Email Still Driving Shopping over Social

July 22, 2010

Most consumers prefer communications by email

Several retailers can attest to the sometimes overwhelming power of promotional messages on social channels. But despite the hype of viral coupons testing retailers’ agility, studies suggest email is still the more effective promotional channel.

In a survey of shoppers in four states, nearly four in 10 told cross-channel commerce solutions provider CrossView they preferred to receive promotional messages from retailers by email. It was the most popular communications channel, with direct mail drawing about a quarter of respondents and text       messaging coming in third with 18%. Just 9% of shoppers were interested in promotional messages on social media.

Attract more customers with the right content.

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Fear Sells

by Matt Prohaska , Monday, July 19, 2010

Fear is one of our most powerful emotions. And it is often used to drive behavior, whether it’s a politician fear-mongering a constituency, a manager using that tactic with a subordinate, or a seller to a buyer.

A friend of mine from a major cable network recently told me, after his network completed its TV upfront selling for 2010/11, how amazed he was at how much selling could be done through fear and the perception of what defines premium inventory. We can visit the second part of that comment another time, but for now I’d like to focus on the first part, still common throughout TV ad sales: Fear sells.

This is true in most areas of the sales process. Not just what is being discussed here.

Check out this spot and guess what may be being sold (for good reason!!)

http://www.vistinemedia.com/c/image2000/email/index_image2000.html

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Transactional Emails 2.0: Think Beyond The Purchase

by Loren McDonald, Thursday, July 15, 2010

We marketers tend to think about the transactional email in its most literal sense, relating to a specific transaction as defined by the CAN-SPAM Act and by conventional wisdom.

But transactional emails can become a potent force in your email program when you broaden your vision and look for ways they can enrich your customer relationships, from pre- to post-transaction and beyond.

These triggered messages, based on abandonment, recent purchase and CRM data, enable additional touch points that provide further value to customers and additional revenue and customer data for your company.

Four Categories of Purchase-Related Email Message
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Paid Content?

by Daniel Ambrose , Thursday, July 15, 2010

“To charge for content or not to charge, that is NOT the question.”     

People is the world’s most profitable magazine.  But People achieves its profitability by giving away more content to more readers than any other magazine.  Yes, I mean People is giving away print readership. How can they make money when they give away so much free?  What can we learn from this about making money in online publishing?
Three million, four hundred and fifty thousand readers pay to read People magazine every week, and 40.08 million read it free every week.  I’m not writing about their Internet readership. Three and a half million People readers don’t want to miss an issue or an article.  In Internet parlance, they are “highly engaged.” They subscribe or buy People on the newsstand.  In the magazine business we call them primary readers.  There are another 40 million readers, about 10.8 readers per print copy as reported by MRI, who are somewhat less committed to People.  These secondary readers probably don’t read it cover to cover, and certainly not every issue.  If you measured the unduplicated number of people who read the four issues of People in a given month, it would be an even higher number.  These casual readers are a significant part of what makes the People franchise so valuable.  Advertisers want to reach them.
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Are Your Emails Anticipated & Appreciated?

by Ryan Deutsch, Thursday, July 8, 2010

As with many of you, I have been in the marketing technology space for a little while. During that time, I have heard (and certainly spoken) my share of buzzwords. In fact, I could probably throw together 500 words on email marketing buzzwords — stay tuned for that blog post in the coming weeks! Anyway, two words I do not hear often enough in relation to email are “anticipated” and “appreciated.” There are two interesting trends occurring in the email marketing space that make these particularly relevant: the flash sale and localized marketing.

Link to vMail / video email

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Four Ways to Increase Qualified Leads

by Chris Chariton , Thursday, July 1, 2010

Are there ever enough leads coming into your company? Probably not, since most companies have an insatiable appetite for revenue growth. Yet the most important aspect of lead generation is not the quantity of leads coming in, but the quality of those leads.

In the GlobalSpec 2010 Marketing Trends Survey of the industrial sector, marketers ranked the importance of factors when determining where to allocate their marketing dollars. Quality of leads was the most important factor, while quantity of leads came in sixth.

Increase your qualified leads by using vMail

(video eMail)

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What is your SEO Objective. . . 

The efficiency of SEO against various marketing objectives including increasing revenue, lead generation, brand or product awareness and more.

See how B2B and B2C organizations differently perceive the efficiency of these SEO objectives.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Coupons Benefit Retailers, Too

According to the latest Online Shopper Intelligence survey, one-third of online shoppers surveyed said they generally use coupon sites while shopping online.  35 million consumers visited coupon sites in April 2010, up 5% from the year prior. Besides the consumer benefit, says the report, coupons have a significant impact on retailers’ bottom lines.

More than half of the consumers who used a coupon code during their last online purchase said that if they had not received the discount, they would not have bought the item(s), suggesting that coupons can be a highly effective sales driver.

In response to the question “If you did not have a coupon, would you have made a purchase…” respondents answered:

• No… 57%
• Yes…43%
Source: Compete, June 2010
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Three Rules For Email List Growth

by Morgan Stewart, Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The first email program I worked on in 1999 attracted over 4 million subscribers in the first year. Getting people to sign up for email promotions and newsletters used to be easy. Start with a Web site, add some decent content, a “Sign up for our free newsletter” banner, and a form — and  voila! Subscribers!

Things have changed. It’s gotten more difficult. Still, many brands are driving considerable growth in the channel and consumers report using email more and more despite recurring speculation about email’s looming demise by misinformed pundits. It’s simply that the bar is always rising. Consumers understand how to play the email game. They know that brands can deliver really good content tailored to their personal interests, and they seek out those programs.
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Opportunities And Challenges In Online Video Delivery

by Gannon Hall , Wednesday, June 23, 2010

In the last decade online video has grown from an esoteric hobbyist activity into a multi-million dollar business built around a thriving ecosystem of content creators, publishing and monetization platforms, and various enabling technologies, services and devices. Like many industries born out of the mass consumer embrace of the Internet, online video continues to evolve rapidly. It was only five years ago that the first video was uploaded and shared on YouTube, yet a scan of industry news today reflects a growing conversation around the myriad devices and endpoints from which audiences consume video.

 Please, click on the Vistine Media Link (more…)