Category

Promotional techniques

Jul 25

How to increase email click through rates

By Email marketing, MailChimp No Comments

Best practice within email marketing avoids the wording ‘click here’ as click-through text within email marketing campaigns.

Many subscribers won’t click if you do this, as it is unclear where the link goes.

It also leaves out important information that disabled users require and suggests clicking a mouse, whilst many subscribers view emails using a touchscreen on their smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop.

Ensure that your link text is descriptive. It is better to have compelling and long click-through text, rather than uninformative, boring and brief text.

Point the click-through URL to the most relevant information currently available. Tell the reader that this is what you are doing.

For example, if you are referencing a product or service, send the link directly to the most up-to-date web page or resource. Write something like:

Click here to see the latest version of product XYZ

Include multiple links to the same content within a single campaign.

This is relevant for MailChimp campaigns with a single call to action (other email marketing platforms are available).

Place CTA (Call To Action) buttons within several campaign content areas.

For example, towards the top and the bottom of the campaign.

Try wording the text links differently.

Treat the click-through text as you would a headline.

Experiment with questions, use trigger words and make it so interesting that the reader feels that they must take a look at the end of the rainbow.

Then look at the MailChimp campaign report to see which version of the click-through text were the most effective.

Don’t worry about having multiple links to the same content: this will help to increase your click-through rate.

Nigel Temple provides MailChimp email marketing training – click here.

Jul 24

Promotional mix categories

By Internet marketing, Marketing strategy, Promotional techniques No Comments

36 Promotional categories
There are 300 ways to promote your business. They are divided into promotional mix categories. An example of a promotional category is Advertising which includes adverts in newspapers, magazines and online, i.e. via Google AdWords.

Choose your promotional mix carefully, as it is a good idea to stick with it (stop / start marketing doesn’t really work).

Many of the techniques available to you are free, some are low cost and others require a budget.

Here is a list of the 36 categories (which we discuss within The Marketing Compass community: www.marketingcompass.co.uk):

  1. Advertising
  2. Alliance Marketing Partners AMP
  3. Articles
  4. Audio recording
  5. Authorship
  6. Celebrity endorsements
  7. Channel marketing
  8. Corporate clothing
  9. Corporate identity
  10. Corporate hospitality
  11. Customers
  12. Direct mail
  13. Email marketing
  14. Events
  15. Internet marketing
  16. Location marketing
  17. Media relations
  18. Mobile marketing
  19. Networking
  20. Packaging
  21. Point of sale
  22. Printed matter
  23. Professional selling
  24. Promotional gifts
  25. Referrals
  26. Retail
  27. Sales promotion
  28. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  29. Social media
  30. Sponsorship
  31. Telemarketing
  32. Vehicle livery
  33. Videos
  34. Website
  35. Word of mouth
  36. Writing

With regards to the last category, copywriting used to be a specific skill, used within the advertising industry. With the advent of internet marketing, the ability to write clearly, combined with an explosion in innovative software means that writing is a promotional device in its own right.

Written by marketing consultant, trainer, speaker and author Nigel Temple.

Apr 30

How to get started with podcasting

By Podcasting, Promotional techniques No Comments

The Marketing Compass member Margi Ross (of Conscious Feminine fame) and I were talking about Podcasting during our monthly conversation. Podcasts have become popular, partly because since 2014, the Podcast app comes pre-installed on iPhones and other iOS devices.

One of the benefits of audio podcasts is that they are similar to radio broadcasts: you can listen whilst you are doing something else. This suits many of us, as we are leading such busy lives.

If you are wondering how to get started with podcasting, here the steps:

1.  Decide on a theme for your podcasts.to

2.  Mind Map or list topics that you can talk about for 7 to 10 minutes (you can record for much longer, however, 7 to 10 minutes is a good starting point).

3.  Decide whether you are going to get someone to record, edit and upload for you or whether you are going to record and edit yourself.

4.  If you want to have a go yourself, search for ‘Anchor podcast’ in the App store on your smartphone (it may show up as the 2nd or 3rd item). Anchor can be used to create, distribute, host and monetise your podcast and it is free. (As always with content sharing platforms, I advise you to read their Terms and Conditions).

Alternatively…..

5.  You will need a microphone that you can plugin to your computer.

6.  Download Audacity which is a free, cross-platform audio editor.

7.  Mind Map your first podcast. Yes, I know that you could type it out; however, reading a script so that it sounds natural is challenging, whereas a Mind Map will guide you through the podcast and you won’t have to shuffle papers.

8.  Have a few trial run-throughs, before you start recording.

9.  If you are using Audacity, export the audio file as an mp3 and upload it a platform such as Spreaker or Anchor (many others are available). From there, you can share your podcast.

There is a vast global audience out there waiting to hear from, why not start podcasting?

I am currently working on my inaugural podcast, by the way.

This item first appeared in my Compass Points newsletter which you can subscribe to here.

Margi Ross is a NavigatorPlus member of The Marketing Compass.

Apr 15

Website Press Room

By PR - media relations, Promotional techniques No Comments

If media coverage is part of your promotional mix, add a Press Room web page to your website. This is a professional touch and will help journalists. Therefore, it will help you to get more media / press coverage.

Be media friendly

Include ‘Press room’ within your navigation bar, as this demonstrates that you are media friendly. It should contain useful, relevant material for editors and journalists, written in a factual way (i.e. no sales pitches).

‘Press Room’ can appear in your principle website navigation bar, or it can be an off-shoot of ‘About’.

Here are the section headings for a Press Room website page:

Enterprise name

A brief (two or three paragraph) overview, including when the enterprise started trading; principle activities; markets served; points of differentiation.

Spokesperson(s) profile

Brief background – topics of expertise – contact details.

Press releases

A chronological list of press releases (most recent at the top). Include title of release + release date. Hyperlink to a separate page, containing the full text of the release.

Photographs

Display a selection of low resolution images for websites and describe how to request hi-resolution images for print.

Media contact

If someone else besides the Spokesperson (i.e a PR consultancy / PR Officer) liaises with the media, include their contact details.

Today, there is an overlap between PR and digital marketing as backlinks from media websites can help your search engine rankings.

I ran a PR consultancy for nine years – so Press Relations is a subject close to my heart. I have taken startups and ‘invisible brands’ and created massive awareness for them. I show my clients how they can achieve extensive PR coverage. You can ask about PR via The Marketing Compass community or contact me directly, here.

Apr 01

MailChimp Audiences

By Email marketing, MailChimp No Comments

MailChimp now thinks in terms of ‘Audiences’, not ‘Lists’.

If you have several lists, they are now referred to as ‘Audiences.’ To find your lists, under the ‘Audience’ navigation bar item, you will see a new page that shows information about the list with the most contacts. You can find all of your other lists (now audiences) in the dropdown.
MailChimp Audiences

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to see all the audiences in your account, select ‘View audiences’ in the (same) dropdown menu (it is at the end).

Campaigns and Reports are now viewed within the context of an audience at a time:

MailChimp Campaigns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have more than one audience in Mailchimp, your Campaigns and Reports pages will show information based on the audience you’ve selected. This means that you will see an overview of your email marketing to those contacts. If you need to view campaigns across all audiences at once, just choose “All audiences” from the dropdown.

If possible, keep all of your subscribers in one audience (list).

This item first appeared in my newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

Feb 19

How to write a Description tag

By Internet marketing, Promotional techniques, SEO No Comments

Within The Marketing Compass 2019 SEO Course (which NavigatorPlus members can access for free within the Resource Centre), we discuss Description tags. They provide a concise description of a web page, within a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). If a description tag is not there, the SERP result may show random wording, drawn from the web page.

On the one hand, since 2009, Description tags have not counted as Google ranking factors. However, because of the way in which they can make your search engine listing look better, they are important and well worth paying attention to. To put it another way, well-written Description tags will help you to get more visitors to your website.

Here is a screenshot of a Google search result. Notice that the Title tag (MailChimp training – Learn how to…) reads like a headline and that I have included a phone number. The Description tag text begins: ‘The training can be….’ These two elements in combination have always struck me as looking like an advert.

SERP page 1 for MailChimp training
You can have up to 300 characters including spaces within a Description tag.

Write about the benefits that are to be found within the web page. For example, as opposed to writing: ‘Here is our widgets page. It lists all of the widgets that we sell.’

You could write this: ‘Find the right widget for your requirements. You can specify your widgets by size, material, colour and price. We’re the leading widget supplier and we are here to help. Our vast warehouse ensures that we’re always in stock. Order online or apply for an account. Questions? Call: 01234 56789.’

(292 characters including spaces between words; it is quite a lot of text, isn’t it?)

Use the words ‘you’ and ‘your’ within your Description tags, as this will feel more personal for the reader.

It is better to write in an upbeat, positive way.

Use short sentences and short words.

Where you are marketing a product or service, include a call to action.

If you are a WordPress user, Yoast is helpful.

You will find more detail and ideas within the SEO course – click here.

Nigel offers Google SEO training.

PS This article first appeared in my marketing tips email which you can subscribe to here.

Dec 20
Digital marketing consultant

Choosing an internet marketing consultant

By Internet marketing, Nigel Temple, Promotional techniques, SEO, Social media, Websites

Impartial, independent third party advice and feedback on your internet marketing activities can make all the difference. Here is a checklist for choosing an internet marketing consultant:

* Begin by deciding what you want the consultant to help you with, i.e. creating an internet marketing plan, increasing traffic, a website review, web copywriting review, an SEO audit and feedback, improving social media engagement, improving conversion rates,  generating more enquiries / sales (or all of these).
* Look for someone with a wide range of experience in different industries
* Does their website give you confidence? Is it well designed, does it look professional and is it easy to navigate?
* Do they display testimonials within their website?
* Does the consultant also teach? Where have they taught internet marketing?
* Does the consultant understand web copywriting?
* Can they demonstrate a thorough understanding of SEO?
* Do they have professional marketing qualifications, for example a marketing degree?
* Has the consultant built any websites? How successful are these sites?
* How many clients has the consultant worked for?
* How quickly do they respond to your enquiry?

Choose three or four consultants and talk to them on the phone. Ask them to give you some initial feedback on your website. Request a written quotation for their services by email.

Read about Nigel’s digital marketing consultant services.

Here is some typical feedback:
“I revamped the site taking into your comments and the bookings have gone crazy. We’ve just had our best ever week! Thanks so much, your magic has worked!” ~ Neil Ross

Nigel Temple internet marketing consultantNigel Temple is an internet marketing consultant, author, speaker and trainer. He shows business owners, professionals and teams how to get better results from 21st century marketing – including online brand awareness, improved search engine rankings, social media effectiveness, website traffic and sales enquiries / sales.

Nigel has taught internet marketing since 2000. He served as a Faculty Member and Course Director at CIM (the Chartered Institute of Marketing) for 12 years. He led over 500 Business Link workshops, focusing on website effectiveness, SEO and social media. Today, he delivers internet marketing events for The Marketing Compass which provides impartial marketing advice for business owners. He has worked in dozens of countries around the world including the USA, Dubai and Japan.

To find out more about Nigel’s services email joanna@nigeltemple.com or call Joanna on +44 (0)1628 773128.

He welcomes media enquiries about 21st century marketing, social media and digital marketing. He has appeared within the national press and broadcast media.

Nigel is the founder of The Marketing Compass – join thousands of business owners, tell us about your business and ask some marketing questions,

Here is an online SEO course.

Follow Nigel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nigeltemple

Nov 13

Are Google AdWords effective?

By Google AdWords, Internet marketing, Products No Comments

Are Google AdWords campaigns effective? The answer is that yes, they can be, in the right hands. This is also true of advertising in a wider context. You may be asking yourself: will advertising work for my enterprise? If you have a good offer and are prepared to stick with it, then advertising can work.

However, bear in mind that there are 36 promotional mix categories to choose from and over 300 promotional techniques, so there are many options – including paid for advertising.

Google Adwords has been part of many successful promotional campaigns, however you have to invest time and money to make them work.

The challenge is that there are many factors to take into account including objectives; the length of time that you are prepared to spend learning how the system works; your daily / monthly budget; how much you are prepared to pay for a click through; how good your headlines are; the offer that you make within your advertisements; where the click through takes the customer; your landing pages; your skills as a copywriter and your approach to measurement.

If you are starting out with AdWords, you should spend some time familiarising yourself with the user interface. Shift + ? …will show you the keyboard shortcuts, incidentally.

It is important to have a well organised Google AdWords account. It is all too easy for the account to become cluttered. For example, ensure that ad groups, adverts and keywords are related.

AdWords can be confusing, particularly for first time users. Here is a tip: start with (Google) search network campaigns. When someone uses a search engine for they are looking for an answer to something, i.e. where can I buy a product that I am interested in? Getting your ads into the top of the search results page is much more effective than seeing them appear at the foot of the page, by the way.

Effective Google AdWords campaigns start small and begin with testing. Don’t run one ad – run at least two ads containing one changed variable, i.e the headline.  This is time consuming, which is why many people seek outside help.

As Henry Ford said: stopping advertising to save money is like stopping a clock to save time.

Sep 11

Cloud-based marketing apps and services

By CRM, Customer care, Customers, Internet marketing, MailChimp, Marketing strategy, Software, Technology One Comment

How many cloud-based marketing apps and services do you use? How many of them connect to each other? Has it all grown organically, or was it planned? The last few years has seen a dramatic rise in the number of marketing related services that are available in the cloud.  Some of them are free, others are cheap as chips and some are relatively expensive.

Here are some of them:

CRM (Customer Relationship Management systems)
* Capsule CRM
* Salesforce
* Zoho

Website
* Squarespace
* WordPress
* Wix

Forms
* Formstack
* Gravity
* Wufoo

Email marketing
* ConstantContact
* Dotmailer
* MailChimp

Many enterprises now capture (in a GDPR compliant fashion) customer contact information which triggers a series of events. For example, an automated Welcome email; a record being created within a CRM system; and a task for a salesperson to contact the customer. If you are already doing this, that’s great – however most businesses are not doing so (or anything close to it).

It is important to see the whole thing from the customer’s perspective. Is the software helping them? Is it easy for them to use? Does it actually work? What do the metrics tell you about customer behaviour? How can you improve performance and results?

To what extent does the software give you a competitive advantage? What is the strategic thinking behind the deployment of these services? Have you implemented back-up and recovery processes?

My work as an internet marketing consultant, MailChimp trainer  and Capsule CRM consultant and trainer has meant that I have had to learn a great deal about cloud-based marketing apps  and services, as my clients ask me questions about how to solve a business issue or how to get X software talking to Y software.

I suggest that you list all of the apps / services that you use and think about how they are currently connected. See the whole thing as one big picture.

Jul 06
Postcard marketing benefits

Postcard marketing benefits and ideas

By MailChimp, Promotional techniques No Comments

I have always loved postcards, as a promotional technique. Here is a list of postcard marketing benefits:

*  They are inexpensive to produce
*  There is no envelope, which means that your postcards will be read
*  You can print in full colour on the front
*  Postcards allow you to be creative
*  Postcards can be used for customer education, i.e a series of tips and ideas can be sent using postcards
*  You can send postcards (with permission) directly to the customer; therefore it is a more targeted form of marketing than traditional advertising
*  Postcards are versatile: you can experiment with different sizes, images, headlines and sequences
*  Postcards can be fun and engaging
*  They are quick to produce
*  They can be personalised

They can be used to:

*  Produce sales leads
*  Launch new products / services
*  Announce special offers
*  …and many other things

Think of your postcard as an advertisement. On this basis, you would have a headline, image and bodycopy. The headline will determine whether the customer reads the bodycopy (text).

Personally, I have always liked DL sized postcards (1/3rd A4).

Print your postcards on a reasonably thick stock, so that they are not flimsy.

If you are starting out with this promotional technique (of which there are several hundred), I suggest that you start with low quantities and run some tests.

If you would like to use this idea within your marketing, I can help with strategy, ideas, headlines, copywriting and artwork.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about postcard marketing benefits, you can ask questions about this topic within The Marketing Compass website.

Interestingly, MailChimp has launched a postcard marketing service.

MailChimp postcard marketing

PS Remember that all of your marketing has to be GDPR compliant if your business is in Europe.