Hello All,

So I know I haven't written in awhile as I have been busy with our events and sponsors and I just didn't have the urge to as nothing really affected me enough to make me want to write about it.  That all changed last week when I was invited to go to Solid Cactus's Boot Camp to speak.  This was my 2nd Boot Camp that I have had the privilege of speaking at and I if I were to say that I was majorly impressed it would be the understatement of the year!

They really outdid themselves.  The quality of education they bring to their merchants is anything short of amazing!  Basically it was 3 days of hands on training (17 sessions) see complete schedule of sessions here http://bootcamp.solidcactus.com/sessions.html

The merchants were engaged, asking questions and then to top it off they had their choice of specialists at Solid Cactus Headquarters where they could schedule one on one time to discuss their own site and find ways to improve it.

To follow up each day of hard work/hands on training the merchants were entertained with no expense spared.  See complete list of events here http://bootcamp.solidcactus.com/evening.html

All in all it was an amazing 3 days of work and fun.  What I experienced there by talking to the merchants, seeing them engage with the team at Solid Cactus is what motivated me to write this post.  So here I go being a little controversial again but with good reason.  We all know that Solid Cactus has become the Red Headed Step Child of Yahoo! Web Developers because of their branching out to offer their merchants other solutions but let's be real, in today's economy merchants must be doing multi channel ecommerce, if they aren't they will be left behind.  I have to say that the loyalty that Solid Cactus emotes from their merchants speaks volumes.  Everyone that I had the privilege to talk to was absolutely raving about Solid Cactus and how happy they were with their services, especially their Pay Per Click Management.  I was impressed with the success stories I heard and believe me there were plenty!

So, here is my point. Isn't it the Developers responsibility to ensure their merchants are successful?  Wouldn't the merchant's success be even more valuable to Yahoo!?  I believe the answer to both of those questions is yes.  Solid Cactus is giving their merchants what they need to succeed, if that means helping them to multi-channel ecommerce then so be it, but ultimately that would help them with their overall success on Yahoo! right?

I personally used to feel that Solid Cactus was getting away from their core business of Yahoo! Web Development (which they are great at!) and it was going to hurt their business, but I was wrong. All of the tools and Services they offer, from email marketing, Pay Per Click Management, site search, feed perfect, shipping manager, call center...you can find their full list of services at http://www.solidcactus.com are all designed to give their clients what they need to succeed on line and why have them go elsewhere if you can give them what they need.  After all they know their merchants best and can help them through the whole process.

I know a few years back they had issues due to lack of staffing and not being able to scale as quickly as they needed to, but I can tell you this, they now have been able to scale and have over 140 employees spread throughout their numerous departments who are their willing and able to assist merchants in any of the needs they may have.  They even have a publication that goes out monthly http://www.ebizinsider.com and forums for the members at    http://forum.ebizinsider.com/index.php

I really believe that all providers need to be doing what Solid Cactus is doing, educating their merchants, building that relationship which instills trust and loyalty, which ultimately makes better business for the provider and the merchant.  It is a win win for all involved.

I want to thank Scott Sanfilippo and Joe Palko for giving me an insider's look into your organization and helping me to understand all that you do for your merchants.  I am proud to have you as a partner of eCommerce Merchants Trade Association. http://www.ecmta.org Keep up the great work!!

Happy eCommerce

Cresta

Richard Evans - Silverpop

Pamela O'Hara - BathBlue Software

Chip Terry - ZoomInfo

Is email dead? Is it still going strong?

Bulk email is ok, unsolicited email is ok. How do you define spam, and how close can a marketer get before crossing the line?

Chip- There needs to be a clear opt out, needs to come from a real email address, must not be sent again to someone who has opted out. But the question is, how do we look at standards that go beyond what's legal? You have to be very careful. Is bulk email sending 500 emails to a targeted audience or sending 10 million emails to anyone you can get an address for? 

Pam - Really, spam is in the mind of your customer, and is different for each person. You're trying to build a relationship. You've got to slowly walk in, give people tons of opportunities to say back off, and it's an ongoing definition you'll have to build on with each individual. 

What happens to te companies that people learn are definitely spammers?

Richard - When a customer engages in spamming people, we address that and first and foremost work with them to understand that what they're doing is a violation of law and horrible biz practice. We don't see it that often, but do terminate contracts with those that abuse the system. 

Greg - We've set up our network to break out each sender and measure the reputation of that sender. We can find out how many are complaining or hitting spam button when those emails come in. We run a strict policy, and three strikes you're out 

Richard - Relevance is a term that keeps coming up here, and is key. When you think about email and how it's related to new media in facebook and myspace, if it becomes irrelevant then it's spam. If i log onto twitter and all i see is corporate ad-related tweets, that becomes spam. There is alot that has been learned in the email industry that can be carried over into other communities. 

Chip - email marketing is part of a marketing mix. It's not send an email and hoping you get a response, its being on facebook, myspace, linked in, sending a postcard, going to an event, engaging with customers. All of that combined. Email has the benefit of being highly trackable, but I think that trackability has led to overuse of the medium. Find the right list, have a compelling offer, and that's most of it. 

Pam - You can send email but also see if people are talking about your brand on other networks so integrating these mediums is important. If someone is complaining about your product or advertisement you can take them off the list or engage with them personally. 

Email marketing as an acquisition tool?

Greg - There is a big difference between list rental and list purchase. You can pay a lot for the list You have to have a clear call to action and a very catching message. Need to tread very lightly in this space. 

Richard - Using email for acquisiton purpose is broken. You come off as spam, pay a lot, people end up on your list who are not engaged or interested to begin with. Better to use other methods (viral marketing, your website, social networks) to find targets. You can use emails sent to current customers and then seeing who they forward it on to and have relationships with so there is already a more relevant list. 

How many emails is the right number, and then when is the best time?

Richard - It's the time that the recipients are in the inbox. When an open or a click occurs, you should be able to see that time stamp. That's a fairlyl good indicator of when you should send an email not just to that list or segment, but to that individual. Over time you can pinpoint when is best to send an email to every individual on your list. 

Greg - We've found the same thing in terms of looking at the reporting and it comes down to the client. Some of our clients email quarterly, some daily. Also depends on the type of program you're running. In terms of specific day and time, look at your data. 

Email tracking is great for positive relevancy, how do you cull list and figure out when you are no longer relevant?

Chip - We go through and say if you haven't opened in the last three months or six months, we'll make that cutoff, send some final message, and then take you off the list. 

Greg - It's all in the data again. See when people have stopped responding. Different clients handle it differently. 

Pam - Make sure whether its your CRM or email sources, you need to be able to figure out who is silent and not responding, its just as important as knowing who is converting. 

Is there is one thing to help people improve their email marketing, what would it be?

Pam - You should have a flexible, customizable solution that meets your specific needs. Embracing and understanding that the data is out there and knowing the tools. 

Richard - We talked a lot about data and relevance. Think about the other channels that you operate in. Whether it's media, networks or other mediums, the time that you spend understanding those mediums, take that time and go back and apply it to email. It used to be that you could just send out mass emails. So take time to look at the data, look at the content you're sending out, and think about it as relationship marketing. 

Greg - Fitting in with the theme of social marketing and this event, I go back to talking about email being the digital glue. I recommend that everyone try this with your email list. If you have presence on other networks, platforms, blogs, etc, use email to tie all those other assets together. It's extraordinarily successful, spreading our message all around the social web. And be consistent. It's just like blogging. Telling people what you're going to send, what to do with it, and then following up. 

Chip - recognize that email is part of overall marketing mix, marketing people have different sets of expertise than they used to, they are going to be data driven, processes are different, are going to look at microsegments of  your audience, technologies used will be different, you're going to be using different technologies, to have that you need the right people, right technology, right processes.

It isn't a difficult discipline, but does require a broad knowledge of the industry and available technologies and solutions. But above all, it is a process, involving all the tools familiar to project managers in any industry. A good digital project manager - internal or external - is worth their weight in gold.

• Agreeing and setting objectives - obvious but so often overlooked
• Strategy planning - not a 100 page document, the best strategies are less than one side of A4
• Identifying internal resource - do you have the people? Who will execute and manage the project long term?
• Selecting third party help - absolutely critical. There are some great people out there, but a lot of cowboys as well. Your web developer is not necessarily the best person to mount an email marketing campaign or handle your search marketing.
• Identify performance indicators and measurables.
• Creating the digital brief - a verbal briefing is not enough. The terms of the brief should include deliverables, performance indicators, cost indicators and timescales. This will form the basis of contracts with external suppliers.
• Evaluating proposals and tenders - are we sure the outside suppliers understood our brief, and do we understand their proposals.
• Negotiating - life is never straightforward and compromises have to be made
• Liaison - keeping all parties connected
• Reporting - how is the project progressing?  To brief, on time, on cost?
• Time and budgetary control - speaks for itself, but needs constant vigilance
• Sign off - know when the project is over, don't let it drift. Easier to manage if you set discrete stages.
• Evaluation and tracking - did it work? Quantify the results.

Yes there is a lot to be done and a lot to control on even the simplest projects - this is why things often fail through lack of tight project management. Use a specialist if you can. A friend of mine uses the analogy of needing a shirt: you can either go out and spend £20 on a shirt or you can make one.  You can learn how to do it from a book, buy material from the market, stay up late at nights cutting and sewing and at the end of the day you have saved yourself £20... but would you really want to go out in a shirt you had made yourself?

The welcome letter that you send to new subscribers on your business mailing list for your targeting email campaigns, may very well have a better chance of being read than any other marketing emails that you send. Studies indicate that welcome letters have a substantially higher opening rate than usual emails. Therefore, confirming that email advertising is one of the best forms of marketing as long as you do it correctly.

In a recent experiment, an email marketing firm signed up for a series of email lists to see how many of the companies would send a welcome letter and take full advantage of the all important first email. Surprisingly, within three days they had only received welcome letters from 55% of the companies at which they registered. Of that 55%, only 36% featured content that extended to include information other than a simple welcome to the program. That means that 45% of these companies totally missed a vital marketing opportunity and 64% of those who took some initial action failed to use the opportunity to its fullest potential.

If you are interested in learning more ways to take full advantage of every email marketing opportunity that is at your disposal, please visit http://waystogetnoticed.com/2008/09/06/profiting-through-email-marketing-lists/

Be it your Inbox or LinkedIn, Be it Twitter or now iPhone. Barack Obama is everywhere. One thing clearly established in Barack Obama’s campaign is his interest in using new media tools to reach an audience.  Through this post I will give a detailed account of online tools used by Obama, or Obama supporters.

Obama' 08 Online model

Campaign website:

Barack Obama’s website is immensely integrated with social media. If you want to know anything about  him, website is the place you go to. The site is integrated with a blog that updates his events, speeches and appearances. His website encourages visitors to create be a volunteer, support Obama campaign to ‘knock more doors’, plan & attend events, find supporters, network with your friends, write a blog & even be a part of Obama’ 08 fund raiser team. Obama campaign use the website to sell 'Obama merchandise' too.

I loved ‘BarackTV’ an integral part of the website that brings visitors close to Barack as a person. Visitors get to meet Michelle Obama & Joe Biden, it also includes channels like advertisements, issues, Barack's speeches. you got to see it to believe it! There are highly identifiable badges, buttons and links to popular social media sites such as social networking site Facebook, photo sharing site Flickr and No1 video site Youtube.

My personal favorite - My.BO, an acronym for My. Barack Obama. My.BO has become an online community with over million members! This community has taken Brand Obama to the virtual World of ‘Second Life’ this is exciting.  really exciting!

Citizen generated campaigns:

Obama enjoys plenty of online support from the young guns. Out of several support websites & but obvious Youtube, these are two sites  Youbama.com & Moveon.org that have played or are still plying a major role in offering a platform for Obama supporters to share user created contents.

YouBama was designed by two Stanford grad students to drum up grass-roots support for Barack Obama, the site lets supporters upload videos explaining why they are going to vote for the candidate. The videos can then be voted (thumbs) up or (thumbs) down.  It is a simple but sophisticated site that will appeal to the YouTube generation, and an effective way to distill the most powerful messages with the broadest appeal.  This site was stated to be very successful during the primaries, but somehow momentum does not seem to have continued till today.  Youbama.com attracted 16,000 unique visitors at the time of launch (jan 08) but since then number of unique visitors had decreased, to the extent of less than 500 visitors in Aug 08.

Moveon is an online destination of young people who overwhelmingly support Barack Obama. The site has more than 4,000,000 members to support the Obama campaign. Currently Moveon has come up with “talk to your parents about John McCain" campaign. This campaign is to encourage parents (McCain supporter) of the young Obama supporter to support Barack Obama.  (You can watch this video here). There is even a website dedicated for “talk to your parents about John McCain" campaign.

Social networks:

Obama entered the realm of social media through a social-networking site, www.my.barackobama.com,  now Obama has extended his campaign to almost all prominent social hubs. Obama already has an official presence on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, as well as numerous unofficial pages on internet presumably created by Obama supporters. Of course Obama isn't the only candidate to utilize social landscape  but looks like he is eat McCain apart in terms of online exposure. If you think I am talking crap, look at the chart below!

iPhone Application:

This election season we saw a very innovative wedding, between Iphone & Obama campaign. Few days ago, Obama campaign launched an Obama application for iphone & itouch users called Obama 08. The applications covers nearly everything its elder cousin barackobama.com has to offer. In terms of design iIt is very much in like with the campaign website. The applications enables its user to read news highlighted by campaign operatives, you can do so, with the option to specify a national or local view. If you want to browse photos and videos, you may.  Events are posted, too, and the campaign’s stated issues and its positions on those issues are noted in full.

The Obama 08 application also has a ‘Donation button’ that allows the user to connect the phone & donate money towards the campaign. Users can also sign up to receive email and/or SMS notifications, and call anyone within your phone’s contact list, with each noted as “have not called” until you connect with them. This is obviously meant to increase outreach. (this function is limited only to iphone subscribers)

I believe, virtual media is not the draw here, but its more about the big picture - its about engaging people with the Obama campaign & letting people know what the campaign is doing in this next few weeks leading up to Election Day.

In-game advertising:
The Obama campaign is now advertising in a very popular video game for the Xbox 360. Obama campaign has bought ad space within video games including Electronic Arts’ “Burnout Paradise”. One in-game ad, seen on a virtual billboard in the racing game, informs gamers that “Early Voting Has Begun” for the election, and includes a link to an Obama website. (read my post: Obama billboard in xbox 360)

Email Marketing:

The Obama campaign gets a lot of legitimate praise for their use of email and Web 2.0 marketing techniques in building support, communication programs and donations. I share similar feeling for Obama's Web 2.0 strategy. I hate to tell, but I have now added email's from Obama Campaign as 'JUNK'. I don't know, but after Bill Clinton visited my university... I started receiving emails from Obama Campaign inviting me to participate, sometimes asking for donations to sustain the momentum, sometimes asking me to knock doors to spread message about Obama.

Honestly, I find all this too intrusive. I might have received 4-6 emails in last 2 days from the Obama foundation. I understand the importance of the situation, but this is irritating... I never expected this from Obama Campaign. Please don't think this as a hate mail, it is just that I did not like it.

(more information will be here any moment)

all the best

Luc Robijns

Data solution Inc. has a scalable array of experts that can offer dedicated services and solutions to meet you are your rising company’s requirements. These capable people work across four specific platforms that function as an integrated team. We proffer Enterprise Business Support Services, Consulting Services, Technology Development Services and Business Processing Operations (BPO). The assortment that Data solution Inc. presents to its clients permits an extensive range of choices that suite a variety of purposes and expectations.

Application Development

Everest Software

- visitas: podemos saber que tipo de usuario nos visita mas, es importante evaluar si estamos elaborando buen contenido o el mensaje es adecuado para este tipo de usuario.

- páginas vistas y promedio de tiempo en el sitio: podemos saber que tipo de usuario es mas activo, o tiene mas "engadgement" (al final lo he puesto).

- visitas nuevas: que mercado estoy ampliando o donde estoy creciendo mas

- porcentaje de rebote: con este no lo tengo tan claro, por un lado si tenemos al usuario enganchado al canal rss es un buen usuario pero con mala tasa de rebote, ...

Con toda esta información podemos hacernos una idea de quien nos visita, nos visita mas, si queremos intentar captar la atención de un colectivo podremos saber si lo estamos consiguiendo de manera que si no lo conseguimos podremos verlo y poder analizar que medidas tomar.

Ahora vamos a empezar a intentar sacarle mas jugo al tema.

Resulta que google almacena esta información en una cookie, con php la podemos recoger de la siguiente forma: $_COOKIE["__utmv"] de hecho hay que hacer un explode porque la variable viene enganchada a otra:

$__umtv = $_COOKIE["__utmv"];  // recojo la cookie
$__umtv_partida = explode(".", $__umtv);  // separo las 2 variables en un array
$usuario_definido = $__umtv_partida[1];  // recojo la parte del array que me interesa


En asp, jsp, ... seguro que las instrucciones son casi iguales.

Que podemos hacer con esto?

- podemos localizar nuestro mensaje para el tipo de usuario, (ejemplo: si nuestra web va de impresoras, al diseñador le podremos destacar que la impresora tiene 6000 dpis, al administrativo que imprime 200 páginas por minuto, al informático que es compatible con linux y al jubilado que es ideal para imprimir las fotos de los nietos)

- poder mostrar banners específicos

- hacer recomendaciones de otros artículos que les pueden interesar, o que los "informáticos que han comprado este producto también han comprado este otro".

- si nuestra web tiene buscador y tenemos control sobre el, podemos marcar los resultados que le pueden interesar mas o ordenar por interés, ...

- que tipo de usuario carga productos al carro y no compra, o que producto o familia de producto es mas visitado por cada tipo de producto (con este hay que hacer base de datos porque google analytics no ofrece este informe y no se si yahoo web analytics lo ofrecerá.

Seguro que hay muchas mas posibilidades.

Esta es mi visión a día de hoy del behavioral marketing o targeting que tengo a dia de hoy, creo que tiene mas trabajo establecer los segmentos de tipos de usuarios de una forma sensata que la propia adaptación.

Si pudiéramos mezclar usuarios definidos con google website optimizer, podría ser interesante.

Eso es todo

whishlist a google anaytics o resto de herramientas web: poder cruzar esta información con:
- palabras clave
- palabras clave con la comparación con todo el sitio/o un indicador
- campañas de adwords
- fuentes de tráfico
- visitas por ubicación

Here are some uses for email marketing:

1. Email newsletters
2. Email offers and coupons to past customers or visitors
3. Email surveys for market research and to measure customer satisfaction
4. Additional income stream with email advertisements or email list rentals
5. Marketing through ads purchased in others’ email marketing campaigns

Spam laws put restrictions on email marketers, from how email marketing lists can be built or gathered to the rights of email list subscribers to unsubscribe from future mailings. Follow these email marketing tips to stay out of trouble with anti-spam laws, and to build an email list with the best potential for conversions to sales, ad clicks, or more, by focusing on subscribers genuinely interested in the message.

1. Make the email list double opt-in (subscribers will sign up for the email list from a form on the website, and will have to confirm the subscription through an email before the subscription becomes active).

2. Include an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of every email sent to the email list. Never make it difficult for someone to unsubscribe from the list.

3. Try to gather the email marketing list independently, through on-site subscription forms or subscription options being included in the online order process for customers.

4. If purchasing or renting an email marketing list, purchase only from reputable email list distributors, and purchase lists highly targeted to the site’s target market to improve the rate of interest in the email campaigns.

5. If subscribers are slow to come naturally, offer an incentive, such as a free e-book, articles, reports, software, or something similar of interest to the target readership that can be included with a welcome email or in a download.

6. To increase the probability that email newsletters and similar mailings will be read, offer both an HTML and a plain text version to account for readers who use non-HTML email providers or programs.

7. If using email newsletters for email marketing efforts, try to keep email campaigns regular, but not so often that they become a nuisance to the subscribers.

In order to send you, the potential voter, an email, each of the 2008 presidential candidates has to be able to capture your name and email address somehow. Of course, in these days of ever-increasing spam, they not only have to capture your details, but they have to get them with your stated agreement to avoid all the problems associated with unsolicited bulk emails.

The usual way to capture emails and get the permission of the owner to receive follow up messages is through what is known as double opt-in. The person is asked to submit his or her email address and usually their name also. They immediately receive an email back with a link that they are asked to click on to confirm their agreement to receive messages. So, how well have each of the opposing sides performed in this respect?

Both the Barack Obama and John McCain web sites allow visitors to sign up with their names and email addresses. Both sign up boxes are fairly prominent in the top right-hand section of each page. Earlier in the campaign both sides used slogans such as, "Join The Team" or "Become A Team member" to entice undecided voters. This coupled with the usual picture of the smiling candidate and family has been effective overall.

Early in the race each of the 2008 presidential candidates had an opt-in splash page. Hillary Clinton's one was a clear winner, asking for email, name and zip code. Armed with this information from a double opt-in, it is possible to personalize messages to the extent that the recipient might well think they were the only one to receive it! Barack Obama also had a good opt-in splash page. It lacked some of Hillary's finesse, but was well thought out and had everything it needed for success.

John McCain's early web site opt-in splash page was poorly thought out. It lacked a branding tag line and it was set in depressing black and grey. It lacked information, just stating the obvious, "McCain," and below that there was a large "Donate" button. To sign up for the McCain email list you had to go even lower down, but only the email was asked for, so absolutely no personalization was possible.

In fact, the usual automated "welcome" message you might expect when signing up to an email list was totally lacking in the McCain experience as well. Judging by email marketing alone, this was nothing short of an ineffectual amateur approach that was poorly thought out. The campaign must have suffered to some degree in respect of its email component.

That was the early days however, and things have slowly become better as each side has tested and tracked what works, and what doesn't in this 2008 election race. Both sides quickly learned that email marketing works when done properly. They started to employ tried and tested marketing techniques, possibly copying off each other in the process.

Short headlines, or subject lines, have been noticeable. Single words or very short phrases seem to work best. Some of the better subject line include, "Running Track," "Appalling" and the intriguing, "Flying Fur." Both candidates have sent out relatively short letter-style emails of around 350 words.

The emails have mostly been in HTML in preference to plain text. This has allowed a sidebar in most cases where a "Donate" button can be prominently placed. Photos and short video clips have also been employed to good effect. So to round up, which one is the winner of the Presidential Marketing Online eMail Campaign of 2008? Who understands today's style of political marketing and who doesn't?

The ineffective and amateurish McCain email marketing campaign in the early part of the Presidential race, compared to the slick Obama campaign that knew what it was doing from day one, means that the Obama camp wins. Their decision to announce Obama's running mate only through email and SMS initially was nothing short of brilliant. McCain may have caught up, by and large, but they must have suffered to some extent by not appreciating the power of email in the 21st century from the beginning.

Public now is wiser than ever and have no interests in any organisations aim to deceive them regardless of being charity; as there is now enough evidence around us to judge some charities unfortunately are not doing what they suppose to do in order to favour the public.  It is the time to reveal their names and let the public know about unethical organisations; this may make them to reconsider their unethical activities and harming the society.

Thompsons does regular targeted email marketing to our database for the various travel packages they have.

They cater for high end consumers as well as more budget aware consumers. Our database can be segmented into these very profiles and therefore there is a great fit for Thompsons to do targeted email campaigns to our database.

This has proved to be very responsive for Thompsons as each mail shot generates many enquiries for the different travel packages.

They segment by:

1. Age
2. Province
3. Income
4. Gender

Guess what, it's not that simple. Just a few email clients are really able to render (visualize) video streaming in emails. On top of that several video formats can be used, going from flash to mpegs. We all know what e.g. flash can do in emails.

If you really want to do it. There are some tricks to apply:
- Create a frame in your html for the video streaming and put a background image with linking of the first screen in it.
- Provide an extra text link to the video.
- Use only the first screen with the play arrow in it linked to the online version.

Basically it's simple. Provide fall-back options in case you in-mail video won't work (and trust me, that's a lot)

For those who like survey numbers.
A small survey on video emails by EmailKarma

Este curso tiene como objetivo acercar a los empresarios del sector turístico y mandos intermedios esta herramienta de marketing on line. En definitiva, a cómo conseguir incrementar las ventas utilizando el correo electrónico de la manera correcta y efectiva.

En realidad es una herramienta que ya se utiliza mucho, el problema es que se utiliza bastante mal.

El simple hecho de enviar correos con carácter comercial a clientes ya entra dentro del e-mail marketing, pero se incurre enlos siguientes fallos:

• Los correos son masivos y se corre el riesgo cada vez más común que Gmail, Msn, hotmail, etc. Te detecte como spam, bloquee tu cuenta y te deje sin correo.

• Se suele segmentar poco. Normalmente se envía un correo con un mensaje genérico a todo tipo de públicos, clientes externos, internos, clientes finales e intermediarios, nacionales y extranjeros. La capacidad de segmentación que tiene internet es muy grande y es una pena desaprovecharla.

• Se suele abusar del número de comunicaciones. En el marketing tradicional el hecho de ser pesado ha sido visto como algo positivo ("el que la sigue la consigue"). Este es el camino más recto para conseguir que tu público rechace tu marca.

• La mayoría de mensajes no aporta valor. ¿Cuántas veces nos hemos parado a pensar si mi mensaje comercial aporta algún valor a quien lo recibe? Si no es así, hay que cambiarlo y para ello hay que ponerse en el lugar del cliente.

• No se tiene información sobre los resultados. Muchos directores comerciales de hoteles hacenun envío con una oferta a agencias de viaje y jamás saben si ese mensaje ha llegado o no, si lo han abierto y si han hecho click. Sin esto no hay control, no hay capacidad de mejorar no de saber qué hemos conseguido. Como decía una conocida marca de neumáticos: "La potencia sin control no sirve de nada".

Sobre todos estos temas y alguno más se hablará en el curso y se aportarán soluciones.

Os invito a todos a participar, sobre todo porque es gratuito.

Datos:
Lugar: CDT GANDIA
Horario: Lunes 20 y Martes 21 de 16 a 20 horas.
Más información:

Teléfono: 96 2845858 - Fax: 96 2844805
cdt_gandia@gva.es
Camí Vell de l'Alqueria, s/n - 46730-GANDIA
http://www.comunidad-valenciana.org/profesional/cdts/cdt_gandia.htm

El informe de usuarios definidos es un informe de google analytics que nos permite asignar mediante una acción una segmentación a los usuarios de nuestra web, ya sea cliente no-cliente, profesional amateur, por profesión, por edad ...

Es un informe, para mi, esencial para poder conocer un poquito mas lo que está pasando en la web. Pero hasta hace pocos días lo único que podía extraer era el perfil de usuarios que navega por la web y comparar este dato con el perfil de los usuarios registrados que resulta que en mi caso difiere, ya sea por el tipo de visita que realiza el usuario registrado el no-registrado ...

Para empezar tenemos que ir al tag de google y asegurarnos que estamos utilizando el ga.js y no el urchin.js. Si tenemos que cambiar el tag, el nuevo lo encontraremos al editar la configuración de un perfil (una web), en la parte superior derecha en el enlace "comprobar estado". Ahí nos aparecerá el tag (2 javascripts).

Antes de insertar el tag en nuestra web debemos hacer la siguiente modificación: añadir lo siguiente pageTracker._initData(); en el segundo javascript después de la instrucción _gat.getTracker. No se bien bien que realiza esta instrucción pero si no la pones no recoge datos.

Ahora que ya tenemos el tag implementado hay que darle al usuario el empujoncito para que delate que tipo de usuario es de los segmentos que nos son útiles para nuestra web, para el ejemplo voy a utilizar profesión. Para ello dejo varias pistas:

- formulario o encuesta en la que solicitamos que nos marquen que profesión tiene

- cuando se logan o registran, preguntarlo y si ya lo teníamos actualizar

- al enviar una newsletter, tal como comento en este post anerior.

- seguro que hay otras formas de marcar al usuario

Una vez que ya sabemos cuando lo vamos a marcar falta el como: el como consiste en añadir en la página siguiente a la acción el siguiente código:

<script type="text/javascript">pageTracker._setVar('mecanico'); </script> en el caso de que sea mecánico

Continuará en el próximo post con:

- como reutilizar el marcaje del usuario definido

- como aprovechar este marcaje para personalizar contenido: behavioral marketing.

Though most of us are extremely lured to use free email services, but these are not immune to blemishes and disadvantages. Sadly but the truth is, the most major disadvantage of free email marketing services relate to the aspect users are highly concerned about. And it is the privacy related or security related issues. Some of the free email marketing service providers can be highly efficient in accumulating traffic and raining profits for clients though – therefore users must carry out extensive researches and ask questions on how effective the email marketing company is able to ensure clients' security and prevent their customers' details from being exposed to other business owners and competitors.

Companies providing free promotional services through free email marketing services should not necessarily be engaged in fraudulent activities in making money for themselves. Make sure the company has found a stronghold position in the industry by providing free email services. When the companies show more evidences and records in offering email services in your niche and that too successfully – you know you have come to the right destination for starting email marketing campaign. Remember, email services, whether free, low cost or premium, must be compelling, informative yet with personalized touches and able to speak customers' interests in order to be efficient in boosting up traffic for clients.

Effectiveness of a marketing channel was measured using the following 8 criterion.

• · Is the channel Low Cost
• · Does the channel have a broad reach
• · Does the channel allow personalisation (1 to 1)
• · Does the channel deliver targeted messages
• · Does the channel offer any viral features?
• · Can the results be tracked?
• · Is the channel easy to access?
• · What is the longevity of a channel

Each criterion was scored out of a total value of 100. The scores are plotted on the line graph from left to right (highest to lowest). So, the highest socre has highest effectiveness.

Questions around cost were normalised using comparative value proposition offered by each channel.

We considered advanced targeting abilities as a measure for the “target-ability” property of a channel

Reach – Global = Maximum, Local/Regional = Minimum

Tracking: We consider a campaign trackable if you can quantitatively define the number of responses and conversions.

What do you think? Any comments?

The real question is how do you make your campaigns viral in such a way that your message starst spreading like wildfire.

Well, here is a solution recipe that talks about how to create a viral email marketing campaign with guaranteed results.

Ingredients:

• A great special offer
• A competition give away
• List of opt-in email subscriobers (with first names)
• A Maxmail user account (get a Free trial account here)

Preperation:

Make sure your mailing list of subscribers is clean and has first names recorded for every single subscriber along with a valid email address.

Create an HTML newsletter (doesnt have to be fancy - keep it simple) with your special offer inside. The body of the newsletter should have a 600 x 200 graphic (well designed) that talks about an automatic entry for anyone who forwards this email to a friend. Each forward counts for one entry.

Mention the giveaway prize.

Forward this email to your friends to automatically into a draw to win one of 5 42inch Panasonic PLasma TVs. Forward as many times as you like, each forward counts for one entry. Increase your chances, get forwarding now.

Make sure you have the subscribers first name in the subject line (for higher uptake) and also in the greeting line (e.g. Hello John instead of Hi there)

Send the email.

Watch it cook

John receives your email and decides to forward the email to Sally, Bod, Sue and Ryan. Because John opted Sally, Bob, Sue and Ryan into your original mailing list, when any one of them forward this email, you have an exponential growth in the virality of your email.

Consider this

You sent an email to John and it has been forwarded around to (in this example) a total of 29 new subscribers. You have also accumulated several competition entries. Your mailing list has grown and now you have greater interest from your customers.

Best of all, Maxmail's viral marketing feature allowed you to tap into a list of subscribers that you didnt have access to prior to sending this email.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Maxmail has identified a set of principles we call “The 22 Imperatives for Email Marketing Success.” Don’t let that number intimidate you, though, as most marketers are already deploying many of these imperatives. Increasingly, though, companies that fail to follow all of these principles will find their email marketing programs underperforming their competitors and not achieving maximum ROI.

1. Permission is Not Optional
When you send unsolicited email, you hurt your brand, your campaign and your sender reputation. Don’t use “stealth” methods to collect email addresses, such as pre-checked boxes on site registration forms. Use a two-stage subscription process that requires confirmation before the address goes into your database. Ask older opt-ins if they still want to receive your email, and retain all the permission data on each opt-in.

2. Manage Your Sender Reputation
You’ll get on an ISP’s bad side if you send too many emails too often to too many bad email addresses, or generating too many spam complaints. Result? The ISP will block your emails, shunt them to oblivion in the bulk folder and won't tell you what you did wrong. Honor unsubscribe requests immediately, stay off blacklists, monitor and resolve spam complaints, and use a double opt-in process and unique IP address if you don’t already.

3. Clean and Analyze Mailing Lists
A “dirty” list – too many unsolicited, incorrect, out-of-date or duplicated addresses – hurts your campaign’s performance and your company’s delivery and sender reputation. “List hygiene” cleans out bad addresses, reduces undeliverable emails and helps you spot problems fast.

4. Deploy Authentication Technologies
Some ISPs are using methods that allow email from recognized senders but block spammers and malicious senders. They include “whitelisting,” SPF Classic, SenderID and DomainKeys. Ask your email service provider which methods it supports. Unauthenticated emails could be blocked, filtered or sent to bulk/junk folders.

5. Test for Delivery and Correct Rendering
HTML emails – with pictures, colors and graphics -- can look or function differently when viewed in different email programs and ISP-based email services. Send a sample email to test emails accounts at major providers, such as AOL, Earthlink, Hotmail and Yahoo! to spot bad links, copy that triggers spam filters, bad images or other problems. Also, make sure your emails are W3C HTML-compliant. Otherwise, you risk being filtered, particularly at MSN and Hotmail.

6. Establish and Build Trust
Ask only for the most necessary information at registration. (You can ask for more later, when your recipients trust you.) Send only what you say you will, when and how often you promised at registration. Without trust, recipients are less likely to open or act on your emails and more likely to unsubscribe or file spam complaints.

7. Respect Recipients' Privacy
This is just good business practice, but you’ll also avoid legal and ethical problems. Include a short, simple email privacy statement within your opt-in form and link it to the full policy statement on your Web site.

8. Give Recipients What They Want and Need
Your subscribers expect control. If you don’t give them what they want, they’ll go elsewhere. Let them decide the format (text or HTML), the frequency, the content and whether you can send them other kinds of information. Then, segment your lists to reflect those choices.

9. Provide Administrative Functions in Each Email
Give recipients the tools they need to manage their subscriptions, contact you, forward information to others and get more information, right in the email.  Reputable emailers include this information in a clearly marked section, usually at the end of each email. See the sample below:

10. Test, Test and Test Again
Besides testing for delivery, you must also test to see which attributes work best in individual emails. What you think you know isn’t always what works best. Testing is as easy as a classic A/B split and can show you which day of the week really draws the most opens and clicks or which subject line tanked.

11. Define Your Email Value Proposition (EVP)
Without a clear focus and value proposition, your email won’t hit your recipient’s “internal inbox.” People can manage only a limited number of regular email communications. Give them clear reasons to open your emails every time. Define your "EVP" much like you would a positioning statement and use it to drive your content, creative, frequency and segmentation strategies.

12. Segment Lists for Better Results
Use the information you collected at sign-up to divide your list into relevant segments and deliver targeted messages. Better yet segment based on email and Web behavior such as which links recipients clicked on or what actions they've taken on your Web site. That will boost your performance and make your communications more valuable to your recipients. Segmenting also helps you understand performance and trends based on demographics and segments.

13. Personalize for Greater Relevance
Personalization is the next step. It uses recipients’ own information to create highly relevant messages, which boosts your value. Top-quality email service providers allow you to personalize right to the recipient level, with email that recognizes each one by name, buying history, content, format, etc.

14. Use Good Design & Format
Weak designs and improper format frustrates users. They can’t navigate your email easily or find the information they want. So, they opt out. Or, they delete you every time. Or, they hit the “Report Spam” button and hope that makes you go away.  That’s why you test sample messages, to make sure they perform across many email programs and Web services.

15. Design Emails for the Inbox
Your email has to stand out in a crowded inbox. Put your company name in the “from” line for fast recognition. Add a “grabber” subject line. Design the top of your email to be preview pane and "disabled images" friendly. Use teaser text and HTML colors and layout rather than an image so readers can get an immediate "preview" of your email even if images are disabled. Finally, put the important content – the offer, the call to action, newsletter contents – up at the top for immediate viewing. You have just a couple of seconds to make your case, so don’t waste them.

16. Deliver Value Continuously
Recipients’ needs change over time. Your emails will compete with new and changing sources of content or offers that will affect your value proposition. Survey your recipients occasionally on their needs and interests. Make it easy for them to change their subscription preferences. Analyze each send for revealing statistics on factors such as results according to subject line, offer, links clicked, segmenting, etc.

17. Focus on List Quality Over List Size
Growing your mailing list is important, but don’t do it at the expense of quality. Analyze your house lists carefully. Clean them frequently, especially before a campaign or publication. Segment lists by customer value and activity level as well as the permission factors we discussed in earlier Imperatives.

18. Integrate With Other Marketing Channels
Email marketing can’t exist in a silo. You’ll get a higher ROI when you integrate it with other marketing channels and touch points, such as direct mail, telemarketing and trade shows. Design search-engine landing pages to make it easier to begin a relationship. Promote newsletter content through multiple channels, and reprint email information on your Web site.

19. Focus on Goals, Not Process Metrics
You can’t measure an email campaign’s success just by counting the average open and click-through rates. Instead, measure performance against your end goals. Number of transactions, demos sold, white papers downloaded, etc. will tell you if your email program is actually achieving your desired goals.

20. Use Advanced Automation
The simple “load and send” strategy doesn’t work anymore. You need to deploy a whole range of advanced technologies – behavioral segmentation, detailed reporting, API database integration, dynamic content, triggers and more – to drive improved results and ROI. For example, you can use triggers to send specific emails to recipients based on their email actions. This automates a manual process and delivers dramatic results.

21. Allocate Necessary Resources
Many companies got into email marketing because it was cheaper than traditional direct mail, but that’s all different now. The landscape – from ISP relations to technological innovation and government regulations – is more complex now. So, your organizations must allocate adequate budgets, resources and know-how to do the job right and achieve your ROI goals.  Your email service provider should be able to help you out, but you must also educate your team and key influencers in your company.

22. Know the Laws Affecting Email Marketing, and Comply
In the United States, you must follow email and privacy statutes in 36 states as well as CAN-SPAM, the federal email law. In addition, the European Economic Union, Asia and Australia have their own anti-spam laws, as do most countries with an email presence. Have an attorney with appropriate expertise review your email and privacy policies. Audit your practices across all departments, not just marketing, that manage email, and train everyone in correct procedures.

As you browse the list below please keep these helpful tips in mind:

• Consider All Touch Points: Use every point of contact with customers and prospects.
• Obtain Permission:Always obtain permission with the confirmed (double) opt-in method for online contacts. For offline contacts, update your database with when, where and how the contact was initiated. Confirm their permission in the first email.
• Required Information: Obtain email address, name, format preference and logical interests/preferences.
• Focus Equal Attention on Existing Lists: Implement strategies and incentives to transform inactive subscribers into active ones.
• Provide Valuable Benefits: Convince potential subscribers of the valuable benefits they’ll receive.
• Convey Trust: Clearly state your privacy/email policies.

Feature a Sign-Up Form on Each Page of Your Site – Be sure to remember this basic concept. Sign-up opportunities should be ubiquitous throughout your site.

Promote Benefits on the Sign-Up Page – Enhance subscription value with sample emails, testimonials and strong call to action copy.

Offer Opt-In Incentives – Incentives like white papers, discounts and special reports significantly increase conversion rates.

Optimize Your Site for Search Engine Placement – Optimize current and archived newsletters for search engines to increase traffic and subscriptions

Pay for Search Engine Services and Promote Your Email on the Landing Page – If you pay for search services like Google AdWords be sure to include email subscription information on the landing page.

Add Opt-in Check Boxes on Demo Requests, White Papers and Registration Forms – Well-executed forms and pages may improve conversion rates by 50 percent or more.

Include “Send to a Friend” Options – Generate new subscribers with minimal effort if bundled with promotional campaigns.

Use Direct Mail and Catalogs – Encourage email subscriptions on all print ads.
Direct Employees to Include Messages and Links in Email Signature Lines – Add “Subscribe to the Company X Email Newsletter” to employee email signatures.

Direct Call Center and Sales Employees to Obtain Permission and Capture Email Addresses

Over the Phone– Instruct call center and sales staff to ask customers and prospects if they’d like to receive newsletters or promotional email

Send Post Cards to Customers Encouraging Them to Subscribe to Email– If you have postal contact information for customers but not email addresses, send a post card with opt-in sign-up offer and URL.

Hand Out Sign-Up Forms at Public Speaking Engagements and Seminars – Promote your newsletter in presentations and handouts.

Implement Rented List Campaigns and Subscriptions – Promote your company in email campaigns and landing pages when you rent email lists.

Promote Sign-Ups in Confirmation/Transaction Emails – Add messages and links to opt-in pages of all confirmation and transaction emails.

Include Opt-in Line on Credit Card Receipts – Not an obvious method, but may be quite effective.

Add Opt-in Message to Warranty and Product Registration Cards.

Add Sign-Up Message to Invoices.

Display Opt-in Forms at the Cash Register – An approach used by restaurants and retailers to advertise weekday discounts, catering services etc.

Promote Your Email/Newsletter in Articles and Article Attribution – Include a reference and link to your newsletter after the byline on articles in trade and consumer publications.

Include Opt-in Message and Check Boxes on Shopping Cart Pages – Remember to ask for email format and product/information preferences.

Promote Your Email/Newsletter in Other Company Publications – Promote online newsletters in print newsletters, magazines and brochures. Add “Sign up for our monthly newsletter at www.companyX.com/subscribe.html” after “Visit www.companyX.com for more information.”

Include Newsletter Subscriptions in Trade Show Lead Generation Forms – Obtain permission to send your monthly newsletter to booth visitors.

Promote Your Newsletter/Promotional Emails in Industry Directories and Sites.

Distribute Press Releases Based on Newsletter Articles– Newsletters with topical articles may warrant a press release. Make sure the press release includes links and information on how to subscribe. i

Include Information and a Link to Your Newsletter in Press Releases – A good option for smaller companies. Include your company newsletter and other resources in press release copy.

Include Opt-in Information on Customer Satisfaction Surveys – Ask permission to communicate valuable information via email newsletters and promotions.

Include Opt-in Forms in Product Shipping Boxes – Advertise email promotions on packing slips and direct mail cards with links to your site. Many retailers and catalogers also include promotional offers from non-competing companies.

Employ a Reputable Email List Service– List services obtain email addresses and permission to email existing customers. Be sure you obtain permission before – or as part of – the first email you send.