Email marketing is a more than just sending out mass emails on a weekly or monthly basis. Email marketing is effective, because internet business owners are able to market directly to their customers as well as make a relationship with them.
You can use email marketing for many different reasons. For example, you can email a newsletter on a monthly basis. You can email money saving coupons and offers to original or past customers and even to those who have only visited your website. Surveys through email are benefit you understand your customer better. You can generate some extra revenue through the use of email ads. On the other hand, you can purchase ad space from other companies’ email newsletters to improve your branding and marketing.
These days spam laws have set a damper on email marketing. These laws specifically indicate how an email list can be built. Also, they mandate that email list subscribers must be able to unsubscribe from any future mailings through the use of unsubscribe links. In order to discontinue in compliance with these spam laws and still be effective with your email campaigns, follow these tips:
* Make your email list “double opt-in.” A customer must have at least two chances to confirm before they’re officially on your list. Normally, a double opt-in looks like this. A customer gives their email address at a website. Before they join the list, they have to click on a confirmation link on the first email sent by the company.
* Add a link to unsubscribe from your email list at the bottom of every email.
* Net email addresses on a high traffic webpage on your website. Add a subscription form or even give the customer an option to subscribe when they region an order.
region If you’re thinking of purchasing an email list, consider these two things. First, only purchase from distributors with very good reputations. Second, buy a list that contains customers in your target market.
* If you’re struggling to build your list, offer your visitors a free incentive to entice them to join. Create an e-book, software, or something similar to give to your subscribers as soon as they join your list.
* Offer two types of formats for your emails: an HTML and plain text format. This allows more users to view your emails.
* Send email newsletters on a regular basis. Once a month on the same date, or once every two weeks is good practice. Don’t send them too often as many subscribers may unsubscribe, regarding your email newsletters as an annoyance.
Filed under Automated Email Marketing by on Aug 1st, 2010. Comment.
Tools Of the Trade
By Richard Beattie
At Envoy Town we tend to step away from the office and the studio, but we take the tools of our trade with us. As a media writer, producer, educator, and author of media-arts from a Biblical mindset, I need reliable tools of the trade and as I use them I like to tell other Envoys about the good, the bad, and the distorted. As co-host of Radio Envoy an internationally syndicated radio program, and a syndicated columnist with Envoy Town Hall, and a producer of commercials and PSA’s it is important to take the technology of Envoy Town and to cover the world. No matter where you are you can visit us at the new media hub site: http://www.envoytown.com.
Start with the Basics
Gateway M-6827 PC Notebook
Although there are many raves about Gateway products in general, there are a few caveats on the M-6827 PC Network. I was hoping that customer service wasn’t one of the caveats, but it was and is. When Gateway escaped its own retail outlets it left behind some things besides the cow icon and branding.
Eat More Beef:
I myself am a customer service snob so shortly after my purchase I called Gateway, I e-mailed Gateway, and I went to the store that I purchased my computer at and the dang thing still does not give milk! Actually I’m joking about the cow analogy- I just have not let it go. The real problem had nothing to do with dairy, but a sticky situation instead.
A Sticky Situation (we have here)
Only days after I loaded the software, and started to utilize this laptop a funny thing happened. I would key a line, and then find myself a paragraph behind again, like a reverse tab in mid-sentence! Then sometimes the M-6827 sends e-mails prematurely. I conception it was just mine but since I have found out from friends, relatives, and other Gateway owners that they have encountered similar problems.
Fire the Fire Dog if you have to:
My friendly local shop where I purchased the machine and the extra service was my first place to solve the dilemma. They looked at it, and had it a day, without a loner and then told me “to air-clean the keys and the touch-pad.” Hmmm… I got it home to find “I’d been dogged!” Then I began contacting Gateway direct. They kind of dodged me with some nifty e-mails about the technical advances they are making in marketing. I called, I hounded, I got busy, and dropped the whole issue.
Numb to it all:
I use Gateway products a lot and I recommend them to writers I work with, and other business folks that travel and write. In the studio I can use it as a script monitor, in the cafe I write and send with it all the time. Lately though, I have started to use my Asus eee, mini-laptop for e-mail and for live broadcasts and presentations. My brother recently e-mailed me and I started to reply. When the touch pad sent the e-mail in mid sentence I rapidly shot another one explaining the problem about the touch pad. He wrote back saying, “I have the same problem with my Gateway too.”
Okay little people- “Let’s Get Small”
ASUS Eee PC 4G (EEEPCBLACK) PC Notebook
In a big world we seem to like small and compact. The Mini-Cooper, the bite size treat snack cakes, and the portable digital recorders that my team uses to record our weekly radio show catches the super-sized, SUV crowd in a place where they can not hide! What surprises me is how many people ask me about my accepted portable work-toy the Asus Eee PC.
Bigger than a Cell Phone, Smaller than a Notebook
Every time I am at an airport, a coffee house, or bookstore I am amazed at how many people will ask me: “What is that and where do I find one? ” A seven-inch screen, a decent sized keyboard and enough power, memory, for me to write an e-book, use as a monitor for my weekly radio program Radio Envoy, it has everything my Gateway with a few little extras.
Work in the key of Sincere Life
My quest was to find something portable that wasn’t as tiny as my Blackberry Keyboard. I was searching for a cell phone with e-mail capability and while on Amazon found the mini-laptop Asus at a price I could afford. Yes I mild bought the Blackberry and with the Blackberry, my Asus, my Hitachi Digital mini-disc video camera, the Fostez MR-8 multitracker and the digital Marantz PMD-660, I can fit my explain into a small day packer.
What a Difference 40 Years Makes
My grandfather use to listen to the Met game on a Sony transistor radio in the late 60′s, and I marveled at the portability of that little red radio. Even more astounding is how we can actually record and pod-cast instantly in media, and send it back with some quality! I am reminded when I was in Dallas at The Book Depository where JFK met assassin’s bullets. I was there a few years ago, not to talk to the conspiracy wackos on the grassy knoll, but to take in the journalism museum.
Portable media in 1963
Late glass, were the large cameras, reel-to-reel recorders, and the portable Underwood many journalists carried around with them. No fax, no computer, you filled your jacket pocket with coins to “call in the memoir.” When the shots rang out many journalists and media were scurrying to find interviews and set up for “instant eyewitness updates.” I just gazed at the display with my cell phone in my holster, my laptop in my backpack, alongside my video camera and in my pocket the little digital recorder. I wondered how much was lost in documenting one of the darkest days in US history.
Great Expectations
I do not have great expectations of all the Asus Eee PC can do. I just wanted to have something super portable and easy to use, yet the little thing never ceases to surprise me. A high-resolution camera caught me off guard and on camera one day so I thought I should actually use it to shoot some commentary! The presentation software is adequate and from power points to short business plans, media strategies, and for work and play, my low expectations have been elevated beyond anything I could get for this sized computer.
“It’s so Cute!”
That’s what people say when they see it and so I promptly looked for an affiliate agreement to carry the Asus Eee PC on my website at http://www.Envoytown.com. Though that is not a direct hit, I would recommend that you visit is, go to the Amazon banner and procure a great deal before people get so enamored with it (between $300-$500 depending on extras) the price could go up soon. And if you happen to net our show, we are totally portable and are willing and able to hide anything with little or no set up time!
Lucero Lct250ce Thinline Cutaway Acoustic Electric…
I would not have believed it for a second. I just finished an instrumental recording with a vintage Martin 1952 classical guitar that I had borrowed from my closest friend in the world. For 35 years I was a dreadnought man with a crisp finger styling and addicted to the sound. Now I was influenced more by Latin jazz, and suddenly on a cold winter’s day I attach down new compositions on the classical while being snowed in at the studio.
After the Blizzard
In a few weeks after returning the Martin I was intrigued by the new sound. I went to a nearby Guitar Center and searched for my have first classical guitar. I played whatever they had on the walls, I was determined not to spend over $500, after all this was experimental for me. Then simplicity and develop caught my perceive and I saw her: Lucero, a cut-away at $200! I treated her like the Martin and when I began to play, my heart started beating faster. The action, the sound wasn’t a beginner model. I alarm someone made a mistake and so I went to the counter, bought a case, paid my money and got out of there before they could notice their error! Muy Bien!
That was a little more than a year ago and from what I found out no one else knows that Lucero has made a grave error. I have tried to support it quiet but it isn’t fair to professionals, students, or teachers. Sure they produce it in Indonesia, but some one is caring, and knows a bit about mass Luthier making at the factory. What’s more the thin line pickup is worthy of most of the $200 price tag.
If you don’t believe this- I didn’t! Purchase a listen to my guitar pieces. You can hear them on Jack Hannah’s Animal Adventures, PBS, and many TV and radio spots or visit us at http://www.envoytown.com.
For the technical
Body Style: Thinline Cutaway ClassicalTop: Laminated SpruceBack: Laminated RosewoodSides: Laminated RosewoodNeck: MahoganyFingerboard: RosewoodBridge: RosewoodNo. of frets: 18Scale length: 25 1/2″Nut Width: 1-15/16″Neck width at body: 2-5/16″String spacing at saddle E-E: 2-5/16″Inlay pattern: noneRosette: ClassicBinding: Black with white purfling. White neck binding and heelcapWidth at Upper Bout: 11-3/8″Width at Lower Bout: 14 3/4″Maximum Depth: 3 5/16″Finish: GlossTuners: Gold Slotted open gear classicalElectronics: Under the Saddle Piezo Pickup. AT 3000 Active Preamp with 2-band ± 12dB EQ and Volume Sliders, and a low battery LED indicator.
With that said and quoted from Lucero specs I will tell you that the playability of this guitar at the price is what is so extraordinary! The intonation is well above average and the guitar seems to stop in tune throughout a session or prove.
Phone it in: Motorola Q9h Smartphone
I am on the run in my main job as father and mentor to my four kids as well as my second job as media producer for a broad ministry. I also work with writers and producers on portability, message, and technical tools that gain us in places where we can cover a story, write it record it and send it instantly.
Full Coverage- and Portable
The Blackberry curve I purchased for my Envoy Media Team was one of the tools that helped accomplish that. With my mini laptop, a hybrid digital camera, and a media hub like http://www.envoytown.com, and my digital recorder for interviews, instant press releases, conferences, stories, and interviews can be written, produced, and sent anytime and from any place.
Drowned Sound
So it was with great distress when picking my daughter up from Volleyball, I placed my Blackberry in a drink holder and heard “SPLASH!” I tried mouth to mouth, and many people gave advice as what to do. There was something about microwaves, a technician told me to blow dry it, and my favorite was my Pastor’s advice: “Save it in a drawer for three days and it may work again,” if I only had enough faith, The other thing that was a problem- no warranty on drowning your phone.
Meet Mr. Q
So I accelerate into the store where I bought it and was ushered into a room where the Q was sitting. I was drawn to the Motorolla Q 9′s keyboard and the fact that it is loud. It rings loud, it plays loud, and the screen is sizable too. We had a exiguous funeral for the Blackberry and I signed up for two years on “Quasi Moto Q9.”
What I like
It is fairly easy to set up with the more manly sized keyboard. On the face are easy to read and see icons, and it seems to absorb remote battery power longer. The extras are nice too, including a second battery, and a nice belt case.
Sound
The blackberry seemed crisper in sound, and the loudness is often to the point of distortion compared with the Blackberry. All in all it’s a good tool for calling in radio space buys, directing talent, and brainstorming ideas with my team.
Conclusion
While I get a rebate on the purchase at AT and T I had to choose an extended warranty, which given my watered down record, I believe that flood pain IS covered. Bottom line is that like all electronics the Q has features that the Curve did not and I miss some of the features that the curve had.
Filed under Marketing Tools Suite by on Aug 5th, 2010. Comment.
Several decades ago, marketing was often conception of as the promotion of a business. Today, marketing seems to have its hand in every conceivable aspect of running a business.
This growth, however, has not overshadowed the importance of good promotion. This should be obvious to anyone who watches the Superbowl, and knows how much companies pay for those commercials. (I assume the hype of it is actually the success of the TV stations’ marketing.) With that in mind, think for a moment of how to get your business noticed, and remember, entrepreneurs aren’t shy.
Promotion is comprised of all the tools available to the marketer for marketing communication, a process that is made up of several different elements including sales, public relation, direct sales, sponsorship, and of course, advertising.
Promotion of your company can entail subtle activities such as procedures and policies designed to give your company ogle. These could include something as simple as making “every third time you have contact with a client, whether by phone or mail, have nothing to do with your services-such as telling them about an article or gathering” (Davidson in Roha, 1999). Would this constitute promotion of your business? Does this promote a customer service atmosphere? Would your customer talk about it, or you, for telling about it? If yes to any one of these, it is promotion.
The main focus of promotion has always been advertising, and while there are certain industries and styles of business that rely more heavily on other avenues to promote their business, advertising remains a major force and tool in promotion. Again, we have only to look at the sums paid to run ads during the Superbowl.
Anderson & Vincze (2000), break down the determination of whether or not to use a heavy advertising campaign into five key conditions.
·Favorable trend in demand.
·Strong product differentiation.
·Hidden attributes.
·Emotional buying motives.
·Adequate funds.
Does a market demand your product or service? Is your product different? Are there attributes to your product or service that customers would have to rely on you for knowledge about? Can your product or service really procure people emotional? And of course, do you have enough money for a successful advertising campaign? All these are qualities that can be exploited while using advertising to promote your business.
Selecting a message to communicate and determining the media to use in communicating it, are also predominant factors in managing an advertising program. According to Anderson & Vincze (2000), “a media plan should be based on an understanding of the objectives for IMC [Integrated Marketing Communication] and how consumers, users, and purchase influencers receive information.”
A plan targeting magazines, for instance, can use the high specialization of some magazines to increase their advertising power. But who are the market you’re looking for? Without adequate research into consumer markets, how will you understand and manage promotional objectives?
Many companies today have chosen to rely heavily on research and data, some you might not have thought of. Many supermarkets, for example, live by discount programs that allow your every shopping detail, from times you shop and products you buy, to what you pay with, to be monitored and tabulated for later use. Do you think MasterCard would like to know this information? How about the actual supermarket product manufacturer? Do you think it would help them construct commercials highly targeted to their prime customers? A goldmine!
Not all consumers are happy with such tactics. When one man’s local market began using a bar-code scanner card to give discounts, he said “…their cashiers are in my face every time I shop, warning me that all sale prices henceforth will be tied to the card, and I better glean with it” (Sullivan, 2000).
This sort of strong-handed practice is not recommended by the author, and research by any company should never subvert the underlying goals of the company, which, according to Theodore Levitt in his 1975 article on Marketing Myopia, should rest in the ultimate consumer.
Branding is another advertising strategy that requires some management. “When it comes to brands, familiarity breeds loyalty, not contempt, as consumers come to trust a recognized message or logo, whether it be the tag on Cannon towels or Pepsi’s ‘Joy of Cola’ jingle” (Howell, 2000).
Many of the same things that choose a good advertising campaign come into play, such as differences, and the fair message for your target market. . When these aspects are outstanding, branding happens.
What if people knew your company so well, they thought you were best at things you didn’t even do? “Debbie Lee Yohn, Sony’s director of corporation branding and consumer branding, said she wasn’t surprised [a] watch showed Sony’s brand power transcended its product offerings,” when a Consumer Electronics poll was shown to her (Howell, 2000).
Direct selling, is another beget of promotion. It can happen before, or even during the sale, as a salesperson pitches the features and benefits of his company and product/service. “Catalogs and telephone marketing were the two primary means of direct marketing until 1994, when marketing via the World Wide Web began” (Anderson & Vincze, 2000).
Now, of course, millions of people are pitched everyday in countless ways. When you log on to America Online’s internet service, you are immediately presented with a pop up ad. Some may not consider this a prime example of direct selling, but let’s not put blinders on an idea that has made its own share of millionaires and successful businessmen. I do consider it direct since you have to physically click on the ad to get it to go away and continue to do what you want. If you click in the ad, you’ve said yes, but if you stop it, you’ve said no.
Not long ago, I was woken in the middle of the night to the sound of my cell phone. It was a simple little text message ad. I was horrified, but later informed that companies had objective won the right in court to spam you on your cell phone. I immediately turned off the text-based messaging function.
Mumble marketing can have a tendency to be too invasive for many consumers. It’s simply done so powerful, that consumers have gotten tired of it and consider it to be rude. This doesn’t stop the use of such tactics, however, and it can be highly successful. Such a program should either be solicited, or done on such a large, inexpensive scale the few sales will make up for the thousands of “hang-ups”.
Seminars and trade shows are another great way of promoting your business. The simple act of getting your name out to prospective clients and suppliers is one type of promotion you’ll suffer without. My company regularly attends trade shows and conferences as well as touring manufacturing facilities. This is where we network with mill representatives, find installers, and even gather up some tall prospects. Don’t be afraid to hold your contain seminars and free clinics as well. It’s a big way to sell the services of your company and educate potential clients and associates.
Probably one of the biggest decisions a company will face today is whether or not to promote their business on the World Wide Web. Few businesses can compete today without some semblance of a web page, even if simply a static page with other contact info.
Companies must resolve on how great and what type of promotion to do on the Internet. Will you have a full-fledged storefront, able to process complete orders and handle customer service issues, etc., or a mere graphic “mini-movie” for customers to survey and remember you by? Think of all the marketing data you could gather with every “hit”.
A expansive source of further promotion on the web are links. Links are basically ads on other businesses web sites, but these ads do something special; they take customers with the click of a button to your web site. Links can multiply your number of site hits exponentially.
Promotion on the web has taken on some unique and new twists. Adult sites consistently push the envelope with various pop up ads and un-closeable windows; all sorts of tricky new gimmicks to lure in meal tickets. While these annoying tactics may be too powerful for mainstream business, many of the techniques developed can be used in innovative ways that will capture the market you’re aiming for.
Simple things such as contests, coupons, and samples are all devices to promote your business.
Sponsorship is another type of promotion where an organization pays to be associated with a particular event, cause or image. Companies will sponsor sporting events such as the Olympics or the NBA. The qualities of the event are then associated with the sponsor.
This “win-win” region has been promoting businesses on small town Puny League fences for many, many years. It has also championed goods like soda, and maybe much more strangely, life insurance.
Public Relations is usually something that isn’t idea of until you’ve had quite a successful campaign, or just invented the Cabbage Patch Kids. It can be a surprise to some, but should be a planned and sustained effort to create understanding between an organization and society in general.
The costs of public relations can vary substantially. Successful strategies tend to be long-term and encompass future possibilities. These should readily include disasters…like lawsuits. The pre-planned public relations team can then gear up very hasty with an effective idea.
As you can see there are many possible ways to promote your business. All require different levels of effort and are certainly varied in costs. Using as many of these tools as possible can increase the exposure of your business many times over. Without some, your business can flounder and die.
The level of commitment you will need is complex and based on factors such as the current popularity of your product or service, the level of promotional marketing your competitors use, and the capital you have at hand, among other things.
Remember, promotion is one of the 4 P’s, so the marketing of your business will depend on it. It’s simply a matter of whether you want to be or not to be noticed.
References
Anderson, C. H., & Vincze, J. W. (2000). Strategic Marketing Management. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Gurley, J.W. (1997). Marketing myopia: Is a software company a software company? Retrieved on September 13, 2002 from http://news.com.com/2010-1072-281042.html
Howell, D. (2000). The Hallmarks of Familiarity. Retrieved on September 03, 2002 from http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0FNP/20_39/68706284/p1/article.jhtml? term=marketing
Landry, M. (2000). Beyond Marketing Myopia: The Service of Small Railroads. Retrieved on September 14, 2002 from http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1038/6_43/67879636/p1/article.jhtml? term=marketing+myopia
Rhoda, R.R. (1999). How to Raise Your Profile. Retrieved on September 15, 2002 from http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1318/5_53/54432797/p1/article.jhtml? term=marketing
Sullivan, J. (2000). Forget the Product! All That Matters Is That You Know They Want It. Retrieved on September 10, 2002 from http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0BUK/38_18/65482594/p1/article.jhtml? term=marketing
Filed under Marketing Tools Suite by on Aug 7th, 2010. Comment.