together, it brings the two closer and more recognisable as a joint venture whilst still keeping their own personalities.”

“I particularly love the new typeface and linear font created for JL. This is used on the new bags that have the enlarged text bleeding off – a modern design element which you wouldn’t really expect from such a traditional brand. I like the use of lines – makes for a flexible identity which can be applied to a variety of applications and is a nice way to connect the two parts of the partnership by both using the parallel lines but in different orientations. However, it looks a lot like M&S in my opinion with a similar typeface and the use of black and green.”

Uber

The global ride-sharing and ride-hailing app Uber has revolutionised the way people get from A to B. Uber needed an identity that would work and translate universally across cultures, and so sought the help of Wolff Olins. The result is a stripped back, simple brand look.

Over to the Bluesteppers…

“I really like this – much simpler and cleaner than the old one, gives it a much-needed modern refresh! You can tell they’ve drawn inspiration from transportation icons in the arrows and rich blue colour that you see on road signs for easily legible text – a nice way to coherently transition the brand by using elements that are already commonly associated with the road/ transport/ travel.”

“I think the choice of a softer typeface and the move away from an all-caps lockup allows for a different tone of voice and universal brand message, this can only help with all the bad publicity that the brand has received in the past year. A more dignified and classier look will add a little more luxury when travelling and using the Uber brand where its seen to be a quick and cheap alternative to calling a taxi. This rebrand is a nice step forward from the rebrand that took place in 2015, which was highly criticised. “

Carlsberg

Bringing things closer to home, with their head office in good old Northampton, we couldn’t pass on talking about Carlsberg’s (albeit small) changes to their brand identity. This new look has been rolled out onto the bottles, cans and glassware, creating a unified new product family. This comes at a time where the brand is releasing revolutionary innovations, such as the ‘snap pack’ in a bid to reduce plastic waste.

Here’s what designer and part-time beer drinker Andrew has to say:

“The revamped logo has seen small but effective changes, with small tweaks to the typeface and enhanced colour pallet, it sees the brand become lifted and refreshed. With the introduction of a clean and crisp typeface to partner the elaborate logomark, it brings a whole new look and feel, which almost brings hipster vibes with the cleaver typesetting and brand colours. Carlsberg has stripped back all the extravagance and have allowed for the brand to speak for itself with flat colours and a signature mark of approval on every bottle.”

So, what do you think? Do you agree with what our designers have to say?

We have worked on a handful of great rebrands here at Bluestep, which you can find out more about over on our case studies page.
If you are looking to give your brand a little re-vamp, get in touch with us today!

Images in this post are courtesy of ‘Brand New’

On your marks, get set, bake! For another year running, Bluestep have had the pleasure of working with Macmillan Cancer Support on their fundraising packs for The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning.

Any excuse to bake, and more importantly eat, cake is fine by us. So, when it’s for an amazing cause it’s even sweeter.

After working hard on this exciting top-secret project earlier on in the year, we have been really looking forward to seeing everyone hosting their coffee mornings and watch the products in action.

The 2018 pack includes an array of fun props to ensure hosts and participants get the most out of their morning. This includes flags, stickers, a fundraising box, bunting, tablecloth, bake-related games, cards and ‘mmm’ bunting; which our very own designers created!

1.5 million of these units were printed, stored and shipped back in June by yours truly, at our very own warehouse facility.

The masterpieces for our own coffee morning included a refreshing lemon drizzle, an indulgent red velvet creation and a selection of tasty cookies.

Not one to shy away from the cake, next month sees the launch of our very own Bluestep Bake Off! Keep your eyes peeled on the blog to watch it all unfold. Fingers crossed for no soggy bottoms!

We hope everyone across the UK had an amazing coffee morning raising money (and bakes) for such an important cause. We’re already looking forward to next year, so stay tuned to see what we have planned…

In June, Bluestep took a trip to the Birmingham Design Festival. We learnt loads and it was a great place to get our creative juices flowing.

One thing we got to know more about is Variable Fonts and our Web Developer, Alex, is on hand to give us the low-down.

What are Variable Fonts?

Variable Fonts are a new technology that I learnt about at the Birmingham Design Festival in early June, thanks to a talk by Sahar Afshar. The main idea and benefit behind a Variable Font is that all the weight and italic options are included in a single font file, as opposed to regular fonts requiring separate files for each combination of weight and italics.

Take Proxima Nova, for instance, the font used by the Bluestep website. Typekit has 48 available fonts for Proxima Nova, which include every possible combination of 3 width options, 2 italic options and 8 weight options. These fonts range from Proxima Nova Thin to Proxima Nova Extra Condensed Black Italic (I think you can get one of these from Starbucks) and every other combination in-between. We only use 2 of these fonts on the website currently, but if we wanted to get a bit more adventurous and use more of those options, that’s an extra file that the website needs to load for each font that we decide to add.

However, if there was a Variable Proxima Nova font (which doesn’t exist sadly ☹) we’d be able to have all 48 options readily available with the website only needing to load a single font file. Additionally, due to the nature of Variable Fonts, we could go beyond that 48 and potentially have infinite possibilities.

Instead of multiple files for each combination of weight, width, italics etc., Variable Fonts utilise axes to manipulate these properties with more granularity.

Take the Variable Font Acumin Variable Concept for example. Acumin has 3 axes, Weight, Width and Slant, each of which can be changed independently of one another. The Weight axis ranges from 100-900, Width ranges from 50-115 and Slant range from 0-12. Even if these ranges are only looked at as going up in ones, that’s still 624,000 possible variations. Values can also be set as decimals in some cases, which technically allows infinite variations. Infinite options in 1 file versus Proxima Nova’s 48 options in 48 files.

As mentioned earlier, Variable Fonts are particularly interesting to me as a developer as it means that we only need to load one font that we can manipulate on the fly, as opposed to needing to pick and choose which weights are the most important. Ultimately, this means a lot more options for us as developers and a (slightly) faster website for the user.

Variable Fonts aren’t just restricted to web development. Adobe Creative Cloud 2018 released in October 2017, and with it came Variable Font support in both Illustrator and Photoshop, meaning even more possibilities for Graphic Designers.

The Future of Fonts

Soon, Variable Fonts will likely be used all over the web, whether it’s for the vast design possibilities or simply getting a boost to website speed.

There are already so many Variable Fonts out in the wild, wild web, some of my favourite sites for previewing them are V Fonts and Axis Praxis. You’ll notice that some offer less than 3 axes, while others offer a lot more. Some of which get really wacky.

What’s beyond Variable Fonts? Well, that would be Colour Fonts. We’re not quite at the point where Colour Fonts are ready to be widely used (Google Chrome doesn’t even support it yet!), but as with Variable Fonts, the prospects are very exciting!

We like to stay ahead of the game and pride ourselves in producing some great work. If you would like to chat design or digital, get in touch today!

May has arrived! We are inching closer to summer, the GDPR deadline is looming, but for Senior Designer Becca, it also brings a month of running.

Across the next 31 days, Becca and two others will be running 110 miles to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Research Centre.

We thought we would sit down with Becca to see how she is getting on so far, and why she chose to do such a great thing for charity.

Who is running alongside you this month?
My boyfriend and his sister.

Why this particular charity?
It is a cause close to all our hearts. My boyfriend and his sister lost their father three years ago. We are doing it in memory of him and to help support other men and their friends and family who also suffer a diagnosis of Prostate Cancer. We would like to help support research in this area so perhaps at least one less family loses a loved one.

How have you been prepping for your run?
I haven’t really prepped … I did a couple of half marathons last year and have done a few runs since but that is about it! I think I underestimated the mileage!

How many miles?!
110 miles in 31 days. Every year 11,000 men in the UK die because of Prostate Cancer and so we decided to run 110 miles. Because of our daily commitments, we decided to split the mileage between us. 36.6 each. 1.2 miles a day.

How do you keep motivated when you’re out running?
A good Spotify playlist! And finding downhill routes!! The reason for running is always at the forefront of my mind. When I feel like I want to stop or I struggle to put my trainers on in the morning, I remind myself who I am doing it for and all the kind donations we have received already!

How do you relax post run?
A good bath and bath bomb!

How are you planning to celebrate when you’ve finished?
I can’t wait to tell PCRC how much we have raised! I might give up running for a month too …

Do you have a favourite running playlist?
There are a couple of Spotify ones. ‘Every UK Number One: 2018’ and ‘Feel Good Friday’ … you should check them out!

Would you rather run a mile in heels or run 10 barefoot?
100% barefoot! I can’t walk 110 yards without my feet hurting in heels.

Where can people sponsor you?
You can sponsor us here. Please donate if you can. Every donation helps us towards the achievable target we have set.

All three of us seriously urge any male aged 40 or over to go and get checked! If that is your donation to the cause, then that is enough for us!

Here’s to the rest of May!

Keep your eyes for Becca’s progress updates here on the blog and over on our social media!

Bluestep are delighted to have supported the Swedish lift manufacturer Aritco in the design, marketing and production of their latest exhibition stand at the Homebuilding & Renovating show 2018.

Aritco wanted to create an exhibition that stood out, attracting the high level of footfall at the event and draw people in to find out more about the brand and the product offering.

We were responsible for designing everything from the exhibit to all the printed literature, ensuring that the modern and premium style of the brand was communicated throughout the event.

The customisable characteristics of the Homelift product were the focal point for all our creative, allowing Aritco to easily communicate the number of different editable features available to the visitors. The stand theme ‘express your taste’ helped illustrate the elegance of Scandinavian style within interior design.

We had a great day at the exhibition. The Bluesteppers headed to Birmingham to see our work bought to life and ensure all the design elements were put together and ran smoothly. Our resident motion graphics designer and part-time photographer, Carl, packed his DSLR and was on hand to take some professional shots of the day.

As a result of our combined efforts before and during the event, the stand was visited by thousands of guests at the NEC arena and has already generated over 160 new sales leads for Aritco. It has been recognised as the most successful exhibition in the company’s history!

To further support the campaign, Bluestep initiated and assisted Aritco with the launch of the #MyAritcoHomeLift competition. An exciting opportunity that will give one lucky individual the chance to win their very own custom designed Homelift!

Our digital team also created a landing page and organised the promotion of the campaign via social media, using both organic and paid posts to create a buzz amongst the target audience, reaching people in the hundreds of thousands.

“By the Sunday afternoon, we had run out of brochures and competition forms. Every single detail came together so well. Bluestep really brought all the elements together for us both offline and online and as a result, we’ve had some great sales leads.”
Reshma Miller – Marketing Manager, Aritco UK.

February has been another great month for Bluestep. Interested in finding the about the latest star Bluesteppers? Of course you are...

1^st Place – Yasmin

A worthy winner of the top spot this month, the work Yasmin has put into her recent projects has been truly commendable. Yas has worked tirelessly with the design team to make sure everything is running smoothly and always looking great for clients, with this hard work resulting in her being awarded a design and print project. Watch our case studies section in the future!

Yasmin has recently really pushed the design side for the charity team and has shown to be a real key member of the team. She has also stepped up and taken on the marketing across the charity team, on top of all her client work. Well done Yas!

2^nd Place – Mia

Since starting Bluestep as an intern, Mia is constantly driven to make sure that every project she completes is to the best of her ability. It is a delight seeing Mia’s face when a piece of her printed work arrives in the office, proof that she is proud of the work she is producing and passionate towards every project. No matter how big or small the project is, she is always willing to help. Mia has also taken the lead on design projects recently, being the only designer present in meetings and being the point of contact for a client.

She has worked efficiently when tasked with quick deadlines and has delivered each time with creative and innovative design work.

We have had a lot of positive comments from our clients surrounding Mia’s creative work. She is a pleasure to have in the studio and a true team player. Keep up the good work Mia! We are looking forward to seeing more of the great work from you!

3^rd Place – Alice

No stranger to the Bluestep top spots, Alice is going from strength to strength this year (and it’s only February!)

Alice recently landed a fantastic project, which she worked so hard for over the past 12 months and built a great relationship with the client.

Always putting in 110% and showing that she’s willing to go the extra mile, Alice is a pro at both growing her client base and maintaining a great rapport with each and every one. She leads by example and is always willing to help other members of the team out. Keep it up Alice 😊

Well done to all the fabulous Bluesteppers and keep up the good work! Keep your eyes peeled on our blog for March’s edition…

There are many opinions floating around the internet regarding SEO, and it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. We have identified some common myths surrounding search engine optimization and tried to debunk them once and for all.

“It’s a one-time thing.”

Doing SEO once is only part of the job. If you don’t keep on top of and working on your website, you can expect to see your efforts soon fizzle out. There are a variety of reasons as to why you can expect to see your rankings and favourability to drop if you do not keep up with your SEO.

Firstly, algorithms are constantly being updated. As the ranking factors change with time, if your website does not keep up or previous tactics become redundant or even frowned upon, it may well be the case that your site drops down in the rankings.

Link rotting can also occur, as the backlinks that you built once upon a time become old, are no longer live or get hacked, resulting in a negative effect on your website and its trust.

If your competitors are hot on SEO, you and your site run the risk of being victim to this, as they shoot up to the top you will find yourself being left behind. Similarly, over time your content will become more and more outdated. Content freshness is thought to be a great way to improve favourability with ranking algorithms.

Ultimately, as the well-known saying goes, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It doesn’t work overnight, and things constantly change. For long-lasting results, it is best for your business to implement a long-term SEO plan.

“I’m not an online retailer, it doesn’t matter if my site isn’t secure.”

In short, every website should be secure, regardless of its purpose.

Google in particular wants its users to browse the web safely and stay secure online, so it is no surprise that websites have been prompted to make the switch from the HTTP protocol, to HTTPS.

By obtaining an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate on your site, it essentially means that the users information is encrypted, and any information sent or received from this site is private and protected. If this is the case, Chrome will display a green padlock stating it is secure. If this is not the case, Chrome will state ‘not secure’ next to the URL, and even display warning symbols.

It is a misconception, however, that only sites dealing with transactions and customer passwords need to be secure. Obtaining an SSL certificate comes with many other benefits. Firstly, it is a key trust signal to your web visitors. As web users become more sophisticated and aware of online safety, displaying that green padlock is much more appealing to your visitors than being told they are not secure, which could potentially lead to higher bounce rates. From a ranking perspective, it has also been confirmed by Google themselves that HTTPS is a signal used by their algorithms. Whilst it may not have much weight in comparison to other ranking signals, it is still a great help.

“Google Ignores Meta Descriptions, I don’t need them.”

Whilst it is true that meta descriptions are not a factor considered by Google’s ranking algorithms, it is still important not to neglect it.

Meta descriptions are like your shop window display. As this is the snippet of text shown on the search engine results page, it is an ideal opportunity to sell the click.

This is an excellent place to put a keyword or two (although don’t overdo it!) and give a quick summary of who you are or what the page is, and more importantly, how it solves the search query.

If you don’t have meta descriptions, Google will choose random text from the page and display this. Whilst this is fine, it is not always the most appealing.

“I’m already doing PPC. I don’t need SEO”

Quite the opposite! In fact, SEO & PPC should be used to complement each other. Whilst PPC allows you to control where you sit on page one, based on how much you’re willing to pay, this is not always the cheapest option.

SEO allows you to target for those keywords that are perhaps out of your price range. As well as being more cost effective, especially in the long-run, organic results are sometimes favoured by searchers who prefer to ignore the ‘ads’.

In addition, optimising your landing pages that you feature on your paid results will ensure that you are directing your users to the right page and reduce the risk of bounce rates.

“SEO is dead.”

Ah, the classic line. A common statement thrown around every year, time and time again, is that SEO is in fact useless. However, this is simply not true. As long as there are search engines, there will always be ways to ensure your website performs better on those search engines pages.

As algorithms become more sophisticated and. Quick wins and the tricks that may have worked in the past, such as keyword stuffing, are no longer an option. It is vital to adhere to the algorithm updates, especially as they will only become more advanced. Constantly being aware of what the changes are is vital and is where SEO’s come in.

Search is growing year on year, so we don’t see it going anywhere any time soon!

Phew, we covered a lot there! Hopefully we cleared the air on a few SEO myths there. If you are looking for some help optimizing your website for search engines, our digital whizzes would be more than happy to have a chat. Just get in touch!

Hot off the press!

We are delighted to share one of our latest projects with you. We were recently approached by the Royal Parks Trust to create a booklet for their calendar of events 2018, and we love the result!

Bluestep have worked with the fabulous Royal Parks team for the past couple of years now and have created the charity’s events booklet three years running, as well as posters and collection boxes.

The Royal Parks Trust looks after some of the beautiful landscapes within the hustle and bustle of the capital, including the famous Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and St James’s Park. The foundation exists to protect and conserve 5,000 acres of urban parkland. Here at Bluestep, we are pleased to create something that helps keep this alive and support the work they do.

Every year, the Royal Parks hold a variety of events the whole family can enjoy. From sensory learning experiences for little ones, to wilderness survival skills for those looking to release their inner Bear Grylls. What’s more, the parks give Londoners the opportunity to swap the busy life of the city, with yoga and wellness classes immersed in green and glorious surroundings.

We wanted to create something that reflects the great work they do, maintaining the spaces for everyone to enjoy for generations to come. We made the booklet light and full of pops of colour, as a nod the beautiful parks.

Easy to navigate, whether you are looking for family activities or fascinating walking tours, the booklet allows everyone to find out how they can make the most of the magical parks.

Next time you’re heading to the capital, be sure to check out the Royal Parks and their events, and keep your eyes peeled for our work whilst you’re there!

2018 has kicked off to a great start here at Bluestep, and the team are going from strength to strength. Here is our list of star January employees who have gone above and beyond. Let’s get to it!

1st Place: Andrew Bremmler

A truly worthy winner of the top spot, Andrew is a fantastic credit to our design team here at Bluestep. Andrew has been powering through design projects and producing creative work to a mega high standard. No project is too small for him and he always gives 110%. Andrew’s creativity has also meant he has been a great input and help to coming up with ideas and creative direction for clients. You can see some examples of his amazing designs in action over on our social media posts.
Andrew also recently bought a home and has just moved into his new abode. Congratulations all round Andrew!

2nd Place: Carl Lewis

January was a big month for Carl, with a huge animation project on his hands (keep your eyes peeled for the release over on our blog!). He got his teeth into it and delivered a fantastic result; the client couldn’t be happier! We are so excited to offer animation here a Bluestep, and Carl has been key in driving this side of the business forward.
Not only is Carl a master of his trade, but his enthusiasm, motivation and a great presence in the office has not gone unnoticed, and he is a great guy to be around. Keep on doing you, Carl!

3rd Place: Harley Jacquest

Achieving a place on the employee of the month spot in December just shows that Harley is consistently a star in the design studio. No matter how busy Harley is, no job is too much for her.
Since joining Bluestep, Harley has been heavily involved in some big projects, building and maintaining great relationships with the people we work with. Harley is a pleasure to be around, and her talent has not gone unnoticed by us and our clients. Fabulous work Harley!

Yes, that’s right, we’re at it again. Meet the latest Bluestepper, Olivia!

Here at Bluestep, we’re always seeking to grow our team with people who are great at what they do and full of personality.

The opportunity arose for a new Account Manager, and we knew Liv was right for the position as soon as we met her!

Her love of a challenge, excellent ability to lead projects and bubbly nature made Liv the perfect fit for the role and she has already slotted into the office perfectly.

With previous experience in project management, both locally and across the pond in the USA, we’re excited to see the amazing work she’ll help to produce here at Bluestep for our range of clients.

Outside of the office, Liv is pony-mad. She trains and competes horses and is currently training to become a qualified BHS riding instructor! When she’s not in the saddle, Liv is rowing for the Northampton team or having a cheeky cocktail with friends.

Find out more about Liv here, and to find out about our latest vacancies, get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.

Here in the UK, our weekend was dominated by the Six Nations. But across the pond, it was all about the Super Bowl. Not only is it a big night for the NFL, but it's pretty huge in the advertising world.

As a marketing agency, we love seeing how the big dogs (and sometimes underdogs) make the most of over 100 million eyes watching the game. With a 30 second slot going for an eye-watering 5 million dollars, it’s big business! If you didn’t catch the game, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up the ones we think you should see.

Amazon

2017 was a huge year for home assistant technology, and 2018 is set to be no different. Amazon chose their device, better known as Alexa, as the focus of their ad. Perhaps with Apple’s own home assistant launch looming, Amazon are hoping to remain at the forefront. With a star-studded cast, the advert follows the story of how Alexa has lost her voice, and how a few familiar faces step in to take her place.

From Gordon Ramsay with his colourful language choices, to Rebel Wilson and her no-frills humour, the advert is a great example of emotional pull in advertising. There is not one mention of the products features, but it doesn’t matter as it (probably) made you laugh and it’s likely you’ll remember it tomorrow.

Doritos & Mountain Dew

This collaborative ad between the delicious corn chip and America’s popular soft drink certainly stole the show. Like Amazon, this advertisement is all about the comedic value and a star-studded cast. Beginning with Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage, rapping a famous verse by Busta Rhymes from a 2011 hit ‘Look At Me Now’, to promote the new ‘Blaze’ flavour by Doritos. Who better to respond than Morgan Freeman, giving all the sass as he mimes along to Missy Elliot as he sips his Mountain Dew ‘Ice’.

This ad is a great example of using nostalgia. By featuring popular songs from the past, there is no doubt that people were singing along at home. Music is always a favourite for encouraging viewers to retain ads. People will certainly think of Morgan Freeman (and Mountain Dew) next time Missy Elliot comes on the radio!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey01ZlAoYes

NFL

Not one to miss out on the action, the National Football League featured their own ad this year. In a climate where you can’t seem to escape politics and controversy (something the NFL has been at the forefront of in 2017) what better time to sprinkle some light-hearted humour on the subject with this minute-long ad.

Featuring two of the leagues big stars, the ad refers to the whacky celebrations that players had been performing when they score a touchdown throughout the season. Here, we see Eli Manning and Odell Beckham, Jr recreating that famous dirty dancing scene, including the perfect lift! At Bluestep, we know how to have a laugh, so we really appreciated the killer moves and that the stars don’t always take themselves too seriously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUoD-gPDahw

Febreze

Febreze’s ad follows the story of Dave, who’s bleep doesn’t stink. Along the way, we are introduced to various people who explain Dave’s unique phenomenon. Only in the ending scene do we see the product appear. It ties in nicely with the Super Bowl and that many Americans will be hosting their own gatherings to watch the event, and asking ‘is your bathroom ready?’

The campaign’s hashtag #bleepdontstink has had a great response on twitter, even with other brands jumping on the back of it. It is a great reminder that, if it isn’t too forced, a hashtag is a great addition to an ad and keeps the slogan alive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NliY5tPp2k

What can we take away from these adverts? Ok, so while not everyone can afford movie stars to promote their brand, two main takeaways are: don’t push a hard sell and above all, make people smile.

What did you think of the adverts? What was your favourite?

At Bluestep, we appreciate the power of video & animation. If you want to talk to us about your next campaign, we’d love you to get in touch (Although we might not be able to get Morgan Freeman on board, sorry).

Congratulations to Alice, Josh and Carlene, our December employees of the month!

Better late than never, right? We know December may seem like a distant memory, but we couldn’t miss out on celebrating our stars of the month.

1^st Place – Alice Goddard

Throughout the year, Alice has been amazing at maintaining her relationships with various charity clients, going above and beyond to help grow the business. Not only that, but Alice has smashed her targets with the highest individual monthly figure this financial year. Amazing!

2^nd Place – Josh Crawley

Josh has gone from strength to strength here at Bluestep. His continued work with the FA being just one example of how his efficiency and determination pays off. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by our clients, who are always delighted to work alongside him on a variety of projects.

3^rd Place – Carlene MacFarlane

As our office manager, Carlene is the organisation queen. December brings the annual Bluestep Christmas party. It was, as always, a night to remember! Thanks to Carlene, the evening was filled with great food, champagne and Santa himself. Her dedication and great ideas on keeping Bluestep a fun and fabulous place to work doesn’t go unnoticed. Thank you, Carlene!

2017 was another great year for Bluestep, and we can’t wait to see what the new year brings! Keep your eyes peeled for January’s employees of the month.

Say hello to the latest Bluesteppers!

We got January off to a great start here at Bluestep by welcoming some great new team members. Meet Alex and Claudia!

Alex

Alex is our latest addition to the ever-expanding web development team here at Bluestep. Previously leading all things web for a photography company, Alex joins us with a great deal of experience and enthusiasm for the field.

Originally from the University of Northampton, his Media & Web Design course sparked his interest in the industry, and he hasn’t looked back since!

When he’s not making websites look beautiful, Alex loves gaming, comics and Netflix marathons.

Claudia

Claudia is our new digital marketing executive, working with clients on everything from SEO to social media advertising.

With a variety of marketing experience under her belt, from cosmetic companies to wedding venues, Claudia is a great addition to Bluestep. Once a De Montfort University student, she achieved a first-class degree in Advertising & Marketing Communications.

In her spare time Claudia loves horse-riding, her French bulldog and all things fashion.

2018 is going to be a great year, we can just tell!

Interested in joining our team? Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

The world of social media is constantly evolving. Following Facebook's recent update, we've collected some thoughts on what it involves, what it means for businesses and how to adapt to the change.

Four days into 2018 and a reflective status from Mark Zuckerberg hinted at some big changes, describing that the platform had “a lot of work to do”. One week later, and this Facebook algorithm update was announced from the Head of News Feed.

So, what has prompted the change?

If you’ve ever come across a post telling you to like and share if you love *insert food/beverage/animal here*, you have probably felt the frustration of spammy posts clogging up your newsfeed. This is just one example of content that is causing a rise in passive users of the platform.

Facebook has listened, and understands that people are missing out on what matters to them. The major algorithm change hopes to reduce the time spent aimlessly scrolling, by facilitating “deeper, more meaningful interactions”.

This means person to person exchanges between friends will be pushed further up the newsfeed, and prioritized over public content from brands and publishers. Put simply, posts with a two-way dialogue, lengthy comments and anything that encourages you to take interest are favoured. Whereas before it was largely based on likes and shares, now the element of dialogue is equally important.

Should social marketers and businesses be worried? Adam Mosseri explained that some pages might feel a slight decrease in reach and referral traffic, but the impact will vary.

We have put together some tips on steps you can take to ensure you don’t fall behind.

Spark a conversation

As comments are king in the eyes of the Algorithm update, try and create chatter on your posts. For those among us who use Facebook predominantly to drive traffic away from the platform, whether to your homepage or a blog, this could do you more harm than good. With the new update, it is all about interaction directly with the post, so it is important to keep people on your Facebook page.

Make it a two-way thing

It’s all very well encouraging comments from users through your posts, but it is vital for you to get involved too. Try and make sure you reply to all comments posted, whether it is a simple thank you or continuing the conversation, bring your brand to life.

Go Live

As one of Facebook’s prominent features, they will always encourage going live. The interactive nature of live video increases your favourability of the algorithm, and is an exciting way of engaging your audience. In addition, this is a great way to keep users on the platform, and particularly your page, for longer. Find out all about going live here.

Avoid Engagement Bait

Our final point is more of a what not to do. Ensure the comments you do receive are genuine, otherwise Facebook will consider this engagement bait and push the post further down the feed. Encouraging people to leave one-word comments, for example, will not work with the algorithm.

We’re pretty social savvy here at Bluestep. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more about campaign management and social media opportunities for your business or service.