Leitrim Business Network

Here is a brief summary of upcoming INNOVATE events.

1. Social Media Marketing with Krishna De
Thursday Feb 21st | 9.30am - 4.30pm
**VENUE CHANGED DUE TO DEMAND FOR PLACES - NOW IN THE BUSH HOTEL, CARRICK ON SHANNON**

2. Google Analytics - Tuesday - March 4th | 9.30am - 12.30pm | Innovation Centre, Leitrim County Enterprise Board.

3. Leitrim Business Network - Thursday Mar 6th | 5.30pm - 7.30pm | Ramada Hotel, Drumshanbo.

4. Internet Marketing - Date to be confirmed.

Items 2 & 3 are part of Enterprise Week which starts on March 3rd. More on this very soon.

Social Media Marketing Masterclass

How to use no cost and low cost new media platforms to build buzz and attract more profits to your business.

There will be a Masterclass on Social Media Marketing on Thursday 21st Feb - 9.30am to 4.30pm - Innovation Centre at Leitrim County Enterprise Board. Cost €30.

Workshop will be facilitated by Krishna De - See krishnade.com for details.

The objectives of the workshop will be to provide an overview of the different strategies and platforms that are available at low and no cost to build your brand and reputation and to market your business using social media.

Topics to be covered are outlined below.

If you are interested, please book here.

Topics To Be Covered in The Workshop

- Social media marketing – why it’s a critical element in your marketing and communications mix across the 4 dimensions of branding

- Building buzz about your brand – exploring the different communication and engagement platforms including blogging, podcasting, social networking, social bookmarking, wiki’s, new media press releases (including case studies on how social media marketing are being used to build the brands and the reach of small companies)

- Social media marketing blunders – how to avoid the 6 most common mistakes that most businesses when adopting social media marketing

- We are the media – how to pitch your ideas in a Web 2.0 world

- Netiquette – principles to follow when building your brand and marketing your business online

- Beyond marketing – the 3 dimensions of boosting bottom line profits through your engagement in social media

- Assessing your readiness – how to assess your readiness for social media marketing before you make any investments in social media marketing

- Action planning - developing your social media marketing plan and 5 actions all business leaders should take even if you decide social media marketing is not for you.

Enterprise Ireland is hoping to run the “Enterprise Start programme” again this year starting on 29^th March. It is aimed at entrepreneurs that want to start a technology and / or export oriented business and it normally runs over 6 weekends, usually Friday evening and Saturday morning. The participants must develop a comprehensive business plan as part of the programme and certification is provided by the Institute of Learning and Management. Normal cost per participant is €275.

Let me know if you are interested.

At this point I am looking to you, enterprise partners throughout the Region, to see if you have met anyone in the last few months that might fit the profile. Perhaps it could be someone who is progressing from an existing Start Your Own Business or maybe someone who is currently trading and is interested in expanding into export markets.

If you have any enquiries that you could pass on to me, I would appreciate it. I will have leaflets printed in the coming weeks and I can send them on to you, if you wish. Please let me know if you would like any further information.

Local business woman Angela Hope will feature on RTE 1’s Nationwide on Feb 13th.

Students at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology are studying how to become the new wave of eBay entrepreneurs.

The college has introduced a ‘Selling on eBay’ module as part of a bachelor of business entrepreneurship degree, bachelor of business in enterprise degree and as a part-time course for beginners. The eBay part-time module open to the public has been running for four years, while the undergraduate module began in January.

Full story

From Enterprise Ireland.

Email marketing (part 2): hitting the target

There are two essential parts of any email marketing campaign: high-quality content, and people to read it. One without the other will never lead to success. In part one, we looked at content issues. But now that you have a relevant, targeted email ready to send, what’s the next step?

Building a list

Before you begin your email marketing campaign, it is essential that you have a good quality database of customers or potential sales leads who will - hopefully - read your marketing material. There are several ways to entice people to sign up for email newsletters or other regular corporate communications:

1. Let people sign up through your company’s website (if you have one). Put a ’subscribe’ box on each page in a prominent location, but take care it doesn’t dominate or ruin the look of your site - the top corner or in a sidebar are good places to consider. Chances are that people who are visiting your website are already interested in what you have you say; they may just need that little extra push to hand over their email address.

2. Ask at the point of sale. If you’re selling goods and services online, you can ask your customers if they wish to sign up for further communications as they complete the check-out process, or in a follow-up invoice email. Customers may be interested in hearing about special offers, new products or the latest developments in your particular sector - all you have to do is ask.

3. Offer an incentive. Sometimes, a little encouragement can work wonders. Competitions, free gifts, and discount vouchers contained in an email can be enough to attract new sign-ups. They can also encourage repeat sales, thus building and cementing customer relationships.

4. Encourage them to forward on the newsletter. Viral marketing is a powerful tool. Consumers are more likely to read an email forwarded to them by a trusted contact. Make sure to include a ‘forward to a friend’ link, as well as a ’subscribe’ link, in each newsletter.

There are a few other key issues to keep in mind when building your subscriber list:

* Make the sign-up process as painless as possible. Don’t make it too complicated to sign up for the newsletter. Get the information you need, such as interests and demographics, without being overly intrusive - no one wants to go through pages of questions just to get marketing material.

* Make privacy a major issue. Privacy is a concern for many users. Your customers need to know that you won’t pass on their email address to a third party without permission. Have a clear privacy policy on your site that lets your subscribers know what you will and won’t do with their confidential information.

* Make it easy to unsubscribe. Should a customer decide they no longer wish to receive communications from you, unsubscribing should be as easy as the initial sign up process. Otherwise there is a chance of getting a bad reputation or of being labelled a spammer.

Sending it out

Once you have your list and you’ve decided on the content of the newsletter, you’re almost ready to send out your communication. While it’s possible to simply use your current email client to do a mailout, it’s recommended that you invest in some kind of software package to create and manage your newsletter.

There are plenty of email marketing software providers out there, but it’s worth looking for one with a decent reputation; ask existing marketers for recommendations, or check out the company’s testimonial page to see what other clients are saying, and research the companies who are backing the software provider.

Some providers offer a free trial before committing yourself - a good way to test the service to ensure it fits your needs. For example, will it allow automatic scheduled delivery? Will it personalise content to each reader? Will it track reader behaviour?

Tracking is an important part of email marketing. If users are not opening mails, marketers need to know so they can alter or target the content differently. Most email marketing software will include the ability to generate a report from the email shot, but it is worth double-checking how extensive this reporting is.

The other option is to hand over your newsletter over entirely to a professional, if you can afford to do so. They can manage your campaign from start to finish and track responses on your behalf.

Once your email marketing campaign is up and running, you must keep the standard of the content sufficiently high in order to keep subscribers interested. Then all you need to do is track your campaign to keep an eye on its success, and you’ll be well on your way to reaping the rewards of a well managed, well thought out email strategy.

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 10.5 million experienced professionals. LinkedIn helps you be more effective in your daily work and opens doors to opportunities by helping you develop and manage your network of business…

Leitrim Business Network uses LinkedIn to allow members to keep their own profiles up to date. It also encourages networking through ‘connections‘.

Join LinkedIn and get your business network working for you. Invite business contacts you know well, then use your network to find former colleagues and classmates, find a job, hire through referrals, and develop business relationships.

Traffic stats for January in PDF format

The ‘Improve Through Change’ Conference went very well yesterday with over 100 people in attendance.

I will post some photos here shortly.

From Enterprise Ireland.

Email marketing is, for most businesses, a relatively new medium. While some companies were early adopters, there are still those who lag behind when it comes to introducing this method of marketing, some through fear, others through the misapprehension that it is of no use to their business. But the truth is, there are very few businesses that would not benefit from email marketing in some way.

First of all, it is important to clarify what exactly email marketing encompasses. Any kind of communication by email with customers and potential clients can be classed as email marketing, but in general the term refers to specific communications such as newsletters, special offers and promotions that are sent via email.

It can be used to build on existing relationships or to generate new sales leads and entice clients by showcasing your products and services. “Part of this communication is retaining your customers and helping them to make the most of products and services,” says email marketing specialist denise cox (see interview elsewhere in this issue). “You are showing them you are keen to take care of your customers.”

Return on investment

In today’s business environment, getting and - more importantly - retaining your customers’ attention can be difficult. With spam email on the rise and concerns about privacy rife, it can be tricky to not only get your customers to read the marketing material you send out, but also to convince them to hand over their email addresses in the first place.

Recent figures from Jupiter Research in the US indicated that the spend on email marketing is set to increase dramatically, from USD1.2 billion last year to USD2.1 billion in 2012. In Europe, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which includes email marketing figures as part of general online advertising spend, estimates that online advertising investment within the IAB network in Europe during 2007 could have reached as high as EUR11.5 billion. This is a rise from EUR8 billion in 2006.

However, there is still a perception that email marketing is cheap and cheerful, requiring very little investment for a good return - a perception that has done the medium a dis-service, according to denise cox. The truth is that while email marketing can be relatively inexpensive in terms of the amount of money you spend for the level of exposure in such a short space of time, investing the correct amount of cash in your email marketing programme could mean the difference between a campaign that sinks without a trace and one that has a significant impact.

For example, having experts target your campaign, word your messages or implement e-newsletter software can take the weight off your shoulders and ensure you have the expertise needed to avoid elementary mistakes.

This is not spam

One of the biggest obstacles to the success of email marketing is spam filtering software. Businesses need to tread carefully when they are compiling their email lists. Getting permission from the intended target is not only a legal requirement when it comes to marketing to consumers, but it’s also good business practice and can help build trust in your company and brand as a whole. (See the next issue for more on the various ways to build up your database.)

Other ways to help ensure you don’t fall foul of spam filters include never using attachments when sending email marketing messages, and avoiding traditionally “spammy” subject lines. (For more information on how to avoid being tagged as a spammer see Issue 186.)

Relevant and targeted

To ensure you make an impression on your customers’ inboxes, denise cox says that all email communications need to be relevant, targeted and timely. Knowing your market and your customer profile will go a long way towards helping to satisfy these requirements.

This message is echoed by Keelan Cunningham, managing director of web content firm Red Sky. He says that businesses should include “useful content… something that’s of interest and of use to the recipient” in their email correspondence. “There’s little point in a business emailing their customers and telling them how wonderful the business is and how many awards you’ve won. No one really cares that much.”

With business-to-consumer marketing, the targets of your campaign usually indicate their interest by signing up for your newsletter or special offers in the first place. But if you have nothing interesting to say, the customer may decide the email is not relevant and delete it. If a customer has signed up for special offers, ensure that your communications always include these. Similarly, if they expect to hear company and industry news and announcements, your marketing effort should tackle this.

“Decide why you are sending the email and what action you want the recipient to do upon receiving it. It seems obvious but you’d be surprised how many marketing emails are purposeless,” says Cunningham.

Content matters

On the web, attention spans are short, so it’s important to get your message across quickly and in a way that appeals to your customer demographic. Writing for your audience is a vital consideration. There is little point in having a great database that reaches all your customers if the message is lost among badly written content.

An email aimed at teenagers should be written using different language to one aimed at business people, while some messages - such as special offers - can lend themselves to a more visually appealing email. (For more on speaking your customers’ language see Issue 199.) You can also personalise emails to a certain extent, using the information you have gathered with your customers’ permission, but be careful not to overdo it or you may trigger privacy concerns.

To ensure that you stay up-to-date with your customers’ changing interests and requirements, you can periodically ’survey’ them to find out their current needs and if they are still interested in receiving emails.

Timely reminders

Timing is also all-important. Send messages too often and your customers will end up viewing them as spam. Fail to correspond often enough and you risk dropping off your customers’ radar.

The exact timing of emails depends on each individual business and the-life cycle of its products, along with customers’ purchasing life-cycles. For example, an insurance firm might only contact its customers at certain times of the year in order to sell specific products - i.e. when they are up for renewal - but regular email newsletters containing special offers and new products could be a way to generate new business from an existing customer.

For those new to email marketing, calling in the experts may be the best option. “Get professional help and use automated software packages to send and measure the results,” says Cunningham. “Also, make sure you have the resources internally to take ownership of it.”

In the next issue, we’ll take a look at how to compile an email database, what software is available for email marketers and how to measure a campaign’s success.