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We are pleased to announce that Selectabase has acquired intellectual property assets of Everything-DM. The acquisition included the corporate brands “Everything-DM” and “MarketingFile”, along with the respective domain names and websites everythingdm.com and marketingfile.com.

The “MarketingFile” brand is well known to many for being a data broker and supplier of marketing lists to clients in a variety of industries across the UK.

Everything DM Ltd entered into voluntary liquidation 3rd March 2019.

Contact details:

Selectabase

Tel        – 01304 383820

Email    – [email protected]

Web     – www.selectabase.co.uk

Following the digital explosion, direct mail suddenly seemed a bit ‘old school’ and marketers jumped ship to explore a whole new world of social media, email, clicks and impressions. Digital is exciting, and changing all the time, but it’s also got a tough job to grab your customer’s attention in a hectic online world.

Email is a great medium for many reasons – cheap, quick to design and deploy, measurable, perfect for personalisation but it can be too easy to create and send a meaningless email campaign for these very reasons. There are thousands of emails landing in inboxes every day and it’s not unusual for someone to have piles of unread emails that they plan to revisit one day – but they never will. Even the more engaging campaigns are quickly swiped away if another notification comes in which is more interesting. We are hounded day and night by updates from apps and platforms, resulting in short attention spans.

It’s what’s inside that counts. So when an envelope lands on the doormat, it’s light relief from a screen and somewhat a mystery to what is within. A mailpiece evokes emotions – whether that’s curiosity, excitement, fear (why are they writing to me?) which leads to it being opened. Let’s be honest, a Christmas or birthday e-card is really no substitute for an actual card – perhaps this reminds us of our childhood (cards with cheques or vouchers were always the best ones). Would you send a sympathy e-card? Probably not, because it doesn’t convey enough sentiment. It’s a bit quick and dirty.

Remember that your audience might not even be on email frequently, might not find it engaging or might not even trust it. The tangibility of mail (whether that’s an envelope, self-mailer or postcard) gives the impression it is worth reading, sharing or holding onto. As a marketer, you also have more ‘real estate’ to play with. Whereas email has just seconds to catch attention and works best with shorter copy, longer copy can be very effective for a letter – you have time and space to tell a story and include testimonials or extra inserts, glossy images and a choice of stock to match your brand and messaging. You can even include scented stock like suntan lotion for a holiday brochure – smells also induce emotions, nostalgia and action. Within the envelope itself you can include coupons, vouchers, a free sample or gift or quirky insert that’s relevant to the messaging. An invitation or event ticket, for example, feels much more special than a barcode you can print off at home. That’s the power of direct mail.

It’s been proven that direct mail is effective and well-received. An in-depth study by Royal Mail revealed that print pieces stay in the house for an average of 17 days, are passed around the house, displayed and re-read up to seven times. 66% of respondents revealed that they keep mail that they considered ‘useful’. This figure rises for sectors like finance and tourism. Conversely, 51% of emails are deleted within two seconds. The DMA has found that direct mail response rates can be 10 to 30 times higher than response rates for digital.

Part of the marketing mix
Direct mail can and should be part of the whole marketing mix, as it doesn’t have to work alone to get a desired action. The mailpiece is the gateway to further engagement and gaining interest. It could achieve part or all of AIDCA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Conviction, Action) by encouraging recipients to go online, scan a QR code or engage with social media (uploading a selfie or taking part in a competition for example). Or, it can be sent out after your digital marketing campaigns have identified your warmer prospects. Of course, it can work well on its own too, so testing is the best way to find out what works for your audiences and yields results.

At Everything DM we can design and fulfil your next direct mail campaign from concept to doormat – everything from sourcing data to saving on postage using OCR design and working within postal size regulations. Get in touch with us today.

Whether you’re a fan of it or not, truth is, you can’t cast social media aside in 2018. As its role increases in homes and offices across the country, many prospects will search for your business on social platforms first. If you don’t appear, there’s a good chance you just lost a sale.

Whilst splashing it out here there and everywhere may seem like a valid solution, it’s not. Remember how we showed you what your brand says about you? Well social media is no different. Whilst it’s great to get the word out, keep it simple and stick within your companies means. We look at some of the best ways to keep brand continuity online;

1. Design & Graphics

Let’s be honest we all take in the visuals. We are naturally drawn to pages that appeal to us aesthetically. Although each social media channel is different and your message should vary, you should aim to use your brand logos, style and overall layout for continuity. Whether it’s your profile photo, cover image, branded videos or colour and layout – all of these elements should be coupled to tell the same story.

Think of it as your brand personality. It can be a great way to engage prospects and get them excited to be involved. Cohesion is the key word here.

1. Your Message

Conflicting messages will only achieve confusion and harm your brand. Look to use a similar writing style and message. At the same time, don’t bombard readers with the same message over and over. Look to keep the pace varied; Facebook and Twitter users are two very different entities. 

Whether it be a formal format or a loose and fun approach, this should be visible across all streams. Focus on tone of voice and keep your language consistent. If you’re going to bamboozle people with your jargon, make sure you do that everywhere and match it on your website.

Remember, followers do not like being advertised to constantly. Get creative, social media is much more than a promotional stream.

1. Share

No one like a show off. Whilst it’s great to demonstrate what you can do, only doing so becomes laborious and boring for your followers. Mix it up by sharing posts from people you follow. Be it funny, interesting or informative content, share away to lighten your page and show you’re more about engagement than sales (even if that’s your ultimate goal).

Don’t go sharing willy nilly. Remember your brand goals? Any posts you share should also tie into them. For example, as a personal trainer sharing links to other fitness videos or workout plans can really spike your interest. Sharing cute pictures of dogs… Probably not as much.

1. Consistent Signals 

There are lots of platforms available to help you keep your brand consistent. Why not try Hootsuite?  You can further strengthen your brand message by linking your presence across multiple channels.

This is a great way to utilise high reviews on a related platform as well as building your reputation.

Looking to get the most from your digital marketing in 2018? Be it social media, Google ads, email marketing or even the occasional print piece. Landing pages are a must for any agenda.

Before now you probably directed all your PPC and other marketing material to your homepage, but this can be a huge mistake. By tailoring pages to individual campaigns we can create a more unique visitor experience which in turn drives conversions.

There are a number of things you can do and we’ll talk about them shortly. Firstly, there are a number of questions you need to ask yourself, before plunging in the deep end;

1. What is your goal? Are you looking for data collection, newsletter sign ups or sales? Knowing this helps us establish a design and content to drive the desired results.
2. Who are you competing with? What are they doing to succeed and how can you emulate their success?
3. Who is your audience and what can you do to spark their interest?
4. How do your prospects arrive at your landing page?

Once you have the answer to these, you’re one stage closer to processing new leads. Now let’s look at the design elements;

1. K.I.S.S

Keep It Simple Stupid. A landing page should provide all the necessary content in a clear and simple format. Avoiding waffle or overwhelming the viewer with information. Remember this person has already seen enough to get them to this page, now drive home the sale.

1. High-Quality Content

In keeping with our first point, the art of great copy is best left to the professionals. If you need to hire a copywriter then do so. Information should be short, to the point and engaging. Nobody has time to sit and read a novel.

1. All Roads Lead to Rome

Make sure you’re fully aware of all entry and exit points to your page. Make sure you limit links away from the page and potentially increase in roads. We use landing pages to help funnel our prospects down a desired pathway. Making them feel that their still in control as they reach our desired goals. 

1. Make it Easy

Always remember that the purpose of our landing page is to convert leads. By providing as few barriers between points A and B as possible helps this. The next step on the journey should always be obvious. Obviously this depends on your eventual outcomes, but make it appealing and easy to distinguish. Form submissions should be as short and simple as possible and download buttons should be as irresistible as your favourite sweet. 

1. CTA

Call to Actions don’t always mean buttons. Headline text encouraging users to “download your free marketing guide” can be just as effective. Don’t overcomplicate it. Tell your visitor exactly what you want them to do. 

1. Use Headlines

 The best landing pages use their main headline to confirm their offer. This is often accompanied by a sub-heading to provide more details. An example of this being a heading of “Get Your Free Facebook Marketing EBook”, followed by “Learn how to grow your followers, likes and engagement with help from some of the worlds top marketing guru’s”. 

1. Use Video 

A picture paints a thousand words, so who knows how many a video portrays. If your product is overly complex or your system long winded, consider a video to shed some light.

1. Grab A Deal

The easiest way to rake in those conversions is with an offer too good to refuse. Create an offer that’s engaging and desirable, then let everyone know just how great it is. It’s as easy as that. 

1. Remember Your Origins

Prospects arrived at your web page from a specific advert or marketing piece, so make sure you tie into that. There’s nothing worse than clicking a link and arriving at a web page that bears no resemblance to the link you selected. It’s an instant turn off and deal killer. The key to landing pages is to be specific, no more sending people to your homepage, remember?

1. Be Mobile Friendly

By creating a responsive page, you can as much as double your conversion rate. With mobile traffic ever increasing can you afford to risk missing out?

1. Speed is Essential

When it comes to bounce rates, load times play a huge part. You can improve yours by keeping images to minimum sizes, using cache tools or upgrading to a super-fast web server.

1. Keep on Track

Conversion tracking should never be underestimated. For best practice, make sure you set up tracking correctly to see how your pages are performing. It all helps when keeping control of your finances (unless they’re bottomless of course!).

Drop us an email on [email protected] and we will be more than happy to talk over your requirements.

Marketing agency Everything DM is working with leading children’s activity provider, Barracudas, to create data driven marketing ahead of their 2018 summer day camps.

Dotted around the south east, the 43 camps offer families high quality, action packed, fun holiday childcare.

Barracudas chose to work with EDM in an acquisition and social media targeting capacity. Instead of supplying prospect data, EDM is profile-matching Barracudas’ customer demographic to identify a large pool of prospects for monthly direct marketing campaigns. Targeted social media advertising is also helping drive website enquiries and sales.

Barracudas says “The summer term is a crucial time for holiday childcare providers to reach out to families with compelling offers and we think EDM have the data capabilities to maximise our marketing ROI.”

“Barracudas already has a great website and engaged social media following which will help convert enquirers and prospects” says Laura Moore of EDM.

It’s the final countdown to GDPR. It becomes law this week and the general consensus from a lot of marketers, business owners and even legal experts is that they are still not quite sure if and how they can legitimately process personal data for their various operational purposes.

“Consent” seems to have become the default, or utopia, for satisfying GDPR, when in fact there are six legal bases for processing personal data. Consent is just one of these, and even the ICO admits “the GDPR sets a high standard for consent. But you often won’t need consent.” Even if you obtain it, the data subject may withdraw it at any time. To the consumer it also sounds like a slightly sinister committment to an eternity of marketing emails.

The “please opt in to continue hearing from us” requests have been landing left, right and centre with tones of sadness, desperation and urgency. Recipients are not really turned on by GDPR emails, partly because they don’t fully understand, don’t take the consequences seriously, or are simply not motivated to click or read a privacy policy. The more compelling communications give great reasons to update preferences and stay on the mailing list, and this can be presented effectively across other channels such as web and social, without even mentioning the G-word or C-word (consent).

The many organisations chasing consent like headless chickens may be taking unnecessary and laborious action, especially if they are B2B, as we explained in our blog about legitimate interest, which is likely to be the sound legal basis for many marketers. There are employers scratching their heads wondering if their own employees need to consent to opting-in to the storing and processing of their bank details so they can be paid every month. In this situation there are other more relevant bases, like the contract between the employee and his/her workplace.

So what are these four other bases? Besides consent and LI, the remaining options are Contract, Legal obligation, Vital interests and Public task. There is not much talk of these – granted they are not as relevant as consent and legitimate interest for marketers, but the world of marcomms encompasses all genres of communication that are now subject to GDPR. For professionals with responsibility for marketing and communications as well as areas like HR and data audits/strategy, these other legal bases are worth exploring and understanding.

Let’s take a look at these other bases in more detail.

Contract
There doesn’t have to be an actual contract in place between two parties here. This basis refers to processing someone’s personal data to fulfil your contractual obligations to them (e.g. process and deliver an online purchase or an employment contract), or because they have asked you to do something before entering into a contract (e.g. provide a quote):

“The processing must be necessary to deliver your side of the contract with this particular person. If the processing is only necessary to maintain your business model more generally, this lawful basis will not apply and you should consider another lawful basis, such as legitimate interests.” The ICO

One of the GDPR rumours is that businesses will flounder because they won’t be able to respond to customer enquiries without a database of fully-consenting opted-in clients. But if a prospect or customer wants a quote or service, then processing their data is likely to be legitimate under the Contract basis. Of course, what you do with their data thereafter is important. You can’t just add it to a marketing pot or even use it to profile an individual’s interests, if it is not necessary to perform the contract itself. Your privacy notice should be updated to make it clear what happens to that data and how long it’s kept for, with justification.  

Legal obligation
Sounding similar to contract obligations, legal obligation is a basis you can rely on to comply with a common (UK/EU) law or statutory obligation. It isn’t something new, it hails from the 1998 Data Protection Act, so if you are looking at this using this basis and satisfy current law then you should not need to make huge changes.

“The point is that your overall purpose must be to comply with a legal obligation which has a sufficiently clear basis in either common law or statute.” The ICO

This takes us back to the employer/employee scenario, and the misunderstanding of consent. For example, you can rely on the Contract basis to hold an employee’s bank details and rely on Legal obligation to legitimately disclose employees’ salary information when requested to do so by HMRC. Other examples from the ICO include a court order, Act or regulatory requirement that request certain personal data you hold.

It’s important to note under this basis, the individual has no right to erasure, right to data portability, or right to object.

Vital interests
This basis is one you’re unlikely to encounter (hopefully), particularly in a business context. It really is there for matters of life and death, such as disclosing a data subject’s details in a medical emergency or protecting a child. 

You cannot rely on vital interests for health data or other special category data if the individual is capable of giving consent, and planned medical treatment is unlikely to fall into this category.

Public task
Any organisation exercising official authority or carrying out a specific task in the public interest can rely on this basis. The focus is on the nature of the function, not the nature of the organisation. It is similar to ‘processing for functions of a public nature’ within the Data Protection Act 1998 so is not really anything new.

You’ll have a lawful basis for processing if you’re

• carrying out a specific task in the public interest which is laid down by law; or
• exercising official authority which is laid down by law.

Private companies may fall into this remit if the nature of the function in question is in public interest, e.g. water companies carrying out a public service.

Conclusion
Marketers will likely be deciding between consent and legitimate interest but the other legal bases should not be discounted, depending on the nature of the organisation and the purposes it sets out to achieve. Anyone tasked with data strategy, internal and external communications, HR or writing a privacy policy will need to be aware of all six bases. Don’t forget, the essence of GDPR is respecting the rights and freedoms of the individual, and demonstrating accountability and transparency…not finding loopholes to send unwanted marketing. 

For all of the bases, you should consider:

• what updates need to be made to your privacy policy
• how to keep a record and justification for each basis you’re relying on
• an alternative basis if you’re not confident it’s right – it’s difficult to swap to a different one later on
• individuals’ rights to erasure, data portability and right to object (this differs between the legal basis, but an individual always has the right to object to processing for the purposes of direct marketing, whatever lawful basis applies)
• the need to document your decision that the processing is necessary
• if there is another reasonable way to achieve your purpose without processing the data.

The ICO has a user-friendly lawful basis interactive guidance tool which you can explore here. 

We know what it’s like. You spend weeks preparing, analysing and re-reading your presentation. You nail it every time. Then you step into the boardroom… At this point anything from self-confidence to nerves kick in and your mind goes blank. All those weeks of preparation disappear in an instance and your left looking for words.

Whilst we’re not here to help boost your confidence (directly at least), or to manage your nerves, we can provide you with some great tips to ensure you’re in the best possible position when you step into the room;

1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

OK, so we already covered that you’ve no doubt been doing this for weeks. If you haven’t, you should have been! You know your business/product better than anyone but this can also be your downfall. You don’t need to let investors know every inner detail. Instead, try to step out from the inner workings and only give your listeners the information that they really need to know.

On top of this take a moment to step back and consider the questions anyone listening may have. From “Why should I give you £15 million when the company hasn’t even made £15?” to “Why are you trying to produce, market and distribute 10 products at the same time before you see if a single one sells at all?”. Taking time to cover all the basis may feel long winded now but you’ll thank us down the line. 

1. Practice Makes Perfect

Practicing in front of the mirror isn’t going to cut it. You need to practice to an audience (of real people). Whether it’s family and friends, networking events or local stores. Practicing in front of a live audience is the only way you can experience a share of the nerves on the big day. The more you get used to the pressure, the easier you’ll find it on the big day.

Take a leaf from a comedian’s book. Yes, we find them hilarious but that’s not the case for all their jokes. They spend years trying new material to live audiences, if it works they keep it, if not it’s out the window. At least that way you can judge how your presentation engages and alter it accordingly.

1. Know Your Figures

Need we say much more? People may think your product is useless, but if you can back it up with numbers that’s all investors care about. After all, it’s all about them seeing return on their investments. If you can show them that’s what they’ll get you already have them hooked.

It’s also worth having multiple projections (best case, moderate case and worst case) to show you really have a grip and understanding of your financial workings.

1. Less is More so Get to the Point

You may have heard of the term elevator pitch. If you haven’t it may lead to trouble. When it comes to keeping attention, lengthy explanations will only turn investors off. If you can’t get them to believe and understand your concept in under 3 minutes, you can almost guarantee your customers won’t either.

If you’re using presentation slides, the same goes here. Keep your number of slides to a minimum and use them to highlight key points. At no point should you be reading off them like a book!

1. Breathe

It’s a nerve racking experience. Don’t forget to breathe. We know you have passion and a will to succeed, but taking deep breathes will help control your heart. With this in check, you can deliver your information without the babble that goes with nerves.

When the questions start the same process applies. Taking deep breathes not only helps you manage the barrage of aggressive comments but also provides you valuable time to think and win investors over with your response and calm head under pressure. Don’t forget, they will often do it just to test you as much as your product.

1. Showcase Your Personality

Even if they don’t believe in your product, investors may believe in you. Don’t be afraid to show a little personality. It’s more engaging and helps dragons see the person behind the business. Doing so could be the difference between success and failure. As good as your product is, if they feel they couldn’t work with you, you may as well pack your bags and go now.

1. Tell A Story

While the bulk of presentations are formal and rigid in structure, pitches tend to have more fluidity. This in turn allows you to break away from the facts and present your ideas in a more compelling manner.  

A great example of this comes from Johnny Georges, founder of Tree T-Pee, who appeared on the American show; Shark Tank.

1. Keep it Visual and Don’t be Scared of Interaction

Research shows that the longer we hold or touch an object – the more ownership we feel we have of it (and the more we want it). This then grows, as the more we feel we own something, the higher the value we place on it. All proving that visual presentations and physical interaction have a positive psychological impact on your audience.

If you still can’t keep away from the old fashioned slides, why not prepare a second version of your presentation. This can be sent on later to provide key facts and information as a reminder to any potential investors.

1. Have A Negotiation Strategy

Don’t Beg. Begging for investment shows desperation. If you really believe in your business, you know you’ll be able to get money elsewhere so don’t sell yourself short. Confidence in these situations can be the difference so believe in yourself.

You go in pitching for a certain value, but have a back-up in mind. Chances are their will be negotiations ahead. If you have a bottom line price you’ll know exactly where you stand and won’t be led into any rash decisions.

1. Don’t Even Try to be the Smartest Person in the Room

Knowing what you know is great but you don’t know what you don’t know. Whether you believe it or not, don’t be the smartest person in the room. As well as money, investors have a wealth of resources, contacts and knowledge. Knowing your weaknesses can be more valuable than your strengths as you build a team to take care of all aspects.

Here at Everything DM we can help you prepare for any speech or presentation you need to give. Be it with handout’s, follow up emails or slide design. Call 01462 437 555 and speak to one of our team to discuss your requirements.

A word that has existed for generations, evolving through the ages and growing in momentum. Originally referred to as a stamp mark branded as a label of identity on animals. Brands or branding has grown to represent the entirety of a business and its image.

To this day, many people will assume you’re implying your logo or name of your business when the word brand is used, but reality is your brand is and should be much more than that.

We like to think of (y)our brand as the total sum of the opinions held by your customers and prospects. Whether factual (or not), it references what these individuals think they know about your business and more importantly, how this makes them feel. It is vital therefore, that when re-inventing your brand or launching a new one, you consider all potential touchpoints between your users and your company.

 We look at the basics to help you get the most from your brand;

1. Consider Your Target Audience

Appealing to your best source of income is one of the most obvious reasons to consider your market. You can find this out by asking simple questions of your business, such as;

• Who would buy my products/services?
• Who currently buys my products/services?
• Where else do my buyers shop?
• What are the interests of my customers?

You are never going to please everybody, but your brand identity should do its best to cover all bases of your target market.

1. Create and Identity and Stick to It

The key to success is building an identity. This won’t happen overnight and may require stricter control on your marketing than you have been used to. Having a list of values that your business considers its core will help this as will surveying your customers to generate key words they associate with your work. Just look at Apple, who rebranded from 1998 -2003.

Once you have decided these values, stick to them. Cohesion is paramount. Chopping and changing your values is a recipe for disaster so take your pick and stick to your guns.

Stamp this across your business. If you decide a core value of your business is the friendly nature you treat your customers with, then make sure all phone staff, floor staff and anyone else with customer contact exude this.

1. Stamping Your Logo Here, There and Everywhere Won’t Cut It

 Branding is changing. Gone are the days where sticking your logo on everything passes as brand continuity. In 2018, it’s all about being smart – respect your customers intelligence. You can use this to generate intrigue and help them discover the brand on their own and provides a great base for interaction.

1. Utilise Your USP’s

If you’re a tech company, don’t just follow the Apple blueprint. Every business is different and you should look to carve out your own unique identity. Use your USP to build a brand unique to your business and create something new. Henry Ford once said “If I asked people what they wanted, they would have told me faster horses”.

Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t make it right.

1. Think Long Term

Don’t go in with the offers. Overloading your customers with your latest deals only cheapens your image. Instead look to build relationships with your customer base. By staying transparent you build trust. By building trust, individuals start to believe in your core values and there’s little risk of missing expectations.

1. Be Consistent

No, we don’t mean use the same imagery over and over again, or the same message for that matter. What we really mean is keep your tone consistent, no matter what the medium. This simple step reinforces the character of your brand and helps customers clarify what it is you’re offering and what they can expect.

1. Set Goals and Plan Accordingly

In the words of Winston Churchill – “He who fails to plan is planning to fail”. Make sure you have a list of all things you want to achieve, as the road to a great brand can be treaturous and being led from the path is notoriously simple.

In theory your brand strategy should fall in line with your business plan. This helps you guage where you need to be at any given point and helps prevent diviation from the pre-approved brand image.

1. Keep Up and Fluid

Despite what we may have said about consistency, there is room for tweaks here and here. Branding is a process of building, not a race against time. You should expect to make constant amendments (in line with your business) to keep your message fresh and on trend. If you feel the old tactics aren’t working, don’t be afraid to change them. Fresh material can be a great way to engage your followers and there’s plenty of companies that have been there before (see Old Spice for example).

With PC sales plummeting and mobile traffic on the rise, responsive email-marketing is becoming a valuable asset to any business. There are a number of reasons as to why this is important and evidence to suggest that your campaign success can be solely based on it.

Read on to see our endorsement for designing emails responsively:

What is Responsive Design?

Responsive design is a simple concept, created to keep your digital products looking good on any viewing portal, no matter what its size. Ultimately, this generally pans out as multi-column layouts for landscape tablet screen sizes and larger – and single column design for anything smaller.

In general, the design stays the same but the formatting changes. We are also able to hide elements on smaller or larger screens if we feel they will be ineffective elements at that scale.

Why is Responsive Design Important?

You’re guilty of it right? Checking your emails when you’re out and about? Work, personal or other accounts, we all do it. Let’s face it, if you don’t you’re fighting a snowstorm, already buried six feet under.

This is illustrated by the fact that 60% of emails are opened on mobile phone or tablet. On top of this 38% of click troughs occur from this format also.

Ultimately, it boils down to usability. Emails that are sent un-responsive generally provide the reader with a poor experience. This not only effects your brand image, but often means your marketing budget heads straight to their trash.

When Should I Apply Responsive Design?

Now! The longer you wait, the more your wasting your time and your money. To increase response and improve brand awareness, you should be implementing these changes ASAP. You are better off sending less emails in a responsive format than lots in an unusable format.

How Will Responsive Design Help Me?

Response. 80% of marketers state that their revenue is “directly linked” to their email operations. By creating a mobile-friendly format you make it easier for prospects to click through to your site. You also make your brand more appealing and who doesn’t want that.

How Do I Make the Most of Responsive Design?

There are a number of different things you can do to make the most of responsive design. If you have some time on your hands have a play and test send emails to yourself. It’s the best way to learn what does and doesn’t work for your business. However, if you’re pushed for time you could always give the following a try;

• Keep content to a minimum so the email can be scanned quickly. Readers spend an average of 17 seconds on each email.
• Keep text alignment consistent throughout your message.
• Favour percentage division over fixed size for tables and other elements.
• Use larger imagery (more than 300px) and keep all images consistently sized.
• Avoid large white spacing
• Ensure your margins remain equal on all sides
• Whatever you do, do not delete the <head> tag. Doing so will render your email unresponsive.
• Test, test, test. There are plenty of services out there to help you view your email in multiple platforms and browsers prior to send. (Try Litmus or Email on Acid).

Who Can Help Me with Responsive Design?

We can! Here at Everything DM, we’ve been applying responsive design techniques to all of our emails for quite some time and without blowing our own trumpet too much, we’ve become quite good at it.

If you need advice, a one-off email or multiple templates set-up then we’re on hand to help. Just call us on +44 (0) 1462 437 555 or email [email protected]

Happy coding…

If you’d like an accolade to add to your organisation’s strapline, emails or social profile, writing an engaging awards entry could bag you an Oscar of your industry. There’s more to it than submitting a few words though. Your entry must convince the panel of expert judges exactly why you’re worthy, which might feel like venturing into the Dragons’ Den.

In the UK, and indeed the world, there are awards ceremonies for nearly every sector, both B2B and B2C, from travel to technology and construction to catering. It’s not just established industry leaders or those with big budgets capable of winning (or being shortlisted) either… an emerging or smaller organisation that has produced outstanding work and results has just as much chance of impressing the judges.

Getting started

Google what’s out there. Sign up for details of the next relevant awards and take note of the deadline for entries. Make sure your product, organisation or campaign fits the category you’re going for and ensure eligibility in terms of project timelines, country of operation, budget etc. otherwise your entry could be void before you start.

“Awards entries should be lovingly crafted like any other creative exercise to engage the reader and excite them.”
Awards judge James Matthewson

Next, put aside enough time to actually create the entry. You’ll need to gather insight, results, testimonials, images or video and perhaps specific details from colleagues and stakeholders. You might want to consider hiring a professional copywriter and multimedia designer to make your entry as relevant, compelling and attractive for the panel of judges. We can help with this – simply get in touch.

For insider tips on creating your entry, we pinned down marketing awards judge James Matthewson who offers this advice:

• Read the criteria and make sure you answer it – don’t go off on a tangent, skirt around it or completely miss the point
• Just like for a newspaper or magazine, the headline should define the outcome. What was achieved? What was the success that justifies your award entry?
• Overstepping the word count can work against you. Personally I am not going to count every word, especially if the content is engaging, but have honed a sense of what is too long/short and judges will check if necessary
• Plain paragraphs of copy won’t cut it. Like most consumers of content these days, as judges we are looking for impact – a submission that engages the brain and makes the reader want to know more
• A picture/video/infographic speaks a thousand words and effectively breaks up the copy
• Having that said, even an award in the creative sector needs to demonstrate some commercial value. A common mistake I see is too much focus on the creative output and not the results
• Support your claims with numbers and client testimonials – whatever assets you have. Campaign outcomes are key
• Don’t assume what the judges know. Explain things clearly, put the campaign into context and avoid jargon.

Once drafted, it’s a good idea to ask someone to have a read over your entry, ideally one who doesn’t know the product well who will give an honest opinion as to whether it makes sense and is engaging, or is too boring or complicated. As a final sense check, does the entry make you think WOW? Judges read a lot of submissions, and yours needs to shine.

Just make sure you don’t miss the deadline!

About the judge
James A. Matthewson is Founder and CEO of EVRYWHERE Group, a Luxury & UHNW Advisory business based in Mayfair. James has been an Awards Judge numerous times as well as (adjunct) Professor for HULT and CREA Business Schools on their Luxury & Digital Masters.