We recently asked on our Facebook and Twitter sites for suggestions as to what we should call our new monthly marketing newsletter.

After much deliberation, pencil chewing and catching the odd fly or two we decided on the amphibiously genius suggestion…

Frog’s Newtsletter!

Frog’s Newtsletter contains best of blog posts and other hints and tips for ways to get your business jumping! If you haven’t already done so then you can subscribe to  The Newtsletter by clicking here.

Other brilliant suggestions we had:

• Ribbit Round-Up
• Warty Weekly
• Lilypad Leaflet
• Leapfrog
• Hopper
• Frogger
• Tadpole Times
• Spawn Scoop
• Le Ponde
• Croaking Chronicle
• Bullfrog Bulletin
• Leaping News
• Frogplex Gazette
• Emerald City News
• Reddit
• Froggiemail
• The Leap
• From the pond
• The Frog HemERALD
• Green T
• Emerald Frog Newsletter: Toaday’s E-ssential Marketing News
• Emerald Frog: “Warts ‘n all”
• E-Frog

So whatever you decide to call it – just make sure you sign up! And once you have “reddit”, then pass it on!

We are often asked, “So, why Emerald Frog as a name then?”. Well the answer is here but it made us wonder how other companies came up with their names.

Here are some examples of interesting company names and the stories behind them (with thanks to Glen Stansberry for this one!)

1. Google

The name started as a joke about the amount of information the search engine could search, or a “Googol” of information. (A googol is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.) When founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin gave a presentation to an angel investor, they received a check made out to “Google.”

2. Hotmail

Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith had the idea of checking their email via a web interface, and tried to find a name that ended in “mail.” They finally settled on hotmail because it had the letters “html,” referencing the HTML programming language used to help create the product.

3. Volkswagen

Volkswagen literally means “people’s car.” Adolf Hitler initially came up with the idea for “cars for the masses,” which would be a state-sponsored “Volkswagen” program. Hitler wanted to create a more affordable car that was able to transport two adults and three children at speeds of 62 mph. He choose the car manufacturer Porsche to carry out the project, and the rest, as they say, is history.

4. Yahoo

The word “yahoo” was coined by Jonathan Swift in the the book Gulliver’s Travels. The term represented a repulsive, filthy creatures that resembled humans (think: Neanderthal). Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo considered themselves yahoos, and thought the term would be appropriate for their joint venture.

5. Cisco

Contrary to popular belief and theories, Cisco is simply short for San Francisco. Their logo resembles the suspension cables found on the Golden Gate bridge.

6. Canon

When Canon was founded in 1933 under the name Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory. Two years later they adopted “Canon” after the company’s first camera, the Kwanon. Kwanon is the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.

7. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola’s name comes from the the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring in the soft drink. Eventually Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the ‘K’ of kola to ‘C’ to create a more fluid name.

8. IKEA

IKEA is simply a random collection of letters, based from the first letters of founder Ingvar Kamprad’s name in addition to the first letters of the names of the Swedish property and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.

9. Lego

Lego is a combination of the Danish phrase “leg godt,” which translates to “play well.” Initially the company built wooden toys, and later switched to making plastic bricks. Lego also means “I put together” in Latin, but the Lego Group claims this merely coincidence and the origin of the word is strictly Danish.

10. Reebok

Reebok is simply an alternate spelling of “rhebok,” an African antelope. The company founders found the word in a South African edition of a dictionary won by the Joe Foster, son of the Reebok founder J.W. Foster.

11. Sharp

The Japanese consumer electronics company is named after its first product, an ever-sharp pencil that was created in 1915.

12. Skype

The original prototype of the company’s flagship product had the name “Sky-Peer-to-Peer,” which was shrunk down to Skyper, then finally Skype.

Need a name or brand image ? Then contact us!

An article today on the BBC news website reports that a survey by Which? found three quarters of consumers want cold calling to be banned.

Although cold calling is not an illegal practice, many householders find cold calling is “at best a nuisance and at worst and intimidating intrusion into our lives”.

So should telemarketing be used as part of a company’s marketing strategy?

Definitely! It remains an effective way of reaching customers and prospective customers but should only be used where they have indicated they are prepared to receive such calls. Businesses who use telemarketing should regularly screen their data to ensure consumers and businesses signed up to the TPS (Telephone Preference Service) are not contacted. This is essential – contact could result in a large fine! Yes – there is a Corporate TPS too. Business can also opt out of receiving sales calls.

By telemarketing to those customers who are happy to talk by phone you will save your reputation and budget. You will more accurately target your message by only speaking with those people who want to listen.

Do your research.

Buy a targeted list. If you are a double glazing company don’t call a list of rental properties to try and sell tenants windows. Don’t try and sell landscape gardening to top floor flats.

There are other ways to improve your telemarketing activity and communicate with businesses and consumers that will benefit from your services.

Don’t use regimented scripts; they can instantly wind consumers up. Don’t use automatic diallers that result in “silent calls”. This can be extremely frightening for householders.

Also, other marketing methods can be used to support your telemarketing activity. Direct mail (again, accurately targeted and with a good offer!), internet marketing, advertising and generating a word of mouth “buzz” about your service through effective PR and branding are all tactics that should be used as part of your marketing campaigns.

To get your database TPS screened, buy targeted data lists, run a non-scripted and friendly telemarketing campaign or discuss other effective marketing campaign options then… contact us!

Apparently, when it comes to driving  your website up the Google rankings, only 25% of SEO is actually within your control, so says Dave Morse, Internet Strategist. This includes the use of keywords, the text on your page, title headers, your product/service and overall web content.  It’s a small percentage – but it’s vital that you get this finely honed and correct for the other 75% to work.

The other 75% is largely beyond your control and is determined by what other people are saying about you and which other websites are linking to you.

A good way to help boost your website’s visibility yourself is to partake in relevant discussion groups. Become an industry expert in your field to get the word out about your business and help other people out too. By visiting discussion groups and forums relevant to your industry, many of which you can add your web address to, you can start to spin your own free SEO web. When the search engines crawl these sites they spot the links and this helps boost your site up the rankings. Not all links will help increase your search engine positions in this way, but if your comments and links are of value to the community, you’ll still gain real, interested visitors to your site and not just searchbots.

However, make sure that you do it well. Don’t get a reputation for spamming (Google will penalise, or even blacklist you, for underhanded tactics), don’t hijack other people’s posts to promote your own product or service, ensure your tone is helpful and pleasant and make sure your read the entire message thread before you put in your two penneth!

Emerald Frog Marketing can help boost your SEO to encourage more people to visit your site. Contact us to find out more!

“It’s ok”, we were told the other day, “our branding is sorted. We have a logo”.

There is more to branding than simply getting a logo designed. Branding is about building the connection between customers and a company, service or product. It has to be built via different “touch points” with the customer.

To build a brand that customers trust, businesses need to review the following:

• company literature
• advertising
• public relations
• sales process
• packaging
• pricing
• positioning
• strapline

In addition, employees to need to understand and “live the brand” to build branding into their customer service.

So what is a “rebrand”?

Sometimes businesses need to breathe new life into their product/service by rebranding the company and relaunching. Take ntl for example. A few years ago they had a reputation for poor customer service and an unreliable product. Enter Virgin Media who rebrand the service with the trusted Virgin insignia. Same product, same staff in the same office providing the same service, but business took off as a result. Staff became more motivated and morale rose.

Occasionally a rebrand may be necessary where a company’s image has become tired or no longer relevant as the market changes.

For example, a company near Cambridge realised that their image was perceived to be arrogant and complacent in recent years. A rebrand ensured all customer touch points and graphics were softened to appear more friendly and fun. As with ntl, staff  loyalty and passion was reignited with the change in the “feel” of the company. Another local company have rebranded to relaunch under a more keyword friendly company name to make it more visible to search engines.

Branding and rebranding needs careful thought and strategic planning. To create or revitalise your product or service into a brand that is at the forefront of your customers’ minds, then contact us!

We are very happy to be given the opportunity to help JCI Cambridge with their marketing.

We have kicked off with a press release and email campaign to promote their upcoming seminar. It examines lie detection skills and facial expression recognition as a way of improving communication skills and promises to be a fascinating event! The technique has recently been popularised by the Fox TV series “Lie To Me”.

So far the email campaign has generated a record number of sign- ups in less than 24 hours of being sent out!

To book your place then go to the JCI website today for more details! The seminar is on September 7th at 6:30pm and all are welcome.

JCI Cambridge is part of a global group of networking professionals whose benefits to members include:

• Seminars with prominent speakers
• Management and leadership training
• Practical leadership opportunities
• A wide range of social events
• Access to a global network
• National and international conferences

We look forward to seeing you there!

One of the most effective ways to get yourself in the newspapers is to write a press release. These are not just for large organisations; canny small companies and businesses write also them for local publications and magazines. If you write them yourself, they are cheaper than adverts, say much more about your company, can be distributed further and, most importantly, get people talking about you.

So, what is a press release?

A press release is an article written for the press or web to convey company news and promote your business. Editors will pick them up and if they are deemed newsworthy enough. It saves them time in having to hunt for stories and also saves them money if they receive a well structured article that doesn’t require much re-writing.

How do you make it interesting enough to be printed in the paper or on web news sites?

Not every press release will get printed. It depends on the subject matter and many are, unfortunately, consigned to the bin. Good subjects for a press release include:

• Launch of a new product or service
• Growing and moving to new premises
• Raising money for charity
• Special anniversary
• Securing a major order
• Winning an award
• Appointment of key staff
• Holding an event

News stories can also be quirky and fun as well. For example, a small business suddenly having lots of ladies giving birth to twins, ducks nesting in the foyer of a hotel or a company has a “bring your pet to work” day. Opportunities like this should not be missed as they stand out from the usual business news.

Get your own internal PR machine working. Create a buzz by asking colleagues, “what could we do to get in the papers?” – and see what suggestions come in.

If you need some help with your publicity then we can write and distribute press releases for you. Our prices starting from just £75.  We also offer competitively priced retainers for regular press release writing.

Or, if you have already written a press release, then call us on 0845 519 556 or email us at info@emeraldfrog.co.uk and ask about our “Check and Send” service.  For just £45 we’ll read it through for you, edit accordingly and send it out the media of your choice.

Got a story? Then get scribbling!

On 9th August a website called TheChive.com posted a series of 33 photographs of  an attractive girl quitting her job. She did this via a series of messages written on a dry wipe board exposing her sexist boss.

The photos of “Jenny” quickly went viral and, overnight, became the top story on  news website Digg, gained 360, 000 “likes” on Facebook and featuring on news  stations and newspapers across America.

Following some investigations by the media, “Jenny” has now been exposed as  aspiring actress and model, Elyse Porterfield. The site it first appeared on,  TheChive.com, has admitted it was all a hoax in a new series of drywipe board  photographs featuring Elyse.

Viral marketing can take the form of email, articles, photos, video clips, games or even text messages. A clever viral marketing campaign works by being distributed by users across a variety of social media. It can create a buzz quickly and works to strengthen your brand or distribute your message. TheChive.com will no doubt never had such high web traffic!

While the ethics of hoaxes are questionable (TheChive.com have said it was all created in the name of entertainment), there is no doubt that the viral method can be highly powerful.

Other examples of large scale viral marketing include:

• Burger King’s Subservient Chicken mini-website
• Hotmail gaining new users via messages at the bottom of every Hotmail email
• Cadbury’s Gorilla advert on YouTube
• Google’s recent Pacman game.

On a smaller scale, viral marketing can help distribute your special offer or company name across your potential customer base. For example, viral marketing can take the form of Facebook and other social media campaigns, games and mobile phone applications, microsites or a viral video contests.

If you would like to consider viral as part of your marketing campaigns then contact us for a chat!

Any of you interested? Let us know!

One of our customers has 10 iPads going for half price – its first come first served so you will have to hurry!

He has already sold one (see photo).

Get back to us as quick as you can if you want one and we’ll let him know!

There is now a group on LinkedIn for marketing professionals in and around Cambridge.

Launched by Emerald Frog Marketing, the Cambridge Marketing Forum is a group for Cambridgeshire marketing professionals to network, debate and exchange ideas on best practice, post news and events and advertise marketing jobs.

Join the group, connect with other marketers in the area and post a discussion topic!