August 20, 2015

How to design a high-converting email newsletter

An email newsletter is a message that is sent out to subscribers typically on a regular interval. Email newsletters may be sent daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or even annually. The content of email newsletters varies with each edition. Does your business send an email newsletter? Are you stuck with getting unsatisfactory results? It could be down to the design. Today The Island will be taking you through a short list of suggestions that could improve the turnout of your email campaigns. 1. Use a familiar ‘From’ name The key to success here is to use a name that is familiar with your subscribers. Someone or something they will recognize. The sender and subject lines are the first impression a marketer can leverage on for people to engage with their newsletter. 2. Break your newsletter down into chunks It may seem fairly straight forward but most people will read emails by just skimming over the content of it. Long emails with lots of text for newsletters don’t work at all.  The best solution is to break your email down into smaller chunks of content. Breaking it down allows subscribers to quickly identify any information and content that meets their interest. The key notion is to not overload readers with text, rather spark their interest with creative titles and images. 3. Use segmentation and target your subscribers There is no need for your users to receive the same content when it is a really easy process to target what they see. This means that the campaigns you send out will appear to be more relevant to the receiver and consequently it will improve chances of click-through activity. So take your time and go through your list of subscribers and tailor your newsletter as much as possible for the best results. 4. Use […]
August 18, 2015

How customers can be your brand advocates

Recent history and advance in technology has brought many changes to the marketing playing field. Customer expectations are at an all time high and the influence mainly comes from social media. Which is why you need brand advocates to help you engage with your customer base.
July 30, 2015

4 Reasons you need to partner with an agency for your SEO

While there are advantages of having in-house personnel manage your SEO campaigns, there are many more that come with partnering up with a dedicated digital agency, specialized in SEO. Here is a list of some core advantages. 1. Ongoing training and expertise. Search engines are dynamic, rankings and visibility change every time the search algorithms are updated but it can also mean new opportunities for you. Understanding this is critical to a business and its success. It is vital to have ongoing search engine marketing training. This is exactly the job a digital agency performs. They monitor and stay ahead of industry trends. 2. Resources at hand. There are many parts to an effective SEO program, many ongoing. A successful SEO plan doesn’t favour one or the other element but it creates a balance. Think about an SEO program as a table and the elements the legs. If one of these is missing you are bound to have a lopsided table. Balance them out and you will be working with a well-oiled machine. Here are some examples: Keyword research Content edits Inbound connections Social/search integration On-line reputation management In-depth reporting 3. Team v. Individual. This probably goes unsaid, but would you prefer to have a team of specialists working on the project or an individual managing your account? Agencies offer a team of experts that will be constantly monitoring and working on your account. Something to remember: having a dedicated team means that time and resources are more efficiently allocated to perform tasks that produce results. 4. Cost effectiveness One of the biggest constraints that decision makers face is the question of how much does a certain service cost. If you were to hire an SEO specialist to keep in-house it would mean a salary plus a benefits package. When hiring an […]
July 28, 2015

8 Essentials for local SEO success

On-line search engines have been buckling down on calibrating their algorithms to give high quality results based on location. Google is the best at doing this, thanks to an update that rolled out almost a year ago. It is important to know that local search can change your SERP presence but even more so it is important to know how to act on local SEO in the most effective manner […]
July 9, 2015

8 Reasons you need a digital marketing strategy

A digital marketing strategy is essential for any business that is looking to use on-line tools and platforms to grow their business. But how do you start creating a digital marketing strategy? Here is a list of 8 reasons why you should have a digital marketing strategy and some tips on how you can create your own, or refine the strategy you currently have. 8 reasons to create a Digital Marketing Strategy 1. A strategy can help you identify goals and objectives. A company with a digital marketing strategy is one with clear cut objectives when it comes to increasing their client base or to build on existing relationships. A digital marketing strategy will give you direction to reach these goals. 2. Empower your on-line value proposition with a digital marketing strategy. A well-defined on-line customer value proposition will help you separate your on-line service and encourage existing and new clients to engage and stay faithful. A digital marketing strategy will also help you differentiate yourself in an on-line crowded market place. 3. A strategy will help you better understand who your on-line customers are.  Your on-line market in most cases will be different from your traditional one. Therefore with the help of a digital marketing strategy you will be able to tailor your offer to those people. Digital is often referred to as the “most quantifiable medium ever”. Yet, Google Analytics and similar will just give you information such as how much traffic you can expect which is not based on sentiment or perceptions. There are a wealth of client feedback tools to identify your potential weak points and to find ways to solve these issues. We suggest starting with Kampyle, PollDaddy or UserSnap. The first two are survey creators great for feedback on blogs, and the latter is a simple visual feedback tool. 4. A […]
June 10, 2015

Why the rugby world cup is good for the team game

Club level rugby in England has strong support but the national team still dominates when it comes to drawing in the masses. Average attendances for Premiership games are around the 13,000 mark (that’s a total average audience of 156,000 on any given match day.) The rugby world cup is now just 100 days away and  is expected to attract a worldwide audience of over 4 billion and visitors are expected to spend up to £869m during the course of the tournament. How premiership rugby teams can increase their audiences The premiership teams should be gearing up, during this unique time period, to ensure they pull in new fans for the future, and also take advantage of the short term income increase the tournament could supply. Rugby is now played in 190 countries around the world so premiership rugby teams, who play in the most professional and oldest league in the world, should be using the world cup as an opportunity to draw in new audiences. The advantages are fairly obvious with increased merchandising sales and the opportunity to become more attractive to sponsors who see the opportunities behind the database of the club. The 11 host cities have the biggest potential in being able to attract new worldwide fans and engage with them, for the long term. Hopefully the clubs will use their own community structures to spread the word and engage with fans one-on-one. Using social media to increase attendances Social media is going to play an enormous part for the rest of the clubs where they should be utilising the ‘hero worship’ of their own world cup stars to draw attention to the club. Not just tweeting about their players but truly engaging with the new fans that avoids sales but which has warmth and a genuine feel […]
January 16, 2015

Looking to grow business with social media this year?

At The Island we work with our clients to setup and implement strategies, designs and processes that make the most of vital digital channels to increase awareness, leads and sales opportunities. Click to find out more
December 8, 2014

Full service brand and digital agency for leisure – restaurant, bar, hotel, cinema – brand, website, marketing, social

The Island are an established and highly experienced hands-on creative, digital design and brand leisure agency, focused in quality creative delivery and organised implementation. We’ve helped develop brands, websites and marketing campaigns for many leisure businesses over the past 20 years.
August 12, 2014

Sports Marketing: where the fan comes second!

The Premiership season is about to kick off in England. Excitement is high, nerves are on edge, predictions for the season have been discussed again and again. It's sweaty palm time. And that is just for the people who work in sports marketing! Being part of a commercial sports team is a constant juggle between being an illogical and passionate fan, combined with the sensible head you need to make sure fans keep coming week after week. Read more...