Marketing
Sage Ireland Scoops Marketing Excellence Award
17th May 2013: Sage Ireland last night scooped the Marketing Excellence Award at the ICT Excellence Awards. Now in its 13th year and billed as Ireland’s most prestigious technology industry awards, the ceremony was hosted by Matt Cooper at the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin.
The Marketing Excellence Award went to Sage for creating the most effective technology marketing campaign over a sustained period during 2012. A distinguished panel of judges, led by Forfas chairman Eoin O’Driscoll, selected the winners from a record entry to the awards.
According to the judges, “The stand-out marketing programmes from Sage Ireland were for Sage 50 and their Budget 2013 campaign. In their own words what has worked best for them is the integration between the old systems and the new digital methodologies where clever collaboration on campaigns mean the full spectrum of marketing is used to hit every possible audience, with every marketing dollar being actively measured also.”
Deirdre Moody 3M presents Sage Ireland with the Marketing Excellence Award
Commenting on the win, Avril McArdle, Digital and Marketing Manager at Sage said, “This was the first time Sage Ireland had entered the ICT awards so we were absolutely delighted to win. I am very proud to manage a team of experienced marketeers with a real multi-disciplinary approach to our marketing strategies and execution. This award recognises the breadth of work we deliver in order to educate and support our existing customers while also attracting new customers through acquisition strategies with a really results driven approach so that we ensure full marketing optimisation at all times.”
Posted under: Sage Pay E-Commerce Roadshows
By Sarah Hastings
Online trading has never been more important. Changing consumer and retail patters have had a major impact on the way in which Irish businesses trade and consumers shop.
Whether you are a new internet business or are extending your ‘bricks and mortar’ business to the net, Sage Pay’s Dublin and Cork morning seminars will demonstrate what you need to focus on to develop a successful e-commerce business. From the rise of mobile commerce to digital marketing and website optimisation, the seminars will showcase e-commerce best practise. Register here (link to: http://www.sagepay.com/ireland/seminars) to attend the events.
- Dublin: May 30th in Bewleys, Sandyford – registration from 08.30am
- Cork: May 28th in River Lee Hotel, Western Road – registration from 08.30am
Guest Speakers: John Coburn- Praxis Now, Alan Coleman- Wolfgang Digital
Creating an online st
Content Marketing: Who Is Doing It Well & Where Does The Opportunity Lie?
By Siobhan McGinty, Content Marketer at Wolfgang Digital
As a content marketer with Dublin-based award-winning search and content marketing agency, Wolfgang Digital, I spend my days both reading great blogs and writing even better ones for businesses all around Ireland.
Many businesses in Ireland have realised that, in order to avoid loss of ranking positions on Google search, they need to start creating good content – and for many, that means blogging. Lots of businesses are doing a great job, but I am sorry to say it is a task in itself to pinpoint businesses doing a near-perfect job.
There are some businesses in Ireland doing a great job. In this post, I will pinpoint two businesses who are doing exceptionally well in terms of creating great content. I will also highlight an opportunity for Irish businesses, particularly those in the retail industry.
What Gangnam Style Can Teach Us About Social Media For Business
By Simon Bell, Commercial Product Manager at Sage
I was recently at a Christmas party night and over the course of the night the resident DJ played the usual mix of Christmas songs, cheesy pop from the last 20-30 years and also the famous Gangnam Style! It got me thinking, if someone had said to me a year ago that biggest musical impression of the year would be a comedy record made by a middle aged Korean pop star I definitely would not have believed them…to some extent I still can’t! So how is it that this particular song made it so big and the thing that struck me is that this is all down to the power of social media, so what can we learn from Psy, that can be applied in a business context?
In order to understand why this was so successful / impactful we should consider the following elements that they got absolutely right!
Content
With any social media campaign the greatest value is only ever derived if the content behind it is worth looking at / reading / listening to etc so that people will share it. So what did Psy get right? Well the content hits on the key elements that people will share, these are;
Comedy – The comedic value of the content to the local audience in Korea helped to drive the early critical mass exposure. The song itself is essentially a parody on the lifestyles and behaviours of the self-proclaimed upper class Gangnam district. For those of us that don’t speak Korean the use of the now hallmark dance is also a really funny element that helped to spread its shareability.
Seven Marketing Tips For Small Businesses
By Avril McArdle, Digital and Marketing Manager at Sage Ireland
1. Assume a budget of zero
So you may not have a marketing degree, a marketing department or a marketing budget. Great! This means that you can start from the best possible place in terms of thinking lean and maximising the return from any spend you do undertake. Even if you do have a marketing budget, why not give yourself three months to work on the “zero budget” plan and see how much you can achieve for no cost. Establish yourself on social media with a Facebook page and Twitter presence and start sharing content and networking. Embrace the centuries old barter system and see if you can swap services or products with your new business neighbours or contacts. Offer rewards or discounts to any customers who refers a friend or for repeat purchases. Remember the old saying that your mother probably taught you, it costs nothing to be nice.
Treat every paying customer for what they are; someone who is helping you progress your business. Appreciate their business, show them fantastic customer service and a friendly manner and let the word of mouth do the rest. Word of mouth is the biggest form of zero cost advertising and managed well it can be what really sets you up in the early months and years, especially in the digital world we now live in where word travels even further, faster.
Get Involved In Our Twitter Charity Giveaway
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
Update 15.51pm: We are delighted with the fantastic response we received on Twitter today. We have reached well in excess of 1,000 people tweeting using the hashtag #SageXmasGiving and we also had a few people tweeting using the hashtag #donateVdeP which was a great idea for another hashtag suggested by the twitter community. To thank everyone for their tweets we are increasing our donation to St. Vincent de Paul to €1,500. As we have reached our limit, we are not requesting any further tweets but feel free to pledge your own donation to St. Vincent de Paul using #donateVdeP.
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Today, Friday 7th December, Sage will be asking all of our social media followers, customers, and employees to help us raise money and awareness for our chosen charity, St. Vincent de Paul, by sending the below tweet from their own twitter account;
For everyone that tweets using the hashtag #SageXmasGiving Sage will donate €1 to St. Vincent de Paul @SVP_Ireland.
For those that would like to create their own tweet, it will still count as long as they use the hashtag #SageXmasGiving.
At the end of the day Sage will count up all of the tweets that were sent and for every person that tweets using #SageXmasGiving we will donate €1 to St. Vincent de Paul up to a limit of €1,000.
This year we are also supporting the St Vincent de Paul Toy Appeal by asking our employees to donate a gift under a Christmas tree in the staff canteen.
Kevin Mc Dermott, Finance Manager with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Dublin Region praised the initiative saying; “We are delighted to support the innovative idea that Sage has come up with to generate support for us this Christmas, so please support us and tweet #SageXmasGiving.”
What Can Mice Teach You About Marketing?
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
I have to be honest. When I was asked to review The Cheese Mall as part of a virtual book tour, I was a bit sceptical. I totally judged this book by its cover and thought, what can two mice teach me about marketing? Well as it turns out, quite a lot.
The Cheese Mall. Key Marketing Skills For the Budding Entrepreneur, tells the story of two mice, Millie and Matthew, as they launch a business and teach themselves the important marketing skills and techniques that every start-up business owner needs.
I was tempted to review Chapter 3 about The Business Plan as Sage provides free business planning software but I opted for Chapter 5 – Market Segmentation as I’m currently studying that topic. As Millie explained to Matthew, market segmentation is a marketing technique that targets different groups of customers with shared characteristics.
Social Media Trends for 2013
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
What an exciting year 2012 was from a social media perspective. What will 2013 hold and what should you be including in your social media strategy for 2013? A lot of these trends have already emerged in 2012 but will become more pronounced in 2013.
1. Social Is Digital
While 2011 and 2012 saw a lot of businesses questioning if they should use social media, in 2013 social media will become such an integral part of the online landscape that social will be a fundamental part of all serious online strategies. Those businesses that don’t see this will see an impact on their business results. Social media is no longer a choice for those engaged in digital marketing. We are now at the late majority/laggard stage of the Innovation Curve for social media.
In 2013 we will also see a shift towards a greater and deeper understanding of social from everyone engaged in digital marketing. PPC specialists, for example, will start to become social advertising specialists or at least have that as a major part of their skill set.
2. Facebook Finally Faces Search (and other challenges)
By the end of 2013 there will be 1.3 to 1.5 billion people using Facebook. Facebook has a lot of plans for the coming year. In late 2012 and moving into 2013 Facebook Gifts will transform F-commerce. 2013 will also be the year that Facebook moves into social search with rumours that Facebook are developing their own search engine to rival that of Google’s.
Facebook have recently changed their EdgeRank algorithm so that business pages have their posts seen by less of their Facebook fans. This is undoubtedly to encourage more promoted posts but my own opinion is that they will need to tweak this more in 2013 to give people the right balance of content in their news feed and keep brands interested in using Facebook. I also predict a trend toward less frequent use of Facebook as people get bored and login to Facebook less often unless Facebook find a way to keep people interested.
3. Social TV – It’s Already Here
We have already seen X Factor making great use of social media platforms like Twitter. As the shows unfolds, the audience ‘live blogs’ the show, making updates to Twitter. People not able to tune in can follow the entire show by just watching their Twitter feed. Here in Ireland watching the Twitter feed about the Late Late Show can be vastly more entertaining than watching the show itself at times and in 2012 we saw a tweet have dramatic impact on a TV presidential debate.
Social television will become a massive marketing phenomenon in 2013 as shows engage their viewers by urging them to do what they are already doing. Of course this is not excluded to TV, we are already seeing interviewers on radio programs taking questions from Twitter to put to interviewees.
Meet The Sage Blogging Team
Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
Are you interested in blogging for Sage? We would love to hear from you. Our blog content editor is always on the look out for business owners and managers who want to share their story or business advice on the Sage blog. Just email your blog post or idea to social.media@sage.com. Alternatively if there is a business event that you want to spread the word about send us details.
Meet Some Other Members Of The Sage Blogging Team
We have over 15 Sage employees regularly contributing content to the Sage blog and a host of guest bloggers also. Meet some of the Sage blogging team below.
Best Blog Of An SME In Ireland
By Beatrice Whelan, Social Media & Content Specialist at Sage
Congratulations To Lorraine Carter from Persona Branding & Design on winning the Best Blog Of An SME in the recent Blog Awards Ireland 2012.
Lorraine Carter of Persona Branding & Design was presented with her Blog Awards trophy at the Sage offices in Citywest by Sage Digital and Marketing Manager Avril McArdle
The Blog Awards Ireland were held on the 13th October in the Osprey Hotel in Naas. The Best Blog Of An SME was sponsored by Sage, with Sage One Accounts being used as the official accounting software of the Blog Awards.
The Persona Design Blog was selected as the winner by a panel of judges who volunteered to judge that and other categories. Many of the judges were bloggers themselves and the judging criteria is also available on the Blog Awards Ireland website.
The Persona Design Blog is a vibrantly designed blog with excellent content that relates very well to the services offered by the business and we wish Lorraine continued success with her blogging and look forward to her guest post for the Sage blog.
Leila Thompson and Lorna Keogh of Sage at the Blog Awards Ireland on October 13th 2012
Lorraine was out of the country on the night of the blog awards so we invited her in to the Sage offices in Citywest so that we could present her with her Blog Awards trophy and congratulate her in person.
Congrautlations also to the other SME blogs that made it to the finals of the Blog Awards Ireland. They were;
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