We have launched a new division to support companies who are serious about unlocking digital marketing and social media channels within their marketing mix.

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.

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If I told you that we were going to play a game of Chinese whispers I’m sure you would join in.
If I told you we were playing for money, I would be doubly sure that you would join in. So, here is the deal:

- Firstly, the message must not be altered
- Secondly, if the message arrives at the final person unaltered, you win cash

Sounds easy? What if I tell you that if the message isn’t letter-perfect when it arrives, you owe me cash? Not sounding so good? Sadly though it is a common scenario. So many designers and agencies don’t communicate job statuses or latest progress accurately to each other… or the client. Communication is the key. That, and knowing what levels of communication to give to which people. Some people want an email to acknowledge their email, some people want to be left alone and told when the job is done. Some people need to be told about each change that is made, some people find out themselves.

The point is this: we are constantly passing ‘messages’ to each other, status updates on projects or latest files for a job. Keeping on top of these things is crucial, one day the message might not arrive intact, and you might not win the cash!

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When we began 2009 we were prepared for a tough year, as a management team we sat down for two days to prepare our strategic direction and survival plan. We have taken the time every month to monitor and review performance and client feedback and success.
I am delighted to end the year feeling exhausted for all the right reasons. As a team we have grown, as a company had our most successful to date in the last 10 years and as a person I have begun to feel free again. Running your own business is a roller coaster of emotions and challenges so it is critical to maintain a self belief so strong it can withstand any cross fire.

Our talented team of 10 superstars has made sure we retained our clients whilst acquiring new ones that fit our strategic model. We’ve branded and launched 16 companies, re-branded 8 businesses, built 35 websites, produced 8 promotional videos including filming across Europe, we have continued to be the strategic marketing department and partner for 6 growing businesses, run a brilliant public vintage fayre, worked over 16,000 hours, drunk over 5,900 mugs of coffee & green tea, sent over 16,200 emails (not campaigns just day-to-day messages) ran 29 workshops for about 150 people, presented to more than 100 young entrepreneurs, shot over 13,000 photographs, and spent more than 2,000 hours on Facebook! And had a lot of fun doing it all!

We do what we do because we love it and we’re damn good at it! We like to be challenged and valued. We get stuck in and deliver results; we like freedom and learning and strive to be the best in our world.

But do you know what made my year? Reading this…

“I would just like to thank you and your whole team for the level of service, commitment, attention to detail and timely actions that you have all taken to give ooops.net limited that paradigm shift required of a business entering its eighth year of trading. As you know we are a five strong team at this moment in time and with your continued help I am sure within the year we will be an eight strong team! I am impressed with RT Media’s integrity; each and every member of your team are free to say what they think, to express themselves with a zealous passion for putting us first. This ensures we know we are getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth – important to winning! You are like an honest “coach” and “mentor” to us. I am impressed with RT Media’s creativity, I know it is your pre-requisite but there are a great many of your competitors out there that are not! I am impressed with RT Media’s strategic vision, able to see beyond the horizon, helping us let go of the shore! Ensuring we don’t waste money now, saving for the opportunities that will give the greatest return on investment in future. An example of this is our stopping of our Press advertising and moving into Social Media that is FREE! All in all – I’m as chuffed as nuts with you all!”
Paul Booker – Founder of ooops.net limited

Well done to the whole team for a year to remember. I am looking forward to making 2010 even better.

Thanks to all who take the time to think of us, work with us and recommend us.
Ross.
Founder & Creative Director.

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Getting the highest percentage of your messages to your subscribers’ Inbox is one of the primary goals from an email marketing perspective. At the same time, it is also the main hurdle to overcome. Innumerable little things can effect whether or not your communications end up in the inbox, or in the junk mail folder of your recipients. The job is made even more difficult as different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and email clients have very different rules, filters, procedures and policies on bulk email.

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!

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I give up… I am consistently disappointed in people’s inability to treat email addresses with due care and attention. I feel compelled to write a post about this as I have received yet another email with over 50 confidential addresses including mine in the “CC” tool from outlook over the weekend. Now everyone can see that persons email address book that they chose to send their email message update to. Bonkers!
Fine if you must for internal company messages but to multiple suppliers, clients and such it’s just bad practice. For people with years of experience I see them repeat offending and it gets my goat. Please, please if you must use outlook to send your mass communications then please use the blind carbon copy at least. Phew that’s off my chest – now back to work.

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E-newsletters are a great place to present your company and to show off what you have achieved. And it is only natural that you want to tell your readers all about the amazing things going on like new products, new clients, new technologies, new contracts or just a great service.

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?

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Ross loves twittering. You can see that he is in “Twitter” mood when his eyes light up and he has a smile on his face like a child on Christmas day. And everybody knows, he is going to enchant the world and his faithful followers with some wisdom about his passion-  branding -  or just something interesting that happened in his life. Personally, I already feel over challenged keeping my private Facebook account up to date and I don’t even want to talk about my LinkedIn profile. However.  (you could see it coming, this “however”…) As responsible for e-marketing I have become a bit of an evangelist for social as well as business networks as a fantastic marketing tool. “Viral Marketing” is the magic word, which means nothing more than “word-of-mouth”. Basically, let others do your marketing for you. Spread the word, pass it on to your followers who pass it on to theirs who pass it on to theirs… and before you know, your audience has gone from 20 to 8000. No costs involved. How much better can it get?

What does this have to do with email marketing? An e-newsletter can be the ideal place to drive people to your networks and to get the ball rolling. You add a little icon to your newsletter (can be Twitter, can be Facebook or LinkedIn or all of them – whichever suits your business best) and place it strategically so that people can easily find and click on it. If only 5 people click on your profile and decide to follow you (I keep to the Twitter example) and each of them have 20 followers themselves – imagine how easily you’ve enhanced your potential target audience. Or why not create a group, start a discussion and kick it off in your newsletter? The options are endless…

Whenever we start a new email marketing strategy for a new client we strongly recommend to set up a company (not your private!) profile on at least the most commonly known networks and to promote them in the actual newsletter. It doesn’t hurt but does increase your chances of being heard and builds a deeper more engaging relationship with your audience. And if you are like me a bit scared of regular updates, here’s a nice tip: http://ping.fm/ Sign up for free, send your update to them – and it gets automatically published on all networks you have registered with them.

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Following years of working together on a variety of digital projects Sony have been working with RT in the management of their European e-marketing activities.

Over the last 18 months we have been tailoring a bespoke workflow which includes the setup, build, distribution and reporting for their European email marketing campaigns.

Now as an integral part of the Sony process we are very excited to be growing this department as a world class resource for other leading brands to unlock the potential of effective, well planned email strategies.

We offer design, build, distribution and complete strategic campaign management to companies who are serious about developing truly engaging relationships with their customers.

Sony Digital Marketing: “We have now been working with RT Media for over seven years – longer than any other agency – and we enjoy a close relationship with them. RT have been responsible for many of the banners and microsites on Sonybiz.net and played a key part in ensuring we were able to launch our new site to schedule in January 2007. RT have also been responsible for some of our most successful eCommunication campaigns, driving forward both awareness and sales of our products. More recently, we have entered into a new partnership with RT for them to take on management for a big part of our eCommunication activities, including the set-up, distribution and reporting of the more than five million EDMs and eNewsletters we send out every year. We look forward to working closely with RT for a long time to come.”

We will be putting together a Case Study later next month so we will keep you informed.

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