Images Digital Edition March 2019

www.images-magazine.com MARCH 2019 images 25 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT top as this doesn‘t obstruct customers trying to navigate the website, whereas pop-ups and takeovers appear after a certain amount of time and can irritate website visitors. Visually the pop-up and takeover create more of a lasting impact, but users have a love-hate relationship with these, whereas the simple static bar, while lacking the striking impact, often proves more successful as customers are happier, more trusting and comfortable with this simple, less intrusive method. ■ Landing pages These are standalone web pages created specifically for marketing a certain product or service. Landing pages are designed to generate interest and include a CTA (call to action), allowing data to be captured. ■ On-site architecture You can build opt-in options into your business’s website seamlessly. Wherever you capture any customer information on-site (contact us forms, checkouts, etc) ask customers to tick the box if they would like to sign up and opt in to your business‘s mailing list. ■ Incentivise your customers Run competitions and offers in-store and on social media channels that incentivise existing customers to sign up to your mailing list in exchange for a reward or discount. Remember to ensure that any method you use is GDPR- friendly and that any customer who signs up gives you their full consent for marketing. Andrew Langridge is from ETrader, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of websites to garment decorators across the UK. www.etraderwebsites.co.uk B usiness owners might know their companies inside out, but sometimes there are gaps in the knowledge that is transferred to the team who are on the ground selling the products and processing the orders. Account managers and sales executives will be generating sales, while account coordinators, sales administrators and order processors are likely to be raising and processing orders on the system – but they may not have the knowledge the print or embroidery operatives have. An example where training and development would enhance understanding on the clothing side is when a merchandise distributor orders garments featuring technical fabrics that require specific inks and print techniques. With three companies in this chain, and multiple people, who should ensure that the garment is being printed with the correct inks appropriate for the base materials? So, what could a solution look like? Standard garments are generally not a problem, but there may be benefits in producing print instructions and guidelines to support the more problematic garments. This can be sent from the garment supplier together with the quote so that it can be shared with the selected decorator. This should reduce the chance of any issues occurring and relationships being tested. At the BPMA we run an education programme which encourages learners to develop and enhance their skills within the industry. We would like to reach out to decorators who can offer insights that can improve our members’ understanding of the intricacies of garment decoration. Please contact the BPMA if you would like to offer some content for our education programme. F ollowing on from last month’s article on email campaign software, in this issue I’ll look at how to populate those lists and capture new customers‘ data. Capturing data allows you to target your customers specifically on their interests and behaviours, and to tailor email campaigns to what product or service of yours they are interested in. It also allows you to build loyalty by rewarding someone for being a ‘member’ of your list with exclusive deals and discounts. Data capture stokes debate amongst marketing practitioners – it is either loved or loathed – but timing is everything. Make it time-sensitive, not obtrusive to your customer‘s online experience and in keeping with your business‘s brand. How to capture an email address There are a few basic methods to grow your business‘s mailing list and capture data. ■ Data capture bars A data capture bar feeds contacts straight into your mailing list and is simple to place on your business‘s website – it requires a single snippet of HTML to be embedded in the page source. There are hundreds of data capture providers out there with the main one being Hello Bar, which is free of charge. They can also be created within CRM packages (Salesforce, Zoho, Hubspot, etc) to grow your data list and help your leads/sales. Within Hello Bar, you can monitor, manage and maintain your business‘s mailing list whatever CRM package and email campaign software you use. The bars come in several forms: fixed bars, which are static, or moving bars that appear at the top of the page; pop-ups, which are small sign-up forms that pop up, often in the centre of the page, after a user has been viewing the site for a few seconds; and page takeovers, which are sign-up forms that appear after a few seconds and take over the full screen. The most common method is a simple static bar at the Data capture BPMA: EDUCATION IS KEY Jon Birrell is CEO at the BPMA. If you have a question for the BPMA, please email editorial@images-magazine.com with BPMA in the subject line. www.bpma.co.uk