Shaws chip in for Chernobyl children

When Shaws Coaches heard that the Friends of Chernobyl’s  Children charity needed a trip to the countryside, it was not a problem.

Cecilia Hammond says goodbye to the children 

before they head back to Belarus on Shaws’ coach

The children come from poor areas of Belarus so contaminated with radiation that they are at risk of disease, including cancer. Every year, the local branch of FOCC raise enough money to fly a group of children to the UK, where host families give them a four-week break.

When it comes to days out, Shaws are the experts and didn’t hesitate to lay on a free trip for the children to Fineshade Wood: “We've always admired the work FOCC do in giving the children of Chernobyl the opportunity of having a holiday, and it's a privilege to make a small contribution to the wonderful work they do,” said Jane Duffelen, a director at Maxey-based Shaws with her brothers Chris and Richard Shaw.

FOCC co-ordinator Cecilia Hammond said the break from the children’s often grinding routine at home is vital to their health, and helps them develop resistance to the cancers and other illnesses caused by exposure to radiation.

“Some of these children are orphaned or have been in foster care, and others work hard when they are at home, so this break is a real respite. They have a wonderful time.

“We’re very grateful to Shaws. The children also have a lot of luggage when they go home, so a coach is the only way to travel to the airport,” she added.

Donations to Friends of Chernobyl’s Children will go towards next year’s trip. Call Cecilia Hammond on 07779 264591 for details.

Email marketing - done well, it's excellent

There's a popular misconception that email marketing is, somehow, less effective than printed paper coming through a letterbox.

It depends on how you measure success, and what the marketing campaign is, whether email is the ideal route or whether advertising or paper inserts, letters or flyers will be more effective. Email marketing is essential for any business which trades directly over the web; it gets to consumers when they are at their computer or smartphone and most likely to click through to the content you want them to see.
The picture's not quite as clear for campaigns in other businesses but email campaigns can still be devastatingly effective. One of my internal campaigns a few days ago achieved a 60% 'opened' rate and more than 10% click-through. It was a very simple campaign - notification of a change of address - and that's probably an indicator of why it worked.
If you have a single, simple message and need a general broadcast to your entire database, email keeps costs down and gets great results. Its effectiveness will, though, depend on the precise wording of the email (to avoid spam filters) and the email itself having an appealing format. Just building a list in the 'Bcc...' box of Outlook and penning a bit of text is almost a waste of time; not only will spam filters catch it easily, but it will look amateurish.
The advantage of using mass-email software is not only that it has ways of dodging spam filters, but that it gives you a comprehensive report on who opened the email, when, and whether they went on to your web page. It even identifies why email was not opened, or bounced back.
If your campaign is targeted at a group of buyers from your database, take a long look at a postal campaign; the numbers need to add up, but for the right product or service, the mail is still highly effective.

A word or two about the Data Protection Act

 I hear time and again (and from organisations which should know better) that the Data Protection Act is a major hurdle to email marketing. I'm even told that, for a business to use someone's email address, the customer has to have actually asked to be on the list. The DPA states that it's OK to market through email if:

• you've obtained a person's details in the course of a sale or negotiations for a sale of a product or service;
• the messages are only marketing similar products or services; and
• the person is given a simple opportunity to refuse marketing when their details are collected, and if they don't opt out at this point, are given a simple way to do so in future messages

These rules don't apply AT ALL to marketing B2B - only to personal email addresses.

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Good news travels...

I have just put out a release to local newspapers about one of my tour operator clients, whose bookings for the first two weeks of the year have shown massive growth.

Happy holidays... and happy companies!

In fact, compared to the same period of last year, the company's extended tour sales have doubled, and its short breaks are up 62 per cent. It's such an impressive performance that even one of my most cynical business editor contacts has agreed to run the story.

I'd love to grab all of the glory for this growth... or even some of the glory. The client has been with me for four years and, in that time, I've handled most of its advertising design as well as pushed for editorial exposure, with some success. So far, for a modest spend, the client has enjoyed two double-page spreads and numerous news stories sprinkled through media in its target market area.

It's been a great association; the client sells great products which give me confidence and I concentrate on projecting an image of high quality and, in B2B releases, show company directors who are at the core of their industry. I'd really like to think that I have, at least, brought some of that success.
What's great about good news is that it travels. So if you'll excuse me, I'll just ensure it travels as far as possible, as quickly as possible!

More than you bargain for...

There's an old adage about advertising which runs along the lines of: 'I know that half my advertising works. The problem is that I don't know which half...'

It could equally be applied to any marketing discipline, and especially PR. The exception is direct response, where each ad is crafted or coded for a particular campaign and the response can easily be seen. I often wonder why so few of my clients in consumer markets don't got for direct response, at least from time to time. But perhaps the disappointment of getting few responses puts them off!

Pile it high, sell it cheap. Not a great idea for
building sound business

It's not a clear picture, even with direct response campaigns. Let's say you set up a new product specifically with the aim of selling it 'off the page' - to use old newspaper jargon. You know that all sales of that product will come from that single campaign, so you could argue that a poor response suggests the methodology is wrong. But that marketing were that simple.

In the first place, most sales are the result of product appeal. If you don't sell your product, it could be that the product itself isn't pressing the right consumer buttons. And in any case, the direct response may not be the only effect of your campaign.

Most clients would want to try an apparent discount deal to to prompt direct response (I say 'apparent' because, of course, because a deal can be made a bargain without the margin being hacked). Just because the product didn't sell doesn't mean the campaign wasn't effective. The consumer may have decided not to buy - for any number of reasons, many of which may have nothing to do with value for money - but the marketing will still have had some effect. Its core message, product aside, will have sunk in.

That's why I'd always advise against a 'pile it high, sell it cheap' campaign. Once you appear to be selling cheap, it becomes much harder to sell it dear. Far better to sell on the basis that it's not cheap but it's high quality, and that's why it's good value. That's a solid foundation from which you have flexibility to play around with the margin as circumstances dictate.

Don't leave it too late - press the button

It's a fact that most businesses only begin considering a big marketing spend when they are experiencing a downturn in business.

There could not be a worse time to begin planning to spend. Your cash flow is at a low point and almost every marketing exercise needs time to produce results. So you could be running on your overdraft, expensively, before you see the results of your spend.

Time and again I've urged businesses to keep pace with their marketing when the going is good; it may appear to be the worse time to divert your attention from the nuts and bolts of core business activity but it's actually the very best time. First of all, you have to work out why your turnover has reached its dizzy heights.

More often than not, you're reaping the marketing spend sown months earlier but the oxygen of marketing eventually runs out; you should be heartened by the business improvement and be planning, right away, to do more of the same. But then, with a business running at full capacity, what's the point?

'Like restaurants with three-week waiting lists, businesses which have more work than they can handle have the appearance of being at the top of their game'

The point is that turning away business because your service or product is in such high demand is a marketing tool in itself; like restaurants with three-week waiting lists, businesses which have more work than they can handle have the appearance of being at the top of their game. You will find that your new clients are prepared to wait because they see you as the best.

Having a backlog of potential business is also reassuring if you have any ambition to expand. If you're fairly sure that sales are coming your way, the decision to hire is made very much easier for you.

I had a meeting this morning with a small business in this precise situation. Its core business built steadily after a two-year, low-key marketing spend and, this year, it has spent almost nothing. My visit this morning revealed staff sitting around with little to do and, guess what, the general manager trying to fire-fight with a new marketing campaign.

And of course there are ways for us to swiftly build some business, based on reduced prices and direct mail. But just imagine how much more solid the business would have been had it continued trading at capacity without offering a single discount. Marketing is not a fire sale, it's as essential a part of your business budget as the wage bill.