A new web domain is on it’s way. The brand new .co domain name extension offers a new and varied range of possibilities. Whether you’re a company, committee of community, the .co will offer an alternative to .co.uk. But will it replace it? Probably not, .co.uk domains are the domain extension of choice for UK businesses. It may work well for individuals own name domains, or perhaps a brand name in a competitive space. They are also more expensive than .co.uk domains!

Either way, if you want to book yours then let us know and we can reserve it for you.

Is there a better way to promote your product than to incorporate it into a music video with some spreadable appeal? Brett Dominoes’ Justin Timberlake video is a great viral marketing example. Let’s see how it fares for them. We will be waiting for the good news!

Here is a quick and easy way to get back to people after they have followed you on twitter.

You guessed it, it is an automated response. Check out this link to find out how.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5842327_setup-twitter-autoresponder.html

How about that for efficiency!

You may be aware of the very successful ‘Compare the Meerkat’ campaign, informing you of the confusion between two similar sounding sites. But were you aware of their fully functioning website that allows you to compare meerkats, watch meerkat videos and fully immerse yourself in the world of meerkats!

It hadn’t occurred to me that the creators would go to the extent of creating a website to accompany the concept. But then when I began read about the campaign as a whole and understand the scope, I found it works on so many levels, across a multitude of media.

The standout from other competitors in the market has been a great success “Times Online reports, citing Hitwise stats, that the site increased its market share of UK insurance comparison site visits by 76 percent since the campaign was launched in December 2008.” With the ongoing viral campaigns, tv ads, soft toys of the characters (you can even follow Aleksandr on twitter), it seems that the campaign still has the legs to carry it on throughout this year – All this from a concept concived by a couple of drunk creatives in a pub who decided that Compare The Market sounded quite similar to Compare The Meerkat. …simples!

Over recent years we’ve seen a shift in where businesses focus their marketing activities. Advertising spend online topped that of offline spend for the first time this year as companies are now fighting to find their space online, rather in traditional media.

So what do this mean for the typical business owner? Well they suddenly need to think about how to put together an online marketing plan. Do you sign up to Facebook? What about online PR? Should you start Pay Par Click advertising or create a Banner Ad? What about Blogging, RSS or Feeds?

All of a sudden, an understanding of a variety of new technologies is critical to taking advantage of the online marketing opportunities. No longer can you simply write a new plan and then carry it out. You need to either take on an Online Marketing Manager or find a suitable company to manage it all for you. Outsourcing your online marketing might be the right way forward as you would be taking on the expertise of a number of specialists and at the same time, drastically reducing the monthly outgoings required.

Either way the new technologies cannot be ignored, perhaps the first step is to start talking to someone who can help to shape the online marketing plan and to focus on the right places online to start marketing.

Masters Allen have been working with midlands based telecommunications company Daly Telecom on their rebrand.

Daly Telecom recognised the need to future-proof their business, viewing the situation as an opportunity to expand their client base and move into new markets.

It was clear that the name needed addressing first and foremost, whilst it may be familiar to the current client base, it restricted their product offering and development into new markets. We had to establish a name that not only retained the 25 year heritage within the industry, but also provide a solution to take the business forward in an ever-changing and fast-moving industry. The solution, as it turned out, was simple – a removal of the reference to telecommunications, combined with the retention of the Daly name and reference to communications, joined together, created the individual name – Dalycom.

The new brand and design style has been applied to a variety of visual assets to create a consistent and coherent business message.

With trust in the banking sector at an all-time low, Santander’s decision to rebrand all of its UK High Street brands including Abbey, Alliance + Leicester and Bradford and Bingley over to Santander could be seen as a risky one. On the other hand it’s no surprise that the second-biggest banking group in the world (after HSBC) wants to roll out the changes when they reportedly plan to save £180m a year by integrating the three businesses.

Who remembers the £11m Abbey rebrand in 2003 shortly before the Santander takeover? Abbey adopted a soft, all lowercase, pastel coloured brand identity with the new tagline, ‘turning banking on its head’. Rebranding certainly isn’t new to Abbey customers.

It is, after all, five years since Abbey was taken over by Santander and in that time we have seen the incorporation of the Santander ‘flame’ logo, typeface and colour into the Abbey branding. What’s left to change, other than the brand name? As for the other two brands, their takeovers are still fresh and for that reason the rebrands could be seen as more risky.

However, bank customers are extremely loyal and Santander’s decison to roll out the rebrands by the end of 2010 suggests steady change rather than a swift one. Lets not forget that it will be an enormous rebranding exercise, and customers can probably expect some technical glitches along the way. Perhaps most interesting will be the advertising campaigns, direct mail and incentives that will follow, all in the name of turning one, or in this case three recognised brands into one ’super’ brand.

How to get your email marketing messages opened is always on the mind of the email marketer. The sheer volume of companies using email has turned the medium into a bit of a double-edged sword for many potential email marketers: Not only have consumers become increasingly wary of unsolicited messages, significantly reducing ‘open’ rates, but the rising use of spam filters, which often target particular keywords and phrases in subject lines, stops many marketing emails from ever reaching a target’s in-box.

Here are a few key points to consider when writing your email subject line:

Keep it short and simple. There is a danger of making subject lines too long, and because of over-communication, people today tend to like simplicity.

Think segmentation. It’s important to test different subject lines for different customer segments. What works with one group may not work for another. In this way you should always test every subject line before sending your email out to various audiences.

Question almost everything. Subject lines that pose a question can work very well. A subject line that can grab the curiosity of the recipient stands a better chance of getting opened.

Make it about them, not you. An oversight that is often made with subject lines is failing to take the recipient into account. For example, We’re Having a Sale’ could be tweaked to read, ‘You Can Save Money’ because it drives home the value proposition you want to deliver.

Don’t be afraid of free. Often the word ‘free’ in a subject line is avoided because it can trigger a spam filter. However, it may be worth the risk when conducting a split test of your emails, providing you closely monitor the ‘open’ rates of each alternative subject line.

Inform before you sell. By describing what’s in the email in the subject line, a recipient may be much more willing to open it. By informing first, followed by selling, you can stand a much better chance of success simply because the email had been opened.

Hopefully these pointers will help you when considering your email subject line. But always remember to consider the following.

State clearly and succinctly what you are offering and how it will benefit your recipient. Throughout your campaign planning, put yourself in the position of the recipient. What makes you want to open an email? What makes you want to click on the link? If you know your audience, then you know what they want. If you’re not sure how they will respond, test the list in small increments and measure the results.

Good luck.

If you’re looking to promote your website in any way, and are looking to take on board the learning process yourself rather than handing it over to a consultant or web design / SEO company, then there is some funding available for you right now.

The Leader First grant from Train to Gain, offers £500 initial funding, plus a further £1 for £1 funding up to £500 of additional funding on a £1500 project. To take advantage of this funding then you must not have undertaken any similar Leaders First funded training in the last 2 years and will need to apply through Train to Gain.

If you are interested in promoting your website and would like to investigate a funded training programme, then contact us for more details.

If you are keen to drive more traffic to your website and want to increase your search engine ranking, then blogging might be for you.

We would describe a blog as – “an online journal that is regularly updated with content and built on a platform with automated syndication”. In simple terms, consider a blog to be the equivalent of an online diary or bulletin board that is very easy for web users to access.

Blogs can be hosted with blog software or can be hosted by a blog host company. The downside of a blog host company is that you will not get the benefit of SEO (search engine optimisation) for your website.

Blogs and search engine marketing marry extremely well. Search engines have historically looked for content rich websites that are updated frequently, blogs provide the perfect solution for this, provided they are updated regularly. Search engines like keyword links, which blogs can provide. Assuming of course that they are written with keywords in mind. Search engines also like unique and popular content, so it is fairly safe to assume that if your blog is topical then visitors will want to read it!

In a nutshell, active blogs can rank well in search engines, provide quality links back to your main domain, and expand your traffic and presence on the web. So the question is, what are you waiting for?