Great piece of eMarketing

It's Alan's birthday this month (all together now, Happy Birthday to you...) and on the first of the month (yes, that's today, this blog really is hot off the press) he got an email from Waterstone's (he's a loyalty card customer with them) saying that as it was his birthday this month they'd treat him to £5 off his next purchase (when he spends £25 or more) before 14th December.

This is a great piece of eMarketing, we love it. OK, so they had to collect his date of birth as part of the loyalty card application process, but then they've used it in a brilliant way - he feels they've remembered his birthday and he's being given a present, they get a £20 purchase (within quite a tight timeframe) that he probably wouldn't otherwise have made... everyone's a winner! And everyone feels good.

Tip for all of our clients, particularly in eCommerce - if you collect data about your customers, make sure you use it to market to them, and do it imaginitively!

By Kate Wooding
Published: 1 December 2008
1 Comment

Lessons for charities

I came across this article on eConsultancy about the many ways in which Obama harnessed the power of digital in his campaigning, and how charities could use these simple strategies as part of their campaigns, fundraising, marketing.

It did make me think about how we all (not just charities) need to be monitoring, responding, engaging online - and yes, I do know how time-consuming and resource-intensive it can be! I also know that it can be very effective, and very powerful.

tictoc has done lots of digital work for charities: we've created virals, Facebook apps, developed websites and campaign microsites, ensured sites elicit donations, run eNewsletter campaigns, carried out Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click marketing campaigns... but I don't think we've done the whole lot for one client. Which just goes to show how at the moment, charities are probably not being quite as joined up and coherent online as they could be.

Let's not forget that some of these lessons can be learned by businesses and brands too. Online reputation management is becoming a hot topic, and it's something we're starting to work on here at tictoc.

If you've seen good or bad examples of businesses, brands and charities doing stuff in the digital world, tell us about it!

By Kate Wooding
Published: 13 November 2008
0 Comments

Using Social Media to launch your website

A new handbag website launched on the Internet recently. Nothing unusual about a new e-commerce website launching you might think, but the people at Handbag Planet had a great idea to publicise the new site.

Every hour for the first 24 hours they were giving away a free handbag and they made it easy to enter the competition.

There were several ways to enter, you could visit their website and sign up, refer a friend and you got another chance to win. Or you could enter using a Social Media website.

If you added Handbag Planet as a friend on MySpace or Facebook or write about them on Twitter you got 10 chances to win a prize. And if you had a blog you could write about them to receive 25 chances to win the handbag of your dreams!

Now while I may not be into my handbags, honestly I'm not, I do like their use of the social side of the Internet. For very little work on their part they managed to get people to mention the new website across the Internet thus building up links to it.

This shows the power of Social Media website as part of website marketing and how to get your customers to work for you.

How would you use Social Media websites to market your website?

By Alan Masterson
Published: 20 October 2008
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The art of blogging

People keep talking about how you should have a blog on your company website, but they hardly ever explain why. So here goes:

1. Blogs can give your company a bit more personality, provide a behind-the-scenes peek, make you seem more individual to your web visitors.
2. You get a chance to air thoughts/opinions or talk about subjects that either aren't directly related to your company, or that you might not be quite ready to bill as the 'company line' - it depends how far you want to take your blog into the realm of the 'personal view'.
3. Most importantly, blogs can be very good at driving traffic to your website. Especially if they are quoted by other bloggers, who then link back to them - search engines think sites that are well-linked are more trusted, and so you'll come higher up the rankings.
4. Because you should update them fairly regularly, they help keep your site fresh. New content encourages repeat visitors.
5. They give visitors to your site a chance to interact, by commenting on what you've written. Sometimes the arguments that go on in the comments are more interesting than the blog post itself!
   

Here are some questions you might want to ask yourself if you're thinking about having a company blog:

• Whose blog is it? At tictoc any of the staff can add to the blog - some companies keep it as a personal view from one of their staff, usually someone at the top.
  
• What's it for? Sometimes it's about issues that are relevant to your company, sometimes it's about a whole load of other stuff that has no direct relevance to what your company does. Sometimes it's a mixture of both.
• Who's going to make sure you blog regularly? There's no point having one if it's rarely updated. Make a commitment, and give someone the time and responsibility to make it happen.

And here are some other things to bear in mind:

• If you use a blogsite for your blog (i.e. blogger or wordpress) your own company site will not get any of the benefit of having a blog. All that traffic will be driven to another site - it won't help your own rankings at all. It's not difficult to get a blog built in to the Content Management System of your own site.
  
• Do be a bit careful about the content on your blog. Don't be defamatory, be careful if you're going to be provocative - remember, this reflects on your company, and technically your company could be liable for what's said on it.
• Know how you're going to deal with comments. Not all comments will be supportive, and you should make a decision about whether to allow comments or not. If you do and someone makes a comment you're not happy with, make sure you respond to it (calmly) rather than ignoring it.

By Melanie Russell
Published: 17 October 2008
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Online Reputation Management is the new PR

Online Reputation management, buzz management or brand management are all names for a growing area of website marketing linked to social websites, and is fast becoming the new PR.

Old school PR companies may have trawled through the tabloids to discover any stories relating to you. But what about the vast resource of the Internet?

Before buying a product or selecting a service the vast majority of Internet users do some research wither it's searching on Google or reading posts on forums.

But do you know what people are saying about you on the Internet?

With the rise of social websites like Facebook and Myspace, blogging services like Blogger and twitter and many companies having there own blog, there is an increase in the chance of something negative being written about you.

A classic example of this is Starbucks. If you search on Google for Starbucks you will find several sites with negative feelings towards the giant coffee company. (We quite like their coffee!)

Online Reputation Management services can scour the Internet to find any mention of you or your brand and help you to counter any negative publicity.

It's not all doom and gloom. Online Reputation Management will also find all that positive feedback about you. If you do find negative content about your company or brand what can you do?

If the information is true don't ignore it or hide from it. Participate in the discussion by posting a reply or leaving a comment so you can get your side of the argument across. And on your own website issue a statement or correct the issue.

If it is not true contact the owner and request, politely, that they remove or retract it. If that doesn't work it may be time to call in the lawyers.

By Alan Masterson
Published: 6 September 2008
1 Comment

More restaurants, less hunger!

By Super Administrator
Published: 26 September 2007
0 Comments

Online shoppers seek more information

A recent poll by Harris Interactive that surveyed 2,873 US adults found that 44% of consumers had abandoned their shopping cart because they couldn’t find the answers to questions about the purchase or the product they wanted. It also went on to state that 68% of consumers said they were compelled to browse a website after receiving an email from a retailer. Download the Harris Interactive Online Poll report (pdf).

By Super Administrator
Published: 1 June 2007
0 Comments

Natural is best

By Super Administrator
Published: 24 May 2007
0 Comments