Archive for July, 2008

Email newsletters - new on the block

Friday, July 25th, 2008

One of my clients just got their very first email newsletter from a supplier. 

Oh my goodness, it is so DULL.  Here's the opening paragraphs

Welcome to the first edition of XYZ's Connections e-Newsletter, designed to provide timely information and tools to help your business run more efficiently.

The cornerstone of our first issue is exciting news about the global alignment of our organisation and the development of our powerful international processing platform, designed to help your business efficiently accommodate industry regulations and technological advancements.

 I have changed their name to protect the innocent and deadly communications advisor who must be surely about to lose his job for sending out such twaffle. 

Apart from being rather far behind the curve for newsletters (albeit sending it by email is vaguely 21st Century) This communication sucks. 

It's full of corproate-speak, management consultant catchphrases and has a TOTAL LACK of orientation around the customer.

Why would my client be interested in the "global alignment" of their organisation.  WIIFM? 

PS here's the text from the rest just to make you cringe further. The first sentence reminds me of a ghastly corporate mission statement written by Peter Jenner for Erdman Lewis while I worked there "Anticipating the needs our our clients, we bla bla bla…."

As we continue to add value to your business, we will provide you with industry-leading support and service. That is why each issue of Connections will connect you with valuable information about security, compliance and innovative solutions to help maximise your operational and financial efficiencies. We hope Connections helps you stay connected to your payments processing operations and the robust solutions XYZ offers.

Facebook for new client acquisition

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Update on yesterday's post about using Facebook to promote your agency …..

I got an immediate auto reply from ClickyMedia

Dear Rebecca,

Many thanks for your enquiry! 

A member of our internet marketing consultancy team will be in touch with you
shortly to see how we can help you.

In the mean time we have attached a Case Study for you to read.

We look forward to speaking with you shortly.

Kind Regards,

Sending a case study was a nice touch!

And then 40 minutes later, a reply from the Managing Director - Oliver Yeates

 Thanks for your email.

We do indeed generate business from Facebook advertising and it is entirely down to the levels of targeting we use.  We have specifically selected individuals whose job title includes the keywords "marketing" - this is why you will have seen our ad.

Here at Clicky Media we like to practise what we preach and our ads have certainly introduced our services to a number of Marketing professionals.

As with many on-line marketing opportunities which are arising after the huge success of Google Ads, click prices are relatively cheap and as such a very attractive return on investment is available.  Afterall we only pay for clicks ad the brand awareness and association is something we cannot afford to miss.Feel free to use this email on your blog.

Doubly nice.  And permission given without being asked! (well it is in my email signature….).

And so there's a really simple brief if you want to use FB - target job titles.  And from the logos on their site, FB is clearly one of the target areas they specialise in.

Well done. 

Who is Promoting their Agency on Facebook?

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

I have returned to facebook recently (to organise our annual Fest and Geeknbury).  It works well.

I forget how many people use it still very intensively.  But, what struck me as interesting was the number of creative agencies advertisign their services there.  They must really believe that businesses with purchasing power employ individuals who use FB….

here's who I found:

ClickyMedia - geo-social marketing (whatever that is!) 

Adstorm - online marketing specialist 

Data2Doormat.com - direct marketing (whose site is offline from the link)

And yesterday I saw Creation Agency (well I think it was them, but the ad's not serving today) 

Well - does it work?

I emailed each agency and will let you know the answers.