Email Client Popularity

RNM recently sent our a Xmas greetings and end of year shut-down notice to our clients and prospects. As ever we monitor the open rates, click-throughs and other recipient behaviour on these emails.
One interesting statistic is which email clients recipients prefer to use.

The example illustrates clearly the hegemony of Outlook in all it's versions however interestingly the iPhone is the second most popular email client. Surprised?

Tergeted Advertising, pros and cons or is it just inconclusive research.

Most consumers choose not to opt-out of behavioral targeting

Marketers who feared opt-out icons on targeted advertising would lead to a mass uptake can relax. Recent analysis has shown that, when given the option to opt-out of behavioral tracking, many consumers don't bother.

Earlier this year, the Digital Advertising Alliance, representing thousands of advertising and trade companies, announced details of a program designed to give consumers more control over how their Internet browsing habits are used to target ads.

Advertisers that collect Internet user information for behavioral targeting of ads were encouraged to implement an "Advertising Option Icon" on websites, or near ads, where behavioral tracking has been used.

But, as ClickZ reports, recent analysis from Better Advertising shows few consumers are choosing to opt out. An average of one in 700,000 who were served an ad with the icon chose to opt out - a rate of about 0.00014%.

Of those that clicked on the icon and were presented with information about tracking, only 5% decided to continue the process and fully opt out.

This is great news for marketers who depend on targeted advertising to hone their response and conversion rates.

"There's always a chance the number of users opting out could go up as more advertisers implement the icon... It's early days, but there's no indication the opt out rate will go up dramatically," said Better Advertising CEO Scott Meyer.

"Whatever the [opt-out] rate is, it's so small that it's not going to destroy the business."

Web users say targeted advertising not justified

As discussion surrounding Do Not Track and behaviorally targeted ads continues, new research has surfaced that shows most consumers don't think targeted advertising is justified, even if they do get free access to content in return.

We recently reported on analysis from Better Advertising that came to the conclusion consumers, when given the option to opt-out of targeted advertising, choose not to.

New insights from a poll conducted by Gallup and USA Today appear to contradict Better Advertising's findings.

The poll found that while the vast majority claimed to pay little or no attention to online advertising, 61% did admit to having seen ads they felt were directly targeted at them based on their browsing history - and they don't like it.

In fact, almost 70% are opposed to behaviorally targeted ads and believe them to be unjustified. Nearly as many (61%) said that behaviorally targeted ads aren't even justified if it means they can access online content free of charge.

Ultimately, consumers want more control. If given a choice, just under half of respondents said they would accept targeted ads from networks specifically chosen by themselves. Thirty-seven percent said if they had the option they wouldn't allow any ad networks to target them.

by Helen Leggatt

______________________________

These two articles above have made me think of the difficulties involved in turning research into reliable market intelligence.

Two recent studies into the same subject have come up with diametrically opposed findings. The truth in my opinion is consumers have never liked advertising. People who realise that they will be advertised to no matter what they do, would probably rather they got adverts that were targeted at them offering things that may be of some interest.

If you have for instance had a day off work, ill perhaps and needed to watch a lot of day time telly.

It is unlikely that you would have found any of the advertising applicable and it may have even been rather annoying, stealing minutes of your life showing you things you have no need for or even dislike.

at least the internet is not this way. Id rather have track days, hosting deals and e-commerce tools flashed in front of me regularly than sanitary products, denture paste and train to be a plumber courses.

I think the best way to manage expectation is to ensure that the adverts are of high quality, not just "Male 30 UK we want you to try our sneakers" and not intrusive either, stay away from the pop ups that get in the way of content. There is a lot of good stuff on the net that is free but it does have to be paid for somehow so advertising will continue and I for one would rather it be relevant.

I don't agree with student riots.

I know that this is primarily a business blog and I try to keep things on topic in the hope that I can build a reader base or genuinely interested people. In the last week however I have been having a lot of heated discussions about the UK student riots in London and and I am intrigued by the differing viewpoints on this issue.

One voice I keep hearing from the liberal media, left leaning parties, the students themselves and some apologists  that I have associated with during the period of these mass civil disobediences, claims the following.

1. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are having their hopes of attending university and therefore the better prospects for social mobility, crushed but a totalitarian, oligarcist regime that is only interested in maintaining Britain's "unfair" status quo.
2. The police are to blame for the violence by perpetrating violence against the rioters.
3. The students behaved in this way because they feel that they have no voice and are being oppressed.
4. It is the duty of government to redress the imbalance in UK society and to therefore fund "social mobility".

I take exception to all of these points.

I don't believe for a second that the Met ever escalated the violence at any of the marches. I can clearly remember the incident where just 12 non riot equipped members of the MET held off thousands of students attempting to storm Tory headquarters. During this engagement, the students behaved disgracefully, throwing potentially lethal projectiles at the police who were a model of restraint. In the same vein, what had HRH Prince Charles done to escalate the violence so that he was seen as a legitimate target for malicious attack.

The students do have a voice, not only are they all of voting age and therefore able to make use of the democratic system in place in this country. There is the e-petition system in place that no doubt many of them are aware of. Each student union would have contacts in the local and international press who would also be only too keen to have a real story with which to hold the government to account. Students of the UK, you are not oppressed! I don't even think you know what that word actually means.

Under the new system, no one will be deprived of an education, student loans will still be in place and the threshold of when they need to be paid back is also being raised to £21,000 per year. Education will not be unattainable, just more expensive. The government has also put in place bursaries and a number of other schemes to make university more attractive to people from less privileged back grounds.

This I am sure is partly because of my upbringing in a very conservative society and also because as a tax payer and someone who has worked with lots of different people and companies during my career, I have learned the one most vital lesson that the screaming left are being deprived of.

"Hard Work Pays"

Now my own views on socialism and benefit culture are probably somewhere right of centre but I am also not immune to the injustice in the economy of this country. It does make bile rise in my gullet every time I hear of the obscene treatment that superstar top end executives get in banking and media. I would like to see something done about the levels of top end executive pay however I believe this action should be taken by boards of directors and the shareholders who should be taking them to account over these issues.

This does not I believe condone the fact that we have a generation of people in this country that have been brought up to believe that the state owes them a living. From the worst case scenario of a teenage girl deliberately bearing children to scam the benefit and housing system to the lower middle class who object (Violently!) to paying a market rate for their education.

This makes me think, what is the point of a University education? A number of friends and colleagues who have attended Uni in the UK freely admit that the university experience is mostly messing about, drinking too much and very, very little learning.

If you have people graduating without a clear vocational course ahead of them of what benefit is it to the UK taxpayer to fund the higher education of someone who works as a shop assistant in their local TopShop. To put a cost to that, at current rates, university tuition costs £5,000 per year plus living costs of easily another £5,000 annually. That's a direct cost of £10,000 per year so for a three year course a student loan of £30,000 would be required. This for the moment, is money from the government purse.

Another cost to the UK taxpayer, is the top up funding to universities which can be conservatively estimated at another £5,000 per year per student and over that same 3 year course so add another£15,000 to the bill.
That leaves the taxpayer picking up a bill of £45,000 per graduate.

The next step in how we lose out is what if, that student took a useless degree like Golf Course Management at the University of Birmingham or David Beckham Studies at Staffordshire University. Not that I am picking on the Midlands, I am sure they are a wonderful place full of interesting and friendly people however, I can't see anyone getting a well paid job in a hurry with one of these degrees. In this case, the student goes on to work in retail or as a golf caddy earning about £12,000 a year if they manage to find full time work at all.  This means that the student loans they took out (using the word "loan" loosely) never get paid back, ensuring that the UK government has to write-off their entire investment of £45,000 in the tertiary education of this citizen.

It is not however the young people of Britain who are to blame. The media, educational institutions, and the HR profession have convinced everyone that the only way to get ahead in life is to have a University degree. In the last 20 years we have seen a huge rise in the amount of jobs requiring a person to have a degree or be a "graduate". Very often, there is not even a requirement that the candidate hold any relevant qualification just that they are a "graduate level" candidate. This is a very unhealthy situation for the UK economy because as we have previously established, the taxpayer  bears the burden of funding these excessive qualifications.

I think it is time that we considered weather or not a University education is in fact the best way to encourage social mobility as degrees become more prevalent they also become less useful as a means of differentiating between job candidates. Perhaps we should look to the example of other developed nations such as Sweden or Holland where it is true that the government does fund education at least as generously as in the UK. In these countries, the education is much more targeted and multi tiered. In a nutshell, you will not leave the Dutch education system without the skill required to be gainfully employed.

An example of superfluous education is the requirement of a Nursing Degree. Nurses are valuable members of society and no one would refute the need to have qualified able people employed in the nursing profession. Surely there are much cheaper, faster and less exclusive ways of getting people to a standard where they can safely and confidently work in this profession. Ditto for school teachers, accountants, engineers etc...

I suppose to sum up my thoughts on this matter are, if you want to be a doctor , a lawyer or for the time being a teacher and this is your genuine ambition, please go to uni, enjoy it, work hard and I am sure you will find it a good investment in your future, whatever it costs. If you want to drink and hang out with your friends while you study art, you'd do better going on holiday to Thailand with your mates and not making the government pay for it.

UK first in Europe for e-commerce spending

It is no seceret that British people love to shop but recent research by e-commerce specialists FACT-Finder indicate that the U.K, Germany and France account for almost three-quarters of on-line sales in Europe.

As reported in a recent article on Internet Retailing, FACT-Finder has released figures that show the majority, 70%, of on-line sales originate from just three countries:

U.K: $64.1bn German: $52.4bn France: $33.4bn

These figures prove that, despite their geographical closeness, their cultural differences and diversities mean that Europe cannot be viewed as a single entity from an e-commerce point of view. This means cross-border trading can be a challenge and many retailers choose to focus on trading locally. Even ad campaigns don't translate, culturally or literally, across multiple countries because brands, and stores, differ from country to country. Think of perennial TV favorite Lynx, commonly known on the Continent as Axe.

While the infrastructure may be in place to support international e-commerce in Europe, it can still take a considerable investment in time and money to understand the intricacies of trading abroad. In many cases this leads to companies not taking advantage of these expanded markets and solely focussing on local trade.

Ofcom research indicates that British Internet users made more than double the number of on-line purchases in the past six months than Internet users in any other European country, except Poland (19 and 14 on-line purchases respectively). The next country was Germany with nine purchases.

In addition, the total value of online purchases Internet users said they made in the past six months was highest in the U.K. with $1,624. This was nearly double the amount spent by Internet users in the next-placed country, Germany, with $938.

Mathias Duda, head of UK operations at FACT-Finder, said: “The growth of ecommerce has made it much easier for even small brands and retailers to trade outside their domestic markets."

He added: “We hope others will find this report enlightening and perhaps start a conversation about how retailers see themselves in the European market and consider how cross-border trading might be improved.”

Why are there so many foodies? What to do with them?

I have been giving some thought to food programmes on TV recently. I don’t watch them very much but so many of my friends and family do, I have always been curious as to the appeal. I will admit to having watched two series of New Scandinavian Cooking but that was because I had a horrible crush on Tina Nordström which I think does account for the popularity of certain well known culinary personalities. What does strike me from looking into this phenomenon is that Foodies are a huge market. The sales of celebrity chef cook books attest to that as well as the numerous hellish spin offs of Gordon the Swearing Scotsman. (No not the former PM)

Why are foodies so numerous? Because nearly 100% of the consumer base cook on a daily basis and they don't want to have the same chicken and potatoes every night. Amateur chefs are moms, dads, young adults, retirees and busy families. With the ongoing recessionary conditions (it can be argued that the recession is over but inflationary pressure is driving up all prices) many people are looking at their kitchens as a way to spice up their lives, pardon the pun, restaurants are suffering slightly as Jack and Jill experiment in the kitchen rather than take that easy meal out.

Given the size of this market, how can brands engage foodies? The obvious answer is through advertising and social media.

If you are selling a directly related product, knives or crockery then the route to the hearts of your clients is through their stomachs. It is easy to see how a brand associated with a celebrity chef like Tefal with Jamie Oliver could use the likes of Facebook and Twitter to great effect to grow a following of Jamie fans and indeed convince them not only to buy Tefal but to promote it to their “Friends”.

Marketing experts around the world are telling businesses to get involved with social media, but many companies are not clear on what to offer to a social network. Cooking and recipe information can’t work for all brands, but for food or cooking supply brands it is an easy fit. This type of information is exactly what their customers are after. Social network features such as recipe of the day or encouraging their fans to add their own recipes can be really powerful loyalty builders.

As far as advertising is concerned, a recent study from About.com discovered that there is a new community of cooks out there who are active online and searching for recipes, tips, equipment and secrets to improve their cooking and meal planning. Companies are presented with an opportunity to reach this group, just as they discover a need for a particular item. This could lead on to a quick sale if there is advertising directly to an e-commerce store or a coupon that offers an in store discount.

Mobile applications are another way that brands can engage with foodies. A food or diet related application could capture useful demographic data. This data can be used to thoughtfully target advertising at consumers. The Advertising need not necessarily be food related as having good demographic data to hand the advertising could be targeting the wider interests of each group.

I hope this has wetted your appetite for marketing to the hungry masses and I have not left a bad taste in your mouth with one too many food puns. Bon Appétit!

Holiday shoppers spending more online than in-store

The latest Compete Holiday Insights survey shows that in recent weeks more money was spent online by holiday shoppers than in-store.

As of Sunday, November 7, almost two-thirds of respondents to Compete's survey had begun their holiday shopping and 14% had made more than half of their intended purchases.

Many are going online to do their holiday shopping and, for the first time since the beginning of October, more money was spent on holiday items online than in-store.

On average, in the week to November 7, consumers spent $185 online, up 30% from 2 weeks prior, whereas offline spend averaged $175, down 32% from 2 weeks prior.

While increased shopping across all product categories was apparent, the largest increases were in clothing and shoes, toys and games, and movies and video Games.

Other recent data from Compete indicates that holiday shoppers are turning to the Internet for upcoming Black Friday deals. While traffic to Black Friday websites has already exceeded 2008 levels, there is some way to go before it tips those of 2009.

Get Your Message to High Net Worth Individuals.

Pretty much every day, I speak to clients who want to "contact" high net worth individuals. There is a common perception that NHW folk have too much disposable income and are just falling over themselves to buy stuff from websites. The Truth is that they are probably slightly less likely to sacrefice the instant gratification of the high street to save a few pennies. They are probably also less likely to object to the £4 parking charge in town too.

However there is one thing that people with lots of money usually have? That's right - gadgets. It's therefore not surprising to learn that affluent members of society are choosing to get their newspaper and magazine fix via their digital gadgets. As a result, readership of the printed editions of popular broadsheets has dropped.Ipsos Mendelsohn has recently published a report indicating that the vast majority, (98%) of the affluent are now online compared to 70% of the rest of population. The effect on offline newspaper and magazine readerships isn't hard to work out.

The Ipsos Mendelsohn Affluent Survey found readership of paper publications among the affluent has dropped by 16% in the last year while time spent on the Internet rose 13%.While this survey doesn't necessarily ring the death knell for printed media, it does demonstrate the need for publications to offer a digital channel.

Around 20% of U.S. homes, or 44 million households, qualify as affluent in 2010 meaning they had an annual income of $100,000 or more a year. If you are one of my clients and you want to ask me how to contact Affluent people, use digital versions of popular publications. Leading Weekend newspapers, the Financial Times, New Scientist etc... have on-line advertising and affiliate schemes to market your products. If these work in conjunction with a quality on-line proposition. You may be onto a winner.

Social media users' brand-love limited, wrath unlimited

This year's Cone New Media Study contains some interesting findings around the limit of a consumer's brand loyalty on social media. Cone's study found that while millions of brands are accessible on social platforms, just five brands can command the loyalty and trust of your average social media user at any one time.

"With the world's most loved brands a click of the mouse away, new media users still choose to demonstrate affinity (e.g., "like" on Facebook, "follow" on Twitter or subscribe to an RSS feed) for an average of only 4.6 companies online, making this club one of the most exclusive to which a company can hope to gain access," says Cone.

Consumers are fickle and, while tempting them to Like or Follow a brand may be as easy as offering discounts and promotions, unless they have good reason to sick they are likely to walk on. To this end, social media marketing must engage punters with compelling content and an ongoing,conversation.

And, be aware that the flow of information on social media sites isn't always positive. The wrath of a dissatisfied social media user can travel far and wide. Cone found that over half of dissatisfied consumers (58%) remove their support on Facebook and Twitter.

Worse still, some unhappy social media users will use every social outlet possible to make sure the world and his dog know about a blunder.

European shoppers are ready for m-commerce

Retailers across Europe need to develop their m-commerce strategies fast as many shoppers across the region plan on using their mobile devices for m-commerce in the next year.

Just as most of us are getting used to e-commerce, a new kid rocks up and starts throwing his weight around in the digital marketplace. That is right, m-commerce is here and its getting all up in your face!

According to new figures released by Akamai, media distribution specialists, a third (30%) of consumers across Europe are using, or plan to use, their mobile devices to conduct e-commerce.

Ten percent of them are already using mobile devices to make purchases and 20% intend to start doing so within the next 12 months. I must add that I personally have completed a number of purchases from my mobile phone, from pizza to dvds.

The evidence indicates that despite there being thousands of mobile apps relating to retailers and brands, consumers in prefer to use mobile browsers to access the Internet. I have done both and although the Amazon app is adequate, a mobile friendly website is much better and usually more up to date with offers and your shopping history.

Recent research by Orange indicates that, mobile browser use was found to be highest in the U.K. (70%) although a similar percentage of French mobile users also prefer browsers (68%). The Spanish are split evenly between browsers and apps while Poland is the only country to favor apps over browsers (45% vs. 39%).

"With increasing numbers of shoppers going online with mobile devices, it is important for retailers to get their mobile e-commerce strategies right the first time and the need for security, website performance, scalability and availability has never been more important to underpin success in the online marketplace," says Akamai's international marketing vice-president, Martin Haering.

Akamai's research also indicates an increase in online spending among 30% of the 1,500 respondents while Spain emerged as the fastest growing e-commerce market in Europe, where 44% of consumers reported a willingness to spend more on-line. The highest spenders online in Europe tend to be aged between 35 and 54 years of age, each spending around $2,111 per year.

Nearly two thirds (62%) of respondents purchased clothes and footwear online, making this the largest category of spend in the survey, followed by more 'traditional' online items such as books and magazines (59%). Online travel accounted for nearly half (47%) of spend.

"E-commerce sales keep growing - despite the recession online sales grew by over 20% in 2009 - and the market is rapidly diversifying," commented Ivano Ortis, research director at IDC Retail Insights, which carried out the research.

"Basket size is increasing, as is the level of services and support that customers are expecting from e-commerce websites."

The moral of the story is, if your customers are diversifying the way they shop, are you diversifying the way you sell? If you are still holding out in going e-commerce, this is the time to address that and look at making your new site mobile friendly.

Social Media and International Trade

I have been developing a website for an international client this week. This client is a lovely Dutch lady, running a business in Spain that helps other Dutch folk settle and find work in Spain. A perfectly sensible business, Holland, a nation across the channel shares our dire weather and tens of thousands of them flee the weather to take advantage of the Iberian peninsula's endless summer. The website will be finished soon and it will go on the portfolio section of the New Reckless New Media website, due to be launched in September.

This whole process has made me think about how international the internet has made business. I think nothing of ordering something of Amazon US or buying some piece of tat from Chinese E Bay. On a larger scale, service based companies are looking to overseas markets as opportunities to sell virtual versions of their various services. We live in an age of international webinars, web based e-learning solutions and a number of social media events.

That's not to say that it is altogether easy to win international clients or to offer them a service similar to what you offer your local customers. In this case, although the client speaks perfect English, the website has to be in Dutch so simple things like the calendar function, something that we would usually have used an off the shelf application to implement needed to be hacked to represent Dutch names for months and days. Still these are not major obstacles and lessons that need to be learned if we are going to do more business with international clients. I am currently discussing doing a recruitment related website with a Lahore based company. We communicate with Skype and email but the time difference is a bit of an obstacle making our email discussions rather drawn out.

As a sales person, I intend to do all I can to increase my client base and at the moment it seems to me that there is an appetite out there for British Web Design. I am not going to suggest that I understand the reason for this for this phenomenon but it does seem that Social media has been the key to opening the door to international trade for Reckless New Media.

I am a big fan of linkedIn as a base for cultivating a powerful network of clients colleagues and prospects. I have found that a number of international leads have come from some of the groups that I belong to and naturally these leads open doors to further opportunities. Naturally I have a pretty organised approach to social media, I know why I am there and what I am looking for. That is not to say that I am mercenary in my posting as that is a major turn off. The great thing about social media is you get to communicate with people who ordinarily would have put the phone down on a cold call but are happy to engage in a discussion on how to better market their company on-line or how to generate more leads etc.

Twitter is also a favourite in our office. It is to some degree a recreational instrument in that we do have a lot of fun with it and the majority of our tweets do not have a commercial objective. They do however create a vibe or energy in the office and about our team. Outsiders who follow us, many of whom are customers and prospects get to know us better. What we watch on TV, what we like to eat and what we do on the weekend. I feel that this forges a link between us and is a form of virtual bonding, pre meeting small talk if you will.

I would really like to hear from readers what they have achieved for their business through social media. I would especially enjoy receiving any tips as to how I can help my clients grow their business through social media. As it is such a young phenomenon, there are new opportunities being presented nearly every day.

If you would like to chat with me about making social media a part of your marketing mix, I will be only too happy to hear from you. My email address is matthew@recklessnewmedia.com

Happy Socialising

How to feel the love on the Internet.

Fridays are good days for most people and I am no different. I find myself feeling quite irrepressible most Fridays. Every other week I attend a Friday morning breakfast networking group at the Ramada Hotel in Christleton. I hasten to add that Friday is the only day of the week I can see myself cheerfully getting up and out of the house for the 6:45 am meeting. Friday is also the day I get my graze.com box and is is a costly but very much enjoyed mid morning treat at the end of the week. graze.com's business model is perfect for an internet business. Following in the footsteps of web businesses trailblazer LOVEFILM, the subscription model is great for keeping your customers engaged.

There are a few sneaky tricks that both graze.com and LOVEFILM use to keep their customers even if they have been inclined to wander. In a very cosseting and friendly way, both have a number of steps to their unsubscribe process. Unlike so many obstructive services that make it complicated and clumsy to unsubscribe, these two warmly ask you if you are sure you want to leave, would you not rather take a cheaper price plan or perhaps a one month holiday. These phases of the process are done with care and a level of customer service (being provided virtually) that many a high street retailer would envy.

Lets have a look at the customer interaction model and see what makes it tick and why it makes customers like us stick.

The rating and suggestions functionality. This is a very powerful part of a user experience. If done well, it makes the customer feel like a loved member of the family and their favourite uncle has selected a movie that he is sure you would love to watch or your grandmother has carefully selected a box of health yet delicious treats just for you. Conversly if its done badly, it is alienating and foreign and a damning reflection of the company as a cheesy supermarket check out flashing KitKats and Mars bars at you and everyone else in the vague hope that you give in to cheap temptation.

By being able to rate, recommend or slate a product, the customer is also empowered to engage with the host. The host then uses the customers activity to further refine their preferences and enhance the customer experience. As a result I have now seen all of the movies that Clint Eastwood has ever made as was my original intention but I was also introduced to a non Eastwood movie that somehow I had overlooked, "Once Apon a Time in the West". An epic movie that is now my absolute favourite thanks to a LOVE FILM referral.

Making good use of customer data is vital to the continued success of these companies and doubtless they pour over website statistics and visitor tracking to continually improve the customer journey and visitor conversion rate. Making good use of visitor statistics should not be left to the ground breaking internet entrepreneurial businesses. Any company that has a website can and should use visitor tracking. Google analytics is free and very powerful! I have no hesitation in encouraging any one responsible for their companies marketing activity to get conversant with it and unleash the power of the internet.

Getting a feel for visitor behaviour will enable you to establish which part's of your website are performing well and where you may need to freshen up your message. It is also a good way to track the effectiveness of your direct marketing messages. Tracking your performance month by month will enable you to identify long term trends that if used with a suitable marketing spend matrix could help you to save money on marketing or even better use it where and when it is most productive. Most of these point apply equally to on-line advertising through Pay Per Click but that is another matter.

Returning to the good example of LOVEFILM in recent months they have introduced the facility for members to view entire film online. To a subscriber, this feel like free content. To a movie lover its just heaven. Most of the movies that are available to "watch now" are older more quirky movies that have a cult following. Generally the type of movie that my wife gets annoyed if I try to make her sit through if I want to watch them in the living room with her.

This concept of free content took me back to something I read a few years ago in a Jeffrey Gitomer sales book. Jeffrey says that instead of trying to sell to your customers and prospects every time you see them, rather try and give them something of value. Or something that you have to give and they would value. The underlying truth here is that no one likes to be sold to but everyone like to buy things. If you can arrange things so that your customers come to you for free information, guidance and advice, the likelihood is that they will come to you to buy too. What is more there is a strong possibility they will feel good about it as you are now a vendor they can trust rather than a slick salesman that has liberated a few thousand of their precious pounds. Start thinking about what you can give away for free!

As an example, I would like to highlight the financial comparison websites such as moneysupermarket.com or comparethemeercat.com financial products are a very competitive market and brokers can be a bit dog eat dog and a little sly with their sales tactics. But with these heroes of on-line finance give you their expertise for free, not only do they regularly blog very sound consumer advices, they host financial forums and supply real answers to their customers needs free of charge, added to that they give people the freedom to choose the best solution for their needs and pockets. I never buy my insurance or arrange a credit card anywhere else

This has been my something free and I hope it has been informative. What is more, I hope it has been a special Friday treat for my lovely family of contacts, followers, colleagues and lastly but most importantly me customers.

To find out more about the work that I do visit www.recklessnewmedia.com or connect to me on LinkedIn.

Happy Friday Everybody

What is SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is about driving more visitors to your website through organic search results. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing send out search bots into the vastness of the internet, to scan the billions of pages of content therein.

The first and most important element of SEO is to ensure that your website is build to W3C standards and as such is inviting and accommodating to the search bots. All of our websites are built to these standards so that they are the perfect basis to begin an SEO campaign.

SEO is not a mystery; there are no secrets and dark arts involved. SEO is all about getting good relevant content onto the internet and securing quality back links. This said, it is a time-consuming task and the more competitive the search terms related to your product, the more man-hours of SEO will be required to bring about results.

As effective as SEO is, it is not the quickest way to boost your visitor count. It takes 3 to 6 months of effort for an SEO campaign to start to show results and you would expect your campaign to pay for itself after one year. The good thing about SEO is that once your website has risen in the search listings, it takes a concerted effort by a competitor to remove it.

SEO is an investment in marketing your brand just as much as print or AV advertising and is most successful as part of a concerted campaign. The most attractive element of online marketing however is that fact that all visits are trackable through Google analytics so you can easily monitor the effectiveness of the campaign asses the quality of the new hits your campaign brings.

Some companies are offering SEO services at very low rates and they can indeed increase the number of visits your website gets. The difference is however the quality of those links. When one of our experienced SEO personnel takes on a project, we ensure that we deliver quality results by ensuring that all our blogging, back links and social media work is contextual and relevant. This means that the people who do visit your website are more likely to be interested in what is on your website than someone who was lead there by a low cost SEO company.

Beware too of companies that offer quick results through SEO. Using legitimate White Hat SEO techniques, there is just no way that you can move a new website rapidly up the search rankings. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you SEO using Black Hat tactics that are dangerous, unethical and can get your website penalized and even ignored by the major search engines.

We strongly suggest to most of our clients that they engage in an SEO campaign. Even though it can seem expensive, it really is the best way to grow an online business. Think of it like this; a website sitting on its own on the internet is like a warehouse languishing in an industrial estate with no customers. There are two ways to increase traffic to the warehouse.

1. Advertise.

There is always a case to be made for advertising. If you have a product that people want to buy and you can give them a good reason to buy it from you then advertising will bring you some results. Similarly online advertising can drive people to your site.

However, much like that warehouse, you are likely going to have to use price as a compelling reason to get people to visit. Budget pricing is a tried and tested method of increasing sales. It is however better, especially for an SME to sell your service/products for the maximum the market will bear. Slashing your prices to catch people’s attention can also mean slashing your profit margins.

Advertising too is expensive and is difficult to measure. What if there was a way to use a very similar budget to increase footfall but also enable you to keep your pricing and your margins intact?

2. Optimise

If you wanted to get thousands of people to view your store or your products, you wouldn’t ask them all to come and visit you (advertising) you would go to them. This is the equivalent of opening a high street store as the outlet for your warehouse. It costs you a regular rent on your store but you get thousands upon thousands of visitors every day seeing your brand and visiting your store. Optimising your website is just like moving your website from an industrial estate onto the high street, where all the people are and want to be.

With years of experience in optimising websites for a host of industries, Reckless New Media should be your first port of call for online marketing. As part of a comprehensive marketing strategy, SEO is an invaluable tool and its value should not be underestimated.

Stuck In a Rut

Last Sunday, while a certain football match was being played, a quaint little television show, that some of you may have heard of, Top Gear, was on BBC2 and they were testing three super saloons, the gorgeous Maserati Quatroporte, the equally scrumptious Aston Martin Rapide and the not to put too fine a point on it frankly hideous Porsche Panemera. This undoubtedly impressive car has to be one of the ugliest and unresolved pieces of industrial design I have seen, possibly in my life. (thats not true, see Ssangyong Rodius ) Not far from where I live there is a used car dealership that has a Mansori modified example that they have been trying to dupe some style-less millionaire into parting with 165 000 of their hard earned Great British Pounds for. (Rather unsuccessfully as it has been sat there for nearly two months now.)

What gets me about the Porsche is where do they think their design language is going? They have a basic profile and a "family look" that have been around for sometime now and are firmly established in the sports cope market. Say what you want about the Porsche 911, Cayman and Boxter and I frequently do. Their design although admittedly long in the tooth is comfortable, easy on the eyes and to some, a real design classic. Where they are struggling is to incorporate their design language onto other body shapes. The accomplished but equally unattractive Cayenne is another example. Porsche have been unable to make an executive sedan or a large piece of agricultural machinery look like the diminutive 911. That isn't really so surprising, in fact I would like to be generous here and say that if they did manage to pull it off there should be some kind of Nobel Prize for auto styling and they should get it.

Porsche's closest competitor BMW, mercifully does not feel the need to make all of its cars look like the 7 series. For that matter no car designers do it; because its stupid! While all premium car makers have a distinct "family look" and an established design language which allows them to take elements of the design and introduce them across the entire range. This is sadly not something that Porsche GMBH have been able to do so they keep trying to get a flexible silicon mould of a 911 to fit over different sized vehicle platforms.

If an otherwise forward thinking and innovative company, with buckets of money to spend on development can get caught in such a deep hole then surely it can happen to any of us in our businesses. Perhaps when you think about it and do a little rooting about you may find some processes, policies or products that are labouring on outside of their original design spec and may even be damaging your business.

Specifically from a design point of view, there are lots of very outdated logos and letterheads out there in the business world, not quite old enough (or good enough) to be retro. It is not always necessary to do a complete re-design, in fact it would be better to find the essence of your existing design and use that to create a new brand that evolves out of the old, moves the game along and uplifts your brand, that has doubtless received much investment over the years.

It is commonly accepted that you should regularly look at your web presence to ensure that you are getting the most from on-line media. Why not use the next opportunity to look at your branding too. Most good web agencies are also skilled at branding and graphic design and I am pretty sure that you will save a bit on the redesign if you are doing it as part of a web job.

I for my part am always happy to chat to a prospective customer about any aspect of their design and branding needs so feel free to get in touch.

And above all things, be considerate!

Whenever I go to public consultations or attend a workshop hosted by a local Council, Business Link, RDA or even the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) I get told that the public sector is prepared and eager to do business with SMEs and local business. I have read numerous articles and releases encouraging people like me to look for work with the nation’s biggest spender. As evidence of their munificence they (the various public sector bodies) provide us with some invitingly named web portals. Enter The Chest , Supply2Gov , Compete For.
Aside for the obviously unfriendly design and layout of all three, both supply2 and Compete For work pretty well although as an operation funded by our taxes, I find it staggering how often the Supply2 bunch try to get money off of me. Supply2 will give me free access to all opportunities in my sector within my local authority area. To date, not a single opportunity has arisen. A number however have presented themselves in neighbouring boroughs however I have to take out a rather costly subscription to get access to these. Also the councils maintain their heavy purchasing bureaucracy where I am sure they employ people whose only task is to obfuscate tender documentation so that only former public sector buyers can become successful public sector bid writers. This must be a result of some union decision to ensure the allocation of well paid bid writer positions in the private sector and healthy consultative opportunities for retiring buyers.
Rant over! The real reason for me bringing this up was one of the portals in particular got to me in a big way. To put it short it’s a pig to use! The Chest this is the worst case of over engineered non function that I have seen in my life, it reminds me of a Russian WW2 submarine, unattractive, unfriendly, robust and ineffective. Reigning this discussion in further; on the subject of design, most of us should be familiar with the concept of form following function. Many lazy designers or in some cases bad designers have used this as an excuse for creating a less than elegant product that does its job admirably. I can think of some business software I have used in the past as a fine example of this. In some cases this is viewed as sensible austerity, passing the savings in design time in to the consumer.
The concept of sensible austerity is a complete nonsense and I don’t think anyone is fooled. There are examples of this all around us. Take for example brown brick council houses, high-rise estates and some other relics of socialist Britain. These solutions offered comfortable living solutions to the destitute and those less well off but wrapped it all up in such an appealing facade that they literally exude waves of depression, squalor, debasement and various antisocial pathoses.
There do exist some very up market items that could be and sometimes are called Haute Couture that are in fact triumphs of form over function. In some cases these items are barely able to fulfil the function for which they were intended (I hesitate to use the word designed). In other instances the elaborate design does little or nothing to enhance the product and can in some cases hinder its most efficient utilisation in this case I reference the Lamborghini Reventon which is in no way more capable than the standard Murciélago on which it is based. These are rare items and usually have very little impact on the lives of anyone other than the select few who can afford to buy them.
What most people prefer is balance. Balance indicates thoughtfulness. Thoughtfulness gives people a sense of being important. If people think that corporations/institutions have given real consideration to their needs and desires that will impress them and generate brand loyalty, the type of brand loyalty that people like Apple, M&S and possibly your local butcher enjoy because of their customer first attitude. Good, not expensive or extravagant design is how you demonstrate that you care about your customers.
At Reckless New Media we always strive to give our customers a sense of wellbeing and the notion that their brand, their corporate identity and their future web sales are in good hands. The tool that we use to do this is consideration. We pay a lot of attention to our customers business; we look into the needs of their clients, their selling style and corporate culture so that we can understand their requirements. This we feel has enabled us to create a host of very effective websites that enable our customers to generate new business from the internet and to foster lasting relationships with their web based customers.
Can you think of any examples of good customer first branding and design? I would welcome your suggestions in the comments box.

Fish, Chips and Exceptional Curry

I took some well deserved rest last week and went out to Abersoch and Pwelli on the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales. It was a beautiful sunny day and my wife my friends and I spent much of it on the beach soaking up the sun. In town (Pwelli) as is typical of most British seaside towns there were a plethora of fish and chip take-aways. The thing that struck me about all of these organisations was the fact that they all have really clear and compelling branding. All of these shops do what they say on the tin, customers know instantly and from far away what they do and once they get a whiff of them , they realise that they want it.

The entire fast food industry provide excellent examples of clear and efficient branding - Think McDonald's, Subway, Dominoes, Starbucks and even your corner Chinese. They all have the same components, clear charismatic visuals that work hand in hand with sensory stimulation.

For a small company, it is really important to create a compelling visual, that tells people (prospective clients) what your business is all about. This is something that can easily be overlooked. It is important that the branding is compelling to it's target market but also iconic. All of the best brands are iconic, even the local chippy has the fish symbol, for McDonald's its the golden arches and for KFC it's the Colonel. Can you create an icon?

What about the sensory/emotional response? With fast food, the most powerful form of ambush marketing is the smell, it permeates the high-street and reaches punters at a subconscious level. How can you reach your customers subconscious? That is the challenge for brand builders in the 21st century. In a saturated market full of competent competition, how can you protect your customers from the budget priced come latelys and the competitor who moves in next door?

We cannot all use smell or even one of the other 4 senses. We can all however use the 6th sense, the sense of satisfaction. I know how cheesy that sounds but if you think of yourself as a consumer, what is your single largest reason for not taking up a budget priced product or service?

Usually it is fear of product failure or inferiority. Other times a concern about hidden costs may also be a factor. Many premium brands get a lot of mileage from lifestyle advertising promoting the satisfaction they bring their clients. satisfaction can come from the quality of the product but it also comes from quality of service.

Incorporate satisfaction into your brand. Make your staff's smiley faces and impeccable manners a brand attribute. Train anyone who answers the telephone to do so professionally and in a friendly engaging manner. If you are able to do this, the sense of satisfaction will work for your brand the same way as the sense of smell does for the chippy.

I was inspired by an excellent dining experience at an Indian Restaurant in Matlock, the service was exceptional and the food was delightful. I spent much more than I planed to and that to me is an example of good marketing!

The First Rule of Logo Design & Branding, The Parable of the Fruit Picker.

This week I have been working with a new client, a marketing company with a pretty impressive portfolio. For the purposes of this discussion I will call them Company A.

Company A came to us with a very impressive design brief for a new product that they were launching. They needed a web agency to develop a website for them to use primarily as a sales tool to sell the concept to their clients. In their proposal they had I feel correctly identified their target market and designed a brand and corporate identity that played directly to the aspirations of that market, an example of very good targeted branding.

However, a committee came in and looked at the website we had developed for them and decided that the design was too target market specific and they wanted us to broaden the general appeal of the website. After spending thousands of pounds on a new website, the company seriously wanted us to look at their core design and make it "More commercial", This was a delicately designed very pretty website; full of lifestyle, aspirational imagery and perfect for its original target market. Making it more commercial in this case was like plastering sponsorship decals on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Where did it all go wrong?

The first step in branding is to identify your target market. Do your research in phase one. If you have a product idea, establish who is most likely to buy it and focus your branding and marketing effort on them.

This is where mistake one is usually made.

The temptation is to try and design your brand with as broad appeal as possible. This is common sense the more people who like your brand and are attracted by it, the more potential customers you have.

But this is flawed thinking.

The best way to grow a customer base is to have a strong identity that really speaks to your desired audience. People however are all different, even the most popular and powerful mass market brands like Coca Cola and Google have detractors. To reach the mass market, a design or marketing message has to be so severely watered down that it looses the ability to compel it's primary market.

This situation is all too common and it can really slow the progress of a new brand. A good way to illustrate this scenario is to imagine that you in an orchard full of (insert favourite fruit here). If you look at one tree you will notice that it is full of fruit and if you have an hour you can pick it bare of 100 lovely juicy (your favourite fruit).

So you commence picking, within five minutes you will have picked all the fruit within arms reach, lets say 20 fruit.

At this point you will start to struggle reaching the fruit on the top half of the tree. They are tantalisingly close so you exert more and more effort in the struggle to reach each fruit.

Sure, morally this feels great. Each freshly picked fruit is a small victory and no doubt will be all the sweeter for it. In the end you may reach the last fruit on the tree. Feeling very content you climb down from the ladder pleased and fulfilled with your hard days work and your just rewards. It may have taken 3 times as long as you originally thought but you are probably most pleased with the few surprise fruit that you hadn't even seen. 120 fruit for 3 hours work, well done.

Compare that to the targeted picker. He knows that he has 1 hour to pick as many fruit as he can. Realising that each tree has about 20 low hanging fruit it will take 5 minutes to pick those low hanging fruit he can hit 12 trees in his hour delivering 240 fruit and plenty of time to enjoy them.

Our targeted picker did not work as hard but gut better results because he knew how to target his low hanging fruit.

A growing brand will benefit massively from the same approach. Identify your low hanging fruit, there should be enough of them out there to keep you busy.

Watch this space as the saga continues with the second reason a brand goes wrong.

For some examples of good branding visit our website here.