Woman holding smartphone

Selfie campaign raises awareness of tiger’s plight

With over 1.9 billion monthly active users on Facebook and 700 million on Instagram*, using social media channels to get your message out there should not be underestimated, especially when it’s for a good cause.

08A recent campaign harnessing the power of social media sees Tiger Beer collaborating with WWF. The digital campaign is set to help raise awareness of the plight of tigers in the wild at the hands of illegal trade.

With around 3,890 tigers left in the wild today – which is a massive drop of 96 per cent – ‘uncage art to fight illegal tiger trade’ is getting people involved through Tiger-inspired art. People can upload a selfie to www.3890Tigers.com and the site will generate the selfie into unique artwork. Nick Gentry from the UK is one of the six leading artists whose artistic style is reimagined automatically to create artwork utilising the selfie. Then users can share their selfie art via social media channels using the hashtag #3890Tigers.

There’s so many clever facets to this awareness raising campaign including the website name and encouragement to share with a specific hashtag, but what’s key is the use of unique visual content. Whether big brand or local business, the use of imagery will really help your digital campaign stand out from the crowd.

*Source: Digital Marketing Magazine

Increase open rate of your emails with an emoji

So, the Emoji Movie hasn’t exactly wowed critics, but while emojis may not be performing well at the box office, they are certainly doing well in the subject line of email marketing campaigns.

Research* by Return Path found that the ‘lips’ emoji used in a Valentine’s email had a read rate of 24%, compared with a text-only subject line of 20%.

The ‘sunglasses face’ emoji is great to use in the subject line if you have a summertime special offer running and this research also indicates its use resulted in a read rate of 23% compared with 21% for text-only.

A few years ago, using an emoji for business would have been unheard of. However, it is now more acceptable with brands such as Pizza Hut being among the first businesses to adopt using them in communication. It even developed an emoji-only menu to tap into the younger market**.

Our content manager Louise says: “This research really highlights how far emoji’s have moved on and are actually helping to boost email marketing campaigns. Coupled with the knowledge that mobile is preferred over webmail and 60% of emails are opened on Saturday and Sunday*, you get to build up a really good picture of just how important it is to tailor each of your email campaigns to increase success rate.”

Audrey is our social media queen and loves an emoji. She says: “Why use words when a picture can say a thousand? On Facebook, emoji’s work a real treat. Depending on the nature of your business, we’d recommend using emojis when you’re commenting on a post and wanting to build engagement with your customers. It shows a fun side, but it also adds warmth to your response. Obviously pick them wisely as there are limitations as to which are appropriate for businesses to use – there’s a time and a place for everything!”

Looking to reach out to your customers with an email campaign? Give us a call or drop us an email and let’s chat.

Call on 020 3137 1826 or email saymoo@smart-cow.com to find out more.

Sources: * Return Path via b2b Marketing; ** Telegraph.co.uk

Keyboard being used to perform email marketing

How to boost your business through email marketing

The benefits of email send outs to your business

While there’s constant innovation in digital marketing techniques that form part of an overall marketing strategy, one tactic that has remained a constant is email marketing. We would go as far as to say it’s the workhorse of our industry, the linchpin of a marketing campaign.

While we embrace social media as a key tool to engage with a wide range of audiences, its use should form part of the wider marketing strategy to help increase brand awareness. The Rule of Seven may be old but should still be taken heed of. It should be in the back of your mind that a marketing message needs to be seen or heard seven times by a prospect before they consider buying from you. So, considering all communication avenues at the outset, including email, is important.

But why email?

Reports indicate that email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter*. In general, the recipient has at some point given their email address to you to receive further information so this gives more chance of recognition.

But how do you get email addresses in the first place? If you’re starting out, consider creating a ‘newsletter sign up’ function on your homepage. And then, make sure you add this sign up to all channels from Twitter through to your blog page. But don’t put people off, make the sign up as simple as possible.

Marketing campaigns need to not only be tailored to your business but also your customers. Personalisation is the main buzz word here. Those on the receiving end want to feel special and know that the products or services in that email are considered and tailored to them. So, once you have an email address perhaps consider sending them a special offer with a discount voucher as a thank you.

Being relevant is imperative

Ensure a subject line tells it how it is. You’re more likely to succeed with the recipient opening the email and subsequent click through if the subject line explains what’s in store rather than be too quirky and ambiguous. And, once you have their attention, content in bite size chunks is much easier to read.

If you’re embarking on an email campaign, it’s a good idea to check with your digital agency whether it will be mobile optimised. Reports show that 53% of email are now opened on a mobile device*. Therefore, ensuring the newsletter template is optimised for mobiles is crucial.

What’s important is to keep your strategic goals in sight to ensure that an email campaign is designed to target specific customers and leads for the maximum impact.

Email marketing agency Croydon

At Smart Cow we work in partnership with Constant Contact to provide you with an unprecedented level of service and expertise for all of your email marketing campaigns. Call on 020 3137 1826 or email saymoo@smart-cow.com to find out more.

*Source: Campaign Monitor – Email Marketing New Rules 

AdWords

Increase visibility of your website with Google AdWords

With 81% of shoppers conducting online research before making big purchases*, a website is vital for businesses to grow. But, what’s crucial is that people find you.

As most businesses have a presence online in one form or another it makes for an extremely competitive market. So, you need to create stand out and gain brand recognition. This is where an online marketing strategy can help.

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising provides instant results and is great for new businesses just launching or wanting to get products noticed.

Research reveals that 64.6% of people click on Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online**. Utilising Google AdWords is therefore an extremely effective tool to help increase sales especially, if your business and products have a lot of competition or your website is not currently optimised through SEO. This is because your ad will appear at the top of the search page. This positioning and presence will help to establish your brand and bring it to the forefront of the customer’s mind. That way, when they decide to commit to purchase or book a service, there’s more chance of brand recognition and subsequent sales.

However, it is extremely important to set up your Google Adwords correctly in the first instance or you’re throwing money away.

Pay per click Croydon

Creating a targeted online ad campaign will help you stand out from the herd and bring you the right customers.

Contact us to ask about an online marketing strategy for your business. Call on 020 3137 1826 or email saymoo@smart-cow.com.

Sources: *Retailing Today, 2014 and **Wordstream, 2016