A rule of thumb in the age of the Internet is that if you blink, you probably missed 28 updates to the various sites you use on a regular basis. Sometimes the changes are minor, but even those minor changes can be game changers for marketers and advertisers. So, it’s always good to take a second to consider any kind of changes on the sites you frequent, put your business hat on, and think about how it might affect you or your client.
In the spirit of giving this season, we thought we’d share a few bonus How-To Holiday tips:
Last week, I got a great question from one of our savviest email marketing clients: “How are you advising your clients to prepare for the changes with Hotmail? Should we be versioning or quarantining our Hotmail lists and watching them more closely?”
Not that you’ve ever done this, but sometimes people type their email address wrong. When was the last time you checked out your own opt-in process? Do you know if your form will accept these common input mistakes as valid entries?
How do you measure the success of your email marketing campaigns? When our clients ask us our thoughts, we encourage them to measure email marketing like you do any other kind of marketing: by calculating your Return On Investment (ROI). Sure, we know that you know that email marketing still has the highest ROI of any marketing channel. But are you actually measuring your success?
At the emfluence User Conference last month, our CEO and Head Email Brainiac, Dave Cacioppo, gave a rockin’ keynote: “Email ROI: Let It Rock!” Our users voted it the best takeaway content of the day, so we thought we’d share the good info. So, Dave, how do you rock your email ROI?
Social Fresh’s fifth social media conference was hosted April 19th just across the state in St. Louis. We sent Jessica Best to soak up some knowledge about emerging media from some heavy hitters. Here’s what she gleaned:
We got the call last week from the Kansas City chapter of the Direct Marketing Association that three of our AMBITS submissions have won an award! We’re pleased as punch to be winning more AMBITS this year. We believe in judging our campaigns based not just on cool-factor and smooth style (which our clients can also boast), but on performance and return on investment. Kudos to the entire emfluence team and our winning clients on great work with great results!
No matter what media you’re using, the more eyeballs, the better. And in today’s highly targeted world, getting in front of more relevant eyeballs is key. So, it’s not surprising that we hear from our clients all the time, “Can you help us grow our email list?” There are lots of great ways to grow email marketing list size, from search engine marketing to online promotions to banner ad campaigns. But, inevitably, the most popular follow up question is “Can we buy an email list?”
So, how do you leverage relevant marketing lists outside of your own subscriber list?
The swirling world of social media produces new platforms every day. Even “old” standards – facebook, twitter – are getting facelifts and making changes in user experience that effect the way marketers use social media to connect with interested prospects. On one hand, that means no matter when you decide to take the plunge into social marketing, you’re not that far behind: it all changes so fast, we’re all running just to keep up.
On the other hand, it makes social media look like a marathon you’re not sure how to jump in on. How do you start in something you don’t even understand? We’ve all heard a friend or colleague say “I just don’t get the point of Twitter.”
When you’re not sure where to start in a new platform, lurk to learn…
Let’s take Twitter as an example.
Check out the emfluence Flickr account for pics from yesterday’s MK12 presentation on the work they did for the movie Stranger Than Fiction and for a commercial for Swiss International Airlines.
Ok, so after reviewing some basic AdWords reports, you’ve managed to identify some pain points, make some bid changes, maybe even add and remove some keywords. All these changes are made and should help you on the way to having an effective paid search campaign that will deliver the results you’re looking for.
What else can you do?
Google makes a lot of data available to you within the AdWords interface that can give you additional insight into the true performance of your campaign.
The Search Marketing Expo in New York City (SMX – East) has invited emfluence VP of Digital Strategy, Todd Sandoval, to speak on a panel about Mobile Search Advertising in October.
According to a 2008 ReturnPath study, more than 75% of marketers who use email marketing aren’t taking advantage of personalization at all. Surprising, given that there’s solid evidence that even limited personalization boosts email response rates. And, with technology provided by virtually every Email Service Provider, it’s very easy to implement.
So what’s preventing marketing experts from using personalization in their email marketing campaigns?
What else can be said but "80s Night at the K"? The emfluence team headed out to watch the Royals battle it out with the…
emfluence sponsored the Putting Contest at the Kansas City Direct Marketing Association’s 12th Annual Golf Tournament. The tournament is a fundraiser for KCDMA’s Educational Foundation and emfluence’s sponsorship was part of the contribution. The best part is, Dave not only got to give, he got to golf! Check out all the pics from the green, including the one qualifier for the big bucks, at our flickr account.
Imagine if your website had more than one doorway, i.e. the home page. What if you could roll out a welcome mat at each page of your site, making it possible for Joe Searcher to come in via the page that is most interesting to him?
Optimize your page well, friends, and it’s possible. So, how do you pick which keywords to target with Search Engine Optimization? How many terms can you optimize a single page or section for?
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So, you just finished up a rockstar online promotion and gathered thousands of potential prospects… but you didn’t ask them to opt-in to your emails (shame, shame). Or you have an existing transactional email relationship with a certain group of contacts, but they don’t receive your promo emails yet. What’s next?
emfluence and our client, Indigo Wild took home not one, but two AMBIT Awards this year and our Marketing Manager, Jessica Best, was named Kansas City’s Young Direct Marketer of the Year.
We’ve added some long overdue pictures to our Flickr account: Ones & Zeros (aka the biggest bash of 2008) through Marketing Sherpa’s Email Summit in Miami last month with a speckling of around-the-office fun.
emfluence enters the WordPress blogging world! Check back for posts to this new (and improved) blog later this week. In the meantime, you can always visit our website: dev.emfluence.com