November 19th 2008
Like a bunch of eager bunnies, Internet advertising has split, combined, and multiplied into a bewildering array of approaches to advertising on the Web. Using abbreviations such as CPM, CPC, CPA, CPT, and CPS make the novice Net advertiser’s eyes glaze over when he sees this alphabet soup of Net advertising jargon. If this is you, don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. Continue Reading »
November 19th 2008
The first step in designing your ad campaign is to define your customer. You need to be very specific about the age, gender, marital status, geographic location, religion, political affiliation, occupation, educational level, and so on so that you can buy the proper ad placement. Continue Reading »
November 19th 2008
The first advertising tool to consider in promoting your Web store is the banner ad. A banner ad is like a small billboard that resides on a Web page. The standard full-size banner ad is 250×80 pixels. But even though almost every ad-supported site sells the full-size banner ad, Continue Reading »
July 22nd 2008
So open up your heart and hear this.
The whole business world needs a good slap around the back of the head. Someone holding its head down shouting, ‘What is that? What do you think about that?’
There is no joy to be found in doing a half a job and there’s very little money either. You need to get into the mind of the real e-customer. And he’s legion, multiple, distinctive, and ever-changing. Continue Reading »
July 18th 2008
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Because past purchases are among the leading predictors of future interest, you should use the information contained in the customer’s purchase history to determine the timing, offer, targeting, and personalization of your promotional communication. If, for example, you bought book from BarnesandNoble, you’ve probably been identified as someone who’s interested in high-tech business books, which means there’s a good chance you’d be interested in Geoffrey Moore’s Inside the Tornado. Continue Reading »
July 6th 2008
Is email direct marketing an industry unto itself? Not at all. The principles of service-based marketing and communication are essential to the success of any online marketing initiative. And email is a mission-critical tool that plays an integral role in the e-marketing and communications mix for all online merchants. But as we’ve touched on earlier, email itself is just one of a large number of electronic communications channels that e-marketers will be using in the future. Furthermore, marketers ultimately won’t want to manage relationships with a large number of different service providers.
That may be why there have been so many industry consolidations. Netcentives acquired Post Communications in order to broaden its technology infrastructure and provide a wide range of relationship marketing services, from customer acquisition programs and customized email relationship marketing programs to loyalty programs and promotions. Continue Reading »
July 5th 2008
A number of different providers can help you solve your email customer communications and marketing needs.
Over the past few years a new breed of company has grown up to meet the demand for complete solutions to companies‘ email marketing needs. Providers offer a wide variety of marketing services, technical capabilities, and focus. The services these companies (the three leading players are Post Communications, Message Media, and Digital Impact) provide range from customized email marketing programs and high-volume email delivery to one-off direct email campaign execution. Naturally, prices vary considerably. Most still charge based on the old direct marketing model of cost per email sent, while others have introduced new pricing models that are based on managing the customer database and optimizing the value of the client’s customer relationships. What they have in common is that they allow you to out- source all—or at least a large part—of your email marketing solution. Continue Reading »
July 5th 2008
Yet today most companies organize their inbound and outbound functions separately. To avoid this, the engaged organization must organize all its marketing, customer service, and support functions into one department. This way, customers visiting the company’s website or receiving email see a single company and a single brand.
There are two primary reasons why it makes sense to combine customer service support and marketing into one department. First, organizing different functions under the same department lets you align their goals and measures of success. When the goal is to build and nurture lasting relationships by engaging customers in an ongoing dialogue, it makes intuitive sense that the inbound and outbound parts of that dialogue come from the same place. Continue Reading »
July 5th 2008
Forget thinking about your role as a marketer as a day job. When your website is up, or you send out an email, customers expect you to be open for business. They expect to be able to tell you what they want and get a response right away. The engaged organization actively communicates with and responds to customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And real time is the only time. As the marketing function moves away from the onetime campaign focus of the past to the continuous communications focus of the Internet, the new marketer has to be able to demand real-time access to data, information, and results. To be successful, online companies are trying to support the new demands of 24-7 marketing—and the effects are rippling across entire organizations. Here’s what customers expect and the impact of these expectations on your engaged organization. Continue Reading »
June 22nd 2008
As I write this at the beginning of the year, there are ten taxicabs in San Francisco that are painted bright purple and yellow and sport a big Yahoo! logo. Each has a computer onboard that offers customers wireless Internet access. For no extra charge you can browse the Web, check your email, trade stocks, order your groceries, look up directions to a restaurant or bar you’ll be patronizing that evening, and so on. Within a couple of years, every cab in San Francisco will have Internet access.
Otis Elevators recently announced that it would begin equipping elevators with Internet access. As passengers ride up and down to their offices, hotel rooms, or meetings, they will be able to read the latest news, check the stock market, or take a quick look at the web- site of the company they’re about to visit. Continue Reading »
