eMarketing

Email Marketing. Everybody with an email address will have experienced email marketing but unfortunately it is most common in the form of spam. Email marketing is extremely powerful but only when targeted at a willing audience such as existing customers and subscribers. In the UK it has been illegal since 2003 to send unsolicited emails to "individuals" which includes personal addresses and business addresses where the individual‘s name is included. In all cases an opt-out facility is essential so the recipient can choose to stop receiving marketing emails. Best practice is to build mailing lists from existing customers and subscribers, and provide them with an option not to receive marketing emails.

We can design and provide templates for marketing emails and newsletters, allowing you to add your own content as often as you want. We can add software to your website to collect the email addresses of your customers and subscribers, and provide facilities for them to opt-in and opt-out of receiving emails and/or newsletters. Once you have prepared your marketing email or newsletter a single click will automatically send it to all recipients on the mailing list.

RSS Feeds. An RSS Feed is a means of publishing content on the internet that changes regularly and can include multimedia content such as video, podcasts or audio. Visitors to your website can choose to subscribe to an RSS Feed, and thereafter they will automatically be kept up to date with any changes as soon as the document (webpage) is published. This means that your customer doesn‘t need to keep checking your website for promotions, offers, new products and news since they will be notified as soon as you have made the updates. RSS feeds are new to the internet, and are growing in popularity, both with website owners and their visitors because they are easy to use and notify the user of changes even if they have not visited the website.

We can design and provide templates for one or more RSS Feeds, allowing you to add your own content as often as you want. Visitors will need a "Feed Reader" to access your RSS Feeds and whilst these are included in the latest Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers, many users will need to download a free reader. We will provide a help page to explain to your customers how to subscribe, the benefits and how to obtain a free Feed Reader.

SMS Marketing. This involves sending the recipient a text message outlining offers, new products or other relevant information. This campaign is easy to develop but because you will need to pay for delivery of the SMS message it can prove expensive to run. In addition it is illegal in the UK to send unsolicited text/SMS messages to an individual that does not already have an existing relationship with your business. It will therefore be necessary to collect mobile numbers from your customers and subscribers, and provide them with a means of opting out from receiving marketing SMS messages.

We can provide the facility to collect mobile telephone numbers from customers and subscribers of your website, and categorise those users by previous orders or interests. Our dedicated hosting packages allow SMS messages to be created using a secure webpage and to distribute your message to multiple recipients simultaneously.

Interactive Marketing. This method of eMarketing relies on engaging the customer in order to influence their buying decisions. The marketing message can be delivered in a number of formats including internet, email, podcasts, SMS, WAP or interactive TV. Unlike previously mentioned marketing methods, this differs because it delivers the message indirectly as part of a larger experience. Examples of interactive marketing include jokes, news, sports scores, games, videos, photos or music where the message is secondary to the main subject. The aim is provide the recipient with something they enjoy and will then pass on to others.

Interactive marketing campaigns can be expensive to develop and run but a successful campaign may ultimately be seen by tens of thousands of recipients, making it comparitable to other less engaging forms of marketing. We can manage your interactive marketing campaign, develop and distribute the content, and where this provides a link to your website we can also implement a method to monitor the success of your campaign.

Offline Content. Electronic content can be delivered to your customers through Podcasts and CDs including mini-CD business cards or even a USB memory stick. Information about your business, products, services, offers and promotions can be downloaded from your website, or delivered on CD and viewed by your customers at a time that suits them. Downloadable content relies on the customer accessing your website and saving the information for later use. CDs can be delivered in the post or distributed at trade exhibitions or display stands. Podcasts would require the message to be delivered as a video or audio, but CD content could deliver the message in any form including a mini website with other content, including video built in.

We can develop the content of your marketing message and either integrate this as part of your website, burn it to CD, or download it to a memory stick. We can provide graphic design for the CD or memory stick label and arrange for these to be attached. Where the marketing material provides a link to your website we can also implement a method to monitor the success of the campaign.

Split Streams. Whilst this is not a marketing method in itself it provides the means to compare the effectiveness of two or more campaigns. Where your campaign involves customers visiting your website from external links, we can divide the incoming visitors between two or more reception pages, so that your customers will receive a different experience. Each reception page will offer a different message (say offers) and by monitoring your customers progress, and whether they make a purchase you can compare the different campaigns to check effectiveness.

eMarketing is not a substitute for traditional methods but more a means of complimenting them. If your campaign includes the design and production of printed material we can offer high quality graphic design and printing through one of our associates and manage the entire campaign for you.

Find Out More

If you like the sound of our eMarketing options, or you require any other aspect of software design then we can certainly help you. To find out more use the "Quick Links" to the right or Contact Us with your requirements.

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