Anniversary marketing campaign ideas

14 May, 2015/0 Comments/in B2C, Case Studies, Direct Marketing, Email, Lead Generation, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

Linda Horton from Bermuda makes amazing Bermudan Black Rum Cakes and is planning a 30th

Horton’s Bermudan Black Rum Cake

Anniversary Marketing event. Here’s what we recommended

Create a special cake (unique box, big plus small cake in one box, different sizes, multi-buy)
Use your database of past customers and create a mailing campaign
Create a landing page on your website “30th Anniversary” – on the page talk about the history of the company and tell them there will be a contest every week during July and you’re planing a special cake edition. As each email gets sent out, edit the page to include more and more information

Send messages as follows

1 month in advance (1 June) telling them to expect something special at the anniversary.
2 weeks later tell them what it will be and say you’re taking advance orders at a special discounted price for 1 week only. [This is useful because you then know the volume you need to bake.]
1 week after – send an email saying you will raise the price to the normal price on the website in 1 day [this will drive more sales].
On 1 July start the contest on Facebook and also run it on the website. Include a simple entry form so you get their email addresses.

On 8 July announce the winner of the first week on Facebook and the website page. Also email every person who entered and did not win offering them a special price on a cake and encouraging them to enter again.
Repeat each week till the end of July.

If you want to boost contest entries you can do Facebook advertising to send people to your landing page.

I am really looking forward to the cake Linda’s sending over for the team… morning coffee will never be the same again!

My internship at Creative Agency Secrets – by Amanda Wikström

22 April, 2015/0 Comments/in Case Studies, Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

My name is Amanda Wikström and I’m a marketing student from Sweden. I have had the pleasure to work with Rebecca and the Creative Agency Secrets team for the last two and a half months. My internship has been a part of my education to get “real” marketing experience and the opportunity to test my knowledge in real life.

I feel that I have learned a lot, more the last few months at CAS than during the past three years in the University! The University has taught me the theory of marketing and economics but here at Creative Agency Secrets I have had the opportunity to experience how a marketing agency is working in real life.

What I have learnt at Creative Agency Secrets

Blogging – I have been written my own blog about my internship. But the major blogging experience have I earned by coordinate clients blog calendars, I have written, researched, read, scheduled and planned for upcoming blog posts. I have learned how to create interesting content and how to use SEO to get it noticed by readers.
Social media – I have learned the importance with keeping up with social media and how and when to publish posts. I have also learned the theory behind the social media and how you can coordinate and connect your different social media channels with each other.
Google Analytics – I have learned how keeping track of your analytics can increase your business and help you develop new opportunities for the future. By tracking the traffic on your website you can take advantage of your market situation and change your behaviour on the website to suit your customers’ needs.
Client meetings – I have handled clients of my own, which has been scary, but at the same time very fun and educating. I have learned how important it is to always plan and be prepared for meetings. To get the opportunity to handle the clients by myself has giving me a lot more confidence and I have enjoyed it a lot.
New Marketing tools – I have been introduced to a bunch of great marketing tools that I have started to learn more about. I have learned how to set up accounts for clients and how to run them. The major marketing tools I used were WordPress, Mailchimp, FeedBlitz, Google Analytics and Teamwork to name a few.
The Importance of Researching – I have got experience and knowledge on how to research effectively and the importance of always be up to date on the latest research.
Website development – I have been introduced to different website CMSs and learned the basics about how to run them, upload content and link between different pages. As well as use SEO to get the website noticed.
Email marketing – I have learned the basics with e-mail marketing, what to think about when writing and sending e-mails to customers, how to set up accounts and create email templates.
Graphic design – From my colleague Theo Martin I have learned the basics of editing photos and text that can be used in blogs and on social media.

A Big Thanks!

I want to thank all the wonderful people in the Creative Agency Secret team whom I had have the pleasure to meet. But I’ll like to send a special thanks to Rebecca who has been a great teacher/mentor and a huge inspiration!

Now I’m going back to Sweden for my graduation and hopefully find a marketing job that is as interesting and fun as this experience has been. I’ll wish the team at Creative Agency Secrets and the BizDojo all the best of luck in the future, lovely to meet you all!

Cheers,

Amanda Wikström

Why accountants teach clients how to switch firms

21 April, 2015/0 Comments/in B2B, Case Studies, Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

I came across a curious slide deck recently called “How to Switch Accountants” published by an accounting firm. Now why would a firm choose to tell their clients how to move to another service provider?

Thinking more deeply it was immediately clear – this firm was using sophisticated psychology in its marketing. Let me explain

When you’re dating, how do you find good dates?

Think back to when you were actively seeking a life partner. Remember all those conversations with friends when you groaned “All the good looking ones are already with a partner”? or “I just get hit on by the ones I don’t like!”. And of course, once you had found a partner, it seemed that the reverse was true!

Well the same applies to businesses who are courting new clients – those who seem to be desperate and will “go out” with any prospect only attract the ugly ones – yet those who exhibit the reverse characteristics seem to magnetically attract great new clients.

That was what this firm was doing.

Attracting great new clients by showing such confidence by telling their existing clients how to leave. The clients CAN check out other providers, but the firm is so sure that they won’t like what is on offer elsewhere, that they either won’t try leaving or will come back fast.

The slide deck also includes a comprehensive list of questions to ask your new accountant under headings like

Determining they are who they say they are
Meeting your needs now and in the future
Valuing your business – will they stick with you
Staying current

Hats off to Alliott Accountants for having the confidence to publish this marketing tool How To Successfully Switch Accountants.

What can your firm do?

You may not feel ready to publish a similar document. But here are 3 things you can do now to check your own firm’s perception by prospective clients:

Get a friend to ‘mystery shop’ your firm – ring up and see what happens when they say they’re looking to switch accountants. Better still, call at 5.05 pm on a Friday.
Review all the marketing literature you have and see whether it accurately portrays your firm’s services, people, skills and areas of expertise
Do a client survey to see what (un-prompted) actual clients say they think your firm is good at. And does it match 2 above? Also do this to people who stop using your firm so you find out why they switched.

Need accountancy marketing help?

Creative Agency Secrets are experts in accountancy firm marketing. We can tutor you and teach you what to do if you want to do the marketing yourself. Or we can do the firm’s marketing for you.

Learn more and join our free Accountants Marketing Newsletter

Working With Creative Agency Secrets – A Goodbye Letter From Theo Martin

27 March, 2015/0 Comments/in Case Studies, Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

After two great years, I’ve learnt more applicable skills and industry knowledge here at Creative Agency Secrets than all my time studying marketing put together. Rebecca has been a brilliant guide and I can’t thank her enough for helping me build my marketing skills to set me up for greater endeavours in the future. As of Friday this week (the day this post goes live!) I’ll have left the Creative Agency Secrets team to follow my dreams down in Wellington.

Creative Agency Secrets is a marketing agency at the cutting edge of marketing that sees employees using a wide array of marketing skills for a wide variety of clients from big to small, owner managed to corporate enterprises.

What I’ve learnt at Creative Agency Secrets

How to run, manage, and write content for blogs. Particularly in WordPress.
Creating and building effective landing pages.
Using and perfecting WordPress websites at an intermediate to advanced level.
Writing effective copy for a multitude of different campaigns, projects, brands and personas.
Advanced email marketing including building templates, crafting newsletters and email blasts, managing email campaigns and understanding multiple email platforms.
Quick set-up, understanding and use of multiple marketing tools and platforms as they appear.
Advanced social media establishment and management skills.

One thing that sets Creative Agency Secrets apart as a work environment for me is the opportunity to expand unique skills that you bring to the agency. Rebecca recognises those skills and builds marketing opportunities around them to better support her clients, which in turn help you develop them…

Unique personal skills I’ve had the opportunity to grow at Creative Agency Secrets

Improved researching.
Advanced digital and real world marketing.
Event coordination and management.
Broadcasting/ podcasting.
Graphic design.

I’ll miss working here!

My time here has eased me into a fun and vibrant working culture that puts emphasis on quality and hard work. I couldn’t have wished for a fish work experience and Rebecca has taken such good care of me. She’s also brilliant at picking team members so I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside a fun and loving team every step of the way (special mention to Jonathan Lewis!!).

I wish all the best for the future of Creative Agency Secrets!

–Theo Martin, previous Account Manager

Want to find Theo again? Then email the Leaping-Tiger team! Or connect with Theodore Martin on Linked In.

Case study: email marketing drives sales for Space Saver

26 March, 2015/0 Comments/in Case Studies, Copywriting, Email, Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

We take pride in our ability to create successful email marketing campaigns that deliver measurable results. We meticulously plan emails to be sent so each one is effective and engaging to the target audience. Here are two case studies:

The sports equipment brand

Space Saver Rowing Systems (SSRS) is a rowing boathouse equipment retailer. They recently launched a new product – The Wraptor Balance. We worked with them on a campaign that generated responses and resulted in sales.

The new product launch campaign

Gathering the right media for the product – The Wraptor Balance is an innovative tool best experienced before purchase. We can’t bring an experience through the internet but we can bring the experience to the reader with videos, photos and the offer of a free trial.

A landing page – Our next step was to create a landing page for the product on the SSRS website. We focused on clear messaging showing how the product was important to use for beginners and why it makes a difference.

We then created web buttons which led readers to the next step in the process: a trial or purchase. Landing pages are incredibly important to product launch campaigns as it is the one consistent place directing customers to an action. As long as you can lead a customer there you’ve got them interested.

A series of blog posts – We then went about scheduling several blog posts that were short and exciting while directing readers again to the Wraptor Balance landing page. This quickly achieved our goal to find interested prospects and get them invested in learning more about the product.

The email blast and its format – Emails are great if you already have a mailing list, which is the only catch.
We sent out 2 emails – the first being a lengthy description of the benefits of having a Wraptor Balance in a rowing club boatshed. The second was more focused with more emphasis on customer experiences through testimonials.

The results

The email campaign saw a whopping 40% open rate accompanied by 10% clicking through to links we included…

Over time we continued to generate small pockets of interest as well…as the graph below shows.

As a result of the campaign Space Saver Rowing Systems has provided 15 clubs with a trial of the Wraptor Balance with 3 confirmed sales to date (and more on the way).

The business consultant

Nick Muller runs a leadership program called Coaching for Change. This is a 4 session training program run over a 6 month period that teaches leaders how to bring change about and lead small businesses to success.

He embarked on an email campaign using our services with the hope of boosting attendance to his program, and we delivered. 9 emails across a 4 week period were sent to two separate email lists which brought him a handful of new signups to his high price coaching course. Each email was unique. The first was an introductory message; the second email followed the first but was a lot shorter and used as a reminder. The final one in the series split our lists between those who had clicked on a prior email and those who hadn’t. For those who hadn’t we focused on the email title more than the content. For those who had clicked on a prior email we focused on convincing them to make contact.

From the graph above it’s plain to see we maintained consistent email open rates around the 30% mark for each of the 9 emails. Normal campaign opening rates are often around 20%, with more successful campaigns reaching 30-40% (yes, that’s us!). Sending the 3rd email out to people who hadn’t clicked on a previous email worked well with a maintained 30% open rate also. This means, as a result of sending that extra email, we expanded the reach of the campaign.

This graph (above) shows the click rates of links within the emails we sent. It once again proves how effective our repeat emails were. The stats suggest that with our third email we managed to convince those who hasn’t opened an email before to both open the email and click a link.

Creating campaigns that count

Our email campaigns consistently demonstrate our attention to detail and planning. By isolating how to get in touch with our the target markets of our clients, crafting the right message and adapting that message based on the recipients’ actions we can create an effective email marketing campaign.

Get more out of your email campaigns:

Contact us

for a Skype or email conversation and start your planning as early as possible.

Marketing ideas for an artist

21 January, 2015/0 Comments/in B2C, Case Studies, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

I’m a digital abstract New Zealand artist. I do paintings in digital form then get them printed onto canvas. I’m trying to look for an Art Manager or Art Agent to help me to promote and sell my art. Do you know of anyone that will be able to help me grow my business?

Message in a bottle it wished me well and has an email address (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thanks for getting in touch. You work in a specialist area and so I’ve consulting my contacts in the art world and have these recommendations

list yourself on The Big Idea website – put up your portfolio, price your works and link back to your website to tell people how to buy your work. http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/
if you want representation, you have to go and meet people and show them your work. There’s no substitute for face to face personal contact.
first work out where you’d like to sell – which places / websites / galleries would suit your work or represent similar art styles? Make a list of them. Phone them up or email and arrange to visit with your portfolio and start a conversation with the owners. Follow up, send them regular updates about your work
have a newsletter or blog where you can publish your latest works and email these out to your mailing list. If you don’t have one yet, start to collect the email addresses of everyone you meet who could either buy your work or may know someone who could buy it. Send them messages regularly.

Good luck and I hope you succeed.

The blue icons opposite are part of our 8-Step New Business Development Methodology.

Click each icon to find more blog articles on the topic – educate yourself in modern marketing

How to market handcrafts from Myanmar

9 January, 2015/0 Comments/in B2B, Case Studies, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

A new startup business in Myanmar (Burma) contacted us asking

Myanmar Handicrafts

How to promote small business for women who live in villages doing sewing

They sell to both tourists and local Burmese customers.

Marketing to the sales channel

The main challenge here for the women is that they are a disparate group and so clubbing together to make a single selling organisation who can take on the marketing and promotion to a range of distribution channels (web and retail shops mainly) is probably the best use of their time.

I did a search result for the words “Myanmar Handicrafts” and it’s clear there are plenty of existing online shops selling in this category as well as Facebook pages – which is good for international sales in the English language.

Steps to introduce their work to the channel

Get samples of their sewing work. Take photographs of each lady who made the product.
Contact each of these websites and send them two photos of the women and their sewing. Ask if they would like to sell your products in their shop.
After 1 week if they do not reply by email, telephone them.
If you can, ask to visit each shop owner with a bigger selection of sewing for them to look at and then face to face discuss if they will buy from you.

The basic method is to bring awareness of your product set to people who already have an audience of customers – this B2B route to market is faster than trying to build up your own audience of prospects.

Key issues will be

Quality control
Having sufficient stock to deliver in volume
Getting good payment terms
Scaling for growth – Kiva.org may be a good way to raise money

But by getting face to face with retailers I think this group of village women will stand a good chance of finding outlets for their work.

Downstream it may be worthwhile finding charities like Oxfam, Unicef and Save the Children to see if they’ll buy product for their online and catalogue business.

Email marketing subject line recommendations

8 January, 2015/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Case Studies, Direct Marketing, Email /by Rebecca Caroe

This week has been spent writing direct response emails for client campaigns.

And so it was delightful to receive one which has a really awesome subject line. You may want to emulate it.

Direct mail subject line text

What a timely question! This week I am doing the business planning for Creative Agency secrets during 2015. And so yes, the beginnings of my 2015 lead generation is now in place.

But it may not be for you!

Here are three more subject lines I’ve used this week

Subject: Ride the escalator to business success; don’t climb the stairs
Subject: You can run your business the way you always have….
Subject: Closing the loop

The last one is particularly effective for getting decisions from prospects and pushing them into buying.

Ask me about it….

Do you need help writing direct response emails?

Download our e-book on Writing direct response emails. It covers a range of scenarios from cold emails to driving sales and includes samples which you can use and adapt.

The blue icons opposite are part of our 8-Step New Business Development Methodology.

Click each icon to find more blog articles on the topic – educate yourself in modern marketing

Below you’ll find the full text of Mark’s email and the event he and David Baker are promoting.

Startup marketing for a juice bar

5 January, 2015/0 Comments/in B2C, Case Studies, Local Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

Any start up info for a new business opening – a juice bar in a tourist area in Tenerife.

First suggestions:

Strong branding and excellent signage around your shop.
Have an A-frame board outside on the pavement. And try to change what you write on it daily. If you can be witty, all the better as people will photograph it and share online. ideas here
Create a website with a blog. Each day photograph your A-frame board and add that to the blog, set up automatic sharing to Facebook, Instagram and any other social media you want to use. Include the same hashtags #tenerife #juicebar #NameOfYourBar and if relevant the suburb / street / area. Other ideas for blog posts are recipes, seasonal special offer deals, quiz questions (what’s in a pina colada, how much ice should go in a smoothie) etc
Offer a discount to anyone who likes you on Facebook when you launch…. get them to show you their smartphone page like before they pay. This will get you a crowd to kick off as fans.
Do joint promotions with other complimentary local businesses – they send you their customers and you reciprocate. Which days of the week are quiet? Or which times of the day? Do a guy 2 get one free offer before 11 am or on Mondays.

All the things I’ve suggested fit into Step 4 Profile Raising of our New Business Development Methodology. Read other blog posts in that category for more ideas.