Social Networks
The Digital Divide February 01, 2010 by Darryl Hall I've always maintained that technology can improve the quality of life for humanity. The ability to take complex tasks and break them down for a user, making communication faster and easier, aiding in education for the young and old. Technology is one of the main reasons for advancements in the western world in the past few decades. The only problem is that where some are given the opportunity to use technology to their advantage - others have little or no access to it. Take for example poor families that can't afford a computer, Internet access or mobile devices for their children. They are then reliant on school equipment to be able to take advantage of such tools. The same goes for developing countries. The western world is now over-reliant on its service sector, whereas the developing countries have to rely on their manufacturing sector. This means as much as we see huge growth in developing world economies, unless they move from manufacturing to service - they are going to have little to none of their populations gain the higher incomes needed to access modern technology. My overall point is that we need to take control of this divide, before it becomes too far to bridge. I can envisage a time where many will not be able to secure jobs because of their IT illiteracy. That's already happening in a lot of industries. Give it 10 years and will we see mass unemployment due to people not being up-to-date enough to understand how to do their jobs properly anymore, since it has become so IT intensive? Perhaps not - after all if IT becomes even more user friendly and powerful and technology becomes cheaper, then access isn't the problem nor is IT literacy. Either way - I believe that at least now, there is a clear digital divide and this is something I would like to see addressed in the UK at least. Gordon brown talks about giving laptops to disadvantaged families, I think this is a great first start and I would love to see more of these initiatives happen in the coming decade.
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Employee buy-in is essential Time and time again, it seems that no matter how effective the marketing campaign is that you create - it falls on its face when you don't get employee buy-in right. Let me explain. You've created a killer plan, it’s been built with your passion and marketed professionally and you've worked meticulously on the right strategy. Now calls start to come in enquiring about the product / service, they are put through to a sales exec, who answers their questions, only problem is that this sales exec doesn't feel as passionately about the marketed product/service as you have marketed it - in fact, it seems that the sales exec knows less about the product than the consumer. Another example, someone calls to enquire about a product, they go through to reception where an un-enthusiastic receptionist picks up. They request to talk to someone about the marketed product / service - only problem is that the receptionist doesn't know who to put them through to. This really isn't the situation you wanted to be in. When thinking about Marketing, some just think on the push factors involved, in getting the information out there into the public domain. What should also be looked at is the internal communication and 'buy-in'. When Marketing launch a new campaign, usually there will always be some internal negative attitudes towards it, either it wasn't created in the right way, or employees feel that it could have been done better. The way to avoid this is to ensure internal communication throughout projects is kept up continually. This will aid in awareness of campaigns currently going on, informing employees of the reasons behind it. Create passion in the way you market internally, to harness employee buy-in and you can complete the marketing cycle and ensure your campaign isn't hampered in the last mile.
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Good Marketing can become Great Marketing with a little... January 20, 2010 by Darryl Hall
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Some top tips for eMarketing HTML – not as important HTML is not as important as having great content, a subject line that generates interest, a trusted source that the email is coming from and an action that the preview pane can give the viewer. Designed for Preview Pane Always design the email message with the preview pane in mind. The first 6 lines are the most important part of your email and the message you want to send across. A Newsletter needs to be… RELEVANT. ENGAGING. USEFUL Trigger Interest 80% of Direct Marketing (Including email) should be from an initial trigger, e.g. found interest in something, after a sales visit, etc… Start with a plan Have a strategic goal in mind. What is the reason for sending the email in the first place? What do you hope to achieve from it? How does it fit in with the rest of your plan? Split Test It Split testing it, means you can figure out what the most engaging message is and the overall response rate between different versions of the same email. This allows you to hone in on what motivates the viewer to read the email and click-through. Funnel Conversion Rate Use Google Analytics to figure out your conversion rate and whether the user is actually upon click-through, viewing what you want them to see on your website. High Individualisation Make the email and individual / personalised as possible… Just before the point where it is no longer a good ROI. Play on the fact that people love to read about themselves. Educate your audience Don’t over promote your company and services… If this is all you have to offer in ways of communication, then people will switch off and start to automatically delete your messages. Start with educating the audience on something relevant and interesting and work your way up into linking your company into it. Based on the information you learn from what they like / what they don’t like. You can then target them with services and products that will be of interest. A few more rules.. If at all possible, make the email anticipated, relevant and personal Understanding the customer Measure and understand the customer, based on the information that you collect on their click-through / opens / conversions SPAM Phrases – Learn Them Some words can be automatically tagged as potential SPAM indicators. Learn which specific words can put your SPAM score up and then change the email to be sure it gets through. Add Text Along with the HTML email, include a text version. This will lower the SPAM score by 1 point potentially. Purpose of each part Each part of the email has a different purpose and should follow some set rules… - The subject line should be about generating interest. Enough for the viewer to view the rest of the email and its content. - The FROM field needs to also be consistent / trusted, meaning it comes from someone they know already, who will be in their address book and any subsequent emails also come from that contact. Otherwise make sure the email address is at least “masked” so that it comes from your own domain name, instead of generic email software one, e.g. noreply@12422ccsend.com - The preview pane needs to contain the most vital of information that is to be contained in your email and MUST include an action.
Email Objectives Some basics objectives to use as a template… 1) Who is the reader? 2) What will they get out of it? 3) What is the action you want to achieve? 4) What is the response you want to receive? Eye Tracking – Some points about the design - People look from left to right - Bolden the areas you want people to read - The first 2 words of everything need to be strong, no point in wasting “The” and “Is”, etc.. - Heading copy – Focus on the copy in the headers for most impact - Make the header the click through, instead of a separate “Click here to read more” |