Agency blog – April 2009
EMPLOYERS TO WIN AWARDS FOR REMOTE WORKING
24 April 2009
Remote Employment has announced the launch of the Remote Worker Awards to highlight how remote and home working benefits the environment, business productivity and employees’ quality of work life.
The Remote Worker Awards comes at a time when companies across the UK are faced with downsizing their workforce. The awards aims to raise awareness for remote and home working as an alternate solution to redundancy and the traditional nine-to-five office routine.
The awards are organised by Remote Employment an online UK job site for remote workers and employers. With nine categories including The Home Business Award and The Remote Employer Award, winners will enjoy thousands of pounds worth of prizes from computer hardware, business and remote working software to essential consultancy advice from PR and marketing experts.
Companies entering these awards will receive national recognition as a forward thinking company, raise their company profile and shine above their competition. As well as gaining kudos and credibility in their industry, the winning Remote Employer will also receive valuable prizes that will increase the effectiveness of their remote workforce.
The Remote Employer Award will honour the winning company that demonstrates how remote working and home working has made a beneficial impact on their business.
The Remote Worker Awards will also celebrate the most innovative home-based businesses in The Home Business Award with a collection of valuable prizes perfectly paired with small and large companies that use their home as a base to increase business mobility.
Paula Wynne, organiser of the awards and co-founder of Remote Employment expects to unearth an abundance of inventive pioneers who champion flexibility with remote working solutions!
Paula said: “The Remote Worker Awards will feature the winners in a Remote Worker E-Book to help other companies to implement a flexible and remote working program.”
The Remote Worker Awards has lined up a prestigious panel of judges with successful businesswoman and serial entrepreneur, Karen Darby, founder of SimplySwitch, leading the way.
Other judges include Alex Johnson of Shedworking fame, Cath Roan from Careershifters, Diana Robertson from Business Link London, Tony Corbin of MATiSSE and Jackie Brennan of FreshIdeas Events.
To add an exciting dimension to The Remote Worker Awards a remote judge, Jeff Zbar, founder of Chief Home Officer in the United States, has been appointed as a Remote Judge. This is remote judging … or remote working at its best!
BLACKWELL ESPRESSO BOOK MACHINE MARKS A NEW ERA FOR PUBLISHING
16 April 2009
Blackwell, the UK’s leading academic bookseller, has unveiled the launch of the 2.0 Espresso Book Machine (EBM) at its flagship store, 100 Charing Cross London. It is the first bookshop installation of its kind within the UK, allowing any book to be selected from an inexhaustible network of titles and prints on demand in just three minutes from a digital file onsite, online at www.blackwell.co.uk, or uploaded in person from CDs or flash drives.
The new Blackwell EBM, created by On Demand Books (ODB), uses revolutionary technology that allows publishers to offer titles through a novel channel of distribution at point of sale to the customer. It is able to print, bind and trim library-quality paperback books at 112 pages per minute, complete with four-colour covers, identical to factory made copies.
The arrival of the EBM in the UK is the result of an exclusive partnership between Blackwell and ODB and is anticipated to be welcomed amongst publishers, retailers and consumers alike. The Charing Cross EBM is hoped to be the first of many to be rolled out by Blackwell. Its debut at the flagship store will be followed by an appearance at the London Book Fair (April 20-22) before returning to its central London home permanently.
The EBM marks a new era for publishing and book retailing. It will enable publishers to cut out supply chain costs, match consumer demands and therefore eliminate unwanted returns. The EBM also removes the need for transportation, adding green credentials to the already impressive list of benefits saving on CO2 emissions and the pulping of unwanted books.
Blackwell predicts the EBM will increase shop sales due to being able to provide a far greater variety of books and popular titles to customers. Books needn’t be out of stock again and the need to wait for books to arrive from a publisher should be a thing of the past. In addition, the EBM is able to bring rare texts back into production. As a committed supporter of small & independent publishers, the EBM allows Blackwell to provide a distribution channel for smaller publishers and hopes to attract a new audience of eager, budding authors and self publishers keen to see their work in print.
Andrew Hutchings, CEO of Blackwell, commented: “From the first instance we read about the Espresso Book Machine we were very keen to see it in action. From a retailer’s and book supplier’s point of view this is a fantastic opportunity for Blackwell. We are very much looking forward to working with ODB.”
Dane Neller, CEO of On Demand Books commented: “Blackwell is a superb partner of choice for us to launch in the UK market. It has an outstanding pedigree of book history behind it with a reputation to innovate. Blackwell’s academic books and specialist credentials both here and overseas are well suited for demonstrating the extent of the Espresso Book Machine’s capabilities and we believe together we can maximise this exciting development in the book market.”
Consumers can go to Blackwell’s Charing Cross bookstore from April 27th onwards to witness their book printed on the spot, or order a print-on-demand book online through the Blackwell site.
INTERNET BUSINESSES BOOM AS RETAIL WORLD SLUMPS
16 April 2009
While the retail world has been preoccupied with sliding sales and deepening debt, the latest trend to storm the internet has silently slipped into the lives of every savvy shopper. Hail the discount voucher.
Capitalising on the current era of frugality is new site Offers.co.uk.
Founded by Steve Walsh – the web entrepreneur behind success story laterooms.com – this new site is enabling canny consumers everywhere to take advantage of the increasingly competitive deal wars happening in the retail market, by identifying the latest money saving incentives from online and high street retailers.
Offers.co.uk is the ultimate recession proof business model. It costs the consumer nothing, gives them what they want and need to survive in the current climate, and at the same time offers an effective way for retailers to keep their sales buoyant in tough trading conditions.
Consumer confidence in the economy is at an all time low and this is having a knock-on effect on spending. Consumers are craving bargains, forcing retailers to turn to sites like Offers.co.uk as a distribution vehicle to share offers and discounts to keep customers spending, wooing them to shop online and driving them into stores and restaurants via downloadable vouchers. Online ‘send to a friend’ tools spread viral appeal, making it clear that the internet is dominating the retail world, both on and offline.
With recession busting nightclubs and credit-crunched discount stores springing up all around Great Britain, it seems that for smart individuals with pertinent business ideas, the recession is creating an ideal climate for new ventures to flourish.
If the recession has given us nothing else, it has paved the way for the entrepreneurs of this world to think outside of the box and develop new business platforms that simply fulfil current consumer demand.
It was recently reported that one in every 140 visits to an e-commerce site originates from a voucher portal*, proving that this burgeoning industry has a massive influence on today’s retail sector.
Offers.co.uk has reported a 400 per cent surge in visits to the site since January alone.
Steve Walsh of Offers.co.uk says: “E-commerce opportunities are infinite, but it’s about identifying consumer trends and giving people something that is useful to them and not demanding anything in return. What we are trying to do is take our successful laterooms.co.uk model and sculpt it for the high street – the online medium means late ‘availability’ updates can be made quickly to reflect real-time offers as and when they are live, with no expensive print costs to the organisation.
“These offers have always been around, either in newspapers or on retailers’ websites, but never as immediate as they are now with the advent of the online world. All we are doing is consolidating these deals into one place on a regular basis to make it easier for consumers to find what they need when they need it – it is a simple concept but a valuable resource for all consumers, particularly in the current economic climate.
“And what is unique to offers.co.uk is the collation of a multitude of money-saving information – from sales information to 2-4-1 promotions, free gifts to discount vouchers, it’s all designed to work with the consumer in mind.”
Steve continues: “The retail world is responding to consumer demand for lower prices to keep people spending money. Sites like ours must keep their offers current so consumers don’t have to spend hours scouring the internet for a deal that may not even exist. Individuals need to be aware that not all voucher code sites are transparent nor do they do as they say on the tin!”
Offers.co.uk has pledged to make it easy for shoppers to find the best deals all year round, coupled with peace of mind that the discounts displayed are legitimate and current. The easy to navigate and well-established site offers shoppers significant savings on anything from sun-soaked holidays to vitamins, alongside vouchers for big household names including Tesco and Thomas Cook, Debenhams, Topshop and even the best deals on U2 tickets.
There is no hard sell or need to purchase a product to qualify for discounts, consumer simply print the vouchers featured on the website and take into store, or find codes that can be used to shop online.
For more information on the site visit www.offers.co.uk /
www.vouchers.co.uk. Alternatively befriend the team on Facebook, follow them on Twitter (Offersuk) or read about the offers they are most excited about on the offers.co.uk blog.
RECESSION-HIT RETAILERS STILL IGNORING EMAIL BEST PRACTICES
01 April 2009
Annual benchmark study reveals UK retailers are neglecting simple measures that could quickly increase click-throughs and online sales
• 71 per cent failing to personalise emails
• Over 50 per cent fail to include any viral or forwarding element
• 32 per cent don’t meet necessary legal requirements
• Marks & Spencer and H.Samuel top Hitting the Mark 2009; Somerfield and H&M rank lowest
The dotMailer.co.uk annual benchmark study, Hitting the Mark, released today, reveals that some of the UK’s leading retailers are continuing to overlook key email marketing techniques that could increase online traffic and sales, at a time when many are struggling with the onslaught of the recession. While the study recognises retailers such as Marks and Spencer and H.Samuel for using brand-enhancing design and compelling calls to action, others including Somerfield and H&M showed little signs of improvement on 2008, failing to use best practice techniques to engage with recipients.
The benchmark study, available to download at
http://www.dotmailer.co.uk/hittingthemark, assessed emails sent from 41 UK retailers around 8th December 2008 – the festive season’s busiest shopping day, named ‘mega Monday’ due to the £320m that was spent online alone. Each email was evaluated against 14 criteria based on dotMailer’s Hitting the Mark matrix and the DMA’s Email Best Practice Guidelines, with each retailer awarded a total score out of 100.
Marks and Spencer and H.Samuel jointly top the study for the first time with scores of 81, moving up from fourth and 15th positions respectively in 2008, closely followed by Ethical Superstore and Argos.
This year, Somerfield and H&M jointly replace Lidl at the bottom of the email marketing index with just 48 points, followed by Schuh and Tog24. Lidl continued to flounder in the bottom five with 58 points, moving up only four places. However, there is good news for 2008’s lowest scoring retailer, Office. The shoe retailer boosted their score by 21 points this year to rank in eighth place with a score of 75. Last year’s top placed company Topshop ranks joint fourth this year with 78 points.
Whilst some of the lowest scoring criteria from 2008 showed signs of improvement, such as including a valid unsubscribe link and using engaging subject lines, there were some notable areas where retailers failed to deliver this year. For example, 71 per cent failed to use a personal greeting, something that has been shown to significantly increase open rates, and only 29 per cent asked for relevant interests during sign up, in order to target emails more effectively.
Half the retailers also failed to include a forward to a friend link to
encourage them to share the seasonal bargains with friends – a great way to increase the reach of any marketing communication and improve conversions. Only two retailers our of the 41 included social network links to help spread their messages virally.
Overall, the average score of 67 was down four points on 2008’s average of 71, and only 14 retailers managed to score 70 points or more this year.
Top Five Performers
1. M&S 81
1. H. Samuel 81
2. Ethical Superstore 80
3. Argos 78
3. John Lewis 78
3. Topshop 78
Worst Five Offenders
37. Lidl 58
38. Tog 24 53
39. Schuh 50
40. H&M 48
40. Somerfield 48
“While the 2009 report shows improvements in certain areas, it’s evident that many of the retailers that we assessed have not taken steps to improve their email marketing campaigns,” said Tink Taylor, dotMailer’s Business Development Director and a member of the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Marketing Council. “Many of the best practice guidelines outlined in the report are very easy to implement and by making these simple changes and improvements, retailers can start seeing some incredibly positive results, very quickly.”
“In the current economic climate and with marketing budgets being tightened, companies can reap dividends by focusing on their email marketing strategies and execution. Email offers a highly cost-effective, trackable and accountable way of communicating with prospects and customers. Spending more time investing in email best practice will reward retailers both now and long after the recession is over.”
Using the information contained within the report, dotMailer’s Tink
Taylor has issued five top email marketing tips for retailers striving to ride out the recession:
1. Include forward to a friend and ‘add to social networks’ links
– 50 per cent of retailers failed to include any kind of viral link in their email. Viral and word-of-mouth marketing can provide lucrative opportunities to spread marketing messages, drive traffic, collect contact data and increase revenue – at little or no cost to the marketer.
2. Personalise your greeting – Opening an email with a personalized greeting can significantly improve both open and click-through rates by engaging the recipient and helping to establish one-to-one communication. Seventy per cent of the emails we looked at failed to do this.
3. Check renderability before sending – 19 per cent of recipients will delete an email unread if it fails to render (display) correctly. There is still more work to be done in this crucial area with only 20 per cent of emails we studied rendering correctly in every type of email account.
4. Make sure your template has a good balance of text to images – as well as helping your campaign to pass spam filters, this ensures an email is readable when images are switched off by the email client – a simple step that can increase open rates by up to 40 per cent!
5. Initiate some action – the key to the success of an email campaign is to help recipients answer these three questions: Who is it from? What’s in it for me? And What shall I do next? Make sure you provide clear guidance on what you expect a recipient to do once they have read your email, for example click through to a product page, forward it to a friend, or contact your team. A third of retailers failed to provide a clear call to action.
