When a workshop is more than just a workshop

If you offer any kind of service to customers, running workshops are a great way of marketing yourself and your business.  They inform and advise and can act as a great way of speaking directly to your target customer audience.  Also, as will become apparent here, they are not a one-off event in terms of [...]

Online marketing may not be quick, but it’s effective

As the recession deepens (and all those BNI types who still testify that there isn’t a recession, wake up and smell the coffee), businesses are starting to appear a mite desperate. This is when marketing gets a raw deal, especially if the CEOs don’t really understand what marketing is all about. Looking around and reading [...]

The importance of a personal email list

None of us like receiving spam. So considering we all hate spam so much, why do businesses still pursue buying lists of contacts to sell their wares? Why is it that they cannot wait to build up a personal communications list – is it because it takes too long, it is too much hard work [...]

How not to do direct mail – part 2

About 18 months ago, we got in touch with a company that sells mailing lists, to see if they could provide us with useful contacts for one of our clients. At the time, we had a lady called Lisa working with us. Recently we received a letter from the mailing list company, with words and [...]

How to use your customers’ details to your advantage

There is no point in collecting data about your customers if you don’t use it effectively. For example, Andrew had a new boiler fitted the other month, and as per usual the plumber came in to check it was working OK before giving it the final sign-off. Andrew asked him when it next needed another [...]

What is the difference between Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0?

For those who are still confused by my title, Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 are the various stages the internet has evolved, and how it has affected electronic, email, online or digital marketing (the various terms for marketing on the internet also suggests how technology and its concepts have rapidly changed). Web 1.0 deals with [...]

How to perform a marketing follow-on

Last year I responded to my husband’s request for a metal watering can for his birthday.  That’s OK, it’s easy to go to Google, type in ‘metal watering cans’ and choose a website from the links that came up. Having been thoroughly annoyed by all the inadequate links, including the sponsored ones in the shaded areas of the [...]

How to encourage newsletter signups from your website

This scenario arose from one of our new clients, which I would like to share with you. They migrated from their previous newsletter system to JAC, Appletree’s version, and consequently were issued with new code (website background instructions) for their new newsletter’s sign-up form to be placed on their website. One of the main reasons for a sign-up [...]

What makes a good newsletter?

As a result of doing some research into what people think about e-newsletters, the answers have been varied and very interesting, fuelled by diverse attitudes and individualistic insights. One thought is that e-newsletters need to be well crafted and sent to the right people.  Unlike paper newsletters, they are not a medium for lengthy and multiple [...]

How to increase the open rate of your newsletters

One of the features of Appletree’s newsletter system JAC shows how many of your newsletter’s recipients have opened it (and there is also a new feature that shows you who has opened it too and how many times). One statistic is that newsletters with large mailing lists seem to show a low open rate. So [...]