It’s clear to the world that print is not as heavily relied upon in marketing as it once was, but to claim that ‘print is dead’ is a tad extreme.    Despite the growing number of channels through which we can reach out to our target audience, print is still an important marketing tool and is used by companies every day.

Print is ideal for marketing: companies, brands, promotions, and corporate communications.  But rather than acting as the key lead generator, print now tends to be used for specific marketing initiatives and to support online and social marketing campaigns.

To put it a better way, print has found its niche – print is personal.

With this in mind – Here are some suggestions of when and how you should use print marketing:

• Company Literature.  From headed paper to brochures and business cards – these items should always be used for networking as a constant reminder of the company and brand identity.
• Annual reports.  It’s important for companies to continue to deliver print versions of their annual reports. Through high quality and professional documents, companies can reflect the quality of their brand; reinforce their message and reassure investors.  Shareholders may prefer to hold the report and physically flick through it.
• Inserts, flyers & postcards.  Inserts and flyers are often used at exhibitions or networking events.  It’s ideal to have something to hand to a prospective client, rather than relying on them to remember you.
• Print Campaigns to drive online traffic. Whether you have a vast customer base or a niche client set, print can be used to raise awareness of and drive traffic to your website and social media sites.  If they are not aware of these platforms, they will not be connecting or engaging with you through them.  Sending out postcards or brief DM pieces with a call to action can help migrate them online.
• Print Advertising. People still use and enjoy reading newspapers, magazines and journals, which means there is still an advertising opportunity within this media.  Success will depend on selecting the most relevant publications for your target audience and creating an effective advert.  You can bring your ad into the digital age through use of a QR code, but this will only work if it’s relevant to your campaign, message and your target market.
• Catalogues.  There will always be a place for catalogues for companies that need to effectively showcase their products.  And it’s important for the final piece to accurately reflect the company brand and image.

There are of course, many more ways to use print within your marketing campaigns, but I think you’ll agree from this list alone, print still has an important place in Marketing today.

On Budget. On Time

Now that the figures add up, it’s time to deliver them to the company’s stakeholders.  If you want your annual report to have impact, engage with stakeholders and reassure investors,  effective and creative design is crucial.

Your report doesn’t need to be extravagant and needn’t cost the earth, but a professionally designed report will help reflect the quality of the company; the brand; and will help you reinforce your message.

We can help you tell the story, through cost effective and straightforward creative solutions that work.   We have an experienced and responsive creative team ready to play a crucial role in delivering the most effective design and production for your report.

Our top tips for getting it right:

• The look and feel of the report should accurately reflect the company and brand.
• The company branding should be used as much as possible, clearly displaying the logo and brand colours throughout.
• Use of relevant and strong images will help reinforce or illustrate points being made and is particularly effective where text is heavy. In fact using minimal text alongside strong images can have a strong impact.
• The use of pictures of staff or office settings can help bring the report to life.
• Whilst there is no need to use the highest quality paper and cover, the cheapest should be avoided, as this could reflect poorly on the quality of the company and the brand.

For a personal touch that reflects the quality of your brand, put it in print.

Have a question?  Please give us a quick call on 020 7266 3020 and ask for Tony or Alex.

Effective branding will help you reflect the company’s corporate identity; enhance the core values of your business; connect with your target market and make it easy for them to remember you.  It should also seek to differentiate you from your  competition.

With this in mind, here are some tips for creating a successful brand:

1. Keep it simple.  The company name should be easy to see and read, so it’s best to avoid using fancy typefaces.  The logo design will help convey the brand values and characteristics, which again does not need to be complicated and will work better if it’s kept simple.
2. Be accurate.  It’s important that your branding accurately portrays your company.  If you’re in business to sell high volumes of cut-price products, your brand should reflect this.  There is little point in trying to suggest superiority and top-end quality, this would be misleading and would ultimately damage the brand.
3. Be consistent.  Every aspect of your brand should be saying the same thing – through the message and image.  Customers should be made to feel the same way about you.  Consistency across corporate literature and marketing materials is essential and will reinforce the brand and help customers recognise and remember you.
4. Be distinctive. Don’t create a brand that is similar to another.  Within the design try to be distinctive – this could be through the colours, image or symbol, but make sure it is relevant.  Make your offer and message distinctive too – what is it that you can deliver over and above your competition? A relevant but distinctive brand and message will get the attention of your target market.
5. Meet customer needs.  Your brand needs to identify with and meet the needs of your target market.  Without identifying with your customers and potential customers, your brand will not be able to connect with them.
6. Promote your brand. Wherever and whenever you can.  Once you have allocated time and resource against creating an effective  brand that you are proud of, you need to shout it from the rooftops to ensure that it is seen.  Use your logo wherever you can.
7. Create brand guidelines. This is essential in achieving brand consistency, particularly when engaging on multichannel promotional activity.  Your brand guidelines should make it clear for the design team or agency to create accurate, relevant and consistent design.
8. Engage the rest of the company.  Every one who works for the company should fully embrace the brand, as they represent crucial touch points.  Particularly the sales team who will be customer facing and selling the company services or products.

If you would like a review of your brand, or you’re looking to either re-brand or create a new brand, we’ll be happy to talk through your ideas and requirements.  Visit our website for more information DAA Marketing – Brand & Corporate Identity. Or Contact Us.

See Previous Posts:

Brand Management – Why branding is important for business success

If you are not getting what you want from your website, then perhaps it is time to review your website design.  Websites must be regularly updated, not just for SEO purposes but to also ensure that the content and structure is kept up to date and relevant to the visitors to your website.

Through effective website design, you should be able to:

1. Get the attention of your target market.
2. Help your audience get to know and trust the company.
3. Generate leads and sales.

If your website design is letting you down and not delivering the above, then here are some key elements to consider when reviewing your site.

• The Message.  Is your website delivering the right message, in the right way?  Copy and design are critical factors and should encourage the visitor to engage with your website and lead them to contact or buy from you. Your message must take into account their interests; needs and reason for being on your website.
• The Brand.  Does your website design and marketing message reflect the core brand identity of the company?  This should be consistently promoted throughout the website and be easily identifiable and recognisable to your visitor.   Effective branding will reflect the company’s uniqueness and will help to build trust.
• The Offer. Are you offering your visitors something in exchange for using your services or buying your products?  This doesn’t have to be a financial offer, but instead can promote your USP (experience, excellence) or perhaps be a value added service that is included in the cost.  Whatever you decide, the offer needs to entice your visitors and make them want to use you and not your competitors.  Your offer should be clearly communicated within the website.
• The Journey. The structure and page sequencing is crucial in keeping visitors on your site and reducing the bounce rate. The journey that they take must be a logical one, so when designing the structure of your site you have to consider what your visitor is looking for and what they need to help them reach their goal. Keep it simple, logical and obvious.

There are, of course, lots of other factors that should be considered when improving the design of your website.  All of which we take into account when reviewing our clients websites for them.  For a short time only, we are offering free website design reviews and would be more than happy to have a look at yours and give you some tips for improvements.

For more information on our website design services, please see our website.  We provide bespoke website design, content management systems, web analytic, SEO and all the planning and strategy development required for your online presence to be a success.  Contact Us for a Free Review of your Website Design today.

Our previous post on website design (Does your Website have the Basics Elements of a Great Website?) asks 5 basic but fundamental questions, which you should also consider when reviewing your website.

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you already know why video marketing is important and have already come up with the big idea for your video marketing campaign (if not see previous post 10 Topic Ideas for Effective Video Marketing Online ).

Now you need to produce your video.  But before you do, here are a few tips to consider for video marketing – best practice.

• If you’re video features somebody who works for the company – make sure you are using find the best person for the job.  Who will work best in front of the camera?  They need to be believeable and likeable and most importantly they must be able to engage with their audience.
• Be authentic.  If you are in front of the camera, show your personality when talking – talk passionately about your subject and speak from the heart to gain interest.
• Your video can be made more engaging by including music and interviews or dialogue between people.  Or by showing before, during and after videos for an event or if something has been made/ created.
• Keep to the point.  It’s easy to get sidetracked, but it’s important to stick to the point. If you don’t you will loose the interest of your audience.
• Make sure the video isn’t too long – people can be put off from seeing the duration of the video, particularly if they are short of time.
• Make sure your message and content is actually of interest. You need to think about your target audience and consider what they will find interesting, engaging or useful.  After all you want them to share it.
• Have you included a call to action?  This is crucial.  What is the objective of the video and what are you hoping that your audience will do at the end of it?  Make it very clear.
• Always make sure you use good lighting.  Irrespective of what you are filming, no-one will want to watch a video that has poor lighting.
• Look into the camera and don’t forget to smile!

And remember, if you need support with your video marketing we can help you from concept to production.  We deliver professional videos that will help you engage with your audience.

Here’s just a couple we’ve one for our clients

Video for: Peugeot – Peter Cox

Video for: Village Interiors

Good luck.  And enjoy!

So you’ve come up the big idea, you have a rough idea of how you want to execute it and you even have some budget to allocate to it.  You’re ready to go! Or are you…??

Stop.

Wait….

Have you carefully thought this through?

Planning is crucial to the success of any campaign.  Without running through a clear thought process, the success of your campaign will be down to pot luck rather than careful consideration and strategy.

So what can you do to make sure your campaign is as successful as possible?

We’ve come up with a few crucial steps to help you on your way:

1. Set your objectives.  What do you want at the end of this camaign?  More sales? More enquiries? More web traffic or more awareness of the brand/ products/ services? Without setting clear objectives at the beginning, you won’t know what you are trying to achieve, or in fact, how you will achieve it.
2. Set your budget. You know what budget you have available, now you need to stick to it.  And more importantly you need to allocate it accordingly – prioritise spend against activity that will help you reach your objectives and generate the best return.
3. Define your target market.  This is crucial. Without knowing who you are targeting, how will you reach them effectively?  Determine and reasearch your target market,  making sure you understand them, their needs and their buying behaviour.
4. Determine the most effective marketing channels.  Where, is your target market most active?  It is likely that they respond to a variety of channels, but which will you most likely reach your objectives through? An integrated approach will help remind your target market that you are there and will prompt them at various stages of their purchase journey.
5. Keep an eye on the competition.  Do you know what your competitors are doing?  You should regularly review competitor activity, not so that you can copy it, but so that you know what you are up against and you can also gauge what has and hasn’t been working for them.  You can spot holes in their strategy – which means opportunity for you.
6. Identify your core message.  Make sure you are selling the benefits of your product, service or company. People are often triggered by emotion. Try and solve a problem or at least let them know what it will do for them. Understand what the competition’s message is and try to come up with a different angle that will identify with your target audience more closely.
7. Monitor. Whether you are booking an advert in a paper, running a banner on a website or implementing a social media campaign for the first time, you need to make sure you monitor the results.  This could be through using and tracking a unique telephone number; setting up a unique landing page and using website analytics to track activity or using a social media monitoring platform.
8. Measure.  You have a monitoring system in place, which is great, but you also need to set up performance indicators to help you measure success.  What are you looking to achieve and what metrics can you use?  This could be the number of clicks to a web page or the number of sign ups to a subscription.  It could be the number of telephone calls generated and the call duration.  Or it could be the number of Retweets, the number of comments or the number of likes.  Whichever is the most relevant.
9. Analyse.  Time to analyse the campaign. Using the data you have collected and the measures you have in place you can analyse the results to determine; was it a success?  What did you achieve?  What was the cost and return on investment?  Did any unforeseen problems arise? Were there any influencing factors that had not been anticipated? How can you improve the next campaign to make it even more successful?

Got that?

All planned?

Now you’re ready….

Good luck!

Bring a little bit of footie fun to the office with the DAA Marketing Euro 2012 sweepstake kit.

Use the link to access and print the PDF.  Cut out the 16 teams and randomly draw each team and record who has which team in the print out. Then chart England’s progress to Euro 2012 football glory – well maybe that’s wishful thinking.

You could charge £5 per team which makes an £80 prize fund! You could split this as follows:

• 1st place £50
• 2nd place £15
• The two semi final losers £7.50 because there is no play off for third place

We’ll be using this in the office and will also be picking a team for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice as our chosen charity.  We will be passing on their team’s winnings.  We urge you to do the same – if not for this incredible cause then for a charity of your choice.

Let us know how you get on. Good luck and have fun!

The team at DAA

DAA is a full-service marketing agency. We can help you connect with your target market, grow your business and raise your profile.

Click here to download our PDF sweepstake kit

Last week the grace period for compliance with the new cookie law came to an end.  As the 26th May 2012 drew closer, we watched the UK’s leading websites start to unveil their own cookie compliance solutions.

The law itself is not strictly clear and is subject to interpretation, so unsurprisingly approaches are varied.  Here are just a few of them, to give you an idea of different solutions if are still wondering what actions to take to comply.

The ICO – www.ico.gov.uk

What better place to start than the body responsible for enforcing compliance – the ICO.  The ICO uses a header bar informing visitors that they use cookies, providing a link to their privacy policy and a tick box allowing website visitors to comply.  The message stays visible until the opt in box is ticked, but visitors can still navigate the site if they don’t want to opt in.   In the privacy statement the ICO gives a clear break down of the different cookies being used and their purpose.

The BBC – bbc.co.uk

The BBC website has a status bar at the top of the page to inform users that the site uses cookies.  You can change the cookie settings or if you press continue or carry on using the site, the cookies are set and consent is implied.

On the footer of a website is a link to a page dedicated to Cookies which has its own sub-pages full of information.  Visitors to the site can also choose which cookies they want to opt into.

BT – www.bt.com

BT is using a pop up on the bottom right hand side of the home page, which only seems to appear the first time you access the website.

If you have enough time to read it and don’t quickly navigate to another page it informs you that the cookie settings on the website are set to allow all cookies and that by continuing to use the website, you are consenting to this.

They also feature a cookie control panel on the footer of the website, where users can control and change the cookie settings.

Amazon – www.amazon.co.uk

Interestingly Amazon has taken a very minimal approach.  There is nothing obvious on the home page until you scroll to the very bottom, where they have a small “Cookies and Internet Advertising” link.

When you click on this it, instead of an ‘opt-in’ option, Amazon advises the user that by visiting Amazon’s websites with the browser settings adjusted to accept cookies consent is implied and also provides information regarding how to adjust browser settings to not accept cookies.

They also have a link to their Privacy Notice which informs the user what they use cookies for but don’t detail the different cookies to enable users to choose which they accept and which they don’t.

Given the substantial drop in recorded website analytics that the ICO experienced following their decision to ask users to consent to their use of cookies, it’s no surprise that Amazon wants to take this low-key approach.  It is unlikely however, that this will be good enough for the ICO.

These are just some of the options that websites have chosen to take.

The problem, is that much of this new directive is down to interpretation.  Interpretation by the ICO and by website owners.  And with the lack of guidance, nothing is black and white. Instead there are several areas and shades of grey.

And ironically, according to an article published today on Econsultancy’s website, the EU itself is not even compliant with the new law.  According to the post:

ZDNet’s Zack Whittaker claimed that websites for EU institutions like the European Parliament and European Commission are still using cookies, but they’re not in compliance.  “On all European Union institution websites, you will be lucky to find a single page that asks the visitor for permission to set cookies. But they’re using them all the same”.  (Read post in full)

Confusion still reigns and the EU Cookie Law has been and continues to be a headache for businesses wanting to avoid being in breach.  And things don’t look set to get any clearer.  AS Econsultancy quite rightly asked “if the EU itself won’t abide by its own laws, some might eventually ask: should anybody?”.

Use our comments to tell us what you’ve done to comply with this law and what you think of it? Farcical or necessary? We’d love to know your thoughts…..

Our previous posts about cookies:

Cookie Law Compliance – What Are Your Options?
The EU Cookie Law and The Challenges Businesses Face
Confused about cookies? The EU Cookie law in a nutshell…. (and further reading!)

It’s been a busy month for Yellow Pages publisher, Yell.  Shortly after announcing its acquisition of website and online shop builder Moonfruit, they announced their full year results which included a loss of £1.4bn; the departure of their Group Chief Marketing Officer and the introduction of the company’s new brand.

If you’ve missed any of it – here’s a re-cap of the last couple of eventful weeks for Yell:

1. Yell’s Acquisition of Moonfruit

On 16th May Yell announced that it had acquired Moonfruit as part of its goal to transform itself from an established publisher of print and online advertising to the leader in emerging local eMarketplace – “a platform and digital portal where consumers and SMEs can connect and transact”.

Moonfruit is the UK’s leading DIY website and online shop builder.  Through this acquisition, Yell believes that it is making the eMarketplace more accessible to more merchants by offering “light” commerce and the opportunity to enhance their presence online, on mobile and on social.  Read more…… Yell’s Press Release.

2.Yell’s Full Year Results, Year ending March 2012

On the 22nd May, Yell published their full year results for year ending March 2012, reporting a 14% drop in Group revenue.   Digital directories revenue fell by 11% and Print & other directory revenues fell by 21%, whilst the Digital services revenues grew by 112%.

Yell made a loss of £1.4bn in the year to the end of March 2012, compared with a £66.3 million profit a year earlier.

Despite Yell’s ambitious four year plan to transform the Group, progress has been slower than anticipated.  However, they have managed to streamline the business, cutting costs and reducing their debt.

Mike Pocock, Chief Executive Officer: Yell has not progressed as fast as it would like in bringing new products to market, with the sheer scale and logistics of the task stretching its nascent teams. Yell has done well in reshaping the business, bringing in the necessary new skills, streamlining the supply chain, taking out cost and reducing debt.

Read more…… Yell’s Press Release

3. Yell’s New Brand: Hibu

When Yell announced in July 2011, their new strategy which would take them from supplier of advertising to leader in the local eMarketplace, they also announced that they would need to adopt a modern new brand to help its customers and consumers find, and identify with, its new products.

After five months of brand development, Hibu has been born and subject to approval by Yell’s shareholders at its’ AGM in July, will become the brand for all of its consumer and corporate facing digital products and services.

All of the print products, which are sold under very strong but different brands in each country, will continue to be sold under the Yell name.

Yell has also parted ways with Jenny Ashmore, Group Chief Marketing Officer, who left after only 7 months in the job and doesn’t have another job to go to.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for Yell and it will certainly be an interesting ride.   Do you think they will be successful?  What do you think of their rebrand?

We’d love to know your thoughts…

Related Posts:
Local Search – Yell’s new strategy from supplier of advertising to leader in local eMarketplace

Yell’s new partnership with Bazaarvoice will bring Enterprise Social Management to SMBs

Microsoft & Yell join forces to target small and medium businesses – Yell’s share price jumps up 13%

Yell acquires Znode – provider of eCommerce Software for Web and Mobile Stores

Yellow Pages, Search Engines & Social Media

Having read our previous post on video marketing, you understand why it’s important to help market your business effectively, but perhaps now need to come up with the ‘Big Idea’.

Since this is often the stumbling block for many of us, we’ve put together 10 ideas suggesting topics that you could use for your video marketing campaign:

1. Customer Testimonials.  Using a video of a customer reviewing your company, product or service will add real value and credibility to your brand.  Prospective customers would enjoy watching a genuine customer testimonial and having the benefits demonstrated to them within a 15-30 second interview.
2. Corporate Video. People like dealing with and buying from people. A few words from the owner, MD or CEO of the business, about the company and the products or services, will add personality to the brand and will give customers a real insight into the people behind the business.  It will also allow you to demonstrate the values and USP of the business in a personal and interesting way.  If you are selling your own services, a short video of yourself gives prospective customers / clients a chance to warm to you.
3. News updates.  Almost like a news programme, you could provide updates on industry and company news via a regular video post.  To add real value to the content, you could then explain how this is likely to impact your target audience together with any relevant advice – this will help to keep your audience engaged and coming back.
4. Instructional Videos.  People find how-to videos really useful, particularly if they have bought a product that needs to be created. Using video you can provide clear step by step instructions on how to use or create the product.  You can also use video to illustrate how your product can be used in different ways and different environments.
5. Advert.  Use videos to create short adverts for your company; products; services or any promotional campaigns that you are running. Integrate these within your website, blog and video distribution channels.  If you are advertising on the television – then why not run these online as well? Just make sure the content and execution is still relevant to your online audience – it may need tweaking.
6. Presentations.  Do you have slides with content that is worthy of sharing?  If you have presentations or documents that can be turned into presentations, that would be of value to your target audience, use these to create a video.  Try and make it more dynamic than a presentation, to make it interesting to watch. It is a video, after all.
7. Speaker at an event.  Have you or someone from your company been a speaker at an event – or are they going to be?  Take a video and edit the footage to create an engaging piece of content that will captivate your audience.  This could be used to demonstrate expertise and credibility in addition to providing valuable and interesting information.
8. Case Studies.  Use a recent case study or success story to demonstrate how your company has helped or solved the problem of a customer or client.  Feature a narrator as well as clips or images that are relevant to the story and success.
9. Product Demonstration. Use video to demonstrate how your actually product works.  Even if you are selling a service you can use a video to demonstrate how people do it wrong but how your product or service gets is right.  A visual way to show your company in action.
10. Knowledge Sharing. Another way to demonstrate your expertise is by sharing your knowledge.  This could be through answering frequently asked questions; discussing hot topics in the industry, discussing the facts or giving suggestions on how to overcome a common problem.  Sharing relevant and useful advice for free could well lead to paying business.

There are plenty of other ways that you could use video marketing, but hopefully this will give enough inspiration to start your first campaign.   Please comment on any thoughts, ideas or questions you have.  We’d love to hear from you….

And don’t forget, if you are looking for a company to produce a high quality video on your behalf – just let us know.