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.

2. Not everything’s always about you

Keep your audience in mind when sourcing/writing articles for your newsletter. Who are they? What sort of topics might they be interested in? And remember, something that’s happened in your company might be exciting to you, but will anyone else really care about it? News about your office refurb or your MD’s success at a corporate golf day are really not going to get you clicks.

So writing for your reader is a nifty little trick. Know who they are and what they want – and use that to guide your newsletter content. This might take a few newsletters to see and figure out which items receive the most clicks. When you know exactly what type of content is popular among your readers, you can work on giving them more of it.

In my experience, a newsletter in the marketing/advertising industry, for example, will succeed if the content includes tips, stats, infographics and case studies.

Remember, content is king. Oh, and another thing… write your copy like a mini skirt.

3. Have a catchy title and subject line

Would you be more likely to click on an email with the subject line ‘Peppermint Source’s April Newsletter’ or ‘April’s Bunch of Mint’? A catchy title can really help your open rates. But this is not always easy.

A good place to start would be to think about your company and industry. What do you do? What’s your vibe? A couple of good examples are:

• Keeping account – the newsletter from The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers.
• Spatula Club – Yuppiechef’s newsletter.

When it comes to your subject line, it’s also something that you’d have to play around with to figure out which type gets you the highest open rates. Try a different one in each newsletter until you’ve hit the nail on its head. A few options to consider are:

• Your lead article only – e.g. How a bank got 100K fans on Facebook
• A summary of all your articles – e.g. How a bank got 100K fans on Facebook; social media trends for 2012; and Coca-Cola’s new campaign.

Your subject line is your reader’s first impression. Make it as attention-grabbing as possible. And remember these tips:

• Avoid long words.
• Try not to use more than seven words – if you’re featuring a single lead article.
• Don’t use too much punctuation – e.g. a subject line like ‘In this issue: Stats, info, tips, helpful images, trends and paying attention to detail!’ is not quick and easy to read.
• Try to avoid adjectives. This ties in with writing copy like a mini skirt. ‘Ten amazing and easy-to-understand ways to write superlative newsletters’ vs ‘Ten easy ways to write good newsletters’. Which one do you think is more effective?

4. Don’t ignore your campaign reports

Statistics on how your newsletter is performing are readily available if you’re using newsletter-generating services like MailChimp. This data includes open- and click rates, most popular links, and even who exactly opened your newsletter and which articles they read.

Studying your reports over a few months will give you a clear indication of what type of articles are popular among your readers and which subject lines are the most effective. Then you can do more of what works.

5. Make it look pretty

I contemplated whether or not to add this tip – as I’m a loyal disciple of ‘content over design’. But it is important to make your newsletter appealing to the eye. Just make sure you don’t overdo it. There’s nothing more irritating than waiting for ages for images to download!

These tips will help you produce and manage effective and popular newsletters. I’ll leave you with this informative resource from MailChimp…

Average email campaign stats of MailChimp customers by industry:

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.”

Sight (noun) / site (noun).

Yet another homophone: ‘Sight’ is to do with your eyes. A ‘site’ is a place. So you would make a ‘site visit’ and say that something is ‘out of sight’.

Elusive (adjective) / illusive (adjective).

South African accents do not help when it comes to confusing these two. Elusive comes from the verb ‘to elude’ – e.g. Mr Right is proving to be elusive (he’s hard to find). Illusive is derived from the word ‘illusion’ – oh and there’s ‘allusive’ too (from ‘allude’)… But chances are it’s ‘elusive’ you’ll be using most often. Emigrate (to leave a country to live somewhere else) and immigrate (to arrive and live in a country) are similarly confused.

Some other clangers spotted recently:

• “A piece of history is busy dying” – Don’t interrupt it, it’s got a lot to do.
• “Social media works for business’s” – For business’s what?
• “With its intellegent software…” – But its not-so-clever spellcheck…
• “There was a myriad of…” – Please, please don’t use ‘myriad’ unless you know how to use it properly.
• “It’s already April, do you see the year as almost over?” – No, I see a run-on sentence.
• “Where to get replacement number plate’s.” – Yet another example of apostrophe abuse.
• “We do our utmost best.” – Your best is already a superlative, now you just sound like you try too hard.
• “I was taken a back by it all.” – Whose back was involved?
• “We going to be there.” – Shoot me now.

And my final pet peeve is not a grammatical mistake, but just really bad form: “Dear valued client”. If I’m valued so much, you’d think the company could have bothered to do a simple mail merge and personalise the salutation. It’s almost as annoying as companies who thank me for my patience…

Grumpy Grammar Nerd signing out!

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.

The first time I did this, the cold turkey symptoms were bad. I felt bereft at my friends no longer being a tap away. Every time I heard a phone beep, I’d dive for mine – despite the fact that its settings meant it was useful only to keep time. It probably took about four days to stop experiencing the social media equivalent of an amputee’s phantom pains. Taking 2,500 photographs in two weeks may just indicate that I swapped one addiction for another though…

By the end of last year, I slipped comfortably into my third annual no-social-media hiatus before my plane had even taken off. Now it’s easy. Without the constant interruption of social media, I can focus on the exciting new places I experience and the people I meet. I’m much more present, interested, and – yes – interesting. I’m less stressed and less distracted. The thought of live-tweeting my travels fills me with horror. For me, a holiday is a break – it’s about getting away from it all, not taking it all with me.

On my return to reality and my desk, I find I can handle my social feeds better – for a couple of months, at least. That’s also the time to prune the list of people I follow. Perspective and balance are restored and you know what? The Twitterverse didn’t implode because I missed a few #followfridays. The really important information got through to me anyway. And the lovely, warm ‘Welcome back! We missed you!’ messages from my Facebook friends are a great antidote to post-holiday blues.

Do you ever unplug from social media? How often and for how long? I’d love to hear how you do it in the comments below.

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.

Who’s on it?

Data source: Zoom Sphere

Judging from the table above, it’s clear that individuals have more influence on Pinterest than brands. Companies should pay close attention to the kind of images being pinned by influencers. If there’s a mutual interest, the pinboards of these people (designers, etc) could be great places to find inspiration for the kind of images to pin.

As you can see, there’s a massive difference between the top international brand (over 249K users) and the top South African brand (80 users). I guess our adoption rate is sloth-like, or maybe brands are just not using it right.

So which brands are getting it right?

There are a few examples of brands using this medium effectively. My personal favourite is BMI Airlines’ “Pinterest Lottery” campaign. Every week, they post 72 photos of five destinations. These images are branded with BMI logos and the numbers 1 to 72. Users are then encouraged to repin up to six photos. BMI uses a random number generator to select a number between 1 and 72. Users who’ve repinned the photo with that specific number go into a lucky draw and qualify for a chance to win two return tickets to any BMI destination. Pretty cool.

I like this campaign, because it’s something I would be interested to enter. Who doesn’t love travelling? And from a brand’s perspective, it’s a campaign that could go on for an indefinite time, gaining more and more Pinterest followers for the company.

Guess Clothing also ran a fun campaign called “Color Me Inspired”. They asked followers to create pinboards based on four spring colours found on Guess’ Color Me Inspired pinboard. Participants had to name their boards “Guess My Color Inspiration” and pin at least five images that inspired them for spring. They also had to repin the colour they selected from Guess’ board. Four winners were chosen by four fashion bloggers. A pair of Guess Colored Denim was up for grabs.

What brands should keep in mind on Pinterest

It caters to a specific demographic with specific interests. People that are doing well on this platform are mostly female artists and designers between the ages of 25 and 54.

Users publicly express themselves through images that inspire and are relevant to their lives. Companies should keep a close eye on what users are pinning and share similar styles and types on their own boards. This will encourage users to ‘like’ and ‘repin’.

The images pinned by brands must not seem pushy or ‘salesy’. It’s OK to share a beautifully shot image of a product and link out to a website from which it can be purchased. But brands should steer clear of heavy sales-driven messages.

Brands should also share things that they like, and things that they know their followers would like. Images that are beautiful, stylish, helpful and interesting.

I’ll be keeping my eye on their boards…

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.”

Taking Molo’s marketing pulse

Our starting point with Molo was our marketing healthcheck. This involves evaluating a company’s existing marketing and exploring crucial elements like positioning, target market, USPs, competitive advantage and key messages in detail.

After an initial research phase, we ran a day-long workshop with the client – something interesting emerged at the end. The client realised that if a solid marketing strategy was implemented effectively, Molo would get more client enquiries. The problem was that the company was already running at full capacity!

So we agreed to split Molo’s strategy into two elements: one to address brand building and awareness; and the other to address lead generation, to be implemented at a later date.

Brand building

For the first phase then, we focused on updating the company’s corporate identity. Some of the directors were very attached to the existing branding and immediately it became clear that a dramatic rebrand was out of the question. Instead, together with a small design company, Brandesign, we worked with the client to develop what was more of an evolution of brand, rather than a dramatic change. Through mainly typographic updates, we finally achieved a look that better reflected the client’s innovative, cutting edge thinking.

Our client was pleased with the end result: “Jo’s patience and persistence with us struggling to reach internal consensus, while never getting on my nerves or allowing us to settle for second best, led to an identity we receive compliments on even now in 2012. Jo facilitated a seamless interface with Brandesign, intelligently interpreting who we are and so aiding in the translation to our brand evolution.”

The next step was to implement this new branding on the client’s stationery – and we revamped their website. Their old site was very difficult to navigate, with a lot of long copy and an unintuitive structure. We worked with Lightspeed to develop a new WordPress-based site for Molo – which is much more dynamic, user-friendly and easier to update. We also had the responsibility of generating and publishing content for the site’s blog section for the first few months after launch.

The end result? A very happy client – which is the kind we like. “I was overwhelmed by the careful approach and attention to detail to ensure that the end-result was achieved and deployed with the minimum risk or burden to ourselves. I’d work with Jo’s company again any time, and recommend their services to anyone, as I’ve already done on several occasions, based on the intelligent, value-for-money and honest approach they follow.”

If your company needs to put a marketing strategy in place for the first time, or update its brand and marketing materials, why not give us a call? We’d love to help.

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.

Content strategy v. content marketing

Do you know the difference? Brands that are keen to use the Page Post ads should know, because getting both right will make a big difference to their online communities.

Content strategy is about planning for the creation, delivery and governance of content. It’s about identifying what you’re going to say, to whom and how. It’s also about figuring out what kind of content your fans like and what they already consume; and what kind of content they’d like to consume, but are not getting from you.

Content marketing is the execution of a content strategy. It’s coming up with the content that you use to communicate, the messages that underpin it and the constant measurement of how valuable your content is to your audience – and what ROI it’s generating for your brand.

Implications for brands on Facebook

So what does that mean for brands in the context of social media and in light of the new Facebook Page Post Ads?

• Post copy will need to be more objective driven. ‘Empty’ posts like ‘Happy Friday everyone!’ will need to be abolished (we’ve been saying this for a while!). Really interesting and original copy will need to take their place.

• Copy posts will need to be properly copy written. There won’t be any room for error or uncreative copy if the post is going to become an ad.

• Brands will need to know in advance what they’ll be saying next. Instead of just posting about whatever is new on their page, brands will need to start planning ahead, so that it’s not just the Page Post Ads that are interesting, but the rest of the page’s content too. This will keep fans returning to a page long after the ad campaign has finished.

• Posts will need to be created with feedback in mind. Part of the point of these ads is to include social and engagement elements. If you want people to comment, you’ll need to post content that gets them talking.

What’s most exciting about this new addition to Facebook’s offerings is that it encourages the generation of great and valuable content – from both brand and user. In a world where the web is stuffed full of rubbish, to get meaningful and strategically engineered content will be a real treat.

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.

Be wary if:

• They can give you fixed prices immediately. Anyone who answers a question like ‘what do you charge for a website?’ with a fixed figure is an amateur. Without knowing the scope of a project, it’s impossible to quote for it. And chances are you don’t want an off-the-shelf package. A range or ballpark figure is OK, as long as it comes with the caveat that it is subject to spec.

• They promise to deliver the earth, by next week. Good work takes time. Remember that cost/time/quality triangle? Pick two. Cheap and fast = rubbish quality. A brilliant product in a couple of weeks = remortgage the house and get several ulcers. You get the idea.

• They tell you your current marketing is great. Chances are it isn’t, or you wouldn’t be shopping around for help. Obviously you’ll be a bit put out if they insult your brand, but wouldn’t you rather work with someone who will give you tactful, constructive criticism, rather than agree with everything you say? After all, you are paying them for their expertise.

• They can’t show you examples of the work they’ve done for other clients. If a company can’t show you any case studies, I’d seriously question their credibility. The same applies to client references. Google them and see if they have any kind of online ‘CV’. If not, avoid.

• They don’t practice what they preach. For example, if you’re talking to a web company, is their own website easy to navigate? Does a company that offers copywriting services send you grammatically flawless emails? Are there typos in the presentation? Do they communicate clearly? If they’re not getting it right for themselves, they might not be able to do it for their clients. “Cobbler’s shoes” is not an excuse.

• They’re unprofessional. Did they arrive on time? Had they done some research about your company in advance? And when they send you a quote, is it a proper document (preferably a PDF), with a letterhead, and terms and conditions? No? Then scratch them off your list and rather hire someone who makes and effort, is professional, and shows they want your business.

• They’re all talk and no substance. Watch out for marketers who talk more than they listen – and who are more interested in winning industry awards than getting results for their clients. Beware of vague answers and questions answered with questions. Don’t be afraid to ask them what they mean by something – don’t let them blind you with jargon and industry terms.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and if you have other suggestions, please do share them in the comments below.

If you’re not sure that you’d spot a dodgy marketing supplier, perhaps you should consider hiring someone who does to help you choose your marketing providers. *cough* We happen to know just the people, if you’re interested…

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.

There have been a lot of comparisons to Facebook’s brand pages and some interesting opinions flying around. Most of which are pro-Google:

• Quiet and more focused. With a much smaller user base than Facebook, companies/brands could build a more personal relationship with followers.

• Hangouts offer users the opportunity to directly engage with a brand/company. A good example of this is Will.I.Am’s backstage hangout before one of his shows.

• +1 button (similar to Facebook’s ‘Like’) will be integrated with image search on Google. This feature can dramatically increase a brand’s visibility via an image search.

Brands have to figure out whether or not having a G+ page will enable them to increase communication with their target audiences. I’ve taken the South African market as an example and am of the opinion that Facebook brand pages will still rule for a while. Here’s why…

Facebook has bigger market share

Table source: My Broadband.

As you can see, Facebook has over 4.8 million users in South Africa– 10 times more than G+. While the largest chunk of the consumer market uses Facebook, it might still be a while before we see a great influx of brands to G+.

Few SA brands are successfully adopting Google+

Table source: Social Bakers.

The table above shows the top 10 brand pages on Facebook in South Africa. Only 4 of them are on G+, with Vodacom having the most followers – 78.

The last wall post made by Vodacom was 8 November 2011. Yikes! Not ideal.

Table source: Social Bakers.

H&M USA is the top international brand on G+ (see table above). They regularly post engaging content – pretty much the same as on Facebook. By doing this, they are building a strong following and chatting to customers in the way you should be on social media.

Sure, it’s only been about four months since brands have been able to create pages on G+. And yes, we might see more and more South African companies adopting it as a viable communication platform. But with Facebook estimated to hit the one billion user mark in 2012, I’d still stick by the saying, ‘fish where the fish are’.

Maybe next time it’s worth having a look at Pinterest – currently the fastest growing social media platform.

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.

We’re the thinking brand’s consultants

Our process involves research, analysis, a workshop and then a lot of thinking time to come up with the best approach for a brand. We work hard to cut straight to the heart of the communication objective and find that unique message each brand wants to put across to their customers.

We don’t just do the strategy stuff – we’re often asked to help with implementation too. Content development and channel moderation have also kept us busy. It’s been interesting and challenging (could you write 45 wall posts on a hair removal product?) and has given us a lot of insight into what people really want to talk about in the social space.

All this means we have a really solid, all-round understanding of how brands can use social media. This has led to us doing some training – showing agency social media managers how to use Twitter and Facebook effectively, and why a content strategy is so important.

The verdict from our clients

One client told us that our guidance has ‘helped us describe our brand and focus our thoughts on our goals for social media. They challenged our existing ideas and gave us honest, practical advice to apply to our business.’

Another described their workshop session as ‘a great learning opportunity that will really add value to any brand.’

We’re looking forward to working with Machine, other agencies and clients in 2012, and of course, to a full, fabulous year of fresh strategic thinking.

If this sounds like something your brand, or your clients’ brands, could benefit from, just give us a call – we’d love to help. And do note that from 1 March 2012, Facebook is dramatically changing how brands can advertise on the platform. This is going to mean even more need for brands to have a page strategy. Give us a call if you’d like to know more.