Moving Forward With Email Marketing

February 24, 2010

As reliable and useful a marketing tool as email's proven to be in the past, it'll be better than ever in the future, according to one expert. The Director of eMarketing Education at ExactTarget explained during a session at OMS how things are changing and how marketers can continue to use email to their advantage.

(Coverage of the Online Marketing Summit 2010 continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)

Joel Book stated that 40 percent of the cell phones in use will be smart phones by 2014. All marketers need to test their emails for compatibility with mobile formats, then, and retail marketers should think about issuing mobile coupons.

Next, he discussed the concept of creating and cultivating brand advocates using email. Brand awareness is vital, after all, and Book indicated that 50 percent of all shared content is shared via email. This means that the social sharing can be a great way of attracting new subscribers.

Indeed, Book said email has far surpassed direct mail as the highest-producing tactic for reaching customers and converting buyers. And here's an interesting tidbit: sending emails from a person, as opposed to generic email address, can increase open rates by as much as 18 percent.

Finally, marketers must look at meshing email with other tactics. Use email and CRM for lead nurturing, reseller education, trade show follow-ups, and sales support for dealers, for example. Email and analytics can be used to make personalized recommendations and live offers. Email and SMS, meanwhile, can help with mobile immediacy, lead generation, and subscriber acquisition.

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How Press Releases Can Be Great For Search

December 30, 2009

Press releases are not only great ways to spread the word about any announcements your business might have. They can also drive traffic, particularly from search engines. This is not news, but it's a commonly overlooked fact.

Have press releases brought you significant search traffic? Discuss here.

"Search engine rankings are arguably the most important small business marketing tool available today because it drives Web traffic -- and potential prospects -- to a small business' Web site," a PRWeb spokesperson once told WebProNews. "However, because improving search rankings is desirable, achieving results can be both challenging and highly competitive."

Back in the summer, PRWeb shared a case study with us, involving a firm that typically sees a boost in search engine rankings and a 50% spike in web traffic after they issue a release. In fact, for one release in particular, the firm saw a spike of 400% on two different Web sites, and the firm doesn't believe they were from the same users. They also incorporate social media tools like Twitter to extend the "shelf life" of press releases, and say that drives additional traffic.

"When we included a link to our press releases on Twitter and other social media networks, we saw these both expanded the scope of distribution and the extended the longevity of the announcement," the CEO of the company behind the case study had said. "With other news releases we saw an initial spike in Web site traffic on the first two days and then it dropped off. With these features we've seen increases in traffic up to five days after the news release was issued."

In a study from Arketi Group, also back in the summer, journalists were found to use the web in the following ways:

- 95% search
- 92% reading news
- 92% emailing
- 89% finding story ideas
- 87% finding news sources
- 75% reading blogs
- 64% watching webinars
- 61% watching YouTube
- 59% social networks

You've got to wonder if that social networks number has gone up by now. My guess is that it has, and social media has since become all the more important to search, particularly with the inclusion of real-time search results in Google and Google's social search experiment (which may eventually move beyond experiment status).

Marty Weintraub, the President of aimClear shared some great tips and insight into the use of press releases for search in a recent interview with WebProNews. Among other things, he noted that when you do a press release, you're "hitching a ride" in the search engine results and news results. You can use outbound links in press releases, and perhaps more importantly, you're out there where the journalists are looking.

Business Wire
- PR Newswire
- PRWeb
- 24-7 Press Release
- PR Zoom
- PR Leap
- I-Newswire
- Webwire
- ClickPress
- PR.com
- PR Log
- eReleases
- MarketWire

Beyond the distribution sites, don't forget to include your releases on your own site. Journalists like being able to find the most up to date information from the source itself. Earlier this year I discussed how some companies' own press centers are holding back some marketing opportunities for them. Your site should have a section for press releases, and that should be up to date with the latest release when it goes out. You'd be surprised at how often these go without being updated even when a press release has been spotted elsewhere. It is also a good idea to link to any company blogs, Twitter accounts, or any other place where company announcements are made.

Do you use press releases for marketing? Do they work? Comment here.

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Filed Under Review and Story, SEO · 1 Comment

Americans’ Social Media Habits Highlight Business Potential

November 21, 2009

Euro RSCG released some interesting findings from a study exploring the different ways Americans are using social media to "redefine their lives." The study looked at 1,228 social media users in the United States.

"Word of mouth has always been the most powerful marketing tool; what social media has done is dramatically increase the scale, velocity and immediacy with which people can influence each other and create the biggest revolution to hit our industry since television," said David Jones, global CEO of Euro RSCG. "One of the interesting findings of the study is that it's the combination of online and offline experiences that creates the biggest impact."

Other findings include:

- Even though 53.5% of respondents have met new people through electronic media, face-to-face interaction is still the "gold standard"

- Consumers are engaging more in multi-way exchanges of ideas and opinions among consumers and brands

- Consumers are not only move involved with family and friends, but they have increased involvement in political and humanitarian issues.

- 40% agree that social groupings online can be truly social, while only 14% disagree. According to Euro RSCG, figures varied little across age, gender, ethnic, or income groups.

"Online social networking has become part of our culture so quickly, it's easy to forget just how new it is and how much it's a work in progress. People are still experimenting with the different options and finding ways to make it part of their life," said Marian Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, North America. "Forget the images of sad antisocial types. Smart consumers are mixing and matching the tools that come available to meet their social needs. Electronic tools are making them even more socially active, just as the telephone did back in the day."

Perhaps more interesting than the statistics provided by the firm, are the key takeaways it cites. This includes things like the fact that social media is an important consideration for any communications strategy, and the fact that it's impossible to predict how bits of communication will spread across social media.

The firm also says that even though the web is world-wide, its emerging power is hyperlocal. This is because this is the space where online and offline most often meet. That is a key reason why businesses, particularly local businesses should not ignore social media.

Have You Read This?

> If You Care About Search, You Must Care About Social Media

> A Few Guidelines for Drafting Social Media Guidelines

> Businesses Benefit From Reviews On Their Website

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Airlines Using Social Media To Relay Location In The Sky

October 14, 2009

No, this is not about God using Twitter so if you have any issues around that please put them aside now. This is actually about a service that some airlines are putting in place that utilizes Twitter and Facebook to update those who care where you actually are while flying from point A to point B. Just another update on every minute of everyone’s life brought to you by social media. aris yulianta, make money online

Mashable reports:

We’ve seen Tweets posted by plants, a space shuttle and even a house, so we shouldn’t be particularly surprised to hear that commercial jets are now Tweeting and posting Facebook messages (sorta). In fact, we think the idea is ingenious.

Admittedly, it’s not the plane itself doing the Tweeting: it’s the airline. Lufthansa has set up a new service named MySkyStatus that automatically posts the current position of your flight to Twitter or Facebook so your friends can follow your travels (and your friends living in those cities can look up!).

Here’s a look at the information that ‘you’ are giving your friends etc.

Tweets from planes JPEG

As a father I think this is pretty cool because the kids can play along while Dad travels. Heck, they might even learn something about geography (Twitter as geography teacher, will that be a source of revenue for Biz and boys?). As it relates to loved ones this is pretty neat because it is another touch point in a personal relationship. So for just telling the world where you are, it seems to me to be more unnecessary noise in an already noisy world. There’s self promotion and then there is self indulgence. I honestly only care that you landed safely not that you are still hanging in the air at 30,000 plus feet above the Azores with nothing keeping you safe but mysterious forces that don’t tweet. Of course, this is simply my opinion and if you think differently then that’s cool too.

Now, to the point of this being a marketing tool, this quote from Pete Cashmore makes sense and I certainly can see this value from a marketing standpoint.

I stumbled on the service because one of my Facebook friends was on a United Airlines flight today. Clicking the link in the update, of course, directs you to the Lufthansa MySkyStatus page with a Google Map of the flight’s position, meaning that Lufthansa is getting free social media promotion from people traveling on all airlines. Pretty smart.

So as with all things there are pluses and minuses. I suspect that the minuses for this one don’t come close to outweighing the plus side for airlines so expect more tweets from the sky soon.

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