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10 tips to successful email marketing

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:38:00 +0000

Here's 10 things that we recommend doing to improve your email marketing

The preview pane

When your readers scan through their emails they quickly decide whether or not an email is relevant to them by having a quick glance at the email in the preview pane. With the horizontal pane you only get around 6 lines of space to display your message and get their attention, and since most email programmes automatically turn off images try to avoid putting images at the top of the email. Instead use this for textual content that will grab their attention. For the side preview pane you get to see about 1.5 inches of the email from the left, so align all of your content to the left and again try to avoid adding images in that space.

Subject line

Use your subject line to grab the reader's attention and reel them in, this way you have a better chance of the email being opened and read. Try to avoid using boring subject's lines such as “July newsletter” as it won't stand out in your reader's inbox.

Hard bounce

You'll receive a hard bounce when you try sending an email to and address that either does not exist or the domain is unknown. This send's the email straight back to you, don't try sending the email more than 3 times as this could potentially get you blacklisted.

Last month's newsletter

To try and entice new readers to sign up to your monthly newsletter why not show them the kind of content they have been missing?

Only send what's relevant to the reader

A lot of people don't like to receive just any old junk that has no relevance to them, they'll just delete the email and move on. What we'd suggest is giving your reader some options when they sign up to your newsletter on which content they'd like to receive, this means you will need to write 2 or 3 separate newsletters a month but your readers will be getting the content they want.

The spam and junk mail filters

Unfortunately the spam and junk mail filters are continously updated making it nearly impossible to know exactly all of the time what the rules are. If we did all of our email would get through all of the time to all of the people we sent it. What we do know is that it works on a point system, you receive a point for each rule your email breaks and the more points you have the less likely that your email is going to get past the filters. Using words like "click here" will go against you so try to replace these terms with something suitable. Also, it's best to avoid using any of the obvious banned words. Take a look at your own junk folder and identify the words and phrases that the emails have in common.

From email address

Your readers will want to receive their emails from an address they are familiar with and trust, when choosing your From email address remember to be consistent and use it for all of your email campaigns. Try to avoid using unfriendly addresses such as do_not_reply@domain.com.

Keep it short

Don't bore your readers with long emails with lots of content or articles, if you have a lot to say then why not send two emails?Keep it short and to the point and direct them back to your website where they can read more.

Be consistent

Be consistent with your timing when sending out your emails, your readers will become familiar with what dates they'll be receiving emails from you so make sure you keep on track each month.

Four things to think about

Who is going to receive the email?
What do they do when they get it?
What do they do after that?
What will your response be to their action?

Is your website in need of a makeover?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:32:00 +0000

Your website may have been 'state-of-the-art' 5 or even 2 years ago but, with massive changes in technology and the way people use the internet, unless you've kept your site up to date your business could be losing out. Yet a website refresh or update need not be a costly exercise. Often quite small changes will update your website – and it'll also give you something to tell your clients about.

Design – does your website attract and engage potential clients?

Just as in fashion, music and cars, tastes change online and it's very easy for your company and product to look dated. Yet in the faceless online world appearances are particularly important – people are more likely to trust and make contact with a site that looks attractive, fresh and modern than one that looks tired and old fashioned.

Changes in design aesthetics have also been accompanied by significant technological developments. It means web designers can now create a more rewarding, enjoyable user experience, showcasing your products and services in ways that engage potential clients. The use of videos, interactive presentations, podcasts and forums enable clients to understand better what you're offering and create a stronger relationship with your brand.

Technology – can your website be viewed across a range of devices?

We don't build websites the way we did 5 years ago. In fact technology is moving so fast that a website built 2 years ago can be out of date. One of the big drivers behind this rapid change is that the way in which people view websites has transformed. They're no longer limited to a home or office computer. Your website will be viewed on mobile devices like an iPhone or BlackBerry, on tablets like iPad, Dell Streak or joojoo, on televisions, netbooks, laptops and also on traditional PCs.

Web design now has to take into account the various ways in which people can interact with your website. So, for example, if your site was built using Flash, at the moment if you don't offer a non-Flash version your site won't be visible on iPhones or iPads, the search engines may not be able to index the content, and you may be breaking the law as your site is inaccessible to people who don't use a keyboard or are visually impaired.

If you're running an ecommerce store or using a contact form, it's also important to note you may be exposing your site to hackers if you don't update it regularly. We recently evaluated a client's website that had had 70 security breaches in the past 6 months due to out of date code.

Search engines – does your website appear high up in search results?

The search engines update their algorithms regularly (the criteria used to decide where web pages appear in search results). The way your site was built may be impacting your ability to achieve a high ranking.

Content management systems – is it easy to update your website content?

A content management system allows you to manage and update your site yourself. It's easy, you don't need to know how to write code, and because you don't have to pay your web designer to make content changes, it's very cost-effective. Most importantly, it makes it easy to keep your site fresh, accurate and regularly updated –attracting more visitors and more sales.

For a no-obligation discussion on whether your website could benefit from an update contact us on 0845 258 1208

What impact is iPad going to have on your business?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:19:00 +0000

The fun and fashionable 'it' gadget of 2010 is also an incredibly powerful business tool…

Everyone's talking about iPad – how cool it looks, how much fun it is, the 200,000+ apps, and how it's going to transform the way we surf the web, watch videos and read books. In all the excitement, it's easy to overlook the fact that it also holds massive potential to revolutionise the way we do business. We think iPad is going to have a profound impact in three key areas.

A step-change in "on the road" business productivity

Much more than the laptop has done, iPad offers businesses the ability to streamline their "on the road" or "in the field" type activities. Take for instance a service-oriented company with mobile field engineers servicing clients. Typically they'll be completing paper-based orders or spreadsheet orders on their laptops, and then either emailing, faxing or manually rekeying them when they get back to base. If they're really efficient they'll have a mobile data card on their laptop so they can email the details directly from the client, or they may be able to access wifi, but both these options are costly.

In contrast, iPad's inbuilt 3G connection makes it exceptionally easy and affordable to access the internet – all you need is a 3G Sim card, available for as little as £5 a month. We can build web-based connections to your systems, allowing your people "in the field" to upload orders, check stock levels and access client information in real time, quickly and efficiently, without needing to do anything later on. The effects on productivity, time-saving and, ultimately, your profits can be dramatic.

Transforming the sales and marketing process

In the same way, iPad can supercharge your marketing and selling opportunities. Your sales people will be able to instantly provide product demos, presentations, access client records, take orders and collect data at the touch of their fingers. No longer will you have to make small talk, hoping a customer doesn't lose interest while your laptop boots up. iPad comes on instantly. If your CRM is web-based you'll be able to login and access client information and process client orders. You'll also have instant access to product data sheets, presentations and any other sales info needed – all displayed on a crisp, vibrant screen with IPS technology so it looks just as good off angle when you're sharing it with a customer. And all before we've mentioned email integration.

What's more, while even the smallest netbook can be awkward to carry, take an iPad to an exhibition or event and you can walk up to a potential customer… instead of waiting for them to come to you.

Improved efficiency for a competitive edge

Intelligent use of technology can have a major impact on efficiency – reducing your costs and increasing your profits. Take, for instance, a company selling beauty products to retailers. The person taking the order will generally write it down, and then email the details to the warehouse who will pick and pack the order. The shipping company will be contacted to collect the order. Accounts will be contacted to raise the invoice. A shipping docket will be printed. Supposing that every time someone 'touches' the order it costs the business £3, then one sale will have cost the company £15.

Now if the sales person instead hits the power button on their iPad and enters the order into the company's ordering system, there and then, the process is transformed. Shipping could be dispatching the order with the shipping note and invoice already prepared. The invoice could be automatically emailed to the client and the data entered into the business' accounting system. All parties could get information instantaneously – significantly reducing bottom line costs, increasing efficiency and giving the client the 'wow' service that sets a company above its competition.

Covenant Solutions completes acquisition of silverstripeclub.com

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Covenant Solutions is pleased to announce the acquisition of silverstripeclub.com which was completed on 8th July 2010.

Covenant Solutions has specialised in developing content management system driven websites since 2002 and has been developing websites on SilverStripe since 2008. Aaron Brockhurst, Managing Director of Covenant Solutions, explains: “The acquisition of the silverstripeclub.com gives us the opportunity to grow our work in the SilverStripe Arena. Our intention is to continue the development of modules, widgets and themes that will benefit the members of the club."

“Our first piece of work is to complete the auction module ready for release in September 2010. Our design team are working on three new themes which are available to all members in August with a new theme released every month. We're also in the process of scoping a Media Manager Module that will give SilverStripe site owners the ability to easily manage Audio content for playing on the site and download.”

For more information please contact Aaron Brockhurst on +44 (0) 845 258 1208 or email aaron@covenantsolutions.co.uk

Tips to help you write your blog

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:11:00 +0000

Most websites we work on will have a blog as it's a great way for business's to add new content to their website which the search engines love and engage with people on a more personal level. However the thought of writing a blog often sends even the most dedicated content editor into panic mode. A friend of ours asked for some tips on writing a blog so rather than sending her an email here's our tips for writing your blog.

Plan your blog

Plan your blogs in advance. If you're writing for your business it's quite a good idea to have a list of titles that you want to write about prepared in advance. This will help you put together an outline of what you want to say before putting fingers to the keyboard. Personally I find having an 8 week schedule helps me organise my thoughts and and write notes about key items. When I come to writing the article I'm prepared and not struggling to find the words.

Keep it interesting

We read blogs because they're interesting, we're interested in the person who has written it or there's some information that we're looking for. Apparently people will spend about 96 seconds (problogger.net) reading your blog. 96 seconds sounds a bit too precise for my liking but if they get board in the first paragraph they'll generally stop reading. Keeping your blog light and easy to read is a great tactic for keeping the attention of those of us who drift. Also intersperse the paragraphs with sub headers and images to break the text up and highlight sections.

Make sure it's informative

Dont be afraid to share information in your blog that's not commercially sensitive. From a business perspective keeping your blog informative is a great way for you to empower your audience and build your standing in their eyes. Also they're more likely to come back if you've given them something on the first visit.

Make sure it's relevant

If we're not following someone's blog we'll generally stumble upon them through an internet search. We'll be looking for something and if we dont spot the answer quickly we'll move on to the next search result. With this in mind make keep the content of your blog relevant to the title of your blog. Don't wander off track. If you have another idea then write another post and link to it. There's nothing worse than landing on the page and finding out that the title was missleading. If you're writing your business's blog make sure it's relevant to your business it will help increase your exposure in the search engines and show potential clients you know what you're talking about.

Worthy of a mention

If you have used someone elses facts or figures it's a good idea to mention it and link to where you got them from.

Search engine optimised

We often talk to clients about writing a blog to help lift their websites position in the search engines. If this is one of your goals there are some key things you should do:

Know what keywords or search terms you are targeting (if you don't know yours speak to our search team)
Only focus on one of your primary keywords or search terms per blog post
Make sure that your primary keyword or search term is in the title of the blog post and that you have used it regularly throughout the content of the post
Make sure that your content is relevant and makes sense and not keyword jibberish designed to fool the search engine
Link to other blog posts or content on your website

How long

How long your post is depends on what you're writing about but as a guide aim to write between 250 and 500 words.

Present a balanced opinion

If you're going to express an opinion try to keep it balanced and non arguemtative.

Timing

If like me you write your blog late at night dont publish till the morning. Come back to it with fresh eyes, read it again and spell check it. 9 times out of 10 you'll spot something in the morning and it's always better that you spot it than someone sends you an email pointing out your error

Comments - on or off?

Our advice is that if you're writing a blog and allow people to comment set your blogging engine so that you see the comments before they are displayed on the website. This will give you the opportunity to remove spam comments. Instead of removing negative comments, post a counter comment. You might find other potential customers had the same thought and by posting a reply you change their opinions.

Ps. If you're looking for a photographer in New South Wales look up Lee-Anne Bevan Photography

Your website is not a murder mystery

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:15:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to be able to take some time out from the business and spend the day at Building The Perfect Council Website. It was the first time I had attended and I wasn't sure what to expect. I had already done my research and knew that Ektron, Jadu and Sitecore were among the exhibitors and thought it would give me a good opportunity to talk to them about what their products offered and to see how they stood up against Documentum Web Publisher and SilverStripe.

It also gave me the opportunity to talk with people within the councils about what was important to them and what the major challenges are. Unsurprisingly top of most agendas is usability and accessibility. Only once during the day did I hear someone mention Google during a discussion group, headed up by Marco Ranon from RNIB, which was looking at accessibility of PDF documents. Also on the agenda was location based services and the benefits of providing content relevant to the visitor's location, 3D websites and Social Networking.

One of the highlights for me was Gerry McGovern's plenary, The Story of a Web Site. His opening, "Your website is not a murder mystery" was about making it easy for users to find the information they are looking for quickly and effortlessly. According to Gerry's research the top three negative user experiences are poor search results, confusing menus and links and out of date content.

Poor search results

Your view on poor search results depends on whether you're looking to be found in the search engines, or for your users to find information quickly within your website. All webmasters will at some point need to address one or the other, or both. There are several things you can do to improve your search engines ranking (read my blog on Ten tips for making page one). All search engines are looking to provide relevant content in their results. That's why they are regularly tweaking their algorithms. Our search consultants are continually researching the latest search trends and keywords so that we can advise our clients accordingly and so that in turn they can make appropriate changes to their websites in order that their content surfaces in all the right places. It's not about getting on any page one. It's fundamentally important for you to be on the right page one.

Similarly when someone does get to your website you want to make it as easy as possible for them to find the information they are looking for quickly. If you're website has a search capability take time to analyse the searches and the content displayed and make sure that your visitors can find what they're looking for. Do the same with external searches that arrive at your website. Are your visitors arriving at the right place? Bounce rate and click paths are good indicators. A high bounce rate suggests that they came to your website looking for one thing, found something else and left. Your click paths will give you an indication of the user experience and what visitors did next. There are several good analytics applications available which will provide you with detailed website analytics. The most common is Google Analytics which is free.

Confusing menus and links

One of the key things we correct on our clients websites are their navigation and links. Positive user experience is about taking people on a successful journey. When they click on a link for "Website design" they expect to arrive at a page on "Website design". If they arrive somewhere else or the message isn't clear when they arrive they're likely to have a negative experience and then view your website negatively in future. Research shows that when people have a negative experience they're more likely to view that website as unhelpful when they see it again and move on to the next site. There are also some benefits of clear navigation linking to relevant content from a search engine perspective. Search engines index the keywords in the link and their relevance to the content on the page. Get the linking right and it can lift your position in the search engine rankings.

Out of date content

Old, out of date content can make you're website look tired, irrelevant and worthless. You should update your website periodically to make sure that the information it contains is fresh and of interest to your clients. A good content management system, like SilverStripe or Documentum Web Publisher, will help you to do this easily and quickly. It's a good idea to periodically refresh your website's design and improve it's usability for your clients. We'd even recommend giving it a complete overhaul every couple of years to make sure that it's keeping up to date with the current coding standards.

Ten tips for making page one

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:17:00 +0000

One of the questions we're most often asked is "What can I do to get my website onto page one of the search engines?". There are several things that you can do yourself which will help your search engine ranking and we thought we'd share 10 of them with you. These are all on our checklist when we evaluate a website and it's search engine performance before we start promoting, building links and increasing traffic. They're also the most common items that we correct in our client's websites.

Research your keywords and search terms

Find out what people are looking for in your market and what words and phrases they are using to find it. Dont assume that because that you know how people will find you in the search engines because they would use the same words and phrases you would use. Quite often we find that the search term our client thinks someone would use is not the the one the majority of people do use. Spend time identifying which are the most popular searched keywords and phrases relevant to your business or industry, which have the most search volume and which are the most targeted. There are plenty of programs and websites that will provide this keyword analysis for you. Unfortunately this is an essential time consuming job that needs to be done on a regular basis.

Keyword rich content

Whilst the content in your website should be relevant to what your company or the message you are trying to convey you want to research what people are looking for and ensure that your content contains the keywords that relate to the searches people are doing. For instance if you are a Fitness Coach write content for your website that is relevant to "Fitness Coaching". At the same time make sure that you have written content that is about "Fitness Training", "Exercise regimes", "Training routines","Physical exercise" and so on. If you specialise in Boxercise or Marathon training write content around those areas. You should make sure that you write at least one page of around 500 words for each of your primary keywords and that the title of the page starts with your primary keyword. Where possible start the first sentence and end the last sentence with this keyword. Make sure that your content is readable, makes sense and engages the reader. If you stuff your content full of keywords and it doesn't make any sense when people arrive at your website they're likely to have a bad user experience and avoid you in future. The key is one page per primary keyword and write something that's engaging, useful and relevant.

Incoming links

Search engines analyse incoming links to your website and rank your content according to the relevance of the link and where the link is coming from. Writing content that other websites link to is a great way of boosting your websites search engine position. To get the most impact you should make sure that the text link on the website linking to yours contains the primary keyword to the page that it's linking to. Using our Fitness Coach website as our example and for the purposes of this example the BBC wrote an article about them and their boxcerise classes. It would be great if the BBC put a link on their website titled "Fitness Coach Boxcercise Classes" and linked it to the Boxercise information page. At this point it's important to make sure that you check out the people linking to your site, especially if you are going to link back to them. We regularly advise clients to be careful who they link to and to make sure that they are linking to a genuine relevant site. By linking to another website your are giving it your approval and encouraging your viewers to go to it.

Research your competitors

Research your competitors. Once you know how people are searching look at what your competitors are doing, whose linking to them, who they link to, what their keywords are. If you're not getting the positions on page one look at the content they have and write content of your own around those topics. Do not copy their content.

Dont put your content in flash

Flash websites can look fantastic and can have a great user experience. The search engines however aren't great at reading content that's embedded in a flash movie file. This means that if your website is entirely flash based the search engines are unlikely to index and you're unlikely to be found in the searches relevant to your keywords. In our opinion the best thing to do is to design your website so that the content is outside of the flash file. It's also worth noting that flash websites aren't great for accessibility and if you build a flash based website you should build an accessible version. Also, at the time of writing this, flash cannot be viewed on an iPhone or Blackberry. If you really must have a flash website consider building another non flash feeder website that will drive viewers to the flash site.

Coding

Get your website developer to write clean, search engine friendly code, with the content clearly identified. Put all javascript in include files (they'll know what this means) and make sure that every page has the following html tags at the very least: Title, meta keywords, meta description, h1. It's important to make sure that you developer builds your website so that it is accessible. This means making sure that your images have appropriate alt attributes and your links have title attributes and that the text you put in these has the correct primary keywords. For instance on your links you want to make sure that the link title attribute has the primary keyword of the page it is linking to and your image alt attribute has the primary keyword of the page you are on and accurately describes what the image is. However don't spam every link on your page with the same keyword. Companies have been delisted from the search engines indexes for doing this. At this point we'd recommend that you invest in a Content Management System which allows you to focus on writing the content and is set up to do all of the above for you. For more information see the Content Management Systems or the eCommerce sections of our website.

File and image naming conventions

Whenever and wherever possible make sure that your page name contains your primary keyword and that any images contain the primary keyword. For example if your keyword is West Ham Football Shirt name your page west-ham-football-shirt.html and your image, west-ham-football-shirt.jpg. Going back to my previous point about coding make sure that the link to the page has a title attribute of "West Ham Football Shirt" and that the image has an alt attribute along the lines of "Picture of West Ham Football Shirt"

Tell the search engines about your site

One of the most common things we find when talking to companies is that they haven't submitted their website to the search engines. In the offline world we dont wait for out clients to find us. We actively market, promote ourselves, pitch or even sell our products and services to them. It's the same in the online world. If you dont tell the search engines about you're website you're hoping with everything crossed that they are going to find you. All of the search engines have a well documented website submission process. The major Search engine like Google and Yahoo also allow you to submit an xml sitemap of links to tell them about the pages in your website. All good Content Management Systems will build this for you. If you dont have one there are several tools online that will index your website and build one for you.

Regularly update your website or write a blog

All of the search engines love regularly updated websites. Keep the content fresh by adding something every 2 to 4 weeks. A great way of doing this is to have a news section. However old, out of date news never looks good. An even better way is to write a blog. We recommend writing something at least once a week. Use these tips to write keyword rich content that's informative and useful to the reader.

Seek professional help

Getting to page one is only part of the battle. Maintaining that position can take just as much effort. All of the companies that use our Search team do so because they recognise that getting their website found is not their core skill and often they just too busy running their business and dont have the time to focus on this one task. This is where employing a third party who specialises in this can help. Our advice is always find a company that you like, understand your business and have the skills to do more than just get you on page one.

At Covenant Solutions we do much more than search engine optimisation and promotion. Read Search Engine Optimisation or Website Analytics and Metrics for more information the services we offer at Covenant Solutions or for a free evaluation of your website complete the form on the Search Engine Services page.

Insurance industry eyes social networking

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:56:00 +0000

Whilst suffering the heat on London Underground last week I manage to read a copy of "Insurance Times" that someone had generously left behind. Had it not been for the Facebook and Twitter images I would have passed on this opportunity and read the copy of The Sun that was left on the chair next to it.

Since Dell announced just how much revenue they were generating from Twitter we've seen a significant increase in interest in Social Networking and we're spending more time with clients working helping them integrate Twitter, Facebook and youTube into their current marketing and web strategies. Recently I was fortunate enough to give a presentation to a group at a BRX Breakfast meeting on "What are Twitter, Facebook and youTube?" and get reactions from this group. I was not surprised that only about half of the group had heard of Twitter, Facebook or youTube or that the majority had no idea what they actually were or how to use them as a marketing communications tool. Out of 20 people at the meeting only 2 had Twitter accounts and one of those was a client who we are working with on raising their profile.

What was interesting and corresponded with Insurance Times is that it's not just the financial services industry that have been slow on the uptake of these new marketing channels. Like the people at the meeting I've found that Insurance Companies are very good at networking socially. As one of our clients put it recently, "We do social networking the old fashioned way". There's nothing wrong with the "old fashioned" way of networking. I find spending time with people much more beneficial to building relationships that last. However, and this is the point that Insurance Times are making, you ignore new marketing channels at your peril and technology has opened new channels for a great many people to communicate on. At EMC's Momentum 07 conference in Monaco Nike talked about the differences in communication methods between Generation Y and Generation X and the latter are more used to communicating through these new channels.

Like all other forms of marketing online Social Networking is not a "5 minutes and it's done" job. It needs focused activity to effectively identify your community, communicate the message and have the controls in place to monitor the success. Unlike offline marketing you can actively monior the effectiveness of your campaign in near real time, tracking everything from the number of clicks from your Tweet through to the conversion rate in your ecommerce store. This tracking gives you the ability to make changes during your campaign to improve it's effectiveness. Do it right and like Dell you can generate significant revenue from these chanels, do it wrong and you can adjust and change what you're doing, dont do it at all and you could well be waving goodbye to lost business.

Read the Insurance Times article for yourself. It has some great information that can be easily applied to any business thinking of adding Social Networking to their marketing channels.