I have previously discussed the way in which physical documents can serve customer relationship management objectives but this also applies to email.

The challenge that email has is that it is a casualty of what some writers call 'The Attention Economy'. There is so much of it and it has a relatively low share in the mind of the average user. Scams, a poor internet reputation and so on mean that messages seen on email are quickly forgotten.

The answer is to ensure that your emails add value. The infrastructure that advises your customer about the best tariff for them on their physical documents can also deliver similar information to your email messages. Perhaps the topics may be different or may be about reinforcement of proposals made in physical communications.

This all points towards the fundamental importance of data, not channel in this brave new world of customer communications management. Understanding and being able to deliver value to your customers through the use of the data that you have.

You see, as explained in our last edition of MAILbytes, I was under the impression that, in today's internet age, buying a new car should be quick and painless. With vast amounts of research available online, and Internet salespeople stationed at virtually every dealership in the country, the days of haggling with sleazy salespeople would be over.

In reality...nothing could be further from the truth.

Today, I'd like to continue my discussion on what went wrong, with the hope that anyone reading this will learn how NOT to treat a customer. Here are a couple more suggestions - which could apply to ALL salespeople. At least something good should come out of my pain and suffering.

1. Ask me for my email address!

It happened over and over...upon walking into a dealership, I was immediately pounced upon by a hungry sales guy or gal. We sat down, and they asked for my name, address, phone number...the usual. Except most did NOT ask for my email address! WHY?

Look, I hate to give you car guys free advice, but for heaven's sake...in today's economy, why would you EVER pass up the opportunity to send some low-cost marketing to a guy who's obviously in the market for a new car? If I'm in your showroom, I'm asking you to sell to me!

A customer's email address is very valuable to you as a sales and marketing person. Make sure you ask for it on your registration forms, and if you're a salesperson - don't pass up the chance to get it when you're face to face with the customer. And then...

2. PLEEEEEEEASE...Answer My Email!

Let me remind you...I am a serious customer in search of a good deal on a new car.

So if you're an INTERNET salesperson, and I've emailed you asking for information...how could you LIVE with yourself if you simply ignore my email?

On one occasion, I emailed a salesperson asking for information on a particular vehicle. Within two minutes, I received a very nice, well-written automated response from Dan, the salesperson. The letter stated that Dan received my inquiry and PROMISED to get back to me within four hours.

Three weeks later, I'm still waiting for his response.

My wife emailed another so-called "internet salesperson" later that week seeking information on an incentive they were running. No response. She called and left a message. No response. One more email. More dead air.

A week later, the dealership had the nerve to email her a questionnaire. "Did we answer your questions?" they asked. "Were you satisfied with the service you received?"

"Service?" my wife "screamed" back via email. "What service? No one ever got back to me! I would never buy a car from your dealership!"

Guess what? No response. Makes 'ya wonder how they stay in business.

Ladies and gentlemen - any of my regular readers know how passionate I am about the power of a quick email response to customers. You'll win their hearts with a professional, personal reply...and the sooner you can do it, the better you'll look.

There are so many people doing a BAD job at this. Learn from the mistakes of others! Do it right, and you'll become a shining star in the mind of your customer.

Now if anyone knows of a good deal on a minivan, please let me know...

1. comprehensive blog search inside the target industry

2. spreadsheet of blogsites and contacts within market

3. well crafted email

Not very complex, right?

Sounds simple enough my mother could do it.....

NOW, a year and a half after my baptismal promotional campaign, here's what I've learned:

1. a target industry doesn't cover all the possibilities for link-backs and traffic--there are plenty of other blogs and forums outside the "target" market that could even be better traffic generators.

2. one well-crafted email is great, but I never "blast" emails to hundreds of contacts. ick. I really believe that anyone with a well-tuned ear can hear a carbon-copy email a mile away and avoid it like the plague. I make each and every email a genuine opportunity to reach out to a particular blogger. Yes, it's time consuming. But good links can be a very valuable investment in your time.

-if I use my specially written email I always include the blogger's name (as it appears on their blog, plus the blog name) AND I take a few minutes to actually explore a few posts. Just becuase a blog may exist topically in a certain market doesn't mean it is a good place to promote your website, blog, whitepaper, etc.

-I customize my email whenever possible. The best way I've found to do this is to address a particular blog post or comment on an issue to which the blogger, website author, etc. may be sympathetic.

-I sometimes ask for feedback. Promotion is not a one-way street. If you're genuinely engaged with your subject matter then it's very appropriate to invite dialog. I've even edited content based on feedback. Relationships online are very powerful levers.

Here's something I just learned from a Marketing Profs newsletter: how to logically "segment" my email list and create a set of "triggered emails" to match my needs.

first you have to build own online business site to setup any kind of e commerce for show other business onwer as a example. there are some small businesses in your local community. Still they don't have an internet presence. You can contact these business owners and discuss with them their need to put their presence online,even if just to offer information to those who might be searching on the products they have for sale, even if they don't plan on selling any items through their website.

Small local businesses have their regular stable of customers. but their need to bring constantly new customers as well as. Even if the business owner doesn't want to put items for sale online and deal with that aspect of the business, a website that offers information to Internet searchers can increase their business.

With some study of internet marketing and search engine operation including how much importance have keyword in searching engine result and ranking, you can offer to a businessman in a good fee for relative information. How you can create online presence and draw more customers and what you have to do, how you can make a lay out for this, your can also charge for these activity to a business owner.

If you're thinking that teaching e commerce is something you're not qualified to do, consider that there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of e commerce packages already available online.  For one price, a business owner can purchase a website hosting plan, an advertising package, information about how to promote and rank high in the search engines, and create the website, usually with the help of software that does all the technical work for you.  You don't even have to understand most of what the package offers, in order to profit from it.

If you understand e commerce, and can convey a little information to the business owner about how a good website can increase his business by teaching him e commerce and the advantages it has over regular commerce, you can profit from the packages that other people have already created through affiliate marketing.

For all these activity and services you have to follow direction at the site of the package you want to marketing. you can marking of this online, and also can get profit by teaching and sell package to local and small business owners.

In order to have a successful email marketing newsletter campaign, you must remember to keep your newsletter titles and content relevant to the target audience you seek to attract. Close to 40% of small business owners want to read newsletters with "how-to" style content. More than 25% of small business owners are interested in topics related to leadership and strategy.

Sending communication that is irrelevant is a sure fire way to lose your prospects altogether. When a customer opts in to your email list, you only have one chance, two if you're lucky, to show them that what you have to share is valuable. You must prove to your customers that your email newsletters are worth reading.

As long as you know who your target audience is and what interests them, you should be able to come up with creative and informative email newsletter content that will drive a significant amount of traffic to your business and positively affect your bottom line.

If you would like to learn more ways to make your email marketing campaign more successful, visit http://waystogetnoticed.com/category/effective-emailing/

Data lists are an essential part of any B2B marketing.

Traditionally a data list would be used for a direct mail campaign, writing to all prospects within a given territory or industry, inviting them to respond with an interest in your products and services.

Over more recent years, data lists have been used for telephone marketing, fax marketing and email marketing.

A good B2B data list will contain the relevant information for all such marketing methods; i.e., a postal address, telephone number, fax number and email address.

B2B data also contains important profiling variables so that the list selection may be further screened by geography, industry and company size.

Whatever your data list requirements Responsiva Data can help source that perfect marketing file. If you would like any further information, contact Responsiva Data (www.Responsiva.biz) on freephone 0800 118 5000 or send an email to info@Responsiva.biz

With 20 years data experience behind Responsiva Data, you can rest assured that your data list requirements will be fully satisfied to ensure the best return on your B2B data marketing budget.

Well they must have made some improvements to their queries because I received a call-out for volunteers to shows support at an event just around the corner from where I live. This Little Italy/San Diego info was very targeted; photo and all. --- Well played.

- Forest Bronzan

Great stuff Neil.

Technorati Tags:
lifetime value, email marketing, email, personlization, relevancy, permission, value, unsubscribe, email blasting, eblast, email acquisition, strategy

We can now build a top class micro-site that extends the website for a specific offer, link this into the email campaign, track conversion rates through the email software and track complex analytics on the site as well as feed the customer data directly into our client’s CRM systems.

We can also provide custom news content that will create newsletters via the email marketing service and send our client’s recipients unique news based upon our client’s editorial brief.

Together the pieces create a very powerful marketing solution with feedback built in to measure success criteria.

We are using the news service on our own website and even though we have only been running it for a few weeks we have already had some great feedback.

The integration of both the news and the emails with social networking sites should also be interesting as content becomes more and more blurred as to where it comes from and who is generating it. By carefully writing content and allowing customer’s to claim it as their own with link backs and bookmarks, it is possible to massively increase SEO as well as natural links back to the main corporate site.

Admittedly, if your business is email marketing and design, you might want to change it to Preview Pain, because you're frustrated with images being blocked.

But what if we changed the name to Precious Pane instead? Maybe if we called it the Precious Pane it would help us remember how precious that piece of on-screen real estate is! And how we need to pay a lot of attention to it!

Renaming it might keep us focused on what's really important when creating our email marketing campaigns, from design to copy to alt tags.

After all, after the From address and the subject line, the Preview Pane is the third most important element you have to get people to open your emails. And if your emails don't get opened, you won't have any conversions, so what's the point of having a great deliverability rate if your emails don't make money? (For more on this topic, see the ClickMail Marketing whitepaper on driving ROI after you get into the inbox: http://www.clickmailmarketing.com/resources/whitepapers.php.)

The Preview Pane is limited in size, it might be horizontal or vertical, it appears differently in different email clients, it might or might not allow images...and you have to pay attention to it. Period.

What do you think? If we change the name to Precious Pane, will we pay more attention? And up our email marketing ROI as a result?

Sai cos'è una Landing Page?

Una Landing Page è una Pagina all'interno di un Sito Internet (o una Pagina Singola nel caso di un MiniSito) dove viene inviato del Traffico Web volto ad uno Specifico Obiettivo, come un'Iscrizione o un Acquisto da parte del Cliente. Pensa ad un Campo da Golf ... Una Landing Page (o Pagina di Destinazione) è la Mazza che Guida la Pallina verso l'Obiettivo finale (la Buca). Allo stesso modo, l'Obiettivo della Progettazione e della Scrittura di una Landing Page, è quello di far compiere una precisa azione da parte del Visitatore.

Ecco alcuni esempi di come si possono utilizzare le Landing Page e di come viene attirato il Traffico.

• Tramite una Campagna Pubblicitaria in Pay-per-Click (come ad esempio Google AdWords) si crea una Pagina di Destinazione ottimizzata per le Parole Chiave che si stanno utlizzando all'interno degli Annunci.
• Attraverso un Banner o uno Sponsor Grafico, si crea la Pagina di Destinazione con Grafica simile, per attirare quel Target di Persone.
• Con un Link o un Messaggio eMail si crea la Landing Page adatta per coinvolgere le Persone ad Acquistare un Prodotto.
• Anche attravero un Blog, con degli Articoli o Annunci Pubblicitari sul Menù, si possono attirare Visitatori ad entrare nella Landing page creata magari per rivendere Prodotti in Affiliazione o con Diritti di Rivendita
• Persino questo Articolo che stai leggendo in questo momento è una Landing Page, per te che sei interessato proprio a questo Argomento e che sei arrivato qui magari da un mio Messaggio.

Non basterebbe un semplice Articolo di Blog per spiegare in maniera approfondita Suggerimenti e Consigli per costruire delle Landing Page di Successo, ma sia che tu stia vendendo un tuo Prodotto, o dei Prodotti in Affiliazione, ho selezionato per te alcuni Tutorial dedicati proprio  questo Argomento.

Definizione di Landing Page

Come Creare una Landing Page Efficace

10 Suggerimenti per la tua Landing Page

11 Modi per Migliorare le Landing Page

Come creare Landing Page Persuasive

 Credi che ti bastino queste Informazioni? ;)

Ricorda comunque che puoi scrivere qui i tuoi Commenti e le tue Domande, per conoscere di più le Landing Page e quello che puoi fare con esse.

Buona Lettura

Daniele

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Who said direct marketing is outdated?

It is with much anticipation and pleasure that we are starting this blog today. Our intentions are to share thoughts and ideas about the role of direct response in online marketing. We are passionate about the subject and hope this blog will be a good place to discuss.

Cheers.

When did this new generation of web first, brick and mortar next, completely transition?  I remember the flip-flopped days, when brand recognition boosted web credibility.  When stores like BestBuy and Sears, who had established reputations as reliable merchants first, brought loyal customers over to the web second.  Customers gave their credit card numbers to a few large online retailers with whom they had already done business.  No skeptic trusted the smaller dodgy websites without recognizable names.  I was one of those people.

It’s apparent that we’ve come a long way since the not-so-ancient internet days.  Now, with sophisticated and widely used payment systems like PayPal and Google Checkout, all retailers, large and small, known and underground, give consumers a bit more peace of mind when shopping online.  With broadband connections more accessible than ever, online shopping has become its own separated experience, an alternative to in-store shopping as opposed to an afterthought.  And just as the Shop.org article revealed, the new generation of consumers are turning to retail websites for a first impression rating of worthiness.  And they are likely to judge on this first encounter.

I am wholeheartedly guilty of this phenomenon.  If I’m shopping online and come across a dated website, or even a brochure page, I find myself thinking-- Seriously? Get with the times.  You think a credible retailer would put more into their site.-– Depending on the situation, I may take more time to research the retailer and change my opinion, but more often than not, I’ll click to another site that immediately engages.  I have on many occasions gone to store after its website has caught my eye.  Now, in addition to the old way, with big brand stores converting customers into online shoppers, big new websites are pushing online shoppers into physical stores.

As an e-commerce retailer, if you’re concerned that your site appears dated or lacks the modern spunk it needs to entice shoppers, here are Shop.org’s top five suggestions of features that that will add to your visitors' shopping experience as a whole.  For more in depth explanations of these features, click the link in the first paragraph above:

1. Update your storefront design.  Quality counts. Consider getting a professional to update your site’s aesthetics or change your design for the holiday season.

2. Implement an email marketing strategy.  The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reported that e-mail marketing can deliver up to a $51.45 return on investment for every dollar spent. Encourage your email recipients to forward to friends, family, etc.

3.    Offer multiple payment options.  Offering customers the option to pay via a third-party payment processing systems such as PayPal can increase sales, but it should not serve as your primary method for processing payments.

4.    Entice shoppers with promotions and incentives. Shoppers love deals. Coupons, discounts, sales and special bonuses like free shipping can provide the extra push a shopper needs to buy.

5.    Promote privacy and security awareness.  Don't ask shoppers for any more personal information than absolutely necessary to complete the purchase. Make Privacy Policy and trust language clearly visible.

Here are five more suggestions that we at ShopVisible highly recommend and offer to our clients:

6.    Customer generated content in the form of client testimonials and peer reviews.  Studies show that 65 percent of online shoppers activity seek reviews.  Customers trust each others’ opinions over the experts’ or business marketers.

7.    In-site search: A must! Along with SEO and e-mail marketing, recently voted a top promotional tool for e-commerce businesses.  Sales consistently increase with the addition of site search tools.

8.    Live chat feature. Let a sales associate or customer service representative direct visitors on your site.

9.    Cross-sell/up-sell with recommendation features.  Prior to checkout, display products you recommend to purchase along with what customers already have in their shopping cart.

10.    Gift cards: Sent immediately via email and redeemable both online and in store.  Guaranteed up-sell if offered store credit instead of money back returns.

Use some or all of the suggestions above and pleasantly surprise your customers with a more modern and up-to-date storefront.

In a September 16th article on DMNews.com entitled "The path to marketing nirvana is paved with integration" Blaine Mathieu discusses the need to integrate the tools used to manage & execute e-mail marketing, Web, PPC & other digital media campaigns. On the surface, I agree with Blaine's observation that executional nirvana (aka ease of management) can be achieved by bringing the analysis and execution components of these varied online media together so informed, timely decisions can be made and actions taken.

My only issue is whether he has gone far enough with the affected media landscape - shouldn't non-digital response oriented media be included in the integration? Aren't we just re-defining the silo's here? But more importantly - is real marketing nirvana going to be reached by executing a disjointed strategy via integrated tools or is it simply adding efficiency?

In my experience, a solidly integrated strategy executed via disjointed tools is more effective than a disjointed strategy executed via integrated tools (assuming that the tools are fully integrated across digital and traditional media). To that end, while I agree with the intent of Blaine's article; I would submit that we as marketers still need to work hard on fully integrating digital media into our strategic fabric and use all appropriate media to achieve campaign objectives - rather than bolting on digital tactics to a non-integrated strategy or supplanting strategy with executional technology.

How close are you to marketing nirvana?

B.

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Take for example an email promotion I received this morning (Oct. 7, 2008) in my inbox. The promotion is from a local partnership with several local eateries which ship regional goodies nationwide.

Now you might ask, "What is wrong with this promotion?"

I'll let the newspaper headlines tell the story...

• Cubs continue search for answers after loss to Dodgers extends title drought to 100 years (2:15 PM CDT, October 5, 2008)
• Sox eliminated in Game 4 of ALDS (dated 10:56 PM CDT, October 6, 2008)

Can you say "Oops." Or maybe "d'oh!" is more appropriate.

Chicago baseball fans, take note, it's nothing personal, I'm sure.

When you're online looking for information to improve your permission-based email marketing, you might wind up overwhelmed. So I've put together my favorite short list here. These are the resources I turn to every week to keep me up to speed on the latest in permission-based email marketing:

• Email Marketing Reports (www.email-marketing-reports.com)
• MediaPost's EmailInsider (you have to register as a member for it, but it's free: http://www.mediapost.com/)
• MarketingSherpa (www.marketingsherpa.com)
• Email Experience Council newsletter (www.emailexperience.org)
• Silverpop's newsletter (www.silverpop.com)

Do you have a favorite email marketing blog or email newsletter to recommend? Let us know by posting a comment...