DON’T SPAM, KERBLAM! Being more effective with your Email, Social Media and SMS Marketing!

It is all so easy to fall into the trap when working on SMS, email or Social Media campaigns of constantly trying to sell to your database and thus really just becoming SPAM. The problem is, this becomes boring to the majority of people, annoying to others, and what initially was a brand you trusted and opted in to be part of, now quite frankly bugs the hell out of you. So you either opt out or just ignore the messages completely, from the brands perspective a connection and possible customer is lost. Now when you send your database about an offer or info on something they really want to hear about you don’t have their attention or you cant reach them as they have opted out.

Back in the day when I was a Commercial agent for Sports teams and athletes I had a mantra that I would always speak to our sponsors at least 4 times during the season without asking for money. So I called them to give them free event tickets, make sure their advert was up to date in programme, ask them if they wanted to feature on our email newsletter ….. or just for a general chat. You can be sure when we needed a Man of the Match sponsored during or at the end of the season and their sponsorship renewal was up, they were always happy to speak with me and answered the phone.

The same applies to your database, send messages that show you care, are informative, useful, funny and not just the blatant sale, that way when you have something really great to sell, KERBLAM you have your contacts full attention and you have a good chance to bag a sale…

For more information on Paul and So and So Marketing visit www.soandsomarketing.co.uk email Paul@soandsomarketing.co.uk follow him on Twitter @paulsonso or sign up to their email newsletter by CLICKING HERE

Find a buddy and share the love - Generate your own database rather than purchasing one!

Pretty often we get asked by companies about purchasing databases of mobile numbers to send SMS messages to.  Yes of course we can, and have strategic partners whereby databases large and small can be purchased as well as owning some ourselves, but for the below reasons I would always recommend steering clear of this option.  Instead I would go for the option of working hard on creating your own opt in database, and/or buddying up with fellow companies who also have opt in databases.

Reasons against purchasing mobile numbers

·        -  PURCHASING A DATABASE IS EXPENSIVE

·       -   YOU WILL OFTEN BE CHARGED PER FIELD SO TO PURCHASE A FULLY TARGETED DATABASE WILL COST YOU

·         - YOU ONLY GET TO USE IT ONCE

·         - MANY OF THOSE YOU TEXT WILL NOT BE SPECIFIC SMS OPT IN (and will not be expecting promo texts from strange companies)

·        -  YOU RUN THE RISK OF ALIENATING THE VERY PEOPLE YOU ARE TRYING TO WIN OVER

·         - SOMETIMES THE DATABASE HAS NOT BEEN CLEANSED AND THERE CAN BE WASTAGE

·         - YOUR COMPETITORS MAY HAVE ALREADY USED THE DATABASE

Work hard to reap longer standing rewards

It takes longer, its hard work, but creating your own opt in Mobile number database is very rewarding.  In terms of marketing there is no comparison in terms of immediacy and response rates to that of sending  SMS text messages  and in particular when it comes to engaging via that form with your own opt in database.  These people are expecting to receive SMS messages from you, they are waiting to hear from you, and are interested in the content and offers you send to them, and a good % will utilise the call to action and take up your offer.

** The average response rate to a text message is 28%

** 50% of those who respond make a purchase

Find a buddy and share the love

An alternative way to use mobile data and reach new audiences is to form strategic alliances with other companies, which is something I have done with many of my clients to great degree of success.  In return for you texting your database an offer promoting your partner business, they will also do the same to their database, thus promoting the products to new people, adding value to your customers (make sure you don’t just send a blatant sales text so that you don’t alienate your customers. Send them an offer or add value to them in some way). 

TIP:  Always begin and make the Originator your company name so the customer knows that the text has come from someone they trust and who they have opted in to hear from.

An example is:

Ie:  Hi SO and SO customer, we are proud to share with you this exclusive buy one get one free offer in Cafe Weymouth on Coffee when you show this text!

In return an offer or voucher can then be sent to you partner businesses database which reaches a new audience, has been received by a trusting recipient who receives value from a trusted source thus endorsing your brand, and bringing in potential new customers.

For further blogs, insights and information on SMS text messaging visit  www.soandsomarketing.co.uk email Paul@soandsomarketing.co.uk follow him on Twitter @paulsonso or sign up to their email newsletter by CLICKING HERE

Marketing Spend less Customer Service = Wastage

One of my biggest marketing passions is the art of Customer Experience and Service. How you interact, engage, welcome, deal with problems and make a customer feel about your product, service or experience is by far the most important aspect of your business and your companies marketing plan.

How often do you see companies spending thousands on marketing only to let themselves down by not understanding their customer, or by letting them down with empty promises?  You can be assured if they feel like this, others will do to, and that they have shared these disappointments with many others.

In an age where good and bad experiences can spread digitally in a matter of minutes, the need to analyse, innovate and be ready to exceed customer expectations before even contemplating spending money on marketing is more important than ever.

Just as bad experiences spread quickly so do great experiences.  By exceeding your customers’ expectations, going the extra mile or providing something quite unique, your need for spending money on the more conventional forms of marketing will decrease.

So before you decide to go all out on printing 1000’s of flyers, taking out newspaper adverts, step up your social media interaction or create a new website, take a good look at how you treat, interact and what service you offer to your customers and see if you can make your customer’s experience part of your marketing story, not part of the reasons why however much you spend nothing works!

For more information on Paul you can follow him on twitter @paulsonso email him on paul@soandsomarketing.co.uk  and visit www.soandsomarketing.co.uk to find out more on measuring Customer Service and Experience.

So and So Marketing is a full service marketing and design agency based in Weymouth, Dorset and covering the South of England, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Somerset and Devon.

The Biker FM Speedway Show. 0 – 40000 listeners in less than 15 weeks!

When we first started working with the UK’s biggest online motorbike related radio station Biker FM, little did we know we would help them to create one of the biggest ever online radio shows, and the most listened to show in the stations history.

The Speedway Show was launched in February 2012. We had been working with Biker FM on their marketing strategy and text competitions for almost a year when we worked with the station to launch the Speedway show that we suggested, due both to our knowledge and contacts within the sport, but also due to the large untapped audience the sport had with no Audio outlet for news and content.

On show One we went big, by having former British GP Champion and the UK’s biggest Speedway Star Chris Bomber Harris live on the show, alongside the sport’s most controversial Team Manager Alun Rossiter, and an excellent competition to learn to ride speedway with myfirstskid.com.

Although only ranked number 10 in the station’s rankings, with a marketing push, new presenters (one of them being me surprisingly, believe me, it wasn’t my intention) and continually good guests with World Champions, young hot talent, the sport’s top administrators all mixed in with some controversy, the show started to gain media coverage within the sport and a social media following which saw it rise to number one in the stations rankings by week 10.

On May the 13^th the sport of Speedway was hit by the tragic news that British Speedway ace Lee Richardson had been killed in a track crash in Poland. The speedway family was in mourning and only two days after his sad passing we ran a tribute show to Lee with the blessing of his family. Email and social media tributes came pouring into the show, with some of Lee’s closest friends and racing colleagues coming onto the show to pay tribute to a great family man, rider and friend the word about the show spread worldwide.

The show received over 46’000 listeners, being a station record and crashing the server. Creating further national coverage, not just in the motorcycle press, but also via such media sources as the Daily Star a podcast was released. Again due to such huge demand the server went down but was eventually fixed for many people to listen to one of the most emotional shows broadcast, ending with an interview with Lee recorded right back in show number 2.

The show continues to be Number 1 on the station and with many more ideas to grow this show and the station weekly audience numbers station wide are expected to rise.

So and So Marketing’s first venture into radio land has been a rollercoaster; emotional, tough but rewarding and we look forward to working with BIKER FM into the future and continuing to see listener numbers rise and the profile of the station increase!