New blog design in progress. Excuse the scaffolding. This is just a short about section where you can describe yourself and your site. You'll want to keep it fairly long because there are some layout issues that arise if the area is below a certain width.
Let’s be honest here.
Despite what the marketing experts tell us. Some of us cannot write. Not a Newyork best seller nor a sick note for the boss. Putting interesting words together into a coherent attractive whole has never been a core skill.
I have something to tell you. It doesn’t matter.
Sheepstealer Clothing is a small sports clothing brand in Ireland. It is a personal project where I get to have fun designing t-shirts for passionate fans. It has become my playground to try out different types of marketing. But I have a small issue. I do not know enough about the sport to write about it.
The sport(s) in question are unique to Ireland. Gaelic football, Hurling and Handball. (Read here for a great American perspective of Hurling). It is fast, skilful and great fun to watch with a crowd. I am simply not a sporty person.
What do you do when you cannot write about your market? What I did with sheepstealers is use one of my own core skills. I drew it.
The important thing about content is that it is interesting and adds value for a reader.
I took existing information on the sport and created new interesting visuals around it.
Great, funny quotes from the sport, a guide to the game of hurling or combining other crossover interests.
Infographics are a prime example of this technique. They take existing information, statistics and other data and create a new visual representation of it to help the reader better understand.
The result is new content, updated often, of interest to the market and very sharable. The added bonus is this content now appears in Google image search as well and can be posted on sites like flickr. And it all came about because I couldn’t write.
You can’t write.
So what other skills do you have that can add new value to existing content?
Our super cute Toddle mascot landed in our office today. I have to say we love his little hat in time for the autumn. Want your company logo transformed into a cool knitted version? Check out fiverr.com
This post was originally a guest post on Bloggertone.com
Email newsletters offer one of the highest returns on investment in online marketing, second only to search marketing. But it only works when you do it right.
Assuming you have interested subscribers; the following are the key parts of an email newsletter guaranteed to bring you success.
1. Subject line
Your very first point of contact. Use this to tempt the reader to open the mail.
I add the company name to every subject line to build trust over time. Readers learn that if the mail is from Sheepstealers then there will be something inside they will enjoy or find interesting.
2. Preview
This text will appear in the preview pane of the email client when it arrives to the inbox. It should add to the subject line and provide more reasons to open the newsletter.
3. Main offer
A clear offer with a strong call to action. A reader should be in no doubt what to do next and why. Fancy fonts will need to be images so make sure you have text and links that work when images are turned off.
4. Sell stuff.
Don’t forget your ultimate goal is to sell your products or service.
5. Being useful
Subscribers would get turned off pretty fast if every mail was about me. I always add content I know would be of use to a subscriber. It increases the chance of them opening again next month.
6. Expand the conversation
People love sharing good links and information online. With an army of subscribers loving your updates, make it easy for them to tell others and chat back to you.
7. Reminder
A personal touch to let them know you are human and a simple reminder of where they signed up can drastically reduce the number who unsubscribe. But if they want to go let them.
8. Short & Sweet
I like keeping my newsletters short and easy to scan. If I have a long article I split it into a snappy taster for the newsletter and a read more link going to the blog.
That’s all! If you start applying these points to your email marketing campaigns you will see your open and click through rates start to rise.
Disclosure: Sheepstealer GAA T-Shirts is a product from Spoiltchild. This email does not currently exist and was produced for this post.
Did you know email marketing has one of the highest returns on investment in online marketing?
Well from next Monday (13th July), Toddle.com is running a free four week email marketing course to show you how to get the best from it. Four emails over four weeks covering all the basics.
Image cc David Erickson
BEN is a new site from the team here showcasing beautiful email newsletter designs. Updated regularly it features email marketing from around the world. Great for when you are looking for a bit of inspiration.
I attended the hotel marketing conference organised by Ciaran Delaney of meetingsbooker.com yesterday. It was a pretty intensive day, with a host of well established and experienced speakers with an in-depth knowledge of the Tourism and Travel industry in Ireland. Presentations in the main were well rounded and very informative.
The interesting thing for me was that the challenges facing the hotel sector when marketing their products online, be it rooms, conferences, special offers or meeting space, is the same as other industries. Many delegates I spoke to suffer form the same problems as the rest of us, finding the time to update the website, deciding who to choose as an affiliate partner, and wondering how social media and user generated content can help move their business to the next level. Not to mention finding the appropriate company to attend to all these requirements.
We all know that the hotel sector has taken a battering this year. However, on a very positive note, Laughlin Rigby of Tourism Ireland clearly explained how a well managed, strategic, online presence, embracing all forms of web engagement can truly turn ‘lookers to bookers’. I really enjoyed Laughlin’s presentation. It was so interesting to see how each strand of their marketing activity online dramatically increases traffic. A real can do attitude, very refreshing.
Interestingly, Tourism Ireland has just hired a graduate who has the exciting title of Social Media Activist, certainly a visionary decision on Tourism Ireland’s behalf. And the statistics don’t lie. User generated content is driving traffic, creating a buzz and bringing users to your site and in this case, to Ireland. I am sure roles like this will become more common as the rewards of engaging with social media and user generated content becomes ever more apparent.
The top four things I took home from yesterday’s event:
1. DIY. Start a Blog; create an eZine, create a page on Facebook. Empower yourself to drive your business success.
2. Respond to your users. Communication is everything and integrity goes a long way.
3. Does your site turn your ‘lookers to bookers’? Why not? What can you do to make it happen?
4. Do everything you can to retain your customers – new ones are costly old ones aren’t.
But mostly, I reaffirmed that everything is not broken in this current climate. There are plenty of opportunities for everyone to realise their potential and to engage with their customers in a meaningful way.
More highlights form the event tomorrow.
Image thanks to tomerlichtash (cc)
The guys over at Channelship grabbed me after the Netimperative conference last week to ask about Toddle for their Video blog.
They ask three questions:
What is Toddle?
How do you use it?
And what are the benifits for a business?
Thanks guys.
Which is starting to confirm my theory that we only win when we don’t turn up to these awards :)
Spoiltchild / Toddle.com won Best Internet & ICT Award at tonight Chamber of Commerce Awards. It’s brilliant to get and thank you to all involved. Thanks also to Denise who called live from the event when they announced it.
I am currently at home minding a sick baby and about to break out some Farley’s Rusks and milk to celebrate :)
Chuffed to find out today that Toddle has been shortlisted for the Best Internet & ICT Award and Spoiltchild for the Best Small Business in the Drogheda Chamber of Commerce awards.
The Internet award recognises companies that have a strategy to reduce costs, grow sales or improve their focus on customers through innovative and effective use of the Internet and ICT. While the Best Small Business award is for the company who has demonstrated significant strategic growth, innovation entrepreneurship and sustainability in its market sector.
Just a few months off the starting block and we are off to a flying start!
We are delighted to announce that our
email newsletter web application Toddle
has been accepted on to the Hothouse incubation programme.
Toddle was featured in the Tuesday push a few weeks ago and we got some amazing feedback, both praise and constructive feedback. Thank you to everyone who took the time to check us out.
During the push our traffic more then doubled and sign ups jumped by 400 new users during the week.
A few of the nice things said:
Toddle is an elegant, easy-to-use and frankly disarmingly beautiful email marketing solution.
Alexia Golez
I like Toddles charge per design rather than charge per recipient. Email is for intensive purposes FREE. Charging people per recipient is counter-intuitive.
Robin Blandford
I would suggest Jason (Calacanis) takes a close look at this product.
It does what it says on the tin “Beautifully simple email newsletters”
Pat Phelan MAX Roam
Toddle makes it easy to create pretty HTML newsletters, using a nice interactive, easy to use web app. With 2 free credits, and a perfectly simple login barrier (all you need to enter is your email address!) there’s very few reasons not to try toddle.
Peel me a grape
My clients are mostly “normal” businesses so they are not interested/able/bothered about learning or using complex solutions to anything. Toddle.com fits the bill for those of them who want to send email newsletters.
Keith Bohanna
Fabulously simple and eminently usable.
Toddle isn’t for power users; it doesn’t have an address book (you send the newsletter from your email client), the templates are set and there is no scheduled sender mechanism. Toddle doesn’t need any of these nor should it ever complicate itself with further features.
Paul M. Watson
You don’t need to have any special skills to create an attractive email newsletter that you can send to your clients or prospects, as their intuitive interface does all the hard work for you.
Blacknight Solutions
The key to Toddle is that you don’t need to know anything about HTML to create stunning HTML newsletters. They use a very intuitive user interface so that non-technical people can create newsletters with their own logos/images and content in a matter of minutes, literally.
Cathal Garvey
Alan O’Rourke and his team of spoilt children are gonna get one hell of a push because their product Toddle is simply a textbook example of how online tools should be built.
Pix.ie Photo Sharing
Toddle is an online application that allows you to send really good-looking email newsletters. Like little email Zoolanders.
Stewart Curry
The interface is clean, clear and great to use. I know a few businesses that have asked for email templates, I’ll be recommending they sign up to Toddle now!
E-Write
Toddle’s design is simplicity at it’s best.
There are no complex or unnecessary features, which leaves the interface uncluttered.
David Kelly
From its one line registration process to hyperajaxified interface the whole interface smacks of Alan O’Rourke’s wonderful attention to detail.
Joe drumgoole, Putplace
Those in the know. Know to use Toddle. It actually manages to turn the whole process into a pleasure. And leaves you with the energy to put out some compelling content.
Niall Larkin, ReleventM
Toddle helps you build and send great looking email newsletters. Simple idea, amazingly simple way of designing them.
Damien Mulley
Toddle and the Spoiltchild team got a nice mention in the Irish Independent newspaper and Silicon Republic today.
The piece focuses on the Irish tech start up scene and how they find finance for their business.
You can read it here.
Does anyone happen to have an old or spare eircom.net email account they would be willing to donate? We are looking to test Toddle with their web based mail client.
And as a long shot we are looking do some tests on the Zimbra email client. Before we install it we are doing a quick shout to see if anyone already it up and running and can donate an account.
Thanks