Think Creative

Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Aware Uk have put a self-updating banner advert on Twitter to highlight the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. How cool is that? This is probably set up by using what is called an auto-responder. An auto responder is software that you program to send out responses to people who are on an email list. You can either add people into the list or the auto responder collects the list by catching the email addresses from people who send their details on a form from your web pages. You simply tell the software what to say

I use Aweber because they are so user friendly. They have extensive videos, newsletters and training seminars to help you make the most of their fantastic products. This means you spend a bit of time learning how to use it and then free up the time to do other things. It will also save you time and money that you would have spent on direct mail.

This is great news for third sector orgs who have traditionally sent out big direct mailshots to appeal for donations. Traditionally this is done near Christmas when people my feel emotionally charged and want to give to a charity. This year a lot of the big charities are worried about the effects of the potential and threatened Royal Mail Strike. Oh and speaking of Royal Mail, did you know you can get stamps online now too? Does that mean we will be literally printing money (they are legal tender)!

A lot of people worry that if they get into social marketing they will spend all their time on it and not get any work done. Some organisations have banned Facebook from their computers. Well, the smart companies are the ones who are using it wisely and to their advantage. It's fast, its cheap and it is such an easy way to build up your list of emails to send out mailings with your autoresponder. Do check though that they have given you permission to email them, otherwise it is spam.