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!)

When it comes to getting your email to the necessary person, it is no longer the case of contending with the PA. Unfortunately the biggest problem you’re going to have now is that your email will be automatically flagged as spam.

Luckily for you, I’ve come up with ten tips so you can try to make your email bulletproof.

1. If you get no response to your email, how can you ever be sure it was really delivered? Instead of sending a follow-up, which is usually going to get on the recipients’ nerves, ask the recipient in the first email to get back to you with a quick note. Just letting you know that they have received the email indicates that no instant reply to your email is necessary.

2. Always keep the senders name and email the same, if you change it suddenly then you might not be recognised and consequently you will be named as spam. This means you won’t be able to contact them again.

3. Never put a link before the important information, otherwise they’ll be sent to a page and they’ll have no idea why. As soon as they get back to your message they may report you as spam.

4. Follow up your email with a letter to their postal address. In the letter, refer back your email with the date and time it was sent. This will establish contact and hopefully start building a relationship.

5. Always communicate with your recipient personally. Spam-filters will automatically award emails without a name with spam score points (By default, this spam filter flags messages with a score greater than 5 as spam.) So make sure you provide your recipient with an exact name and contact information.

6. Offer subscription to your newsletter and let the recipient know when to expect it. That way they know when your emails are coming and they will know what it is straight way. They will also become accustomed to receiving your emails at that specific time every week.

7. Always insert the current date in the content. When the date isn’t mentioned or it is provided incorrectly, the newsletter will be given spam score points.

8. Make sure you verify your subscribers with signup confirmation. This means that when your user subscribes to your mailing list, they will be sent an automatic email to confirm their subscription. This way you avoid contacting incorrect email addresses, which may lead to being reported as spam.

9. If your newsletter has too many closed tags, too many graphic images or structural tables then it is going to score many spam points. Besides which, many readers use Outlook, which automatically blocks images. If the users don’t understand the mail then they’re most likely to report is as spam. Therefore keep your newsletter simple. Colorful backgrounds, tables, JavaScript’s and web forms shouldn’t be in newsletters.

10. Finally, check out some of tools and services available online to test your spam score. They’ll be able to check through the content of your email and report back with your score. It will take a bit of time but if your email has over 5 points, you can be sure it won’t even reach your recipient’s inbox.

Facebook Ads, or Facebook Advertising to those who aren’t up-to-date with the lingo, is a new revolution which gives businesses, both small and large, the chance to communicate with millions of people worldwide.

Setting up a Facebook page is no longer the extent of what the social networking site can do for your business. Facebook Ads will allow you to target your specific demographics from over 300,000,000 members worldwide.

For example, if your business sells luxury handbags then you would be able to advertise specifically to all women, aged 25-40. Facebook Ads also uses keyword associations, so expect to be reaching all women who mention their love of fashion on their own Facebook pages. The wide range of data available is an amazing tool for the right advertiser.

It is also important to remember to feature an image in your advert as this is proven to attract more attention and ultimately, more clicks.

Unlike typical paid search advertising, you won’t be bidding for keywords; you’ll be bidding on the demographic of the user.

Whilst this level of demographic filtering is just at the start for Facebook, it can still allow you to accurately target your advertising. However, in typical Facebook style expect this to be developed pretty quickly so who knows where this could lead to.

So, why use Facebook Ads?

- You can target millions of your target market with the click of a button.
- You will increase your CTR (click through rate), attracting many more visitors to your site
- You should see an increase in the number of customers you are able to attract
- You’re going to be up against far less competition than you would be in the paid search area

Hopefully by now, the optimist in you should be jumping for joy but be warned you should approach Facebook Ads with realistic expectations. It may not work for you straight away but don’t be instantly deterred, give it some time and then try again. Creativity is key; you want to encourage Facebook users to engage with you and if you manage that, well, you’ll be basking in Facebook gold.

We’ve noticed recently the amount of offer based emails we’ve been receiving and how some companies need to think a bit more about the end goal or the offer and how others companies simply don’t think at all! The amount of daily emails received that get deleted straight away because they’re either too text heavy, written poorly, too confusing or just designed badly with no call to action is actually quite scary and just wastes everyone’s time.

So, here are a few tips to for email templates…

Keep the Design Simple - Too many emails try too hard. The most effective templates are the simple ones. A nice mast image that reflects the brand is sufficient. Keep it clean. Keep it simple. But most of all, keep it clear.

Strong Call to Action – The   main reason for sending the email should be obvious as soon as the email is opened. Don’t hide the offer, shout about it. Make sure the recipient can see it. If you’re using a button to link to a landing page, ensure the button stands out enough and makes you want to click it.

The Incentive – Its all very well having a strong call to action but the recipient does need the incentive. Make sure its inviting enough to action. Would you want it? Everyone loves a bargain or even better a freebie. Make it worth their while!

The Landing Page – Now that you’ve got the recipient to the landing page, don’t bog them down with too much information. You’ve got them interested, you don’t want them frustrated because they can’t find out what to do next. Use the principles that you’ve learnt in the email template. Present the information is a clear and informative way with a clear set of instructions on the next step.

This is all fairly obvious but surprisingly overlooked by lots of companies. If you can follow these principles next time you’re designing an email, you’ll probably find your email has a bit more sticking power than others!