Marketing Online - Issue 8

OCTOBER 2016 ISSUE EIGHT

HOW TO GET PROFILE FOR A NEW SERVICE OR PRODUCT WHEN NOBODY’S EVER HEARD OF IT

Local Marketing Strategies 6 Ways to Ensure your Written Content Delivers WWW.MARKETINGONLINE.CO.NZ

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L A I R O T I D E A

re mainstream publishers stuck in a time warp? Browse the websites of some of New Zealand’s biggest newspapers and magazines, and you’ll find sponsored stories and native ads. Wikipedia says native ads are a type of disguised advertising, except media law experts like Simpson and Grierson’s Special Counsel, Tracey Walker, will tell you full disclosure is required by law.

Sponsored content or native advertising is not an advertisement disguised as editorial.

The purpose of good sponsored content is to inform, educate and inspire audiences – in other words to add value rather than just trying to sell you something (while still making it very clear about the source of that content).

Except – it appears that most of New Zealand’s biggest newspapers and magazines have missed the boat entirely. They’ve dusted off

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that old, diabolical and useless thing called an advertorial and called it sponsored content.

Same old advertising by another name. They’re making it clear that it is sponsored, mostly, but while you may fool the public into reading this stuff for a short while, it won’t be for long, and our worthy publishers will have wrecked a concept that had a lot of merit.

This means the idea of brands being able to produce content that is educational and valuable as a way to engage their audiences, instead of shoving ‘interruptive’ commercial messages down our throats, will eventually suffer a crisis of trust.

I hope it survives because the concept of native advertising done properly and honestly is a good one.

Colin

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Vist:LeadingEdgeGroup.conz , l l e s we ceed c u s u yo

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Our proven sales and customer service helps your business thrive by fostering deeper connections between people and brands.

We work behind the scenes to make our partners’ brands shine.

Find out how your sales channel can work better and smarter.

Visit: LeadingEdgeGroup.co.nz

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6.

How To Get Profile For A New Service Or Product When Nobody’s Ever Heard Of It 12.

Local Marketing Strategies Marketing strategies to grow and scale a local business 16.

6 Ways To Ensure Your Written Content Delivers 18.

Big Move By Google Adwords Will Change Face Of The Internet

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Do You Want A Proposal With That?

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Did You Know?

ABOUT / Short and sharp, Marketing Online is a free eMagazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, and industry news and information to forward-thinking marketing people.

EDITOR / Colin Kennedy ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson

CONTENTS

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CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Colin on 027 2456060 or email colin@espiremedia.com ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Phone Jennifer on 03 443 6316 or email jenniferl@espiremedia.com WEBSITE / www.marketingonline.co.nz

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GOT A PRODUCT, SERVICE OR BUSINESS WORTH TALKING ABOUT? Want to grow brand awareness in a more effective and useful way?

TALK TO ESPIRE MEDIA ABOUT OUR CONTENT MARKETING SERVICES We offer a range of ways to attract and retain customers, by creating and curating relevant and valuable content to engage and add value to your audience.

BENEFITS: • Expand your digital footprint • Grow brand awareness • Increase traffic to your website • Thought leadership • Media exposure • Attract new customers • And... grow SALES!

Get in+64touch with Jennifer now to discuss our options.

3 443 6316 (NZT) | jenniferl@espiremedia.com | www.espiremedia.com Check out our blog for content marketing advice, tips and ideas, plus a free copy of our content marketing guide The Content Creation Cookbook!

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HOW TO GET PROFILE FOR A NEW SERVICE OR PRODUCT WHEN NOBODY’S EVER HEARD OF IT

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HOW DO YOU RAISE AWARENESS AND CREATE A MARKET FOR A COMPLETELY NEW, UNIQUE PRODUCT OR SERVICE THAT NOBODY HAS ‘EVER HEARD OF’?

I was at a Grow with Hubspot event in Auckland recently when business owner Joanna Clough asked a similar question.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Joanna is the New Zealand founder of The Dog Safe Workplace Ltd tive international market helping workers who need to enter private properties, as part of their work, where there may be aggressive dogs.

Joanna will train mail delivery people, salespersons, real estate agents, property managers, electricity meter readers, sheriffs of the court – and probably even Jehovah’s Witnesses if they’re willing to buy – on how to be safe around a strange dog.

“A lot of dog attacks can be prevented by just being able to interpret how a dog is responding to you,” Joanna told me when we chatted briefly after the seminar. “But nobody else out there is training people in how to behave around dogs on a stranger’s property.

It’s unheard of, as far as I can tell.”

SO HOW DO YOU BEGIN TO BUILD PROFILE, PRESENCE AND MARKET SHARE FOR A NEW PRODUCT OR SERVICE INNOVATION? Perhaps the thought of your product or service may never have even crossed your potential customer’s mind – even though they need it. It’s also possible that the decision makers don’t want to entertain the idea of an additional cost.

Calm your expectations and roll up your sleeves. Don’t for one moment think that your customers will leap to buy your product or service the moment they hear about it.

Like anybody with a new product or service, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Many people, including myself at one time, believe that they will achieve quick success when they introduce a unique product or service to a market because ‘nobody else is doing it’.

When I ‘discovered’ that what I was doing was called content marketing in 2003, I thought to myself ‘here’s a name upon which to pin a point of difference; it’s something that people need, and they’ll grab it with both hands. Nobody else is talking about it!’

Nah. Nope. Never happened.

Mostly, what I got was blank looks and attempts by potential customers to relate the concept back to things they knew and understood, like article marketing and public relations (even though, I might add, the idea of content marketing has been around for generations).

It is important to get on the front foot and begin educating your target market as quickly and comprehensively as possible because when they do catch on, copycats with more money and resources will sweep in and take over – claiming to be first, the biggest and the best.

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PUBLISH, PUBLISH, PUBLISH AND SECRECY BE DAMNED Flying under the radar to avoid threats from potential copycats may be a mistake because the brand that claims the lion’s share of market profile usually wins As the Special Air Services say: “Who dares wins.” Copycats will come along – you can count on it – and if they do their marketing better than you because they have more money and resources, you’ll find yourself looking like the copycat.

Here are some tips on how to raise profile about your service or product:

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Monitor the general news media for opportunities to educate

Here’s an example of a story – Too middle class for a mortgage – which we helped get started for Christine Lockie at LoanPlan . It received good pick-up from media.

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Evaluate the environment and target trade media

The PESTLE model (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) is good for this. What is happening on the political front, for example, that makes your product or service more relevant? Socially? Economically? Legally?

I suggested to Joanna that she watch the media for reports about dog attacks. When one occurs, call the journalist (or broadcaster) doing the story and offer to write or interview about some tips that may help people who find themselves in those risky situations in the future (I know that Joanna has already done this to some extent).

In Joanna’s case, New Zealand recently brought in strict laws on health and safety in the workplace (Health and Safety in the Workplace Act 2015), which has strict processes and procedures that managers must follow to ensure worker safety. The penalties for not taking reasonable steps to keep staff or contractors safe are severe.

TIP: My advice, however, is not to go near ‘very bad’ news situations. For example, where something particularly heart-wrenching, sad and unpleasant has occurred, emotions will understandably be running high. No business person wants to be perceived as trying to profit from misfortune on that scale. Also, make sure that your service or product is relevant to the situation when you are following up on a news event.

Managers of people who must enter private properties, for example, property managers and meter readers, would be in for the high jump if they failed to ensure that their staff were adequately trained to deal with aggressive dogs (or billy goats for that matter – just ask my daughter).

Of course, some people who go into business are passionate, committed entrepreneurs who want to make a difference.

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They want to help other people, and they see educating the public as a philanthropic act, but the media is fickle, and publicity is a double-edged sword. Proceed with caution, tact and good intentions.

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The law change is an opportunity for somebody like Joanna to create educational articles, video or infographics for industry media – including industry associations and company newsletters – that are designed to steer the audience to her company’s website.

TIP: It is better to write the article first and send it to the editor as part of your pitch. Editors are more likely to decline content if they don’t know what to expect.

Experience has taught them that the quality of most press release articles they receive are sales, advertorial gum. Sending your educational article along with your pitch will help dispel that fear.

THE EXPERIENCE STORY Talk to customers, find out about their experiences and then use those experiences in your stories – you don’t have to name them, but it is preferable (make sure you have their permission first) – and then use that experience to discuss possible ways of dealing with similar situations.

Note: I’m not talking about a case study. A case study is a sales tool. I’m talking about real, everyday experiences your customer has had; that other clients will instinctively understand.

THE MORE YOU EDUCATE, THE MORE YOU SELL Apple founder Steve Jobs famously said ‘customers don’t know what they want’.

However, I believe that your customers often don’t know what they need – especially if what you’re offering is brand new – until you make them aware of it.

Once your customers understand what you’re offering, and they see the value, let them provide you with the direction from there on in. There are three types of customer feedback that you can use to inform your content.

1. Experiences 2. Problems 3. Questions

THE PROBLEM STORY Address your customer’s problems. For example, in this article, we’re talking about the problem of raising awareness about an entirely new product or service.

Here’s a useful formula that applies to the problem story: 1. Name the problem 2. Tell your audience why they have this problem 3. Explain why it isn’t going away 4. Educate them with some tips and advice on how to fix it 5. Paint a picture of life after the problem Make no mistake; problems sell – it’s why the media is full of problem and issue type stories. Research shows that bad news, problem-related stories are 17 to 1 more likely to result in engagement.

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THE QUESTION STORY What’s the most common question every customer has, but to which there is hardly ever a straight answer?

“What’s it cost?”

Customers always want to know the price. So tell them. If you scare them away, they’re probably not your ideal customer. You don’t have to provide a definitive price. Say instead that the price is variable according to certain factors, but you’re looking at – for example – anything between $300 and $600 excluding taxes.

Every customer question is a piece of content. Address those questions with objective, ‘how to’ content that informs, educates, entertains or inspires. Once you’ve created some good quality educational content, it’s time to put the word out there.

Here’s a simple content publishing system anybody can implement Website: It goes without saying that you must have a website, a place where you can publish blogs, articles, video, podcasts and press releases on your site.

There will always be an offer: Provide a ‘free to download’ eGuide, eBook or a tool of some sort. For example, Hubspot’s Website Grader evaluates your website.

Infusionsoft provides a free Email Campaign

Performance Tool and Shopify has a Logo Maker .

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“Customers who see the value of your free content are more often than not prepared to provide you with at least their first name and email address in exchange for accessing the content or tools.”

Customers who see the value of your free content are more often than not prepared to provide you with at least their first name and email address in exchange for accessing the content or tools.

Build a community: Once a potential customer has trusted you with their email address, they should receive an automated response to say ‘thank you’ and to advise them that you’ll be sending them more informative and educational stories from time to time (as well as product and service offers).

Automating your response system, even preloading a library of emails ready to go at set intervals, can be done for nothing by opening up a free MailChimp account and linking it to the subscription box on your website with a bit of code. Don’t abuse the privilege by sending customers stuff almost every day. That kind of behaviour usually meets with delete, delete, delete – unsubscribe.

SYNDICATE YOUR CONTENT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA Identify the influencers, journalists, speakers, bloggers, managers and other leaders in your target market. Follow them on social media and make use of levers like # hashtags to get their attention when you have something informative and exciting to add, of course with a link back to the relevant content on your website.

Guest blogging may also be a good way for some businesses to increase exposure. Do you have suppliers or know of companies that are compatible with your products or services?

For example, if you sell hardware of some sort it probably needs cabling. Ask the cabling company to share your content on their website, and you’ll do the same for them.

GOOGLE ADVERTISING AND OUTBRAIN Google AdWords and content discovery platform Outbrain may both be used to draw attention to useful and informative articles, videos, podcasts and eBooks that you publish. Both are quick and easy payper-click channels to set up so you can start drawing attention to your message. Google AdWords offers a headline, teaser and link back to your website.

Outbrain publishes articles on high traffic, high authority websites such as the New Zealand Herald, Stuff, the BBC, MSN and the New York Post – which link back to your site. Outbrain will be more expensive than Google AdWords, but traffic volumes could be massive.

CONCLUSION In the beginning, I did say that you should roll up your sleeves because this is going to be a lot of hard work. Introducing a new product or service into a market is not easy. In fact, it’s a lot harder than offering something everybody recognises and understands. It takes persistence and consistency to achieve a breakthrough – you should publish at least once a week, at the absolute minimum.

The thing to remember that by going into business you are no longer a retailer, mortgage or insurance broker, or plumber, or trainer or lawyer – you’re a marketer first and foremost because without sales you don’t have a business. ▼

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LOCAL MARKETING STRATEGIES Marketing strategies to grow and scale a local business

BY Rebecca Caroe

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M

ost of New Zealand’s businesses are local – including many marketing services agencies. Knowing how to get known locally is an age-old skill.

Today we are going to start looking at digital techniques that can support your traditional activities.

DEFINE ‘LOCAL’

TWELVE TOP TACTICS FOR LOCAL Here’s my list of tools for you to use in support of local marketing:

Local marketing is essential nowadays, but it could mean a neighbourhood, a city or a country. Few prospects are navigating social media looking for your locally supplied services and so covering these 12 local marketing tactics will become more profitable than ever, in time.

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Let’s start with a clear statement of intent.

Despite publicity to the contrary, few businesses can operate an Inbound Only strategy. If you are world famous (in New Zealand), maybe it is possible. However, for most of us, don’t even think of it.

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And another quick reminder - if your business relies on word of mouth you can be sure that you will be out of business pretty fast if that is your only marketing tactic. WOM works, but it only works in conjunction with other tactics and with forced encouragement of the word of mouth action. Don’t believe business owners who say they get “all their business enquiries” from WOM. It simply isn’t the full truth.

Set up a Google My Business account and get it address-verified (they post you a code). This allows search results to display detailed information about your business, to link your other Google-owned assets like YouTube, Analytics and AdWords and provide a verified uniform display of all your locations.

Keywords - ensure city/town/suburb/state or county are all included in metadata on your site, in your page copy and relevant blog posts. Especially important if you have case studies if you can say ‘Tauranga Plumber’ or ‘Avondale Dressmaker’ as it further reinforces the areas you work in and brands you are associated with.

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Directory listings – get yourself listed on free and paid sites. If you can afford a small, spend on BrightLocal to manage all your listings. This is worthwhile because there are over 30 listings sites for New Zealand alone - bet you cannot name more than five unprompted!

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“Use Facebook local targeting for advertising and brand building. The unbelievably detailed targeting available through Facebook is a gift for all of us�

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Use Facebook local targeting for advertising and brand building. The unbelievably detailed targeting available through Facebook is a gift for all of us. We can focus our message so tightly that spend is controlled and delivered to only the right people. As a marketer, this is a gift which you must use. Either learn how to do it yourself or hire the talent to set it up and teach you how to use it. Many of our clients like us to tutor them in these techniques before taking over the management ongoing.

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Set up Google Alerts for key phrases in the news that could allow you to comment add new prospective contacts and build a mailing list.

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Join the local Business Associations and contact all the relevant local business members so they know about you. In Auckland, these are free to join for ratepayers - but even if the cost is low, it is an investment worth having. You meet people who are inclined to use networking, and that is a benefit in itself. Also, most associations have mailing lists which you can access when you are a member.

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“ Get happy customers to write testimonials on Google My Business, also reproduce them on your website. I like to recommend a short two-sentence version plus a longer version which you can use as a case study article or newsletter piece.”

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Go to networking events such as BNI, Chamber of Commerce, Meetup.com, Eventbrite are all good places to find groups to test out.

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Get happy customers to write testimonials on Google My Business, also reproduce them on your website. I like to recommend a short two-sentence version plus a longer version which you can use as a case study article or newsletter piece.

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Use media relations to get articles in a local newspaper, local radio, local newsletters, neighbourly. co.nz and don’t forget to check out Yahoo groups for local lists.

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Ask for referrals by sending two business cards with your invoice. My favourite is to leverage first meeting discussions that don’t seem to lead to new work immediately. Make something from the time you have invested by asking for introductions.

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Make specific requests for social sharing via your accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

When there’s something important to say, call in a few favours and get that update on shared by your friends and contacts. It is easier than you may think.

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Surprise and delight the customer, e.g., pay it forward. Can you think of a way to involve a charity, or give a surprise gift to a deserving individual and use that for publicity?

I hope that provides you with a load of great ideas to be getting on with. The key is to get value from both online and offline marketing spend and the crossovers are increasingly beneficial when focused on local marketing. ▼

WWW.CREATIVEAGENCYSECRETS.COM

Rebecca Caroe is the CEO of Creative Agency Secrets experts in getting websites working hard for your business.

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â–ź WEBSITECONVERSION

6 WAYS TO ENSURE YOUR WRITTEN CONTENT DELIVERS

BY Sarah Bell

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n a constant stream of communication, it is imperative to ensure your communications are on point. All other content producers are competitors vying for the attention of your readers. How do you ensure your content stands out above the rest?

Here are six ways to ensure your written content delivers in 2016.

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IMAGE-DRIVEN

THE RIGHT TIME

Popular content is image-driven. Readers scan for eye-catching images, so make it appealing.

You could use stock photography, such as Pexels but the best choice is to create your own. If you are selling something, use your product. Take it outdoors, use natural light, or incorporate colour. As an extension of your advertising, your image must be on point.

However, don’t just stop at static images. You could create a GIF with Giphy or create a short video. Motion catches the eye; use it.

There’s no use sharing a message at a time when the bulk of your readers are not going to be present. Utilising your social media scheduling tools allows you to post at the most appropriate time of day, and if you use platforms such as WordPress you can easily access the site’s statistics to find out not only your most popular time of the day but also your most popular day of the week. Use this information when planning the release of new content, and watch your engagement soar.

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PROVIDE VALUE

Readers scan for interesting images.

Surprisingly, they also scan your written pieces, too. Keep it on topic, keep it concise; longer is not always better. If you can explain yourself in fewer words, then do so! Give your work a punch; put the main point at the beginning rather than the end. Respect your readers’ time; they will appreciate it.

As entrepreneurs, you know the importance of value. However, often, that focus is lost in communications. When planning your communications, ask yourself what value you are offering your customer. What are they going to gain? If it is a photo of your lunch and you are not a lunch provider, then it will not be providing value. In fact, it will devalue your brand as a place where you have enough time on your hands (aka no customers!) to post trivial things. Value is key, provide value across everything you do.

APPROPRIATE PLATFORM Identify which platforms are popular with your target market and use them. If you are having trouble managing multiple accounts, you can choose a social media management service that combines them, such as MavSocial .

This allows you to schedule across multiple platforms, allowing you to be consistent while also cutting down the amount of time spent on social media.

RELEVANT AND NEW You should know what your customers care about, and if you do not know – ask! Engage with your clients. Provide them with communications that are relevant to their occupations. However, don’t always go over information that has already been covered, ask yourself what has not been covered and then deliver it! ▼

WWW.THEMSCRIPT.COM

Sarah Bell is a New Zealand journalist and communications consultant based in Seoul. She also coach’s business people and trade graduates in effective and persuasive speech and you can visit her website, The Manuscript .

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BIG MOVE BY GOOGLE ADWORDS WILL CHANGE FACE OF THE INTERNET A

n Internet change by Google will see their text ads (shown around search results) expanded by nearly 50% – a move that may make it more difficult for the public to tell advertising apart from organic listings, and which has huge implications for New Zealand businesses.

CEO of Auckland-based search engine optimisation company and Google AdWords Premier Partner – Ark Advance, Chris Price, said that the change would most likely result in an increase in the costs of Google advertising, and potentially reduce the value of organic search results.

“Google has already moved its text AdWords off the side of the search results page, whilst also including an additional advertising slot for some search results, sparking more competition for listings at the top and bottom of the page. As a result, organic listings are further down the page, so that people often have to scroll down to the organic listings below the so-called fold.

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“It is hard to say what exactly the implications will be from Expanded Text Ads, but I think less space and less prominence for organic results.

More companies will have to consider AdWords if they want to be found online, and they will have to pay more to compete.

“I expect that companies will need to get their AdWords best practise spot on to be competitive,” he said of the move, which is billed as the search engine giant’s biggest change in 15 years.

Mr Price said Expanded Text Ads are optimised for mobile, which is increasingly driving search volume across the network.

“So instead of 25 characters for a heading and two 35 characters of description, you now have two 30-character headlines and one sizable 80-character description – organic listings may start to look dinky and less appealing by comparison.

“This is a significant change to the Internet. New Zealand companies that rely on Google traffic for sales need to make sure they understand what is happening and how they will respond to the introduction of Expanded Text Ads.” Mr Price said that bigger was not always better when it comes to the upsized ad format because the quality of the copywriting message is most important.

He offers the following tips for companies that want to improve their conversion from Google AdWords: Update your Google AdWords account to use this new ad format – text ads in the old form may look skinny and less appealing when compared to your competitors’ expanded alternatives.

Use the extra space to differentiate your business with a compelling message that will get people to click.

Remember that people go to Google looking to solve a problem. Credibility is high on the list, so use this extra space to mention your years of experience or the scope of the problems you have solved before.

Carefully monitor the results of your Google advertising whilst this change rolls out. Now is not the time to ‘set and forget’. Jump on those campaigns that are failing fast and likewise capitalise on the winners that have caught your competitors napping.

“New Zealand SMEs that rely on organic listings to generate sales leads may see a drop in traffic as organic becomes less prominent within the search results. Those that rely on Google AdWords may need to ensure that they have a strong sales message because competition will increase and clicks may come at a higher cost and become harder to find,” Mr Price said. ▼

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DO YOU WANT A PROPOSAL WITH THAT?

BY Elliot Epstein

THERE ARE THREE CERTAINTIES IN LIFE

“How about I send you a proposal?”

Death, taxes and the mistaken belief that you have to send a proposal after you have spoken to a potential customer even if they did not ask for one.

After all, it is not going to require any work on his/her part, and it can be deleted faster than a Snapchat if it’s not attractive. So, there you are at 7pm in the office, your boss proudly looking at how hard you are working.

This unsolicited proposal behaviour is getting worse, not better, with many CRM systems requiring a tick in the box for a sent proposal before it recalibrates the magic ‘opportunity management’ or ‘lead scoring’ machine. There are two massive opportunities to differentiate, save time and give the client what they really want to make decisions.

STOP OFFERING TO SEND PROPOSALS! Your marketing machine has worked a treat and now you are on the last dregs of your coffee in a call with a potential client, and the words come out of your mouth like an annoying politician ‘on message’.

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“Sure,” says the client.

You have made the perfunctory call to your spouse to say you will be a little late and spoken to the one kid who’s there or awake about how tunnel ball was fun or how the maths teacher was too strict. Then you get back to your ‘unsolicited proposal’. What’s in it?

Mostly, there isn’t enough diagnosis of the client’s real needs so you default to a mix of your company overview and the fact you have $40 billion behind you and a global presence (or at least an office in Perth).

You add five heaped tablespoons of the product, a teaspoon of services, a very mild seasoning of the perceived client’s issues together with a dash of testimonials and a pinch of estimated pricing/fees.

It’s about as tailored and well fitting as a $99 suit... in microfibre. It’s taken you three hours to do two or three of these; you are tired, and you have got 129 emails still banked up. However, your CRM box is ticked! The client receives this wishy washy effluent and reads a quarter of it if you are lucky and then the tedious game of ‘Did you get the proposal?’ begins. It’s worse than watching ‘Family Feud’.

• Only ever write customised proposals in the client’s language

If you are doing any of this, please ‘STOP IT’. Go home. Have dinner with a client or radically, even your spouse if you’re still talking to them. NEVER ask if they would like a proposal.

• The language is about their people, their processes, their challenges

If they want one, they will ask for it at which point, please say: “Sure, what would you most like to see in it?”.

If you really want to send them something, have a tight five slide/page credibility document that you can send in 1.4 seconds and set their expectations for what it is.

• If the client asks for a proposal and you have double-checked what they want, by all means, spend a bit of time and ensure: • The executive summary is about what’s in it for them, not you • Your biggest, fattest testimonial or logo takes up a whole page

• The pricing is transparent and has options • Use pictures of their plant, equipment, locations, maps • You deliver it in person or over video conference (based on a size of deal you nominate)

Alternatively, they may just want a one pager or a simple quote. Yes, really.

Unlike McDonald’s profit enhancing ‘Fries Question’, asking the client if they want a proposal simply wastes your time, possibly theirs and potentially your family’s. ▼

WWW.SALIENTCOMMUNICATION.COM.AU Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, keynote speaker, corporate trainer at Salient Communication. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching.

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DID YOU KNOW...

Y

ou already know that sending unsolicited marketing emails is not just bad for your brand, but downright illegal under the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007.

However, did you know consumers also have the right to opt out of receiving unsolicited non-electronic marketing material, whether by mail or telephone, at their home addresses?

The NZ Marketing Association maintains what are known as Do Not Call and Do Not Mail lists, as well as the NZ Deaths List which will help you avoid those awkward direct mail pieces, or phone campaigns, addressed to those no longer with us.

As noted by the Marketing Association, “By washing contact lists against them, best

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practice is upheld: organisations do not waste their time contacting people who do not want to be contacted, they protect their brand, and the consumers are happy.”

Between them these lists, collectively provided via what the Marketing Association refers to as Name Suppression Services, contain records of over 600,000 names and details of people (current and deceased) who do not want to receive marketing material or calls from you.

So if you are considering a good old fashioned direct mail or telemarketing campaign, and maintaining your reputation is important to you, you might want to check it out. Find out more here . ▼