Digital Resources

Digital tools and techniques to identify consumer trends

Keeping an eye on customer trends in your sector can inspire innovation, identify growth markets, emerging products and even spot untapped demand. We outline some digital tools and techniques that can help you.

Checklist for start-ups – setting up your digital presence

For most startups, setting up a digital presence is a key step in getting a new business ready for launch, whether that’s a website, Facebook page, an email address or more. This checklist covers the things you are most likely to need.

An introduction to digital business models for your new business idea

This guide outlines some common digital business models to help you come up with ideas and choose the best option to fit your circumstances and ambition.

Managing and optimising your Google My Business profile

To provide a strong user experience for visitors, ensure your profile is correctly populated, optimised and make use of some of the additional features.

Five top tips for retaining customers after lockdown

Winning new customers is hard work which means retaining them is critical. Here’s five tips to help you put customer retention at the heart of your business.

Finding new customers with digital marketing - a route map

Within the current climate, a key concern for many small businesses is how to find new customers as the economy restarts. Find out which digital channels are the best fit for you.

Guide to selecting an online booking system

Government regulations around Covid-19 mean that many more businesses now need formal booking systems to manage social distancing between customers.

Claim it or leave it – could Google My Business boost your marketing?

Often overlooked in marketing, Google My Business is a straightforward, easy and free tool that helps small businesses raise their local profile in Google’s search results.

Step-by-step guide - claiming and populating your Google My Business profile

If your business serves customers face-to-face and in a specific local area, then a Business Profile within Google My Business can be particularly useful.

Keeping your SEO and PPC up to date

During COVID-19, your business operations and service levels will probably continue to change, so it’s important to update your SEO and PPC activities.

How to make a podcast for your business in 11 simple steps

With many companies turning to digital tools to stay connected with customers and to stay visible within communities during the coronavirus, podcasts are a fantastic way of opening a natural dialogue between business and customers. But where do you start?

Keeping your customers up to date – a fortnightly checklist

With four phases to releasing the lockdown (any of which could change if infection rates accelerate again) businesses need to regularly review customer communications.

Next steps once you’ve started selling online

In the early days of lockdown, many small businesses which normally interacted face-to-face with customers had to rush to create a short-term online offering to get through the first few weeks.

Action plan for managing your new online platform

At the start of the pandemic, many businesses rushed to create a new online presence to sell their products and services.

5 ways you can use email to communicate with your customers during the coronavirus

During the COVID-19 crisis, digital channels are especially valuable for helping businesses react quickly and keep their customers up-to-date. Here is a run down on how you can use email to improve communication with customers.

Q & A - Selecting the right platforms to run online classes

During the COVID-19 lockdown, many instructors have been rushing to switch their face-to-face class into online formats. We spoke to Sonia Rutherford and Sarah Johnson from data-driven marketing agency, IndigoLeap, about what’s involved when moving physical classes online.

7 tips to getting your tone right in business communications during the coronavirus

During the pandemic, customer communication through your digital channels is essential. Whether this is to update customers of changes to your business, or letting them know of new services you can provide, the words that you use and the tone that you take are incredibly important to your ongoing customer relationships.

4 ways customer feedback can help you right now

For businesses that remain open during the pandemic, many are diversifying or using new channels to deliver services in different ways. They’re doing this at breakneck speed - there’s no time for months of market research and focus groups.

But to minimise the risk of wasted resources, it’s even more important to regularly gather data and feedback from customers and make best use of your digital platforms to help with this. Here’s four ways this can help you adapt.

5-point plan to stay connected with customers during coronavirus

The coronavirus lockdown has led many businesses to stop trading. Normally when businesses close, it is either forever, or a two-week holiday at the most! However, this is an unprecedented situation where businesses will close with the hope of opening again.

Coronavirus advice for SMEs - using digital to reach your customers

Coronavirus is forcing everyone to work differently. If you customers can’t come to you, embracing digital should now be top of your list. If you don’t have an in-house IT expert, here are some easy-to-use tools that are free or low cost that will help support your business.

Using & reviewing digital channels during coronavirus/COVID-19

Find out how businesses can use digital tools and channels to respond quickly and support their communications with customers, staff and suppliers during this Coronavirus pandemic.

DigitalBoost Podcast

Digital skills for business owners on the go. Our free podcast series allows you to get business support and tips from digital experts across Scotland.

DigitalBoost Toolkit

Download this handy pack with some of our most popular digital guides and resources.

Digital Development Loan for SMEs

Digital touches pretty much every part of your day to day life and is something you’ve grown to rely on.

Business blogging in a nutshell

Find out how blogging can help your business connect with your audience and keep them engaged.

Quick Fixes to Up Your Instagram Game

Top tips which you can use as a small business to boost your Instagram following, presence and engagement rates.

Should my business be on Instagram?

There are over 25 million businesses using Instagram. But, is it the right platform for your business? Let's take a look...

Objectives & results – top 5 tips from an expert

Sarah Johnson, director of growth-marketing agency IndigoLeap, discusses the top 5 rules to setting the right objectives for your digital marketing activity.

Website data analytics

Understanding your website through analytics.

Understanding ecommerce – overview

Learn how to set up, manage and optimise an online store or trade in online marketplaces.

LinkedIn for business

Learn how to optimise your LinkedIn profile to make the most of this business-orientated social network.

Creating engaging content

Find out about high quality, relevant content can boost your business profile.

Twitter and Hootsuite for business

Discover how Twitter and popular tools like Hootsuite can help you build your online presence.

Facebook for business

Learn how to promote and manage your business Facebook page to attract new customers.

Email marketing – overview

Learn about the best practices of email marketing and the tools you can use to stay in touch with your customers.

Paid advertising guide

Learn how you can successfully use Paid Advertising platforms within your marketing mix.

Cyber resilience toolkit

Learn how to make your business more cyber resilient.

Social media content calendar template

Use this content calendar template to plan and manage your on-going communications effectively.

Digital marketing strategy

Learn more in-depth steps you can take to develop your digital strategy.

Social media strategy

Learn how to build a social marketing strategy that is appropriate to your audience and achieves your business goals.

GDPR for business

Prepare your business for GDPR with our comprehensive guide for businesses.

Video for business guide

Tips, strategies, and advice on creating video content for business.

App development guide

Find out more about app development and how an app can help your business.

Digitise your business processes: intermediate level

Back office systems are a key part of running an effective modern business.

Digitise your business processes: entry level

Back office systems are a key part of running an effective modern business.

DigitalBoost glossary

Use our handy glossary of frequently used terms to help bring you up to speed across a wide range of digital topics.

Cyber resilience guide

Cyber resilience is the process of how a business responds to cyber threats. In today’s modern landscape, businesses not only need to defend from attacks – they must also plan responses to successful security breaches.

Auditing your digital presence: a ‘how-to’ guide

Making sure your business’s various profiles are consistent across all the digital touch points where your current or future customers can find you is really important.

Responding to customers online

Customers are increasingly turning to social media and digital channels to feedback to businesses about their good - or bad - experiences.

How to use influencer marketing to boost your business

Influencer marketing isn’t an activity exclusive to big, ‘on-trend’ organisations – it can benefit many businesses when the time is right.

Digital upskilling: what, why and how

Angela Prentner-Smith, co-founder of digital transformation agency This is Milk, discusses the key steps to digital success.

A guide to SEO for small businesses

Search engine optimisation, or SEO as it’s commonly known, can go a long way towards making sure a small business is seen and heard above the competition.