The future of my website project...

As most of you know I run a website called nowtweet.it, a free URL shortener aimed at Twitter users. The site is pretty friendly at the moment but I’m still trying to further develop it and I thought I’d share with you some of my plans for the site.

Firstly, and maybe most importantly, I want to integrate a tweet feed onto the homepage, displaying the most recent @nowtweetit post, in order to keep the site fresh and provide some new readable content for regular visitors. This is all in accordance with my brand engagement of the site to encourage loyal users.

Secondly, I want more prominent social sharing widgets on the site. A ‘follow nowtweet.it on Twitter’ button, or something along those lines, and a more obvious link to the blog. This is further to develop the social presence of the site, which most competitors have failed to do well.

There are also some small development issues to look at, an update all the site copy and titles/descriptions etc and some meta stuff. This is all to give Google something to mull over during the next few months. 

Finally, in terms of future of the site, I am thinking of bringing in a new optimisation and wbesaite auditing service for small business, but keep your eyes posted on this and it could be potential big news!

Peace out xx

Critical Analysis of an Email Communication from Play.com

This blog is for my Digital Marketing Module.


Play.com email communications arrive roughly twice a week, one just before the weekend, and one just after. I usually open them to see what special offers they are promoting at the time. The most recent one i received was entitled 'Dynamite Deals', advertising products from low prices. These come to me because i subscribed to their newsletter from a recent purchase.


There was no evident personalisation. It is common for emails to personalise the subject line, the content and promotions in the email by using dynamic fields pulling data on a specific customers habits from a database, such as Amazon do. The template is friendly to look at, although very image heavy, which can cause problems for a lot of people as the email is likely to be refused entry to the user's inbox, or filtered into the spam folder. It is best practice for emails to contain a rough 50/50 balance between text an images to optimise it for delivery.


There are two calls to action on the email, found in the images. 'Shop Now', and 'Pre-Order Now' can be found, although the buttons are small and fairly discrete, perhaps not giving the customer much of a reason to click though, although the general email gives off the impression of 'click anywhere to be directed to the complete list of products in the promotion'. The URLs go to a dedicated page for all the products available under 'Dynamite Deals', although there are no alt tags and the functionality of the email is fairly crude. For example the top has navigation to the various product categories, but it is a sole linked image so no matter what you click, you will always be taken to the same page.


I think the email has an attractive design, and gets the point of the promotion across well, however I think the CTA's are weak and the email is badly designed with lack of personalisation and balance of text content, some of the most fundamental properties of a good email campaign. Perhaps Play.com should go back to email marketing 101.

What gives me the right to critique an email from such a big company? Well, I worked for a FTSE company for a year on email marketing and CRM. I was responsible for executing email campaigns across several brands and used personalisation and tailored communications depending on the segment the email was designed for. We were widely regarded as having a good CRM department with communications being relevant, timely and personalised. They always performed to best practice and had some of the best open rates in the industry.


Ps. Don't forget to try my URL shortening service nowtweet.it for your next post :)

Fortune favours the brave

It's easy to cut back on marketing spend during economical turmoil. There are 3 well known practices for deciding marketing budgets:

• The Economist's view - Supply & Demand. If demand is low, cut back.
• The Accountant's view - Spend as a % of sales/revenue. If revenue is dipping, cut back.
• The Marketers's view - Objective & Task, decide how to increase sales and work backwards.

Why focus on cutting costs, when you can focus on increasing sales?

Much empirical research by PIMS (profit impact of marketing strategy), based on thousands of companies over many years, suggests that companies who invest in marketing an innovation in a recession, come out better. Companies who increase their marketing spend whilst in a recession, whilst competitors are cutting down, are far more likely to be remembered and noticed by consumers when the recovery starts.

You have a company. You are manager. You are a consultant. Whatever you are, you have a database of customers who trust you. Increase your contact with these customers (but don't overdo it!), and remind them of your brand values and why they can shop with you in a recession, perhaps give them a reason, some sort of promotion spend or competition. Keep them happy and pull them through on the other side.

Fortune favours the brave, and those you don't cut the marketing spend await glory.

Customer lifetime value!!!

I'm overdue a blog, and something popped into my mind today...


I'm doing a piece of coursework on the retail marketing strategy of Ikea, and they got me thinking about an interesting topic. Customer lifetime value.


We know the population of the UK is ageing. People are living longer and theres a social demographic shift towards this. First time homeowners are older, and research shows that more people are redecorating their home as an alternative to moving. Ikea are very good maximising customer lifetime. They offer ranges of furniture and homeware for families of any age. And companies such as John Lewis are booming as the only people with money are the older generation.


Companies should use created relationships (which I have been blogging about previously), in attempt to maximise the time that a customer will stay loyal (if there's such a thing) to that brand. Customers who have a relatively young target market should be thinking, 'we have these customers now, but how can we keep them in 5, 10 years down the line'. The population is ageing and yes, this includes your customers! It might be a smart move to keep up with them rather than isolating them.


You can incorporate these ideas into your retention strategy, creating handy segments of customers who are interested in the different products/services you offer. This sort of database management will help you keep contact relevant, keeping everyone happy. The customers you have now, and the customers you still have from before. Sure there might be business growing pains, and some product diversification and extension, and Ikea are a big company, but don't dare to dream!


From cradle to the grave.

Online differentiation - Prevent commodotisation!

It's easy to be a differentiator on the high street. Play some loud music, make it smell nice, spend a lot of money on your store design, be the price leader, let customers interact with your products, offer other services along your own, create a venue people want to be in and so on...


When it comes to the online game however, things are a little different. Products are being commodities and people know how to get the best deal. With comparison websites and tools such as google shopping, it makes it increasingly easy to find the best deal, and simply go with it. This current trend is forcing nearly all stores into being price leaders...offer the same product as other people, but just do it that little bit cheaper. There are plenty of drawbacks to this way of trading and competing. Firstly you fail to create that vital relationship with your customer because you are acknowledging that your product is a commodity, and that even you, the retailer, know that in the future the customer will continue to compare to find the cheapest deal. Secondly, you are driving profit margins down, and eventually you will price yourself out the game when you realise you can't compare with the big cost leaders exploiting economies of scale.


But fear not, there is a solution to avoiding commodotisation and the devaluing of your brand. Online differentiation! You don't NEED to be a price leader to be successful. Take John Lewis for example. In the e-shopping arena, John Lewis are by no means the cheapest, one would assume the couldn't compete online, but their sales figures suggest a completely different story. They manage to capitalise on their strengths. Their knowledge of what customers want, why people shop in the John Lewis store, and what customers want from the on line shopping experience. John Lewis have managed to put across their customer service, service quality and brand loyalty across to the customers. They have differentiated by doing this allowing them to maximise their profits.


Online stores should learn a valuable lesson. You can differentiate in other ways than your price. You can offer superior customer service and after sales, you can provide blogs and reviews on products you offer, you can have an innovative and functional website, or even provide some rich content media such as videos and games. Many of these differentiators will not only give you an edge over the competition but further develop your relationship with your customers, increasing loyalty and repeat sales.


What should you take from this blog?

• Yes, people are treating products more like commodities and searching around for the best deal nearly every time they make a purchase online.

• No, you don't always have to be the price leader. The best price isn't always 'the best deal'. You can differentiate in other ways, which will help your profits and customer lifetime.

Dare to be different.

Hello all :)

The dreaded first blog. Well first blog here...


I guess i should introduce myself :)


I'm marketing student on my fourth year at University and I'm trying to discover myself. Well more where i want to be. The real world is only just round the corner don't you know...


So far I know I want to be involved with digital media and marketing. I'm also into the ethos that keeping your good customers is far more important than acquiring a load of new ones. So i guess that's what I want to focus on. I mean there's no point being too niche too young so I think I need to find my feet in the digital arena before any specialisation is to start.


eCRM
Social Media
Digital PR
Digital Engagement
Creative Solutions


It's all good stuff isn't it...I best get trying to crack the industry.