Internet Marketing Blog

Post Stamps Are Forever

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The United States Postal Service has been bleeding funds for a long, long time.  The markup on stamps has been outpacing inflation over the past decade.  The technological advancements of information distribution have affected the value of postal service to the average citizen.  UPS and FedEx tout faster delivery with various modes of transport, but at a prohibitive cost for corporations. In fact, these shipping firms align select services with the Postal Service to reduce delivery fees.  The latest news concerning the rise of first-class mail postage to $0.46 breeds the longstanding question:  Is direct marketing still viable for advertisers?

Today’s campaign has even transitioned away from e-mail marketing into social media targets, which is a dangerous proposition.  For organizations small and large, direct marketing should be a reduced percentage of campaign strategy but not negated.  The Postal Service has integrated a flat rate for selected package sizes deliverable within the States and has the Forever stamps that can manage distribution prices.  Direct marketing, in these economic times, is not only cost-effective, but holds the cachet of federal protection that rival shippers do not possess. Its reach across less densely populated regions cannot be denied, and is still the cheapest option of delivery in the Western World. Secondly, value also shows up during tough economic times in which a business reaches out to their consumer base with a note or gift of gratitude. Consumers remember those touches and will look to reciprocate in the future, even if the wallet is lightened. Therefore, marketers should not be alarmed by the constant rise in postage fees.  They should wonder if the USPS management will ever be pared down with sensibility. I see the 75 cent stamp on your envelope before that occasion comes to roost.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Blog Marketing, Business News, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Marketing, blog | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, Direct Marketing News, new york e-mail marketing agency, new york social media agency

Permission-based Email Marketing for Businesses

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Email Marketing is one of the most popular tools used as part of direct response marketing campaigns in the United States. Email is being used primarily as a marketing tool by 35% of companies compared to 25% that use direct mail. The total spending for online advertising will grow twice as fast in 2011 with an increase in ad purchases over email marketing. Email marketing industry census by EConsultancy shows that 42% of organizations did not know the Return on Investment of their campaigns.

Email Marketing campaigns should be designed in such a way to influence the consumer’s behavior and it should address all the stages in a consumer’s buying process. An effective email campaign should identify the problem, provide information, evaluate alternatives, include options to make purchasing decisions, and address post purchase behavior with additional information. The concept of permission email marketing is one of the most important aspects of email marketing in today’s direct marketing world.

Permission-based email marketing ensures optimized deliverability, return on investment, and recipient’s trust. If you market to people who expressed their interest to receive emails about offers and promotions, you can see better results in terms of good response rate, better deliverability, increased brand awareness, and trust among the consumers. The CAN SPAM Act 2003 suggests opt-out email marketing with two major conditions. One of them states that emails sent to recipients without their consent must mention that the message is a promotional email and provide an unsubscribe option. After all, email marketing is about building relationships with your consumers or prospects, leading to good results.

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, CRM, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Marketing Agencies, blog, web 2.0 | 1 Comment »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, digital marketing, Email Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, new york interactive marketing agency

E-mail Service Providers Give Treats

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In our connected world, writing an e-mail with only text is becoming antiquated, much less writing script on paper and sending it in the mailbox with a stamp.  The proliferation of social media and mobile messaging networks within the last five to seven years saw to this fact. Since e-mail providers can’t beat them with simple text, they are joining the party.  E-mail service providers are becoming complete marketers in all phases. They are purchasing mobile marketing companies, social media providers, and behavioral marketing firms.  Behavioral firms provide key research used to determine consumer emotions and unconscious sentiments attached to brands.  In effect, providers can further segment their customer bases with a direct message that will generate improved ROI.  Constant Contact, one of the respected e-mail marketing firms around, recently acquired social media company NutshellMail.

NutshellMail integrates all of your updates from social media accounts by delivering messages to your base inbox.  The service is a smart, efficient way for marketers to manage their clients’ social networks.  This management also offers potential to assess the effectiveness of campaigns on a nuanced level while having the ability to make adjustments without shifting between endless tabs and windows.  It is possible that this integration will allay the fears of marketers who underutilize e-mail marketing in their campaigns.  Firms that have a good CRM can seamlessly transfer their database collections into an organized report of customer information.  Can socializing online save the e-mail? Time will tell.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Email Marketing, online advertising | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner Marketing, constant contact, direct marketing, dmnews, e-mail marketing, nutshellmail, social media

Interactive PR as part of your Internet Marketing Campaigns

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As we all know, commercial businesses, organizations, not-for-profit associations and other high profile individuals maintain their public images using the well-known field of Public Relations. PR is all about shaping the appropriate message to the public and it involves a lot of functions that include: crisis management, publicity and maintaining a steady relationship with customers, communities, employees, investors, media, government and others with the industry.

The internet is much more than just a channel of communication. In the present scenario, the internet has become the fastest and most convenient way to communicate and to spread the message to the public in a cost effective model. Often called Interactive PR, Online PR or Digital PR, this process is helpful for companies of any size as it is a two-way communication that aims to build better relationships. When compared to the traditional PR, this method helps organizations build reliability with the target audience directly.

VSS data shows that PR spending in the US grew by more than 3% in 2009 to $3.7 billion. Also PR spending in America is predicted to go beyond $8 billion in 2013 with increased usage of corporate blogs and social media.

The important components of Interactive PR include: distributing press releases online with relevant keywords and optimizing for search engine rankings, news wire services, defining a new blogging strategy to engage prospects and customers in conversation about the products or services, effective podcasting, organizing webinars, starting discussions and following up in forums, creating news and events page in the website to cover the old and latest information about the company.

There is a greater demand for Interactive PR services than in previous years and firms of all sizes are looking at the ways they communicate with their prospects and customers. There are companies that do not practice PR on its own and may request help or outsource their needs for Online PR activities. This way they can build an ongoing relationship with the public and the media in a very cost effective manner.

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Blog Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Interactive PR, Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Podcast Production, Public Relations, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business, Social Media Marketing, Video Sharing | No Comments »
Tags: Blueliner Marketing, Content Marketing, digital marketing, Digital PR, Interactive PR, Mohamed Mohideen, Online PR, Online Reputation Management, podcast marketing, Public Relations, Social Media Marketing, Video Sharing

Blueliner Helps Blue Phoenix Rise

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Blue Phoenix Inc. specializes in timely and introspective macroeconomic research on futures and equities within the energy and metals sector. We have worked with the founder, John Licata, to create a site and marketing campaign for The Commodity Chronicles. The Chronicles, for a monthly fee, gives you singular information on the energy sector and has articles from several trusted sources. Our staff at Blueliner also implemented a full SEO campaign to drive ROI. A Twitter widget was also added to get immediate updates. Licata has been a regular contributor to CNBC, providing insight into oil trends amongst other hot topics. Here’s his take on oil pricing:

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Email Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, World | 1 Comment »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, blue phoenix john licata, blue phoenix oil, Blueliner Marketing, e-mail marketing agency, john licata cnbc, new york seo media agency, new york social media agency

The Basics of Email Marketing

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Email Marketing is an internet marketing tool used to communicate information about a company’s products or services to its customers and prospects through email. The main purpose of email marketing is to acquire new business and also to enhance relationships with existing customers.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys from 2000–2009 show that about 55% of all American adults use the internet daily and about 45% of all either send or read email.

There are several reasons why email marketing is popular among most companies. First, digital marketers can reach any number of customers and prospects who have opted-in to receive information about the product or service of their interest at the same time, through email marketing. It is also one of the most cost-effective digital marketing tactics and has proven to be of high worth when executed properly and tracked at every stage of the campaign to find the exact ROI.

It is important for marketers to provide valuable and informative content in order to get the most out of their email marketing campaigns. The message should be short and to the point when describing the products and services offered by the company. Adding company URLs and links to your offerings in the email can direct readers to particulars section of your site if they are interested in finding more information. These are a few points that need to be kept in mind when preparing an email marketing campaign. If the campaign is automated and uses tracking features, it helps to refine based on results that include deliverability, delivery rates, open rates, CTR, response rates, Opt-in/Opt-out and unsubscribes.

Email ad spending is projected to grow from $338M in 2006 to $616M in 2011 – a six year increase of 82%. Comparatively, total internet ad spending will grow twice as fast during the same period. Source – eMarketer, September 2007.

Blueliner Marketing offers Internet Marketing services to clients and helps build their businesses to achieve higher profits. Blueliner Marketing manages robust email marketing campaigns for clients around the globe who are seeking to build their client bases and businesses.

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Blog Marketing, CRM, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Mobile Marketing, Website Design, World, online advertising | No Comments »
Tags: arman rousta, blueliner india, Blueliner Marketing, Business Reputation, Content Marketing, digital marketing, Email Marketing, eMarketing, Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen

Hits And Clicks With E-Mail Marketing

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Small business entrepreneurs know that e-mail marketing is an efficient way to yield high ROI. Anybody can learn how to perform a task.  This is why Google is a search advertising giant.  The key, however, is learning how to execute the process of e-mail marketing.  Once this is mastered, then new leads can be generated with minimal effort.  A fundamental message for successful e-mail marketing is sending relevant, targeted messages to all prospects and customers of your services. Only after this can the finer details be entered such as the best words in a subject line or an appropriate salutation. I’ll list three tips on getting started with this program.

1.  Use segmentation to send ONLY relevant messages.

It is imperative to know as much about your contact list as possible.  This includes tastes and preferences, their last product purchase, and internet behavior.  Do they open and click on e-mails? Can they get online consistently? If you blast your entire contact list without regard, you risk alienating those who have middling interest.  Once this is clarified, you can send a targeted, relevant message about your product.

2.  Keep Your Email Marketing Consistent and Predictable

If you turn one lead into a customer, then a fan, it can become several thousand with diligence.  You can follow up with new prospects when they request information, inform contacts of upcoming events, send weekly industry tips and new product information through your blog or website, and deliver a monthly newsletter.  If you can devote the necessary time and resources to make a consistent note, then credibility and trust is gained on both sides. The money piles up, if, and only if, this occurs.

3.  Include Multi-Media Along With Your Email Marketing

Multi-media can be an enhancer for your campaign and keep those customers around for the long haul.  I would recommend a tangible gift on occasion to express true gratitude for customers.  It can be a stamped thank you card or a small gift.  Your business can work out a partnership with a local enterprise for a discount sent in the mail for those who are interested.  The CEO can record a video discussing quarterly objectives and future developments along with client successes.  These are just a few ideas that can go a long way.

In the mean time, your business should not get discouraged if all these tips are followed but do not generate instant results.  Success only comes to those with perseverance, and in time, the clicks will pay.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Email Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC), online advertising | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, blueliner marketing llc, e-mail marketing agency, google, new york e-mail marketing agency, pay per click, ppc, ROI, small businesses

Turning Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing

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What do most marketers need when they want to attract, acquire and engage customers and potential accounts for their business? Consistently sharing information about their products or services can keep existing customers and the potential ones informed, thus creating a unique brand awareness which can result in increased sales and customer loyalty. In order to do this, you need to create and share informative and valuable content about products and services via different media.

This form of marketing is often referred to as Content Marketing, which is defined as “words and data to create unambiguous content that support meaningful, interactive experiences”, is now evolving as a new discipline. In addition to all your traditional marketing techniques, this form of marketing uses content to achieve higher sales through profitable actions from the customer and prospect sides.

What it takes, is an effective content strategy. Content development, delivery and administration are the three major points that need to be kept in mind when you define content strategy for any marketing plan. Rachel Lovinger explains more about content marketing in her article, Content Strategy – The Philosophy of Data. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Mohamed Mohideen
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Blog Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Interactive PR, Marketing, Marketing Agencies, Mobile Marketing, Photography, Podcast Production, Public Relations, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Video Sharing, Website Analytics, Website Design, World, online advertising, search engine marketing, web development | 1 Comment »
Tags: Advertising, Blueliner Marketing, Content Marketing, digital marketing, Interactive PR, Mobile Marketing, Mohamed Mohideen, social media

Giltless Consumption

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Why pay $1100 for a Ermenegildo Zegna Suit when you can get it for $429?  Many of us, especially in New York, are always looking to maximize value with our fashion purchases.  We see the ruthless hunters at sample sales, flea markets, and thrift shops.  One firm, however, has used e-mail marketing to bring a unique mission of luxury and value.  That is the Gilt Groupe.

Gilt Groupe is far from the first corporation to bring luxury and value on the web. I remember Bluefly surfacing on the web as an undergraduate at The University of Notre Dame.  Yoox is another company that entered the market in the past decade hawking luxury for value.  Gilt Groupe, however, segments their website by offering daily invitations at their discretion at a consistent time. It maintains the allure of haute couture that characterizes their collection, with a unique mix of emerging and traditional labels such as Marc Jacobs, Vince, Galliano, and Yves Saint Laurent. Once a customer is admitted, they are offered pieces from 70-90% off retail prices.  The sizes and availability change in real time, so one must be sharp. The added comfort of shopping online can’t be forgotten, which benefits both sides.  The retailer does not have the overhead of property expenditures, and the customer can go online at any place at any time.

Other competitors, such as Ideeli and HauteLook, offer premium labels without the exclusivity.  Switched, Inc. talks more about the competitors here. I think that Gilt offers the best of the bunch.  They run daily private sales to members’ mailbox which builds brand equity.  In the e-commerce universe with a dizzying level of choices, their rise is amazing. According to Anne C. Lee of Fast Company, Gilt expects to rake in more than $500 million in revenue in 2010, 20 times what it reaped in 2008.  Venture capitalists have embraced it as passionately as overstocked designers, pumping in $40 million this summer and pushing its value to about $400 million.

Regardless of the economy’s state, people will pay to look good, especially if they can spend less.  Gilt Groupe’s email marketing campaign is food for viral thought.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in Business News, Email Marketing, Marketing, eCommerce, online advertising | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, e-commerce, e-mail marketing, gilt groupe

E-mail Marketing With Segments

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Today’s marketing strategies are in an era where synergy of different platforms become more critical than ever due to the various channels and platforms available to the general public.  CMOs and marketing management have used e-mail strategies in the past to convert consumers into customers with aggressive targeting.  Nowadays, a corporation has the opportunity to integrate social media with their e-mail platforms and segment their consumer base with quantitative data leading to improved sales and ultimately, profit.  The template represents the building block for a successful e-mail campaign.  The color scheme must align with the featured product and offer sensual stimulation in the appropriate moods.

In today’s depressed market, the importance of value can no longer be underestimated.  Consumers, with fewer overall financial resources, have plenty of information at their disposal to determine whether a product will deliver their stated value.  A solid marketing campaign in today’s market, for example, will use an e-mail offer to reach preferred customers over a specific period of time, such as Macy’s using coupons good for a two-day span for women with children.  This will strengthen the sales potential, cement a brand position, and provide visibility for the product.  Once the metrics have been satisfied, then a social media campaign offers the virtual space to discuss the product on a balanced scale.  This is the stage where brand equity and loyalty becomes critical.  Marketers also can use social networks for thrifty opportunities to advertise with new customers and engage their interest level.  Blueliner has been integrating marketing strategies since it’s inception, through the 7 Pillars.  Susan Tull, VP of Marketing at Digital River’s BlueHorn Division, offers more tips and techniques to integrate this marketing philosophy.  Enjoy.

Posted by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Posted in 7 Pillars of Internet Marketing, Business News, Email Marketing, Marketing, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »
Tags: abdul fattah ismail, Blueliner, Blueliner Marketing, e-mail marketing, e-mail marketing agency, social media agency, susan tull