Archive for the ‘Email’ Category
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
As of today, e-mail is still the top converting channel for daily deals providers. And that surprises some people.
But, don’t confuse e-mail with blanket spam. These daily deal e-mails are often highly targeted – segmented by location and specified interest type. This is a win-win. Because daily deals providers were losing subscribers with so many deals (e.g. manicures and massages) being irrelevant to so many of their subscribers (e.g. males). So, now, by offering self-segmentation, these e-mails can become exciting to receive again.
When daily deals providers master the combination of segmentation, delivery and timing – e-mail marketing still beats out social shouting. But, the incentives for social sharing that daily deals providers like Living Social may be the best way to grow this opt-in e-mail base.
Tags: daily-deals-providers, e-mail-marketing, internet-marketing-company, living-social
Posted in Email, Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, September 9th, 2011
It must have been really hard if you were in the wagon wheel business when Henry Ford starting making lines of black-colored future down the street.
The question today is, is the Post Office today’s wagon wheel industry? After all, with phone, texting, e-mail, video chat – the necessity for the the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t quite exist anymore. And it’s no longer a self-sustaining business. So, what could the future of the post office look like?
If the USPS dies, will FedEx and UPS start picking up and delivering door-to-door? Because that mailbox monopoly is a valuable one. In all honesty, the vast majority of my snailmail communication is receiving bills. And as that progressively moves online, and snail mail becomes spam mail, perhaps the entire industry is evolving into something completely different?
Tags: e-mail, fedex, henry-ford, internet-marketing, mobile-marketing, post-office, texting, ups, usps, video-chat
Posted in Email, mobile-marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
We’ve read the reports for years. Email is going extinct. Kids aren’t using it. They’re texting. And with the move to mobile, it seemed like texting would surely drill a decisive nail in the coffin of email.
Yet, Return Path just released a study that showed a stunning 81% growth in email activity on mobile devices. Perhaps we’ve overlooked that mobile when someone’s using a mobile device, it’s for two reasons. One, for the necessity of communication, which email often is. Two, they’re looking to self-entertain. And email is something that any smartphone user can use, even if they lack the finger dexterity necessary to succeed playing Angry Birds.
It looks like technological progress isn’t going to kill email after all. In fact, it may have saved it.
Tags: Email, mobile, mobile-marketing, return-path, smartphone
Posted in Email, Smartphones, mobile-marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
I still have a Hotmail e-mail address. I’ll admit it. Yes, it’s slightly embarrassing sometimes. But at the time, I was an innovator. This was a Microsoft product for crying out loud!
And now, the great and might Microsoft has launched a new feature for Hotmail, a feature that other providers like Yahoo have been utilizing for a long while now. And it doesn’t really solve my problem.
Hotmail users have been able to create e-mail aliases for a while by using + and a descriptor word at the end of your e-mail name to organize different types of e-mail. But what about for the Hotmail user who’s embarrassed to be using Hotmail? Well, now you can create completely different e-mail addresses that you can still receive within your primary e-mail account. Not completely different though. You can get yet another Hotmail account. Or a slightly improved live.com account. But that doesn’t help my problem, does it?
Tags: e-mail, e-mail-alias, hotmail, internet-marketing, Yahoo
Posted in Email, Microsoft, Yahoo | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
The social media world went spinning the other day with a report from ForeSee Results, claiming that traditional marketing provides a better ROI than social media. Given the potential free-ness of social media opportunities, this was hard for me to accept.
Here are the facts. Social media interactions can only attribute for 5% of retail traffic. Whereas traditional marketing tactics had higher traffic attributions, including e-mails (19%), search engine results (8%) and Internet advertising (7%).
But A) social media never claimed to dismiss traditional online marketing tactics. B) Higher traffic alone doesn’t mean better ROI.
In order to make sure you’re getting the most out of your marketing investment, do your own investigation. But determine the cost of obtaining each prospect through each marketing method. Not just traffic referral numbers alone.
Tags: ForeSee-Results, online-marketing, Social Media, social-media-marketing
Posted in Email, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
We here at Windy City Strategies work hard to keep you posted on the territorial battle that is the Google vs. Facebook wars. Simply because it’s so interesting. And it’s results will define the next decade of the Web. So, let’s quickly catch you up to speed with the latest news in these digital turf battles.
Facebook is working hard to become your personal home page – that the first thing you see when you turn your computer on is A) who’s connecting with you and B) what your friends and network are up to. You may notice a message on the top of your screen when you log-in to Facebook next that will automatically make Facebook your homepage. And this makes sense. Because Facebook is growing into a near stand-alone operating system. The entire Web is integrating with it, and it’s where everything is. Google has been doing their own version of this for years now, with iGoogle. But while iGoogle has the nice app layout, it lacks the same social intrigue of Facebook.
In terms of e-mail, while Gmail has been the savvy e-mail choice for the past five years, if Facebook mail takes off, we could see a migration. More and more advertisers are looking to the hyper-targeting benefits of Facebook ad campaigns, while Google has been an SEO provider’s entire world for the past decade.
Google Voice’s free phone lines are seeing a new Facebook alternative in Facebook’s Skype integration. Google Docs is seeing a new Facebook alternative in Facebook’s Microsoft Office integration. And Google Latitude and Facebook places are both provider’s attempts at geo-location, neither of which holds the trump card.
Here’s the point. Facebook is trying to figure out why people have to leave Facebook. And if they can provide a place that provides users with, not just a substitute, but a socially charged upgrade, why would anyone ever leave?
Tags: facebook, facebook-email, facebook-places, Google, google-docs, google-latitude, igoogle, local-business-advertising, microsoft-office, pay-per-click-marketing, seo, skype, social-media-marketing
Posted in Email, Google, Microsoft, Search-Engine-Optimization, Social Media, facebook, local advertising | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
When asked at the Web 2.0 Summit to detail Facebook’s new e-mail service announcement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg clarified that they’re not trying to build an e-mail product, but rather, a “modern messaging system.”
He also detailed the main problem with e-mail. That e-mail has gotten much better about segregating SPAM, but not differentiating between e-mails from your friends and e-mails from services you subscribe to.
The best e-mail has been able to do so far, is order chronologically. But, in fact, that often helps hide important e-mails. Facebook is looking to prioritize your e-mail based on your social connection with the sender. This is something that will obviously both evolve over time, and be something that you can manually assist with.
Should this worry e-mail marketers? It changes the game, that’s for sure. Those who aren’t looking to build social capital, but simply be a blaring announcement should worry. Odds are, you’re not going to make it into Facebook’s “priority inbox.” Unless the individual “likes” you of course.
Tags: e-mail, facebook, facebook-ceo, internet-marketing, mark-zuckerburg, social-media-marketing, spam, web-2.0-summit
Posted in Email, Social Media, facebook | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
This Microsoft/Facebook partnership is starting to get pretty hot and heavy. In fact, now you can view Microsoft Office documents directly from Facebook.
Microsoft Word. Microsoft Excel. Microsoft PowerPoint. All viewable with a single click through Office Web Apps. Now you can send Office documents via Facebook message to anyone. Regardless of whether or not they own Microsoft Office or not, they will be able to view the documents through Web apps via Office.com.
And if Facebook e-mail addresses take off, this feature could really catch on. Both as a boon to Microsoft Office and yet an additional incentive to make your @facebook.com account your primary e-mail address.
Tags: facebook, internet-marketing-company, microsoft-excel, microsoft-office, microsoft-powerpoint, microsoft-word, social-media-marketing
Posted in Email, Microsoft, Social Media, cloud-computing, facebook | No Comments »
Friday, November 19th, 2010
Do you want a new e-mail address? Well, if you’re signed up for Facebook you’re about to be able to get a @facebook.com e-mail address. But, don’t think it’s just about e-mail. Because CEO Mark Zuckerburg wants to make it clear that it’s not just that. It’s e-mail. Instant messaging. Texting. Across all your traditional e-mail channels and now including your social media connections.
It will incorporate Gmail’s technologically innovative threaded conversation history by group or individual. It will also prioritize your e-mail messages based on your social connections. Are you Facebook friends with the sender? Then, there’s a good chance you’re going to want to read this quickly, and the message will jump to the top of your “social inbox“.
All cool stuff. But here’s the big idea behind it. When you’re in Facebook and you want to send a message to someone, you don’t need to know their e-mail address. You send it to the person. That’s the new idea. We’ll see if it catches on.
Tags: e-mail-address, facebook.com, gmail, internet-consultant, mark-zuckerburg, social-media-marketing
Posted in Email, Social Media, facebook | No Comments »
Friday, November 19th, 2010
Right before Facebook announced their new facebook.com e-mail (that’s not just e-mail) service, AOL Mail beat them to the punch by announcing their new version of AOL Mail, called “Project Phoenix.”
Now, I suppose it makes sense for AOL to try and stay in the e-mail business. After all, “You’ve Got Mail” was the quintessential e-mail alert of the 90s. But…we’re moving into the second decade out from that now. Has AOL created something worthy of this new technological era?
Well, think of Project Phoenix like Outlook. It’s an e-mail aggregate really. Yes, it has social media connectivity, in that you can update your channels directly from your inbox. But, Facebook’s new e-mail announcement looks to bring e-mail in within your existing social media channels themselves – where you already are. So, will Project Phoenix make AOL e-mail customers happy they’ve stuck with their original system for the past 20 years. Yes, definitely. Will it be enough to convince new people to make the jump over to AOL? Hardly.
Tags: aol-mail, facebook, internet-marketing-company, project-phoenix, social-media-marketing
Posted in Email, Social Media, aol, facebook | No Comments »
