Brand new for Spring 2010, we’ve added a lovely new girl’s purple raincoat to the PuddleDucks website. It’s jersey lined for extra warmth.
Purple Rain Coat
It comes in sizes from (4-5 years) to (7-8 years). It costs €34.50 and you can get all the details and buy online here.
I’ve been meaning to do a bit of a look back at last year for some time but haven’t found the time until now. So before it’s too late here goes …
2009 was another good year for PuddleDucks. We survived the recession, won an award, added reviews to the site and much more. Rather than write a long wordy post about all the good things that happened in 2009, here’s some photos and images of our high points of last year.
1. Irish Internet Association Best Online Trader Award
Winning the IIA Award was such a big deal for us. It added credibility and trustworthyness to the site which helped in increasing sales. It was especially sweet because the award was voted on by the public
2. Adding LouderVoice Reviews to the site
Adding customer reviews - powered by LouderVoice - to the website was a major step forward for our business. It built on our word of mouth referrals and allowed customers to share their feedback in a user friendly and easily accessable way.
3. Suzanne’s interview on The Business on RTE Radio
Suzanne's interview with John Murray on The Business on RTE Radio 1 on November 14th brought loads of visibility, increased interest in our products and sales. It demonstrated the great value to a small business of a high profile media appearance
4. Our Facebook Fan page
Of all the social media platforms we are involved in, the most impotant to us is now the Facebook Fan Page. During 2009 it went from a small beginning to now having over 500 fans. It is a great platform to engage with our community of customers and "fans".
The latest in our series of PuddleDuck-ers Out and About comes from Roger Lamb. It shows his step-grandson William in the snow.
Roger takes up the story “Just a quick pic of William in his first outing in his Puddleducks outfit. He is just over 18 months old and when he unwrapped the parcel on Christmas Day he immediately knew what the jacket was for but had a bit of trouble with the trousers putting them on his head! This was in fact his first outing in the snow.”
Many thanks Roger for sending the photo. Looks like William is having fun. I’m sure there will be many more opportunities for him to wear his PuddleDucks gear in the snow and rain.
If you would be interested in featuring your children’s photos and experiences in their PuddleDucks gear, please drop us a line at info@puddleducks.ie
It’s lovely to see all the recent photos posted to our Facebook page. They show kids having fun in the snow – out and about in their PuddleDucks gear. Here’s just a selection:
This photo was sent by Sorcha Healy of her two children, Eibhlin (7) and Ruairi (3) getting ready for some snowy fun
This photo was posted by Yvonne Brewer Spillane showing here son Roan enjoying the snow.
This photo was posted by Emily Delaney showing her boys Jake and Alex delighting in the snowy weather.
This is one of our own - Jake sizing up the downhill slope near our house in Carrigaline
The main message is Layer, Layer, Layer! It’s how the Scandinavians stay warm even in Arctic conditions.
Start with a cosy layer of thermal underwear that fits neatly but not to tightly. This should be made from a synthetic material – not cotton. A synthetic material like polyester passes the moisture away from the skin unlike cotton which can leave a cold layer on the skin.
Next you need the warm layers – wooly jumpers or fleeces.
And lastly, the outside layer which should be a waterproof and windproof jacket and trousers.
And don’t forget feet, hands and head! Socks made from wool or synthetic materials are much warmer than cotton. Boots should be lined and waterproof on the outside. Choose waterproof mittens rather than gloves. And finish off with a cosy wool hat and scarf.
Once outside and running around the kids will soon heat up, so do adjust zips or remove layers before they get to hot. Do remember though to put the layers back on though as soon as they stop and before they get cold!
Enjoy the snow!
P.S. Check out our range of thermals, fleeces and waterproof clothing on the PuddleDucks website.
I’m always looking for ways to make the PuddleDucks Facebook fan page more interesting and engaging. Adding user polls is one way to achieve this and after doing a bit of research discovered that they are very straightforward to set up. The seven easy steps to do this are outlined below.
Firstly, there are many Facebook Poll Apps available but the one I choose is the PollDaddy Facebook App. The reason I selected PollDaddy was that I had come across their polls many times (by voting in them) and … like us, they’re an Irish based company.
So here’s how you do it:
1. Install the App from this link and add the Application to your Facebook fan page.
2. Now go to your Facebook page and press the “+” button on the tabs to see the application. At this stage there will be no live poll visible but you should still see the “Polls” tab. You can also drag this new tab to position it in the six visible tabs seen at the top of your page (rather than just being in the “+” section).
3. Next, create your first poll by going to the PollDaddy Facebook App page here and clicking on the “Create a New Poll” tab.
4. Now set up details for your Poll Question and Answers. You also set up the visibility of the Poll, either Private (only to your friends) or Public. For your Facebook page poll you should set this to Public.
5. There is also a checkbox asking whether to add the poll to a Facebook page. If you are the admin of a fan page you will see the page listed once you click the checkbox.
6. Click on “Next Step” and hey presto! Your poll is now available on your Facebook page.
7. You can check its status at any time by going to the same PollDaddy Facebook App page and clicking “My Polls”.
Just to try it out I set up a quick Christmas poll on our Facebook page, asking the important question “What’s at the top of your Christmas Tree?”. Both “Star” and “Angel” are running neck and neck at the moment. You can add your vote in the poll by clicking here.
The latest installment of our series of customers photos is from Oonagh Brien from Co. Kildare. Oonagh has sent on some lovely photos of here son, Glen having great fun in his PuddleDucks All-in-One Suit. Over to Oonagh …. ”We live on a working farm and I would not be without Glen’s all in one suit. It saves me a fortune on washing, he loves it and thinks he is the ultimate farmer! This picture was taken in a bog on a place in Meath called Girlie Farm.”
Thanks so much Oonagh and Glen.
If you would be interested in featuring your children’s photos and experiences in their PuddleDucks gear, please drop us a line at info@puddleducks.ie
Facebook have recently added a new way of targeting people to become a fan of your Facebook page. This is called “Friends of Connection” targeting. It means that you can create an ad that will only be displayed for Facebook users who are friends of existing fans of your page.
We have approximately 380 fans currently on the PuddleDucks fan page. Last week, I wrote a new Facebook ad requesting more users to join our page. This is tied in with our current Facebook contest called “Name the Ducks“. This is what the ad looks like:
When setting up the ad, you now see additional criteria when selecting the ad targeting. This allows you to only show the ad to friends of the current fans of your page (as longs as you are the Admin of the page).
As well as the Friends of Connection targeting I have also filtered on our usual demographic criteria of Female and ages 28 to 45. This gives us a potential display base for the new ad of 7,120 people.
When the ad is displayed to these people, it will also be personalised. For example, say Mary Murphy is a fan of PuddleDucks. When the ad is displayed to Mary’s friends it will say “Mary Murphy is a fan of PuddleDucks” with a “Become a Fan” prompt below.
As with all Facebook ads to get more fans to your page, you can see the stats for the number of times the ad is clicked as well as the number of new fans you get from the ad (called “Actions”).
In the stats above you can see that we’ve had 8 new fans joined as a result of the ad at a cost of almost $5. The Click through Rate is 0.11% which is low but from my experience quite reasonable for Facebook ads. Overall, an interesting and useful addition to the functionality and performance of Facebook ads.
Suzanne was interviewed on The Business radio show on RTE Radio 1 on Saturday 14th November. It was a great opportunity to speak about our business – thanks to the producers of the show for inviting us on.
You can listen to a podcast of the show here (our bit starts at around 40 minutes).
Below is a distant photo of the interview taking place. It’s hard to make out but at the table are from left: Jake, Suzanne, David of dad.ie and the presenter, John Murray.
It’s the 40th Birthday of Sesame Street and to mark the occasion we’ve got our friend Ernie singing to his Rubber Duckie. From Puddle Ducks to Rubber Ducks!
