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How to integrate email and mobile marketing
May 16, 2012
Over the past year, the marketing world has seen mobile become a key tool for marketers with the channel being further integrated with others, such as email. With this in mind, marketers must ensure that their email campaigns are formatted so they can be easily viewed on mobile devices, including smartphones and now tablets.
A recent review by Forrester found that only 4% of email campaigns broadcasted had a deliberate consideration as to how the email would render on a mobile device. Much more needs to be done with mobile in mind so that marketers aren’t missing some fantastic opportunities. After all, many of us are now checking email more frequently by smartphone than ever before.
The opportunity to grow your mobile commerce by communicating directly with recipients who are more likely to make a purchase can’t be ignored. The majority of smartphone users are younger and more trend-conscious, making them key targets to take advantage of m-commerce. In December 2011, it has been estimated that £1.64billion was spent via mobile devices alone, which according to Forrester will grow to 7% of all ecommerce by 2016.
The key to creating relevant mobile experiences for your recipients is quite simple. By following best practice advice you can optimise your messages for smartphones:
- Create text only versions of your emails and provide a link to a web page within the email header.
- Decrease email file size to less than 100kb so emails will display quickly on mobile devices.
- Fit content to mobile screens — this is different to reducing the file size. To do this you can either design messages with the appropriate pixel width requirement or by using cascading style sheets (CSS) where multiple HTML styles are created so content can automatically adjust to different mobile device display sizes.
- Shorten subject lines — mobiles truncate long subject lines, so be sure to get your point across quickly in around 30 characters.
- Use mobile-friendly calls to action — unlike the above points, which adapt your existing emails to look good on mobile devices, marketers can also tap in to the immediacy of mobile use with specific campaigns for recipients. For example, retailers have seen success with deal-of-the-day email offers and mobile specific calls to action such as click to call and download app.
- Add finger space around links — the average adult finger is 45 pixels wide so allow 10-15 pixels more for finger-clicking space to avoid people tapping on the wrong link.
- Link to mobile-optimised or specific landing pages — traditional web pages are often to cluttered and slow to load for smartphones. You are able to streamline content for needs, for example directions to stores and one click purchases for your registered users.
Using these steps will immediately improve the relevance of your email campaigns but to leverage long-term opportunities and benefits of m-commerce and mobile marketing, you should also be analysing your customer lifecycles to determine when to send your broadcasts to influence key touch points. This will instigate the desired action and behaviour at these crucial decision points.
This post originally appeared on the DMA UK Email Marketing Council blog. Simon Bowker is UK managing director at eCircle.
How to use website analytics without breaking the law
May 14, 2012
Are you interested in how many people visit your website, how they get there and what they view?
I bet you are, we all are.
The intelligence provided to us by solutions such as Google Analytics is incredibly important in building a relevant, focused resource that turns website visitors into buyers.
However, from 26 May 2012, UK businesses using the cookies that enable us to track this valuable marketing information will be breaking the law. Full details of the changes and implications are detailed in the IT Donut Cookie Law Guide.
If you’ve not already prepared your website for the changes what options do you have to keep on the right side of the law?
Total compliance
Achieving total compliance means gaining “opt in” consent from UK website visitors prior to using cookies. This can be achieved by adding a message and opt-in button in various places on your website.
Problem solved?
Well yes from a compliance point of view, but not from a marketing point of view. When the UK Information Commissioner’s Office changed their own website 90% chose not to opt in. That’s a sobering figure for anyone interested in how visitors find and use their website. A 10% data sample is useless for most purposes.
An option to have total compliance without opt-in consent would be to use an analytics provider whose software does not use cookies, such as eVisit Analyst.
Non-compliance
The other extreme is to ignore the issue entirely.
You could continue to track users using cookies in the hope that the ICO isn’t going to chase every small business and fine them all the maximum £500,000 allowed under this legislation.
Bit of a gamble though, don’t you think?
Plus, are your prospects and customers going to trust you if they can see that you are blatantly breaking the law?
This brings us to a third option.
Partial compliance
There is a glimmer of hope for businesses that want to keep their analytics data without offering opt-in consent.
In their “Guidance on the rules on use of cookies and similar technologies” Version 2 13th December 2011 the Information Commissioner's Office writes:
“In practice we would expect you to provide clear information to users about analytical cookies and take what steps you can to seek their agreement. This is likely to involve making the argument to show users why these cookies are useful. Although the Information Commissioner cannot completely exclude the possibility of formal action in any area, it is highly unlikely that priority for any formal action would be given to focusing on uses of cookies where there is a low level of intrusiveness and risk of harm to individuals. Provided clear information is given about their activities we are highly unlikely to prioritise first party cookies used only for analytical purposes in any consideration of regulatory action.”
However, this shouldn’t be seen as a reprieve. UK businesses have already been given twelve months’ notice to get their sites ready which ends when the law becomes enforceable on the 26th May 2012.
Partial compliance could be achieved with three steps:
Step #1
Complete a cookie audit of your website as outlined in the IT Donut Cookie Law Guide.
Step #2
Add a prominent link to your detailed privacy policy with a full account of the names and nature of the cookies used. The policy used on the UK Information Commissioner's Office website is a good example and contains a link to a website explaining the nature of cookies and how to remove them. A further example is available at aboutcookies.org.
Step #3
Create a written action plan for total compliance to follow if necessary once the enforcement decisions and process become clearer after the 26th May 2012.
To sum up
The interpretation of these changes and their enforcement will become clearer in the coming weeks but the implications are certain. Taking no action will not only mean you’re breaking the law but risking valuable trust.
To keep your website analytics you’re going to need to make some changes to achieve either partial or full compliance.
What stance will you take? Please join me in a discussion in the comments.
Robert Peters is a Small Business Advisor and Director of Fresh Eyes Consultancy.
Affordable advertising for small businesses
May 14, 2012
The majority of small businesses are owned and operated by a single person with a very limited amount of capital. In fact, many small business owners start their firms with life savings. So, money for advertising is in short supply. However, there are cost-effective ways for SMEs to promote their products and services.
Here are six back-to-basics advertising ideas for small firms:
1. Special offers
Sites like Groupon allow small firms to offer coupons and discounts. Another way to spread the word about special offers is to distribute leaflets in your local area, either door-to-door or by giving out flyers in shopping centres.
2. Cross promotion
It’s a good idea to partner with businesses that offer complementary products in the same target market as yours. By creating an attractive cross promotion, you can capitalise on the goodwill each firm has built up within their own customer base.
3. Word of mouth
Make sure you always go the extra mile for your customers. Good feedback and customer satisfaction goes a long way in getting new and repeat business and word of mouth is still one of the best and cheapest ways to advertise your business.
4. Online presence
Make sure your website is effective and easy to navigate. Hire a good designer who can also advise on SEO. It’s vital that your website ranks highly in major search engines for important keywords related to your business.
5. Social media
Promote your business online by using social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s also a good idea to create a short video about your business and put it up on YouTube so potential customers can get a glimpse of your products and services.
6. Press releases
Getting mentioned in the press is not easy but PR can be cheap and positive coverage in both print and online media is a fantastic way to drive sales. Write press releases to spread news about your business.
A word of caution…
You need to be careful in the approach you take. When you try a new advertising method, assess the results before you invest more money. Avoid false advertising methods like bait and switch, misleading facts and deceptive pricing. Above all, remember that your target audience may be quite small and any negative reviews about your business could spread fast.
Keith Allen runs a website for SMEs, Advertising for Small Business.
Business mentoring — a two-way street
May 10, 2012
I was recently announced as one of the Ambassadors for the government's Get Mentoring programme.
In our book The Beermat Entrepreneur we said the first thing anyone should do once they have a business idea is to find a mentor.
I have mentored, face-to-face, more than a thousand people and am convinced that finding a mentor is the single most important factor in turning a good idea into a great business.
When you're starting out, the best possible support you can get is from someone who has run their own business. The mentor doesn't have to know everything, as long as they're clear where their knowledge ends, and are willing to share their experience when it matters.
A good mentor isn't in it for their own benefit: they are there to inspire, support and listen, as their mentees navigate their way to success. That's not to say that the mentor doesn't gain anything. I can safely say that I have learnt something from every one of my mentees. Not only does mentoring keep my business perspective fresh and current, it's incredibly inspiring watching entrepreneurs develop confidence and success as their businesses start and grow.
There are many recurring themes when you're mentoring, but no two people or businesses are ever the same. In the early days people often think they should organise premises, materials and brochures before they can start the business. Instead I encourage people to get a cash surplus first, to lead them to a point where they can establish their business entity. Only then should they work on creating the collateral to support it.
The challenges of growth
As companies grow, the lines of communication become more difficult and it's common to find successful companies suddenly struggling to deliver. A mentor's role is to draw on their own experience to guide individuals through the challenges of moving away from the coalface and delegating delivery to others. Entrepreneurs often feel like it's the first time a business has faced these challenges, but anyone who has run their own enterprise knows that although the products and services change, the challenges around start up and growth are often common to all.
I'm delighted to be a mentoring ambassador and support Get Mentoring. I'd strongly encourage everyone that's taken the entrepreneurial journey themselves to sign up as a volunteer mentor and benefit from the free mentor training that's available.
Mentoring is an enriching experience that helps other businesses to realise their potential and enables entrepreneurs like me to revisit their own business with fresh eyes.
Mike Southon is the co-author of The Beermat Entrepreneur and a business speaker.
Integrating Facebook with your main store
May 08, 2012
Both large and small companies have set up storefronts on Facebook and it is claimed that thousands of companies are making significant revenue on the platform, principally with products that are more viral — like books, movies and entertainment. However it is still early days and as yet there have been no huge successes, but the potential makes it worth experimenting.
Taking credit
The vast majority of the $5 billion per annum consumer spend on Facebook is related to games. Indeed, a lot of this commercial activity uses Facebook credits. Credits are purchased directly in an app with a credit card, PayPal or mobile phone payment. This virtual currency is used to purchase goods in games or apps where Facebook takes a 30% margin.
Facebook does however offer a real opportunity to complement an existing ecommerce store. If prospects were already aware of your store and your products they would type in your web address to their browser or find you in a search engine. Facebook enables you to promote yourself even before they are actively searching for what you offer.
You need to be able to easily take the contents of your store and sell stock from your Facebook fan page. That way, shoppers browse your products directly on your Facebook storefront. This creates a familiar and secure shopping environment that helps to turn shoppers into buyers. With Facebook's built-in features that enable social sharing and commenting, shoppers can easily share products they like, driving further traffic to your Facebook store.
Integrating the two stores
The actual process of setting up a Facebook shop is straight-forward. A number of ecommerce solutions now allow the creation of such stores, and can enable you to manage a Facebook store and your own ecommerce site, from one single control panel.
Managing your online commerce in this way helps you to keep on top of your orders and stock otherwise you can soon find yourself selling products you no longer have and creating additional administration and disgruntled customers.
What’s more, purchasing goods on Facebook becomes a social experience and is a great way of promoting your shop and products to a wider audience.
Make it worth their while
The challenge is to build your fan-base so that there is something in it for them. Social networks are about sharing information so you have to make sure your shop is selling either niche products or has enticing offers to ensure the conversation is about you rather than another Facebook store.
It’s worth offering specific incentives to encourage Facebook users to like your page and spread the word about your products to their friends. Try giving them access to exclusive offers if they click the ‘Like’ button.
Having won followers, you then need to keep your fan page alive with fresh content as there is no bigger turn off than a Facebook page that has not been updated in months. Keep sales messages to a maximum of 20% of your content with the remainder providing real value to your followers with industry content, seasonal ideas, news, humour, tips and tricks.
Simon Armstrong is the marketing manager of Actinic. Download Actinic’s free white paper on Selling on Facebook.
How to motivate your customers to buy
May 02, 2012
It’s fascinating how a simple change of language can completely alter your perspective on something. In a meeting with David Tovey from Principled Selling, we were looking at stages in the buying decision and discussing which parts are marketing, which sales, and which customer service.
To my mind, marketing is the act of taking your products and services to market, and is therefore the umbrella term for the joined-up whole. However, I conceded that most people see marketing as filling the top end of a sales funnel. The awareness and lead generation bit. Then David said something brilliant. He said, “we don’t call it marketing; we call it motivating” — and he is spot on!
Use the word marketing and many people think of fluffy branding activity or expensive awareness campaigns. Many of which seem to have little link to an actual sale at the end of the day. But, if you switch the word to talk about how you’re going to motivate potential buyers to want to talk to you, and then to want to buy from you, and then to want to keep buying from you; then the purpose of the activity becomes clear. The purpose is to help them.
The most motivating thing of all is to be genuinely helpful. If you can help your potential buyer to achieve something that’s on their list, then you’re on to a winner. So, think about the steps in a buying decision and think about ways to be helpful…
- If they’re scoping a project, think about a blog or paper that helps them to prepare a project brief.
- If they’re choosing between suppliers, think about providing a scorecard of key criteria against which to assess potential suppliers.
- If they’re teetering on the edge of a decision, find a way of letting them try before they buy with a trial or gateway product.
So, ask yourself if what you’re putting out there is helpful? If the answer is yes, then it’s likely to be motivating.
And, that’s good marketing.
Bryony Thomas is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and a marketing consultant, speaker, and author. Her first book – Watertight Marketing – will be available Summer 2012. This blog originally appeared here.
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