Seasonal Marketing

As I started writing my final blog for 2010 with the holidays just a couple of days away, I began to think about how we, as marketers, capitalise on seasonal events such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Halloween etc. It’s not just toy stores at Christmas who stand to win from seasonal marketing. There are a whole range of opportunities throughout the year where you can take a seasonal event and turn it to your advantage. With a little lateral thinking, I’m sure most businesses could come up with a promotion to capitalise on a season’s festivities.

I’ve had a little troll through You Tube and the depths of my memory to find some examples of what I’m on about. Here are a few adverts/promotions from companies who have cleverly used a seasonal event which does not really have a direct correlation their product, but they’ve used the time of year to their advantage.

Prescription drugs at Easter:

NHS Easter Bunny Advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpGRFM-8mW4 

End of Financial Year and Pay TV

Foxtel EOFYS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVo39AsXcZ8&NR=1

Lamb and Australia Day

Eat Lamb on Australia Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dqsyXPkG3I&feature=related

Iron Bru soft drink and the World Cup

Irn Bru – world cup 2010 advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S36BCNgH9As

Tea bags at Christmas

PG Tips Tea Christmas advert:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga08Lz5-RLk&NR=1

Citroen Car on Valentines Day

Citroen – Love in London: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q1cv1o_0rQ

There are many more examples where organisations have turned a seasonal event to their advantage. It would be great to hear your stories, so feel free to share any experiences.

What will your marketing calendar look like in 2011?

CraftWrite wishes its blog readers a wonderful  Christmas!
Look forward to bringing you more marketing gems in 2011.

Developing your Web Strategy

There’s no getting away from it, the internet is an integral part of our lives. It’s a seemingly inexhaustible source of information on every subject you can think of. It’s entertainment. It’s expands our social world. It educates. So why is it that so many businesses don’t apply the same strategic thought to their websites that they would apply to other marketing initiatives?

When the web first became mainstream, back in the late 1990s, it was used much like an online brochure. In fact many companies simply uploaded their brochures in PDF format, added a “contact us” email link then left the whole thing well alone. Of course the internet has moved on somewhat since those days. But how do you get the most from your online presence?

Here are seven questions that need to be answered when formulating your website strategy.

1.       Why do you need a website?

It may seem an obvious question. Everybody’s got to be on the web – right? It’s true the majority of businesses will benefit from a web presence. Just be sure of what you need your website to be or do. Some examples could be:

·         Low cost sales channel

·         Interaction with existing customers

·         Generate new sales leads

·         To inform before making a purchase in-store.

2.       Can you update your website easily?

Websites need to be regularly updated, particularly if there is anything seasonal or time specific in your content. Out of date materials will give the impression that your business doesn’t care. Ensure you have someone who can update your site regularly and easily.

3.       Does your website reflect your brand?

Your website is the face of your business as much as a brochure or a sales representative. It needs to reflect your brand on every page. This means representing your brand in imagery, design and copy.

4.       Are you using your website to its full advantage?

A website is an evolving process, and your strategy for its use needs to be reviewed regularly. What may start off as a sales hub may evolve into a customer service centre. Keep track of trends and find out what your customers want.

5.       Is your website easy to navigate?

A rule of thumb is that it should take no more than 2 or 3 clicks to reach any section of your website. Today’s web-savvy consumer will easily tire of pointless clicking and will be quick to move to a competitor site if yours is all too hard. Don’t try and do anything clever with your menu structure. It’s paramount that you keep the navigation simple and intuitive.

6.       Are you analysing your web stats?

Google analytics and many similar packages will work behind the scenes to give you reports on visitors, audience data, length of time on your site, navigation patterns and a whole host of important information. Make sure you use this data to understand your users and to refine and improve your site.

7.       How will people find you online?

With billions of websites accessible at the touch of a button, you need to be easy to find. The best way to do this is by Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), but it can be a tricky process to work your way to the top of the search engines. Another way to be found is through online advertising, either through Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which is Google Adwords or the like. In addition to this you will need to work out a promotional strategy to drive people to your website. More on this in another blog.

If you can answer these questions then you are well on your way to a successful website strategy.

If your web copy needs an overhaul, then share your strategy with CraftWrite and re-vitalise your online communications. Contact Jill Bynon today for a no-obligation quotation: jill@craftwrite.com.au

Marketers vs. Lawyers

I’m no lawyer, but I’ve had to work with a few over the years as part of the sign off process for communication materials and marketing campaigns. I’ve butted heads on more than one occasion, so I thought I’d share some wisdom for getting lawyer approval on your marketing collateral:

Firstly get to know the lawyer or risk manager in your company. Give him/her a general overview of the types of marketing activities you do, so they can understand the bigger picture.

Lawyers deal with dry legal documents all day, so marketing materials are often a welcome distraction from the mundane. It brings out their creative side and some lawyers will try to re-write copy because they want to get involved and not for any legal reason. Make sure any changes are for legal reasons only. Remember you are the marketer.

Make sure you can back up any of the statements you make in your marketing communications. You’ll never get “guaranteed” or “we’re the best…” or “we’re the largest…” past your lawyer if you can’t substantiate it.

Be prepared to compromise. You might need to re-word something slightly, but if it’s not going to destroy the message then don’t worry about it.

Be up front with terms and conditions in your main body copy, as lawyers will try to insert disclaimers and small print on your beautifully designed artwork.

Think through “what if” scenarios and have the answers before you present your artwork to your lawyer. They will always approach your material from a negative point of view. Not because they are negative people, but they are paid to advise the company on potential risks.

Know the rules of what you can and can’t say for your particular product type or industry. You will only irritate a lawyer if you keep making the same mistakes over again.

And lastly, if you think your campaign may be a risky one, get your lawyer involved early on in the design process. It will save you a lot of time, money and energy later on.

If you’re looking for a skilled copywriter with plenty of corporate experience, then consider CraftWrite for your next job. Contact jill@craftwrite.com.au

Building Better Briefs

Why is it pink?

What planet are they on?

I can’t show this to the MD!

Legal would have a fit!

Have these words (or similar) ever crossed your lips when reviewing artwork from your creative agency? If so, then you need to write better creative briefs!

The quality of the artwork your creative agency produces is in direct correlation to the quality of the brief you give them. In this blog, I’ll give you a few things you’ll need to address in your brief so your creative agency can deliver the output you need.

Most agencies will have a briefing document, some more comprehensive than others. Depending on the size of the agency, you may never actually speak to the creative person that will do the work, so your briefing document needs to contain everything the creative team needs to know. Here are the main things that you need to tell your agency:

Background – why are we doing this? What were the drivers that brought us to this point?

What are we trying to achieve? What does the creative piece need to do? (for example:  drive sales, be informative, be inspirational, be innovative, etc). What are your expectations on results?

What are the main points of the message? Provide your agency with some dot points on the key things you need to communicate to your audience.

What is unique or different about the proposition?  This will help your agency build the “big idea” that will be the cornerstone of your communication.

Why will the audience care about it? Help your agency understand your target market.

What are competitors doing? This will help your agency build your unique position.

What are the creative boundaries? How creative can your agency be on this job? There’s a whole scale from “totally out there, never seen before” right down to “minor tweaks on something done before”. You need to guide this process.

Be specific on imagery. If a particular type of image is a no-no, then say so.

Define the brand guidelines. If you have strict rules on how artwork needs to be presented, then you need to share this with your agency.

Tell the agency about any mandatory items for the job: eg: “must contain link to website” or “must mention the closing date of the offer”. Let them know if there’s a certain way you must describe your product or any legal disclaimers that must be included.

Deadlines – let your agency know as soon as possible what your deadlines are so they can put resources in place and schedule your work. (Let them know as early as possible, particularly if time is tight.)

Budget – give your agency some idea of what budget you have for the project. Your budget will also rein in any “expensive to execute” ideas and help keep it real.

All the little details – you need to tell your agency about things such as quantities, sizes, paper specifications and technical information.

I’d love to hear your stories about creative briefs, please share your experiences (no need to name clients/agencies!)

Contact Jill Bynon at CraftWrite with your next copywriting brief!  jill@craftwrite.com.au

Getting the most from your PR

PR is a specialist field and most companies work with a PR agency to manage their media liaison. Here are some tips on how you can get the most from your agency and get your organisation’s staff prepared for both positive and negative media attention.

Share your marketing objectives with your PR agency. If they’re not clear on your company’s direction, they will be unable to guide your PR planning.

Work out a budget for your PR. And be clear on what you will get for your money. Allow your agency enough hours in the budget for media follow up. This is the sales process that will get your stories in the press.

Develop a media activity plan for the year. Ensure that this ties in with your marketing activity for maximum benefit. Consider the newsworthy stories and how you can present these to the media.

Approve the lists of target media for each press release. Ask your agency to share the target list each time they sent out a press release. Highlight the most important contacts to follow up.

Be able to respond to the media requests quickly. Organise media training for a range of people in your organisation, so you are able to provide an expert to talk to the media at any time. Prepare media kits, so you have materials on hand to present key topics.

Be prepared for crises. Disaster can strike at any time, so make sure your company is prepared. Develop a written document in conjunction with your PR agency and make sure key people are aware of it. As a minimum, the document should include:

·         a list of people to contact, with out of hours telephone numbers

·         the procedure for releasing a statement

·         a range of scenarios with possible responses

Measure your success. Be clear on what your PR agency can produce in terms of reporting and agree on the contents of a monthly or weekly report.

Got a story you want to share with the media? CraftWrite can assist you with writing press releases, articles, case studies or media kits. Contact jill@craftwrite.com.au for a chat about how I can help.

The A to Z of Advertising

Here are a few words of wisdom from the world of advertising:

Awareness – creating awareness is an important reason to advertise, but that’s just the beginning of the process. You need to turn that awareness into sales.

Big idea – communicate one single idea to your audience that will make sense to them and drive them to buy.

Call to action – a strong call to action will drive sales.

Desire – your advert needs to create desire to purchase the product. Techniques include discounting, or in the case of a new product, creating the illusion of a “must have” item .

Effectiveness – measure the effectiveness of your campaign. For example, measure brand recognition pre and post campaign.

Free – a strong word in advertising. But customers are becoming more wary and wonder “what is the catch”.

Goals – Be clear on your goals and carefully plan your advertising spend.

Humour – Funny adverts can be very effective. Increasingly adverts are required to entertain in order to gain cut through.

Integrated campaigns – We all consume different media at different times of day, therefore integrated campaigns are important to ensure you connect with your audience.

Jingles – a fantastic way to get inside your consumer’s head and ensure they remember your product.

Know how – Engage the right advertising agency for you.

Leads – Record and process your sales leads quickly.

Memorable – Ensure your advert is memorable. But remember it’s the subject of the advert that needs to be memorable not the advert itself.

Naughty  - Being a little bit risqué in your advertising can pay off. You might attract some complaints, but as long as the target audience are not offended it may be worth the risk.

Online – it’s hard to get cut through with online adverts, so you will need to be extra creative to attract attention.

Press – Printed newspapers and magazines are a gradually dying media as more and more of us source our news and entertainment online. However, for now, press shouldn’t be ignored as part of an integrated advertising campaign mix.

Quantity – get the quantity (frequency) of adverts right to create sufficient awareness. People often need to see an advert several times before taking in the message.

Response mechanism – people respond to adverts in different ways so provide as many different ways to respond as possible – phone, email, in person etc.

Simplicity – keep it simple. We are bombarded with advertising messages all day long and people will not take time to understand something complex.

Timing – get the timing of your adverts right. This could be time of year, time of day or at a trigger point in someone’s lifetime.

Understanding – your advert must be clear and the message understood in a second or two.

Value add – a useful way to drive responses. Eg: Buy now and get an additional XXX.

White space – a design technique to make an advert clean and uncluttered and therefore easy to digest.

X factor -  Sometimes an advert just works, despite not testing well in research groups. Trust your gut instinct and go for it!

Yes – the technique of asking questions that you know the audience will say “yes” to. It’s an effective way of engaging the audience.

Zoo – the use of animals is an effective technique in advertising.  Connect the animal traits to your brand or message and it will help to make it memorable.

Jill Bynon is an experienced copywriter who has written and edited many advertisements. Contact CraftWrite today for help in crafting your ads: jill@craftwrite.com.au

Managing Integrated Campaigns

We all consume different types of media at different times of the day, and for different reasons. This is why single channel advertising campaigns are so rare. With the ever growing number of communication channels it’s important to understand your target market and how to connect with them. Marketers need to be comfortable in producing communications across several mediums. Here are a few tips for managing an integrated marketing campaign:

Be clear on your objectives. It’s easy to get lost on what you are trying to achieve when caught up in the million things you have to do to go live with a campaign. So remind yourself regularly of what it is you are aiming for.

Get organised. By this I mean prepare a series of folders, both electronic and paper so you can keep track of the various rounds of artwork, briefing notes, and calculations for each aspect of your campaign.

Select your media carefully. Don’t assume that TV will be the most effective medium. If your budget won’t allow a sufficient media spend for TV spots, then select a range of channels that will give you your best “bang for buck”.  Depending on your audience, this could be something like internet ads, posters and radio or a clever social media campaign

Ensure the clarity of messaging across all mediums. The big idea may work well in TV, but be less convincing on the web or in direct mail. A good agency will think this through before presenting ideas, but it’s always worth checking with a little home market research on family and friends not connected to the brand.

You don’t have to use the same images for each media channel. So long as there is a strong common message or element that links each communication piece, then it will knit together as a campaign.

Make sure you can measure the effectiveness of each media channel.  Consider different phone numbers for each call to action or a system of codes – whatever works for your business. Be aware, though that TV can drive your web traffic or your yellow pages link. Not everyone will choose to respond in the same way.

Brief all customer-facing staff. With many campaign elements, it’s essential that everyone who deals with customers either on the phone or in person are aware of the campaign and what it is about.

Measure the results of your campaign from all angles. Understand what worked and what didn’t work. Sometimes a campaign can have a surprising effect that you could never have predicted.

Jill Bynon is an award winning marketing campaign manager, turned copywriter. Contact CraftWrite for your copywriting needs across all mediums: jill@craftwrite.com.au