Welcome to our latest fortnightly eBulletin, posted here on Tuesday 31 January 2012. In this issue:
- Free email guides available from MailChimp
- How many students justifies an inspection copy?
- Consumer ‘time of day zones’ for email consumption
- On The Marketability Grapevine on Facebook
- Tip of the Week – be risqué to get noticed; just make sure it’s by the right people
Free email guides available from MailChimp
Thanks to Shereen and Abby over at Kogan Page for recommending MailChimp both as an email service provider (a great budget option for small volumes), and for their free resources in email marketing. They’re US-based so some of the stats, data protection legislation etc have limited relevance in the UK, and the reports are naturally most directly applicable to clients. But there’s lots to learn here too. Reports to explore include: How to Use Google Analytics with MailChimp, Common Rookie Mistakes, How to Create an Email Marketing Plan, MailChimp for Nonprofits, and How to Avoid Spam Filters.
If this has whetted your appetite, take a look at our Email Marketing Workshop too.
How many students justifies an inspection copy?
A THE article last month revealed that one in four courses offered between 2005 and 2008 in the UK failed to attract any students at all, and admitted that some courses only existed because lecturers wanted to teach them, and not because they reflected what students wanted to study. Since then, and as part of the general move to make universities more commercial and more reflective of their students-as-clients, the number of courses available has fallen.
This article has plenty of useful insights but it’s also food for thought for anyone marketing potential textbooks or supps to lecturers. Do you routinely ask for student numbers when a lecturer requests an inspection copy? Giving away a £50 science text to a lecturer with 50 students is clearly a sound business decision, but is it still if there are only 10 students? What about 5? A course may sound a perfect fit for that new text you have to promote, but do check the numbers stack up before giving away frees – especially if the recipients would otherwise have paid for them!
If this has got you thinking, then our Academic Marketing and Direct Mail in a Digital Age workshops may be worth a look.
Read the THE article for yourself.
Consumer ‘time of day zones’ for email consumption
Timing of marketing emails is both critical to your open rate and hard to judge with confidence, with optimal times dependent on sector (the ‘typical’ shape of your recipients’ days) and of course geography. But here is Pure 360’s ‘Timings Infographic’ for consumers, carving the day up into time zones relating to typical levels of engagement. Some of this will map directly onto your markets, but it would pay you to do your own and then to test your assumptions both by A/B testing and by asking your subscribers.
Our Email Marketing Workshop can be tailor-made to reflect your campaigns and markets and to help you to refine your email strategy for 2012, or we’d love you to join us on 17 May when it runs in London!
On The Marketability Grapevine on Facebook
- On the Wall: read something that hit the spot in this eBulletin? Click through and like the item or add a comment on Facebook.
- Are you recruiting? Post news of jobs, or find them, on the Grapevine.
We hope you’ll join us on The Marketability Grapevine. If you have a topic you’d like to raise with other Grapeviners, post it to the wall and we’ll do our bit to connect you to people we think can help, too.
Tip of the Week – be risqué to get noticed; just make sure it’s by the right people
This copy for an advert was sent to me by a friend of mine.
“Single black female seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I’m a very good girl who loves to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. I’ll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me. Call (phone number) and ask for Annie, I’ll be waiting.”
Over 150 men found themselves talking to their local animal welfare society about a black labrador puppy.
If several of the 150 went on to give Annie and others a good home then the advert was a resounding success. If they all hung up in embarrassment, it backfired. Something to bear in mind for our own advertising copy perhaps?
We still have places on our 1 March London Copywriting Workshop at the reader offer price of £295. To reserve your place just reply to this email or book online (choose ‘other’ in the price field and quote ‘£295 January offer’ so we know you saw it here). Subject to availability and all that jazz.
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Rachel Maund
Marketability - extra marketing resources and training just when you need them
Tel and Fax: +44 (0)20 8977 2741
Email: rachel@marketability.info
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