There are numerous reasons why it is effective to use e-marketing strategies through e-mail. First of all, not only do you have an opportunity to promote specific products and services, but it’s also important to expand non-commerce communications as well.

Secondly, as customers fill out forms, purchase items, or make information requests, they should be instantly acknowledged with a “thank you.”

Thirdly, all communication -- including in your e-mail marketing campaign -- should represent your company as an expert and a leader in the industry. Rick Bruno, vice president of IMT Strategies' interactive marketing strategies group said, “Compared to click-through rates on banners, which are still clustered under 2 percent, e-mail click-through rates show a wide variance of effectiveness based on best practices.”

Develop and maintain your e-mail marketing advantage by communicating with your “potential” customers. Engage your audience with creativity and focus on their needs. As you mold your objectives, maintain a consistent message, and track your efforts, you will attain high levels of success built on the cemented foundations of customer relations.

Last week I stayed at the Hilton Financial District in San Francisco.  All rooms have free wireless access, as do all public areas. Kudos to them, it is a great hotel. I would recommend it to anyone. This week, I was in Boston and stayed at the Hyatt Harbor Side and they charged me $9.95 for 24 hours of Internet service.  It annoyed me and certainly did not enhance my "guest" experience at the hotel.

A message to all hotels:  Stop charging "guests" for Internet access in rooms, (especially if you want to attract business travelers)  it's like charging for towels, or soap.  I can get free access in thousands of places where I spend little or nothing. Why at a hotel where I am spending hundreds of dollars anyway should I  have to fill out a form and pay, to check my email, or make a reservation at another hotel.  With the emergence of iPhones, and other Internet "appliances", more and more people will expect free wireless access in their hotel rooms.

Some hotels do provide free access in public areas and then charge guests in their rooms.  So in other words,they reward people who just hang out in the lobby or visit (and spend nothing), and penalize their paying guests (who spend a lot). This makes sense, right?

Next time you are charged at a hotel complain to the general manager about Internet charges in your room. Eventually they will stop these nickle and dime charges, enhance their customer experience and become competitive with hotels that have joined the 21st century.

Your website and marketing programs are either good or bad.  There is no neutral, if your efforts are neutral, then they are not working (bad).  Review, check, measure to be sure your programs are meeting your objectives.  Remember that some marketing can actually degrade sales instead of enhancing them.

Make sure you marketing enhances your company's products, image and sales.

I just returned from our eMareting 8 West conference in San Francisco.  The event was outstanding.  Fantastic keynote addresses by Carol Kruse VP at Coca-Cola, and Muray Gaylord, VP at the NY Times.  Other presenters included, Tim Leberecht of Frog Design, Kevin Lee of Didit, Daniel Khabie of Digitaria, Ken Graiwer of the World Poker Tour, Simms Jenkins of Brightwave Marketing, Anna Talerico of Ion Interactive, Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, Jim Benton of AdBrite, Maria Domoslawska of Tribal Fusion, Loren McDonald of Silverpop, Robert Victor of DoubleClick, Patrick Crane of LinkedIn, Stephan Dietrich of Neolane, Guy Jones of Island Data Corporation, Jennifer Atkins of Wells Fargo Bank, and Melissa Read of Engauge.

The new venue (Hilton Financial District) was wonderful, they just completed a 60 million dollar renovation and the views were incredible.  Just about every topic in the eMarketing Arena was covered and attendees went back to their offices with actionable solutions, new contacts and ideas.

We also implemented a great new conference group on linked in for attendees, speakers and sponsors for post conference networking.

Our next conference is in Atlanta and early registration is open now.  It will be fantastic, if you can be sure to attend, you won't regret it.  Register now and save over $1000 off of the standard rate.

eM8 West Atlanta

My thanks to all attendees, sponsors and speakers for making this an outstanding conference.

I'm not a big fan of self help books.  I have read quite a few and can summarize most as "don't worry, be happy".  However I just read a book called "The Secret", and loved it.  Check it out, it rocks.

We attend conferences/events usually for two main reasons, to learn new processes and best practices, and to network.  Since the success of your career and business will usually depend on your network and who you know, networking is vital.  Here are some tips:

1. It is better to make 5 or 10 quality contacts at a conference than to simply give your card to 100 people who probably won't remember you.

2. Trade shows are not conferences, they are sales events.  It is possible, but difficult, to meet people at an exhibit hall with 10,000 people.  Exhibit halls are great for gathering information on products and services, not so great for networking.  Your best bet is smaller conferences and summits.

3. Most conferences have lunches, breaks and receptions.  Use this time to meet your fellow attendees.  Carry a lot of business cards, and don't be shy.  Remember that most everyone at the event wants to expand their circle of associates.  Networking is ranked number 2 (after learning), as the reason most people attend conferences.

4. At a two day event your goal should be to meet about 5 people a day, that you spend at least 10 minutes with.

5. Remember to follow up.  After the conference send your new contacts an email or better yet a note via postal mail.

Rebates are annoying.  A great example of how to make the customer experience unpleasant.  I purchased a tech product the other day with a $25 rebate. I had to go on the computer download the rebate form, and fill it out.  Then I had to go get a knife to cut out the UPC code off of the box, then make a copy of my receipt, put the whole mess in an envelope and address it to some rebate firm in Arizona.  After putting a stamp on the envelope I mailed it.  The mice type on the form said I could expect my rebate in 4 to 8 weeks (if everything I sent was perfect), if not they would simply not send it to me.  It was a lot of fun.  I wonder if I will get the $25.00.

Money back guarantees on low priced food items are a joke.  Imagine selling a bag of potato chips for, let say $1.49.  If the customer is unhappy, all he or she has to  do is send the UPC code from the package, along with the reason for dissatisfaction, and wow, the company will send a coupon for a new bag of chips or  $1.49 refund.  Please. First of all lets say your time is worth at least $10.00 an hour.  By the time you have put a 41 cent stamp on a envelope, cut out the UPC code, written out a short note on why your chips were unsatisfactory, you will have invested about 15 minutes, in your quest for a refund.  At $10.00 an hour, you have lost money.  Why bother?  Memo to food companies, make your guarantees worthwhile. 

In  both of these situations the Internet would have provided a much better experience for the customer.  Provide a website for your rebate.  Staples does this and it is great. And provide a website for your refunds on low priced items and let the customer wrap up the unhappy experience faster and easier.

Better yet forget the rebate and just lower your price. In the case of food items just include a postage paid card, an email address or a website.

I just returned from the 2008 New York Media summit.  It was a fantastic experience, great speakers and attendees. Robert Iger, President and CEO of the Walt Disney Company made a point that the Internet is as important to youth, as television during his keynote.  Linked In's Patrick Crane gave a great interview, you can check it out at:

Linked In Interview

Patrick will be speaking at our conference in San Francisco - April 15th and 16th. There is still time to register at:

eMarketing 8 West Conference Registration

I met some great people in New York.  One thing is for sure, good decisions come from good information, and conferences and your personal and professional network are the best places to get information.  It is amazing to me how a conference, or casual encounter can become an extraordinary opportunity to advance mutual goals, and enrich both your professional and personal life. 

I had a chance to spend a few minutes with Victor Harwood, President of Digital Hollywood.  Victor is one of the most influential professionals in the conference and trade show world.  His events are legendary, always worthwhile.  Fortunately, he was able to give me some tips and suggestions about enhancing some of our events here at the eMA.  We also formed a partnership to help co-promote some of our shows.

It was a great summit, in a great city.

Carol Kruse Vice President of Global Interactive Marketing for the Coca-Cola Company and Murray Gaylord Vice President, Marketing for the New York Times will be keynoting our annual conference this April 15th and 16th in San Francisco.  I just read a great article about Carol in Promo Magazine (you can access it by clicking her name at the start of this blog.

We are looking for a few good bloggers to help cover the event and are willing to offer a reduced rate if you have an established marketing blog (unlike this un-established one).  Check the conference site for details.

Linens n Things is a great store.  They send me a coupon just about every month for 20% off of anything in the place.  Problem is, every time I am around the store, I have forgotten to bring my 20% coupon.  So, I don't even go into the store because, I know I will not get the discount.  I wonder how many sales are lost because of lost coupons?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Make coupons really small, or perf them so they can be punched out.  If they are the size of the bar code it is much easier to just pop one in your wallet.

2. Get rid of them altogether and give people a card with a bar code,   You could then go into the store scan your card and see what offers were available to you.

3. Get rid of bar codes and use a promotional word, so lets say my word was monkey1, I would go to the cashier say "monkey1" and get my discount.  The word would be programmed into the computer to show my purchase (so if I tried to use the code again, it would come back as being used or not).

4. Print the coupon on something, I am not likely to leave at home, like a Porsche.

I just found  a great site for your email account.  It is at www.gmx.com, there are still an amazing number of names available, no advertisements and it’s free.  Check it out.

Our annual west coast conference is now less than 60 days from now.  We have added 5 new speakers, and updated our agenda.  See below for details:

eM8 West

 

eMarketing West general Information

 

This year's conference will be held at the Hilton Financial District, a great hotel, recently remodeled, and close to just about everything in San Francisco.  Our keynote speakers are outstanding, the Vice President of Marketing for the New York Times.com will kick off the event on day one, April 15th. On day two the Vice President of Global

Interactive Marketing for The Coca-Cola company will present an outstanding keynote.

 

eM8 West is shaping up to be our very best event ever.  Space is limited, so if you have the opportunity to attend an event this year, register now.  Registration information below:

Register Now

ADTECH

By the way, The Adtech trade show San Francisco  will start on the 15th and run through the 17th, so you can attend our event and still check out the exibits at Adtech. Adtech Information at:

Adtech Information

PPC Summit

By attending the PPC summit you will find actionable information to immediately improve your Pay-Per-Click results, for information on schedule and agenda see below:

http://www.ppcsummit.com/index.html

Capture, capture, capture.  Your website should have (in several areas) a method of capturing visitors email.  You can use a newsletter, a white paper, or other incentive but if you don't have a mechanism, to collect opt in email addresses, you are leaving money on the table.  You will always get more visitors than sales, and if you are paying for search terms the least you can get is an email address.  Additionally, every opportunity you have from order forms to in store sign ups, should be utilized to augment your opt in email lists.

 

What about those notices at the end of some emails that state the email may be privileged and/or confidential? First of all email is not exactly the most private way of communicating.  Your email passes through several ISP's and can be intercepted anywhere along the line. Second, many of these "notices" ask that you delete the email and notify your system manager, how many people actually notify their system manager? One even told me not to read it. See below.

 

 

The information contained in, or attached to, this e-mail, may contain confidential information and is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed and may be subject to legal privilege. If you have received this e-mail in error you should notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail, delete the message from your system and notify your system manager. Please do not copy it for any purpose, or disclose its contents to any other person

 

 

The best one that I have received that indicates that you are not authorized to read the email.  Here it is:

 

It may contain information that is confidential, privileged, proprietary, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate this message, any part of it, or any attachments. If you have received this message in error, please delete this message and any attachments from your system without reading the content and notify the sender immediately of the inadvertent transmission.

 

Here is one that makes some sense:

 

It may also contain personal views which are not the views of sample company. We may monitor e-mail to and from our network.

 

Comments appreciated.

I receive about 200 emails a day and about 60% of them do not contain signatures.  if you haven't created a signature for your email, do it.  A signature allows your recipient to contact you via the method you prefer, and gives you an opportunity to promote your product and/or service every time you send an email. It is easy to set up in Outlook, simply go to Tools, then to Options, Mail Format and click signatures.  Other mail clients provide different methods, but most are very simple.

We saw this one coming. Microsoft has a bid in for Yahoo!, obviously to strengthen it's online presence against Google. The value of their offer is about $31 per share, we think this is an undervalued offer.  We put a value of about $39 to $41 per share value on Yahoo!  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

In any event this is just another example of the continuing volatility within the online advertising arena.  The eMA uses both Google Adwords and Yahoo! paid search.  We recommend both forms of online marketing to just about anyone that needs to drive traffic and/or conversions to their websites.

As marketers we each have a unique set of circumstances in which we operate.  We sell products and services to business and consumer markets.  Keeping up with changes, best practices and processes is critical to the success of our efforts.  Conferences, online education, trade magazines, blogs, social networks all provide essential resources, providing those of us that care, access to the latest information.  Nevertheless at the center of any marketing program is the product, and in my book there is no product more difficult than, well, water.  Imagine, selling a product that is readily available for free just about everywhere, it is almost like selling air (oh, that is done also).  Kudos to those marketers that sell water, I have to put them on the top of the eMarketing list.

If you haven't joined a networking site like LinkedIn yet, you will soon.  The opportunities presented by LinkedIn and similar sites are too significant to ignore.  The eMarketing Association has formed two groups on LinkedIn. One is the eMarketing Group, open to eMarketers from around the world.  The other group is the eMarketing Conference Group open only to eMA conference attendees, sponsors and speakers.  We have opted to use LinkedIn for our conference post networking, as it is set up to provide the most robust user experience, one that would be difficult or impossible to duplicate. For more information see:

LinkedIn eMarketing Group

LinkedIn eMA Conference Group (exclusive open only to eMA Conference attendees, speakers and sponsors).

Do you put your web address on just about everything?  Ok, you do. Leave out the www part, it is not necessary, makes your address harder to remember and adds clutter. Here is an example: eMarketingAssociation.com, keep in mind that if you are writing your address on an email or HTML page it may be necessary to include the www, to make the link live, but it is unnecessary on business cards, packaging, brochures, catalogs, TV commercials, radio, stationary, etc., anywhere there is not a live link.

 

Interesting concept that you see just about everywhere.  I think it began with supermarkets.  Just about every supermarket in the country rewards people for buying less by providing "express checkouts" for let's say, 10 or less items.  Ever go up to one of those express lanes, and put something back so you could make the under 10 quota?  On the other hand if you buy dozens of items you are left waiting forever in line.  On the internet it is the same, I often see white papers, pdf files and so on available with just a click.  And then comes the line.  Usually a form asking for your name, email, address, website, first born child, and favorite beer.  These are usually mandatory fields.  I don't fill them out.

 

Likewise when it comes to check out, some sites require a rather elaborate registration just to purchase something from the site.  This is usually after you have your cart filled. When this is a mandatory step, I often skip the purchase all together, unless of course, I am out of milk.