How not to do email marketing (some people just don't get it)

Email marketing is always a bit of a touchy subject with our clients. Can I send an email? What are the rules? If I've met someone at a business event, can I add them to my email marketing campaign? There are many rules about what you can and can't do when sending emails, but they are best covered in another post.

What does get me annoyed about 'email marketing' (in its vaguest form) is when companies just collect business cards and then send out emails to all of the people they have email address for, just advertising their business. There is no point in saying to people 'Hey, we're a really great company' unless they really want to know about it (which is very unlikely). If you are going to make email marketing work, then you need to give people something, like great news, informative articles or access to whitepapers on a particular subject.

I received an email last night from a local company who will remain nameless. It went like this;

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You may see *company name* appear in the local and national press over the coming months.

This is part of *company names* unique licence and recruitment drive designed to increase our client customer service even further.

It is our vision to have a local *job description* in the majority of postcode areas by the end of the year.

If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of any press releases, articles printed, or to find out more about our recruitment drive, please contact *persons name* by emailing *email address* or call *company phone no*.

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When I get emails like this (and unfortunately I do), it makes me want to say SO WHAT! I have no interest in your company, don't want to receive your email and all you achieve by doing this is revaluing your company image.

Unfortunately, some companies still don't get email marketing and as a result turn away potential customers. If you are going to, or want to start, we recommend speaking to a company who can advise you on the best way to carry out an email marketing campaign.

Could social networks replace politicians?

Ok, this blog post is a bit random but it came to me while driving my car earlier today. There was a discussion on the radio relating to members of Parliament (MPs) and what they get paid. During the debate the merits of MPs, what they do and how much they get paid. One caller made the point that MPs have very little impact when it comes to policy making and representing the thoughts of the people/country.

There is an element of truth in this. Of course, our political systems work are based on methods which are now hundreds of years old, which is understandable. But this made me think. In the future, will we need MPs to make decisions on policy for us? Perhaps in the (not to distant?) future, we will all have our own unique and secure online ID's (or maybe ID cards, but I don't think it is a good idea to go there...). Using these approved IDs, we may be able to share thoughts and opinions with central government and perhaps place votes. There are huge issues to be addressed in terms of security, authenticity and privacy amongst others, but with the continued growth of social networking websites, perhaps these issues can be dealt with by the 'big players' which have a trust factor and infrastructure in place.

If we could vote using these platforms, or something similar, the voting population could dramatically increase (it has supposedly been in decline for along time). In addition, users would be able to vote on a wide variety of issues very easily and then this could be collated much faster than is possible now. By giving people access to have more of a say, you would be able to gauge opinion far more effectively than traditional methods and have a much better idea on what policies are/aren't wanted (e.g. Should MP's be forced to publish all of their expenses or not?). It would also allow those who are unable to vote, to share their thoughts much easier and contribute to the overall voting figures.

Politics isn't my strong point, so please don't shoot me down for airing some random thoughts here. Maybe this type of process could never work, but it's worth consideration as there are already trials of e-Voting in operation. Why not take the vote to where the audience is? Maybe the social networks could have a more important role in our future than we think...

Easiest SEO Competition: Google T-Shirts for South Asian Webmasters, Bloggers

10 Free Google T- shirts, Hoddies and Hooded Fleeces for Indian and Paksitani bloggers, webmasters and internet users.


Adido Solutions has announced to day to launch the easiest SEO competition ever for webmasters and bloggers specifically for South Asian SEOs, webmasters and bloggers from India and Pakistan.


How it works?

SO SIMPLE.

Anyone from india and Pakistan can win a Google T-shirt, Hoodie or Hooded Fleece by giving a link with a short description on his/her website or blog to www.primera-bournemouth.co.uk and www.primera-bournemouth.co.uk/ManTemplate.aspx?manID=7 in a format given below:

Example:

Primera Sport are excusive dealers of Assos Clothing, the same famous Assos brand in bike accessories and cycling clothes. Based in Bournemouth, UK - Primera Sport also deals in Specialized and Cnnondale bike.

This is just an example, however you can write your own paragragh and with Assos and Assos clothing anchor text. Once you have done it, send us an email at adido.press@gmail.com with a link to page of your website.

The competition ends on 31 March 2008. 10 lucky winners will be selected randomly, results will be published in this blog, so bookmark the blog as well. Will will contact the winners through email and send them the Free t-shirts via post.

In any case, Adido Solution's decision will be final.

What's in a name? $1 million if you're lucky!!!

Getting the right domain name is always important, but it seems that if you get it right, you can get it REALLY right! The domain name www.cruises.co.uk has just been sold for a wallet busting $1 million (£560,000!) to a German travel company. This beats the previous record of £120,000 for recycle.co.uk.

Now, I can understand that a domain might be worth a lot, but who actually types in website address nowadays? Surely most people would enter 'cruises' into a search engine and see what comes back, rather than go to a website address? Maybe I'm wrong, but it does seem strange that a domain could be worth that much. If that's worth $1 million, it begs that question how much certain keywords and key phrases are worth? How much for example would the word 'cruise' be worth if you had top positions on the search engines ?

Talking of domain names, if you want to know how to make it B I G in domains, this guys is worth reading about. Say hello to Kevin Ham the man who made $300 million from domain names.

Why (most) forums DON'T work

Whilst doing a bit of research a few days ago, I came across a website which had a 'Forum' link. This also reminded me of a talk I did at the Business South exhibition in 2007, when someone in the audience from Southampton Chamber asked me if I thought having a forum was a good idea or not. My answer then is the same as now. In 99% of cases, NO.

Now back in the day, forums where were it was at. Big banks of forums and threads with people 'chatting' around themes and ideas and sharing knowledge. Then along came social networking and sort of replaced the whole idea of chatting to people in virtual rooms by closing the conversion to people who we're in their 'network' or part of a bigger, approved network.

That's not to say that website forums are dead because they aren't. Some forums to this day still get hundreds of thousands of visitors a month. Some are still hugely important and have great influence (esp. in the web design and SEO arena). Infact, one forum post in China about the Nanfang Weekend managed to get nearly 250,000 views (if you can read Chinese you can read it here), while some forums still get over 500 people online at any one time. (bit of trivia for you pop pickers there...)

However, most forums fail. They just don't work. Why? I've tried to get to the bottom of the reasons, and I've come up with my (quick) top five list below;

1. Promotion
   I often speak to companies who think that when they have their website designed that adding a forum will automatically get loads of people coming to their website. This isn't the case as the forum is just added on the side of the website instead of traffic being driven to it. How is anyone going to post on a forum unless they know about it? If the website isn't properly marketed or optimised, then no one will find that, let alone the forum. Still a very common assumption by 'non web people'
   
2. Audience
   Many of the forums which I find myself emptyily trawling through, seeing unloved thread after unloved thread with no activity, are aimed at small businesses. Small businesses find themselves too busy to get the books done, let alone find the time (or even have the skills) to post in forums. Know your target market before you start one up!
3. Effort
   It takes a lot of effort to post regularly in forums to make them interesting. Additionally, if it is your forum, you need to oversee it. Who's going to make sure those pesky 'medicine' automated posts are going to be deleted? If you're going to make your forum work, you need to look after it and this can take some time.
4. Focus
   This comes back to point 2, really. When you go on some forums, you can be overwhelmned with the number of choices that you're faced with. Do I post in this section? What about this one? The fewer the choices, or the better they are chosen, the better the experience for your users. Make their choice easy, they're more likely to post and stay. If you've got lots of ideas and growth plans, add them once established, not before.
5. Bloggin'
   Forums need input from a hardcore set of users. Blogs only need one person. Sure, forums are more of an open platform, but they need a few key posters in order generate regular discussion. As anyone (like me!) can set up a blog and start posting in minutes to drive content, then the chance of success is much greater.

These are just some the ideas which came off the top of my head. If I really sat down and thought about it a lot more, I could have come up with at least, oh I don't know, one more reason, but I thought I'd leave the question open to see if anyone else had any other ideas? Any one?