technical issue
Poor old blog posts
It just goes to show you it can happen to anyone! Our blog was amongst those that got deleted during the recent attack on a Blacknight Server. Happily I have all the posts archived. Sadly my fairy godmother is off this week so there’s no magic wand to wave to post all our items since August again. Patience, my lovelies, and I’ll have the site looking as right as rain again!
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Deadline for Digital Media Awards Friday 6th Nov
Launched in 2003, The Digital Media Awards were engineered to raise awareness of the emerging digital media sector in Ireland and more importantly to act as a showcase for the varied dynamic works being created by companies and third level institutions across the broad spectrum of categories in Digital Media.
On Thursday 25th of February 2010 the industry will assemble at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry to honour this year’s winners. The annual Digital Media Awards will present awards in 22 categories, to the companies, people and organisations producing the most stylish, creative and pioneering work in their field.
The Digital Media Awards continuously seek to recognise and reward excellence in the Digital Media Sector by introducing new categories, involving more people and generating more press interest with each event. Sponsors include IIA Member Companies The Irish Times, Enterprise Ireland, The Digital Hub and Blueface.
With the Blogging category back for 2010 five new categories have also been introduced to the awards this year to reflect the changes and advances in the Digital Media Industry; Best Web Design/Development Agency, Best in Media, Best in Mobile Internet Innovation, the Viral Event category and the Best innovative start up through Digital Enterprise. Regus, the sponsor of this latter category are offering the winner a fully equipped office in their Cork or Dublin offices.
Click here for a full list of categories and criteria. All entries can all be submitted online and will be open until the 6th of November.
Guest Blogger, events, email marketing
Event review: Get straight to your customer with Email Marketing
I always try to encourage event attendees to write reviews of our events for the IIA Blog. Niall Mc Henry of IIA Member Company SaveAFewBob.ie lept at the chance and wrote the following review of a recent event. If you would like to write an honest review, check out our guest blogger guidelines and have at ye!
In the meantime a big thanks to Niall!
The event Niall is reviewing was titled “Get Straight to your customers with Email Marketing” and included presentations from denise cox of newsweaver, Irene Gahan of IIA Member Company Rehab Bingo and Gary Davis, Deputy Data Protection Commissioner. The slides from the presentations are available in the Resources section of IIA.ie If you attended the event and have anything further to add please leave a comment or trackback below – thanks! If you would like to hear about future events please either sign up for our free newsletter and events alerts or subscribe to our Events Feed.
Over to Niall:
As a novice e-mail marketer about to embark on an e-mail marketing campaign, I recently attended the seminar on email marketing organised by the IIA. There were some excellent learning points to take from the session which I hope to build into our own company’s newsletters. For those who were unable to attend, here are some of my thoughts which you may find helpful.
Of all the online marketing tools available to businesses, email marketing is the only mechanism which affords marketers full control whereby we can push information to our customers. With all other online marketing tools, the user/customer is in the driving seat, dictating what information they are looking for and where and when they will search for it.
Email marketing allows us to get in front of our customers with our message at the time of our own choosing. This is a golden opportunity to communicate with people who are genuinely interested in our product/service. We should be grateful for this and respect the fact that we have permission to contact them. (Yes, you do need their permission!) It is imperative that we consider the parameters within which we are operating when planning our Email Marketing Strategy.
Denise spoke of the 7 Critical Steps to Email Marketing Success. Below I highlight the key points which we hope to integrate into our own newsletters.
- Set clear objectives and goals
- Build brand loyalty
- Encourage readers to visit our site
- Reward members with prizes/giveaways
- Offer alternative promotional channel to advertisers
- Invite readers to sign up to follow us on Twitter/Facebook
- Look your best
- Design should be consistent with existing branding
- Clean design: a few short paragraphs with prominent headlines
- Not too wordy, easy to scan
- Light and engaging in tone
- Visuals can be effective
- Include great content
- Content is king (and it builds your reputation)
- Relevant and timely
- Quality as opposed to quantity
- WIFM: What do your customers want to read? What’s in it for them?
- Short snappy paragraphs – readers are time poor
- Have strong calls to action
- Email Us
- Download this
- Click here (include hyperlinks to specific landing pages)
- Follow us on Twitter
- Avail of this exclusive offer
- Get into the Inbox
- Best to use a professional email service provider
- Check compatibility with different browsers
- Test prior to sending
- Keep your database clean and up to date
- Stand out in the Inbox
- A good heading can ensure higher open rate
- How can you stand out from the crowd(ed) Inbox?
- Can you create instant recognition?
- A personalised email creates trust. Avoid sent from info@, no reply@
- Measure and test for best results
- E-mail marketing is an iterative process
- Learn about your audience. What are their preferences?
- Segment your database if appropriate
- Study metrics, what was opened, which calls to action were answered?
- What can be improved the next time?
Hope this helps. Happy Email Marketing!
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Maggie Bowen, RIP
Fergal O’Byrne, former IIA CEO, on hearing the sad news said, "Maggie was a wonderful ambassador for the internet in Ireland. She was a regular contributor to the IIA; writing articles and speaking at events. Her enthusiasm was remarkable and the internet industry will sadly miss her."
Most recently, Maggie has been a strong voice for the use of the internet among tourism SMEs working on the webcheck program with Fáilte Ireland in the Dublin & South East Region.
The IIA extends its sincere condolences to her family, friends and colleagues.
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Partner with the IIA and deliver top quality training courses
Benefit from being associated with the IIA brand and reach over 550 organisations and more than 6,000 IIA followers. Further to the survey of our members, the IIA is now inviting tenders for its training partners 2010. Download the Tender Document from the Resources section and submit your tender by Friday 27th November 2009. Training partners will be selected by 11th December and all tender applicants will be notified directly of the outcome thereafter. All those tendering must be fully paid up members of the IIA.
As well as hands-on courses, the IIA is constantly seeking speakers for our seminars, breakfast and evening events around the country. If you would like to be added to our speaker panel, please fill in the Call for Speakers 2010 form and email it to Irene (events@iia.ie) by 27 November 2009.
Anonymised results of our events survey will be released to members in November. Thanks to all who participated!
And finally the lucky winner of 2 tickets for both Congress and the Net Visionary Awards 2010 is Facundo Villaveiran of Channelship Ltd.
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Special offer for IIA.ie readers: Free advertising on Mugurdy.com, the visual search engine
To trial their ad platform and for research purposes, Mugurdy are planning to place graphic advertising on the search results page. They are seeking trial advertisers. The trial advertisers will receive reports on the number of impressions, click through rates, geographical breakdown etc. The trial will run for a month and there is no charge to the advertiser for the ads or reporting.
If you would like your company to participate in this trial at no cost, all that is required is a 160px by 600px graphic, the landing page the user is brought to, and the geographic regions across the globe (or everywhere) the advertiser wishes to target. Please send this information and the graphic to jimmy@mugurdy.com or contact for further details.
Congress 2010
Stick your oar in! Share your views on Events & Congress 2010
Many of you have completed our recent survey (and there’s still time – it remains open until 5pm today) where we picked your brains on what kind of events, formats and prices you would like to see in our events calendar in 2010. Our events manager, Irene Dehaene, in particular would like to thank you very much. She and I would also like to remind you that there’s not only still time but also a chance that you might win two tickets for the 2010 IIA Congress & Net Visionary Awards taking place next May.
Speaking of which we would also love to do a bit of online brainstorming with you, our resourceful readers, here on our blog. What themes would you like to see addressed at next year’s Congress? What are the biggest opportunities for online business that you would like to hear more about? What are the biggest pitfalls that you need more information to avoid? What have you been reading, watching, hearing about that you think more businesses here need to know about? Have you had a revelatory experience using a new technology that you think would make an awesome case study? Have you heard an inspiring speaker that you think all Irish online business people should have an opportunity to hear? What other questions could I possibly ask to get your brainstorming buds a-tingling?
Don’t worry about what themes we addressed in previous Congresses, don’t worry about whether you’ve attended before or not, just speak (write) your mind.
I have a ticket for next year’s Congress for the best comment below so please stick your oar in!
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WebsiteSpark: Microsoft’s new support programme for small web design and development shops
In the last year, over 300 companies in Ireland and Northern Ireland have benefited from business and development support from the Microsoft BizSpark program.
WebsiteSpark is Microsoft’s new program to help small web design and development shops by providing them with three things essential to their success at no upfront cost:
- Visibility through a marketplace and well as connections through marketing and business networking programs
- Support of all kinds, from tech support and training to a network of other development shops, hosting partners, developers and designers, and
- Tools to build products for your customers: Windows Server and IIS, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Expression and more.
If your company’s primary business is providing web development and design services and it has 10 or fewer people including owners and employees, it’s eligible for WebsiteSpark ! You’ll save money on tools and technology, benefit from support and training and gain an advantage through opportunities to meet new customers and technology partners. It’s visibility, support and tools — what a small web shop needs — all in a nice little package.
The IIA is a Network Partner on WebSiteSpark so please feel free to contact info@iia.ie to get involved.
For more information about WebsiteSpark , visit the WebsiteSpark site and see how Microsoft can help your web company succeed!
This initiative was launched at the last TechLudd Social Networking event where Microsoft celebrated the success and growth of the organizations involved in Bizspark and the plans for WebSiteSpark.
When? October 20th, 7pm.
Where? The Guinness Storehouse, Dublin 8
International Strategy Working Group
International Strategy Working Group Case Study: RevaHealth
Case study compiled by the IIA International Strategy Working Group reviewing the success and experience of Irish based entrepreneurs internationalizing their Businesses.
This case study is also available to download as a a PDF from the Resources Section of IIA.ie
Caelen King, interviewed below, is confirmed as a speaker in the IIA International Strategy Working Group’s upcoming event. Information about this event will be made available as the details are confirmed. Please see our events page or sign up for our Monthly Digital Digest and regular Events Alerts.
Company: www.RevaHealth.com
Interviewee: Caelen King, CEO
Date: September 27, 2009
Written by: Una Coleman www.codegaconsulting.comSynopsis of company
RevaHealth.com is a healthcare search engine – a web portal gathering and providing information about health clinics around the world, displayed comparably. In e-business terms, it is a pure play business – a company that originated and does business purely through the internet. There are lower barriers to entry but the internet affords smaller companies the ability to compete with much larger brands due to typically lower overhead and marketing costs.
Its revenue generating customers are health clinics, such as dentists, cosmetic surgery, medical tourism, laser eye care, chiropractors, fertility treatment to mention a few. Through the RevaHealth portal, clinics all over the world can have their services listed. The benefits to the customer are:
- Lead generation
- Building their brands online
- Savings in time and money
RevaHealth also takes care of the ultimate customer. The patient search is made easy. In the offline world, customers approach to information gathering is interruption based and time restricted. The prospective client rings the clinic, is often put on hold, asked to ring back later, or given information based on the time the clinician has between patients. And, it all happens during clinic hours as opposed to at the customer’s convenience. RevaHealth’s domain rich portal provides the customer with all the information he/she needs right there and then. It is a 21st century proposition responding to the demands of today’s customers.
RevaHealth has already aggregated all the relevant information for the patient by checking the clinics’ own websites: for instance to determine if they advertise their prices – they even phoned some clinics to see if they have parking, and they let patients share their experiences of the clinic. RevaHealth are experts in SEO and SEM (search engine optimization and search engine marketing).
RevaHealth is the technical online marketing partner of health clinics globally. It was set up in 2007 and now has over 110,000 clinics in 99 countries listed.
- Why internationalize – what were the drivers?
- the productization of healthcare,
- a growth in medical tourism,
- a socialized healthcare environment,
- demands by the consumer for greater choice and information,
- a fragmented market place.
- What markets did you focus on?
- What needed to be in place?
- A good enough back-end system.
- “A sound Business Plan that we returned to and iterated as our market knowledge grew”.
- No sacred cows: the business model evolved and significantly changed in the first trading year.
- What were the main challenges / obstacles? How did you overcome them?
- What activities were most successful in achieving success?
- Measuring everything.
- Following up on leads.
- Assessing the leads as prospects or not.
- Learning how to identify a “hot” clinic.
- What are your most effective routes to market and why?
- How did you win your first client?
- How influential was winning your first client in developing the market?
- What marketing initiatives have you used to support your internationalization?
- What were the key learnings? (legal, tax, language, culture)
- If you were doing it again, what would you do differently?
- What is the one piece of advice you would give companies starting out on internationalization?
RevaHealth was “Born Global” a term used to describe small technology oriented firms, targeting niche global markets as opposed to wide international markets and many industries, with little or no domestic market. The international experience of the founders weights heavily on the success of such companies.
RevaHealth’s proposition from the start was to become a global player. Its market opportunity in Ireland was always going to be small. It has operated in the international space from the start.
Caelen King also fits the profile to lead a “Born Global” company. He has previously worked with Baltimore Technologies, one of Ireland’s internationally successful indigenous technology companies.
A number of key market factors and drivers combined to create the opportunity for a new business offering to healthcare clinician providers:
The global healthcare market size is greater than €6 trillion.
RevaHealth selects territories based on market research and assessment. This is primarily desk research that it completes inhouse. It has broken down its markets as follows:
It also looks at markets where it can add value. Based on the outcome of its market research, it scrapes[1] data from the web on local clinics to post on its site. For example, take a look at their list of plastic surgery clinics in the UK or dentists in the UK. “Traffic comes to our site in unpredictable ways” according to Caelen King. Understanding the value in a territory is a discovery process. “Hot spots” emerge. A market is formed when consumer traffic reaches a critical level.
Human Resources: recruiting and attracting staff. It was not about the money. It was a challenge to attract seasoned and experienced staff on both the sales and technical side: to bring that mature level of expertise to jump-start the business. Seasoned and experienced people were not interested in giving up job security and stability to join a start-up. The entrepreneurial drive exhibited by early stage applicants was low.
Revahealth went to the universities and sought graduates hungry to learn in a short period of time, in an entrepreneurial environment. Now, its growing public profile in the Irish market place, particularly in the technology community and the positioning of its founder, Caelen King, as an online technology guru, guarantees interest from prospective employees for the future.
Competition (lack thereof): “We didn’t have any real competitors in our space. In fact we would have almost paid for serious competition.” Competitors not only validate a business proposition and market – they also help build it. “We were bringing something new to our niche. Our clients and prospects were unfamiliar and wary of the model. We didn’t have the actual business case to substantiate our proposition. It was theoretical”.
“We gave away stuff for free. We clearly articulated this was another route to market for our clients – we would not be cannibalizing their existing business. We provided compelling feedback and demonstrated measurable ROI (return on investment)”.
Building domain knowledge: RevaHealth differentiate itself from other information portals through focusing on a niche and really understanding that niche. Its travel budget is spent almost entirely on building domain expertise about the territories in which it operates.
Initially, it had to pay for traffic to the site through google ads. SEO initiatives can take up to 18 months to build decent google ranking. Now, it has almost no google ad campaigns.
The sales process is roughly 2 months with 4 – 6 phone calls and 4 – 6 emails. Its sales staff are 3rd level graduates, young, smart and tech savvy. They are Dublin based and they speak at least two languages.
All sales activities are measured and visible. Peer performance is a good motivator. The key driver in the sales process is early completion.
RevaHealth is now looking at identifying Channel Partners as a route to market to support its sales and market growth objectives.
RevaHealth’s first client came about from a Belgian customer query about weight loss. The €500 spent on champagne celebrating that first and early win (after the site was up for just 3 months) far outweighed the €10 subscription fee. The client is still with them, now on an annual subscription of €1,500.
More than anything else, it gave the team a great confidence boost at that early stage. It also validated the business model, provided the business case and reference site to attract new customers. Winning early was enormously influential.
In the tradition of a pure internet play business, most of RevaHealth’s marketing is online: SEO and SEM with metrics underpinning all activities. Google is the 2nd most trusted form of information for consumers. Link building is also a key marketing task.
It is now looking at Channel Partners as a route to market and is starting to create marketing material to support its positioning as online technology experts delivering niche business processes to business driven healthcare providers. This will be a mix of offline and online marketing.
RevaHealth uses social networking platforms. Follow @revahealth & @phil_revahealth on twitter: it uses its blog, http://blog.revahealth.com/ to comment on technical issues and build its profile as online business process experts.
It has not localized either its website or marketing materials. However, all its sales staff speak at least two languages.
Concentrate on what you need today rather than focus on building for tomorrow.
The earlier and more frequent you make those sales calls the earlier revenue flows: the earlier you have reference sites to leverage and the sooner you learn and adapt the business model to client and market needs the more successful you will be.
As an international online business relationships are different. However, a lot can be done over the phone. While a script can be an aid to the sales staff, calls are almost never the same. Hire smart people, provide them with support and an environment to learn and be successful.
Stop worrying about the long-term and focus on what’s needed now.
Pick up the phone and make the sales calls – in volume and frequently. Close the deal in the shortest time.
[1] Web scraping transforms unstructured web content, (in HTML format for instance), into structured data that can be stored and analyzed in a central database. Web scraping is also related to web automation, which simulates human web browsing using computer software.
View article…
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Internet Growth Acceleration Programme (iGAP) to help Internet Related Companies Win New Business Opportunities
Ireland’s growing number of internet related companies are set to receive a major boost to their growth development prospects with the launch today (Tuesday 29 September 2009) of the Internet Growth Acceleration Programme (iGAP). Developed by Enterprise Ireland in association with the Internet Growth Alliance (a business led initiative supporting the international growth of Irish e-businesses) this new Programme for high potential Internet companies will provide them with the tools and skills to develop and execute aggressive international growth plans and scale their business. Recruitment for the Programme, which starts in November, is now underway.
The focus of the Internet Growth Acceleration Programme is on Internet related companies with global growth potential and the ability to meet critical growth milestones. The Programme design is specifically geared to add significant strategic and business value to companies in both B2B and B2C markets with practical learning modules, support from implementation coaches, access to business advisors and industry networking. Industry experts and experienced Internet entrepreneurs will cover topics including monetizing the business, revenue models, marketing, customer acquisition and retention and preparation for funding – all key elements of a business strategy for growing Internet companies.
Speaking at the launch, Jennifer Condon, Manager of Enterprise Ireland’s Software Division, said:
“Enterprise Ireland’s new Software Strategy, as part of the Government’s Smart Economy blueprint, sets out to develop and grow a thriving set of high-value, innovative, research-intensive Irish Software companies. The aim of the software strategy is to position Ireland’s software industry to maximise its opportunities in the “New Software Economy”. This New Software Economy is driven by the growth of the Internet and changes in the software value chain. It is characterised by user demand for greater flexibility, global delivery and cost effective solutions.
“The Internet is providing opportunities for new business models as seen in Internet based start-ups and new delivery channels such as Software as a Service. These new business models favour flexible, innovative SMEs by giving them access to international markets via the Internet. The Internet Growth Acceleration Programme aims to position Irish Internet related companies to maximise their potential in this new market environment and is specifically designed to address the needs of innovative companies specifically those developing Web 2.0 type applications.”
Speaking on behalf of the Internet Growth Alliance* Colm Lyon, CEO of Realex Payments and founder of the Internet Growth Alliance said:
“The development of the Internet Growth Acceleration Programme is a great example of industry wide collaboration at work. All the stakeholders in the Irish Internet Industry believe in the opportunity and the global potential the internet has to offer Irish businesses. With all the relevant industry associations and some key business advisors working together we see the emergence of a very important building block – the iGAP. This programme will give Irish internet entrepreneurs access to worldwide and local expertise. It is comprehensive, focused and intensive in its construction. In addition it will offer Irish Internet Entrepreneurs the opportunity to meet and get to know many other people in the same industry – both experienced and emerging.
“The business advisors of the Internet Growth Alliance are delighted with the development and look forward to working with both Enterprise Ireland and the participating businesses as we identify and support Irish Internet businesses that will scale globally.”
This programme is a core part of Enterprise Ireland’s recently launched four-year strategy for the Irish software industry, which aims to drive the sector’s revenues to over €2.5bn by 2013 by capitalising on changes in the global software market. Outlining the importance of the Internet sector in this strategy, Jennifer Condon went on to say: “Internet based businesses will form an increasingly significant part of Ireland’s Software sector. Enterprise Ireland is working closely with our industry partners, in particular the Internet Growth Alliance, the Irish Software Association and the Irish Internet Association, to bring about sustainable change and growth in the sector. This programme is one of a number of initiatives to support these Internet companies in their drive to develop their businesses and grow globally.”
Further information on the programme visit www.enterprise-ireland.com/igap or contact igap@enterprise-ireland.com .
More about the Internet Growth Alliance
*The Internet Growth Alliance (www.alliance.ie) was established by a consortium of Irish entrepreneurs in conjunction with the Irish Internet Association, Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Software Association, the Institute of International and European Affairs, Web2 Ireland and the Digital Hub. The mission of the Alliance is to accelerate the development of Irish Internet businesses and the Internet Growth Acceleration Programme is at the core of its strategy.