In order to bring together some of the posts from thinkbda.com, we have created an ebook of 6 of our most read blogs from Winter 2008.

The blogs contained include:

1. Marketing in a recession - can you afford not to?
2. Branding - what’s your big idea?
3. The new email marketing - talking to customers individually?
4. Discover the power of storytelling
5. Logo design tips - what does an image say about you?
6. Going tribal - two UK websites thriving from tribal marketing

The ebook is FREE and you can download your copy here.

We hope you like what we have put together and do keep reading our site.

So was Monday ‘Mega’ for you? Well, apparently it was for 2 million Brits, who preferred the convenience of a few mouse clicks to fighting for a parking space on the high st.

A few Mega Monday facts:

• Online sales were up 14% on 2007
• £320 million was spent at online retailers
• £20 million more than last year
• £13.6 billion is expected to be spent online in total this ‘Clickmas’
• For the first time in 14 years high st sales have fallen for a second successive month

What’s amazing is that ‘Mega Monday’ was only the third busiest day of the year in terms of traffic to online retailers, because the web isn’t just a virtual checkout till, but is also a valuable research tool.

Unlike a shop, people don’t visit an online retailer thinking that they have to buy something to justify the trip. Instead they might just visit to check prices, compare products and find the best deals, before clicking away to check their Facebook account.

Research earlier in the year suggested that 67% of shoppers research their purchases online before heading to a store. What this signifies is that consumers are using the web to become better informed about brands, products and services, rather than waiting to be told.

Consequently, brands and businesses need to realise that the web is now an extension to the in-store shopping experience. And if you’re not online than you’re nowhere as far as a sizeable number of people are now concerned.

Getting their information online is also actively preferred by many consumers to what they’re fed on the TV. In a survey of 30,000 people, by G2 Data Dynamics, 37% said they prefer to get information on brands and offers from websites and email than celebrity endorsed TV ads.

This could be a backlash against the fees paid to Donovan, Katona and their celeb chums, or it could reflect how people are weary of TV advertising in general, and value their attention more highly.

Giving away vouchers? Bar, humbug

With the economy continuing to sink into a quagmire, finding a bargain has never been more in vogue. And many shoppers are realising they don’t need to fight over the bargain bins in Woolworths when there’s so many offers to be found online.

Along with trawling eBay and price comparison sites, many people have been hunting down vouchers to help them cut the cost of Christmas. This year UK internet searches for vouchers have increased a staggering 133%, whilst visits to sites have nearly doubled.

Scrooge would have refused to giveaway discounts on principle, despising the thought of cutting revenue for the sake of spreading some Christmas cheer. However, vouchers are an effective marketing strategy for generating interest and holding onto existing customers. In the G2 Data Dynamics survey, for example, free gifts and discounts polled as the best way to stimulate brand loyalty.

One brand who can testify to voucher power is Marks and Spencers. Its recent 20% discount promo attracted one in 33 visits to retail sites this Xmas, and doubled visits to its real world stores.

Smarter Email Marketing in 2009

With competition for credit cards a matter of survival for many businesses, you need to ensure you’re taking advantage of digital technology to build customer relationships, maintain loyalty and taking a bigger slice of the shrinking pie.

69% of business in an E-consultancy survey enjoyed noticeable improvements in engaging with their customers following email activity. This reflects why email marketing is becoming more popular, because it offers a tangible ROI, better targeting means it’s more effective and it can be used to engage customers with valuable content.

So think about how you can reward your loyal customers by emailing them some vouchers and yuletide offers, because otherwise you might receive a visit from Scrooge’s three Ghosts this Christmas Eve.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog - real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

You might think the constant siege of inboxes by spammers has tarnished email’s reputation as a marketing tool forever. However, email still remains the workhorse of online marketing and integral to relationship building. Spam is merely its evil twin.

Email can start a dialogue, enhance your credibility and generate sales long after prospects have left your website. It’s even more potent when you’re smart enough to speak to recipients as individuals, rather than bellow the same speech to the entire crowd.

Relationship building

Capturing a customer’s email address when they visit your website should be your top priority. Because no matter how much flash animation and handpicked testimonials you throw at them, less than 5% (and that’s being generous) of visitors will be ready to buy on their first viewing.

So rather than hope they’ll come back on their own accord, you need to be able to maintain a line of communication with prospects long after they’ve left.

If you can capture their email address (e.g. in exchange for a free newsletter or eBook) then you can develop the sales process over time, because email can be a potent tool for relationship building and earning your prospects’ confidence.

Focus on the prospect

As any salesman will tell you, people like to do business with those they get to know and trust, which is exactly what email marketing campaigns are all about. Your strategy isn’t to force recipients into submission by mail bombing offer after offer, but to engage their interest with relevant messages that provide valuable and useful content.

Emails which offer to solve a prospect’s problems, help them sleep better at night and feel they’ve benefited from the interaction is how you can win trust, confidence and credit card numbers.

Rather than talking endlessly about yourself and how much profit you made last year, relationship marketing emails need to be focused on the needs of your prospect and how your product/service can enrich their lives.

As well as earning trust with valuable content, email can be used in many other ways to foster loyalty, such as invitations to live events, timely promotions (such as a birthday discount) and getting feedback on what your customers want from you.

Don’t blast, listen and engage

Perhaps the biggest impact of spam on email marketing has been the speeding up of the demise of lazily blasting the same message at every customer. People now receive so many marketing messages that if your email doesn’t appear to be relevant then you’re only a mouse click away from being deleted or blocked forever.

Simply repeating the same offer to every prospect in the hope of seducing a small number is no longer the smartest strategy. People now want and expect to be treated as individuals, and I’m not talking about just featuring their name in the subject line.

Modern tracking and analytics enables you to capture an endless stream of data on prospects. Along with their buying history and demographic profile, modern one-to-one digital campaigns utilising personalised URLs are able to record data on your prospects’ interests, preferences and desires. You can then segment and customise future messages pitched to appeal to each prospect’s personal triggers.

However, the process of fine tuning emails to be as relevant and personalised as possible never ends. Even after campaigns have been launched, you need to run A/B split tests on every adjustable element, such as the subject line, layout and the call to action at the end.

Watching how people interact with every email enables you to listen to what they’re thinking and how your message can be more finely tuned in the future.

Email is about one-to-one dialogue, rather than bellowing a single message

As with every aspect of marketing, the more relevant, timely and personalised your email marketing can be the more chance of provoking the right response, or as the popular mantra goes ‘delivering the right message to the right person at the right time’.

Delivering mass untargeted emails is now more likely to get you blacklisted than welcomed into people’s inboxes. However, modern email technology means we can now build and fine tune personalised one-to-one email campaigns which are pitched to match the desires of each individual prospect, leaving lazy email blasts to the spammers.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog - real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.