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.

As the country returns from a trip to the polling stations and election fever fizzes out, how much impact has digital really had on helping to shape the final votes? A straw poll in my office says no, but digital marketers say yes. Which is it?

This election was originally largely hailed as the digital election. The mainstream use of social media and the Internet at large meant MPs had more ways than ever to lobby for your vote.

In many ways they did this. All three of the main parties had special campaign websites, which were frequently updated. At one point or another, they have all used YouTube to post updates. Personal messages have been posted on Facebook and MPs have used Twitter to convey the personal touch of life on the campaign trail (in some cases going too far!)

The Manchester United Supporters Trust, the voluntary organisation looking to force a change of ownership at the Premier League club, is considering taking out press ads as it looks to increase membership and donations

The men involved in a takeover bid for Manchester United are a mixture of City bankers and lawyers and lifelong United fans

Steve Jobs and pals use a few adjectives during last Apple’s keynote If it’s half as good as Steve says it will save the planet

Sustainability is fast gaining ground as a real marketing issue rather than a phrase to use when deemed appropriate or convenient.

A new website deals with ‘Decarbonising The Brand‘, its a bit low on practical content, but it is a start and worth a visit.

A new exhibition seems to be much further ahead well worth a visit.

In a meeting today I was asked, what is the single most important part of email marketing? A nice simple question, not, and just what you need to test you in front of three decision makers looking for a new email service provider My answer went along the lines of…

If I had to state my number one it would be a cultural one, and that is simply that the best and most effective email marketing is done when the focus of all activity is customer/subscriber based. We all have sales and marketing strategies but with email marketing you achieve your objectives by looking at it by stepping into our target audience’s shoes (my favourite book is ‘to kill a mockingbird’) before we do anything. What information will our current subscribers and target future subscribers find relevant to their information wants and needs? Only by understanding this and delivering the relevant match of information can we hope to develop engagement with and ultimately loyalty to our brand. Website visitors and email newsletter subscribers are in total control of where they choose to go for information and losing sight of this simple fact dilutes the effectiveness of our online marketing.

This initial reply was accepted but I was then pressed on the question from a tactical point of view.

I don’t believe you can say that any one tactical element of email marketing is the single most important as without a good data capture strategy for example you won’t have many subscribers to talk with. Also without a well designed email template reflecting the brand of the campaign owner, however relevant and well written the copy, the delivery envelope will not do the message justice. So pretty much impossible I feel to name one element of email marketing as the single most important. Any readers of this blog that feel they can I would love to read your view.

I did though set out what I thought the key fundamentals of email marketing are in order of data capture, campaign activity, campaign measurement, relevance of content and segmentation. The list of elements to consider in developing a truly effective subscriber focused email marketing campaign warrant far more time than I have right now on a Thursday evening, when it’s time to be getting ready for a pretty hectic Friday. So I would more than welcome a top 10 ‘ELEMENTS OF eMAIL MARKETING’ post from visitors to this email marketing blog who feel they can set the agenda.

Thinking about the post I made ‘ Defining Business Culture? ‘I remembered an email marketing campaign sent from FHM, the lad’s brand, back in 2002. During the world cup 2002 in Japan and Korea, where Ronaldo buried the ghosts of 98 by scoring the goals that gave Brazil their FIFTH World Cup title, FHM made their own claim to fame. The company I worked with at the time was e2 Communications, a real pioneer of email marketing. The campaign in question was sent out early one morning informing their seven figure email marketing database that, as England prepared to face Argentina FHM were doing their bit for their country. The campaign simply informed all subscribers that the FHM team were going down the pub for the day to support the lions and that the brand was CLOSED.

Absolutely 100% brand culture reflected in the simplest of messages, you would expect nothing less !!

In their second World Cup 2002 game, England beat Argentina 1-0 on Friday 7th June in Sapporo, Japan, and doubtless the FHM team celebrated. I have been in email marketing for a few months short of 10 years now and that simple message is still the best I have ever seen. CULTURE PERSONIFIED.

For anyone unfamiliar with FHM I have great pleasure in using the image below, which is truly worth a thousand words.

I had a meeting late this afternoon with a senior manager who has a significant marketing role with a well known company. We had been invited in as well as a short list of other email service providers to present what we felt we could do to improve the effectiveness of their activity. Part of my review of their activity and recommendation for future tactics/strategy was to reflect their company culture more in their copy. This opened an interesting debate on defining exactly what the company’s culture is. The idea of integrating company culture into their activity delivered and before I left learned that we had been short listed for the last two. Part of my leaving gambit was to promise that I would post a very brief summary of the meeting and ask for readers of this blog to define what ‘company culture’ meant to them. I hope that we get some challenging comments as this is a subject I am passionate about and through this post I hope to grasp a better understanding of what company culture means to more people. So please, please, please take 5 minutes and let me have your view. If I use your ideas I will let you know and happy to donate £50 to the charity of choice from the best comments reply received.