Peppermint Source: unpretentious, effective marketing

Newsletters: we all know them, we all receive them. Some of us actually read them, while most of us either mark them as spam or immediately delete them from our inboxes. There is, however, still a warm and fuzzy place for a newsletter in today’s spam infested digital landscape. But they’ve gotta be done well. A good newsletter has to entice you (as its recipient) to want to click ‘open’ and continue reading.

Article by Louis Nel

So if you’re thinking about putting together a newsletter for your business, keep the following tips in mind…

1. Ask permission

So you’ve decided to send out a regular newsletter for your company. First step is to put together a database of potential readers – people who would be interested in a newsletter in your particular industry. These could be your existing clients, prospects and people in your network.

Step two is the most important step: ask for their permission. Send them an email in which you describe your newsletter in a few short sentences and link to an issue if you can so they can see what it will look like. Then ask them if they’d like to receive it. You’d be surprised at how many people would actually say ‘yes’ if you ask them first. Obviously if they decline, respect it.

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Article by Jo Duxbury

I’m not sure whether autocorrect or ignorance is to blame, but my social media feeds have been riddled with eyesores recently. As a grammar nerd, I can’t help but cringe to see very intelligent people making basic language mistakes. Sure, in some context a little leeway is fine – like in chatty, conversational tweets. But anything that’s put out there on behalf of your company, brand or even your own personal brand (like a link to your latest blog post) really should not contain errors like these…:

Reins (noun) / reigns (verb).

I see this one ALL the time. With homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently), if you’re speaking, nobody knows you’re misspelling your words. But write it down and you’d better (a) know that spelling variations can change meaning and (b) use the right version. A person does not take over the reigns of an agency – she takes over the reins (like a carriage driver controlling his horses). She might reign over it though (like a queen).

Vial (noun) / vile (adjective).

Another homophone. Correct use would be: “He poured the vile liquid into a glass vial.” Not “The leftovers I had for lunch were vial.”

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Earlier this week, Mike Stopforth posted a thought-provoking article on his blog about social media addiction. My hand is raised: I also check Facebook and Twitter through bleary eyes before I’ve got out of bed in the morning (email can wait though) – and just before I go to sleep. You know, in case anything earth-shattering has happened in the world or to my friends.

Article by Jo Duxbury

But despite working in digital marketing, I often feel overwhelmed by social media. Twitter in particular – I feel my stress levels rising if I’m not able to read every interesting link people tweet. Of course it’s ridiculous to expect to digest everything that comes into my news feed, but I do sometimes feel panicky that I might be missing out on a gem.

Come December, after a long year of helping clients with their social media strategies and trying to manage my own addiction, I’m usually near breaking point. And that’s why I do my annual social media detox. Despite the thought of it making me short of breath, it’s something I have to do to keep me sane. Will I fall behind my clients and competitors if I don’t go onto Twitter for three weeks? Will my friends even notice if I don’t update my Facebook status for a month?

To make this hiatus less stressful, I’ve developed an easy and enjoyable way to enforce it: I travel somewhere which has horrendously expensive data roaming rates and unreliable hotel wifi. I’d rather spend money on delicious local food than a local SIM. Corny as it sounds, that moment at the airport when I send MTN the USSD to deactivate my calls and data is when my holiday begins.

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By Louis Nel

So the new rising star on the social media block is a little something called Pinterest. Actually, not so new anymore – the platform’s just over 2 years old. But only recently has it started to draw attention to the social media masses and, of course… brands.

What is it?

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections and or ‘like’ photos. – Wikipedia

Impressive stats

• Almost 12 million active registered users. In January 2012, it became the fastest standalone site in history to hit 10 million users. Respect.
• In December 2011, Pinterest was one of the top five referrers for several US clothing retailers’ (Nordstrom, West Elm, Mod Cloth) websites – infographic. It beat YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.
• 87% of Pinterest users are female, between the ages of 25 and 54.

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Our client at Molo first approached us back in 2009 because he’d read an article Jo wrote for ITWeb, about why DIY marketing is a bad idea. Molo is a bespoke software services company that can create any kind of software you can imagine – just tell them what problem you’re facing and chances are their clever tech team can solve it.

But while they are excellent at crafting very impressive IT solutions, they are not – and can’t be expected to be – marketing pros. After being in business for over eight years, MD Charl Barnard felt it was good business practice to start formalising Molo’s marketing. “I was attracted by Jo’s article’s no-nonsense approach – a down-to-business, agile and tech-savvy focus which I felt would resonate well with the way Molo operates.”

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1 March 2012 sees the introduction of Facebook’s premium new ad offering, Page Post Ads. Designed to be larger and more eye-catching, these ads show not only brand generated content, but users’ interaction with the post and page.

Article by Emily Shaw

These ads incorporate three important elements into their structure:

• Social context – you can see which of your friends like it.
• Interesting new content – it can be copy, a video, a photo, etc.
• Engagement – you and your friends can give feedback on the ad.

Habari’s Michael Krynauw wrote about the benefits of this new format, outlining how research had proved that they performed better on average, than the old ads.

With the ability to turn ‘anything you can post onto a wall into an ad’, the new ads promise to double ad recall and target friends of fans along with the fans themselves.  This is great news for brands wanting to advertise effectively online.

It’s also great news for us content strategists as this new format demand stronger and better defined content strategies – something few brands have focused on so far.

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*ping* New email! And this time it’s not a note from our bookkeeper about how much we owe SARS, a Facebook administrator alert (someone just liked us!) or the latest group buying deals. No, it’s an enquiry from our website – always welcome!

Article by Jo Duxbury

We’re on a bit of a new business drive at the moment and it’s a lot of fun getting out there and meeting new people, and learning about their businesses. In some cases we are not the only company they’re talking to – which is entirely sensible, of course.

But what has been quite an eye-opener is how bad some of the legacy marketing work is at some of the companies we’ve been meeting. (Actually, I’m stunned that some ‘marketing’ companies get away with doing such terrible work – and get paid for it!)

I realised that actually the fault is not the clients’ – very often, these clients are experts in all sorts of areas, but understandably don’t have the first idea about marketing principles. I worry though that if the client is unaware that they’ve commissioned bad work in the past, how will they be able to evaluate the companies they’re currently interviewing?

So here is my list of ‘things to watch out for’ if you are a non-marketer looking to hire a marketing, design or web company, or freelancer.

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By Louis Nel

Since writing my previous post on Google+, I’ve been following the growth of this new social media platform with some interest. Especially since the search giant launched its pages for brands on G+ in November 2011.

G+ launched in June 2011 and grew at quite a fast pace. It currently stands at around 90 million users.

Graph source: Google+ News.

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Since 2010 the Mints have been working on some of South Africa’s (and the world, for that matter) biggest brands, many due to our relationship with the Habari Group’s newly consolidated agency, Machine.

For the last 18 months we have been working with Domino – Machine’s digital arm. As their expert content-led social media strategy partner, together we’ve taken all kinds of industries, from insurance to retail, cars to cell phones, beauty to education and liquor onto social media!

Content is key for social media strategy

We’ve been developing content-based strategies for effective and sustainable brand pages on Facebook and Twitter accounts – as well as considering other social channels. Operations Manager at Domino, Alice Jakins explains why they work with us: “We see content strategy as an integral part of a brand’s success in social media; working together with Peppermint Source allows us to bring this specialist skill set to our client.”

Corny as it may sound, it’s been so rewarding to see clients thrilled by their fans’ and followers’ feedback after our recommended approach has been implemented. Some of the accounts we’ve worked on with Domino/Machine are Southern Comfort, Damelin, STA Travel, iBurst, Sanlam Reality, Berco, Heart FM and Williams Hunt.

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The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers is one of our favourite clients. “They trust and listen to our expertise, are simply lovely people – and they pay on time! That might be something to do with their financial skills!” says Mint Imperial, Jo Duxbury.

We started working with the ICB in 2009. The company that was then running our Freelancentral website was doing the design and development of the ICB newsletter, but needed a hand with the copywriting side, so asked us to help. After a few editions, we recommended a restructure of the newsletter to make it more engaging and interesting for its audience – which our client loved and implemented. We still edit and produce the ICB’s newsletter every month.

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Article source. 

Article by Jo Duxbury

Whether you’re a big agency, or a small one, or a freelancer, chances are that when a new client starts nosing around, contemplating working with you, they’ll do some background checking. After all, they’re going to be giving you money and they need to know you’ll be able to deliver what they order.

Funny, though, how rarely this screening happens in reverse.

We all want clients; we clamour for their business and bend over backwards to impress them. That’s fine, but how about doing some homework to make sure that the client is (a) legitimate and (b) the type of client you want to work with?

Here’s how I screen potential new clients:

1. Their manner – and manners

I recently had a client submit an enquiry form on our website. It included her name, phone number and email address but no note. I had no idea what she wanted so I sent a polite enquiry in response. She’s been brusque and brief in our communication since – “Call me on Thursday. I’ll be out so phone me on my cell.” This sounds like I might catch her when she’s driving, or having her highlights done – somewhere where she won’t be focused on our conversation.

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Article source.

Article by Louis Nel

Statistically, anyone in a professional position can send up to 80 emails a day. Sometimes it feels like a lot more, doesn’t it?! Have you ever thought about what you said and how these mails looked on the receiving end? An email between you and a client can seem rather insignificant, but it’s hugely important.

Your company/brand has a voice and tone. Think of yourself as a soldier in the front line. More often than not, you are the first point of contact with a client and an important mouth piece. So here are some tips on professional email etiquette…

Use the subject line wisely

Think of it as a heading to an article and try to keep it under seven words. Make sure it’s an accurate summary of what’s in the email – and if you want the recipient to take some sort of action, include that in the subject line, e.g. ‘Please respond – authorisation of March expenses’.

Courtesy tip: If you’re email is quite lengthy, include the word ‘long’ in your subject line. Your client will then know that it will take some time to read.

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Article by Jo Duxbury

Article source.

‘Keep it simple, stupid’ is not a new philosophy. It’s one that’s been enthusiastically adopted by copywriters, software developers and management consultants all over the world – amongst others. So why then are many companies like awkward teenagers on a first date when it comes to their communications?

Being ‘simple’ is not the same as being simplistic. ‘Simple’ is not about dumbing down your messages and patronising your audience. Simple communication is also not devoid of personality – it may demand ruthless editing but does not silence your brand’s voice. There are ways to keep it simple, without appearing stupid.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonard da Vinci

Simple is all about being clear, to the point, and getting your message across effectively. It’s about using plain language. The higher up the chain your prospect is, the less time she has for you, so ‘simple’ becomes even more important. It’s likely that a busy CEO would rather read something that’s short and easy to follow than a long, complex and jargon-filled missive.

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I’m not so sure about social media strategists. I understand that social media channels need strategy; I’m just not convinced that they need social media strategists.

Article by Emily Shaw

It’s a funny job description that seems to have popped up recently and its candidates are in high demand. It’s no surprise that brands want someone to integrate their campaigns from ATL into the social space. And obviously it would be good if that person was a social media expert. As in, someone who knows a lot about the medium and what works and what doesn’t.

But to call someone like that a strategist is, for me, a bit of a stretch.

Social media what?

In the traditional sense, strategy is a difficult discipline. It takes years of working in communications, lots of mistakes and experience in many different platforms of publishing. It takes knowledge and understanding of human psychology, more than a few theorems and an ability to get to the essence of a situation. And of course it takes a very finely tuned understanding of branding. In order to call yourself a strategist, I think you’d need a fair amount of time in the industry, doing all of the above.

Facebook isn’t even 10 years old yet. Twitter is even younger. And the demand for ‘social media strategists’ only began about 2 years ago. Simple maths tells us then that social media strategists don’t have much experience at all.

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I’ve now been a Mint for 10 months and the time has come to manage my fourth and fifth event for a client. Although I don’t have much experience with corporate events, I have been known to put the odd party together. What I know about corporates I’ve learned on the fly. There are a few important things to add to your checklist during the planning stages and I thought I’d share them.

Article by Louis Nel

Start with a complete brief

This is a biggie. And that’s why it must be your starting point. Knowing exactly what your client wants will save you a lot of time and stress. It’s important to know:

• The type of event – cocktail briefing, breakfast briefing, half-day seminar, etc.
• The type of venue – hotel, boutique guesthouse, yacht, etc.
• The number of guests.
• If there will be presentations.
• The food and drinks requirements.
• The date, duration and time of day.
• The purpose of the event.

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Hat tip to Cerebra for inspiring this post.

Dear Santa

I have been a very, very good girl this year. No, wait. I have been an exceptional girl this year. It’s been a long, hard year for most and to top it all off, I work in social media. I’m a social media manager, Santa.

That means I’m paid to talk to people on behalf of brands. That’s hard work. I have smiled when most would have cried, I have sat quietly when I wanted to run screaming from the boardroom and I have spent hours behind my computer being ‘engaging’ when it was hot and sunny outside.

I’ve learned a lot this year, about things I like and things I don’t like so much. That’s why I’m writing to you. Last year, I asked for a GHD flat iron. This year I want to ask for something completely different. I want to ask you NOT to bring me the following:

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When brands get it ‘disastrously’ wrong, online users are quick to point fingers and bay for blood. And yes, there are some basic marketing rules, let alone social media principles, that companies just don’t seem to comprehend. All brands should have a strategy and understand social media best practice if they want to go social.

But when a brand that usually does a stellar job online makes a mistake, should we not retain some perspective and cut them a little slack? (And let’s reserve the word ‘disaster’ for tsunamis and earthquakes, shall we?)

Much as they (and customers) would like to think they are, social media managers are usually not in complete control of their little online empires. Often, it’s when a social media strategy has been signed off and the channels are launched that the social media managers’ battles begin.

In the last year, the Mints have developed at least 15 social media and/or Facebook strategies for high profile brands. And sound as these strategies are, internal battles can prevent them from being implemented properly.

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By Jo Duxbury 

Have you ever tasted a chocolate cake made from an Ina Paarman bake mix? Perhaps one has even saved the day for you. They’re pretty good – and they’re idiot-proof. So they should be, because it took 121 iterations of that cake mix for Ina and her team to be completely satisfied that they’d found the perfect recipe.

Persistence in pursuit of excellent quality is a trademark of Ina’s business. She advocates ‘constructive discontent’: keep refining until you get it right. In the 20+ years that have seen her garage-based cooking classes evolve into a wildly successful foods business, Ina’s focus on quality and care has served her well.

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How brands should be better than people on social media. 

Article by Emily Shaw

Shiny, happy people

There’s rather a pithy saying going round at the moment, ‘you’re never as ugly as your passport photo or as good looking as your profile picture.’ It’s funny because it’s true. Most profile pictures are chosen very carefully. They’re the most flattering, they don’t ‘try too hard’, they show us looking relaxed, healthy, wealthy and most importantly, happy.

If you think about it, a lot of the content people generate (and consume) on social media is staged to some extent. Think about status updates. While you do get a couple of friends who seem not to have got the social dynamic of what is acceptable and what isn’t, the majority of people post carefully. If they’re normally pleasant, they’re saccharine in their updates, the foulest mouthed in reality will asterisk out cuss words and if someone is quite excited about going to a concert, they’ll tell you where they’re sitting, with whom and how much the tickets cost. In upper case.

They’re faking a bit, aren’t they? And in turn, so are you and so am I when we say the show was ‘enjoyable’ when it was boring, the party ‘awesome’ when it was passable and when we upload photos that hide our double chins. Yet no one ever calls people on their fakery on social media.

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By Louis Nel 

The lava lamp shines blue against the short arms of T-rex. What a lovely card. I was spoiled on my birthday. My mouse pad bears the proud Facebook moniker and my office looks out onto a fountain where birds come for their daily bath and I sometimes sit and eat spaghetti bolognaise. Life’s good.

That’s called free writing. The very first lesson learned at Tiffany Markman’s Cape Town Copywriting Course on 16 November 2011. It’s an exercise designed to clear your mind and beat writer’s block. The aim is to write for 3 minutes. About anything. It doesn’t matter. Just write. I had to cut my piece short, as it would have filled an entire page. Three minutes is longer than you think.

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The Mints just last week put the finishing touches on a Twitter strategy for an electronics/tech brand.

Article by Jo Duxbury

What was interesting was the lack of basic ‘how Twitter works’ knowledge amongst both the client and their creative agency.

There are lots of Twitter-for-beginners articles out there so we’re not going to churn out another one here. But the section of our strategy that was best received was the part about followers and who to follow.

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A quick Twitter 101 in case you’re a newbie to the platform:

Twitter’s a social medium that lets you post updates for all the world to see. (You can also protect your tweets if you don’t want them to be public, but few people do this.) People subscribe to your updates (these are your followers) and you can subscribe to other peoples’ (you become one of their followers). On all public Twitter accounts, anyone can see who you are following, and who follows you. How people – and brands – use Twitter varies tremendously, from Tweeting what’s for lunch and sharing content to product news and customer service updates. We work with brands who want to use Twitter to supplement their marketing – to build awareness, interact with (and learn from) customers, and promote their products.

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Please don’t make me feel like I’ve just asked you to climb Mount Everest… barefoot. 

Article by Louis Nel

Having to deal with suppliers and other service providers on a daily basis can sometimes be bad for your health. Some get it right and others… well, you wonder how they’re even doing business. Customer service can make or break any company. Big or small. It’s really not rocket science. Here’s what keeps me going back for more:

Friendliness

Have you ever wondered why some businesses employ customer service people who absolutely refuse to smile? It blows my mind. You’re practically the face of the company. Do you really want your business to be known as grumpy central? Friendly staff relaxes your mood and just makes the entire experience a pleasant one.

Remember these tips the next time you take a telephone call from a client: smile before you pick it up and sound pleased or excited to hear from him/her.

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Article source: The social break-up report #8 from Exact Target.
Download ‘The social break-up report #8′ here (PDF – 10,34KB).

A consumer’s decision to “unlike” a company has surprisingly little impact on the perceived likelihood that they will buy from that company in the future. In total, 63% of consumers said they were as likely or more likely to purchase something from a company after ending their Facebook relationship. Another 18% said they only “unlike” a company if they never bought anything in the first place.

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Article by Emily Veitch

A lot of people believe that having some form of social media channel for their brand is better than having none at all. Which is pretty much the same as saying it’s better to have a blank print ad with your logo on it in a magazine than not having a print ad at all. If you’re not going to manage your page or account properly, there’s no point in taking up the space.

But what we have noticed recently is that brands are confusing the idea of keeping their social media channels active and chatty with getting everyone from their team to upload content. There’s nothing wrong with having a core group of (trained) brand ambassadors working together on populating the channels. It’s when the platforms become a ‘free for all’ in the work place that problems start creeping in:

Inconsistency of language

Using words and terminology that are typical of the brand is very important. The brand might not say ‘awesome’, but Shelley from Events does. If she is uploading content for that day, she may well use the word. Educating your staff or colleagues about your brand’s unique tone and manner, including the kind of words it would and wouldn’t use, is vital.

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By Louis Nel

There has been a lot of speculation since Google launched its social media network, Google+, in June. Will it be the next Myspace? A Facebook killer? You might find it rather annoying: yet another social network to maintain. But about 26 million people think it’s the bee’s knees.

Many brands have been contemplating the future value of Facebook and the impact Google+ might have on their brand pages. I’ve done a bit of reading and am of the opinion that brands on Facebook have nothing to worry about. Here’s why…

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The Peppermint Source team all seems to be pretty driven by our stomachs. Mint #3, Louis, is our fresh tuna supplier (thanks to his local SPAR), and ‘Curry Friday’ has become a much looked forward to treat. (Our office is a short walk from Bhandaris restaurant – Mint #2, Emily, says it’s the best lamb curry ever!)

When Mint #1, Jo, spotted a discounted Indian cooking class on a group buying website, she snapped it up for the team. While the thought of ‘90s style corporate teambuilding gives us chills (remember those ‘trust’ games?), we’re always up for a shared food-based experience.

So at 9am on Saturday, the Mints were all present and correct at Masala Dosa in Long Street. And no, the restaurant didn’t have a TV for us to keep an eye on the Boks’ game, but we did have Twitter…

Our host was chef and proprietor Amit Raz, who has run his South Indian eatery successfully for over five years (no mean feat inCape Town). He’d laid out spice-filled thalis on each table (round metal bowls with smaller ones nested in them). As we waited for the rest of the attendees to arrive we played ‘guess the spice’ – the more obscure ones like fenugreek had us stumped!

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I don’t mean four letter words and the awful vitriol in News24.com’s comment section. I mean the multitude of typos, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and disregard for punctuation that pepper Facebook and Twitter.

In a recent two-part article, Caryn Gootkin explored how damaging bad copy can be to brands. She’s taken the bold step of naming and shaming companies who are slapdash with their online copy, and we’re not talking small businesses here.

While errors can be found on print ads, billboards, printed materials and websites, it’s social media that seems to suffer the worst of it.

Why is this?

Read Jo Duxbury’s full article at Bizcommunity.

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Should your technology business have a Facebook page?

Four million South Africans are spending an average of 27 minutes a day on Facebook. Brands have cottoned on to this as a fantastic marketing channel, and some are using it really effectively to interact with customers.

Done properly, Facebook can put a company on people’s radars, widen its audience, build loyalty, give the company valuable customer insights, increase sales, generate goodwill, give it more mileage for its marketing, and much more.

Done wrong, it can damage the company’s brand, be a PR disaster, annoy the audience, and drain resources.

Just because all the cool kids have Facebook brand pages, it doesn’t mean your company should too. When considering putting a company on Facebook, think through these key questions first… read Jo Duxbury’s full article at ITWeb.

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By Jo Duxbury 

Recently, a client and I were almost scammed by fraudsters. We could have lost a not insignificant amount of money to them but fortunately spotted it in time. Here’s what happened:

I received a call from a ‘Terrence Williams’, claiming to be calling from my client’s accounts department. He called me on my cellphone from an unknown number. My client’s number never displays so this was not unusual. What was more unusual was that he got my company name a little wrong – you’d think an accountant would be hot on detail. He said he was calling to check how much we are owed in the month end payment run. I thought this was a bit odd, as my client contact sends through our invoices and statement every month to the accounts team for payment, and he should have had that. He pushed me on it though and because I was busy with other things and not giving the call my full attention (lesson learnt), I told him what the outstanding amount is.

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By Emily Veitch

While we can’t stress enough how important having a proper content strategy is, there are a few small but impactful changes you can make to your fan page to improve its appearance and effectiveness.

1. Choose your profile picture carefully.

When potential fans are searching for your brand page, they will need to be able to recognise it instantly among similarly named or branded pages. Make sure your logo or name is easy to read even when the picture is reduced to a thumbnail. If you use a picture as well as your logo, make sure the picture also looks neat when the image is in thumbnail format – you don’t want to cut your visuals in half. You also have a lot of real estate on your actual page for your profile picture – make it interesting. Remember, bright and simple is best.

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By Louis Nel

I’ve recently had to do a little research on acceptable etiquette for brands on Twitter. My findings were rather interesting and after some cyber stalking, I was appalled by how many brands get it wrong. So, having done some online research too, here are some points to consider.

Make your profile interesting

You can’t go wrong with using your recognisable brand logo as your avatar. Make sure it’s cropped correctly and legible as a thumbnail. Clearly state your purpose for being on Twitter in your bio and include a link to an engaging and informative page on your website. And please, do invest in an attractive background.

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By Louis Nel

Since I started working at Peppermint Source in March 2011, I’ve learnt (and am still learning) how valuable good content is for any brand. I’ve decided also to implement this newly gained knowledge into my night job as a Taxi Violence band member and Facebook administrator. Although still in the trial phase, I’ve already seen improvement and growth.

Let’s face it. There are tips all over the web on how to get the most out of your band’s fan page. There are even people and companies who can guarantee 60 000 fans in 3 weeks. At a fee, of course. The fact is, it’s never a bad idea to implement a good content strategy for your fan page. And this you can put into practice yourself by just considering a few helpful areas. [...]

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By Emily Veitch

A big downside to working ‘for the man’ has got to be the restrictive office hours. In at 9 (or for some, 8am) and out at 5:30 with an hour’s lunch. And if you’re out of the office for more than two hours for some unavoidable reason, a few bosses might make you put those hours down as leave.

We’ve all heard whispers of the glorious idea of flexi-time, but have accepted so far that this particular luxury is reserved for heads of companies and entrepreneurs. But what we haven’t considered and possibly proposed to our managers or decision makers, is how beneficial a little bending of the rules can be. [...]

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A personal note from Mint #1, Jo Duxbury:

The really cool thing about seeing my business grow is that I can now afford to do some of the things that I couldn’t during the Early, Lean Years (make that Very, Very Lean Years). Like pay myself a salary. Or buy nice chairs for the office that don’t cause back pain. Or support organisations who are doing amazing community work. And earlier this morning I snapped up a Groupon voucher for pampering treatments for ME, for a bargain R330 – because I work hard and deserve it.

But did you know that for just R40 more I could feed a child for a YEAR? [...]

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[As published on BizCommunity:]

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Peppermint Source was recently part of a multi-agency pitch team and we were represented at the presentation by Mint No. 2, Emily. Following several years in ad agencies, Emily is a bit of a pitch veteran, but she still learned something new from this experience.
Here are her take-aways:

1. For multi-agency pitches, when you meet the rest of the pitch team (at whatever stage), be genuinely nice and friendly – and be interested in every last one of them. You don’t know who you might be able to help out, and who might be able to support you.
2. Document everything. Make it clear what the pitch team is expecting from you, and what you’ll be delivering.
3. Pitches are incredibly time consuming. Even if you think you have a small role, it WILL mushroom. Make sure your other (paying client) work does not take a backseat – difficult to do when you’re under pitch pressure. [...]

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Yesterday evening, Mint #3, Louis, ran his first client event since joining Peppermint Source. It was a pretty straightforward hour long industry briefing, topped and tailed with networking over drinks and canapés, held at the Pepper Club.

Louis managed to make it look effortless, but it’s taken him a good few weeks and a lot of work behind the scenes. The swan reference in the headline? Calm on the surface, paddling like mad underneath!

We asked him what his main event management lessons were from this project: [...]

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This week we gave a big minty welcome to our newest recruit, Louis Nel. A real life rockstar, we’re sure he’s going to be a Peppermint star too in no time. He will be helping out with the day to day running of Freelancentral, as well as supporting the Peppermint Source team on our marketing, brand, social media and content strategy projects.

We asked him a few questions: [...]

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UPDATE:  We have just hired a new team member, but are always looking for great people at all levels. If you’re interested in working with us, keep reading… [...]

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We’ve had a busy few weeks, culminating last week in Jo presenting at the two Facebook Connects events in Jo’burg and Cape Town. Organised by the Habari Group, who is Facebook’s representative in South Africa, these events were platforms for local and international speakers to talk about what’s happening on the social media site – and showcase how it can be used effectively as part of a marketing mix. [...]

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Emily Veitch has just joined the Peppermint Source team as a multi-talented writer, strategist and project manager.

She comes from an advertising background and has recently completed an Honours degree in Strategic Planning. (We admire anyone who manages to study while they’re working full time!) She’s interested in brand equity, contact management and design thinking and when she’s not working, you can find her running, cooking for and entertaining friends and family, or reading a good book in the sun. [...]

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We’ve been meaning to show off our business cards on here for ages. A recent blogging competition run by Moo.com (who do our business card printing) gave us a good excuse to tell the story of how we came up with the idea for them – and how effective they are.

Which version is your favourite? The cupcake and mojito tend to be the most popular! [...]

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[Jo wrote this article for ITWeb, published there this week.]

I see it time and again. A mid-sized company, say 20-30 staff, decides they want to start doing some marketing, or they’d like to refresh their current activities. They get all excited about it and have a lot of fun doing the cool things, like rebranding, or launching a new website. They may even have put a great strategy and implementation plan in place. But after a few of months, it’s all fizzled out. [...]

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Considering the number of emails the average person receives daily, you’ve got to wonder how many actually make it past the ‘is this worth reading?’ filter. I know I’m pretty ruthless about what I read and what I delete. On a busy day, I’ll pretty much delete every newsletter I get in, regardless of whether I’ve specifically requested them or now. And even if I do open them, I’ll spend perhaps 10 seconds scanning them and if nothing catches my eye – ‘click’ – it’s gone.

We’ve been sending a monthly email newsletter out from Freelancentral religiously for four years now. It’s only since we recently switched to MailChimp that we’ve been able to get some great data on opens, clicks, etc. Our open rate is around 15%, which according to MailChimp is average for our industry.

But to me that seems low for a list where people have asked for the newsletter – we’ve not just added them at random. Every month we wonder whether it’s worth sending out the newsletter (it takes about a day to pull it together) and we’re constantly trying new ways of boosting the read rate, with groovy subject lines, great content and special offers. [...]

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Thanks to Joey and Chandler on ‘Friends’ , we can’t possibly announce we’re off to London without adding ‘baby!’ on the end.

But yes, we’re off to London next week to meet and run Marketing Healthchecks with a couple of British clients who have realised that outsource their marketing to us is a great idea

So, if you are reading this from your own UK office, and are interested in the services we offer, please get in touch so we can come and have a chat with you while we’re in your neck of the woods.

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Jo has just started a series of new columns on ITWeb, entitled ‘Marketing 101′. Starting with the basics, she’ll be covering a range of topics – aiming to demystify marketing. Check out the first column here.

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Table Mountain, Cape Town - copyright Peppermint Source

In the week or two since Peppermint Source launched, we’ve been thrilled to have been approached by two London-based companies to discuss how they can outsource their regular marketing communications to us here in South Africa.

With advances in internet and other communication technologies, it no longer matters where you are in the world. But does South Africa in particular appeal to UK and US clients as an outsourcing option? Here’s what we think:

• The exchange rate. Today, US$1 will buy you 7.59 South African Rands (ZAR) and a British pound is worth ZAR12.02. Simply, your money will go further. Check the latest exchange rates here.

• English. Many South Africans speak English as their first language, and many more speak it fluently as a second or third language (or even 11th… did you know we have 11 official language here?!). We use British English here, but are totally comfortable writing for North American audiences too.

• Cultural similarities. OK, so we call a barbecue a ‘braai’ and are very proud of being part of Africa and all its traditions, but in business, our culture is very similar to that of the UK or North America.

• Longitude. There’s only a one- or two-hour difference between the UK and South Africa, depending on the time of year. There’s a good eight-hour window where you and your outsourced team will be at work at the same time. And for our North American friends, you can brief us in the afternoon and know that the work will be in your inbox by the time you get to work the next morning [...]

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We’ve had a few freelance marketing people contact us asking how they can be listed as part of our ‘source’. It’s simple – just sign up on www.freelancentral.co.za and make sure that you specify your skills.

If you’re a marketer, the CONSULTING, STRATEGY and ACCOUNT HANDLING sections will probably be most applicable to you. Be sure to add some information in your profile (work history, etc.) so that we know what you’re all about. [...]

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We’re thrilled to announce that the Peppermint Source website launches officially today!

Although we’ve been providing a number of clients with outsourced marketing  management services for nearly a year now, it’s time we formalised this and launched it as a division of Freelancentral. [...]

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