Latest from Spoilt

1. You can’t write!
   

   

   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?

2. Look what landed in the office today!
   

   

   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
3. 8 Components Of A Successful Email Newsletter
   

   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.