Weekly Marketing Insights and News Digest (12-18 October)

rgray weekly marketing insight and news digest 1210-1810

Useful tips for freelance writers, a free tool of priceless value, Instagram enjoying its 10th birthday, the social media platforms for your business in 2021, and much more from the world of digital marketing in our new episode of the RGray Weekly Marketing Insights and News Digest.

  • If you have ever thought about the freelance writing career, take a look at our article with 10 valuable tips from Elise Dopson, who followed this path three years ago and has already achieved a lot in this area. 
  • Never underestimate the value of free tools. Google Trends is an essential tool for serious marketers and they should know how to make the most out of it. Read more about the following ways below. 
  • Instagram has been operating for more than 10 years already, and the app has been integrated a lot. Check out our digest for the infographic containing the updates Instagram implemented during this period and learn more about the newly presented features. 
  • Have you already thought about the social media platforms to use in 2021? We would like to share their key differentiating traits and some other useful information about the 5 most popular networks of all time in our weekly digest below.

1. The most important tips for freelance writers

Elise Dopson quit her job three years ago and became a freelance writer. Now, she wants to share some tips you must know before starting freelance writing, no matter whether you’re new to this or not, they will be useful:

  • For all of your earnings, build a separate bank account, and pay yourself a salary from that account. Invoice-to-invoice keeps you from spending and lets you control cash flow.
  • Since taxes are extremely high, open another bank account to save for it (or space inside the existing one)
  • Elise refers 99% of her customers to her network. She claims that relationships are EVERYTHING.
  • Always devote at least 1 hour per week to learn something new. Never stop progressing!
  • Whether your rates are not scaring enough, they are not high enough. Consider the value you carry with your content and charge an additional 20% for the benefits you don’t get when becoming a freelancer.
  • As a freelancer, you must ask for reviews, because that’s what makes people know you are doing your work excellently. And, don’t expect them to come naturally, usually, that’s not how it works.
  • Always work with a contract (oral agreement is not enough), it will not help you to protect yourself in case of something.
  • Have a dedicated work-space and office hours – and don’t work beyond those parameters.
  • Remember to balance your work with life properly. Remember nothing is ever that urgent to take all your free time.
  • Freelance writing is a lot more than just writing: it includes planning, researching, emails, accounts… Remember to schedule this in your day as well.

That’s it! Just try to keep in mind the mentioned above guides and they will be helpful in your future or current freelance writer career.

2. What’s trending in your industry?

What’s trending in your industry?

Google Trends are considered to be of priceless value to any professional marketer. And it’s free, and unfortunately, for some mysterious for us reasons – underestimated.

Google Trends is a free tool that offers data and graphs on the usage of specific search terms on Google and YouTube. Google Patterns can be used for figuring out what’s been trending recently, detecting trending topics or subtopics in an industry or overarching problem, and so on.

So, here come some effective ways to make the most out of this free finding.

–   Keywords research

The keyword analysis function helps to recognize keywords that are becoming increasingly popular and to reduce keywords that are becoming less popular right now.

–   Context

Keep in mind that Google Trends operate in an extremely relativistic way. Today’s findings are not equivalent to the general success of all trends, nor to the previous heights of the keywords, you have entered.

Never ignore context!  

–   Trend predictions

Not only is it important to be aware of current trends as everyone else is, but it is of high importance for a marketer to hop on the latest trends before anyone else does. You will find relevant subjects that are trending right now with the help of Google Trends before nobody else does as well as be the first one to generate content about them.

–   Use long-tail keywords

Google Trends suggests identifying long-tail keywords by using and integrating related search queries.

–   Identify blind spots, and don’t misread trends:

Advanced use of Google Trends means that if you have blind spots, you can go a step beyond how you feel your new insight is to see.

  • Don’t ever trust a single snapshot. Get a wider view of a timeline, to see what else is happening.
  • Always look for context. An increasing trend for a specific keyword might be overshadowed by a more important trend.

All that is left to do now is to prepare a calendar, a computer, and start preparing content!

3. Instagram released its new features to celebrate the 10th Birthday

It’s unbelievable! A decade has passed from the moment Instagram was launched. Let’s take a look at how far the application has evolved from the starting point, which is October 2010.

Instagram released its new features to celebrate the 10th Birthday

These days, Instagram is enjoying its 10th birthday, and to capture the anniversary, a few new cool features were implemented.

The first one allows you to see where from did you share your Instagram Stories, over the past three years (if you used a location sticker), and when did that happen. So the calendar opens with all the numbers of stories posted on a certain day and a world map with the cities you posted the stories from.

So the calendar opens with all the numbers of stories posted on a certain day and a world map with the cities you posted the stories from.

The second one, allows you to choose the app icon which you like the most. Here are the new icons:

The second one, allows you to choose the app icon which you like the most.

You just need to update your Instagram to the newest version and then navigate to the ‘’Settings’’. After dragging the screen down the hidden app icon listing will appear.

Besides, Instagram launched in-stream shopping for IGTV this week, where the new shopping bag icons were attached, when the creator applied shopping tags.

4. Which social media platforms should your business use in 2021? [Infographic]

Do you know which social networks are worth your attention in 2021? Or maybe interested in some of their key differentiating traits?

We would like to share the guide to the top 5 social platforms in the infographic below.

The following networks were included:

  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

For more detailed information take a look at the infographic.

Which social media platforms should your business use in 2021?