Email Marketing No Brainer
October 24, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Recently I reviewed our Email Marketing services page – updated the text, added a new image, and soon to be adding some fresh client testimonials. Did a Google search for “Email Marketing Ireland” and we came up on the first page – good – but what I noticed when I reviewed the competitor offerings for email marketing is that we are the only ones who are not trying to hawk our own in-house software onto clients.
What does this mean for Irish businesses who want to introduce email marketing to their communications mix?
All internet marketing agencies will sell you on the advantages of email marketing. That much is true. But most will try to sell you a license to use their software. You’ll find yourself paying out for training in how to use that software and no doubt will hear all about the robustness and excellent deliverability of their systems – but after that, you’ll be pretty much left to get on with it yourself.
I strongly disagree with this. And let’s call it what it is – companies pushing something onto unsuspecting clients that delivers the best return for their balance sheets, and not necessarily the best result for the client.
I’m a big believer in email marketing; in fact it’s my favourite! I believe in it so much that I’m happy to provide training to clients in how to do it themselves. But what I’ve known to happen is that training can be delivered, but when it comes to getting the email out, it’s a big stress on the client.
Doing it yourself eats up loads of time.
Testing takes ages and this drives up the cost. When you’re trying to get an email out, 100% perfect, on time, and it’s not your core area of expertise, it can be really stressful. It’s not surprising that many businesses start out with high hopes of doing regular email marketing and over time, they let it slide because it becomes too much hassle.
When I deliver training in email marketing – it’s about more than just how to use a piece of software.
- It’s about planning the messaging, who you’re communicating with, what you have to say.
- Putting in place an email marketing content plan so that you know what you have to write throughout the year.
- And most importantly of all, how to analyse the statistics.
- All that plus advice on list building, and of course design of beautiful and effective email templates.
If you’re interested in learning all about that, our last public training course of 2008 is on 27 November. Find out more… But know this – DIY Email Marketing is only for you if you’re comfortable using software and have the time to devote to managing your campaigns.
When we do email marketing for our clients, we sit down with them and work out messaging, frequency, list building, and design.
But after that we look after everything leaving them free to get on with running their business.
What this means is that our clients know that every email communication going out on their behalf reads great, is professionally designed, and is delivered using the best web-based software developed by companies whose sole focus is this. Not some two-bit piece of kit that was knocked out by the techies back when the ‘agency’ added email marketing to its list of services.
Then, one week after send, our clients receive a report detailing all the user interactions with the email and with recommendations on how future email content and offers can be targeted to get better results.
We’re about making our money by providing advice and best practice delivery. Not by selling software. It’s an email marketing no-brainer.
Tags: Email Marketing, Rip Off Ireland
We are not going to die at the hands of toiletries
October 20, 2008 at 4:52 pm
If you love, hate, or love to hate Michael O’Leary from Ryanair, then check out this little book of his choice-est one-liners over the years! Written by Paul Kilduff, it’s get some of Mick’s finest throwaway comments such as:
‘Do we carry rich people on our flights? Yes, I flew on one this morning and I’m very rich.’
You’ve got to love him!
Tags: Michael O'Leary, Paul Kilduff, Ryanair
Brightspark Closure
October 18, 2008 at 2:05 pm
It is with regret that I have to inform you that Brightspark will be closing this Wednesday, 22 October between the hours of 12.30-2.30pm.
At that time, you will find me outside the Dail protesting against the Government’s ill-thought out plan to remove medical cards for the over 70′s. My mother who is 77 will be with me. And my auntie Nora, 73.
It took a bit of persuasion to get my Mum on board because unfortunately the organisers of the protest had chosen a time that clashed with her hair colouring appointment. But after much discussion and in light of the severity of the situation and the fact that the time has come for all of us to show our dissent and actually do something about things – she has managed to change her appointment! Lucky too that the anti-flu injection can still go ahead at the later time of 4pm.
Why am I doing this?
Because I am so sick of sitting back and watching the politicians making sounds about how we all need to tighten our belts to get our country back on its feet. Budget 2009 did not go far enough in extracting money from the very rich. The property developers, the fat cat bankers and their ilk will hardly feel a thing. And yet the ordinary people, the weak, the vulnerable look set to be the hardest hit.
It’s even more sickening to read in yesterday’s Irish Times that the move to means test medical cards was actually just the Minister trying to get at the Irish Medical Organisation. Doctors are paid €161 to treat ordinary patients with medical cards, while they are paid €641 per patient aged over 71. So the Government’s reasoning was that removing the medical cards from the over 70′s would make lots of savings. That in itself is f****d up and the IMO and hospital consultants and all that crowd should take their place with the Brian Goggins’ of this world.
But to borrow one of my Mum’s expressions, “be that as it may”, it is not right to hit the over 70′s in Ireland because of blunders made in previous HSO ISO skirmishes. Nor is it right to ask the over 70′s to have to do the most belt tightening for the current economic environment.
Think about what the over 70′s have done for our country:
- In the 1950′s and 1960′s they stayed. When all around them, ships were departing for the post-war recovery boom towns of Liverpool, London, New York, and Boston, they stayed in Ireland. They worked hard, did their best for their families and just got on with it.
- In the 1970′s when our country was on its knees, they paid their taxes, survived inflation rates in excess of 12% per annum and did what the politicians told them. When Charles Haughey who has since been shown up for what he was, told them to save water and take a bath together, they did just that!
- There’s a lot of talk at the moment about the grim 1980′s. We had the highest personal tax rates in Europe. However, one of the positive notes was in 1986, when Live Aid happened. Ireland gave the highest per capita of any country in the world. At that time, I was only a kid but I felt an immense pride in that statistic. Although our people didn’t have a lot, they gave plenty.
The ones who did that giving, and working, and living are all all over 70 now. They were in their 50′s in the 1980′s, and that last decade of their working lives was marked by emigration, unemployment, fear. Back then if you were made redundant in your 40′s or 50′s, the chances were that you’d never work again.
And so to the last two decades of full and plenty.
Our generation of over 70′s finally got to retire; put the feet up, and enjoy a few weeks in Lanzarote! Property prices soared, their little houses in ordinary Dublin suburbs suddenly were worth a goldmine. They took great pleasure in seeing ‘our little country’ changing for the better. More jobs. More money. More confidence. And for the first time, their kids didn’t have to emigrate.
My mum gets such a kick out of chatting to ‘lovely girls’ from Poland, Lithuania, and Czech Republic on the bus. She rejoices in the diversity that has come to this country. Who’d have thought that her grandchildren would be sitting in national school alongside little ones from Asian and African backgrounds?
She is a fit and healthy 77 year old. She is no burden on the medical card system. But at 77, you do have to get the equivalent of an oil change, and new tyres every so often. A blood test will now cost my Mum €120 – €60 to go get it, and €60 for the results. If she’s hit with the flu’ as so often happens, and needs a prescription, that’ll now cost €60 just to get it. I worry now if she’ll put off those prescriptions to get her well. Or if she’ll ignore pains, aches, and possible illness and try to be all stoic about it. It’s a crazy solution brought to us by the HSE because it’s going to force many old people to go to the already clogged up hospitals for routine stuff like bloods, blood pressure, and ecg.
So that is why in this crazy time of bankers being bailed out, amidst a background of falling property prices, creeping unemployment, and all round fear, I am taking time out to attend the rally.
You should too.
It’s at lunchtime, so there’s no excuses. There is even sunshine forecast for the day!!
Tags: Medical Cards, My Mother, Protest
Feedback on Web Writing Training
October 15, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Please take a couple of minutes to complete the feedback survey.
Tags: survey
Blog Action Day
October 15, 2008 at 12:45 am
My dad died when I was 11 years old. I was devastated. It took years for me to get over it, and today I’m not sure I even have. Ask anyone who’s been through the pain of losing a parent – it’s life shaping. It’s really tough.
Imagine how you’d feel if you lost your mother not 12 months after your dad died?
I don’t want to.
But I imagine my heart would be so heavy and there would be so many memories in daily life that would be constant reminders of what I’d lost and how life will never be the same again. My young shoulders would be weighted down with responsibility having to care for a little brother.
Imagine if you lost your Dad and Mum and your little brother?
Would you be put into care? Maybe a loving foster family would look after you? Your teachers at school would be warned to treat you in a special way. After all, you’ve endured. Your poor heart must be breaking.
Imagine if you lost your Dad, your Mum and your brother and there was no care? No social welfare. No special needs teachers. Nothing to fall back on. What then?
You’d have to worry about where to find food. How to live from day to day. Would you even be able to continue with school? You’d be so tired at the end of a day. You’d be vulnerable. And your heart? How would be? Heavy and trembling with fear in case you don’t survive.
That’s how I imagine I’d be if I was in Gantz’s situation.
This is Gantz. He’s from a small village outside Cape McClear in Malawi. He’s such a gentle lovely guy and also a bit of a geek! He loves science and wanted to be a biologist when he got older. He lost both his parents and his brother to AIDS. His grandmother was doing what she could to support him. Without her, I imagine he would have bad to give up school. When I met him, continued attendance at school pursuing his dreams was a bit precarious. What would happen to Gantz once the old woman was gone?
But Gantz is not all morose and feeling sorry for himself. He’s warm and smiling and gentle. He still has ambition. In fact, he considers himself lucky to be alive.
Many people of our age like Gantz in Malawi have not been so lucky. An entire generation has been wiped out. Since AIDS came to Africa twenty years ago, most of the women and men of sexually active age have died.
Can you imagine what that would be like?
To lose most of your friends and all of your family to a pandemic that is rife. Its not anybody’s fault. AIDS is sweeping through the continent of Africa. Why Africa and not Europe?
Because AIDS and poverty go hand in hand. If you’re already weakened by poverty, then you haven’t much hope when HIV and AIDS comes your way. HIV attacks the immune system. If your body is weakened through lack of food, it makes it much easier for HIV to take hold.
Today is BLOG ACTION DAY.
People around the world are blogging about poverty. I chose to blog about my friend Gantz. I don’t know if he’s still alive, or if he ever managed to make it through school. But I do know that he has more richness of spirit and inner strength than I have.
Gantz is just one story – one young man in a small village near Cape McClear. I hope he has survived. The odds aren’t stacked in his favour though – 1 African person dies of AIDS every 17 seconds.
Tags: AIDS, Blog Action Day, Malawi
We’re on CSS Mania
October 14, 2008 at 11:26 am
Kanchi has been picked up by CSS Mania which is a real treat. The numbers under the screenshot are for voting. I clicked 5 and thought it was going to take me to page 5 on the inside. If you go visit, please click on the higher numbers thanks!
News just in: we’re on The Best Designs - another site celebrating beautiful web design.
Am beginning to think we should have won that one too!
Thanks to Ken for letting me know.
Tags: CSS Mania, most beautiful website in ireland, The Best Designs
A Win For Us At Irish Web Awards
October 13, 2008 at 11:32 am
It’s official! The Most Accessible Website in Ireland is Kanchi, a site created by Brightspark during the summer. I’m so glad it won for a number of reasons:
- Kanchi’s mission is to change the way society thinks about disability. So it’s only fitting that their site is the Most Accessible in Ireland.
- The site was also shortlisted for Most Beautiful Website in Ireland and that in itself says something. Accessibility and beauty do not normally go hand in hand, so am particularly pleased about this.
- A site like Kanchi would not have been picked up by the other two awards. Not for profits generally don’t have the spare cash to be able to afford entry into the Golden Spiders. And they are usually too busy doing good things to have the time to email everyone who knows them to ask for a vote in the IIA awards. The Irish Web Awards was set up to honour sites that are doing everything right; it means more to me to win this award because it’s validation by peers in the industry – who can be the toughest critics of all.
- This is Brightspark’s 3rd year in a row to be nominated for awards. I really wanted to win something and not have to do the smiling and clapping when someone else walked up to pick up the prize again!
Winning this award also gives validation to Brightspark’s business process. A couple of years ago, I introduced a new approach which has been working exceedingly well. Brightspark puts together teams for projects. When I meet a client and understand their vision, their style, and their budget, I go off and put together the very best team to deliver their job.
For Kanchi, this involved Ken Stanley on coding , Ray Doyle on design, Jess Kelly on video content, and me on copywriting and project management. The most perfect talent for the job works together for the duration of the project. When the project is delivered, it moves to a less costly maintenance team for updates. For clients it means they get access to the best talent in town at an all-in price. The teams get to work on what they do best on exciting projects. And I get to work with amazing individuals without buying into one design style or coding capability.
I’d like to thank IQ Content for sponsoring this award. I have the utmost respect for the work that they do, so again it was more validation to be accepting the award from people I admire.
You can view all the winners here. Without wanting to sound too gushy, I think they are all brilliant so I don’t want to name any one over another. But go – check these sites out, admire, and be inspired!
Tags: Irish Web Awards, IWA08, Most Accessible Website in Ireland
Most Expensive Coffee in Dublin City
October 8, 2008 at 4:34 pm
You’d think it would be in the Westbury, but no – number 1 on the leaderboard for Most Expensive Coffee in Dublin City is The Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street. [Cue shocked tones from you all]
I kid you not.
I was in there using the 50% working wifi today. I ordered a cappachino (€4.50) that was so bad I had to return it. I honestly thought they’d just given me water underneath all that froth. Instead I ordered an espresso and it cost me €4. And it was served in a teeny cup. The cost per litre of coffee in this non hip and happening northside Dublin establishment must be higher than the price of petrol.
I don’t mind paying €4.50 for a coffee in places like the Dylan Hotel. There you have super fast broadband, lots of interesting conversations to listen to, and so much eye candy. Coffee is good, is served in an elegantly designed cup, by a charming waitor who smiles at you. [Not an oul sour Dub whose mind is only on how to get the 50 cent of your change into his tip jar].
If you have any comments about the price of coffee in this here town of ours, please add your comment below.
Obama’s Online Campaign
October 8, 2008 at 10:14 am
The keynote speaker of Saturday’s conference was Zack Exley who is pretty much The Guy you want to get in to run your campaign if you’re serious about running for political office. He directed the online campaign for the British Labor Party’s 2005 re-election, was Director of Online Organising and Communications at Kerry-Edwards 2004 and before that was an adviser to the early Howard Dean campaign. He spoke about Dean and how his use of the internet changed politics. That’s all well and good but it’s history! I was more interested in what he had to say about Obama’s use of online to engage communities.
When you first visit the Obama website, you can’t get in without giving your email, your name and your postcode. I didn’t see any footnote about how my vitals will be used and whether or not I’ve now subjected myself to a whole heap of communication, but I’ll report back on that later.
The next page is trying to get you to donate. “Contribute today and help change Washington”. There’s a big form on the right crying out for me to give it my credit card details. It’s also asking me to quality myself further – they want to know my employer and my occupation.
Interior Pages of Obama.com. Says Zack:
Once you get into the website the calls to action are very clear. There are hundreds of thousands of people taking these actions. It’s not just about donating. Neighbour to neighbour campaigns are pretty interesting….
Neighbour to Neighbour Campaign : Utlising Freely Available Election Lists in a Web Savvy Way
Built on the belief that everyday Americans, once organized, can change their country.
Supporters are encouraged to log in, print walk lists and get on the phone or start knocking on doors. Walk lists are lists culled from voter registration lists of all the people in your area who are registered to vote. You can download scripts to use when knocking on doors or making phone calls. There are flyers you can print off and leave behind. And most importantly, there’s an interface to collect all the data:
- Who did you visit?
- What they did ? Signed card, support Obama, leaning voter, etc
- What did you go? Speak with the voter, asked me not to come back, etc.
This field campaign is highly organised and is bringing together all sorts of people towards a common goal. There’s volunteer training where the motto of “Include and Respect” is instilled in everyone and a T-shirt at the end of it. There are a variety of roles to suit everyone. And all of this valuable information is input into the system and available to view at campaign HQ in real time. All of this was done in 2004 during the Kerry campaign but the information was lost. The difference now is that the tools have made it into volunteer’s homes to connect them to the main database. Most are using Google spreadsheets and sharing with their next in command.
I can imagine how this information will be used. Swing voters will be revisited closer to the date of the election. Perhaps a visit by a more persuasive operative/volunteer. Homes with non-English speakers will be assigned a foreign language volunteer.
It sure is impressive. Not least for the organisation, but also for the fact that it’s rallying people who never knew each other before to work towards a common goal. I’m almost wishing we had the same kind of thing in Ireland…
But we do. And it’s called canvassing
So said Suzybie during questions. However, I disagree. I don’t think it’s comparing like with like because Obama’s community campaigning is open to anyone. Just log on and get involved. I’ve lived in Ireland for a large part of my life and I wouldn’t have a clue how to get involved with canvassing in the run-up to an election or a referendum. Would you?
I imagine you’d have to show up at long dull meetings in draughty rooms attended by men with little hair and grey suits. Pay your dues. Toe the party line. Hardly an attractive proposition.
But Libertas’ successful Lisbon campaign showed that Irish people will respond with their ballots to a well thought out and communicated campaign. I personally found it offensive that the main political parties simply wheeled out their leftover election posters and stuck the word Lisbon at the bottom of them.
With questions being asked about the fruits of the last decade of economic growth (or lack of them), maybe the time is right to introduce Obama-style community campaigns to this country? Maybe the introduction of web-savvy campaigning will bring some much-needed new blood and ideas to politics on this side of the Atlantic.
As Zack concluded,
Obama should never have gotten the nomination. He’s too new. An outsider. And African American. He would have been rejected as a radical in the past. But because of the ability of mavericks such as Obama to raise money online, he’s been able to run.
And sure we might even see him as President…
Which begs the very interesting question indeed… if Obama is supported by the blogosphere as he attempts to enter office. What happens once he’s in office? What happens when he’s making decisions that are tough to bear or unpopular amongst certain groups? What then? Will the bloggers continue to support him? Or will they start blogging to get him out?
Tags: Canvassing, Obama.com, Zack Exley
An Hour A Day Can Change Your Life
October 7, 2008 at 12:34 pm
One of my favourite sites to work on was the one I did some years ago for James Sweetman. He’s a business coach who I turn to myself when I need a bit of direction. What I admire the most about James however, is his utter diligence and never losing sight of the bigger things in life.
He religiously sends out a great email newsletter every month. Unlike myself, he never sends it a day or two late. This month’s newsletter has a really inspirational article on how, if we set aside just 1 hour a day to do something, we’ll get there. Reading this article has inspired me to set the alarm clock 1 hour earlier – starting tomorrow – and get that really big goal that I’ve carried around in my head for so long – started.
Read on to find out how you can too. And good luck with it!
Tags: James Sweetman, Time Management
