About Derek Harris

Derek Harris is the founder of Arachne Web Services and has worked in the online communications space since 2001. He has previously worked at Premiere Global Services and Campaign Master in both Professional Services and Product Management roles, where he worked with a broad range of clients.

Do you use a Marketing Calendar?

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Derek Harris

A Marketing Calendar is a great way to plan out what you’ll be doing throughout the year. It will also help you plan out what to talk about in your online communications. For example, you might do a regular mid-year sale in June and July. You’ll want to get people excited about this and ready to buy, so your calendar should tell you that you need to start communicating in May, right after you’ve done your Easter campaign in April!

Once you create your calendar, you’ll see that you will be more focused on the upcoming campaigns or events and put more intent into your online content. The better your content, they more inclined your subscribers are to action it and buy from you.

Setting up a Marketing Calendar is easy and it something that you can do pretty quickly. You can also reuse it year on year and add or remove different parts of it. About.com has a great article on how you can create a Marketing Calender and they also provide a template, so get cracking!

Where’s the napkin?

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Derek Harris

The other day I went to the movies with my wife. We saw True Grit by the Coen Brothers, which was amazing, by the way.

Anyway, before the movie, we decided to grab some lunch at a cafe. I ordered the Nachos while she ordered the Lamb Pita. Both meals tasted great, arrived timely and the staff were really friendly. When I had finished my meal, I went to wipe my hands and mouth and discovered that I had no napkins. No big deal, I’ll just get one from the waiter. So, I had a great lunch and saw a fantastic movie. A good day by anyone’s standards!

Then I got to thinking, that this small, missing detail could really ruin someone’s experience. And if we extend that into the online world, where there are so many of these little things, the potential to ruin someone’s experience is multiplied greatly. So, taking care of the little things in your online communications such as, incorrect spelling or a broken link can really be the difference between solving someone’s problem or giving them more to worry about.

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Derek Harris

Well, the break is all over and Arachne is gearing up for a really big 2011!

We’ve got some exciting news for social media and email integration next week and big plans for our service offerings.

Arachne will also be producing far more content this year to help you with your everyday online communications needs.

Looking forward to a great year.

The Subject Line

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Derek Harris

If you’re like most marketers, you’ll spend lots of time working on your email’s copy and design. It is important to make sure that you get your message across and that you are able to generate the revenue or traffic needed to help make your campaign a success.

While spending time on these aspects of your email is great and will help your overall campaign, taking a moment to think about the subject line will give you an extra boost that will take your email to the next level.

The important thing to remember is that your recipients will judge whether or not to open your email based on the subject line and who the email is from. The design and content will only come into play after the email is opened.

So, with this in mind, you should craft your subject line to make your recipient want to open it. This means, making it intriguing so that the recipient’s interest is peaked and so it stands out from everything else in their crowded inbox. If you do this successfully, you’ll notice that your open rates start to go up.

Next, you need to make sure that your recipients aren’t surprised by the content. This means that your subject line should tell them exactly what they are about to see. Being honest and open about your content will lead to more interest, more click activity and less opt outs.

Making sure that your subject line works for your overall campaign will help you to get the results that you want.