Expertise on Tap | Email & Video Marketing...made easy

How to use YouTube ‘annotations’ as a marketing tool

A YouTube annotation is a caption that is added after you've uploaded your video. It could be a promotional message or a link to another of your videos. If used wisely and sparingly, annotations can work as a great marketing tool. For advice on how to set up annotations on your YouTube videos please contact me Here's an example I recently set up for East Glos Club. They've had a promotional video on their site for some time and the club is holding an open day in May. I've simply added an annotation which appears on the video at 00:12 seconds and again at 00:50. It appears this quickly to ensure people see the message soon after video has started. In this case the annotation is quite large but it's only going to be on the video for a month so we're not too bothered about this! It is possible to make the annotations smaller to avoid the viewer becoming distracted. You can also link the annotation to another YouTube video. Here's a good example on the viral video "Charlie Bit my Finger". They're promoting a new video and also an iPhone app. For advice on how to set up annotations on your YouTube videos please contact me

E-Newsletters - Common mistakes from 2010 and how to avoid them

End of Term Report 2010 - Email Newsletters I subscribe to a lot of email newsletters and although many of them are excellent some make fundamental mistakes, even those sent by very large companies. At the end of the article are some blog links which will help you avoid such errors. Here's my list of this year's common mistakes 1 Failure to include an unsubscribe link or where they have included one they have made it difficult to locate. Making it easy to unsubscribe will improve your list quality. 2 Contact details are not prominent. Subscribers will not go hunting for your phone number or email address. 3 The call to action is not clear and not prominent. What is it you want the subscriber to do? Call a number? Book now? Register here? 4 The subject line is poor. Subject lines should sell as well as tell what's inside. 5 The layout is poor with no clear distinction between articles and sometimes no prominent headlines. 6 The layout contains a large proportion of images to text or is entirely made up of images. This will trigger spam filters. 7 The e-newsletter width is too wide. I recommend 600px if possible and 630px as a maximum. This is because more emails are being read on smartphones these days. 8 There is too much content. I received one recently which was five pages long! 9 The content is dull, often because the author is wrapped up in their own world and fails to consider what will be of relevance to subscribers. Write it then sleep on it. I guarantee you will change your content the next day! 10 Business to business (B2B) emails being sent overnight or at the weekend.  B2B emails need to land in subscribers' inboxes during the working day to have more chance of being read. 11 The e-newsletter has not been tested across the main email clients and therefore doesn't display correctly in Outlook, GMail and/or Hotmail. 12 Broken links. Ensure you send yourself a test email and check that all links are working. Help is at hand!  Here are some previous blog posts which address some of the points raised above. • Why sending your B2B email newsletter overnight is a bad idea • Why you should make it easy to unsubscribe • Why your newsletter may no longer look right in Hotmail and how to fix it • Why your e-newsletter subject line is important • How to generate great content for your e-newsletter

How we used video to help 360 degree feedback company promote its services

CASE STUDY Lumus™ is one of the UK's leading suppliers of 360 degree feedback surveys - leading the way in technical excellence, feedback report quality, latest thinking and client support. Lumus had a business challenge which was how to convey their unique and cost effective approach quickly and effectively to potential clients and website visitors. There were three stages to the process: 1. Planning discussion We discussed what type of video would work best for Lumus. Following our input they decided on a "1 way interview" technique We recommended this technique because the resulting video ends up looking more conversational and less like a hard sell. It's also easier for the interview participant to appear more natural than talking direct to camera. 2. Story board development We worked with Lumus to develop this. It was vital to ensure we didn't just turn up for the shoot with no ideas on the structure and content. 3. The Shoot Although we had built a story board as we got into the shoot we realised some elements of it could be improved. A key point here is just because there is a story board it need not be cast in stone and if there is an opportunity to improve upon it during the shoot don't be afraid to do so. Mike Cooper of Lumus comments: "Working with  Expertise on Tap was a pleasure – they provided lots of great advice and steered us through the development and filming process in a very professional and skilled way – I’m overjoyed with the finished product" Here's the video...

How to get more subscribers for your e-newsletter

Here are our TOP 10 TIPS to get more subscribers 1 On every contact with customers take the opportunity to ask for their email address. Ensure you explain what you will use it for. 2 Add a subscribe form to your website. Place it on all the key landing pages. Right hand side of page and 'above the fold'. 3 Sell the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter. What will subscribe receive and how often? Why will it benefit them? 4 Give something away for free in return for subscribing. For example a tips sheet, a white paper or similar. 5 Add a link to your subscribe form in your email signature. 6 Promote your newsletter on blogs and forums. 7 Take hard copies of your newsletter to networking events and include details of how to sign up. 8 Archive your newsletter on your website along with details of how to sign up. 9 Include a forward to a friend link in your newsletters. 10 Include a subscribe link in every newsletter for people who have received a forwarded copy. Above all take every opportunity to collect email addresses. If you take the above steps your list will grow organically over time. You'll have a high quality list and will be communicating with people who have asked to hear from you.

Expertise on Tap client wins major industry award

We're delighted that our client The Stuart Holmes Hair & Beauty Spa, has scooped one of the highest accolades in the British hairdressing industry. Salon of The Year 2010 The Cheltenham-based salon was named as Salon of the Year at the prestgious Hairdressers Journal Business Awards this week. The salon fought off strong competition from the industry luminaries such as Michael van Clarke and Sir Trevor Sorbie to win the title. Stuart started the business just six years ago with his wife Sara. Expertise on Tap has been working with The Stuart Holmes Hair & Beauty Spa since 2008. Since then they have worked with the salon to significantly transform all aspects of their internet marketing. This includes: • A regular email marketing programme to engage clients and attract new customers. • Stuart Holmes Tv. This includes production of promotional videos and a series of blowdry lessons. • Building and developing a social media presence including Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. • Internet consultancy including building a presence on Google Maps and YouTube and creating and managing Google Adwords campaigns. Julian Wellings of Expertise on Tap comments "Stuart Holmes is just one of those perfect clients. They're constantly innovating and aren't afraid to experiment with new ideas. Awards like this don't just happen and I congratulate Stuart, Sara and their fantastic team for their determination, vision and commitment to excellence". Stuart Holmes says "We love working with Expertise on Tap. They react positively, patiently and quickly to all our demands and they consistently add value to our business. We'd like to thank Expertise on Tap for the part they played in helping us win this fantastic award". How the Gloucestershire Echo reported the story... Click image for large version

HOW TO unleash the power of auto responders

We're now offering auto responders to clients. Auto what? Autoresponders go by a few different names like triggered emails and drip campaigns, but essentially they are an automated email, or sequence of emails sent when a subscriber meets a condition you set. Here are just 4 great examples of auto responders: 1 A user subscribes and receives a series of tips, spread across a number of days or weeks. We recently did one of these for a client called '17 Days to Better Grammar' . 2 A customer is getting married. They subscribe on your website and enter their wedding date. They receive 10 weekly tips and things to do in the countdown to the big day. 3 A house owner wants to prepare their house for sale in order to get the best price.. They subscribe on an estate agent's website and receive weekly tips on what changes they should make. 4 A business wants to add a personal touch by sending an email birthday card to clients along with a special offer. OK, but why set up auto responders? The key benefits are customer acquisition and retention. By providing tips and advice like the examples above you are adding value for clients and at the same time building trust and credibility by imparting knowledge and expertise. OK, I'm interested. How can you help? As our existing clients will testify, our aim is to make it easy for you. We'll ask you some questions about what you want to achieve and work with you to develop the content. Then we'll sort out all the tecchie bits so that your auto responder works automatically, as if by magic! And we'll give you access to some simple reports so you and we can monitor the results. Please drop me a line or call 01242 696728 for a chat about how auto responders could benefit your business.

Expertise on Tap now offers A/B testing for email newsletters

Here's a new feature being offered by Expertise on Tap for e-newsletter customers. It's called A/B testing. What is A/B testing? A/B testing (also called split testing) is a way of working out which of two different options will be the most effective. When used for your email campaigns, that means A/B testing can help us decide which email will the best one to send to your subscriber list from two different options which are labeled A and B. The basic idea is that we send Version A to a small number of your subscribers, and Version B to another small group. The results (opens or clicks) are measured, and a winner is chosen automatically, or manually if you prefer. Then that winning version is sent out to all the remaining subscribers.  The duration of the test can be anything from one hour upwards, but I recommend allowing at least 8-24 hours. Click here for a screen shot of a recent A/B test. Why should you use A/B testing? A/B testing offers a simple way for you to get the most opens and clicks from your campaigns. With A/B testing you could: • Test two subject lines, to see which one results in the most opens or clicks • Test two different sets of content to see which one gets the best results • Test a "Free Shipping" promotion versus a "15% Off" promotion • Test two different "from names" to see which generates the most opens Any pitfalls? It's not completely fail safe and there might be other factors which influence the test results. But it's easy to set up and worth trying it to see if the overall clicks and opens improve. Interested? Please drop me a line or call 01242 696728 to discuss how A/B testing could benefit your email campaigns.

Snow and email marketing. How we helped top Cheltenham hair salon keep clients informed

Bad weather in the UK has affected many businesses this week. It is crucial to keep customers informed and email marketing is an effective way to do this. It has a fast turnround and is immediate and cost effective. On Wednesday this week with six inches of snow having fallen in Cheltenham, we sprang into action to help our client The Stuart Holmes Hair & Beauty Spa update their clients. Within only a few hours we had agreed the content with Stuart Holmes and sent a special email update to over 2000 clients. We also added the content Twitter & Facebook. Email marketing and social networking in pefect harmony! Click here to see a larger version of the email. The benefits for The Stuart Holmes Hair & Beauty Spa were: 1. This special "snow mail" sets them apart from their competition. How many other hair and beauty businesses in Cheltenham have done this? 2. It generates potential appointments from customers who might not have bothered due to the snow. 3. The conversational and warm tone engages with customers irrespective of whether they are due for an appointment. 4. There is a positive impact on customer retention and referrals. To learn more about how email marketing could improve your customer retention please get in touch.