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Zoho Email Campaigns
There are a plethora of tools out there that can handle your email marketing campaigns with ease, most people use one that they are happy with.
In terms of functionality there is probably not much difference but there is a significant one with Zoho’s email tool – Zoho Campaigns.
The main outstanding factor that puts it above competitors is the integration with the CRM system, no third party connectors or plugins are needed, and all the data can be synced regularly.
Slicing and dicing data into many segments is now commonplace, it is the accepted way to target prospects and achieve a higher return on investment. With Zoho campaigns you have the ability to just sync those segments – thus a much higher flexibility with regards to the type of email you send.
Targeting emails to highlight areas of interest is essential, if I see an email that relates to my interests then I am much more likely to click ‘open’ and probably click through to the content that seems to be made for me. With our email boxes buzzing with spam and HTML newsletters it takes something that little bit special to stand out – making your subject line witty or personalised will help.
When sending Zoho email it is also worth remembering the functionality called ‘Drip campaign’ – you can set up a course of emails over a scheduled time and they will send out to your list like magic – but the real magic is when someone new is added to that segment in the CRM, the active sync between the two means they are added to your drip campaign automatically without any need for you to worry about updating or moving data around.
So Zoho Email campaigns stand head and shoulders above the rest for us, the little touches like adding Facebook Tabs and Chain Campaigns (Sending to those who did not open the first email) make managing your lists, segments and data easy peasy.
If you would like to see the Zoho email tool in action then please do give us a call, we can run through a quick demo and answer any questions you may have.
Hook Solutions Zoho Campaigns UK partners. 01747 830965
What do those marketing SEO and PPC abbreviations mean?
The digital marketing world can be daunting when you may not understand what people are talking about – so let’s take a look at what a couple of the most common marketing abbreviations mean.
SEO or SEM
SEO is Search engine optimisation or SEM (Search engine marketing), this is generally split into two categories – on and off page.
On page SEO – This addresses the way that search engines see your site and could include a variety of things like:
- Site speed
- Tags, descriptions and alternate tags (this is the text that is shown when you image does not load)
- The importance placed on some words – e.g. bold text and headings are considered more important.
- Design – content at the top is again thought to be more relevant.
- Code – is it tidy or does it contain a lot of unnecessary code.
We can help with an assessment of your website and current standing in search engines. A report is that drawn up to enable work to improve your chances of ranking well among your competitors.
Off page SEO – This shows a search engine your popularity and standing among competitors and could include:
- How many people link to your site
- The quality of the sites linking to you
- Do you have social accounts that link
- Is your content shared on top sites
PPC
PPC is a way to describe paid advertising – Pay Per Click
Most search engines provide this service – it allows you to have your adverts appear on search results in the Ad section. It can be very useful for a new site or one that is struggling to get on the first page of search results. The beauty of this service is that you only pay when someone clicks on your advert. You can set a daily budget and many search engines will assist first time users with a voucher to boost their initial budget. Talk to us about setting up, running and measuring your results.
Hook Solutions offer a range of ethical and organic marketing SEO and PPC services to clients across the UK and Internationally. Drop us a call or email and we can chat through your requirements. fish@hookconsultancy.co.uk 01747 830965
I can think of quite a few clichés that don’t stand up to scrutiny, but some do have more of a ring of truth to them.
‘You get what you pay for’ is one that I find particularly relevant to Marketing Companies.
A modern twist on this that I heard recently with regards to service was…
‘We offer three kinds of service…good, fast and cheap…you can pick any two:
Good service cheap, wont be fast
Good service fast, wont be cheap
Fast service cheap won’t be good
Most of us would probably agree that ‘cutting corners’ or ‘buying cheap’ to try and save in the short term inevitably ends up with the same out come which is that it is not going to pay off in the long term. Astonishingly there are still a number of household name companies that have, and would go down this route to save on their Marketing balance sheet, until of course it all unfolds…
A Channel Four Documentary called Celebs, Brands and Fake Fans
explored the less than scrupulous tactics used by some marketing companies to promote products or services. These ranged from buying fake Facebook ‘likes’ and You Tube ‘views’ to influencing social media conversations. The outcomes and subsequent revelations has in turn damaged these brands.
There did seem to be a common underlying problem between the company that asked for help with their marketing and the company conducting it on their behalf and that was a lack of clarity. If what you are paying for can not be explained in simple terms that most people can understand it is probably not worth doing. Equally if a marketing company does not understand what you are trying to achieve it probably won’t deliver the results you want.
Marketing is a support service in the same way that technology is. You need people that understand your business strategy and can advise you on how best marketing can add value in real terms and what it can and can not do to help you achieve the outcomes in your strategy. Doing this well does cost money and expertise but at Hook Solutions we are confident that we can provide real, tangible and quantifiable outputs that relate to your business.
Do give us a call for a chat about your Marketing, we’re a friendly bunch!
Social media marketing in Dorset
If you are looking for social media marketing in Dorset from a local company that understands your business then our services may be of interest.
There are many reasons to outsource your social media:
- Many SME’s simply do not have the time
- Benefit from experienced social media guru’s
- Access to bespoke content from a talented team
Many businesses know they should be ‘doing social media’ but are not sure what the point is? The main goal is to increase business leads, increase your network reach and maintain a good reputation. Although there are other considerations, many companies now use social media as a customer service tool – just think of the savings you could make if you encouraged customers to contact through Facebook instead of calling, or being able to make announcements when systems are down, orders delayed or there are any other messages you need to reach your customer base.
The use of incentives for prospects and existing customers to follow your social profiles can grow your popularity and increase sales by word of mouth and breeding familiarity. Facebook pages allow you to accept reviews and recommendations – encourage your clients to leave you a review, just remember to thank them.
There are a huge array of social sites that can offer functionality, niche markets and opportunities suitable for a varied range of B2B and B2C companies.
If you are a Dorset based company you can build a great network of local users, show that you are the expert in your field and increase the chance of them making contact easily – it is easier to drop a question about a product through on twitter than it is to find your website, find the email address or fill out a contact form with those dreaded ‘captcha’ riddles.
We are able to provide a range of social services to help you reach the right market, share relevant content, engage with your followers and build your reputation.
Call us today or say hello on Twitter or Facebook.
Social media marketing in Dorset from Hook Solutions Ltd.
New Year – New Marketing Plan, but is it the same old, same old?
So with the New Year comes the chance to update your strategy, plan for the coming year and set new goals. No amount of planning though can be a substitute for action – the beauty of a fast paced online world is that you can adjust and adapt at a moment’s notice but this also means there is the need for a lot of content.
One of the biggest mistakes companies make is the lack of action – if a blog takes a week to write, has to be signed off by a supervisor then the marketing manager it is already old news – your competitors will have written 4 blogs, have them on their site, indexed by Google and spread far and wide across the social network by then.
So our top marketing plan tips for the New Year:
- Plan ahead, find your blog subjects, social posts and emails that go along with your company campaigns, have them written well in advance and scheduled to run along with your social media, press releases and other marketing to ensure you reap the most benefit from your work.
- Adapt quickly – if breaking industry news hits the headlines you need to be blogging and talking about it. Be sure you have writers that can turn around content to a tight schedule.
- Try something new – At Hook our ethos of trying new forms of marketing, testing, analysing and pushing forward means we are never stuck spending time and money on campaigns that do not work.
- Be clear with your message – are you looking to promote your brand or yourself as an expert leading the company? Are you aiming to be the cheapest, best quality or fastest? Remember you cannot be all of them.
- What are your goals? For you and your company? Have you chartered a clear strategy as to how to achieve them or do you find yourself wandering off course – Stay focussed.
- Competition – We are all told to keep an eye on what our competition are doing, but let’s not spend too much time working on doing what they are doing, tracking their every move and forgetting to stick to our plan – to stand out you need to be different not be fooled into doing the same.
Remember an idea is only as big as the brain cell it occupies until coupled with action!
Would you like assistance with your strategy, campaigns, plans and implementation? The Dorset digital marketing team at Hook can help. Give us a call for a chat 01747 830965
Paper free and proud
At Hook we are always trying to find ways to ensure our company carbon footprint is as minimal as possible.
Some of the ways we do this are:
- No printing unless absolutely necessary.
- Working from home where possible.
- Any paper used is recycled.
- Shredded paper is used by our staff for their pets bedding.
- Use a cloud CRM database, accounts package, no paper files.
- Only take online payments.
- Holding virtual meetings and conference calls.
- Turning our heating down and adding a sweater.
- Old computers donated to charity for reuse.
- Encourage our clients to do the same.
In short we save money and the environment with everything from trips to the bank to a paper free office.
We appreciate there are still times that we need to travel, out ethos of meeting each UK client in person is one of those necessary times that we feel benefits all parties in the long term. With this in mind we plan our journeys using public transport where possible and arrange meetings in the same area on the same day.
When attending events we car share and will try to connect with people on social media to arrange meetings prior to the event – saving return journeys to visit prospects.
The next item to source on our list is to find a suitable product to replace the trustworthy notepad, the tablets and phones just do not cut it at the moment, so if you find or hear about a really good alternative to the A5 pad please do get in touch and enable us to achieve our dream of being paper free and proud.
Dorset based digital marketing company Hook Solutions. 01747 830965
Digital marketing Dorset.
Hook Solutions are a digital marketing company based in Dorset but cover Wiltshire, Somerset and the rest of the UK.
We like to visit our clients in person if at all possible and visit London based digital marketing clients around twice a month – this enables us to really get a feel for your business, your goals, dreams and direction.
After your initial enquiry we would draw up a draft proposal, this will give us a starting point, if you are looking for a strategy document the initial meeting will provide all the details we will need to look into your competitors, research your market, look at forecasts, insights and match these to your goals. Only then are we able to devise a strategy with detailed plans for implementation.
No two clients have ever had the same marketing services from our team, as every clients business is different. We do not sell standard packages we offer a bespoke service for a fair price. Our marketing is always organic, ethical and sustainable.
So of the services we offer include:
- Organic SEO – on and off page
- Email marketing
- PR and Opportunity marketing
- Social media marketing and lead generation
- Blogs, articles and enthusing content
- Bespoke auto responders, Vacation replies and Logos
- Web and graphic design
- Reputation management
- Marketing strategy
- Analytic assessments
- Sales and marketing outsourced services
Our team have a range of skills that can bring added value to your business – for less than the cost of one employee!
There is no hard sell at Hook, we prefer prospects to have the time and space to decide what is right for them.
If our Dorset digital marketing services sound like they could be of interest then drop us a call 01747 830965 or pop your details in our enquiry form on the right.
Bespoke out of office reply – stand out and be exceptional.
Don’t forget that your brand extends far beyond your website and print. There are many other areas of communication that can help you keep your head above the competition and hold their attention.
- Your email signature
- Out of office replies
- Vacation replies
- Automated replies
- Email campaigns
- Seasonal gestures
Personalised and bespoke greetings and signatures are a massive growth area and we are right on the front line. We all love the internet, but you can’t change the fact that there’s a lot of mundane writing on it…In today’s online world you really have to try and buck that trend and we can help with engaging, memorable fun text that is easy to read and hard to forget.
We will start with seasonal gestures – let’s compare these two and see which one would help you remember the brand:
The Hook office is closed for the Christmas break between December 20th and January 6th. We would like to wish all our clients past and present a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Or
This message has been intercepted by Santa’s Little Helpers IT desk.
Hook Marketing are engaged in much mirth and merriment currently and have gratefully allowed us to use their servers to help with the Christmas rush…
As you can imagine this is an impossibly busy time for elves everywhere and we respectfully ask that you wait until Jan the 6th when Miranda and the team will be back in the office…
(If you expect to get any Christmas presents this year that is…)
It is not just your wording, add a dash of festive spirit to your logo too:
To have your own bespoke set of auto replies, seasonal messages or graphics give us a call or drop us a message on our enquiry form. 01747 830965
Have you really thought about your company image?
I mean really thought about it? You probably have an opinion as to how your customers and prospects see your company but how do you really know?
Have you asked them for their feedback? Have you made the feedback anonymous so they can speak freely? Did you ask what they thought of your brands image? – was it modern, outdated or traditional? How do they rate your customer service? You might feel it is an asset being a small dedicated team but do your clients perceive you as being too small to handle their needs professionally?
How we view our company, the image we would like to portray and the image we do portray can differ greatly. The only way to be sure that we know what others think about us is to give them the opportunity to tell us – not only that but they need an incentive to tell you. Business owners and their employees have lives full of to do lists and appointments, taking the time to pass valuable feedback to you is very low on their priority list. Providing an incentive to reply to your survey or case study request is of vital importance. 
Developing an openness with your prospects and enabling them to feel they will also benefit from sharing their views, despite the feedback being negative, critical or positive, is a real art. Many companies shy away from giving people the chance to criticise – but it can be very rewarding in the long term.
Sure none of us want the twitter community slating our website – but maybe in the back of your mind it is something that you have been meaning to address for a long time but have been avoiding for whatever reason. If a survey shows your telephone is only answered 3/10 times then this again shows you where you can improve.
The first steps to improving your company reputation is knowing what needs addressing and without solid evidence of what the key areas are it is like stabbing in the dark.
Hook Solutions can assist you with developing a range of ways to collect that valuable feedback, from surveys to feedback forms and incentives.
Give us a call today to discuss your requirements 01747 830965
Dorset marketing company Hook Solutions offer organic marketing in Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset and across the UK.
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