Creative Agency Secrets

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

I got an immediate auto reply crom 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. 

Thanks to Nico Macdonald for inviting me to chair two sessions at his Media Futures Conference next week.

I am going to be up there with Alex McKie and the guys from Plot…. Wicked! 

11.00:    Research in the real world – Alex McKie

11:30:      Meet the people formerly known as… users – Gill Wildman and Nick Durrant, Plot

He twittered it here 

Really looking forward to this. 

THe good just got really great.

sending unsolicited and inappropriate marketing messages has always been close to what we now call spam.  

In the blogosphere, this direct approach without first establishing an online relationship and credentials / rights is considered more invasive and inappropriate than in the offline or email-only world.

Bloggers are very good at negative publicity.  And at campaigning / lobbying.

This wiki suggests that people blog these PR companies' URLs.  I.e. get no email at all from them (and probably report them to spamcop and get the domain blocked at server level). And heres a list of individual email addresses blocked by the author of "The Long Tail" and editor of Wired Magazine.

How damaging will that be to your business?  Imagine, no emails getting through certain servers and to some key journalist/blogger individuals - and all because a colleague made a mistake… 

ACTION - check your PR company is not on that list and your individual PR representative isn't either.  Your brand is doomed online.  Move your business elsewhere. 

Companies that I know who are on the list include [note I am not linking this text] Edelman, Bigmouth, Bite, FourtyThree, Global Results, Lewis, Ogilvy, Porter Novelli, 

Wise up. 

I have written before about ways and means of doing this for yourself.

the simplest method is a Google Alert for your brand name (and any obvious mis-spellings).

But have a look at these alternatives

Bloppy
Co.mments

Bloppy juust tracks web posts and comments

Tired of losing track of the comments you wrote on blogs you like? Missing comments from other users? So was I! But fear no more. Now you can receive notifications on your email of new comments on your favorite blog posts! 

Co.mments also tracks posts but calls them 'conversations'

co.mments helps you stay on top of the conversation by keeping you updated of new comments. Just bookmark, track and follow.  

I am hosting my third breakfast event.  "Should Brands be Broadcasters?" on Wednesday 18th June, 2008 at One Alfred Place 

I run these breakfasts in order to showcase new ideas and innovative marketing thinking.  Past speakers include Adriana Lukas on Social Media and Mark McGuinnes s on the Enneagram. 

Three speakers will give their unique points of view on this issue:

Charlie Robertson, Red Spider speaking on extending brand strategy to the online world

Sign up here to come along!

PS if anyone is willing to blog the gig for me, please get in touch! 

Working today with a new client we discussed some basic stuff to do with knowing how you are represented online (particularly in places where you do not control the content).

1. Set up a Google Alert to search weekly on a 'comprehensive' basis for your name.  Set this up in quotes so that it searches for your names concatenated.
2. Google your own name. 
3. Google obvious mis-spellings of your name [Rebekah Carrow]
4. Check out Zoom Info for your name and click the button to say 'this is me' and edit the information to reflect your current contact details.

That's for starters.  Go for it!

Some ideas from a US group I belong to…. discussion thread What I learned from the Direct Marketing Revolution

[requires Facebook membership to read, sorry!) 

Good points:

• keep your own new business pipeline full now - it'll take ages to fill up after the recession passes
• cut marketing activities that can't be measured
• look for new undiscovered channels for traffic/signups/leads
• double up on things that are working
• test more with less exposure per test 

Dick Stroud of consultancy 20Plus30

5 things all digital agencies should know about aging
1 - when working for a client consider whether their product is age- neutral or not.  Sites tend to get optimised for a younger age group.
2 - Age is not a good proxy for behaviour.  The default is we are all age-neutral until proven otherwise.
3 - Physiological aging really does matter.  Useability is only the beginning.  Consider navigation, complexity, handling this si more deifficult with age.  The heat maps for older people are very different.
4 - Lifestyle is important - education and background are very importa determinants of web usage
5 - Social Networking issues - if the only unifying feature of the website is age this is a problem.  Interest-driven is more mportant.  

Steve Morgan MD of SQuiz
They have written a publishing plaform which hosts the 50Connect site.
- if a majority of traffic comes from search, nobody searches on "over 50 travel / finance / insurance".  Brand loyalty and a core user base is the only way to build traffic
- Dividing the market by age groups is pointless.  Event-driven is much better e.g. kids leaving home, illness
- Useability research show s related offers and products mucst be very clear and direct.  The audience i easy to lead. - networking creates teh sense of ownership / community strength.  If you change anhythying there is a backlash- Cap[tcha is too small - gridded background, colours and no contrast lost 70-80% by having it- Text based advertising works better than image-based. Don't use banners and skyscrapers.  Nostalgic images don't work.
- calls to action must be strong, bold and well-placed.  Consistent standards in article structure metter e.g. all same colour / place.  Raises CTR.

David Noble MD Wanobe
- the size of the market is a trap
- most older people never think of themselves of being the age they are
- show me by dreams not my mirror image.  Dreams are not age, health and wealth.  Treat them according to their potential for dreaming

Sarah Robinson, Research and planning director Millennium
There are 30-40 years of life left after 50.  Experiences of technology and itnernet vary.  Some are users equivalenbt to a 30 year old
Comfort with technology is important.  They are used to long copy and written letters.  Brought up in a non-visula age.
People think of themselves as being 10 years younger than they are
Search is not a problem but buying is.  Many want to check you are really there and to be sure your call centre is not in INdia.  Phone number = reassurance.

"The problem is with the under30s"  Desire instant gratifiction; judge based on popularity not reputation, longer attenation span when you are older'; value longer relationships; lsess peripheral vision affect page layouts

Alex Champan - Campbell Hooper - most B2B decision makers are over 50.  consider corproate sties with heavy language and simple naviation - gives indication that the mind state is corporate not consumer.

Sites
50notOut - this appears to be a cricket site…?

50connect

Wanobe

mychumsclub

How to use your marketing budget effectively? users over 50 make 50% more errors on the site and take 50% longer to navigate.
Consider the USA car sites for Lexus and VW.  One is boringly efficient and the ohter designed for accolades but hard to take a decision based on the content.

This is not a niche market it is 1/3 of the population. 

I have decided to make it easier to buy my services for those on a budget.

Normally, my clients pay me a 'day rate' in order to work with me and I visit their offices and we work together on projects.  Following the beginning of a project with a new client, Afia , I have decided to offer a new way of working using remote technologies.

If you have a biz dev project that can be briefed remotely, discussed using email and Skype, then this service may be of interest to you.

Ben Afia runs a "tone of voice" consultancy and has started working with me on this remote basis.  

• He briefed me with a document detailing the particular circumstances of his business and his vision for building it into something larger.
• I read the brief and we had a Skype conversation to discuss the issues and questions raised and to decide on a plan of action.
• Ben is now activating most of the work himself - but has benefitted from introductions I make to other organisations who may help him achieve his biz dev goals
• And he will come back for more advice when he has run out of things to do or encounters an issue or problem.

For this type of work, I require you to buy one half day (4 hours) of my time in advance.  And the 'day rate' is substantially reduced to reflect remote access and the fact that you will be doing most of the activation work.

Ben has agreed to act as a reference for Rebecca Caroe remote services.

Do you have a service that can be offered remotely?  Could this method work for you in order to widen the range of possible customers for your business?  I am hoping that this will both bring my service into the price range of more organisations and also enable work with people not in my time zone.

Let me know what you think! 

I just found an interesting website which may be helpful for those times when you think you've done a fabulous piece of work and would like others to appreciate it as well.

It is called Dynamo London and it is a site promoted (and presumably funded) by the lovely NMK, London Development Agency and a couple of notable quangos and private businesses. 

it has three major areas: Projects , Discussions and Events .  Self-explanatory and handily colour co-ordinated for the hard of hearing. It claims to be "your online interactive media showcase".

Here's what Malcolm Garrett the Creative Director says in his welcome email

This is a site for its members, and for sharing knowledge, so I sincerely hope you'll participate and offer your comments and opinions. We'd like to hear about anything that you see on the site, that you like, or don't like, or have an opinion about.

It's very easy to upload more projects, or to post your own discussion topics. Project texts remain editable so this can be done quickly, and you can come back and add more detail at any time. You can also add extra information to other projects that are already uploaded.
 

in fact it prompted me to sign up for the Beers and Innovation party on 27 May… maybe see you there? 

Afterthought… if you want to get in touch with a particular agency or individual, the list of members is a pretty powerful grouping with people from Foster + Partners, Burston Marstellar, AIG