A lot has happened to social media marketing in a year; twelve months ago businesses were uncertain about social media but now it's clear that it’s here to stay. Companies are rapidly adopting social media marketing and a recent survey found that the majority of marketers have either just begun using social media or have only been using it for a few months.

When analysing what questions marketers are asking themselves right now, it seems that measuring the return on investment for social media is number one. That’s because whilst most marketers are seeing great value with their social media campaigns, they just cannot figure out how to measure their results.

Here are the top ten questions businesses have been asking about social media marketing, based on the analysis of 1,356 open-ended responses:

1. How do I measure social media return on investment?
2. What are the social media marketing best practices?
3. How do I best manage my time with social media?
4. How do I reach my target markets with social media?
5. How do I generate traffic and leads using social media?
6. How do I implement social media tactics?
7. What are the latest social media trends?
8. How do I get started?
9. How do I integrate my social media activities?
10. How do I evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each platform?

One thing worth noting is that last year, the top question was related to tactics, but now it's ROI.

That’s because businesses have learned some effective tactics in a year's time, and have realised that these vary depending on needs and goals. Another significant change is that a year ago, people were asking, "Does social media marketing work?" and this isn't even on the list anymore. It's become clear that over the past year that those who’ve figured out how to do it right, have found it works.

We’ve spoken many times before about Email Marketing and the importance of building your contacts lists but in this blog post, we’re going to be looking at the downside of Email Marketing and how you can avoid it.

The best way to get results online is to build a contact list of people who are interested in your product/service. One of the best ways to do this is by getting people to sign up for your email newsletter. And how do you get people to sign up? By rewarding them. Now here’s the catch, what email addresses are people giving you to take advantage of your free download or exclusive podcast?

It’s not like it’s hard to find an email address. Gmail is just one of the many services that will give you one (or more) for free. Whilst double opt-in forces your reader to give you a real email address - real addresses are cheap. Readers have dozens of ways to capture your valuable free reward, and then ditch the rest of your email once they’ve got it.

They might unsubscribe (best case scenario). They might throw the email address away or just quit checking it. They might set up a filter that automatically pours your messages right into their Delete folder. Or they’ll mark you as spam (worst case scenario) rather than take the “trouble” of unsubscribing. Annoying but it happens. Incidentally, this is why you must make it really easy to unsubscribe from your stuff. If it’s more than a click or two, you’ll regret it.

So what can you do?

You need to show your readers that what you’re offering is going to be valuable to them. If you can offer a fantastic collection of benefits then you'll get their attention and what you're offering will be too valuable to throw away.

This is why an email auto responder is absolutely essential for every marketing project you work on. Whilst newsletters are an excellent tool, they’re 1000 times better when they kick off with a terrific auto responder.

This works better than a one off download because you’re creating an email sequence that puts the reader in the habit of opening each message. Sure, they can still ditch you at the end of the sequence but by that time, you’ll hopefully have created some trust and your reader will have started to know and like you.

Just think – if you emailed ‘Mr Jones’ 9 times in a row and you’ve only sent him valuable information that gives him the results he wants, then do you think he’s likely to open that 10th email?

You’ll now by know that your contact list is an invaluable part of your business but do you know how to manage it properly? A greatly managed contact list is the architectural equivalent of a castle; it is respected, it has stood the test of time and you have loyal visitors. Whereas a badly managed contact list amounts to no more than a shed; it’s weak, often forgotten about and left out in the cold. So if you want a concrete contact list and let’s admit it, who wouldn’t? Then there are several things you must have in place.

First of all, you need to build yourself a database of meaningful information about your contacts. You don’t just want to know names and addressees, find out what it is that they are most interested in. What do they like to buy? Where do they shop? Do they like attending events? Whatever it is, make it your personal mission to take the time to get to really know your contacts.

From then on make sure you tailor your emails to everything you've learnt and know about your contacts. This information should be used to target specific campaigns to the specific people who you know will be interested. By increasing your level of personalisation in your communications, you'll build loyal contacts who return to buy from you time and time again.

Luckily, many of today’s email marketing software provides the tools you need to create smaller segments within a large contact list based on specific client’s interests, making your job easier and your emails more effective.

The right software will also allow you to send something out that is much more personal than just another email advert. Remember that your contacts don’t just need more information; the Internet provides them with plenty of that! What they need and want is solid, practical, timely, profit-making advice from respected, expert sources.

It doesn't matter how big your contact list, what's important is the quality of your contacts. You could build an email contact list of 5,000 but if 4,000 of them aren't interested in your service, you’re wasting your time when you could just be focussing on the people who do care. So it's important to keep your contact list clean in order to keep your delivery rate high.

If you do manage to build yourself a solid contact list which is successfully managed then you can look forward to growing your contacts. The most important thing to remember is when you build a loyal relationship with your contacts, you stand a better chance of conversion. So start working on your contact list now and it won’t be long before you will be celebrating your landmark success
 

As social networking becomes the ‘in’ thing, people are beginning to question where that leaves the use of email. You’ve heard the saying, ‘video killed the radio star,’ so is this a case of history repeating itself? Is email about to fall victim to social networking?

Well, no we don’t think so. From a Ph. point of view, we just don’t buy this theory that “email is dead,” and there are plenty of reasons why:

• People still send hand-written letters
• Nearly all websites that require registration request an email address
• Email notifies you of updates from your social networks
• Email is universal, social networks are not
• Many people have no interest in joining social networks but will use email
• Email is still improving
• Even social networks recognise the importance of email
• More social media use means more email use
• As far as marketing is concerned, email is doing pretty well

Businesses should be merging social aspects with their email programs to not only expand the reach of their offers, but to maintain customer loyalty and ultimately grow their database. So if you’ve been questioning the life expectancy of email, stop now. Keep in mind that about 50% of content is shared through email and social media is a great way to get subscribers.

In case you’re STILL not convinced, here are some final thoughts for you;

• Mobile apps will continue to keep email relevant in the mobile world.
• Google recently released its own social media product, Buzz, which the company decided would fit best with Gmail.
• Microsoft Outlook only recently started integrating social networks into the inbox.
• The social networks themselves are creating email services - Facebook is said to be working on its own...and we know how popular Facebook is.
  

Everyone knows how important it is to make a good first impression, you’ve no doubt spent time trying on outfits, practising poses and checking you’ve got nothing in your teeth. First impressions are everything, for you and for your landing pages.

Even if you’re doing everything right in terms of SEO and PPC, if your landing page makes a bad first impression then it could prevent you from making a sale. Take a look at your bounce rate and you’ll see how good an impression you’re making; anything more than 50% is poor.

Your landing pages are crucial pieces of online real estate. Instead of a brochure that you hand out and hope people react to, a landing page can easily be measured so that you can use it as a really strong sales tool. A bit of changes in wording, in colour or font, and in the length of the page can make a big difference in terms of your conversion rate - you’ve just got to find your winning formula.

If you’re looking to boost your landing page conversion rate then you need to be thinking about the following things:

• Is Your Landing Page Appealing?

Look at your landing page from the eyes of your customer. Is it aesthetically pleasing? Do you feel a sense of familiarity or confusion? Take a look at your competitor’s site and see what their page looks like. What are they doing well? Try out a few of their ideas on your landing page and test, test, test.

• How Does It Read?
  

Are you throwing a mountain of sales copy into your visitors’ face? Are you offering anything valuable? You’ve managed to attract someone to your landing page and now you have a chance to really wow them. Our advice: avoid the hard sell and offer them a solution to their problem. Get your web copy right and see your conversion rate soar.

• What Do People Think?
  

Make sure you ask people for their opinion. If you have email marketing software, then why not send out a feedback for – how do you find our site? If you sit down with a client, casually ask them the question, ‘How did you find our website?’ Take feedback onboard and test the necessary changes.

• What Do Your Statistics Say?
  

Google Analytics will be able to tell you where your landing page traffic comes from and what they do once they’re on the page. You’ll be able to see what sorts of keywords bring people to your page and look to see what percentage of your traffic clicks off your page.

Nearly a quarter of consumers are planning to buy this years Valentine’s gifts online, with 9% planning to spend more money than last year.

The new survey by eBillme and Javelin Strategy & Research surveyed more than 1,000 consumers to try and measure the projected online spending. The results showed that consumers are planning to spend an average of £145 during this quarter.

The majority of consumers are looking for gifts other than traditional flowers and chocolates, but nearly 50% don’t know what they’re looking for!

So if you have a great product that you think would make a great Valentines gift why not send out an email marketing campaign now? This is the perfect opportunity for retailers to build on holiday sales.

It’s great news that consumers are planning to shop online this Valentines Day but with most of them favouring non-traditional gifts, see what you can offer? There has never been a better time for you to market and capture these undecided sales and improve your web conversion rate.

Last week, I proudly introduced the miracle that is our very own Phuse Marketing Manager. Relieving the stress of the mail merge, and providing the solution to the heart-aching speculation of whether that laboured email actually landed in the inbox of anyone who was moderately interested.   Sadly, in all it’s brilliance, the Phuse Marketing Manager doesn’t have the ability to write your email for you (we’re working on it folks!)  and sadly, this week I have been subjected to further reams of dreary email marketing waffle.  Come on folks – engage brains…  

It’s Not What You Say, But How You Say It…

Whilst you’re busy chewing over which key points you need to cram into your mail, are you actually thinking about the words you’re using?

Spam filters are infatuated with keywords that scream ‘sales’ and will weed your mail out straight into the Junk Box.  In contrast, Gatekeeper PA’s are allergic to sales-rich keywords and on browsing your email, any sign of sales lingo sparks a finger-click reflex towards the Recycle Bin.The word ‘contract’ reeks of legally binding documents – which ironically require legal support to get out of!  Consider opting for an ‘agreement’ or “strategy”. But don’t get trigger happy with the thesaurus – you won’t gain any points for a ‘legitimately long-term transaction’.  

Mail Merge Mistakes

If you’re going to ask for their business, at least get their name right.Yes, we all know it’s very clever to insert a your contacts name half way through your subject, well done.  But at least check that it’s relevant and makes sense.  An email starting with "Hi firstname" is equally as cringe worthy as “A Special Offer Just For You name!” 

What’s In It For Me?

Whilst it’s all very nice to read about what you do and your prolific list of clients, what exactly are you doing for your prospects business?  Don’t just tell people what you do, give them the benefits of using your product.  Be a resource – know the market so that you can assist in making good decisions and provide your prospects with the tools to improve their business.  People that trust your opinions will become loyal clients. 

Excite!

Your punchy, power-packed email has it’s recipient captured at their desk. You have them in prime position for closing with the result you want.  Yet, as the end of the email looms, they are faced with nothing but an email signature and a lame ‘give me a call”.  Your powerful email has now become nothing but a good read.  Engage! You have their attention – keep it!  A simple link to your homepage or a call to action button will direct that little cursor towards your site, as opposed to the ‘delete’ button. It goes without saying, always check your links work, are relevant, and professional.  Something IT gurus, Experts Exchange (”expertsexchange.com”) might have wanted to look into. 

Go Fish!

Would you send out invites to a party and not bother to call round to see who’s coming?  Bashing out 300 emails and not bothering to follow them up makes for a poor salesperson and lazy business practice.  The sooner you follow up on your marketing campaign, the more likely it is that you are fresh in their mind, they are available for any dates/deadlines you have specified, and less likely to have taken their fat wallets to the competitor that bothered to call. A tool such as the Phuse Marketing Manager allows you to see who has opened your email, enabling you to plan your follow ups accordingly.  If you require a response, or action, it’s up to you to be tenacious enough to chase it.  Cold leads = no sales. 

If your campaign is simply to create awareness, a quick call in to the right people may just prompt them to pass it on to their own trusty database of contacts. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. 

Wind up your marketing rod, cast it out into your swarming sea of contacts, rein them in. And keep them warm...  There’s never any value in dead fish.

In today’s time-constrained day at the office, we don’t just want a response… we want a response now.  And what better way to spread the word, showcase your business and keep your contacts in tow, with a powerful email marketing campaign.  Simple… in theory!

You know the scenario:  you spend valuable hours perfecting an impressive email, setting up your mail merge with the faithful help of the animated paperclip, adjusting margins, grappling with images, and finally click Send. 

A thirty second wave of calm.  Before the abundance of Undelivered notices begin to stack up in your inbox. 

Further, there’s the added dilemma of the two day follow-up phone bashing, battling with the Executive PA's to check it’s landed. Trust me, as a master gatekeeper, we'll tell you one of the following; “they haven’t had time to look at it yet”, “we haven’t received it”, “I'll get back to you”…

Frustrated and discouraged by the challenge of getting your message out there, you, head in hands, ask your tepid coffee, ‘why couldn't someone make it simpler?’

We have....

Ph.Creative have now launched the PhUse Marketing Manager

Gone are the countless hours of deliberating over whether your hard-laboured email campaign has reached its intended recipients.  The PhUse Marketing Manager provides efficient, easy to use templates to input your email messages and manage your campaigns individually.   Saving the need to merge an array of Excel spreadsheets into one and facing the dreaded #INVALID CODE# – aargh! scenario, you can import several contact lists and select which message you want to send to which contacts (leaving out, of course, those you'd rather not!) .  Test the water and Split Test your campaigns to compare the effectiveness with a small selection of contacts before the big Send.

For the hot-deskers out there, unable to pin themselves to their desk for those crucial optimum sending times, you can schedule a campaign to be sent at a time and date of your choice.  Thus saving the embarrassment of no-one actually believing that the 5.15am e-mail they received, was actually just sent personally from you.

The spam-savvy keyword function cleverly checks your text for spam keywords (tough luck animated paperclip!) giving you the opportunity to re-assess your wording for maximum efficiency in avoiding the jaws of the Junk Mail Box.

With the ability to monitor and track your email campaigns, the Phuse Marketing Manager provides real-time statistics showing how many recipients have opened, read, or deleted your mail, any links followed and for the budding detectives out there, you can even list in detail which contacts have performed these actions.  Not only does this allow you to strategically schedule the all-important follow-up call, but you’ll see first hand how successfully your campaign has been received. Are your links attracting significant traffic to your site? Or have the 300 emails from your trusty little spreadsheet gone straight into the Recycle Bin?

Aiming an ineffective marketing campaign at your target audience is as useful for your business as an inflatable dartboard.  You can have all the latest, big bucks high-end marketing tools, but if you have no clue how to use them, you have wasted not only money, but a lot of hair-pulling time.

Less stress. More effective marketing.  More successful relationships.

…More time for basking in compliments on your successful campaign / booking in those appointments / touching base with your reams of referrals / enjoying a coffee… (delete as appropriate)

The National Legal Trade Exhibition came to the BT Convention Centre last week, and Ph.Creative were of course one of the top local businesses to join the action.

This was a great opportunity to showcase our distinctive brand, the expertise of our ingenious creative team, and get out there and network with the people!

 

Always one for challenging the norm, and in true Ph-style, never being partial to a table-clothed trestle table, a few leaflets and branded biros, I donned my creative cap and got to thinking outside the box.  Over a coffee-fuelled brainstorm with the team, we pondered over a concept for our exhibition that would really make us stand out from the crowd.

 

As a surprisingly enthusiastic response was drawn from the childlike cartoon sketch of my exhibition stand vision…  

 

 

 

Ph.Creative Surgery was born...

Free IT Health Checks for those sick and tired of ineffective SEO and suffering aches and pains with online marketing strategies.

As the exhibition visitors filtered in, Ph.Creative Surgery was in full flow, consulting and advising on website effectiveness and prescribing remedies for the ailments of unsuccessful online marketing tools to the masses.

Bryan Adams presented yet another outstanding seminar on Online Marketing Tactics, which further prompted some technophobic patients to bob along for a check-up.  And if one mastermind lecture wasn’t enough, the medical team took a mid-afternoon respite to attend Sales Guru - Andy Bounds’ enlightening seminar, which was nothing short of inspirational team-building.

Diagnosis: Another great day at the office!

Having made a memorable impact (be that positive or negative!? You decide) Ph.Fever was certainly in the air!

If you missed out on your check-up this time, fear not... it won’t be long before the Doctor is back in town! (Or in case of an epidemic, give us a call!)