E-marketing

the opportunity, the challenge, frequency, offers, testing, segmentation, summary. whitepaper on e-mail marketing

As email users, we expect and value emails that are timely, meaningful and relevant from people that we know and trust. Anything that doesn't meet this criteria is considered SPAM. Your goal is to create "Love Opportunities" where recipients WANT to open, click and buy from you.

Despite the convenience of shopping online, many people still use the web only to research products to purchase offline. Multi-channel retailers with both physical stores and online stores have a leg up on pure-plays when it comes to serving and converting these buyers. Circuit City is an example of a retailer that's in tune with what customers want and expect from the cross-channel experience, offering customer service features that leverage its competitive advantage:

From the "Research that Makes Spammers Giddy" department, Jordan McCollum over at Marketing Pilgrim points to an interesting new study from Ball State University's Center for Media Design and ExactTarget. The study, Messaging Behaviors, Preferences, and Personas looked at how different groups of people interact with media and which sales channels work best to reach them.

Savvy online retailers can attract thrifty customers this holiday season with a sound comparison shopping strategy, but those merchants must be careful not to create a lot of extra work, damage their reputation, or waste money.

A wise entrepreneur once said that "you can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." While computers weren't around when Henry Ford coined the phrase, his words still resonate today. With billions of people online-and probably the same number of bloggers and social media participants-it's imperative to take a pro-active approach to your company's reputation management. Don't wait until there's a problem-that's too little, too late.

The Internet Marketer's Handbook was compiled by Danny Dover and is the result of literally hundreds of hours of study and practice in internet marketing and search engine optimization techniques. The information below represents the web's best resources and tools. All of the items listed below are available to the general public and most are free of charge. Enjoy!

With 60% of online shoppers cite free shipping as a reason they are more likely to shop on the web (Harris Interactive, July 2008), if you use free shipping as a marketing vehicle, you want to make sure you communicate your offer at every touch point. In the current issue of eM+C magazine, you'll find my article Get Your Site Into Shipping Shape This Season with ideas on how "get the most mileage" out of your free shipping offer from search engine to shopping cart (this version includes screen shots):

The Internet makes copying photographs, artwork, and words easy, since a relatively unsophisticated user can just browse the web saving or copying nearly anything that suits his fancy. As an e-business owner you'll want to both protect your photographs and, conversely, ensure that your employees are not taking protected work of others. After all, a copyright violation could cost thousands of dollars in legal fees, time, forced subscription fees, and potential fines. U.S. copyright protection extends to all forms of "expression" including software, written papers, charts, digital files, music, video, and presentations. This protection begins the moment a work is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression," and copyrights are federally enforced. Generally, ideas, short phrases, facts, slogans, and useful articles are not copyright protected, but most everything else is.

I've been a big fan of Crutchfield's marketing for a long time - I consider them to be one of the top retailers in that regard. Here's a perfect example of why: Crutchfield recently ran this email incorporating ratings and reviews (an effective and underused tactic for retail email), and includes content that speaks to various buying modes effectively.

One of the many retail emails I subscribe to is Rampage, which recently notified its mailing list of a new brand called Golden State (separate e-store).

Sender lines are important - perhaps even more important than subject lines - for better open rates in email marketing campaigns. The reputation of the sender (based on recognition of a brand/name and past experience with a sender's messages) determines whether the email recipient will even read and consider the subject line.

One of the basics of customer-centric, persuasive copywriting is using "you" and "you're" rather than "I," "our" and "we." People are self-centered and respond better when you make your site all about them. This goes for all touch points in your marketing - including your welcome emails.

We don't do a lot of posts on branding on Get Elastic, but I had to blog about Seattle-based ski, snowboard and wakeboard shop evogear. evo is an example of a retailer that has taken its corporate culture and incorporated its personality into nearly every aspect of its marketing.

It's been a long held concept that natural search, aka SEO, is a top internet marketing tactic for acquiring better conversions, leads, and ROI. Now, eConsultancy has collected data and documented a study in the U.K. showing that natural search is the best tactic for generating online leads, concluding it is greatly underused despite the fact that it outperforms nearly all other types of online marketing.