Digital Relevance

One of our media customers, who visitors to this site will already be familiar with, recently started requesting thought leadership articles. The idea was simply to add good content for their newsletter subscribers/website visitors and at the same time provide a forum for their loyal customers to position themselves as thought leaders in their industry.

In one instance the CEO of a Global Telco, through their marketing agency, took advantage of the opportunity.

The piece was a clicks hit in the newsletter and a traffic hit on the website, great for the publisher, agency and client. The client was sufficiently pleased with the results they posted the story at the top of their news section on the home page of their website.

The Publisher benefited, the agency benefited and the client was delighted, a win win win for all.

It made me think, why did the CEO of a world brand and probably busier than many of us make time to take advantage..?

Not sure but, his actions partly demonstrate perhaps why he is a leader, through deciding to make time to take action.

A new research study from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertisng (IPA) and Thinkbox, in conjunction with The Gunn Report, has identified a direct correlation between strong advertising creativity and business success.

he study, which scrutinised 175 campaigns from leading brands including campaigns by Budweiser, Volkswagen, Virgin Atlantic, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and BT, showed that the most creatively awarded advertising campaigns are 11 times more efficient at delivering business success.The research analysed the correlation between…more

I signed up to receive email marketing from a site I recently found, which I thought demonstrated great design, look, feel and branding. A week later I received my first email, wow! All the elements that had been applied to make the site great had been abandoned in the email marketing and then some. The missed opportunity to further engage with visitors was significant and surprising as most actions required would simply take the re purposing of their web strategy. This led me to compose an email with some suggestions as detailed below. It would not be fair to name the site, so please don’t ask but today’s Friday fun is simply to request pointing us at similar brand gaffs. On a more serious note more suggestions on how web and email work effectively together would definitely be welcomed.

Regards

Denis

===============================================

Hi ‘xxx’,

A few ‘Top Tips’ on email marketing

1.   The subject line has an extra question mark in the wrong place, reducing open rates.
2.   As you are only sending in text you cannot see who opens, reducing the ability to target message content and segment accordingly.
3.   You present the whole message instead of using links, ‘xxx’ tips for example could be linked to on a web page, the clickers can then be segmented by type of dance tip.
4.   Not everyone who registers wants to learn to ‘xxx’, the message assumes this increasing unsubscribe rates.
5.   Punctuation is poor, this will matter to some people, if it is correct nobody will notice.
6.   The text is too big, so is received and interpreted as shouting, increasing unsubscribe rates.
7.   The fonts are mixed, just poor presentation.
8.   The subscriber options should be a link. This should link to an unsubscribe page that details features, advantages and benefits to staying on your email marketing list, reducing unsubscribe rates.
9.   HTML allows you to brand your emails, your website has a strong brand and you should reflect that brand as it will increase engagement with your brand. You have built a brand, maintain it.
10. Outsource to a specialist, the results will more than pay for themselves.

The best email information site out there is - http://www.clickz.com/experts/em_mkt Hope you find this useful.

Regards

Denis

BP is attempting to prevent further brand damage from its oil spill crisis by offering to pay for the construction of six sand barriers off the coast of the US state of Louisiana.

The oil giant has admitted the spillage crisis is costing it millions and says the project will cost about $360m (£244m). According to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, the White House had ordered BP to pay for the construction of the sand barriers.

BP estimates that the disaster has so far cost the company approximately $990m (£674m)…more