Every Friday, we tweet a question from the @dotmailer twitter account with the hashtag #dotFoolery, picking a random winner from all the successful answers the following week.

This week the question has a political theme:

Which former British Prime Minister released his memoirs this week?

To be in for a chance to win, direct your answer at @dotMailer with the #dotfoolery hashtag and who knows, it might be your lucky day.

The winner will be revealed next Wednesday and this week, the prize is a Condiment Gun- so you have to ask yourself the question, “Do you feel lucky, punk?”

So, get tweeting and tell your friends.

Without further ado, we wish you a big Happy Friday dotFoolery!

When in house professionals are slaving away on their digital marketing RFP, a lot of the same preconceptions come up time and time again.

For example:

• A shiny new website will attract more customers
• Build a forum and we will get lots of users
• Lots of community members = sales
• High search engine position = high sales
• Increased website traffic converts to more profits
• PPC is a cheaper alternative to SEO
• I need to buy more data

People believe they know what the key to success and sales is, and they’re quite genuinely looking for help to make it happen.  However, too often, digital agencies will nod along and promise to fulfil needs without asking that most important question: Why? What are you trying to achieve?

When someone requests a full shiny website overhaul or decides they want a community as part of their site, any responsible consultant should be scrutinising these factors and analysing whether this is really the best advice.  But this isn’t always the way and as a result, quotes can vary wildly and cause comparisons which really aren’t apples for apples. Getting under the skin of what’s actually required is exactly the kind of commitment that should be top of the list when considering your provider – the experts role is to educate and inform, not to take requests at face value without providing value of experience. It’s the right thing to do and it makes business sense for everyone – the more accurate the brief, the happier and more successful the client.

While a lot of this input can be dispensed early on in the process, to really do the issue justice, scoping sessions are often the best way to truly immerse yourself in the problem, objectives and requirements – there really is no replacement for this in depth understanding.

In half a day or so, you can look at past, present and future, considering what has worked and what doesn’t and what the needs of the business really are.  By this point, those preconceptions we mentioned earlier are a distant memory and what dominates is the real task at hand and how to get the results required.

With all this in hand, ROI can’t help but come along sooner rather than later.  If you want to find out more about how we go about this and have us challenge a few of your preconceptions, contact us, we’d love to hear from you.

You can check out more about our scoping session service here.

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Every Friday, we tweet a question from the @dotmailer twitter account with the hashtag #dotFoolery, picking a random winner from all the successful answers the following week.

This week, we’ve got a question for you, the answer to which should be crystal clear:

Which dotDigital sponsored footballer made his Crystal Palace debut this week?

To be in for a chance to win, Tweet your answer at @dotMailer with the #dotfoolery hashtag and who knows, it might be your lucky day.

This week, the prize is a mystery gift but trust us, it’s a good one. All will be revealed next Wednesday when we announce the winner.

So, get tweeting and tell your friends- one clue we can give you about the prize is that you’ll need a chum to make the most of it.  It’s time to team up- perhaps get the whole office involved?

Anyway, without further ado, we big you Happy Friday dotFoolery!

P.S. Clue: Look down…

Many names come to mind when you mention the name Crystal Palace Football Club. Sansom, Hilaire, Wright, Bright, Johnson, Coppell. And now, dotMailer.

That last one is a recent addition to the list but get used to it – this season dotMailer is proud to announce its sponsorship of Edgar Davids’ away kit. Why the away kit? Well, because it’s the best and one most famous looking kits in football of course!

With those ever present orange goggles, there’s something of the digital about Edgar as it is, so he seems the perfect match for what the dotDigital group (and blog) is all about.  Edgar is also one of the most socially connected footballers you’re likely to find on the web, constantly tweeting and replying to fans.

Indeed, in reaction to Crystal Palace’s recent financial woes, some of the fans tweeted to Edgar to see if they could bring him on board to help. Not only did he call his own 11,000 followers to support the club but ultimately sign up on a pay by play basis, making his debut last night.

While his arrival didn’t herald the showering of glory that Palace needed, it’s still evidence of what can be achieved through social networks and we’re very happy to be associated with the whole phenomenon.  The question is, can this performance be replicated by other teams and will it become an influencer in the future?

Will we see email marketing campaigns attempting to motivate supporters to put such pressure on players? Time will tell, but in the meantime, keep an eye on our man Edgar- we look forward to watching him focus his two big orange eyes on the ball.

P.S. For a limited time only, the phrase EAGLES will get you a discount on your dotMailer order. Give it a try!

The British Red Cross has recently launched a new site as reviewed by Econsultancy.

In 2009, I was part of a research group at website design agency, dotAgency,  who reviewed 15 top charity websites for our our popular charity website benchmark report:  Hitting the Heart.

The former website of the British Red Cross was one of the sites we analysed, reviewed and scored, so I was interested to see how their new website stacks against our assessment of their former site.

Getting the most from your online donation path

Part of the Hitting the Heart report focuses on the effectiveness of the donation path. Their former website had hits and misses in this section of the report:

• There was no there DPA compliant email opt-in box at point of data collection in the donation path.
• There was a clear choice of donation payment options and method and the site offered Gift Aid and Payroll Giving options
• The journey offered good up-sell donation prompts
• We received an automated  online donation email response within the hour of making a donation. However there was no email or off line follow up via phone call or direct mail as some charities did.

Donating on the new website

I was interested to see how the donation path has been re-developed on the new site so I chose to make a donation to the Pakistan Flood Appeal.

When I visit the British Red Cross website I am prompted to donate to the appeal by the main banner on the homepage. The image conveys a sense of urgency and I am invited to donate relatively high sums (£20, £50, £100) using radio buttons.

I like the fact that the page has been updated with a news bulletin section below the fold. I also get a sense my donation will contribute to something tangible from the shopping list on the page.

The site communicates well that the personal data I provide will be secure and the donation path includes an Opt-in for email communication and help pages. There is a phone number for contacting the donor care team as well as the Fundraising Standards Bureau logo. I am given the option to Gift Aid my donation.

The thank you page prompts me to:

• sign-up for direct debit
• tell my friends I have made a donation, by automatically updating my status on Facebook and sending a tweet on Twitter

I received the email confirmation less than 5 minutes after clicking the Submit button. So far I’m giving them top marks for the new website donation path and I look forward to the donor care follow up.

My tips for better donation paths:

• Follow fundraising best practice and show good will by communicating to donors that you are DPA compliant and that donating is safe. Today a £10 donation is hard to win so be sure to acknowledge donations promptly. The Red Cross site has for instance a link on fraud and help pages detailing processes.
• Make full use of social networking sites as this can create donation leads via networks of friends and families and this spreads the word for free.
• Keep your donors updated on the work they are funding: timely news are good but  good updated blogs are more interesting.  I like how Oxfam merges fresh sticky content including video on the field and donation prompts.

This week’s #dotFoolery prize is a very super cool 6-in-1 solar powered robot kit, helping you make good use of these last weeks of summer solar rays.

For a chance to win this awesome prize just Tweet us your answer to this…

The dotDoctor – dotMailer’s resident email expert – has hit the beach. Send us your caption for his holiday snap below. Best caption wins. Tweet your caption and the hashtag #dotFoolery before end of play Monday, Aug 16.

Check out the dotDoctor’s latest email marketing surgery for B2B marketers.

Have you ever wondered what people actually do on your website? Or how to find ways in which you can improve your online conversion rate?

Well using Google analytics is one thing. Understanding how to ask it meaningful questions and knowing how to find the answers in your reports, is another.

That’s why I  have put together this totally practical course of interactive webinars for marketers who want to get more from Google Analytics.

Over 6 weeks starting on the 1^st September I will be providing a weekly webinar which makes it easy to understand how to use Google Analytics effectively – whatever your level of experience.

Each webinar includes clear examples, demonstrations and step by step instructions.

By the end of each webinar you’ll be able to test, measure and make worthwhile changes to your website that will give you immediate results. Maybe your site is getting enough traffic so search engine optimisation is the answer, or maybe your retention rate isn’t very good so email marketing could help, or maybe your site just isn’t converting so improving your website design would turn your online sales around. Attending this course will let you find what your problem is and provide the solutions to fix it.

Together and individually, these totally practical webinars will teach you in clear no-nonsense terms how to use Google Analytics to empower you to:

• Understand what’s really happening on your website
• Increase your website traffic
• Reduce page and webform abandonment
• Improve your onsite conversion rates
• Increase the ROI of your online marketing

The webinars will be held every Wednesday at 11am from 1st September. Each class  lasts 40 minutes followed by 20 mins for questions and answers.

Don’t miss out – book now

Look like Mr T when drinking tea!

Win this ever so slightly bling sovereign ring mug, just by answering today’s dotFoolery quiz question correctly.

The A Team movie is released this week. None of us here is old enough to remember the original TV show, least of all myself (sic), but today’s question is:

What does A in The A Team stand for?

Tweet your answer to #dotfoolery by 3pm on Monday Aug 2nd.

Yes – we love it when a quiz comes together!

Once again that Friday feeling has hit the dotDigital Group offices and it’s time for #dotFoolery, dotDigital’s weekly Twitter giveaway – to put a little more sparkle into your Fridays.

This week we have a Space Invader ice tray to give away to keep your drinks super cool. All you have to do to get your sticky mitts on the prize is to tweet back with the #dotFoolery tag with the answer to this ‘not too taxing for a Friday’ question!

When was the first Space Invader’s game released?

Get your tweets in by 10.30am Monday.

Last Friday, we posted the first ever question in our new weekly #dotFoolery competition: how many zeroes are there in a quadrillion?

Tweeted guesses ranged from four through to the much more correct answer of fifteen.  We can now announce that the winner, plucked at random from all correct entries by the dotMailer Watchdog himself, is none other than @holly_unwin, better known as Holly Unwin!

Holly will soon be the lucky owner of a brand new barbecue branding iron, allowing her to stake her claim to chicken, ribs and sausages wherever she may roam.

If you want to be in with the chance to win such exotic prizes yourself, be sure to follow the @dotdigitalblog twitter account or the RSS feed.

Keep your eyes peeled for your next chance to win this Friday at 12pm sharp and be sure to tell your friends…unless you don’t want the extra competition!