There were some obvious things - many pointed to putting links to their Facebook or Twitter page in their email newsletters. On the whole most people still don't understand how to use the social networks and are finding their way. Indeed it reminds PurpleFox of 6 or 7 years ago when everyone knew they "should be doing email marketing" but had no idea why, they just heard it was the thing to do and there was lots of money in it!

Nowadays all it takes is an MD to hear something about Twitter being "really big" and then they want a piece of it, whatever that piece is.

Anyway here are some interesting points people raised about using email and social networking together:

Consistent personality across channels

Social networking has encouraged brands to find a personality to communicate with their customers.  Each brand has a particular tone and style that they use on these sites.  Yet how many emails do we still see where they are sent from newsletter@thecompany.com?

Many company develop a cult and mysterious character who sends the newsletter.  This character then becomes the most sought after at the company and at any events.   This is clearly a sign that recipients have engaged with this character, and while many brands are doing this through their social channels they should also be doing this in email as well.

Use social pages to drive email subscribers

Most email newsletters will link to the brands social page - many brands may link to the email from their Twitter page.  But why link to the whole thing?  Why not simply add a teaser and link to a sign-up page?  So your tweet could be "25% off in this weeks email newsletter" and once they had signed up the email is sent to them straight away.

One thing that was universally agreed upon was social networking is not the new email marketing - email is not dead.  After all what do all these social networking sites have in common?  That's right you need your email address to join.

Do nothing

It takes time and effort to alter your strategy so even if these people are inactive and costing you money it might cost you more money to change your strategy.

And what if they come back to you in the future? Perhaps now is just not the right time for them.

Bin them

An alternative approach is to take them out of your list. It costs money to send to these people and out of all of your subscribers these are the most likely to report your email as spam.

There is a chance that these inactive subscribers will start responding, so it might be appropriate to keep them on the list, and perhaps just send to them less frequently.

A rule of thumb is this - if your emails are for frequent purchases, take the subscriber out - they are clearly not engaged. If however your offering is a seasonal purchase (Holidays, insurance or even tied to annual events such as Christmas or Valentines) then it is a different scenario, so keep sending but introduce triggered messages around key dates associated with the purchase (anniversary of purchase, renewal, welcome home from holiday) rather than focussing on generic one size fits all newsletters every week of the year.

Change approach

Just changing your style will reactivate people.

Instead of sending a long newsletter, try a simple 'sorry we missed you' message, discount voucher or even just change the 'from' name.

No matter what you change only a small amount of inactive subscribers will open your message - it's always difficult to get subscribers back once they have disengaged from your email.

But if disengaged subscribers make up 50% of your list then the numbers should stack up to make your efforts worthwhile.

Of course prevention is better than cure. Perhaps a more important question should be what do we do to stop subscribers disengaging in the first place.

During February we are offering a free campaign review and for all new customers one months free management. 

Pay-Per-Click online advertising is exactly what it says, you only pay when a visitor clicks on your advert.  As you pay for each and every click you need to make sure that every click you buy has the potential to be converted into a buyer.

Pay-Per-Click can work for a company of any size, whether you're a small business or a large corporation, you can set budgets that suit your business.  Campaigns can be started and stopped when needed, so if you're running low on stock or you have a hot seller, changes can be made immediately.

At PurpleFox, we don't simply 'manage' your campaigns, we look to optimise, maintain and actively develop them.  We look at your business; understand what it does and who your customers are.

The new-look website has created a fresh and instant appeal for both consumers and prospects.  With refined service offerings and consumer information that showcases the best of PurpleFox.

Taking the opportunity to review the year, PurpleFox Director Louise Bowers said:

"It is clear that, the use of digital and interactive media is still the fastest growing area of marketing and with new developing technologies continues to advance.

Put simply, online marketing is the life-blood of most organisations today.  Without it, you could have the nicest website on the web, but if no-one knows that it's there, who will come?   

At PurpleFox we are committed to providing our clients with a complete service, that's why we call ourselves a full service digital marketing agency. We provide everything from the initial website design & build through to the email, search and viral marketing.

Our advice to customers is that, when it comes to getting the most out of your marketing budget, online marketing offers more transparency and budget savings, you can define your market and switch-on and switch-off campaigns quickly, giving you more control!".

Ends

As a direct result of the event, the online marketing agency has identified a number of potential business partners and has a number of hot sales prospects in the pipeline.

Taking the opportunity to review the market's requirements at Marketing Week Live, Online Marketing Shows, PurpleFox Director Louise Bowers said:

"It is clear that, the use of digital and interactive media is still the fastest growing area of marketing and with new developing technologies continues to advance.

Put simply, online marketing is the life-blood of most organisations today.  Without it, you could have the nicest website on the web, but if no-one knows that it's there, who will come?

At PurpleFox we are committed to providing our clients with a complete service, that's why we call ourselves a full service digital marketing agency. We provide everything from the initial website design & build through to the email, search and viral marketing.

Our advice to customers is that, when it comes to getting the most out of your marketing budget, online marketing offers more transparency and budget savings, you can define your market and switch-on and switch-off campaigns quickly, giving you more control!".

Ends

About PurpleFox Marketing

PurpleFox Marketing, founded from a passion for digital technologies, and driven by over 25 years of combined ecommerce, design and marketing experience.  The PurpleFox team has experience across a broad range of industries and company size, who all share a single common goal - to deliver industry-leading online solutions that ensure our clients' success.

Press Contacts

Contact: Louise Bowers, Director, PurpleFox Marketing Ltd

Tel: 07879-647763

Email: louise@purplefox.co.uk

Using the power of Emailcenter Maxemail™ solution, PurpleFox Marketing clients are able to develop highly personalised e-marketing campaigns that ensure clients are able to provide the right message to the right person at the right time, delivering outstanding return-on-investment and business growth.

"It is important for us that we are able to provide our clients with a seamless email solution that has a delivery rate of over 95%, has strong reporting capabilities, provides A/B split testing, and with behavioural marketing can target email campaigns based upon customers web activity", said Louise Bowers, Director, PurpleFox Marketing. 

"Our partnership with Emailcenter makes it easy for our clients to send targeted email campaigns that drive relevant traffic to a website, supports repeat business and gleans value from the data our clients have worked hard to acquire.  PurpleFox email marketing experts work with clients across many different industries to provide an email marketing solution that meets all client budgets, targets and business objectives".

Craig Loynes, Marketing Manager of Emailcenter UK, said of the new partnership "The Maxemail platform has helped many of the UK's biggest brands achieve award winning results for their email marketing.  We are pleased to say that the clients of PurpleFox will now benefit from the same advanced and innovative features. "

 "Emailcenter offer our Maxemail platform as a white label solution to agencies who share our view that email marketing should be used as a tool to build stronger relationships with a company's existing customers.  We are pleased that PurpleFox share these views and are sure they will be able to offer an email marketing service of a high standard".

Ends

About PurpleFox Marketing

PurpleFox Marketing, founded from a passion for digital technologies, and driven by over 25 years of combined ecommerce, design and marketing experience.  The PurpleFox team has experience across a broad range of industries and company size, who all share a single common goal - to deliver industry-leading online solutions that ensure our clients' success.

About Emailcenter

Emailcenter is a UK based provider of CRM-focussed email marketing solutions. Founded in 1999, Emailcenter continues to lead the industry in email marketing innovation.

Press Contacts

Contact: Louise Bowers, Director, PurpleFox Marketing Ltd

Tel: 07879-647763

Email: louise@purplefox.co.uk