Archive for the ‘online marketing’ Category

Upcoming Mulley Comms Digital Marketing things

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

If you sell online or want to generate leads via your website, this Conversion Rate Optimisation workshop is worth looking at.

Digital Marketing Networking event, also on May 7th in Dublin. Filling up fast. Kieran Flanagan from Hubspot and Miguel Rivas from Brand Social will talk at it.

Google Analytics Workshop Dublin May 9th.

Facebook Intermediate training course, Dublin and Cork.

I’m asking companies when hiring an intern, what digital marketing skills should they have. Want to help by filling it in if you are one of those companies?

This has nothing to do with Digital but is nice:

A Winged Victory For The Sullen – Requiem For The Static King Part One (Official Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

Social Media: Facebook and Weddings

Monday, September 20th, 2010

I’m loving how some businesses are using different aspects of Facebook to get business. I asked some companies that work in the Wedding Industry to explain how they use Facebook for business, two good examples here:

Allan Cavanagh from Caricatures Ireland

Allan Cavanagh Weddings

I’ve used Facebook to advertise my business, Caricatures Ireland, since 2008. In that time my combined ads have been viewed five and a half million times, and have received 5,000 clicks. The numbers are staggering for the relatively small spend I’ve invested in that time, and while I’m simply too busy to track exact conversions (enquiries converting to bookings) the fact that I am so busy is probably indicative of a decent percentage.

If you have a niche business like mine, the ability to tailor your ads to a specific demographic gives Facebook an enormous edge over Google Adwords. In short, my Facebook ad will only display for Facebook members who’ve indicated they’re engaged in their personal details. Compare that to Google Adwords, where your ad displays to anyone searching for keywords: a potential waste of money. A Facebook ad is reaching a motivated target market exclusively.

I’ve picked up a few tricks for maximising ROI on my ad too. For instance, there’s no need to have your campaign running indefinitely. I run my ad in bursts, spaced 4-6 months apart, and usually no longer than a week. Your ad will probably be seen by everyone that’s interested in that space of time, so you need to allow a few months go by for numbers of the newly engaged to build up again.

Allan Cavanagh Weddings

You’ll need to play around with your spend as well. FB will suggest a cost per click, but you should start lower than this and increase it until you notice an increase in enquiries. You can pay per impression or per click, but if you’re a small business you want to drive traffic instead of exposing a brand name, so pay per click. Your maximum spend is something you’ll need to play around with, but I think a trickle is better than a deluge: if your budget is €500, put a max spend of €10-€20 per day so your budget isn’t sucked up too quickly.

Good copy will get a potential customer to click through to your site. A good, illustrative image will draw a potential customer’s eye. Your landing page is your shop window, and all the info a customer needs should be present on that one page, including how to contact you. A separate landing page for your Facebook campaign
will help you keep track of how your ad is going. Facebook is rapidly outgrowing its role as a website: it is becoming more of a presence than a place, as the new “Like” button spreads throughout the web. Think about setting up a Fan Page, and incorporating the “Like” button on your blog.

If Google’s catchphrase is “Don’t Be Evil”, Facebook’s unwritten one is “Be Lucrative”, so get on it.

Allan Cavanagh is on Twitter here and Facebook here.

Claire from Mrs2Be.ie

Mrs2be.ie Facebook

The main reason we wanted to create a Facebook welcome page was to increase the number of fans (“Likes”) that our business page was achieving on a weekly basis. We wanted to create something reasonably eye-catching and that would have an obvious call to action feature – i.e. the big arrow that encourages users to like our page. At the same time, we also wanted to give a little bit of information about what mrs2be.ie is all about i.e. our friendly discussion forum, our supplier directory, our wedding checklists and wedding advice articles. We also included this message in text format underneath the graphic so that it would be indexed by Google.

Mrs2be.ie Facebook

After setting the welcome page to become the default landing page for new visitors, we could see very quickly that it was working for us. Within 10 days or so, our fans increased from 500 to 1,000. This has levelled off now, but we’re still attracting a decent number of new fans on a weekly basis.

Like the mrs2be Facebook Page or follow them on Twitter.

Digital Marketing Diplomas and FETAC

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Both the IIA/Irish Times/Prosperity and the Digital Marketing Institute have been press releasing and posting about their FETAC Diplomas. As well as emailing me asking to blog them.

After checking with FETAC it turns out these Diplomas are not FETAC approved just some component of them. Anyone that knows FETAC know how strict they are on this use of their logo and name to sell courses like these.

An email from the Digital Marketing Institute stated “FETAC Accredited Diploma in Digital Marketing” so that got me wondering.

This was their site earlier:

Digital Marketing Institute FETAC

And their Twitter:

Digital Marketing Institute FETAC on Twitter

Since changed to this, though note the website address:

Digital Marketing Institute FETAC update

Press releases sent out though with this line too, which some outlets picked up without checking. All news to FETAC.

Update: This was the DMI take on FETAC a week or so ago

So, how come some of the Diploma in Digital Marketing courses that you will see listed claim to be FETAC accredited? They are not! What that training company is doing is saying that the course is accredited by virtue of the fact that the company is accredited to deliver a DIFFERENT FETAC accredited course. For example, the Digital Marketing Institute could apply to FETAC for accreditation for, say, a Microsoft Excel course – there we could proudly announce that we are FETAC accredited.

But perhaps this would be a bit disingenuous, don’t you think?

Image link.

Then this is from the IIA website:
Digital Marketing Diploma IIA FETAC

and from their press release:

Diploma in Digital Marketing to launch in September

An exciting new Diploma in Digital Marketing with FETAC accreditation (level
5 minor award) is about to launch in September.

So yes, keep your eyes open for organisations claiming to do diplomas with FETAC accreditation. I worked with some orgs that worked with FETAC for training courses and they worked their backsides off to get accreditation. Very disappointing then to have this kind of thing happen. I’ve been asked numerous times about my views on these courses too so might as well put it down here: Some of the lecturers on them are very good. Right now there doesn’t appear to be better alternatives out there. And there’s your business opportunity right there.

That Irish Food Blogger Event

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Organised by Donal Skehan and facilitated by Bord Bia, the Irish Food Bloggers event last Thursday was superb. It was great to be there, even if toast is the best thing I can er cook.

It was fantastic too to meet so many of the food bloggers I’ve been reading for years. More blogs too to add to FoodFight.ie I was going to call Caroline the grand dame of Irish food bloggers but she’s far far too young for that. She has a great summary of the day, a good deal of which comprised of Irish Pork. I think it would be good to have regular foodie blogger get togethers and get such creative talent (both in the kitchen and on their blogs) to network more.

Lorraine Fitzmaurice of Blazing Salads kicked off the practical demos and showed how to make spelt bread and miso pesto.

photo

Then came Pat Conway from GMIT on butchering some Irish Pork. I think his demo was a favourite of many, well except the poor veggies having to watch as he showed the art form of butchery. I got up close and recorded him doing his magic, ten minute video embedded:

photo

Maire Dufficy of Bord Bia then did some cookery demos with various types of Irish pork, minced pork was new to me. This demo was tough as it was nearing lunch and the smell wafting through the room was a killer for most people.
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I was up next to talk briefly on marketing your blog and suggested (selfishly as I was starving now) we move me to after lunch but the kitchen wasn’t ready, so I wittered on fo 10 mins about marketing and getting yourself attention.

Then lunch, guess what we had? And then dessert:
photo

Eoin Purcell from Green Lamp Media then gave a great quick talk on what publishers want and also what areas are underserved in the cooking book industry. Some brilliant tips were shared. One main takeaway is that a pre-existing audience and even a mailing list of blog readers makes selling books and getting a book deal a little easier.

After lunch there was a talk on food styling and photography from Erica Ryan and Jocasta Clarke. Eoin mentioned in his talk that food bloggers with great photos have an advantage in terms of book deals so this talk proved very valuable. Again, loads and loads of tips were shared.

And then some nice swag was given away as the day wrapped up.
photo

The day was good in many ways, it brought the vibrant food blogger community together, some meeting each other for the first time. It gave Bord Bia a nice opportunity to meet opinion formers and sharers and to tell them about the quality processes around Irish pork. It also was a nice training day for people passionate about food allowing them to up their game. Hopefully there’ll be more of these events for food bloggers, I’d love to see a food fair showing off Irish produce to food bloggers for example. This event is a perfect example of earned media, with the likes of Bord Bia not marketing or broadcasting to a community but working with them and helping to enrichen it with knowledge.

Well done Donal and Bord Bia.

Training: Social Media for Business – Cork April 29th

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Update: June 2012 – See here for more up to date courses on Social Media/Digital Marketing.

I’m doing a training course with PFH towards the end of April, €150 for the day, course max is 15. It’s fairly practical in nature. A few people have been on to me about doing a public course in Cork, so here you are. You better book it now! Email: training@pfh.ie Or ring Catherine 021 230-3010 or Sally 021 230-3040

Outline for Social Media for Business

Introduction
What is social media?
What are the current and upcoming trends in online marketing/social media

LinkedIn for business
The benefits of using LinkedIn for business
Making a LinkedIn profile that gets you and you business noticed
Seeking out leads and partners with LinkedIn
Building your reputation through sharing your expertise in LinkedIn Discussions

Facebook for business
Why is Facebook relevant to my business?
How businesses use Facebook to get custom and build reputation
Facebook Pages for business
Using Facebook’s analytics tools to better cater to your customers
Facebook Ads – Highly targeted inexpensive ads bring quality customers

Twitter for business
What is Twitter and why should a business use it?
How to interact on Twitter with consumers and other businesses
How adding value on Twitter creates strong word of mouth

Developing a social media/online marketing plan
How to figure out objectives in social media
How to measure your campaigns and see do they align with your objectives

Junkinomics

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

I gave a talk at the Internet Growth Alliance‘s iGAP event last week. The title of the talk was Junkinomics, spammers and Obamabollox. I’ll expand on the first part of the talk in this post.

In the past few years many businesses didn’t consider what they did as a total act of survival. The Celtic Tiger made most people fat and comfortable (phsyically and mentally) and fed into a fantasty that doing nothing would still guarantee comfort. Yet even during the boom times people were still falling into complete poverty, people were homeless, pretty much lived a daily life of being starved and too many people were in constant survival mode.

Today if you walk around Dublin you’ll encounter junkies, beggars and homeless people every few minutes. They all want your money and there’s strong competition for it. Most people walk past them willfully ignoring them, pretending not to see them, some mightgive something and some will say they have no change. The style of the ask has changed over time, evolving to what works best/what will work for a while. It’s gone from aggressive demanding of money to politely asking for money for a cup of tea and thanking people no matter if they help or not (which makes some people stop and then give money as it ups the guilt perhaps.) I’ve noticed over time too that the “money for a cup of tea” ask has now changed to “money for a hostel”.

Access to the old Harcourt St. railway
Photo owned by Jacobo Tarrío (cc)

Last week at iGap I told the story of a girl who came up to me at the Luas Green stop opposite Stephen’s Green shopping centre asking for money. She told me she wasn’t a junkie and rolled up her sleeves to show me, she told me how her boyfriend had just left her, how she was 2 months pregnant and how she has nowhere to live and asked me to help with money.

A cold cynical analysis of this: She hung around at the richer Luas stop, the first leg in the journey of people to get out of the grime of the city. People almost relieved to get out of dodge and so will be slightly more irrational when handing over money. She started to build trust by showing me she wasn’t a junkie. She triggered emotional reactions by telling me 3 facts that would put me at unease and then gave me the opportunity to try and right some of these. She got a tenner off me.

To be able to get money from people with strong competition, from an audience that’s already jaded, you are going to have to adapt to it and find out what will get and sustain attention. In the right location a sign alone might work and get you small amounts of money (hello Google Adwords) but as the streets fill with more people doing the same, you’re not going to make as much. (Still looking at you Google Adwords) Knowing your audience, knowing what will get them to think and react is becoming more and more important. Do you change your message and go after small amounts in large volumes or do you tell a deeper story to a different audience? Watching what others are doing and seeing does it work is also needed and knowing how to adapt again when your unique message gets copied is also important.

It might be worth it for some companies to volunteer time with the “professional” charities who are experts at extracting cash from people even when many of them don’t have a tangible product. What they’ll teach you more than anything is how to understand people. You can donate to the Simon Community here.

Digital Festival Discount

Friday, February 5th, 2010

If you’ve not booked your ticket to the Digital Festival that’s on in Dublin on February 24th then perhaps this discount that they sent on might entice you.

The discount code is BFSDMULL which brings the ticket price down to €275+VAT @ 21%. So that’s 100 euros off. I’ll be availing of that myself. Some people I greatly respect and admire will be speaking.

The blogger contact template

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Spoke about this at the Online PR course on Saturday on what doesn’t work. Heads up to the PR companies out there that are trying to engage with us but are wondering why it is not working. Here’s the template that yourself and your peers are using and it doesn’t work. The implied bits are in ( brackets )

Dear < insert blogger's name >,

Love your < insert blog name > and especially liked < insert recent blog post title >, it was certainly food for thought. I’m contacting you today to let you know about a new campaign we are doing for a client. (50 quid if you can actually spot a difference between this and the same campaign last year) The feedback so far (by the people afraid to be critical of the spend) has been great. I think the readers of your < insert type of blog > blog will get a great kick out of it ( or maybe the fact we have pics of a fat dude in a suit next to a woman dressed like a hooker.) Maybe you’d like to blog it? If you’d like to talk to Brendán who heads the marketing for the Company (you remember that souless corpspeak waffler who made it clear you gave him a rash from just being around?) let me know and I’ll arrange for you to do an interview for your blog. (I hope you’re getting the fact that I have a column to fucking fill in Excel and we got you pissed last year on petrol flavoured alcopops so you owe us)

Hope all is well and keep blogging about < insert that recent blog post title >!

(goodbye smelly blogger)
Cheers dudes,
Droid 1.c

Coming up in online marketing thingys…

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Free Online Marketing event in Dublin on Tuesday morning. “Using the Internet for Profit and Political Gain” – X-factor style free business event. Tues, 19 Jan 8.00-9.30am at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin 4.

On Thursday there’s a webinar (no it’s not something durty) on social media from 4pm to 5pm. Being a webinar you can log in from home or the work desk. It’s free, leave it on in the background if needs be.

Online PR training course is on January 23rd. It’s booked out and over capacity but the notes are going to be released after.

Business Blogging in Cork is on Jan 25th. Places still left.

Social Media Unspun is on February 4th. If you want your Irish case study to be included in the talk, let me know.

February 24th is the Digital Festival.

Mulley events for January 2010

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Mulley events coming up this month.

The Marketing Institute Cork has a Marketing @ Night event on Thursday 14th January, 6pm . I’ll be giving a talk on business/marketing online.

On January 15th, staying in Cork I’ll be at the Press Council Privacy Seminar talking about: Blogging and Privacy. Jury’s Hotel, Western Road, 2pm onwards. Can’t find anything on their site.

I’m giving a free Online PR course in Dublin on the 23rd. Booked out. Queue of 40 for anyone that drops out. Stay tuned though as I’ll be making all the documentation for it free to download.

I’ve been asked to do a business blogging training course in Cork so that’s on the 25th. Limited spaces as it’s a workshop too. Takes place in Cork Airport International Hotel.

On the 27th I’m giving a talk at the Cork Chamber of Commerce on the usual suspects.