This isn’t just a missed marketing opportunity; it’s a loss of control. Social media platforms continue to shift their algorithms, limiting reach and making it harder to connect with your audience organically. Meanwhile, the people who have actively chosen to hear from you, your most engaged customers and prospects, are drifting further away. The anxiety grows as you realise that, without a consistent email strategy, those relationships are not being nurtured in the way they deserve. 

You understand the value of these connections. You know email marketing has the potential to drive loyalty, repeat business, and long-term growth. But without a clear plan, translating that potential into a reliable and effective channel can feel overwhelming. Questions around frequency, tone, segmentation, and content often lead to inaction, leaving your email list underutilised and your customer relationships underdeveloped. 

How We Help: Turning Email Into a Relationship

At Brighter Directions, we don’t see email as just another marketing channel. We see it as a relationship-building tool – one that, when used strategically, creates meaningful, direct connections with your audience. Our team acts as your email marketing coordination experts, working closely with you to develop a strategy that is personal, timely, and genuinely valuable. 

We move far beyond generic newsletters. Instead, we design automated email journeys that guide prospects through every stage of the customer lifecycle, from initial interest to long-term loyalty. By carefully segmenting your audience, we ensure the right message reaches the right person at the right time. Personalisation becomes more than using a first name – it’s about delivering content that reflects individual needs, behaviours, and preferences. 

Every email is crafted with intention. Rather than pushing sales messages, we focus on providing insight, relevance, and consistency. The result is communication that feels helpful and familiar, like a trusted voice reaching out – not a brand shouting for attention. 

Why Brighter Directions? An Integrated Approach That Delivers Results

What sets Brighter Directions apart is our expertise in integrated communications. Your email marketing doesn’t exist in isolation; it works best when aligned with your wider marketing efforts. We ensure your email strategy complements your social media, content marketing, and PR activity, creating a seamless and cohesive customer journey. 

This holistic approach allows your audience to experience your brand consistently across every touchpoint, reinforcing trust and recognition over time. We also provide the expertise and capacity to manage, optimise, and measure your email campaigns, ensuring they deliver clear, tangible results. 

With the right strategy in place, email becomes a powerful asset – one that restores control, strengthens relationships, and delivers ongoing value. At Brighter Directions, we help you turn a dormant list into a dependable channel for connection, engagement, and growth.

Contact us today to make your email marketing a cohesive part of your brand narrative.

The post Email Marketing: Your Most Valuable Direct Line to the Customer appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Gone are the days however , when just changing the name of the person who the email is addressed to is seen as revolutionary. Technology has moved on, and so has life. People are as busy as they have ever been, meaning that every second of every day is precious to them. So, they are not going to waste valuable time opening emails that are either not relevant to them, or isn’t compatible with the device they are receiving the email on.

With this in mind, it is essential to hit the bullseye with regards to your email marketing strategy. If you are experiencing low percentage open rates, a drop in open rates, or an increase in opt-outs, here are five ways that will help you to turn this around.

• Segment your email list- there are many tools that are now widely accessible in allowing you to capture customer data and then use it to place those customers into specific and relevant categories. Segmentation enables you to send category- specific that are applicable and resonate with their audience. As a result of this, customers receive far less unwanted emails.
• Be personal- when you are communicating with a customer, attempt to write like a human, and not like a business. By this I mean relating to your client and not forcing opinions or products upon them. When you write from the heart, the email is conversational in nature, and therefore engages the consumer.
• Optimize- a recent study stated that over 70% of consumer’s access their emails through a mobile device, with the number expected to increase further. So, it is essential to cater for this by producing mobile phone friendly emails. If a customer cannot access the email properly, they will just delete it.
• Stand-out subject line- think how many emails people receive during a day, and then think which of these get you excited to open them? The subject line is your way of standing out from the crowd and creating a good impression for your business. If the consumer sees a unique and appealing subject line they are much more likely to be captivated by the e-mail.
• Send emails to a strategy- think about how many emails you want to send. Should it be once a day? Once a week? Or once a month? Most companies decide not to send multiple emails because they don’t want to over- email their customers. Although this may be concerning, it is an effective way of communicating with clients. It also enables businesses to stay in regular contact with customers, while also allowing them to better understand an individual’s needs.

If you don’t think that you have the correct email marketing strategy in place at present, or would just like further guidance, please contact Brighter Directions on 01246 586330 0r info@brighterdirections.co.uk  

The post How a successful email marketing campaign can positively impact your business appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Before you just blindly agree to these new policies, you need to be aware that some of these are significant. For example, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has increased its minimum age to 16. Snapchat is not totally disregarding its customers under the age of 16 but is changing how some of the available features work for those under that age.

While some of the worldwide giants are agreeing to this new legislation, not every company is willing to do so. Many companies have decided that these new rules will cause too much disruption, and are willing to shut down a part of their business rather than comply with them.

Mobile marketing platform Verve, for example, has confirmed that it will be exiting Europe because the company relies heavily on location data.

CMO of Verve, Julie Bernard, told AdExchanger recently:” We have decided that the regulatory environment is not favourable to our particular business model. We are focussing efforts on the strength of our US business at this time.”

Game developer Uber Entertainment is going a step further, with the closing down of its free multiplayer online gaming and Super Monday Night Combat because the cost to comply would simply be too high.

Polygon’s Owen. S. Good confirmed:” Making (the game) complaint would require either rewriting large parts of the system or porting Super Monday Night Combat to Microsoft’s PlayFab platform.” With the game being six years old, and not having massive usage, Uber Entertainment was unable to justify the expenditure required for either.

While Verve and Uber Entertainment are amongst the frontrunners in regards to not complying with the new GDPR regulations, they certainly will not be the last. A recent survey conducted of 400 US companies, which was published by technology association CompTIA, stated that many companies are still bamboozled by GDPR, and 52% are “still exploring the applicability of GDPR to their company.” When companies become more au fait with GDPR, it is firmly expected that many other companies will follow in the footsteps of Verve and Uber Entertainment.

While many companies are cutting costs, or choosing to close certain parts of their business down completely, others are prepared to pay fines for their non- compliance with GDPR.

Ensighten report that a mere quarter of the 150 UK brand and agency- side marketers it approached felt “Very confident” that they would be GDPR compliant by the May 25^th deadline. A substantial 45% said that their company was already set aside funds to pay for fines, which could be a significant 4% of their annual turnover or 20million Euros, whichever is greater.

It is understood that while many companies have set aside funds for non-compliance, they haven’t budgeted for the maximum potential fine, and are currently not too concerned anyway, as any fine will not be applied in the early days.

Ironically, a company like Google, who could comfortably afford even the maximum potential fine, have come under fire for letting all their publishers do the entire heavy lifting.

While GDPR is undoubtedly an obstacle, it is also an opportunity. Even companies that are having difficulty in becoming compliant are excited about the potential rewards it can provide to them, some of which are significant. Recently, 69% of the marketers quizzed by Ensighten expect GDPR will enhance the accuracy and consistency of their data.

Because of the rewards that are on offer, it is well worth your business attempting to become GDPR compliant, even if it cannot be achieved by May 25.

If you still do not fully understand GDPR or would like further information about GDPR, please contact Brighter Directions on 01246 586330 or info@brighterdirections.co.uk

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In case you haven’t heard of the GDPR, here is a little bit of background on the new General Data Protection Regulation. The new law regulates how the personal data of any EU citizens can be collected, used and processed by businesses. GDPR will apply to all organizations based in the EU, and will also apply to those organizations that have customers and contacts within the EU. It takes effect on 25^th May 2018.

So what benefits can GDPR bring to you and your business for Email Marketing?

a) The new data law will allow your subscribers to opt in on what information they would like to receive from you. This will allow them to understand exactly what data is being collected and how it will be used.

b) GDPR provides subscribers with the right to specify and update permissions, such as allowing the right to opt in or out of what specific content/information they want to receive. This will lead to your campaigns not receiving less unsubscribes and spam reports, this in return increases deliverability.

c) The new law will also benefit you by building more trusting relationship between you and your subscribers. It will help you meet and decipher what your subscribers want to receive from you.

If you have not yet started your preparations for the GDPR which takes effect on the 25^th of May 2018, do not worry, you can review our GDPR whitepaper wrote by one of our trained consultants.

We are providing businesses with consults on how to comply with the GDPR, if you would like help with GDPR compliancy or any element of your marketing, please contact our expert team via the website or call 01246 586330.

The post What benefits can GDPR bring to you and your business for Email Marketing? appeared first on Brighter Directions.

GDPR stands for General Data Protection regulations, which is being put into place on 25th of May 2018.

The GDPR is put in place to outline what companies can and can’t do with regards to processing personal data. Every organisation will have to comply with the new law, but not every business will need to appoint a Data Protection Officer.

Companies that deal with businesses within the EU (this includes the UK regardless of Brexit), must comply with the GDPR.

Even with the UK’s decision to leave the EU, the government has confirmed that it will not affect the commencement of the GDPR.

Four simple steps to planning your GDPR process;

• Breach response;
  Detect and respond to the threat before a breach occurs but if a breach does occur, you need to know the details and the impact of the breach
• Risk assessment;
  Establish a risk assessment process to ensure controls are appropriately designed and implemented
• Compliance management;
  Establish a compliance program to ensure controls are effective and operational
• Data governance;
  Know where the data is in the enterprise and who has access. Implement controls in data processing activities

The majority of organisations who handle data, be it email marketing, connections on your social networks, or a client database, will need to comply with GDPR.

With less than 5 months to go before the law takes effect, firms need to ensure you start the process of cleansing as soon as possible to avoid any penalties.

If you would like help with GDPR compliancy or any element of your marketing, please contact our expert team via the website or call 01246 586330.

The post Four simple steps to start your GDPR process appeared first on Brighter Directions.

The GDPR isn’t intended to replace the Data Protection act in whole, but to be used alongside it to further protect users from companies using their personal data unknowingly, as well as replace several existing data laws across Europe.

Despite being first publicised in the EU Official Journal on the 4^th May 2016, companies are still very much ‘in the dark’ when it comes to what it means to them. Particularly as this is an EU law, yet if you think the UK won’t be affected because of Brexit… Think again!

Our Government has already integrated this new document into the UK’s laws, so even after Brexit, we must still abide by this, and it needs to be in place by May 2018 – Just 5 months away!

What does this mean for companies?

Not all companies will be impacted at the same level, but there is still a big risk of being fined by the European Union for disregarding the GDPR; so as a business, you need to protect yourself and start implementing the change, as soon as possible before the cut off date.

An example of how many of the companies we deal with will be affected is Email Marketing: The biggest change will be how companies hold the data, what protection you have in place, opt-out options and the most critical ‘opt-in’.

The GDPR makes it so that companies must give users the option to select what type of content they wish to receive by email. Companies are no longer allowed to just get a user’s consent and send them every marketing email. For example, if your email marketing strategy includes sending out newsletters, offers, updates etc, you will have to give the user signing up to your emails the option to select what content they want (just newsletters or both offers and newsletters etc.)

One of the leading publishers, B2B Marketing have created a 40 page B2B marketers guide which gives readers great insights and guidance on the new regulations.

The GDPR will come into full effect by the 25th May 2018, so you have just months to prepare and cleanse your databases!

If you would like help with GDPR compliancy or any element of your marketing, please contact our expert team via the website or call 01246 586330.

The post GDPR: What is it? appeared first on Brighter Directions.

As a result of these announcements, we thought it would be useful to share the key points coming from the new GDPR, to ensure you protect your business against any break in data requirements in the future:

1. Changes how/ what companies can do in regards to personal data processing/ management
2. Personal data means any data which holds personal information (this now includes named email addresses to a company address) – essentially any form of data which could be used to identify that person either directly or indirectly.
3. Social Media collation is NOT excluded from this regulation, therefore your data capture content, such as LinkedIn database will also be affected after the passing of the date
4. New process to demonstrate compliance will include:
   • Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes (building on from the re-permissioning law, you must ASK the record how and specifically what they would like to receive
   • You are responsible for checking accuracy and keeping the data up to date. This usually means that you need to refresh every 6 or so months (ave)
   • Kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed. Therefore you will now need further security added to your record keeping.
   • Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data. This is linked to the manner in which you communicate, through marketing – for example your email marketing software, social media, website collection forms etc.
5. This is applicable for both B2B and B2C organisations.
6. You may need to appoint/ recruit a Data Protection Officer, if you manage large scale data

The GDPR will come into full application by the 25th May 2018, so you have a year to prepare and cleanse your databases.

To read the new regulation policy in full, click here.

If you would like help with any element of your marketing, please contact our expert team via the website or call 01246 252855.

The post What you need to know about the new GDPR data regulation – May 2018 appeared first on Brighter Directions.

This legislation has been underway in Europe for the past few years and was approved this year to come into force globally from April 2017 – with just a few short months away, it’s time you get your house in order, or risk being fined substantial fees!

In essence, what the changes mean is that ALL DATA you own, as an organisation will be affected.

• All use of EU customer data must be unambiguously and freely opted-in for.
• The existing data you hold must be ‘repermissioned’ and specifically requested again
• Brands have two years to become GDPR compliant – that gives brands until May 2018 to clean up their data sets and make sure that contacts, email ones in particular, have given their free, unambiguous, and informed consent to be contacted.
• Organisations not complying with the new legislation will risk fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover.

In June, we were asked by leading Marketing publication CMO to explain the new legislation, as an expert marketing agency and provide plain English on what this would mean for marketeers activities over the coming months and years, you can read the article in full here.

We made a very clear statement in this article that the friction between sales and marketing is going to get worse in the short term, but will likely mean improved performance for things such as email marketing campaigns over the long term period.

In the coming months, Brighter Directions will be creating a number of opinion and action pieces of information, as a result of this legislation. If you would like to learn more about how to protect your business, and the actions you must take, please contact our team on info@brighterdirections.co.uk and we will add you to our list to receive copies of all associated content on this topic.

To learn more about our expert marketing services, visit our new website at www.brighterdirections.co.uk 

The post New Repermissioning Law Comes Into Force April 2017 – Email Marketing & Data appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Email Marketing campaigns at Christmas

It might feel waaaay too early to be talking about the ‘C’ word, but as marketers, we should already be on our game for Christmas 2015. Statistics show that around 25% of consumers will have already done the bulk of their shopping by November, so if you want to jump on that festive gravy train with both feet, you need to start right now.

Email marketing is still the most effective method of reaching consumers with product offers and sales content. With more opportunities than ever before for segmenting and personalising the content, Christmas 2015 is going to see email marketing at its best. Here are some hot tips from the world of email marketing to help you get your seasonal messaging just right.

1. Throw out the cliché’s

Prancing reindeer, snowy scenes and smiling snowmen – they certainly have their place. But is that place really in your email marketing content, or would they be more at home on a greetings card? It’s fun to get festive at Christmas, but chances are these decades old messages are getting so tired, not to mention similar to what your competitors are doing, that they reality won’t have much impact at all.

2. What works the rest of the time STILL works at Christmas

It’s true! What you’ve been doing all year round shouldn’t be thrown out of the window just because it’s Christmas. All the things you’ve been learning about your customers and your emails throughout the rest of the year will serve to better inform your Christmas marketing, so don’t be tempted to ditch them in favour of a cheesy picture of Santa and a bad Christmas joke.

3. Subject lines > graphics

Your subject lines are the biggest opportunity you have to boost your email open rates, but then you probably knew that already (if you’ve been listening!). Christmas is no different, so rather than spending hours photo shopping a snowman into your product images, spend more time crafting compelling subject lines.

4. Dare to be different

The old red white and gold, the presents under the tree, snow-capped lettering… all very familiar images that spring to mind when thinking about Christmas marketing. But surely, if they are so very samey, your email is going to look just the same as everyone else’s, including your competitors? Dare to differentiate yourself, just a little, and make something that really sticks in people’s minds. Think about what Christmas really means to your subscribers, and create your own unique take on the festive familiarities.

5. Up the tempo

Subscribers want and expect to hear from you a bit more in the run up to Christmas. Don’t be afraid to send out a few more emails than you usually do, after all, your customers are looking for new and unusual buying ideas at this time of year. Don’t ramp up frequency too much or too suddenly, but do give your customers a bit more of what they love.

It may well be a merry Christmas, but this time of year is no holiday for marketers. Get your plan in place now and enjoy all the successes a well-crafted Christmas email campaign can bring!

The post Hot tips for Email Marketing in the run up to Christmas 2015 appeared first on Brighter Directions.

Email Marketing tactics by Brighter Directions

We all know – a subject line can make or break an email campaign.

Nothing is worse than spending hours poring over the perfect copy, only to get little to no response from your prospects. Here are five things you can do today to ensure your email has the best chance of being open and read.

1. Be direct: Whether you’re sending a transactional notification or an update such as a newsletter, getting to the point is key. Email subject lines over 40 characters, or more than five to eight words, will get cut short, which doesn’t look good.
2. Take out the spam words: Avoid things like ‘free’, ‘buy now’ and putting parts of the subject line in SHOUTY CAPITALS. These are a red flag to spam filters, and look really unprofessional too.
3. Be unique: If you’re looking for click worthy subject lines, check out the tactics used by companies like BuzzFeed and Upworthy. While you might not want to resort to shamelessly clickbaiting your emails, there are definitely lessons to be learned from these masters of compelling titles.
4. Get personal: Personalising emails is nothing new, but getting super personal is something we can really get excited about. Powerful software can tailor titles and emails to suit individual customer preferences, so make the most of technology to reach out to your clients.
5. Make it urgent: A good marketing strategy will have time limited offers that you follow up with reminders. Don’t be afraid to set a daringly short deadline; now or never actually works really well on emails.

There’s nothing more powerful than the perfect subject line when it comes to email marketing. Unfortunately we see all too many email marketers leaving this to last when they’re crafting their campaigns. Put as much time and energy into your subject line copy as you do into every other piece of copywriting you do, and you’ll be rewarded with more opens, more click throughs and ultimately a more engaged, ready to buy audience.

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