Thanks to the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act (2006) and the Olympic Symbol (Protection) Act (1995) any such use is not a civil matter (as is usually the case with copyright infringement etc.) but a criminal one – your competition could be breaking the law and there is a team of LOCOG “Brand Police” who are very actively seeking infringing adverts, events and promotions.

We’ve produced a simple set of guidelines, based on the LOCOG brand guidelines, to try and help*

1) Do not use any of the trademarks, protected logos or marks:

Especially the ones protected by the Olympic Symbol (Protection) Act (1995):

2) Do not imply an association with London 2012:

“An association with London 2012 can be created by the use of any words, images or marks, or, more likely, a combination of these. For example: athletic images, representations of an Olympic style torch and flame, the colours of the Olympic rings, words or iconic images which evoke the spirit of the 2012 Games, and other representations relating to the Games may each contribute to the creation of an association with the 2012 Games.”

Especially the “Listed Expressions”:

“any two of the words in list A below
OR
any word in list A with one or more of the words in list B below:

A: Games, Two Thousand and Twelve, 2012, Twenty-Twelve
B: London, medals, sponsors, summer, gold, silver, bronze”

3) Do not promote or sponsor any marketing or promotional events/conferences themed around or focussed entirely on the games, inclusion as one section in a program amongst others is permitted.

4) Any reference to the games in a newsletter, briefing notes or internal memo should remain factual and should not suggest an association in any way (as above).

What is acceptable?

Genuine editorial pieces (not advertisement features) and factual information (“Due to road closures our distribution times will now be…”).

Here are a couple of clever campaigns, that avoid breaking the legislation:

Marks & Spencer – On Your Marks

Nike – Make it Count

*If you’re in any doubt at all, please contact your legal advisor. At this point I feel I must restate part of our website terms and conditions:

The information contained in this article & website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by RT Media Ltd. and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website and the information herein.

But what is “email lead nurturing”? It means that regardless of the stage that your prospect is at in the buying cycle you have regular, relationship building, meaningful email communication with them. Therefore when they are ready to buy, your company is on top of their evaluation list. A trusted relationship with the right people is the key in this process.

This obviously requires not only good segmentation (making sure your database is up to scratch etc.) but also some careful content planning. You will need relevant content for all stages of the decision making process, from “We haven’t even entered any process” to “Interest”, “Learn”, Evaluate”, “Justify” and “Buy”.

Your safest bet is to get together with your Sales team – yes, Sales and Marketing can work together! You can then come up with a content plan that matches the typical customer journey, so that any prospect is supported at any stage of the decision making process. Here are just a few best practise ideas:

• 3rd party articles
• Case studies
• Invitations to webcasts
• Link to Podcasts
• E-newsletters
• Relevant white papers and eBooks
• Free reports
• Invite to events
• Company information

The result? Experience has shown that if you do it properly, not only the number of sales-ready leads will increase but so will the quality of those leads. Because you have built the relationship with your prospect, you are already considered a trustworthy partner with the necessary expertise – a great starting point for Sales to pick up the opportunity.

GetShaking was brought about via the concept of people shaking hands by way of an introduction. This is, in essence, what social media allows people to do far more effectively than real-world, cross-globe travels to meet and introduce yourself.

We have a dedicated team of passionate, motivated and highly experienced marketing professionals who care about getting the right result for you! From email and internet marketing, to design and copywriting, through web development and strategic consultancy, GetShaking are the people that will help you fulfil your social media management and email marketing, ensuring success. We’d rather you went away with too many ideas and action points than not enough, because we know that communication coupled with an understanding of your business requirements are vital in getting the right marketing mix for you. We believe in marketing that builds relationships. Our focus is on your strategy and the ongoing support of that, because we know that short-term activity might get the quick sale or result, but it won’t maintain the result or lead to sustainable success or business growth.

In keeping with our unique and effective offering, E-Bob, GetShaking’s purple-faced character was developed by our in-house illustrators.

We currently have a diverse cross section of clients who are enjoying full success from our work on their internet presence. From established solicitors to experienced car body maintenance companies, all our GetShaking clients have committed to ongoing contracts as they have seen rapid results from the work we have undertaken for them.

Are you engaged in online marketing but don’t know if you have reached your maximum potential? For a limited time only, we are offering a free audit. We will look at your current online activity and evaluate the positives and highlight where there is room for improvement. The audit comes with no obligation – but will ultimately help you making the right decisions for your future activity.

Visit www.GetShaking.co.uk for more information and to arrange your free audit.

The success of any campaign is influenced by all areas of the process, requiring the close co-operation of everyone from the IT/Server guys to the designers and database handlers.

One of the main contributing factors to the failure of a campaign can be the number of hard bounces and complaint rates. AOL, one of the world’s largest ISPs, recommends maintaining a <0.1% complaint rate. That’s a threshold of 1 in every 1,000 emails that you send out. That may sound harsh, but by adhering to some rules it’s entirely possible.

Even if you beat the spam filter there is no guarantee that your mail will ever be read. Finicky recipients who are unhappy at having received your mail may just click that “Report as spam” button. On local email clients the effect is minimal, but on web-based services like Hotmail or Google Mail, this can have a serious knock on effect for other recipients on the same service as these are tracked, recorded and taken into consideration in future (as if you didn’t have enough to worry about already).

Over the next few weeks I will cover some of the specific problems that the aspiring email marketer would encounter during the course of a campaign, from set up through to the post-send fallout. For this first part we will look at where it all begins: your server and domain.

Server and Domain

Server and domain processes and configuration will mainly be of use to if you are running marketing software on your own server.

There are a few things to consider when taking the step to set up your own email-marketing server, starting with the IP address. Having a static IP address to send email from your server is a great way to build your reputation as a trusted sender. The closer you keep to rules, the better your reputation. The better your reputation, the better your deliverability. It’s as simple as that.

In addition to your IP address, there are a couple of processes and frameworks that can be utilized to help your emails along the way.

The first, and probably most popular of these, is an Open Source project called the Sender Policy Framework (SPF). SPF allows the owner of a domain to specify their mail sending policy. The information is published to their Domain Name Server (DNS) in the form of an SPF Record which contains specific instructions for the receiving server, telling it which mail servers can send outgoing mail on it’s behalf.

When the inbound server receives the mail, the SPF Record is checked against the senders mail server for consistency. This speeds up the process of receiving and decreases the load on the server, allowing more mail to be processed in a shorter amount of time. If the records match, it is put through a less stringent spam-check process and then passed onto the recipient. Conversely, if the records do not match and the email is being sent from an unauthorized source, it will be put through a more rigorous checking process and will more than likely be trashed.

Another similar process is the Sender ID framework, a project initially spearheaded by Microsoft. While similar in action to SPF, the fundamental difference was that Sender ID could verify the IP address of the server that has sent the mail, compares it to the Sender ID record, and then deals with it appropriately. (Currently, both frameworks now support this.)

The final authorization process is known as Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), which uses public-key cryptography to digitally sign all emails. The inbound server then checks this public-key for verification.  This process is of particular importance when sending email to GMail accounts, and is recommended if a large amount of GMail addresses are present in your recipient database.  To use Domain keys, a third party software package or proxy must be implemented on your mail server.

All of the above methods do require either a working knowledge of DNS records or server changes, and care should always be taken when making changes to such settings – as it’s very easy to break something if you don’t know what you’re doing (best to get a professional to do it for you). It’s also worth noting that currently, not all domain registrars support SPF or Sender ID but they are quickly gaining in popularity and in the future the option to have them will surely be offered as default. If you are not sure if your domain supports it, check with your registrar’s technical support.

That’s it from me this week. Check back soon where I will cover off how to keep your database clean, relevant and minty fresh!

On the one hand, a regular newsletter is the ideal place for this type of information; after all, you want to remind people why they should come to you and / or stick with you. On the other hand, like with so many things in life, you should be careful not to overdo it. When gathering ideas for a newsletter you should always put yourself in the position of the reader and ask yourself the famous WIIFM? “What’s in it for me?” In other words, what’s the benefit for people who have agreed to be emailed by you on a regular basis? (yes, they should agree in some way to receive your marketing communications!).

Treat the contacts in your database as people that are special; because they are. They are the people who want to engage with you. So, give them something special from time to time; invite them to an event and offer reduced (free?) tickets; give them access to materials (e.g. white papers) which others can’t get their hands on; let them have something – e.g. a special offer – which others can’t buy or before others can buy it. These are only examples but I’m sure that if you look at your business and your client base you will find a lot more little treats for your faithful newsletter recipients. Exclusive is the word. So – what’s in it for them?