Posts Tagged ‘alastair banks’

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1310.11

To Tweet or not to Tweet, that is the question

Posted by Amanda in Company News, Social Media

Just in case you missed it, here’s our Director Alastair Banks’ latest post for the Express and Echo…

A very good day to you lovely people of Exeter. Hope you’ve all been enjoying the new weekly format for the paper – personally I’m a huge fan (and I’m not saying that just because I write for it now)…loving Mr Astley’s work – well done guys. 

So I’m back again for useful hints, tips and advice on the scary world of online commerce (my goal is to make it less scary for you). 

Today I’m going to focus on my friend Twitter. Those of you who know me, know I’m a big fan of it and have helped the likes of Exeter University, Olives Et Al and numerous other companies to define strategies for success on the social media sites, Twitter being just one of those. 

Twitter has been around for a good few years now (in fact it celebrated it’s 5th birthday this year!). However in the UK it’s really only been used heavily for the last few years and is still only being found by the masses now. 

Firstly, here are the basics: 

1). It’s what’s known as a micro-blogging platform. You only have 140 characters to do your business. 

2). It works on the premise of the question ‘What are you doing right now?’. Not everyone uses it in this way but it’s a good start. 

If you’ve been using Twitter for a while I have a question for you – Do you think it feels a little like being in a pub and everyone shouting at you? Yeah I do to, but it has fantastic uses for business and individuals when used effectively so I hope to give you some ideas on that today. 

If you’re not signed up, what are you doing? Go get yourself an account now – goto Twitter.com and signup a profile. Use a name which means something – Your name or your business name or perhaps a mixture of both. Fill out the bio properly (you only get 160 chars here so be concise), using some key terms within it that describe you or your business. Make sure you include a link back to your website so people can find out more about you and finally upload a decent picture of yourself. My preference is for a good mug shot, not some picture of you riding a horse across the glades which means we can hardly make you out, or putting up a logo which means nothing (I’m focusing on personal accounts here – not business by the way). 

Once you have your account, here are a few things you can do to start getting the most from Twitter. 

1). Look for people to follow – Google people you know followed by the word ‘twitter’ to see if they have profiles eg: ‘Alastair Banks Twitter’. Follow them and then see who they follow. There is a good chance this will lead you to other people you didn’t even realise were on there. Following someone will send them an email saying you’ve done so and give them the chance to follow you back. 

2). Goto search.twitter.com and do a search on the term ‘exeter’ – This will show you everyone ‘tweeting’ (Don’t worry you’ll soon pick the lingo up) with the word Exeter in. This might highlight other people who look interesting or are worth following.

3). While you’re using search.twitter.com you can go into the advanced settings and select tweets from a certain area – set it to Exeter and find people tweeting nearby. 

4). If you’re into sport why not follow our successful two sporting clubs – The Exeter Chiefs and  Exeter City FC both of who are active on Twitter. You can find them here:

          http://www.twitter.com/exeterchiefs
          http://www.twitter.com/officialecfc   

5). Be sociable – Don’t just broadcast a message about your new offer or how great your company is or what you’ve just eaten for breakfast (unless you’ve just eaten at the Royal Clarence and want to tell everyone it’s fantastic of course). Engage with people, see what they are talking about, respond to questions from them, help them out where possible. Reciprocity is big on social sites.

6). Add some value – As above, try and add some value to others lives. Link people to articles of interest (even better if you’ve written them on your own blog as that will help your traffic). Tell people something they didn’t know about your industry or perhaps a hobby of yours. 

7). How much to tweet – Anything less than once or twice a day is probably not going to see you add much value to anyone including yourself, anything more than 10-15 is probably overkill but that’s just my opinion and others may differ. I can tell you that if you are continually appearing in others streams with inane waffle, they will soon turn off. 

8). Follow ‘Hashtags’ – A Hashtag is a way of following a conversation on Twitter. Anyone who tweets about a certain topic might add a hashtag into their 140 chars to allow others to follow a chain of tweets on that topic. The Echo now have a hashtag of their own for you to follow: #helloecho which was started by the fantastic @jamesmb (That’s James’ handle by the way).  

9).   Oh and make sure you follow the Echo team – editor Marc Astley @marcastley; features writer Catherine Fraser @MrsCFraser; business editor Gordon Richardson @gordorichardson; news reporter Anne Byrne @AnneByrne; news editor Rob Sims @Robsims1; news reporter Fran McElhone @FranMcElhone; sports reporter Jon Lewis @Echo_Jon; sports reporter Nick Warren @EchoSportNick; production editor Ed Oldfield @Ed_Oldfield; news updates @Thisis_Exeter.

 So there’s my starter for ten. Watch others and see how they do it, take time to learn. 

Until next time, have a great month, 

Alastair
@banksy6 on Twitter

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Posted in Company News, Social Media | 2 Comments »

0606.11

8 Tips for Email Marketing

Posted by Alastair in Online Marketing

Today’s post is from one of our Director’s Alastair Banks

You may have read it already on his blog but just in case you missed it or want to refresh your memory, heres another bite of the cherry:

Original Post:

Some of you might be wondering why I’m writing about email marketing today – it’s old hat isn’t it? With all this new social media buzz, there is surely no place in the world for email marketing is there? Well I believe there is and I intend to tell you why and how you can use it to grow your client base today.

Let’s settle one thing quickly – if you’re reading this, thinking about buying a database from someone on a street corner (or even a more reputable source) then this article probably isn’t for you. I’m focusing today on using your own valuable data, built up over years possibly.

I want to start with a story. About a year ago a guy approached Optix having met me 6 years ago at a networking event. I’d agreed with him to receive the Optix newsletter and we both went our separate ways. Optix kept in touch with him by way of our monthly newsletter and recently he became one of our largest clients. He’d watched the business grow and liked what he’d seen.

Here are a few sure fire ways to use email marketing to help your business grow:

1). All about the data – A good email marketing campaign revolves around good data. Make sure yours is clean or you’ll just be throwing money away.

2). Build your data – what can you give away to build a database of leads/contacts/prospects? This year we launched our free social media policy generator: http://www.optixsolutions.co.uk/free-social-media-policy-generator/ – A tool of real value which also helps us build leads – true ‘Inbound Marketing’.

3). Split Test your email subject lines – A good email marketing system will split test campaigns for you. It will take 50% of your database and send two different subject lines, content variants or from names and then track the most successful delivery rate, then send the winner to the other 50% – using this will give you better open and click through rates.

4). Spam & Client Testing – Emails show up differently in different email clients. Now email is consumed more and more on mobile devices you need to make sure your email is designed and developed for all these variants. This again is something a good system should be able to do for you. If not, make sure you ask your designers to consider this.

5). Deal with bounces – If an email bounces (doesn’t reach its destination) it can be for a couple of reasons. A soft bounce may infer a problem with the routing of an email to someones email box/server and is likely to be ok next time round. A hard bounce means that email doesn’t exist any longer and should be cleaned from the database – no point spending money on people that won’t ever answer!

6). Use Autoresponders – When you signup to something on a site have you ever received an email a few days later which follows it up…and then again a week or so after that? You’re part of an autoresponder system. Clever marketers know that it takes a few ‘touches’ to get to a sale but tracking and sending emails to everyone that signs up with your site manually would be far too inefficient to deal with so autoresponders help to do this for you. Used cleverly, these are extremely powerful tools

7). Segment your data – If you’re blasting everyone in your database in one go you’re probably not getting the most from it. Segment your data into interests/purchases made if you’re running an ecommerce shop or even simple things like male/female if this makes a difference to your customer. For example, I’m not hugely interested in the latest dresses from Reiss (a favourite shop of mine) but they don’t send me that because I’m segmented in their database.

8). Tie into your Social Profiles – If you have a fantastic Facebook page and a tremendous Twitter presence then make the most of them. Ask people to sign up for your updates – if you don’t ask you don’t get after all. Don’t bombard them but a few calls to action every now and again is fine.

It’s time to get clever with your email marketing – it’s still one of the most powerful tools in the online marketing toolbox.

Oh and if you’re looking for a provider, we have our own that you can find out more about over at http://www.envirosend.co.uk

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Posted in Online Marketing | 1 Comment »

2004.11

Alastair Banks re-traces his roots as he’s asked to consult with the University of Exeter on their use of Social Media

Posted by Amanda in Company News, Online Marketing, Social Media

Optix Solutions' Directors Alastair Banks and James Dawkins at Exeter University in 1999

Optix Solutions' Directors Alastair Banks and James Dawkins at Exeter University in 1999

In the year 2000 Alastair Banks and James Dawkins, directors of Exeter Web Design & Online Marketing Company Optix Solutions, graduated from the University of Exeter with degrees in Computer Science. Almost 11 years on, their company has grown to be one of the largest and most successful in the area, last year being included in the South West’s top 100 creative agencies – a wonderful accolade for the company and the city of Exeter.

In the last couple of years Alastair, James and their team at Optix have been making a name for themselves in the world of Social Media and are now recognised as one of the thought leaders in this part of the country and beyond.

With the advent of Like Minds in Exeter in 2009, the city has become a hub of Social Media knowledge. This twice yearly conference has attracted some of the leading speakers on the subject from around the world. Many of the delegates that travel to the county from the larger cities, and other parts of the world, are now citing Exeter as one of the most important cities in the UK when it comes to Social Media.

Alastair and James at Exeter University today

A few months ago Alastair was invited back to the University of Exeter to present to the Marketing and Communications team on the topic of Social Media and has now been formally invited to consult to the University on their use of Social Media. They are looking to reach new audiences and get their message out whilst using ‘best practice’.

Stuart Franklin, Director of communications for the University of Exeter has said, “Social Media provides a wonderful opportunity to engage both internally and externally with people and organisations globally. We’re looking forward to working with Alastair over the coming months to develop this area of our marketing and communications.”

Exeter University was recently included in the top 25 fastest growing companies in the UK and the top 100 in Europe – a list compiled by Dun and Bradstreet. This is a great acclaim for Exeter and everyone that is involved with the University in any way.

Alastair Banks has said, “To be asked back into the University that gave me three of the best years of my life, to consult on something I feel so passionate about is simply fantastic. Social Media will provide a wonderful channel to disseminate information, listen for opportunities to connect with other thought leaders and push the Uni forward in its bid to get even bigger and better. I’m delighted to be working with the central communications team, who have some amazing stories to tell and opportunities to promote”

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