Crop

Hi there, we’re Crop – a small but international digital agency.

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Facebook Live – An era of complete transparency?

Mark Zuckerberg’s pet project Facebook Live rolled out all around the world this Spring. Media companies are paid by Facebook to produce monthly videos and the Facebook algorithm now favours live-streaming. Should businesses and marketers be excited? There's one very good reason why.

Up to now, video content has been all about the finished product - with little need for behind-the-scenes access or commentary. With mobile apps such as Snapchat having already altered what viewers expect from online video content (honesty and authenticity), we here at Crop are sensing that this more open and interactive style of communication is here to stay – especially now that Facebook Live has been rolled out to people and publishers around the world.

What is Facebook Live?

Live video was introduced by Facebook in 2015 and is a feature that allows for real-time videos to be streamed on your timeline and news feed. You may have heard of  “Chewbacca Mom”, who recently posted a Facebook Live video which became the most-watched live video on Facebook ever.

Through the Facebook mobile app, users simply have to select the live-stream option in their status bar in order to start recording real-time content. While a video is being broadcast, viewers can react to the video by either commenting as they would on any ordinary video, or by utilizing Facebook’s popular emoji- feature.

While ordinary videos will still appear in your news feed, Facebook have recently updated their news feed algorithm to give preference to live content. This measure was taken to ensure that live videos have the best chance of being viewed while they’re actually live.

Will Facebook Live Videos benefit my business?

Thus far, we have not seen too many great examples of Facebook Live videos even though they have been popping up everywhere in recent months. Facebook has paid celebrities and media outlets to create live content (the New York Times and Buzzfeed among them), and the results have varied from blowing up a watermelon to lots of in-house interviews. So how do businesses benefit from Facebook Live videos?

Facebook’s Product Manager Fidji Simo recently stated in a blog article that Facebook users are commenting “10 times more on Facebook Live videos than on regular videos.” This number indicates that live videos give businesses the ability to involve their audience on Facebook better than ever.

Some great examples do exist, which we think can help businesses and organisations to understand the possibilities of Facebook Live. Two wonderful examples of how to use Facebook Live video come from The Met and Martha Stewart Living: The Met takes the museum fans on pre-tours of new exhibitions..

..and on walk throughs of exhibitions

When the Met gave viewers a pre-tour of its new exhibition “Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World”, it had more than 50 000 people watching, over 3000 likes and 700 comments.

Martha Stewart Living started to do Facebook Live videos approximately once a week after the success of their first video late last year. With Facebook Live videos, the brand has reached an international audience like never before and over the course of just five months, they’ve reached six million people according to a recent presentation by Ruth Feldman, SVP brand development at Martha Stewart Living. Martha is live with Chef David Chang

These two examples are a great indication of the possibilities of Facebook Live, giving brands new ways to reach and involve their audience. Also, Facebook Live provides you with an opportunity to give your business an authentic face and a more personal feel.

Sky is the limit?

The greatest advocate of Facebook Live is Mark Zuckerberg himself (who’s rumoured to be obsessed with it). He has hosted a Live Q&A with astronauts on the International Space Station and had his first personal Live Q&A on June 14th. At F8 this April, he demonstrated how to record live from a drone – it will now be possible for drones and television broadcast feeds to utilize Facebook Live.

Although previously limited to mobile phones, Facebook Live will now have an open API for developers. This means that videos will have the ability to be streamed to Facebook through alternative hardware such as this Mevo camera, which will start to ship in July.

We’ll only truly begin to see the success of Facebook Live after some time. Facebook is still in the process of rolling out live-streaming. When all the technology is in place, the possibilities could be endless. In the same way that businesses are using Snapchat, Facebook Live can be used to broadcast anything from cat videos to coverage of special events, behind the scenes views...you name it.

One very good reason to be excited about Facebook Live

The more authentic, personal and engaging feel that Facebook Live videos are embracing goes hand-in-hand with the all video experience that consumers currently have a huge appetite for. And the best reason for businesses and marketers to start experimenting with Facebook Live right now? It’s free. Think about it: you have to sponsor your update to make sure you reach as many people who like your page as possible. With Facebook Live videos you can reach most of them at no cost.

Contact us

Get in touch: [email protected] Learn more: www.crop-agency.com

Some extra facts about Facebook Live and Periscope:

Periscope is Twitter’s own version of a live-streaming app. Periscope allows users to broadcast live to both their Periscope followers, and directly to their Twitter followers from within the Twitter timeline.

With both Facebook Live and Periscope offering near-identical features and serving exactly the same purpose, choosing which one to use will depend largely on which social-media platform your company utilizes the most and of course, which set of followers you primarily wish to interact with.

Facebook have included an option to invite viewers to ‘subscribe’. Subscribers will then receive a notification next time one of your videos goes live.

Periscope users now have the option of saving their broadcast indefinitely by simply adding ‘#save’ to the title of their video.

Similarly to Facebook Live, Periscope are currently beta-testing a doodle feature for overlaying on your video.

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Are you ready to go 360° with your brand?

If you haven’t heard of 360-degree videos yet, then fear not – you will very soon. While 360-degree videos are not new to the digital marketing scene, it can be said that they are only truly finding their feet now.

With Youtube and Facebook leading the way in terms of interactivity with these cutting-edge videos, it’s no wonder that marketers and advertising creatives all over the world are beginning to take note of 360 videos and what they can do for them.

But what is a 360 video and does your company really need one? With technology moving faster than ever, we’re here to help you keep up and answer those questions:

What is a 360-degree video? A 360-degree video is exactly what the name suggests – a video that provides you with a 360° view of a scene. With a 360 video, the viewer can click and drag their mouse around the video screen - allowing them to view alternate angles of the shot in one smooth flow. 

For mobile users, alternate angles of the video can be viewed by simply tilting their phone in the direction they wish to view. Perhaps the most immersive method for enjoying 360 video content is by viewing it with a VR headset like the Oculus Rift (one should not, however, assume 360 video is virtual reality content, it’s more of a bridge between video and virtual reality).

All of this has been made possible due to the ambitious development of the 360-degree camera and its ability to capture what is known as the ‘spherical scenario’. In simple terms, this means that the entire environment surrounding the camera is recorded, creating a more immersive experience than standard videos allow.

What is so special about a 360 video and why would my company need one? It should be noted that 360-degree videos are not here to replace the more traditional idea of video content. In fact, they are merely here to enhance the viewing experience where appropriate.

Not every company will require a 360 video to successfully promote their product or service, but with these videos becoming increasingly accessible to users – they shouldn’t be overlooked.

How are these videos being used?

(Note: When watching Facebook 360 videos below, make sure you're using the latest version of your Chrome or Firefox web browser and you're logged into Facebook. 360 videos on Facebook aren't viewable on Safari or Internet Explorer.)

The possibilities of how to utilize 360 videos are endless (which is just one of the reasons why digital marketers are getting so excited!). Some of the uses so far range from covering events (see the Jason Wu’s New York Fashion Week Show and Vogue’s Met Gala Red Carpet) to advertising a product (see L'Oréal Men Expert, Nescafé):

  ..and promoting a TV-show (Chelsea Show) – but there really are no restrictions.

For B2B companies the 360 videos might turn even more succesful. As B2B companies rely heavily on the prominent positioning of their product or service within a specific market, 360 videos provide an invaluable opportunity for these companies to do just that. 

Think of exhibitions and tradeshows where space to display products is often limited. With 360 videos, any product or service can be displayed to potential clients, regardless of its scale or geographic location. 

General Electric’s use of 360 videos to provide a view of their locomotive vehicle that previously, would have only been possible to experience in person, is a great example of B2B brand go 360°.

Tech giants pave the way With Youtube having its own channel dedicated solely to 360-degree content, and Facebook 360 page to discover and watch 360 videos from around Facebook, videos are easy to find, share and get noticed.

Whether or not you want to invest time and money into 360-degree content though, depends mostly on the kind of staying power you believe these videos will have. In April this year, Facebook unveiled an open-source 360-degree video camera in hope of increasing the amount of 360 videos on its platform. Furthermore, Youtube’s recent announcement of a partnership with GoPro to create a more “consumer-friendly” spherical camera will no doubt make shooting 360-degree content even more alluring to the everyday consumer. (Let’s not even start with live 360 video, YouTube’s newest feature.) 

With tech giants already having invested their money ahead of the curve, we’re taking this as a strong indication that the demand for 360 video content is only set to grow.

If you are still wondering whether 360-degree content might be suited to your company, ask yourself the following questions:

1) Is our product or service something that we want to allow ‘behind-the-scenes’ access to?

One of the keys aspects of the 360 video is that it allows users to feel as though they are seeing the whole picture. While traditional ‘tricks of the trade’ in terms of framing can still be applied, it is undeniable that your product or service will be more exposed than it would be in a more conventional video.

2) Would our consumers benefit from a more interactive digital experience?

In 2016, any company answering “no” to this question might raise a few eyebrows. 360 videos don’t appear to just be a gimmick or passing trend. With Facebook already having made the videos available for video ads, the average Facebook user will soon come to expect a more interactive digital experience. 

Even though 360 videos are not the only way to create this experience for users on social media, it’s certainly set to become one of the easiest and ultimately effective ways.

3) Do we want to enhance our mobile experience?

360-degree videos are even more innovative when viewed on mobile devices. Instead of the user having to drag their mouse on screen to view a different angle, mobile users merely have to tilt their screen. With support available for both Android and iOS devices, the mobile user can enjoy 360 videos wherever they are. In addition, Google have developed their ‘Google Cardboard’ Virtual Reality headsets. These “build your own” VR headsets can be worn by mobile users wanting an additional “emotional experience” when viewing compatible apps and videos (see more here).

Google even has a project for 360° storytelling made uniquely for mobile (see Help – their first live action story).

The Bottom Line Will your product or service suffer if you don’t start using 360-degree videos immediately? The simple answer to this question is no.

However, if recent investments by global technology brands are anything to go by, 2016’s launch of more accessible 360-degree technology will undoubtedly create a buzz. Your product or service is yours to show off, so why not do so from all angles – literally.

Watch our YouTube playlist to see even more clever ways that 360 videos are being used >

Some extra facts:

Youtube provides support for the uploading and playback of 360 videos on computers with Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera browsers (not yet Safari)

Facebook provides support for the playback of 360 videos on computers with Chrome & Firefox (not yet Safari/IE)

To watch 360 videos on a mobile device, you can do so through the latest versions of the Facebook and Youtube mobile apps (works for both Android and iOS devices)

Note: Facebook recommend that your iOS device (an iPhone 4s or newer, or an iPad 2 or newer) should be running iOS 7 or later. Android devices should also be capable of running Android 4.3 or later. Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

More about 360 videos? Contact:

Marjaana Laakkonen [email protected]

www.crop-agency.com

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Is your website mobile friendly?

We think most of you will answer “yes” and that’s great, because Google will start ranking mobile-friendly sites even higher in May. 

You can check if Google deems your site mobile-friendly with Mobile-Friendly Test. If you get this result:

...then it’s time to renew your site! Maarten is more than happy to help you, just drop him a line or call:

Maarten Patteeuw [phone] [email protected]

www.crop-agency.com

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Integrate bpost logistics with your Magento webshop

eCommerce platform Magento now fully integrates with bpost, the Belgian national Post. bpost Shipping Manager allows your customers to choose their preferred delivery method when ordering in your Magento webshop. Your customers can receive your parcel at home or at the office or from over 1250 pick-up points operating 24/7. You can also generate your own labels and tracking codes directly from the Magento order admin page.

Let’s integrate the delivery methods of bpost into your Magento webshop! Contact Maarten to learn more

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Our friend Joachim Boudens – sommelier and the owner of restaurant Hertog Jan – has created an exclusive festive drink for us to enjoy during the holiday season. Watch Joachim prepare the Porto Splash cocktail and learn how to make it yourself.

PORTO SPLASH

50 ml Graham's Dry White Port 10 ml lemon juice 100 ml ginger & cardamom Schweppes Premium mixer 1 sprig of rosemary

Take a large wine glass and add ice cubes. Add the port, lemon juice and tonic. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

TIPS You can first smoke the wineglass with dried rosemary. Use a bottle of white port that hasn’t been open for longer than one week, as oxidised port wine has an unpleasant taste. The lemon juice is for extra refreshment – the cocktail can be served without it. Pour the tonic gently along the glass to preserve the bubbles.

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Season’s Greetings campaign illustration

Our Season’s Greetings campaign illustration for Taitoa is now live on www.taitoa.fi. The northern lights illustration was done by the very talented Helsinki based illustrator and graphic designer Anja Reponen. The picture is also used in Taitoa's email greetings.

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Smeltende Sneeuw Brews & Business Networking Evening – recap of the event

We had fun on Wed Nov 11 together with Flanders Investment and Trade and all the guests, who joined us for our Slush side event, Smeltende Sneeuw for brews, bites and networking. We met a lot of new and interesting people! 

Everything is set for the evening..

...like balloons.

and a cool Pelago cargo bike.

Fine Belgian beer, courtesy of Duvel Moortgat.

Lights and music!

The guests have arrived.

Time for talk and discussions.

Meeting new people..

and face to face presentations.

Thanks everyone for joining. Let’s do it again next year!

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New app to improve visitor experience in Belgium’s biggest one-day event – Open Bedrijvendag

On October 4, over 500 companies across Belgium will open their doors to hundreds of thousands of visitors, job seekers, and the media. An event of this scale requires an engaging and easy-to-use app to help visitors find participating companies, get updates and news about the event, and plan their own agenda for the day.

We at Crop have designed the concept, user experience, and interface of the Open Bedrijvendag app to ensure visitors can get the most out of their day.

For most companies an easy and affordable way to create apps is to use an existing app-building platform. To serve the huge crowd attending Open Bedrijvendag, we have selected one of the leading event app platforms, TapCrowd.

The latest version of the Open Bedrijvendag app arrived in the App Store and on Google Play last week. This new version uses geo-fencing and ibeacons, enabling push notifications to be sent to visitors based on their location.

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Four things that make single-page WordPress websites beautiful

Our designers Antoine and Marjaana share four reasons they see beauty in single-page WordPress websites, while talking about one of Crop’s most recent projects: a beautiful one-page WordPress website for Gyrokinesis® teacher and dancer Ingrid André.

1. Constraints force you to simplify

A single-page website is simply a site where all the content fits on one page which you can scroll down. There are no subpages, although the site might have navigation. The content is light, there are few calls to action, and the site is very easy to use and maintain.

“A one-page design forces you to simplify your concept and get to the point, which of course should be the case for more complex sites too,” points out Marjaana. “A single page makes you consider what’s necessary and what is not. You have to cut away anything that isn’t essential to convey the most important message and guide people towards the action you want them to take. It sounds simple, but often being simple is the hardest thing!”

“While working with Ingrid, the goal was to design a site she would feel comfortable with, a site she could have made herself. The booking tool was the main function, but it had to be integrated with practical information and elements of her biography,” explains Antoine, Crop’s creative director. “We designed a minimal, yet delicate website that fits her image. The use of handwritten and typewriter fonts helps create the personal vibe we were after, with the text looking like a poem or some song lyrics as you scroll down.”

2. People want to scroll

These days scrolling is as important as clicking. It’s fast as it doesn’t require a new page to load, and it doesn’t require the user to make a decision. Gone are the days of above-the-fold design where everything important had to be at the top of the webpage. Now people want to scroll – so let them scroll.

That said, on a long scrolling webpage users should be able to scan the content and find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. “Clean cuts, large images, dramatic background changes, and colorful calls to action all help to differentiate the sections and split the content into parts. Large text headers combined with empty space make the page breathe and give good anchors for the eyes,” explains Antoine.

3. Less to manage

With a single-page website there’s less information to update and only one page to build and maintain, so yes, it’s easy to manage.

“A single-page WordPress website takes away the worry about maintaining your site. The beauty is that once you’ve published the site, you really only need to check the plugins from time to time to keep things up-to-date,” reassures Marjaana.

4. The WordPress community has it all figured out

WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world and whatever the need, the community has figured out an easy and affordable solution. Whether it’s about booking, calendar appointments, contact forms, or Google Analytics, the plugins are there.

“One-page websites are especially good for single-product e-commerce sites, for individuals like artists or graphic designers, or for local businesses. It’s not the best choice if you get lots of traffic from search engines or want to constantly update the content,” explains Marjaana.

“If you have several target groups and several different actions you want them to take, you should choose a multi-page website. The same applies if you have many products to sell, lots of content, or if you invest in online marketing,” Marjaana concludes.

Take a look at Ingrid’s beautiful single-page website: www.ingridandre.fi

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Stefan in the news!

Crop Germany in the latest IHK Magazin (9/2015). If you’re looking for a Digital Agentur in the Düsseldorf area, drop Stefan a line [email protected] or call him [phone]

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Hello from Crop Helsinki office! Summer arrived finally in Finland in August, after cold and windy July and everyone’s summer holidays..Now most of us are back to business as usual and can be reached at the office. We are a little bit more tanned than in this new group photo we took in June to mark the beginning of the Crop era.

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online marketing PM position

At Crop Agency, we design and build smart digital solutions, services and campaigns for our clients sales, marketing and communication needs with a strong focus on user experience. We are looking for a project manager to join our team 3 days a week at the Gent office starting in September. In this role, you will be working on digital marketing, communications and service design projects for a variety of clients, both local and global. Work responsibilities will include everything from follow up of email and social media campaigns to enterprise scale sites. 

We like to think we differentiate ourselves through focus on smart solutions for clients and high quality customer service. To match, our ideal candidate has great self direction and problem solving abilities and will feel at home working together with a team of designers, developers and clients in separate offices. 

Criteria for applicants:

- At least 2 years of project management / project coordinator experience in online marketing or service design

 - Communication skills and client service mindset: understanding of challenges related to working with marketing and sales organisations: quick timelines and plenty of communication

- Attention to detail: both in following up on timelines and in communication

- Knowledge of online media tools such as Google Adwords

- All experience with various content management systems and email marketing tools is a huge plus!

- Fluent in Dutch and English, French is a plus.

If you feel this could be you or have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Applications can be submitted until August 15th.

We are taking a break from July 7th - 21st 

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Our German office opens with Stefan Böttcher on board!

We are very excited to announce our newest team member, Stefan Böttcher, and the opening of our German operations. Stefan is a highly accomplished business development and marketing executive from Düsseldorf. His expertise lies in transforming business models to digital ones and seeking out digital business development opportunities for our clients.

When Stefan was running the global B2B marketing program for Nokia Enterprise Solutions, he crossed paths with our founders, Kimmo Vanhakangas and Ville Martin, who were both working at the agency that handled Stefan’s Nokia account.

“Ever since my Nokia days I’ve been impressed with the guys – especially their business skills and their eye for a relevant and consistent approach,” says Stefan. “I’ve kept in touch with them over the years and watched their business grow from a two-man team into a successful digital agency that operates in the Finnish and Belgian markets. I always knew there was great potential here, and when the opportunity came along I was eager to step on board and set sail for bigger seas.”

“The smart approach Crop applies to making businesses stronger in the digital age is something I’m very enthusiastic about bringing to the German and central European markets.”

“Having Stefan join our team is massive for us,” says founder Kimmo Vanhakangas. “He is a true business executive – a highly accomplished and well-connected person who gets things done. And on top of all that he’s a real gentleman and a great person to be around.”

“Stefan’s great understanding of business and sales processes also gives us new perspectives on our own work and organizational models,” continues co-founder Ville Martin. “He raises the bar and will help us reach the next level.”

After studying Business Administration (BWL) in Mainz, including a term in Paris, Stefan began his career as a management consultant. He loves sailing, enjoys classical music, and has a passion for France and Spain. Besides his native Germany, he has also lived and worked in Paris and Brussels. Stefan will be based in Düsseldorf and is also closely linked with our Belgian operations.

View Stefan’s LinkedIn Profile

For more information, contact: Stefan Böttcher [phone] [email protected]

Kimmo Vanhakangas [phone] [email protected]

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How to get 10 000 visitors for a 90 day pop-up restaurant? Download our presentation to find out

How did we help Yellow Bistro, a 90 day temporary restaurant in Bruges, to have a full house everyday? Download Case Yellow Bistro presentation and read about our three key learnings. 

Download “Full House Everyday – 10 000 visitors for a 90 day pop-up restaurant” [pdf]

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More than just a website revamp: How B2B web projects are often about finding the right messages – and making them work.

We recently did a smart website revamp for the service provider Sentraali, encompassing their B2B customer service center and the popular 0100 100 consumer directory brand. We asked our Sentraali account man Kimmo Vanhakangas to tell us about what was involved and whether you can really call this kind of project a site redesign.

"Usually when companies order a new site design, they have user-experience and service design in mind. In these cases, the company has a clear brand, communication style, business goals, and customer needs defined, so it´s quite a familiar process for us. 

B2B companies often have a different starting point: they have their organizational and product-related materials but lack the customer-oriented approach. When we start digging deeper, it usually becomes clear that companies need help in communicating the value they offer to their customers. So our first job is to help them define the right messages. With Sentraali, we began with the key messages and continued by making these messages work,” Kimmo says.

“We were quite surprised by the vast amount of work the site redesign required. We had to reflect on many issues and terms we had previously taken for granted, especially from the point of view of our customers,” says Kaj Lindholm, CEO of Sentraali.

1. Finding the right messages

“With the Sentraali website redesign, we helped to redefine their value proposition, key messages, and market position. We started by making sure everyone in the project had a common vision of why the business exists, what is the unique added value it offers, and how this could best be communicated on the new site. 

A key element in any successful site renewal is finding a communication style that is easily understandable to all visitors,” Kimmo continues. “It has a lot to do with customer needs.”

2. Making the messages work

“When the key messages are crystallized, the next step is to make them work,” Kimmo explains. 

In Sentraali’s case this involved: • A new, simplified site structure • A fresh new design  • Consistency in content production • Holistic metrics to support continuous improvement in messaging and content • Easy site maintenance

Dramatically simplified site  “We wanted to help potential customers find Sentraali and to percieve the company as a reliable customer service partner, as well as encourage them to make contact. With this focus, we managed to cut the number of pages and the amount of content by half. It helped us to focus on content quality and really fine-tune all the aspects and details of the renewed content,” Kimmo says.

Careful content production to support the new brand and messaging “Even though we cut the amount of content by 50 percent, the site still contains tens of pages of copy, infographics, and visualizations. Every piece of content on the new site was carefully planned to ensure a consistent message and style, and to make it easily approachable,” Kimmo points out.

Fresh, consistent design “We wanted to differentiate Sentraali from its competitors. The competitor landscape was quite static, so we aimed for a fresh approach that would be easy to grasp. An effective use of a big, ambient background video gives a modern, easily approachable feeling for customers,” Kimmo explains about the design. “Sometimes using something that´s popular and trendy, like a big background video, might just be a gimmick, but when it’s done right and with a purpose, it can really be the core of the user experience.”

Mobile comes first “A significant percentage of Sentraali´s visitors are mobile users – and the share is growing dramatically, along with the overall trend for mobile browsing. The new site has been designed for mobile users from the start. Designing responsive, mobile-friendly sites has impacts on content planning, user-experience design, and technical design. When designing a responsive site we always start by defining the main messages and features for a limited mobile view and then build from there,” says Kimmo.

Metrics show the way “Analytics is at the core of digital marketing. We always build a continuous measurement plan and process to closely follow and react to actual site statistics. We apply a holistic approach where we follow not only the site statistics, but also the statistics from search-engine searches, social media, and other channels. This gives us a clear view of how the user arrives at the site. Based on these statistics, a continuous process is set up to evaluate and react to messages and content on the site.”

Easy maintenance “With our extensive experience of working with organizations in marketing activities, we know how crucial it is to make site maintenance and content updates easy. There needs to be an easy way to add new messages or modify existing ones according to the goals of the business. We thought through the maintenance element of the site very carefully and applied our experience and best practices to make the process simple and motivating,” Kimmo concludes.

See more: www.sentraali.fi www.0100100.fi/

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Effective global website for world class B-to-B brand Kalmar

Crop continues to work with global B-to-B brands and designs a global website for Kalmar, part of Cargotec. We truly can call this project heavy weight: the role of Kalmar in business is huge, every fourth container move in the world is handled by a Kalmar solution. No wonder it´s essential for Kalmar to have a website that reflects its contributions in global business, and supports the brand that conveys this image.

The strengthening of the Kalmar brand was one of the key elements in our project. The project started with the renewal and launch of the global kalmarglobal.com site, and will continue with local sites to be launched in the next phase. A great deal of our work in this website project, and in website projects generally, consists of content design and production, starting off by finding and creating the key messages. The content production ranges from copy text to images, forms and infographs and goes hand-in-hand with detailed user experience design.

“We’re extremely happy to work with such a global brand like Kalmar. We wanted to design a simple and easy user experience to support the fresh new content and the goals defined in the digital strategy. Together with Kalmar, we put a lot of effort to understand the users and their needs, and how they interact with Kalmar online on all devices,” tells Kimmo Vanhakangas, Crop´s director and founder.  

Clear introduction of Kalmar’s offering, easy to use product information and finding the contacts easily, were the focus of content and user experience design, which aims to serve the needs of cargo handling industry clients. The site is fully responsive on all different screen sizes and devices.

“It´s great to work with an agency that understands the big picture and has the ability to keep all the threads together without losing track of the goals, budget frame or project schedule. Crop´s excellent customer service attitude is a pleasure, we´re very pleased with our long term relationship with Kimmo and the team,” says Maija Eklöf, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Kalmar.

Kalmar is a valuable global B-to-B brand. It is part of Cargotec, one of the top 20 largest companies in Finland and a top 100 company in the Nordic region. With EUR 3.2 billion sales in 2013 (Kalmar 1.5 billion), Cargotec has over 11,000 employees (Kalmar 5,500) and operations in more than 100 countries around the world.

See the site:

kalmarglobal.com

Check the press release:

http://www.kalmarglobal.com/newsroom/press_releases/2014/kalmar-launches-new-global-website/

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Part 2 - Five steps to plan and run your email marketing program successfully

When you have created the content plan supporting your other marketing activities, and have a seamlessly working email templates ready to be used, it´s time to make everything happen. Follow our five steps to plan and run email marketing successfully.

1. Who writes, who edits? Your content creation process

So, you have created a content plan. Next you need to make sure there´s a content creation process in place. Do this by defining who makes the content, who approves it and who is the one to approve the final email.

2. Operating in many countries? Define your localization process

There are two important items on the localisation process list: make sure you know who translates the emails and who approves the translations.

3. Email list is a mess? Clean your list management process

You have an email list. Do you know how to increase the amount of subscribers? Make sure you have a process how to get more subscribers and how to add them to your list. Define the person to do it. Also, it´s good to define who manages and approves segmented lists.

4. Time to send the email. How´s your send out process?

The content for the email is ready. How is it provided forward? Define who makes the email draft and who approves it. Make sure you know who is the one to approve the email list and who sends the final newsletter.

5. Did you guys get my mail? Your results process

The email is out. Who received, who read it? Did anyone click your CTA-buttons? Make sure you have defined a person to report the results and make recommendations based on them. Also you need to know who decides how to improve content and segmentation based on the recommendations.

And yes, we can run this all for you. Our team has worked over 10 years together on different kind of e-mail marketing projects, big or small.  Contact us and we show the way how to do successful email marketing. 

See also: The foundation for a successful email marketing program - part 1