Here’s the deal:

Changes to PECR came into effect in May 2011, requiring marketers to audit their websites for types of cookies in use, inform visitors that the site is using them, and gain each visitor’s consent for their use.

Due to industry concerns about implementing the changes, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) granted a year’s exemption on imposing sanctions for non-compliance.

Your time is up as of the end of this month.

The bottom line is you’re going to need to implement some software if you want to continue using cookies.

We just held a sell-out seminar for marketers wanting to know what they need to do make sure their websites are compliant with the regulations.

Luckily, we filmed the whole thing, so you can watch it, get up to date and get compliant. Just click the play button below.

[video mp4="http://www.dotsearchmarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/video/cookielaw-web.mp4"]

The consultants here at dotAgency - dotMailer’s sister web design and search agency – have created a cookie compliance package that includes a website audit, and advice on compliance next steps.

For just £1500, you can escape a potential £500000 fine. How’s that for value?

Call Ben Staveley on 0207 654 8686 if you’d like to learn more. But don’t leave it too late.

The May #emailhuddle is almost upon us. This month, we’ll be discussing email automation – what is means to email marketers in the real world.

#emailhuddle was created to provide a platform for knowledge to be shared and somewhere for email marketers at all levels of expertise to get to know one another and share best practice for an hour.

This month’s #emailhuddle will be held on Wednesday May 30th at 4pm and discussions will cover the following:

TRIGGERS
What triggers do you use to automate your campaigns?
What is your best trigger tip?
Is there any part of email marketing that can’t or shouldn’t be automated?

SEGMENTATION
Does advanced segmentation help with email automation?
What kinds of audience segmentation is most suited to automation?

DYNAMIC CONTENT

What works best?
What advice do you have for those new to dynamic content?
What are the common results and success metrics you use?

To register for the May #emailhuddle or to suggest questions you would like us to discuss, please visit this link – http://tweetvite.com/event/emailhuddlemay

Brand new drag & drop Image Manager

Oh boy – we think you’re going to love what we’ve done to the Image Manager tool in our template editor.

Thanks to feedback from dotMailer users, we’ve totally reimagined how images work in dotMailer and given the Image Manager tool a complete makeover.

• Now you can upload and file multiple images in no time, just by dragging & dropping them.
• Find images in seconds using the keyword search.
• Get your pics super-organised with nested folders.

Read more

Get personal with our new drag & drop dynamic content builder

Set up marketing automation in minutes!
Imagine being able to define and create powerful, rule-based dynamic content in your campaigns, in minutes – just by dragging & dropping. Well guess what? In dotMailer, now you can.

• Drag dynamic content elements straight into your campaign template.
• Drag & drop text and images to create dynamic content variations in minutes.
• Easily define dynamic content rules with our new drag & drop query builder.
• Clone dynamic content and rules in a mouse click for use in other campaigns.

Read more

An updated Facebook email signup form tool.

Ensure all your social ‘pals’ can signup to your emails with this new Facebook email signup form. Find out how

3 new API methods for images: Get; Create; Upload.

Other than trying to work out why Google is targeting my favourite creatures, the recurring question on marketers’ lips is ‘what’s changed’?

It’s clear that While Panda – Google’s previous update – was more focussed on content quality, Penguin’s aim is to remove spam and ‘unnatural’ rankings.

Some of the things that can be deemed spam…

• Hidden or invisible text – My personal favourite. In the early noughties I used to come across hundreds of sites guilty of this. My favourite being a plumber that had a white background with white text on top repeating “Britney spears” as this was the most searched term on the web at the time. Great back then for getting unique visitors I’m sure, how much converted was most likely… not so great.
• Article spinning – taking an article, keeping the content exactly the same then attacking it with a thesaurus. The likelihood of it making sense to your average reader was pretty low, but search algorithms still picked them up as coherent articles, enabling the spin.
• Splogging – Or spam blogs. Creating blog sites which were usually used for the above, spinning out a lot of low-level articles.
• Link farms – A group of pages that pass links to each other within a network amongst themselves. Sharing vast amounts of these throughout their otherwise meaningless network. Now a dangerous place to find yourself, almost like ending up in the wrong part of town in the middle of the night.
• Comment Spam – Forums, blogs, wikis and guest books were often found littered with comments that had random links or signatures taking you to sites which infected your computers with trojans.

15 things marketers should be doing now, in response to Penguin

Whether the flippers of Penguin have made it to your website or not, it’s time to act on the tune dotSearch have been singing for months now.

Here are our top 15 tips for marketers who want to stay on top of their search:

1. Prioritise production of quality content
2. Focus on winning earned links
3. Embrace updates; fighting Google on an algorithm subject will take far longer than simply removing the issue or fixing it.
4. Blog – on a regular basis and keep your readers engaged.
5. Update and refresh your pages. ALL OF THEM.
6. Remove unrelated content (especially if your business/sites audience has changed)
7. Avoid buying links
8. Make your website a place where people, customers and web users enjoy and would return
9. Get social, tweet, like, pin, +1, link and interact on every level
10. Increase conversion rate
11. Split test layout and key terms
12. Surveys; ask your audience, it’s the customer you want to please, what makes them come back and what will make them tell others to come back?
13. Link content to conversion paths
14. Use email marketing? Your monthly newsletter can be a great way of updating a news section on your site.
15. Does your website have an FAQ section? I’m sure every business has a set of unique questions people ask… no matter how stupid it may sound!

Algorithm changes are here to stay, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Remember – if your competitors’ websites are penalised whilst you stay on the right side of the tracks, you’ll see your own site’s positions and traffic improve.

Their previous website platform had limited ecommerce capabilities which restricted what they could be achieved online. Problems included:

• Limited product order functionality
• No customer account ability
• Online ordering was long winded resulting in a low conversion rate

We quickly identified that all and more of their desired functionality could be achieved by migrating to the ecommerce platform Magento. So, after a short build period of less than a month, we launched a gorgeous new website with improved functionality including:

• Significantly improved usability and design
• Comprehensive customer account facility for quick product reordering
• Product search facility
• Product review functionality
• Customer ‘wish list’ system

So, take a look at the site at www.cabbagesandroses.com. Watch out for phase 2. Let us know your thoughts below. And if you’re looking to solve any of the issues above on your site – now you know who to contact!

We have just the ticket. dotMailer’s MD, Tink, being a member of the email marketing councils of both the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), has brought the two together to organise this hands-on half-day workshop to help you develop and apply best practice.

You’ll learn how to approach:

• email marketing strategy
• data acquisition and management
• segmentation and targeting
• design and content
• testing and refinement
• measurement and evaluation
• and legals and compliance

And you’ll get to soak up all the pro tips that the IAB and DMA have to offer, in an ultra practical session where you can address your specific challenges. The next event will be held on the 25th June 2012.

Find out more and get yourself a ticket here before they sell out, and don’t forget to leave any pro tips you discover in the comments box below. It’s your time to shine!

Like everything in dotSurvey, inserting images is super easy and flexible. Simply drag in an image field and drop it wherever you want; in the header, into the main question area, the choice is yours.

Then simply browse to your file and select like you would in any other word program, and hey-presto! Your image is inserted. You can upload .jpeg, .gif and .png files.

Now the clever bit – resizing

If you find your image is too big for your form or survey, no problem, just grab the corner and resize to fit. Do keep in mind your image can’t be made larger than the original and if you want to keep the whole file size of your survey to a minimum it’s best to use .jpeg so we can automatically resize the file for you, just because we’re nice like that.

You can also choose your alignment; left, right or centre, again like any word tool and add alt tags so your images can be read.

It’s more than just an image

Inserting images is awesome and will make your survey look super-stylish but don’t stop there, you can also add hyperlinks.

Of course you don’t just have to use images to make your survey look nice, you might want to get feedback on a design or find out which picture people prefer, there’s load of different ways you can use images.

We’d love to see and hear about all the great ways you’ve been using dotSurvey, get in touch via twitter @dotSurvey or join us on facebook

Not got a dotSurvey account yet? Start your free 30 day trial today!

Firstly: the number one thing you’ve all been asking for in our forums was the ability to remove images directly from EasyEditor.  We heard you, and now all it takes to remove an image is to drag it into the bin.

We’ve done more than that though – a lot more.

We’ve totally reimagined how images work, and given it all a shiny new make-over.  Paolo Cattaneo, our User Experience Designer on the project, says, “We knew we had two types of user: we had those who wanted to have control over their images, and those who were just too busy to spend time organising their library. We came up with a system that self-organises – by batching your uploads by date automatically – but that also allows effortless image management through natural actions such as dragging to move, double-clicking to rename and so on”.

We also now show thumbnails of images, rather than image names.  Paolo says, “Lots of images – especially those from digital cameras – get uploaded with rather cryptic, horribly long filenames. Finding what you wanted previously from a list of these wasn’t much fun. We were keen to show the images themselves – but we’ve also introduced a search, to help you home in on what you’re after”.

Not only does it look nicer, but it’s quicker, too.  Some of our users have over 20,000 images, so we’ve spent a lot of effort ensuring things are snappy.  In addition, uploading images is also faster – not least as you can now drag images from your desktop straight into the image side-panel. No pesky dialogs to slow you down!

Not all browsers are equal

As a B2B tool, we have to support a large number of browsers – but this sometimes means we can’t offer the same functionality to everyone.  Drag-and-drop file uploads require HTML5, for which you’ll need Chrome or Firefox. IE8 and below are generally significantly slower than the latest browsers, which means we’ll show you your images in smaller batches if you’re using one of these. There are other, more cosmetic differences caused by older browsers. If you can, we recommend updating your browser to its latest version.

Help and support

For more information and some usage tips, head over to our knowledge base.

Find out how you can vote for which new features and developments you want to see in dotMailer

Imagine being able to define and create powerful, rule-based dynamic content in your campaigns, in minutes – just by dragging & dropping. Well guess what? In dotMailer, now you can.

• Drag dynamic content elements straight into your campaign template
• Drag and drop text and images to create dynamic content variations in minutes
• Easily define dynamic content rules with our new drag & drop query builder
• Clone dynamic content and rules in a mouse click for use in other campaigns

If you’re a dotMailer user, from today you’ll find a new Dynamic Content option in the Elements toolbar. By simply dragging this into your campaign like you do any other element you will be able to create, edit and setup all your dynamic content directly in the EasyEditor, so you can see how it looks straight away – loads of time saved!

Define rules with our brand new drag & drop query builder

Our new dynamic content feature also makes it dead easy for you to define the rules that decide which recipient sees which piece of content. We’ve created a brilliant drag & drop query builder so you can quickly, easily and visually define the criteria that will automate your dynamic content – however simple or complex the rules are.

Re-using content across campaigns

Want to re-use Dynamic Content from another campaign, no problem! We aim to make everything as easy as possible so we’ve added a cloning feature enabling you to easily copy content from other campaigns, we are good to you.

Don’t worry, you can still access the old version so any Dynamic Content you currently have won’t be lost.

Click here for a quick how to guide to using the new Dynamic Content feature

Find out how you can vote for which new features and developments you want to see in dotMailer

So it’s pretty clear that mobile devices and smartphones are changing the way we as consumers approach email.

But there remains confusion and uncertainty amongst many marketers about what this mobile

Luckily, we’ve put together a few tips to hopefully make things a bit clearer.

1.    Make sure your website and email are optimised for mobile

Even if your email renders perfectly on a mobile device, if a recipient clicks through and finds a website that isn’t optimised they will be unlikely to convert.

According to a recent Google Adweek Presentation, 51% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from retailers with a mobile specific website, but despite this, 79% of the largest advertisers still do not have mobile sites. That is just like leaving money on the table.

2.    Make the most important things BIG

With mobile recipients likely to be constantly on the move, with only a few seconds before their attention is whisked away by something else, it is important to grab them quickly. Remember that a small screen is a small window of opportunity through which to grab interest. Larger fonts and headlines will stand out. Call to actions should also be large enough to view and click on without scrolling or zooming.

3.    Keep it simple

When it comes to mobile, less is more. Choose your words and pictures carefully and don’t clutter up the page. Studies show that the more action items in a newsletter, the less response each one receives. This is even more critical when it comes to mobile.

4.    Link to social media

A quarter of all time spent on the internet is spent on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. And 78% of the UK online population uses social media sites to pass on and send information, so it is imperative to make the most of this market.

Mobile users are big consumers of social media – in fact, it is the second most common activity on mobiles after email itself – so linking the two makes perfect sense.

5.    Do your analysis

Your ESP’s analytics you should give you a breakdown of your campaign recipients based on the email client and device they opened the email with, eg, Outlook, Hotmail, iPhone, Android, Blackberry.

With this data to hand you can identify your best strategy for accommodating your mobile phone email consumers.