To blog or not to blog, that is the question – Well it is for some of our customers who ask us!

Blogging is now one of the biggest things ever to hit the Internet. It comes from the term “weblog”, when people joined forums and discussion groups and the term eventually became the verb, “blogging”.

Blogging is like on on-line diary where you can leave your thoughts and opinions on numerous subjects for other people to see. People can comment on your blog and your views and blogs can often lead to other people’s blogs, this all raises your visibility as being an expert in your niche.

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about (Wilde Ibid.ch1)

In the early days, it was just about creating your own web page, but now it is about creating your own blog, it’s that good! Blogging is so popular in fact, that it is now a mainstream marketing medium and is used frequently to advertise new products and services. Sometimes this is subtly done, so as not to make it obvious what is taking place. Subliminal advertising does take place in blogging every bit as much as it does in the mainstream media.

So for example, if you need the latest information on the latest item you want to purchase you don’t have to rely on mainstream media anymore you can look at the latest information contained in blogs, although you need to know that the information is accurate so you need to be careful as to which blogs are factual and reliable. You can get real third part endorsements (or not!) and not just rely on what the manufacturer would leave you to believe.

The most useful aspect of blogs is that they can use almost any type of media and you can access them on your PC or your mobile device.
A blog need not be a long post though; there is now the concept of “Micro” blogs which simply means a very short post on a particular topic – it’s completely up to you
However, in order to be a successful blogger you need to make regular entries which are hopefully interesting and informative. This helps to build up readerships and if you are good enough, a fan base. It helps if you know what you are talking about and you have something interesting to say.
There are a number of sites you can visit to get you started. The one we recommend is WordPress but there are numerous blogging sites and most of these are free to join. The paid sites usually offer additional features, should you require them.

Why have a blog:-

• enable companies to engage with their audience/customers and gather feedback (collaborative approach to marketing)
• establish the company as a thought leader with gravitas (and so help win new clients)
• provide an informal voice for the company and add personality to the organisation (an antidote to faceless press releases)
• provide a platform for the company to openly respond to criticism (reputation management)
• pull down internal barriers – not everybody in large organisations can meet the CEO, but via a blog, they can know what he thinks / does
• act as repository of press releases, company announcements etc
• provide staff with a chance to share their passion for their work with the outside world
• assist with SEO as part of a wider search engine optimisation strategy

However – and this is absolutely crucial – if the company does not have a lot to say, or does not have the resources to regularly update a blog (and by this I mean weekly, if not daily – we can sort this for you as part of our service), then a blog may not be right for the website. Blogs are like any other tool. If used properly they can yield results; but if used poorly they can reflect negatively on the company – an abandoned blog is never a positive thing – not dissimilar to an out of date web-site.

Pros

1. Dialogue with consumers
2. Regular turnover of content to give consumers reason to return
3. Seen to be embracing Web 2.0
4. Search engine visibility
5. Requires little budget input

Cons

1. Time consuming activity, keeping content fresh and updated
2. Lack of control vs. over-moderation
3. Hard to measure ROI

Take a look at this video we found on Youtube… some people have too much time on their hands;-)

Morgan PR Public Relations Berkshire

With the recession gripping the economy hard, everyone wants new business! However, what about your existing clients? Are they happy? Really truly happy? How do you know?

At public relations company Morgan PR we are renown for ‘creating reputations’ but we also protect them too and only a fool neglects their customers in the current economic climate.

So, be honest, when was the last time you asked your clients what they like about your product or service and what they want you to change?

Happy customers are your best ambassadors and when you take the time to ask them how they are, they will talk to others about you! After all, when did your suppliers last contact you? Businesses often neglect their customers and you should not be one of those!

Even better, when did you last get an independent company to do that for you? At Morgan PR we carry out customer surveys for many businesses who care about what their customers think, want them to carry on being their customers and want them to refer new customers as well.

By carrying out structured telephone interviews with your clients, we can supply your company with a strategic report that contains both qualitative comments and quantitative data to help you make a difference to your customer service, retain your current clients and get you new ones.

We can also secure powerful testimonials which could lead on to case studies, which are acknowledged as a powerful piece of marketing collateral that promotes both you are your clients.

How loyal do you think a client becomes when you post such material on your website?

We already work with a number of IRUN clients and know how hard they work for their clients and we want to help. Contact us today to take advantage of our special offer exclusively for IRUN clients.

You give us the contact details of up to five customers and we will ask them a range of key questions and produce a strategic report that will give you a true insight into what your customers think of your business.

This is available for a special price of only £149 +VAT, but we’re closing this special offer on March 31st – so you haven’t got long to act!

Call us on 0845 00 33 666 or Contact Morgan PR and discover what your customers think.

There are many decisions that need to be made in presenting your ecommunication. Below are some of the thoughts you need to consider:

Make your lines and paragraphs short. (subtle enough!)

The use of long sentences and layouts which extend the lines right across the page are difficult to read. Many Studies have found that the maximum length of a line should be 55 characters. Shorter lines are okay, but lines which are longer seriously affect the readability.

A solution to this is to use fixed width tables and columns or perhaps

• bullet points

The type face used will radically affect the readability. Many studies have shown that printed material is more readable if a serif font is used (the ones with extensions on the type face) like New Times Roman, where as san serif fonts are more readable on the screen, such as Ariel and Verdana. Also the size of the type face is important – Use 10 pt type or larger if you want good readability, reserve smaller fonts for legal agreements etc.

The use of different colours (OK I’ve gone a bit mad but you get the idea) or bold and Italic text will assist, your eyes instantly find things that leap from the page, so make sure what is leaping is interesting. (pictures help here too)

Leaping Frog

Use multiple columns. Multiple columns have some advantages. Many templates have a two or three column layout; this is common on most email templates. Having two or three fixed width columns allows the reader to skip between one column and another, allowing items of interest to be picked up easily. Most people only read what they want to so make it easy for them to find something interesting.

Make sure the important messages are in the main column and not the side columns. When people read they go from top to bottom and rarely scroll back up. Save the side columns for snippets and other short not so important messages as well as some colour and patterns to break up the content.

 Avoid low contrast background colours and light text. Whilst coloured or patterned backgrounds look great, they do affect readability. As a rule, always use white backgrounds and black or very dark text. Use colour in the narrow side columns to boost the look and feel. Also be mindful that some of your readers will be colour-blind as well.

Finally, be mindful that many readers now use mobile devices to access email – this will become more common moving forward as smart phones explode on to the market. Ensure you do not use fixed width banners etc as this will make them almost impossible to read on such devices and will almost certainly commit your message to the bin.

For help with your email communications why not contact us we’d be delighted to help you.

Imagine that you’re stood at the bar in your favourite pub and you’ve got groups of people to the left and right of you. The crowd on your left are talking about last nights football scores, mmm you think I’m not overly interested in that conversation, but the crowd on your right are chatting about the Rugby which definately holds your attention. You’d probably want to get involved in that conversation, share your opinions and share your knowledge of the game with helpful website addresses that the others might find useful. Well fundamentally thats what Twitter is – a place where people ‘meet’ share ideas, post great articles and generally help each other out and ‘follow’ what everyone is doing. But you only get involved with the people that are like minded to you and with conversations that are of interest, that you think you can contribute to and vice versa. It really is that simple!

So how do you get started?

Twitter Home Page

Well to sign up for Twitter will basically take you approximately 30 seconds, you simply hit the join the conversation button and put in your username and password. Do fill out your Bio and put in a picture of yourself, after all this is a social site, we want to see who we’re talking to!

Once you’ve done this you need to ‘find people to follow’ – this is just like your selection of the Rugby crowd over the Football crowd. To get you started let me give you a few great people that you can immediately follow and who I know will help you out

1) Nigel_Morgan (our very own Berkshire PR expert)
2) Adrian_Scott (specialised online business software, intranets and Extranets)
3) grahamjones (what this man doesn’t know about blogging simply isn’t worth knowing)
4) Markshaw ( a specialist in Twitter – he will answer any questions you’ve got)

and of course you can follow me, IrunNewbury.

What happens next?

Well you will be presented with a box which states ‘What are you doing?’ – this is where you type your text but its only a short message at 140 characters. You can if you want, type in quite literally what you are doing, but ‘making tea and eating biscuits’ simply won’t cut it for most people and you’ll find you won’t get into a good conversation. Instead try and be informative, link to some great articles or blogs that you like, or perhaps ask a question. (by the way as you’ve only got a limited space you might like to try tinyurl to shorten your link) In doing this you will find that people will be interested in what you have to say and will follow you.

Aswell as being presented with this text box your home page will start filling up with ‘tweets’ from the users you are following (a tweet is simply the 140 character message) – soon you will start to see quite a thread growing and you will soon find that you want to reply to someones post, with comment or useful information.

I want to Post a reply to someone – how do I do that?

You still use your ‘what are you doing?’ text box but at the start of your message you type in the username of the person you want to reply to with the prefix @. So for example if you wanted to reply to me it would be @IrunNewbury. That way everyone can follow the conversation thread.

So you’ve got a twitter account, you can post a ‘tweet’ and reply to a tweet. Here endith lesson 1 in the world of Twitter. Next month I will talk about re-tweets and other peices of software that might help you keep ontop of all the conversations you’ll be having.

If you still think this is a lot of old gobbledygook then why not take a look at this blogpost from Chris Brogan, 50 ideas on Using Twitter for Business  - how did I stumble across this, by tweeting of course

I was there to talk to them about internet marketing, something that is close to my heart, so I was delighted to see that they have also started a blog which you can take a look at here. They certainly have some very interesting stories to tell from their onsite visits where they restore staircases and Walnut  and Oak panelling through to pieces of furniture that have been damaged by flood water. Cartainly if you have any prized possessions that need a little bit of TLC then Brian Matthews Restoration is the place for you!

Walnut Panel Repair

So what is the best format?

This is a constantly moving target, however through our experience and by constant testing we have developed a methodology that works. For the purpose of explaining this, I will start at the top of the ecommunication and work down, pointing out the areas of focus as we go.

1. Give the recipient a reason to open your ecommunication
As explained in a previous article, the subject line is the most important line of the document – its the one that either gets your recipients attention and action or commits you to the junk mail box. Unless this interests your reader they will often just pass you by, even if they know you. This subject line must answer the question “What’s in it for me?” and how will it benefit them. Personalisation of the subject line is also recommended as this catches the eye and increases the open rates dramatically.

2. Create a trusted identity
Studies have shown that when recipients are sorting emails, the two things that make them open emails are the subject line and the “From” field.

It is important that you use a person or organisation that the reader recognises. You are attempting to build a relationship with that reader and so having a consistent identity will help build that relationship, and make them eager to read what you are sending them.

For an individual it is good to choose a recognisable name of somebody (this needs to be a real person too just in case the reader wants to phone you!). This can be the CEO or MD or Marketing Manager, but it has to be a real person. Once you start using this name, don’t switch it about – be consistent.

The one warning is that if your content is not of value to the recipient, you will become a reason to delete the communication.

3. Use HTML formats instead of Text (mostly)
In general terms, HTML would be the format of choice, but here are a few exceptions to the rule. HTML offers several distinct advantages over text format:

• Click through rates (CTR) is generally double that of text communications
• Tracking codes can be embedded easily in HTML enabling you to follow the behaviour of the reader and the effectiveness of your offers
• Readability and design is enhanced using colour, graphics and fonts not available in text formats
• Product pictures make a visual impact on the reader, increasing conversion rates in sales campaigns

Text format does have its part to play, especially with the use of Mobile devices and PDA’s that are used to read emails. Not all of these devices accept HTML so a text format will get through. Some government or corporate organisations strip HTML from emails to protect against viruses making the emails unpredictable in what will be viewed by the user.

Ecommunication best practice dictates that you should let your reader decide what format they want to receive the email in, either HTML or Text, so ask them and deliver what they want. This can easily be done at the subscribe stage via a check box in the form (I suggest you pre-check the HTML box for them).

Sally Rainbow-Ockwell,Action Business Coach

I belong to the Action Profit club and regulary attend meetings hosted by the No 1 Action business coach in the South of England, Sally Rainbow Ockwell. Well yesterday was no exception to the little gems of information that get distributed throughout the session (alongside the mutual support that you get from likeminded business owners). Yesterday we were thinking about our value proposition and it surprised me to realise that it actually comes down to 3 elements, and you can only really concentrate on one of them. Let me explain.

The 3 elements concerned are Brand, experience or product, now they all do interelate slightly but if you can build your business, ethics and process around one of these areas then your customers will understand what to expect from you and ‘what you’re all about’. Such a simple concept but one that we can all adopt!

We explored this further in our session, but not to steal Sallys thunder I do suggest that you pay profit club a visit or at very least give Sally a call.

Flutterby Crafts New Shop!

I was fortunate enough to meet the girls at flutterbycrafts a couple of years ago and have helped them with their website ever since and so was delighted to receive Lynns email first with the correct answer to our January Competition. (HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language) I know Lynn never takes a break from her business as I typically receive emails from her when she’s burning the midnight oil, so I’m delighted that she can take some time out and can have a pamper session at the Wellbeing Centre with our compliments.

For those of you who have never been into Lynns shops, it really is a place you can lose yourself for hours.(Alternatively if you can’t make it you can purchase online) They specialise in anything and everything to do with paper crafting, beading, arts and crafts and scrapbooking…. and are happy to help and offer advice on all things crafty! Kids absoluely love having a look, and Lynn frequently puts on workshops during the school holidays to help with those “mum, I’m bored” moments. For the big kid in you, I definately recommend a visit – I love it

Email Marketing

 

Following on from Last month’s topic of eMarketing, now you have decided to use Internet Marketing, how do you make sure your email gets opened and read?

The aim is not a quick hit and run, what you are trying to do is build a long lasting relationship with your customer, build rapport and ensure they look forward to receiving your email and the content of it.

The easiest starting point is your existing customers. They already know you; have experience of using your products or services, and are probably ready to spend money right now. The fact is many companies rarely or even never communicate with their customers in any way – but you can guarantee that your competitors are looking to talk to them (as you probably are try to talk to their customers too!).

This relationship must have more than the latest offers you are making, you need to build the rapport over a number of communications and not bombard them with unwanted “specials”. What you do need to do is reward your customers for their loyalty, add value to what you are sending them and make this regular so they expect it and make a hbit of reading your content and using you more frequently.

Here are a few suggestions of things you can do to make sure your customers open your email and not add you to blocked senders:

1. Ensure your audience is addressed correctly and keep these records upto date
2. If somebody “opt out” make sure you remove them from future mailings – it’s about credibilityMake sure you have a privacy policy on your website so people know you will not be selling their information on to another party.
3. Make sure you show your company address and details on your website.
4. Make sure you use a real person address to send and get return emails from – not a marketing @fred.com type thing – you are trying to build a relationship after all.
5. Make sure the unsubscribe instructions are clear and simple.
6. Use an authentic subject line which is not misleading – if it says “we can save you a million pounds” you need to be sure you can! Nobody likes to be tricked do they!!

So how do you get your emails opened?

Without doubt, if you get the subject line right, your open rates will raise. You are competing with hundreds of other emails in your targets inbox, so you need to stand out in the crowd. Here are a few of our top tips:

Tip 1: Keep your subject lines short. It has been proven that subject lines with less than 35 characters are more likely to be opened than those with longer subject lines. Keep it short and sweet, making sure your benefit or offer is at the beginning of the line.

Tip 2: Keep the formatting simple. Don’t capitalise the title completely, or even each word, just right it normally and avoid exclamation marks etc.

Tip 3: Get your customer interested. Use and angle to make them curious and grab their attention, or create a sense of urgency in opening your email like adding a time limit or similar.

Tip 4: Make sure your subject line is not misleading and relates to the content contained in the body of the email. Your credibility is at stake so you need to make sure you do not go to the spam folder or unsubscribe.

The key to this all is testing. Try a few, say 10% of your email list and see what the open rate is. If you are not happy, then change the subject line and try a further 10%. This does take time to perfect and it also changes with each offer you make so be patient. Getting it wrong will lead to poor results and frustration, however get it right and you generate more opportunities and business for very little cost. Over time, you will develop a “style” and writing subject lines will become easier.

Christmas Hamper

Congratulations to the winnners of the Irun Newbury Christmas competition – Ron and Sue Tanner of Garden4You, your local garden services provider.

The prize was awared for the first CORRECT answer to the following question recieved in our inbox:

True or False – Only male Reindeer have antlers?  The answer is FALSE.

We did have a really good response, but there can only be one winner – many thanks to all of you who responded.

The prize was a hamper from Bettys & Taylors specialities packed full of home made cakes, biscuits and treats.

Congratulations to Ron  and Sue.