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Starting in November 2007, keep up to date with all
our news and updates. On this page, we'll bring you the
information you need to know. If you need to talk to us
about it, please get in touch and we'll help you
straight away.
Think of this as our "blog" - as well as keeping you in
the know with the company, we'll also pass on tips,
hints and anecdotes that might be of help to you. As a
marketing company, we often hear about changes in the
economy, changes in approaches, etc long before everyone
else.
My name's Mark Fairlie, the sales director of the
company and one of the two brothers after which the
company Fairlie Communications Limited (trading as
Meridian Delta) is named.
It's our job to make sure you stay ahead of the game. If
there's anything you'd like to ask on our blog, please
email your thoughts and questions to
mark@meridiandelta.com. |
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| If the press (financial and mainstream) is to be
believed, we'll all be homeless in 2 years' time with
the economic recession/depression coming. For the record, I think they are
partly right. We've seen the biggest bubble in history
(at least 50 times the size of the dotcom bubble of ten
years ago) with rampant housing and commodity inflation
worldwide all happening at the same time. That's not
even counting the dodgy financial securitisations that
seemed to hypnotise the banksters since the Greenspan
bubble started in 2002 (the Brown bubble before that
too). It's now all unwinding and we're all going to feel
it in one way or another and to different extents.
In the short- to medium-term, what does this mean for
your business and for mine? Other than the possible
threats of deflation, disinflation (falling rates of
inflation) or perhaps hyperinflation (governments
around the world seem to be printing money like it's
going out of fashion), it could mean very little if
you position yourself in the right way. How does one go
about doing that?
Between Aug 2007 and Oct 2007, we suddenly suffered a
60% drop in turnover - out of the blue. It was
devastating and extremely stress-inducing. We were doing
everything we'd done in the same way for years that had
worked out really well for us - then, everything
collapsed. Suddenly, from 2 offices with 15 staff in
total, we went to a total of 3 (inc the two directors)
in a quarter in one office. Talk about being brought
back down to Earth. I didn't know where to turn.
That was until I took a phone call from a customer in
March 2008. I am not normally prone to moaning on to
customers, but this one, a good friend for years,
listened to our woes and told
me his strategy for not only getting through this but
making more money through it.
"Open your eyes - the credit crunch
is a once-in-hundred-year-event - you'll never have
a better chance to hit your business targets than now,"
he said. Intrigued, I asked him to explain. What he said
made total sense. With his permission, I will be republishing
much of what he said in the new section. I'll be adding
to it all the time with new hints and tips that I hear
from customers and that we as a company have discovered
ourselves.
What difference has this advice made to Meridian
Delta? We've gone from 3 to 7 staff in just four months
and will hopefully be expanding that to 12 by May.
Turnover had quadrupled (meaning we're turning over
more now than before our disaster of last Summer)
and profitability as at near the same level. Our cash
reserves are about 9 months away from being fully
repaired, More than anything, I feel like a
businessman again - I feel that there is hope for me, my team
and my customers.
I'll be explaining some of the principles he set out
to me over the course of the year and I really hope you
find it useful. Our
customers mean the world to us - you've helped us
through so many bad times and propelled us to better
things in the good times. We want to share as much
information as possible with you, even if you never buy
from us.
With best wishes for 2009, Mark, Ben, Donna, Julie,
Ivan, Ken and Amy from Meridian Delta. |
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| October 3rd, 2008 |
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Not really us as such, but Meridian Delta HQ will be on BBC1
from around 1pm on Saturday 4th October.
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For those of you even vaguely interested(!),
this is what our building looks like. We're on
the third floor (the floor with the flagpole
coming out of it).
We share the building with Enterprise Chambers,
a leading firm of barristers, and MYA, a
cosmetic surgery clinic. The atmosphere in the
building is great between all the businesses.
If you're looking out for it, it's a fairly
distinctive building on the Newcastle Quayside -
indeed, our address is "65 Quayside". I think
Ben might be in work tomorrow afternoon so it
might be worth seeing if he's hanging out the
window watching as we think the finishing line
is around 100m to the left of where we are. |
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| June 27th, 2008 |
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We've just started doing our normal summer discounting on fax
marketing. Prices are up to 15% down on usual until the first
week of September.
Advertising always slows down over the summer - especially
business to business advertising. We're always keen to get
customers who've never tried fax marketing before to see if it
works for them.
Don't forget that if you are a UK Education Disc or UK Charity
Disc customer, a further discount of 15% on the
fax marketing applies.
Find out more about our service.
Click here for
details. |
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| June 2nd, 2008 |
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. 10 years
ago when we launched (well, we got the lease on the office and
it took 5 weeks to actually get started!), everyone was gloomy on the economy. Is
that any different today? :-)
Despite three close shaves in 10 years when we thought we might
not make it through, we've got to our tenth birthday and we want
to thank all customers, past and present, for helping us get
here.
We've learned an awful lot from you since June 1998. We learned
early on that, if we're going to be out there helping smaller
businesses to grow, you need us to constantly think of new ways
of doing things to get better results at the best possible
prices to you.
In the next few months, we'll be taking our philosophy into a
brand-new and exciting area. We're responding to a very definite
demand from customers and we want to be able to offer a service
just as good as you're getting elsewhere for up to 40% cheaper
than our future competitors.
What is it? Well, we're keeping it under wraps at the moment
because we want to make an explosion into the marketplace so
check back here over the next few weeks and months.
Thank you, everyone, for helping us get to double figures. As
much as we can rely on your support, you can rely on us
continuing to innovate and put your interests first.
PS. We've raided the vaults to bring you a walk down memory lane
of some of our logos and past websites (as archived).
Click here for more. |
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| May 7th, 2008 |
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With our website, customers and new visitors alike seem to love
the design for the site we did in Summer 2006. They loved the
closely-related and enhanced one in March 2007 even more.
Of course, that's great. This website, possibly the UK's largest
marketing website with the most testimonials and the most
examples of past works and campaigns, is a bit of a labour of
love for me. As is common with any small business, the directors
tend to do as much as they can to make sure they don't have to
pay anyone else to do it - in my case, that includes the design
of the website and much of its copy.
That said, there's nothing wrong with a bit of tuning and
tweaking to make your website even more impressive to users.
This website gets around 40% of our new business so it's
particularly important to us.
Everytime we try to move away from it though, disaster
strikes!!! I don't have the foggiest why, but if we deviate too
much from the Summer 2006 "look", enquiries plummet. We
relaunched in August 2007 - it bombed and we switched back. We
did so again in October 2007 using chunkier graphics and texts -
it bombed and we switched back.
The biggest revamp took place in April 2008 - over 30 new pages
were added and every page got a root and branch redesign. The
only things in common with the Summer 2006 and the April 2008
incarnations were the page names (so Google could index us), the
"Gill Sans Infant" font used since March 2006 and certain page
element placements. What happened? It bombed even more than the
previous two redesigns and we switched back within days.
A colleague put an interesting idea to me. We openly advertise
ourselves as a budget marketing firm offering high quality
services and DMA protection. Perhaps the visitors can not square
an expensive looking website with such great offers? Perhaps it
rings alarm bells?
It's the best theory I've heard, I must admit. One of our
regular customers noticed the switch from the April 2008 back to
the Summer 2006 and said that he was pleased as he hated the new
website!
The website is currently in its Summer 2006 look. We're
reintroducing the B2B email marketing within 2-3 weeks and it'll
switch to the March 2007 look again. What's the lesson from all
this? I'm not entirely sure, but if your customers seem to like
you for who you are, be very careful tweaking round with your
website and your image!
The April 2008 revamp was to us what Consignia was to the Royal
Mail! We've learned our lesson - please continue to use us!!! |
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| April 14th, 2008 |
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Things have been weird for most companies lately. We're an
advertising firm so we normally hear from customers keen as
mustard to spend more and make more sales or from customers who
think their business has lost its way a little bit, they're
understandably a little bit nervous about it and are looking for
help to make things better.
We're still 30% down on where we would normally be - that's even
after upping our advertising. We're not the Bank of England or
economics graduates so we might not necessarily be the most
reliable people to say this but things are now on a proper
downturn. How serious will it get? We don't know but it's going
to be a testing time for all small business owners.
What to do? As horrible as it is to say, get rid of expenses you
think you might not need anymore, or ones which barely make a
return for you. If that includes staff, that's unfortunate but
you know you're in business for yourself ultimately and you've
got to meet all the bills.
Second, accept that, for the time being, it's going to cost a
lot more to find new customers. If money's tight, you may end up
spending two or three times what it previously cost on customer
acquisition. So, try your best to put up with it (and it is an
expensive pain, no doubt) and make the most of your existing
customer base. You always look after your customers anyway so
find out if there's anything more you can do for them.
In your advertising and marketing, keep it up. It's always the
companies that survive downturns/recessions that emerge very
strong with increased market share from the other end. Emphasise
value and affordability in your products and services - try to
sound positive in your marketing and sort of mention downturn
but don't bleat on about it (not that you would anyway).
Buckle yourself in, dear customers and visitors. It'll be tough
for a little while, but we'll all come out the other end with an
increased set of skills, a bigger marketshare and fewer
competitors to worry about. When the good times start again,
you'll be doing even better than you were before the downturn! |
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| February 7th, 2008 - 9.40am update |
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Many, many apologies to all our customers who have been
concerned with our disappearing website and email since last
Thursday.
Following a traumatic attempt to change the website and secure
website over to a more reliable host, we've been down for the
best part of a week. We're not fully back yet but we're on our
way. Keep an eye on this page for details.
The current state of play at 9.40am on February 7th is that the
main website seems to be fully working again. Our email is still
not coming through and our secure site is down - we hope to have
these problems fixed by close of business of Friday Feb 8th.
Again, thank you so much for bearing with us and being so
understanding through this. It's only when you don't have your
website and email facilities when you realise how much you
depend on them.
UPDATED 1.55pm 07/02/08 - Email seems now to be restored.
The secure site may be down for another couple of days,
unfortunately.
UPDATED 9.40am 11/02/08 - Secure site still down.
Apologies for this but we're hoping to get that fixed today.
UPDATED 4.30am 13/02/08 - Back to normal!!!
Everything is
now working, including the secure site. Thanks very much for
your patience. |
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| December 14th, 2007 |
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Meridian Delta first started offering customers its
email marketing service as a test back in Summer 2002,
eventually launching it into a full service in early
2003.
Meridian Delta has taken the decision to suspend its
email marketing service until April 2008. In the last 12
months, sourcing reliable data has got a lot more
difficult. When we take on advertising campaigns for our
customers, we have a duty of care to provide you with
the best return using industry-standard methods.
During this downtime, we will use our email database to
test our products and services, together with a select
team of 10 customers who have been with us for a long
time. We are also looking at using other suppliers' data
again if they can reach the standards laid down by the
Direct Marketing Association. When we relaunch the
service, we again want to set new standards in
responsiveness, accuracy and deliverability.
By suspending the service, we will doubtless affect our
place in the market. However, we are committed to top
quality service and feel this is the right step for our
customers, our suppliers and Meridian Delta. |
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| December 5th, 2007 |
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Meridian Delta's Christmas and New Year Holiday period is as
follows -
Marketing Bureau Services
We will not be open for new enquiries from 5.30pm on Friday
December 14th 2007 until 9.30am on Monday January 14th 2008.
UK Fax Disc, UK Education Disc and UK Charity Disc
We will continue to operate the orderlines throughout the
Christmas period. For customers wishing technical or advertising
support, please email
ben@meridiandelta.com. We aim to get back to all customers
within 6 working hours.
Marketing Bureau Services - Jobs Booked Over Closure
If you have jobs going over the Christmas and New Year
break, we will sort out with you delivery beforehand. If you
need to change anything about your campaigns, please email
mark@meridiandelta.com.
We aim to get back to you within 1 working hour although this
will not always be possible.
May we thank all our customers and suppliers this year for their
continued support and friendship. Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year! |
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| December 3rd, 2007 |
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"We've had a lot of businesses calling us asking about
the 'downturn'" - Mark Fairlie, Meridian Delta.
Ever since September, we're hearing more and more
businesses in a little distress asking us where their
trade has gone. It's a difficult question and I'll try
my best to answer it here.
It does appear that the economy is about to go through a
reasonably-sized change in the next 12-24 months. There
has certainly been a slowing of trade in advertising -
sales were down 60% in September but seem to have
'recovered' to 30% down at time of writing. We're lucky
too in that we have another business which seems to be
unaffected returning profit to the company.
Customers and potential customers tell us different
things - around 20% of customers are seeing trade at
normal level or even slightly higher than last year. The
remainder are down, with perhaps 40% of callers telling
us that trade is down 30% or more on this time last
year.
What's going on? It's probably too early to tell. Many
businesses, ours included, make a point of saving money
to trade through lean periods (for example, we're only
profitable 8 months out of 12 in normal years). The
world seems to have been on a permanent bull run for the
last 15 years, and it looks like it might be running out
of steam. It's at times like this when you need to watch
every penny and make sure your savings are sufficient to
cope with the change.
For advertising companies, the general rule of thumb
during quiet times is to up your marketing contacts by
the same percentage that your trade has dipped. When
ours was down 60% in September, we advertised 60% more
than normal. Our trade has recovered to a large degree
by focusing on the more profitable activities and
telling as many companies about them as possible.
Whether you use us or not, advertise more if your trade
is suffering. If we are about to go through a recession
(which some commentators have predicted a 50% chance
of), tell your customers more. Offer discount prices and
incentives (just like our recent drop in fax prices) -
make your customers feel as if yours is a product or
service they can afford because it will benefit them and
you're trying to meet them half-way.
There does seem to be a little bit of a bounceback at
the moment - not just us, our customers are
generally saying the same (although it's not universal
just yet). Keep the faith, be more visible to your
customers, drive a good bargain with your suppliers and
focus on the value-added side of your business your
competitors might not be able to compete with. |
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| November 28th, 2007 |
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We've just finished negotiations with another telecoms provider
for the delivery of our fax marketing services. Although we were
very happy with our old supplier and will continue to use them,
we're trialing this new company as they have offered us
significant price reductions.
The good news is that we're passing them onto you! Our prices
have come down by up to 25%. We're now able to offer 100,000
faxes for £900 (compared with the previous £1,250) - even our
popular starter rate of 10,000 has fallen from £185 to £170.
Watch this space in late January when we'll be letting you know
how we're getting on. |
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| November 16th, 2007 |
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Email deliverability has been getting a lot harder of late. Even
when you use legally compliant data, it's been a lot tougher.
For the last week, in addition to our normal partner, we've been
trialing a new company and deliverability seems to be getting
back to its standard levels.
On our own campaigns, we've noticed an increase in the
responsiveness. We've been using exactly the same adverts but
enquiries and sales have risen by about 25-30%. This may well be
due in part to the normal fluctuations you see in advertising,
but there has been a definite jump.
When it comes to B2B email marketing, we always try to source
the best data and the best deliverability mechanisms. Trust
Meridian Delta to look after your interests. |
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