Todd has plenty of tips on how to get the most out of your email marketing efforts, including database development, templates, spam issues and the best time to send.  Check out the edition via Scribd below.

Threesides Email Tips – NettMagazine March2011

Looking for help with your email marketing?  We use our own hosted email solution ‘Threemail”.  For more information contact us and we can give you a demo of the system and show you how 23 other Threesides clients are currently using it in their businesses.

The biggest advantages of Google adwords is its cost effectiveness, reach and measurability.   It’s cost effective by offering a cost per click option, meaning you’ll only pay if someone clicks on your ad.  The reach into your online audience is huge and it is one of the most accountable and measurable forms of marketing online (if you believe the stats).

Although too often it’s used to get visitors to sites with no goal behind what the visitors should do when they get there.  Ultimately you want to convert your visitors into customers.  This is where the full potential lies with Google adwords.

Before signing up to Google adwords, complete the following checklist;

1. What’s your conversion goal?
2. Understand your sales breakdown
3. Target your audience
4. Consider your Keywords
5. Write effective Google ads

What’s your conversion goal?

A conversion is a desired action you want your visitors to do.  Do you want your visitors to purchase through an online shop, make a booking, sign up through a form, or call a representative?  There needs to be a goal on your site to identify its success.

Sales breakdown

At this point, targets need to be set for Google Adwords to work towards.  A couple of key questions to ask:

1.       How much does it cost your business to attract one customer?

2.       What would your forecast of sales be in the month ahead?

3.       Apply the sales targets against the marketing spend of each channel? For example if you spend $2,000 on brochures and your cost per customer is $20.  Brochures should bring in 100 signups.

Target your audience

Now it’s time to indicate who will see your ads.

1.       Location – Do you have a local business that serves only a small geographical area in your town? No problem. With these selections, you can select either a country, city, or a custom location that is within a specified distance from a location you choose

2.       Languages – This is fairly self-explanatory.  If your targeting English speaking audience use English.  If you ever need to target other languages you need to that language in the ad text.

Keywords

Now you need to develop a robust keyword list to target.  What are the likely terms your target audience would be searching? Could your website satify their query with relevant content?

There are a few steps to approach keyword research:

1.       Brainstorm – Use colleagues, friends and family to determine what keywords customers would search;

2.       Use the Google Keyword Tool – Google provides a tool to expand keyword lists.  It lists alternatives, competition levels, monthly search volumes;

3.       Use the Google Wonder Wheel – The wheel is a tool allows you to see relevant search results to your query.

Write an effective Google ad

To ensure people will click on your ad you need to make it worth their while.  Google does not make it easy to write an effective ad.  The ad copy space is minimal, there’s 35 characters for the headline, 710 characters for body copy and the displayed website link 35 characters.

There’s a few steps to writing a good ad;

1.       Use keywords in your ad

2.       Promote an offer

3.       Have a clear call to action

4.       Link to relevant pages on your website

We always follow these steps when planning a campaign in Google adwords.  It’s the best way to use the system to its fullest potential and achieve your business goals.

…and if this list seems a bit daunting, see professional help – as the saying goes “If pain persists, see your doctor (or Threesides)”.

The campaign was originally designed to be a community torism pride campaign that aimed to influence locals to focus on promoting what makes Wollongong such a great tourism destination to their family and friends. It was also born from an idea to get the Tourism Wollongong staff blogging internally about what they love about the Gong.  But for anyone that knows Greg Binskin – if he’s sniffs half a good idea in something small like this  – it doesn’t stay small for very long.

With unpreecendented (but not unexpected) local community and business support, the campaign really took off and through the use of a well timed television, print and outdoor advertising campaign combined with a multi channel social media campaign, we love the gong has easily broken the mould for destination marketing in Australia.

The highlights of the campaign from our perspective were (and continue to be):

• Active industry engagement – this wasn’t a “buy a 1/6 page ad in our print publication and send us your material” project. This campaign included social media training for operators, wide industry consultation, the local council was onboard from the start and the product was a ‘fun’ proposition that business owners could easily understand and get behind.
• Active media involvement – the conversation with local media outlets resulted not in big ad spends, but created smart alignment and use of resources that resulted in true partnerships – not just free ad spots or endorsed advertising spots that got onsold to everyone else.  This campaign had a small but well leveraged budget that delivered results well above what only big dollars can normally buy.
• Active and well supported multi channel social media engagement – this campaign didn’t just set up a facebook page – it started with a strategy that focussed on the message and the audience and the best tools that could reach them with the available internal time and resources.  Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, facebook, Google maps and a wordpress blog combined to deleiver the message in the way that the audience wanted to consume it.
• Actively engaged audience – 3 words sum up this for me “PEOPLE TALKED BACK”.  This wasn’t fake one way broadcast media designed to look like social media.  this campaign got people talking, engaging, owning the message and wherever they could and when they needed to, Tourism Wollongong engaged with the audience and talked back.  True social media at work.  Sure it took time and effort, but so does every form of good marketing.

Threesides are proud to have have worked with Tourism Wollongong in the developing the website, providing social media training to local industry operators, campaign social media strategy, and ongoing tips and tools to make this campaign a success.

We also engaged the website development guru’s at Osky Interactive to help us build and deliver the technical aspects of the campaign with a smart looking and functioning wordpress site and social media integration.

[Quick shout out to Wisdom Advertising and Design in Wollongong who delivered the campaign logo too - check out the specs on their website - who continue to deliver consistently good looking campaign creative to Tourism Wollongong]

Great ideas combined with motivated people and engaged partners is what we know has made this campaign a success and raised the bar that little bit higher for tourism destination promotion in NSW and Australia.

So one question left – do you love the Gong now?! We do (and now we love the award winning Gong just a little bit more…….  

1. Open your ears before you open your mouth
2. Social Media can be measured  - but measuring isn’t sexy right
3. Privacy still matters – but nothing has really changed
4. Keep being creative in how you use social media
5. Who is your target market:  are they digital immigrants or digital natives?
6. You can spend money in social media – Free is just the beginning
7. Real Time requires Real Time
8. You still need a plan and goals
9. Don’t follow fads
10. The best social media policy: START

To see the full presentation view it on Slideshare or better yet just view it below!

Did you attend the presentation?  Appreciate your feedback below.

What isn’t there to love about the place:

• ‘peak hour’ lasts for 25mins (20 mins without road works) – you’d be lucky to get to the corner shop in Sydney in that time.
• We get real seasons at the time of year they are meant to happen – unlike Melbourne that you wake up in winter, go to work in summer, lunchtime has fined up to a nice spring day and by 2.00pm you have the winter blues back again.
• We are located 2 hrs from the Snowy Mountains and 1.5 hours from the NSW South Coast – a 14 hour drive to the snow from Brisbane.

…and at this point everyone from interstate is going to start telling me that we don’t get massive concerts, we don’t have a grand prix, beaches or 1400 cafes down pokey little laneways.  I’m cool with that, that’s why I go on enough holidays to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and everywhere else in Australia because I love my whole country. We also have great clients across this region that gets us out the door and travelling all the time (NSW National Parks and Wildlife, Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk, Tourism Wollongong to pick a few).

But what I love most about Canberra is that we are the centre of attention for people that want to “love Canberra in Disguise” - also known as Canberra Bashing or Canberra knockers.  You get it in the media all the time “Today Canberra sent 1,000 more troops to Iraq” – “Canberra has set up a new immigration detention centre” – “Canberra plans new taxes on the poor”.

I AM CANBERRA as much as any politician and I didn’t decide any of those things.  Politicians from Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney decided those.   They are Australians, we are all Australians (time for a song??).  Canberra is a place where you can get a great cross section of what it means to be Australian – it’s where I love to live regardless of what politicians say or do all day up on the hill – Canberra is full of much more goodness than that.

The point of this blog post you ask?  A pro-Canberra rant? A stop Canberra bashing rant? A shameless plug for six of our clients? No – the whole point of this post was to give you a great lead into a really funny video (aired on ABC’s Hungry Beast TV show) that one of our friends at the Australian Instititue of Sport sent me through (We worked on their Tourism Award win with them).

This made me laugh – it’s got all the good bits of Canberra in it and does a great job of taking the piss at the same time – Truly Australian Humour.

Enjoy – Todd.

Actually, come to think of it their ads on TV have always been a bit over hyped for me, can Boost Juice really make you jump off the walls and run around and have fun? Is that giving a bit much credit to the energy value of a bit of ice and fruit juice, this ain’t Red Bull you know.  But TV advertising aside, I like the experiential marketing of the product on site, the price is right for me, they have a simple loyalty program (VIBE club), and the product is straight forward and consistently good.  My juice is the same in T2 Sydney Airport, Melbourne CBD and the Canberra Centre.  Wait a minute….consistency, service, young kids – this is starting to smell like that shop with the funny clown looking guy and the golden arches…..

So finally here is something to set Boost apart - a new adults only version of their advertising – with puppets. Yes, Puppets.  Boost’s new campaign introduces Mary Mango and Ron Banana to the world.  Styled off Entertainment Tonight presenters with a bit of Ron Burgundy ‘anchor man’ thrown in, these ads bring a new grown up Hollywood hype to the brand.  This campaign that has been launched using a social marketing mini site ‘Inside Juice’ http://www.insidejuice.com.au/ which sees a blog, facebook profile and no doubt there’s a twitter feed in there somewhere(wait – found it!) feeding juicy goss to the world.

Below is the 3rd in a series of Boost commercials and this one goes ‘ behind the scenes’ in the studio.

4 hours into the campaign and some of the blogs comments are interesting.  What interests me is if they are going to moderate, respond or engage with these comments or if just  a hang it in the wind and see what happens campaign (interesting comment about the yank accents).  Would love to see some onsite integration of the campaign in stores with Mary or Ron’s twitter feed being displayed on the plasma screens they have in most stores.   Taking online to the streets, come on Boost – you know you want it!

Robyn and Denis Rowe - Grand Champions at the 2010 Sydney Royal Cheese and Dairy Produce Show

Canberra’s popular Saturday morning market, the Capital Region Farmers Market at EPIC, has successfully matched its growers with some of the best in Australia at the 2010 Sydney Royal Cheese and Dairy Produce Show, with three of the market’s most popular stallholders, Lindsay & Edmunds, Robyn Rowe and Small Cow Farm scooping up awards.

The judges of the show have taste tested their way through 863 products and have deemed Small Cow Farm, Robyn Rowe Chocolates and Lindsay & Edmunds Chocolates worthy winners of awards in their categories.

Farmers Market Spokesperson, Tony Howard, is most proud of the wins for these market stallholders, “The Sydney Royal Show award wins give real kudos to both these small businesses and also attest to the high calibre of products on offer each week at the Capital Region Farmers Market,” said Mr Howard.

Regarded as a premium cheese producer from Robertson, Small Cow Farm won gold and silver for their Petit Vache Brie and Petie Vache Camembert respectively. They were also awarded the Australian Cheeseboard Perpetual Trophy for their Petit Vache Brie, a huge honour according to Small Cow Farm cheese makers and owners Mark and Lesley Williams.

“Winning at the Royal Sydney Show is a great honour, it was such a surprise. We were tickled to win the Cheeseboard Perpetual Trophy and to be recognised alongside the likes of King Island,” Ms Williams said.

The Royal Sydney Show gives producers the opportunity to benchmark their products against the best that the country has to offer, whilst promoting their products under the respected Sydney Royal brand.

And another Capital Region Farmers Market favourite, Robyn Rowe Chocolates from Murrumbateman won the Champion Chocolate Award for her hand made assorted chocolates, for the second year. She also took out gold in the Boxed Chocolate assortment category.

“Winning the award for the second year in a row is a great honour. It’s helped us realise that we are producing some of Australia’s best chocolate, being up against companies such as Haigh’s from South Australia and The Margret River Chocolate Company,” Ms Rowe said.

The market’s handmade organic chocolate producer Lindsay & Edmunds, were also recognised at the Sydney Royal Show, winning gold for their Organic Caramelised Chilli Macadamia in Organic Dark Chocolate, and silver for their Organic Honey-Almond Praline in Organic Belgian Milk Chocolate.

The Capital Region Farmers Market will be closed on Saturday 27 February as the Royal Canberra Show will be in full swing on 26 – 28 February at Exhibition Park. The Market will operate as normal following the show on Saturday 6 March.

The Capital Region Farmers Market in Canberra is a genuine farmers market with over 100 stalls offering a diverse range of fresh food and agricultural produce straight from the producer to the customer. All funds generated from the Market are fed back into regional communities and other projects chosen by the Rotary Club of Hall which founded the Market in 2004.

See the slideshare.net presentation below for the low down.

Did you attend the event?  Leave your feedback below in our comments and let us know how you use online marketing in your business in Canberra.

Canberra businesses are being encouraged to enter the inaugural Canberra Business Blitz as part of the ACT Government’s Business in Focus Month this September.

Canberra Business Blitz is an initiative designed to take local businesses to the next level with the expert marketing assistance of Link Digital, Schmooze Network and Threesides Marketing over a four week period.

“Canberra Business Blitz is the competitive Backyard Blitz of the business sector,” said director of Threesides Marketing, Todd Wright.

“Canberra Business Blitz was developed to assist businesses with their biggest marketing challenges.”

“Every business in Canberra regardless of their size or industry sector has marketing challenges, and too often they don’t know where to start. The Blitz gives three businesses the chance for some much needed marketing assistance. Their experience will be shared online to help other businesses improve.”

“During the month, the finalists will get invaluable access to experts in marketing, sales, PR, networking, design and digital communication.”

Local businesses have the opportunity to win more than $15,000 worth of professional services just by entering the competition with their key marketing or communications challenge.

Three finalists will be selected from the entries and will be ‘blitzed’ for a month.

Over the four weeks, Link, Schmooze and Threesides will blog the progress through the canberrabusinessblitz.com.au website. Public vote through the website at the end of the month will decide the final winner who will go on to receive an extra $10,000 worth of professional services.

Based on the success of this year’s competition, Canberra Business Blitz hopes to become a permanent part of the Canberra’s Business in Focus month’s calendar.

For more information on how to enter see the website canberrabusinessblitz.com.au.

For more information on Business in Focus month go to: business.act.gov.au

Okay – before you go any further – we didn’t write the article from scratch – we adapted it from Admin Bandit’s Survivial guide for volunteer treasurers which is available on the admin bandit website.  It’s a great read and a very useful educational tool aswell.  Grab a copy because there’s a lot more handy tips like the ones below.

Volunteer Treasurers – From Villain to Superhero in a few short steps

At Our Community, we run a Board Matching Service, which helps to put community groups in need of new board members in touch with people with skills to offer.

One of the most frequent requests we get is for treasurers, and yet these are often the hardest vacancies to fill. Nerida Gill from Admin Bandit takes a look at why people are so reluctant to take on the role of treasurer, and how you can overcome your own fear of doing the books.

Most people run in the opposite direction when asked to take on the role of treasurer. In fact, it’s probably the least understood role in an organisation but, with a bit of know?how, it’s not difficult.

And it is actually very rewarding — managing your organisation’s finances effectively is one of the best ways you can add real value to your local community.

You don’t need to be an accountant, a book keeper or a financial magician to be a treasurer, you just need to start with the right attitude and some insight into what’s required.

By using the right tool for the job and taking some time to understand what’s required to be a treasurer, it can be a simple and straight forward task.

The following checklist has been designed by Admin Bandit to help new volunteer treasurers settle into the role and build confidence.

Arrange a Handover

1. Schedule a coffee or catch up with the outgoing treasurer to swap important documents. This includes handing over the accounts, cheque books, receipt books, invoices/receipts for purchases, bank statements, budgets, reports and any other relevant documents.

2. If your organisation uses accounting software such as Admin Bandit, get a tutorial on how to use it, including passwords.

3. Hand over the treasurer’s or financial procedures manual, if your organisation has one. If not, you can create one when you’re more familiar with your role — this will add value to your organisation and future treasurers will breathe a sigh of relief!

4. Discuss any unfinished business, such as due bills or income, and any spending commitments or expected income that isn’t in the latest budget.

5. Ask questions! This is your chance to discuss any worries, have accounting concepts explained or get troubleshooting advice. Grab the outgoing treasurer’s contact details for future reference.

Change Bank Signatories

6. Your organisation probably has a rule that two or three committee members, including yourself as treasurer, must sign, and thus authorise, cheques and bank withdrawal slips. You need to update your bank’s records of who these people are, which is as simple as picking up a form from any branch and then filling it in. All new signatories will probably need to go to the bank and show 100 points of identification, unless they are existing customers.

Get Organised

7. Start as you plan to continue — getting organised now will give you a clear picture of what you’re doing and set the tone for your tenure as treasurer. It will also save many hours of late night hair?tearing and rummaging through a mess of paperwork.

8. Hopefully your predecessor was just as diligent as you’re going to be, which means you can leisurely go through the accounts, checking everything is filed correctly and familiarising yourself with what’s required. If not … well, you may have a bit of work to do! But rest assured your organisation will thank you for it.

With a bit of planning, some organisation and insight, you can take the role of volunteer treasurer from Villain to Superhero.

Find the right tool for the job, set up good processes for your committee and turn up to every committee meeting with your head held high knowing your organisation is in good shape.

Nerida Gill is the creator of Admin Bandit – accounting software for volunteer treasurers, which she designed from her own experience of being a volunteer treasurer in an effort to turn the task of managing books from a dreaded job into a simple weekly task.

Find out more about Admin Bandit at www.adminbandit.com.au.