The report found that ‘Marketing ROI’ had jumped to become the most important trend for marketing executives. Social media had been high last year, but now focus was all around measuring the activity, building retention and loyalty.

Even though marketers understand the idea that social has to be part of their overall strategy, many are sick of hearing about it. Social media has become one of the most important buzzwords, but it has also become one of the most annoying, with nearly 30% of executives tired of it. Twitter, specifically, has got on the nerves of nearly 15%, and socal networking was in the top three trends marketers were most tired of hearing about.

All this said, social spending will increase. A survey of Marketing Executives indicated social tactics were most likely to increase in 2010.

So dispite a move towards measuring ROI, Social is still viewed high on strategy.

Our view is simple, you need to measure everything you do and constantly review what has taken place, ROI is vital to any business. Gone are the days of a ‘Hit & Hope’ stragegy, it’s all about being targeted, personalised and and the ability to measure in fine details.

Strange as this may seem, as I would have to agreed with them, but done correctly email is still the best form of communication. Social media is what is being muted as the next big thing, and as someone very cleverly pointed out to me recently, it is all about the media. It is not worth just turning up to social media, you have to work to get the message out within a social environment. So in conclusion, no I do not think that email marketing is dead, it just needs to be handled properly and used as a communications tool. Get the message?

And it’s not just us that say it, here’s some statistics on email marketing:

• Email marketing generated a ROI of £43.62 for every pound spent on it in 2009 (Direct Marketing Association)
• Email and e-newsletter marketing are considered a second-most effective tool for conversions (just behind CEO) (Ad Effectiveness Survey, Forbes Media)
• A 2009 survey of retailers found that “email is the most mentioned successful tactic overall” (Shop.org)
• In 2008, Marketing Sherpa did a survey of hundreds of marketers; pay-per-click ads ranked tops in ROI, with email marketing (to house lists) at a close second.
• A 2009 Marketing and Media survey had 80% of industry executives saying that email channels performed strongly for their company (Datran Media)
• Cost per order of £6.85 for email marketing, vs. £19.33 CPO for paid search (February/March 2008 survey, Shop.org)
• Datran Media’s 2009 Annual Marketing and Media Survey had 58.5% of industry executives planning to increase their investment in email, while only 5.7% planned to cut back.
• An April 2009 survey of senior marketing executives revealed that 46% of respondents planned to invest more in email (European Interactive Advertising Association)
• Across the board, it’s estimated that expenditures in email went from £600 million in 2008 to £700 million in 2009.
• A 2008 survey showed that 95% of marketers surveyed were using email marketing, with 4% planning to get on board with it by year’s end (Forrester Research)

Vespa poster campaign in the US

28 Weeks Later

Pet Shop Boys, Music Video

Restaurant in Barcelona. Provides daily menu updates.

Mini Poster Campaign

Pepsi Max

Featuring in a book. Provides links through to Wikipedia articles.

QR Codes on chocolate bars

McCode McDonalds using QR Codes

QR Calendars

Adidas QR Codes.  Count down to the World Cup

Walt Disney QR Codes

Tokyo Communications Company.  Sandcastles campaign

BBC Radio 1 ‘Big Weekend’ QR Code

What do you think?  Do you know of an even better example of QR Codes, send us a link below?  As always if you are excited by the prospect of using QR codes in your next campaign please get in touch.

1

Its all about the data.

Think about all the information that could be collected about your target market. And think about how much could be collected over a period of time. That kind of information is worth its weight in gold, don’t you think? To be able to see the habits of your audience, pre-determine their decisions based on historical data…it’s all a gold mine at your fingertips. Marketing automation software allows this data collection and analysis and it’s obvious how important this information is for your future marketing campaigns. Why shoot in the dark for leads when you don’t have to?

2

Build and manage multi-channel campaigns.

Your audience resides in a vast universe. And not all of your prospects will respond to a message sent via a single channel. Imagine resting your marketing campaign on a banner ad. Okay, so the banner ad is on several highly visible sites that your audience frequents. And the banner ad is actually pretty cool and you’ve received great feedback when you’ve tested it. But not everyone clicks on banner ads. And many people may turn a blind eye to them after cruising the internet for too long. Multi-channel campaigns allow you to send a consistent marketing message across several channels. Email. Direct mail. Text messages. Larger campaigns that seemed unmanageable with your current manpower are within your grasp when you implement automated marketing software.

3

Get to know your audience. Give them what they want.

You can make it easy for your prospects to find the information they need by having a clear call to action and the ability to follow through. Landing pages, personalised URLs…when your call to action is combined with an offer, your prospects are induced to move, heading to the automated responses that you have set into place. And in fact, as they move forward and receive those automatic responses, your sales team is in the wings, waiting to work the warm and hot leads.

4

How good are your leads?

Not every lead is equal. Some people are ready to buy. Some need more time and information. Some are just looky-loos. And you don’t have the time or resources to waste on the leads that aren’t ready. So one of the best things about automated marketing software is the lead scoring capability, informing your sales team who is cold and who is hot!

5

Measure. Measure. Measure.

If you throw a marketing campaign out there you want to know what parts of it were a hit and what parts were a miss. Did the email message fall flat? Was the text message the best received? The more you can analyse, the better, because it will enable you to design and implement further campaigns that are even more successful.

So if you think you are ready for automation. Get in touch with us now. Our SafeKeepa solution could automate many of your marketing activities and cost you less money, plus our unique managed approach means you have as little or as much involvement as you like.

But only a very small amount of people are taking advantage of it. In today’s world everything is ‘on demand’, films, TV even software (including ours!) so why not print?

Digital printing and ‘Print on Demand’ lets you print very small quantities as and when you need them. Unlike offset or litho printing presses, which traditionally use plates made from film, new digital presses takes your digital files and prints direct from them. There’s no plates involved at all. All this results in cheaper setup costs and faster turnaround. What if you’ve got time and you want items in bulk? Luckily our solutions allow you to mix ‘On Demand’ with bulk printing.

Here’s some logical reasons why, in print, you should ‘go digital’:

You can Print as little as one

Seriously, your print runs can be low, even for full-colour printing, and because there is hardly any setup costs you won’t be hit with huge unit costs. With traditional offset printing, consumers tend to print far more than they’ll ever need due to the decreasing price structure. Many people waste 30 percent of what they print.

Quicker Turnaround

You can print a small quantity of your corporate brochures in time for that important event next week. Lead times are much shorter with ‘Print on Demand’. You can get new business cards for that last-minute business trip.

Individual Bespoke Print

You can print different versions of your pieces for different markets and test out their effectiveness before you settle on one look. Plus you can change the content more often with digital printing, keeping your material current and accurate. So print less brochures every quarter and update the copy, instead of printing thousands of brochures per year and living with outdated and incorrect information.

Personalise

You can personalise your documents by taking advantage of the latest technology called ‘Variable Print on Demand’. It lets you practice ‘one-to-one marketing’, because every piece has different content. It marries a database with the design template. And every printed piece has different information to help make it more personal, more attractive, and more effective. Plus, you get higher response rates with VPOD.

You could use this so every salesperson or executive have their own version of sales materials, tailored specifically for his/her own clients or prospects. Or create co-branded print with a few clicks of the mouse.

No Wastage

Finally you can say goodbye to wastage. With digital printing, you can reduce or even eliminate waste by only printing what you need when you need it. Does that tick the environmentally friendly box?

Easy to Manage

It’s easier to manage. With offset printing you have to manage the print files and revision versions, we all know what a nightmare that can be. With our ‘Print on Demand’ solution you can forget print files. We’ll manage it for you and give you a handy online order facility so you can place orders anywhere in the world at any time of day.

Digital vs Offset

So we might have convinced you digital is the way to go but remember its not always the right method. Our solution gives you the tools to manage POD, VPOD and bulk print. You’ll know when to make items ‘On Demand’ and when to print in bulk and store. Now that’s convenient.

To get a full demonstration of Print On Demand – Get in touch today.

These three simple psychological triggers can, when used together, greatly increase the click through rate on your articles or emails.

1

Question based vs. Statement based headlines

This trigger questions your curiosity. Humans are very curious beings, give us a question and we’ll automatically want to learn more.

Example: Do you get the most out of your social media marketing?

2

Problem based vs. Solution based headlines

This trigger taps into a humans need to solve problems. When the target audience sees a headline with a problem, their brain wants them to read it so that they can then solve their problem.

Example: Are you struggling to manage all of your social media pages?

3

Curious vs. Non-curious headlines

This trigger explains how the word “these” can have the most impact on your headline. When people read “these” in a headline, curiosity makes them HAVE to read the article because life as they know it may come to an end if they don’t know what “these” are.

Example: Are you using these social media techniques?

Why not give some of these techniques a try in future and see if your click through rates improve. Do you know any other techniques that have worked for you in the past? Share them with us below.

What are they?

It’s a simple idea, QR Codes are a way to quickly receive information to your mobile phone without having to type web addresses or engage your Bluetooth. All you need to do is take a photo of the code and away you go…

What happens next is only limited by your imagination. They can be used to download and store contact details (Vcards), send users to webpages and microsites, download video clips and movie trailers or iphone apps, whatever is online can now be at your finger tips. Plus it’s not just for marketing you could have it download a e-books or instruction manuals.

Where can I put them?

That’s what’s great about QR Codes. You can put them just about anywhere. How about a QR Code on the back of your business card? Contacts can put your details straight into their phone without even pressing a button, perfect for events. What about putting them on a direct mail piece so you can track responses? Again it’s only limited to your imagination.

This advert is a great example of QR Code placement, it was put up in London to advertise the release of 28 weeks later on DVD. When you take a photo of the advert it says “It’s back on DVD September 10th”, perhaps a little disappointing but it could have been used to download a preview or send users to a microsite.

I’m excited? Where do I start?

Like most channels in marketing we’ve got it covered! This technology is already up and running in our online marketing platform SafeKeepa. You decide how the campaign might work and we’ll create a code for it. All responses are tracked in SafeKeepa so you’ll have complete control. Get in touch to get started…

Here’s some tips on how to develop effective marketing campaigns using multiple channels:

1. Focus on the end goal – reaching your target market. You can’t be all things to all people. Nor do you want to be! So stay on target and keep focused on the people who matter.

2. Work closely with your sales department – You want to make sure that the sales end is aligned with the marketing department so that everyone is aware of what is going on and what everyone can anticipate with the upcoming marketing campaign. Plus, your sales people may have some really good ideas on how to get to your target market or how to position your message.

3. Bring the customer service department up to speed on your multi-channel marketing efforts. – The customer service experience should be just as consistent for the target market as any other interaction with your company. So it’s vital that the customer service department be kept in the loop.

4. Don’t shy away from new technology. – Sure, some things may seem like a flash in the pan. But don’t let fear or ignorance of the latest and greatest in technology scare you away from possible marketing channels. Learn about the technology, or work with someone who knows it and then make the decision what to use (or not to use) to get your marketing messages out to your target market.

5. Don’t discount direct mail. – Many consumers are influenced by direct mail pieces and while it’s easy to concentrate on more modern technology such as social networking via the internet, direct mail shouldn’t be tossed by the wayside. Direct mail is often less “in your face” than other mediums and consumers prefer the chance to look over, read the piece and have time to take the message in.

6. Develop measurement standards before you implement your campaign. – You won’t know how effective parts of your campaign were unless you have measurement standards in place. But you can’t decide how to actually measure results after the fact. You need to have the plan set and the metrics created before campaign implementation.

7. Test your campaign on a smaller scale. – You’ve got lofty goals. And it’s easy to get excited and rush to get the word out to consumers. But you want to make sure that the message is personalised and sent to the correct people, through the correct channel and at the correct time. To do this, you test and then use those measurement standards to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign. This is your chance to tweak and make adjustments before you go gung-ho and release your big campaign.

8. Brainstorm on how you can launch an effective campaign that integrates both online and offline efforts. – Your prospects and current customers can be found through many channels and you want to reach them through both, if possible. As long as you keep that message consistent, and personalised to your audience, you’re on the right track!

Got some tips of your own? Share them with us below…

In tough economic times, it is crucial to continue marketing your business, and maximise your marketing spend. Email marketing is a perfect way to keep your business in front of your customers’ and prospects’ eyes!

Targeted mailings to an interested audience will result in high email open rates, and an opportunity to build relationships with your customers and make some sales.

The following is a list of five reasons why you must start email marketing now!

1. Email marketing is inexpensive.

Email marketing is an affordable way to stretch a tight marketing budget. Email marketing can cost as little as a penny per email.

Our solution provides you with an easy to use online platform for reporting purposes and plus our managed approached allows you to have as little involvement as you like.

2. Email marketing is highly targeted.

You can easily segment your email database into different groups, so that your promotions go to individuals most likely to respond to your offer. For example, you may send one offer to existing clients, and send a different one to prospects who’ve expressed interest in your products or services.

3. Email marketing is proactive.

Email marketing enables you to proactively communicate with your existing customers and prospects, instead of passively waiting for them to return to your website or storefront.

It is a highly effective way to communicate promotional offers, news, events, which may result in an increase in sales, drive traffic to your website or store, and develop customer trust and loyalty through relationship building.

Sending out a monthly email campaign will keep your business in front of your customers’ and prospects’ eyes.

4. Email marketing generates an immediate response.

Promotional emails include a call to action that can result in immediate responses. Initial campaign responses generally occur within 48 hours of the time the email campaign is sent; testing and refining your campaigns is immediate. You can gauge the open rates of your email campaigns, which provides useful and immediate information you can use to tweak your campaign messages.

5. Email marketing is easy.

Our Web-based email marketing products are easy to use. The services available, list segmentation and targeting capabilities, as well as automatic tracking and reporting of your email campaign effectiveness, such as for open rates, bounces, and spam reports. Worried about the work involved? Our designers can provide you with a professional HTML template.

If you’re not a “techie”, have no fear. You don’t need a Webmaster or technical person on staff to handle the development and distribution of your email campaigns. Our managed approached will do all the work for you.

Email marketing works because it allows precise targeting of your marketing message, it builds loyalty with your customers, it is inexpensive, and best of all, it drives sales. Include email marketing in your arsenal of marketing tools today!

But what must you do to ensure that you do not waste your precious marketing pounds? How can you measure the quality of the data that you currently have, and decide what you must do to improve it?

Why not download our datasheet on Data Cleansing Services Data Cleansing Services

What?

What do we mean by optimising your marketing data? The idea may sound a little abstract but the principals behind data optimisation are actually very straight forward. In a nutshell, we are attempting to ensure that we have not only enough data, but also the right type and quality of data to achieve our particular marketing goals.

A typical data optimisation project will need clear answers to at least some, if not all, of the following questions:

• What are our key marketing goals, and what activities are we planning to carry out?
• How much data, and what type of data, will we need to support these goals?
• What data do we have and how good is it – e.g. how suitable is it for say emails, direct mail, and telemarketing?
• How much more data will we need in additional to our current data set and what will be the most cost effective means to sourcing that data?
• Does our data strategy encourage us to collect the right type of data to allow us to segment and analyse our prospects and customers effectively?
• How will our data be managed, maintained and refreshed to ensure that the data quality and sufficiency does not deteriorate?

Why?

Why should you consider a data optimisation project? Essentially, because your data is your most valuable asset. It tells you all about your existing customers as well as providing the means to reach and impact your potential customers.

One of the main reasons that even the best formulated marketing plans fail, and direct marketing campaigns consistently underachieve, is poorly targeted and populated data.

However, buying and maintaining data is expensive. You need to ensure you buy enough and the right type of data to support your plans, but not too much! Data that is not utilised quickly goes out-of-date! Optimising your data and its usage ultimately enables you to spend less to achieve more.

How?

Documenting your activities, objectives, expected results and timetable will provide a simple forecast of the data required, broken out by sector, geography or category. This will allow decisions to be taken on what data is required, exactly when it is needed, and which type of activity is most likely to deliver the results that are needed. You may need to enhance your existing data, or buy new data targeted directly to a campaign. For example, you may have 5,000 contact records already, but can you identify how many of them are in the correct business area, how many have up-to-date email addresses and telephone numbers, etc.

Our data analysis report will help you to quantify what you have got, and what you need going forward.

Your data is most likely held in several different systems, guarded jealously by different people. You probably have customer data held in the finance system, sales people will have data in a CRM system or personal spreadsheets, marketing will have their own database of ‘suspects’, often gathered from different sources over time, and so on.

All of this data is valuable, but in different ways. The first task is to gather it together and analyse its quality and completeness. For example, finance data may hold different attributes from sales data.

You may need to involve your marketing, sales and finance department to determine what data there is, and how to extract it. Once the data has been assembled and enhanced you can decide on how it is to be used and if the enhanced data should go back into the original systems.

Take action now!

Contact us to arrange an initial meeting when we can review your plans and assess the suitability of your data. Using our simple scorecarding we can quickly identify any areas for improvement and recommend tactics to achieve them.

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