​Sorry to mention the “C” word whilst still in November, but with more than half of annual retail sales occurring during the three months leading up to Christmas in the UK, and a large proportion of these happening between Black Friday and Boxing Day, the festive season can quite literally make or break brands.

To make sure the festive season goes with a bang, some brands are spending more and more on big, flashy Christmas TV ads and campaigns to reach shoppers in the run-up to the big day, however not every brand has the budget required to take part in what many now refer to as the 'Super Bowl' of British Advertising. But fear not! As with Christmas presents what counts is not what you spend but the thought that goes into it making your gift, or marketing campaign, really relevant and personal.

So, with so much at stake, and just a few months until the big day, what steps can marketers take now to ensure that their brand is at the top of the wish list this Christmas?

CREATE EMOTIVE CONTENT
To cut through all the noise, marketing campaigns need to spark conversations that are evergreen in quality and continue growing and developing long after seeding - and the best way to do that is by using emotion. John Lewis' Man on the Moon and Sainsbury's Mog TV commercials provide great examples of how to capitalise on human emotion. The first focuses on the less publicised side of loneliness experienced by many at Christmas, and the latter applies humour to unexpected, catastrophic events, whilst both also integrate the relatable 'time for sharing' theme to deliver a heartfelt message.

Although each campaign was entertaining and successful in gaining many millions of media impressions, it is less clear whether they encourage the buyer to make a purchase, choose one brand over another or simply leave viewers with warm and fuzzy feelings. Without spending £7 million, there are many other ways for brands to get their products onto Santa's sleigh at a fraction of the cost.

OUTSMART THE COMPETITION WITH A CLEVER AND CREATIVE SEO STRATEGY
With online shopping now accounting for 27% of the UK's entire retail market, a solid strategy for SEO is crucial for helping the search engine spiders to recommend and index your website. Marketers should ensure that online content revolves around providing answers to trending queries rather than simply telling the audience what you want them to hear. Smart content uses your assets, is entrenched in research, will contain useful information and be ahead of the curve. And importantly, it will help to drive traffic to your website and grow conversions.

MAKE SURE YOU'RE MOBILE FRIENDLY
Search engines rank websites based on their inherent authority, for example, are your pages being linked to by third party sources, as well as components that communicate positive attributes like the website's speed, efficiency and general user experience. They also look at how mobile friendly your website is.

Today, some 39% of people use smartphones as the primary mode of research for products and services (up from 19% in 2013), and purchases made using mobile devices are predicted to reach  $1.915 trillion  worldwide. With that in mind, it's important to make sure you are offering mobile users a great experience on your website, while also considering mobile users carefully when planning your ads. For instance, it is well worth adding geo-targeting to the mix to not only enable you to serve real time ads to nearby, potential customers but it also provides you with meaningful and identifiable insights on what people want, need and are interested in during the festive season.

SHOW OFF YOUR PRODUCTS EFFECTIVELY ONLINE
Product Listing Ads (PLA's) are continuing to go from strength to strength. Cost Per Clicks (CPC's) remain low, yet conversion rates and average order values are almost as high as pure brand, and the ROI is excellent. So how do you make the most out of PLA's at the most important time of the year? Marketers will need to ensure all of their products are in the feed, named and include prices. Each product should have its own line and all text and images need to be 'crawlable' so the links can be discovered and indexed. Your feed will have to be updated daily and product titles must be 70 characters or less and in this instance, the description lines must include relevant keywords.

BE SMART ABOUT HOW YOU TARGET SHOPPERS ON SOCIAL
Social Media is constantly evolving which is making it more useful and relevant to marketers, but also more difficult for brands to use to their advantage. Having millions of followers does not necessarily mean engagement. At a time of the year where brands should be trying to reach the right customers with the right message, it is vital to properly know and understand them. 55% of all FTSE companies' followers on Twitter appear to be fake or inactive which means that content often isn't even reaching 'real' users. Marketers need to dig deep when finding out where their target audience is spending time online and take advantage of data driven tools and proven advertising platforms to obtain results based on tangible business objectives and not just brand awareness, likes and shares.
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With the average household spending approximately £800 on Christmas shopping, including gifts, food and drinks, marketers need to plan early, set clear objectives and ensure all channels are working together simultaneously. And in most cases, they won't need to spend £7m on a TV ad.

Direct mail and email can be very effective ways of marketing your business, allowing you to reach large numbers of customers at low cost. Email offers immediacy and low cost, while well-designed direct mail can really stand out.

Whether you are using direct mail or email, you need to be sure you are contacting the right people with the right message. Monitoring responses allows you to track effectiveness and improve future mailings.

1. Is it for you?
Establish who your target audience is

• You may want to mail your existing customer base.
• If you are targeting new prospects, the closer the mailing profile is to your existing customer base, the better the response rate will be.
• Build your own mailing list for the best response rate.
• Targets for business products are often easier to identify than targets for consumer goods.

Decide what you want to achieve with existing customers
For example:

• introduce new products;
• bring forward sales with a special offer;
• keep customers informed and build loyalty.

Decide what you want to achieve with new prospects
For example:

• test the market and generate interest;
• collect names and contact details to follow up;
• make immediate sales.

Identify what the costs would be

• Compiling your own mailing list or renting an external mailing list.
• Writing and designing the mailing. This may include additional enclosures (for direct mail) or supporting online content (for email marketing).
• Any physical production and postage costs.
• Labour costs. By the time you have planned, carried out and followed up the mailshot, labour may be your largest cost.
• Any external services such as using a mailing house.

Assess likely response rates

• Response rates vary widely. Testing and monitoring each campaign will help you improve future response rates.
• A typical response rates for direct mail to new prospects is around 4%. Response rates for email vary widely depending on sector.
• Response rates for existing customers should be much higher. A personalised and targeted mailshot to your best customers, making them a good offer, should get a fairly high response rate and conversion rate.

Decide whether mailing is the right option

• Compare the costs of the mailing with the likely results. For example, the value of the extra sales you hope to make or how much you think the new leads will turn out to be worth.
• To be worthwhile, a mailing needs to deliver a high response rate (and ultimately a high conversion rate), a high value per response or both.
• Consider alternative ways of achieving the same objectives, such as advertising, PR or exhibiting.

2. Your own mailing list
The quality of your database is the most critical element in achieving a good response rate.

It pays to create your own list

• The response rate will usually be much better than the response from any bought-in list.
• Your existing customers are always your best source of new orders and leads. Incentivise them with an "introduce a friend" offer.
• Keep track of any sales enquiries and people you meet at exhibitions and events.
• Ask suppliers and other business contacts about potential customers.
• Train staff to obtain full contact details from customers including email, address and telephone numbers. For business customers, include details such as function or job title.
• Never throw away a name. Gather leads from customer lists, trade show visitors, responses to advertisements and warranty cards.
• Make sure you comply with the Data Protection Act and your other legal responsibilities.

If you plan a significant volume of mailings, use database or CRM software

• Decide how much information you want to hold, and how to organise it, before choosing your software. Small mailshots can be done with word processing software and spreadsheets.
• Keep track of when each name was last checked or amended.
• Record when you last mailed each person, how often they have been approached in the past year and whether they have responded to any of your marketing campaigns. Regular mailings improve response, but too many alienate customers.

Your database is a valuable business asset and must be managed

• Data inputting must be checked and validated, or it could undermine your results.
• The quality of the database declines unless it is regularly cleaned and updated. Cleaning eliminates the names of "returns" (email bounce backs or letters returned to sender).
• Experts say an uncleaned list is unusable within three years. Many email addresses are out of date within six months.
• Encourage recipients to confirm or amend their details.
• Keep checking the database regularly.

3. External mailing lists
If you want to reach out to a larger slice of the market, renting a mailing list is usually the most cost-effective method.

Many lists can be rented or bought in

• Specialist magazines or websites, as well as conference or exhibition organisers, are a good source.
• Most directories rent out their lists and will send out the mailing on your behalf. Simply copying their list and using it (without permission) is a breach of their copyright.
• Some trade associations allow access to member lists. It is worth approaching your own industry body if you operate in a niche sector.
• Most business support organisations offer a wide range of lists. For small mailshots, such lists are often cheaper than those provided by other sources.
• You can find list owners, brokers and managers who adhere to the industry code of practice through the Direct Marketing Association.
• If you want to blanket-mail every household in a certain area, Royal Mail Door to Door may be your best option.

Identify your needs, in writing

• Be clear about the sort of person (or company) you wish to target. Lists can be specific and tailored to your requirements.
• A good business list will include the names and titles of the decision-makers.
• Know the number of names and addresses you need.

Shop around until you find the right list at the right price

• £100-£120 per 1,000 names is average. Lists of consumers tend to be less expensive than lists of businesses.
• Specialist lists cost more. For example, a list of wealthy private investors might cost £200 per 1,000. A good business list of people who have previously responded by mail will cost at least £200 per 1,000 names.
• Additional information (eg telephone numbers or email addresses) usually costs extra.
• Consider using a list broker to find the best source of data.

Check the quality of the list

• The more recently the list has been rented by someone else and updated, the better it will be.
• Check a few names you know to see whether they are on the list.
• If you rent a consumer list, check it has been cleared with the Mailing Preference Service (see Legal responsibilities below).

Negotiate a deal

• Ask for the lowest minimum order from the list and test part of it. Many list companies will impose a minimum order charge (often £300).
• Knock out flaws in bought-in lists, for example, duplications of branch offices.
• Insist on exclusive use for your type of business while you are doing your mailing.
• Agree a refund if a high percentage (say, more than 5%) of your mail packs are returned as undeliverable or your emails bounce.

Do not re-use a list you have rented for one-off use

• The list owner will have seeded it with a few names of their own people so that they can tell if you abuse the agreement.
• Everyone who responds to your original mailing becomes 'yours' and can be mailed again, as often as you like.

YOUR LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES 
You must comply with the Data Protection Act

• You must follow the data protection principles. For example, keeping personal data securely.

• You may need to register with the Information Commissioner's Office.

You must not send unsolicited email to individuals

• That includes consumers, sole traders and partners in business partnerships. It does not include limited companies.
• Individuals can consent or opt in to receiving marketing emails.
• You can also send marketing emails to existing customers or enquirers that you have already been dealing with in regard to related products. You must give them the opportunity to opt-out every time you email them.
• You cannot sell or exchange your list unless customers have given their consent to being contacted by other businesses.

You should not send direct mail to individuals who do not want it

• Members of the public can register with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) to opt out from receiving direct mail.
• Members of the Direct Marketing Association will screen their mailing lists against the MPS.

Always allow individuals and businesses to opt-out from future mailings or email

• Provide an unsubscribe address on all emails and mailings.
• Even when not legally required, allowing opt-outs helps improve the quality of your mailing lists.

4. The mailing
A well-produced mailing will create a better response rate. Quality is important - you are competing with all the other mail and email that is sent to your target groups.

Choose the right timing

• For business targets, do not send out mail just ahead of a public holiday. Mail in advance of key financial points in the year such as the end of the year and the tax year so that your message arrives when budgets are being planned.
• Saturdays and holidays are ideal for consumer products such as leisure and gardening items.
• A mailing promoting an event should ideally be sent four to six weeks beforehand and followed up with additional mailings.
• Staggering your send dates will make it easier to control the flow of responses.

Create a compelling mailing

• Encourage readers to open it. Think about the appearance of the envelope or the subject line for an email.
• You have less than two seconds to convince the reader it is worth reading. The first few words are crucial. 
• Focus on benefits.
• Include relevant enclosures (eg a brochure and price list). Emails should include a call to action and link to relevant pages of your website.
• Encourage responses. For example, you could include a reply paid envelope.
• Provide an incentive to reply promptly such as a time-limited discount.

Plan your follow up

• Depending on the nature of your mailing, it may be worth following it up with a telephone call or an email.
• Be ready to respond when orders come in. Poor service puts customers off. Decide in advance what you will do if the response rate is two or three times what you were expecting.

5. Testing and monitoring
A great advantage of direct mail is the ability to test a range of possibilities quickly and simply.

Split test different mailings

• Send out mailings with different messages, or change one item on each successive mailing.
• Test how different headlines or subject lines affect the response.
• Use order forms in different colours, keys or codes, or different landing pages on your website so that you can check which mailing is being responded to.

Test different offers

• For example, you could send out identical mailings but with different special offers.

Test different sectors of the market

• Monitor the response so you can identify which targets are most interested.

Try different timings

• Assess how receptive targets are to emails at different times of day.
• Find out how responses vary for mailings sent at different times of the year, month or week.

Experiment to find out what works

• Once you know what works best, you can scale it up.
• If the response isn't good enough, try a different approach.
• Try to take into account whether responses are being delayed. For example, if mailshots are being passed to other staff or filed for future reference.

6. Using a mailing house
A small business can easily handle mailings of up to 1,000 items

• Beyond that, you might want to bring in temporary employees or use a mailing house.

Find potential suppliers

• Find a list of suitable mailing houses from the Direct Marketing Association.
• Look for a mailing house that is used to handling mailshots on the scale you need.
• Check what services they offer. These will include database management, providing (and printing) labels and envelopes, stuffing, stamping and despatch. Specify what you want.

Shop around for quotes

• Ask the mailing house to quote for supplying your envelopes and enclosures. The benefits of one-stop shopping may be worth the extra cost.
• Ask if the envelope stuffing will be done (more cheaply) by machine, and if your envelope and enclosures are suitable.
• Ask how many extra envelopes and enclosures (usually 5%) you should supply, to allow for wastage.
• You usually pay postage in advance, but there should be no mark-up on the cost.
• Check what postage discounts they can get. For example, by sorting the mail to get Royal Mail Mailsort discounts.

Check that the mailing house does a good job

• Let the mailing house know that you are maintaining checks.
• Include a few seed names (eg your employees), who can tell you when the mailing arrived, and in what state.
• Ask for a copy of the Royal Mail posting docket as proof of mailing.

​Your mailing list is one of your most valuable marketing resources. It holds information on your customers and prospects that can be used to improve customer satisfaction and increase sales.

An up-to-date marketing database is a goldmine of useful information. It can help you run your business more effectively, providing a snapshot of your most profitable clients and highlighting sales trends.

Building a mailing list
Before you begin to create a database, you need to think about the information you want to hold on each contact. Basic customer details - address, email, telephone and fax numbers - are just a starting point. Details about buying habits will enable you to better understand your customers and meet their needs. You can also collect lifestyle information such as gender, age and income so you can target your marketing messages at specific demographic groups.

Your contact list can be compiled from a number of sources. Start with your existing customers and contacts. You can then find new prospects in your area by looking in the electoral register. For business prospects, you can refer to the membership lists of industry bodies or local Chambers of Commerce. You can also consult directories. Copying and mailing a whole list, however, is a breach of copyright.

Renting or buying a mailing list is a good way to reach a new customer base. List rental usually costs about £120 per 1,000 mailing names - but bear in mind lists of consumers tend to be cheaper than lists of business contacts. When you shop around for the best mailing list, you can ask for high spenders or other groups based on social type, location or job title.

Keeping your database clean
Keeping your mailing list clean is an important job. A good direct marketing contact list should have accurate, up-to-date and relevant data. It's vital to clean your list regularly by removing or amending incorrect data (for example, when mailings arrive 'returned to sender') and getting rid of duplicate entries. You will quickly alienate your contacts if you send them mailings that are wrongly addressed or irrelevant to them.

The law gives individuals the right to stop their personal information being used for direct marketing. A request in writing must be honoured within 28 days. Individuals can also ask to see any personal information you hold about them to check if it is correct.

You can improve the accuracy of your marketing database by checking it against the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF). This service checks spelling and accuracy of addresses and postcodes and corrects them in your mailing list.

Finally, make sure you do regular checks against the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) list, the Telephone Preference List (TPS) and the Fax Preference Service (FPS). These services are for consumers who want to opt out of receiving unsolicited mail, calls or faxes.

Using your database to improve profitability
Your database can reveal your customers' buying behaviour, including the type and frequency of orders. It can highlight trend and patterns. It can even help you target your perfect customer.

This is valuable market intelligence. By analysing your own data, you can make more informed decisions about everything from product development to pricing. Take that perfect customer profile, and you can find new prospects that match it and target them.
Your mailing list also enables you to improve customer service and build better relationships with customers. By understanding your customers better, you can give them what they want.
 
Your guide to buying mailing lists 
Buying a mailing list can be fraught with pitfalls, so here are my eight valuable pieces of advice to help you source the right mailing list

1. Don't delegate: I receive many enquiries from receptionists, apprentices or others who are not qualified to source marketing data. At the very least, the person sourcing the list should have an in-depth understanding of your marketing campaign objectives and target audiences. In our experience, delegation of data purchasing usually ends up with decisions being made on price only.

If you want to go down this route, you can just buy a cheap list from eBay and throw the budget and potentially your good reputation down the drain.
Even the business owner may not have much expertise in the nuances of marketing data. The safest route is to get expert impartial advice before you speak to data sales reps.

2. Don't believe the hype: All data list owners will tell you that their data is the best and that it is unique in the marketplace. The truth is it is all just hot air. When you speak to a mailing list company, you don't speak to the data experts, you speak to a sales person paid to tell you good things about their data.

So take what the sales person says with a pinch of salt and ask the right questions so you can compare the different lists that are available.

3. Don't ask silly questions: How good is your data? You might think this is a good question, and certainly it's one many people ask, but what answer are you expecting back?

I guarantee that all responders will give you a pre-prepared spiel that again leaves you with no tangible information about choosing a suitable list.

Questions to ask should cover guarantees, legalities and data suppressions, opt-in mechanisms and sources, samples, duplicate prevention and more. A good broker will ask these questions for you.

4. Don't believe that all data is equal: Would you buy a "genuine article" Rolex off a man in the pub for a tenner and expect it to be real? No, you wouldn't. But some small business owners do believe the hype from data sales people and then they wonder why their mail server is shut off, why they have complaints about spam and why the data owner is slow to return their complaint call.

5. Don't buy from people who are not experienced: I have seen many companies appearing recently claiming to be data experts. It's vital to work with companies that have good data credentials so that you get lists that comply with legal and ethical marketing standards.

6. Don't jump in with both feet: As a rule of thumb, data sales people prefer you to buy large amounts of data and therefore spend more money with them. They frequently come up with silly offers to tempt you into giving them a large chunk of their monthly sales target.

Then these offers come your way, take stock and work out whether it is actually worth your while to buy big chunks of untested data. As a rule of thumb, test first to validate the list before buying large volumes. And if it's too good an offer to be true, walk away.

7. But don't take the samples as gospel: If you have ever purchased a duff list after receiving a good sample, think about these questions before buying your next list: Do you think data companies realise the importance of good samples pre-sale? Do you think data companies have ever considered cleansing a sample before release?

8. Give data procurement the importance it deserves: Do your research. Adhere to direct marketing laws. Think of the ethics and brand implications of using poor quality and/or illegal marketing data. Buy from Direct Marketing Association (DMA) members only. And most importantly, speak to data experts. After all, would you fix your own car?

​Testimonials are an extremely important part of the success of your business. On your relationship-building journey, which is lined with credibility and expertise, testimonials from loyal customers are a critical part of the presence of your business.
 
What is a testimonial?
Testimonials are written or recorded statements that support your credibility and level of expertise. They also strengthen your reputation by expressing the trust that other people have in you and your business offerings. They are a wonderful tool that helps you to attract a deeper interest from perspective clients and existing clients and will ultimately make you and your business increasingly more successful.
 
Simply claiming to be "the best" is not enough to convince people to try your products or services. Testimonials offer an independent indication that you have done a good job and can help reassure new or nervous buyers, as well as distinguishing you from your competitors.
 
Here are ten easy steps to generate customer testimonials:

1. Ask your customers for feedback. Be organised and send out a standard email after a purchase to generate a steady stream of feedback. Alternatively, approach key clients personally, explaining that you'd appreciate their comments.
2. Consider which type of testimonial best suits your business. You could use simple client quotes, reviews of your products or even create videos of customers praising your services and share them on social media.
3. Make sure the testimonials are relevant to your target audience and likely to be persuasive; ensure they focus on the product features and aspects of your service that are likely to have the greatest appeal.
4. Keep quotes short, snappy and easy to read - and for authenticity, always try to include a full name, company and job title.
5. Be creative with your material. Consider inserting a page of satisfied client feedback in sales packs or share testimonials in a blog. You could even use a buyer’s comment in an advert or put a positive quote on the back of your business card.
6. Arrange testimonials according to category so you can address specific concerns that your customers may have. Comments that highlight your credibility as a supplier or provide feedback about swiftness of delivery, for instance, could be used on your order page.
7. Don’t just think in terms of individual names. Can you add the names or logos of respected companies that use or buy your services? If you can showcase an impressive client list, do so.
8. Keep testimonials fresh by regularly updating them.
9. Include a link to clients' websites alongside their comments. Listing reciprocal links and connecting on social networks also allows potential buyers to see who you do business with.
10. Get the customer’s permission first before using their remarks and make sure they are happy about their comments being made public.

 
Conclusion
Credibility is essential to the success of your business. Strategic and intelligent use of testimonials can go a long way in promoting your business. The more online visibility and stronger reputation you have and continue to maintain, the stronger your business will become.