• The survey confirms that social media users cut across every demographic – likely no great surprise to many in our industry. Among social networking sites specifically, Facebook and YouTube – for now, at least – handily beat out other sites, and their popularity cuts across age ranges.
• What prompts social media users to start an online search? Hold on to your hat: face to face communication. Runners up include cable and broadcast TV, radio, Internet advertising, and email advertising. (The study highlights how results differ for various age groups.)
• What are they searching for? Social media users report that they “regularly” search online for maps and directions (over half), as well as movies, online entertainment and product information / comparative shopping (about four out of ten). Three out of ten regularly search online for travel, clothing and shoes, and restaurant information.
• Once they’ve found what they’re looking for, how do social media users communicate with others about a service, brand or product? Hope you’re still holding on to that hat: almost three-quarters want to communicate face to face, followed by email (half) and landline or cell phone (one third). At this point, just one fifth turns to online communities and instant messaging (IM) to tell others about a service, product or brand.

Take a look at the full study results and the press release – food for thought in the midst of much social media discussion. As always, I look forward to your thoughts.

Nowadays there are a lot of difficulties which people encounter with. Many people have lost their jobs due to redundancy that was the outcome of the financial slow down. If you are a victim to such terrible situation you should not be let down. There is always a way out of any difficult situation. All you have to do is to look a little bit for it. Due to rapid development of technologies it is possible to make money via internet. However when you venture into searching the opportunities to make money on line you have to be ready to the fact that it is not an easy task to do and there are a lot of pitfalls which you have to be aware of.

One of the main disadvantages of making money on-line is absence of any guarantee. It may happen in case you have done some work to somebody and were supposed to get money after the work was approved by the receiver. There are a lot of people who do not pay in the end. In order to prevent such a terrible situation you should not apply for the offers which have no paying in advance. You have right to demand half of the sum beforehand because the both parties face risk. One more method to avoid being scammed is to check the credibility of the company that offers you job online. There are sites devoted to the companies that cannot be trusted.

There is one more method to avoid being deceived. It is to start your own online business. For example, you can run your own on line shop. It is much more convenient than to keep a real shop as in such a way you save on the premises and staff. All you have to obtain is a warehouse where you could keep the things you are going to sell. With the help of on line shop you will be sure that no one is going to scam you as clients pay money and after that receive the item. It is easy and convenient.

Also there is one more option – to set up your own web site. With the help of web site you can do whatever you want. One of the most popular ways is to join any affiliate program. In such a way you will be receiving money every month.

No matter in what way you try to make money on line you should always take precautionary measures in order to prevent being scammed. There are many ways to deceive people. That is why you should be careful and not be disappointed if such misfortune happens to your. In such a way you get experience.

Before you decide to make money at home you must be fair with yourself and ask a simple question “If it is so easy to make money at home, why don’t I know at least several filthy rich people in my neighborhood?”

A good question to start with. And from here you will start understanding that without proper education you cannot make money at home successfully. We recommend you to visit the quoted web site to see what works and what not on the online money making market.

Today we live in the world where info makes life easier.

Due to this if you are properly armed with the info in your topic you can rest assured that you will always find the solution to any bad situation. So, please make sure to visit this blog on a regular basis or – an ideal solution for you – sign up to its RSS. Thus you will have your hand on the pulse of the freshest info updates here. Blogs can be helpful, you just need to know how to use them.

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So far as concerns a web hosting, there are many variants. That so there are a lot of alternatives of a choice, you could try to consider one of numerous free services of a web hosting there. Nevertheless, there are some shared problems connected with this approach which can cost finally much money for road for you and your business. Therefore, it is important to know that these are red flags that you could avoid them.

Here are 6 more reasons to avoid a free web hosting:

You have lost trust. Your site will be frequently the first impression of your potential clients of your business. With a free hosting, probably, you have got stuck with very long a domain name, for example http://freehostingservice.com/ ~ yourbusiness. It is very difficult to trust strengthening, when your presence at the Internet as it is represented, in the summer is something ephemeral.

Banners. A principal cause of these services is free because you resolve banner advertising on your site. Thus, you put time, money and energy for traffic attraction on your site and a free hosting of service of profit, directing the traffic from you. Clearly, that is not in the best way of construction of successful long-term business.

The insufficient. Free hosts, as a rule, give the limited number of services. Such absence of flexibility can seriously prevent to conduct and develop your ability of business on the Internet. For example, if to choose free service, you can practically have no access to e-mail, FTP accounts, control systems’ content and electronic commerce variants.

Absence of shipping. When you pay to register and place the own domain, you have a possibility to translate it. As for a free hosting, usually it is not that case. So, if you pass in a year or two for creation of your site and traffic attraction on it before understanding, it would be how much useful to have an own domain name, your work can be from a window.

Overflowed server. It leads to slow loading of pages and more simple for your site. Certainly, both these problems can make serious negative impact on growth and profitableness of your business.

Poor Service. One more important question with free hosting services is that they offer practically anything on a way of support of clients. If there are problems with your site, you should communicate very difficultly any time to help to solve it. Every minute your site does not incur with itself huge additional costs from the point of view of clients and disappointment of the lost sales.

On the basis of this list it is possible to see what “you receive when you pay for” free services of a hosting. Instead, to consider quality of hosting important investments into your business is one that will continue to bring positive results for your business and in the future.

Today many brands hide behind what seems to be a lovely notion as best web hosting. Despite the fact that this fancy notion sells nicely, the term of best web hosting is really vague.

What is standing behind it?

Surely one can talk about uptime, reliability, service support, peculiar techy features – and all this will be up to the point. But best web hosting is far beyond, and in simple terms this is about the place where you have no problems when hosting your web site or blog.

Right now we are living in the world where information makes life easier.

That is why if you are properly armed with the information in your sphere of interest you can be sure that you will always find the solution to any bad situation. So, please make sure to track this web site on a regular basis or – an ideal solution for you – sign up to its RSS. Thus you will have your hand on the pulse of the freshest info updates here. Blogging can be helpful, you just need to know how to use them.

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If you’re looking for successful results, Social media is an important strategy that should be a part of any internet marketing campaign. Companies form Internet marketing campaigns for the sole purpose of increasing brand awareness and attracting quality traffic to their website. It is becoming a popular trend with businesses all over the world, as it is an easy and cost effective method to spread the word out to their consumers. According to statistics, one conversation of a consumer can have the impact of 200 TV commercials! Human behavioral studies suggest that a person is more likely to consider a friend’s recommendation or opinion, than over what they see or hear from other respectable sources.

The results of these analyzes, has triggered a number of companies to literally stoop downward to the “grass root levels” of the Internet, in order to mold themselves inside the number of general social media web sites. Snail mail going ancient chronicle, immediately so far e-mail usage has slowly declined as extra and extra citizens opt utilizing six figures in six months bonus on-line community web sites to converse with all other. The earlier genesis makes up a bulk of the social electronic networks population. Businesses are besides alert that the younger generation is good at expending a bulk of the cash they produce. These consumers keep the strength and the power in their language and what they communicate to others. Community web sites possess elevated the efficiency in the way that we communicate to lone different. Users recommending or expressing their disappointment in a particular manufactured goods or serve, can create or split up a company’s reputation. The popularity of a manufactured goods finished on-line sociable network websites triggers what most sellers refer to as a “buzz”, which can indisputably boost a company’s profits overnight.

From the feedback and conversations of consumers finished communal websites, corporations can assess how to alter their merchandise and services to the special prerequisites of the consumers.Businesses possess to be inclined to pay attention to the feedback and act upon it within reason. Form concern by passing a reason for users to see the company website. Nothing subject how simple appealing your manufactured goods may be, on that point is constantly a path to set up concern. Think of what the customer given need. Having a page of entertainment on your web site given not be such a unpleasant travel. Many businesses have taken the initiative to integrate games, without charge sample provides, telecasting, blogs and interesting updates onto their web sites in order to lure users and build traffic.

To integrated sociable media into your Internet marketing campaign you must start with research. Scope away your competitors,see how they’ve fashioned their web site and what they are partaking to captivate social electronic networks users to visit. Examine the desires and requires of the consumer.Conducting on-line surveys to know exactly where you are partaking healthy and where you are absent given be a good path to embark on your research.Accordingly you can formulate a program as to what on-line communities your company will object and what kind of information you can offer. On that point is no set formula to get exposure finished sociable community web sites. Test away different combinations of sociable networks and on-line community platforms to observe what works best for you. The essential gain to this scheme is that alters can be made almost immediately, to develop the desired result. With a blog, companies can remain followers updated when it comes to their current merchandise and advancements.

If your Cyberspaces marketing campaign is running successfully, continue analyzing and monitoring the trends. It is definitely not something you can remain stagnant. Consecutive alters and updating of new content is necessary to create sociable media a lucrative scheme for yourbusiness.

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The hit of the best cpa tsunami imaginations makes not trust on their popularity, contrary to what other public guess. Your commitment and the function you are set up to place in would find out whether the best online affair imaginations would be victorious.

It is over to you to decide whether or not these standard revenue giving online businesses are the best online affair imaginations for your situation.

Online Stores

Putting over online stores is single of the best online affair imaginations for a abundant of individuals. This is because we are everyone naturally tradesmen. You could certainly make cash by putting over an online store if you have enough capital to invest in a queer merchandise, and if this merchandise has a significant necessity at the period.

Online stores are unquestionably fewer pricey equated to latest shops. The rate of an online store is a little fraction equated to the cash that is necessitated merely to stay over with the rent of a serious shop. However, preserving purely online stores could be quite a confront. Particularly if you are merchandising clothing, goods or food, you would observe that online stores could be pretty limiting.

The best matter for you to perform is to see for a merchandise that could be dealt without going tasted or fitted. It is safe to sell souvenirs like stuffed animals, without charge size caps, mugs, explain chains and accessories on-line. Competition is the only matter you want to concern when it comes to here. You could compete with other online stores only if you could propose aggressive prices, greatest merchandise or some. Again, this would everyone count on how fit you have researched your niche market. Your niche market place decides your sales pitches, your web site conception, and your sales approaching for you.

Term advertising

If you are in truth more of a author, and you don’t like merchandising latest products, you could likely market place your talent as a writer instead. Web content writing military are proposed by a abundant of online firms. If you are in this field, your best shot at making extra revenue online is to turn out to be fraction of a pool of writers doing stipulation advertising. Website message, e-books, and opt-in sales imitates are what you ought to be set up to write. As in any other forms of inscription, this is everyone a matter of being paid used to it. Each one you in truth want in this job is a fine cope with of the language and ample exploration skills.

Online tutoring

With the advance of the net, you no elongated want to limit your tutoring to your neighborhood or school. Online tutoring is perfective for college students who are attempting to earn a tiny extra cash. Companies online are hiring abode based tutors who are adept at handling online messaging devices. You could speak to your students completed the phone, and teach them how to perform math or recognize science stronger during your without charge period. Each one you in truth want to have for this job are fine communication skills. Since you would be instructing high school or heart school kids, this job ought to be a breeze. It merely involves brushing over on noesis you already have. Electronic textbooks for you to pursue as fit would be supplied by the companies.

Remember that hit with these online affair imaginations would be resolute by the commitment and solid function that you are set up to place in on a consistent daily basis.

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Why do we believe the 2010 SORO study has the potential to be the best yet? On the one hand, this is a survey that focuses on key areas that retailers increasingly see developing from experiment to core functionality, so developing benchmarks for those is an important Shop.org initiative. Secondly, to make this research truly relevant to you, we want to report the aggregated results at a fairly granular segmentation level, especially by category / sector. To achieve this goal, we’re challenging retailers to participate this year as never before. We need a minimum of 10 (preferably more!) retailers in each category to participate so we can break out segmented results and benchmarks. So, if you ever thought your participation was optional, no more!

If you haven’t received your survey participation email this week, please let me know ASAP. The deadline to participate is end of day Wednesday, March 31. Look for results published over the coming months, including the May 5 Shop.org Webinar that is part of Shop.org’s Marketing Month series of events.

Thank you so much for participating in SORO 2010!

I would like to hear from folks who are heading out to San Francisco next week, what you hope to get out of this inaugural event.  What are your top priorities that you hope to achieve by the end of next week?   Let us know, and we could recommend some specific sessions, round tables, and people to make sure you connect with to help you reach your goals.   Thanks everyone and I am looking forward to seeing everyone in San Francisco. 

Larry Joseloff
joseloffl@shop.org

Rather than belabor too much the great nuggets in the summary deck and data summary, I’ll let the results – spanning retailer results, merchandising, marketing, promotions, gift cards, customer service and fulfillment – speak for themselves. As usual, some of the most interesting nuggets are in the retailer comments and answers to our open ended questions:  How were shopping patterns different for Holiday ’09 vs. ’08?  What one thing will you invest in this year for Holiday 2010? (You didn’t really think you could wait until summer to start thinking about holiday again, did you?) What one thing will you do differently for Holiday 2010 than last year?  We also explored how Twitter, Facebook and social media in general impacted this past holiday season – you may recall that at this time last year, numerous retailers were still deciding whether to invest in those media at all. 

If by June you forget that this treasure trove is available to you, I’ll remind you with the 2010 Shop.org Holiday Strategy & Planning Guide, which draws from the complete eHoliday ’09 study. 

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments about the eHoliday Study or Shop.org research generally.  In the meantime, may the days start to warm a bit wherever you are.

This month, Bazaarvoice will celebrate the fourth anniversary of its launch of ratings and review products. There’s no disputing that an incredible amount has happened within that time when it comes to acceptance of and technology behind ratings and reviews. Talk about the differences, then and now.

The crazy thing to think about is that just four years, nine months ago (we started our company on May 2, 2005), only three retailers in the entire United States had customer reviews on their site. Now we serve more than 50 of the top 100 retailers here, and more than 25 of the top 50 in the UK (and equal ratios in France, Germany, Australia, and a number of other countries).

What began as simply product reviews on retailer sites has expanded to a variety of types of consumer-generated content in 17 industries, 25 languages, and 36 countries. At the end of the day, Bazaarvoice is a digital reflection of word of mouth, which has always been with us since the dawn of the original bazaars (think “voice of the marketplace”). So there are many industries where word of mouth works. Today we have manufacturers gathering reviews on their own sites and sharing them with retailers to transform channel advertising on retailer sites in a world where 80% of consumers now seek reviews while shopping. Industries like financial services and health insurance, to name a few, are also increasingly requesting reviews from their consumers. We’ve also seen the quick adoption of community Q&A, where consumers can ask other consumers and brands specific, real-world questions about products or services. Even brands that don’t sell online are gathering reviews, Q&A, and shared experiences to build community on their sites. The implications all of this customer-generated content has for transforming the world of commerce as we knew it are truly profound.

We’ve been hearing for years that reviews and ratings are what the customer wants. That said, in what ways can retailers use this immediate, candid feedback for their own purposes to improve products, experiences or make major company decisions?

I’ve heard literally hundreds of stories from our clients that have used reviews and other content to improve everything from product design to shipping processes. One of the best examples is from Oriental Trading Company. They created an internal team made up of people from all over the organization who read negative reviews and changed more than 700 products to address consumer concerns.

For example, they saw that one of their teaching products, an inflatable solar system, was going “flat” very quickly, so the product had a low overall rating. They worked directly with the manufacturer to improve the product, then took new photos and wrote new website and catalog copy to better set customer expectations. Today the product is rated twice as high as it was before the changes, and earns several rave reviews.

Another good example is from Rubbermaid. They noticed low reviews on their Produce Saver product; however, their product testing had proven it worked the way it should. Reviews helped them understand that consumers didn’t understand how to best use the product, so they wrote an informative blog post and added new, clearer instructions to the package.

Do you feel the recession has impacted how today’s consumers make purchasing decisions?

The recession has definitely made consumers more carefully consider their purchases, making authentic input from other consumers even more important. The emotional pull of buyer’s remorse has never been stronger in an economy where the consumer saving rate is 5%. Yesterday’s consumer may have referenced Consumer Reports. Today’s consumer may look at Consumer Reports, talk to their neighbors, and read online reviews to make the best decisions. Nielsen reported that 81 percent of online shoppers read product or retailer reviews by other customers when doing their holiday shopping. The multichannel implications are very serious, especially when you consider how mobile is accelerating the adoption of browsing the Web to read reviews while shopping in the physical store (or at home, while browsing through a catalog).

With mobile all the buzz in retail right now, talk about MobileVoice, the platform your company launched last year.

We’re excited about MobileVoice, which lets a shopper access reviews anywhere, instantly seeing the input of thousands of consumers in the palms of their hands. Sephora launched MobileVoice and it continues to be popular with in-store shoppers, who can easily access 700,000 reviews at m.sephora.com. We’re looking forward to even more brands adding mobile reviews to help in-store shoppers make purchase decisions. You can see the huge display from 2009, when TurboTax encouraged consumers to read mobile reviews in large retail stores. Each year, they find new ways to help consumers easily access customer reviews to make purchasing decisions, and this had a huge impact.

I’m sure this is not a new question for you, but here it goes: What would you tell a retail CEO who is hesitant about implementing ratings and reviews because they are concerned about negative comments?

I’d say,

“Every day people are coming to your store and having experiences – positive and negative. You’re kidding yourself if you think all customers have great experiences, and the truth is that most unhappy customers won’t ever take the time to write a letter or complain to a manager. So, what happens? You see the negative effects in one way or another – defection to your competitors, high return rates, and decreasing sales. Why guess at what is happening when you can make it easy for consumers to communicate with you, and each other, so you can solve these problems and uncover new opportunities?

“You should also note that our research over the past four years has shown that over 80 percent of all reviews are positive – worldwide. There’s simply no reason to hide from reviews. They are proven to increase sales, decrease returns, lift customer loyalty, and transform the practices of your marketers and merchandisers. To think you can hide from the effects of word of mouth are misguided, and there is no debate about the positive, highly quantifiable effects of embracing it.”

I hear you’re about to add another title to your bio: “author.” Care to confirm/deny/elaborate?

Corporate culture is a huge passion of mine, so I’m writing a book about building a great culture. The working title is How to Make Your Company Suck Less. It’s based on my experiences in founding five companies (Bazaarvoice, Coremetrics, and three other smaller endeavors), and I’ve reached out to other CEOs and experts to interview them, too.

I’m really excited about this new endeavor, and I’m donating all of the proceeds to charity. My gift when I speak on this topic, which I’ve done about 25 times now, are CEOs telling me that our ideas made a real difference at their company. We spend most of our waking life working. Make it meaningful (and think of the powerful message in Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl)! Life’s too short…

As a member of Shop.org’s Board of Directors and regular sponsor and attendee of both Shop.org and NRF events, what are you looking forward to most about the inaugural Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference next month?

As you mentioned, this is a new event for Shop.org, and I was happy to be one of the champions for it at a Shop.org Board meeting. We are bringing together many of the most innovative minds in online retail, including the vendors that serve them and the investors that back them, to discuss what the future disruptions will be. It is based in San Francisco, on the north-end of the hub of technology innovation in the U.S., Silicon Valley. I hope this turns into a mainstay for Shop.org, and I expect it to be one of our best events ever.

In your opinion, what’s next in the world of customer-generated content?

I think we’ll see more of what Intuit recently did with TurboTax, with their Friends Like You functionality. As detailed in BrandWeek, TurboTax combined the power of consumer reviews with the influence of your friends – specifically, Facebook friends. With Friendalyzer, you can see which TurboTax products your friends used and read their reviews directly on the TurboTax site, while you’re trying to determine the best product to use. It truly customizes and personalizes reviews for consumers, and I think there is much more of this type of integration to come. You can find people in situations like yours – new baby, bought a house, etc. – and learn about their experience with TurboTax. The mass of reviews will continue to let consumers hone in on opinions that are most relevant to their own. Seth Greenberg, director of national media and digital marketing for Intuit, will share his learning at our upcoming Social Commerce Summit in April.

As a young entrepreneur, you’ve received incredible accolades from the business community. What guidance or tips would you give people who are thinking about starting their own businesses?

You have to have passion and follow your dreams. You have to be 100% committed to reaching your goals. I started programming at age 7 and I’m 38 today. While that may sound cool now, it wasn’t when I was growing up in Texas (in the days where it was football or nothing for boys). But I feel very lucky to have found my passion at such a young age. Find yours!

Also, don’t ever be afraid to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are – there’s always something new to learn. If you ever reach a feeling of “you know it all,” you are in for a hard fall eventually. Or, worse, you’ll never take risks in life. Several of my mentors are in their 60s and financially they’ve proven a lot, but they are always humble and always learning.

First and foremost, put people and culture first. When you find passionate, smart, energetic people, take care of them and realize that culture needs to be nurtured constantly. Companies have a soul – nourish it. Unless you run a company that is powered 100% by robots (except for yourself, of course), you have to learn how to motivate people.

Give me your best sales pitch on the reasons to visit – or live in – your hometown of Austin, Texas.

What can I say? Austin is so cool – talk about a city that generates great word of mouth (just listen to passengers on a flight to Austin). There’s a vibe in Austin that attracts smart, creative people and lets them be themselves. Cost of living is great here (allowing you to focus on more fulfillment in life than the Maslow hierarchy-driven shelter), and it’s a great environment for entrepreneurs because of the beautiful surroundings, live music, and just a wealth of things to do and see at any time (SXSW, for one, is coming up). I was born here and although I’ve lived in San Francisco and Philadelphia (both great experiences in my life), I’m glad to be back. Even as Austin has grown exponentially, there’s still this laid-back feeling and friendliness to the city that makes it unique. People really help each other here – there is a real sense of community.

I read an interview where you said your first job was working at your parents’ furniture store. What did those experiences teach you about retail?

I read Sam Walton’s book, Made in America, when I was at The Wharton School earning my MBA. He was the leader I chose to do a report on for my Leadership & Teamwork class. Sam’s key to success was that he spent a lot of time in his stores, and his competitors’ stores, observing real-world customer behavior. Growing up in my parents’ store, I did the same. But I also spent over 20,000 hours programming from ages 7 to 21. So I blended my two passions – retail and technology – and never looked back. Coremetrics provided the “eyes” you needed to observe in-store behavior (on the Web). Bazaarvoice provided the “mouth” and “ears.” At the end of the day, most Web innovations can be tied to offline innovations. Google is the world’s biggest and most efficient Yellow Pages. Facebook is the world’s biggest High School Yearbook, cocktail party, conference, or dinner between two friends. Bazaarvoice is the “voice of the marketplace.”

If you could have dinner with six people in the world, who would you pick and why? And where would you take them?

Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Sam Walton, Warren Buffett, Eric Schmidt, and Bill Gates. They are all great leaders and have ultimately served the world, and society, with great humility. Bill may be a controversial choice given some of Microsoft’s past competitive tactics, but I really respect how he is dedicating the entire second phase of his life to serving the global community instead of selfishly bathing in his riches. We only live once, and the ultimate goal is to create Heaven on Earth.

You seem to be constantly moving in a million different directions. How do you unwind?

At the end of the day, my biggest motivation is my family. My daughter, Rachel, is 5 years old and our son, Levi, is 6 months old. My wife, Debra, and I have been married for almost 14 years and she has been an amazing life partner. There is nothing more important to me than the three of them. We often spend vacation time together in Hawaii. There is no better place to unwind with family than Maui. It has it all – varied terrain from beaches to mountains, great food, breathtaking sunsets, perfect weather, and friendly people.

1. Volume was high, but concentrated in key buying weeks.  Over mailing is a primary cause of complaints (clicks on the Report Spam button) which depress inbox placement and deliverability for all subscribers.  Although many marketers held back some frequency outside the core season (Black Friday to Christmas Week Delivery Cut Off), many did not.  Unfortunately, this affects us all -  due to the excessive volume, many retailers saw email delivery traffic jams or deferral – where the ISPs like Yahoo! and Gmail just slowed down delivery of every message from all senders.  This can be very detrimental for time sensitive sales or alerts.

2. More retailers permissioned (opt in) holiday-specific content, resulting in highly engaged segments of buyers and brand loyalists.  An increase in the number of these “25 days of gifts” type series does not seem to have diminished the attraction for subscribers.  For 10 retailers we work with, all of them saw triple digit subscription files, and the response rates ranged from a mere double to a 50x increase over the regular file.  Several retailers have invited these subscribers to “continue the relationship” by joining a VIP or loyalty program.

3. Many retailers integrated social marketing into holiday promotions.  There was wide usage of “share this” among retailers, which makes it easy for subscribers to forward offers to others.  Interestingly,  a great deal or an unusual gift was not something widely shared.   There was perhaps a reticence to publicize to a circle of friends things that may have been purchased for them!   On the other hand, gift guides and one day site-wide sales saw strong sharing, since there is a lower personal connection.  The lesson:  Always to be timely with  social sharing – making it very clear that there is a benefit for the subscriber.

4. Most of the messages sent were broadcasts of generic offers to the entire file.   However, an increase in triggered, custom messages was integrated into the mix, resulting in higher overall response.  We find that even inserting 1-2 custom messages a month can reawaken subscriber interest and pop results.  Curiously, many retailers found that $ off was more successful than % off, even if the latter resulted in more savings.  (Please know this is a thoroughly unscientific sample!)  I’m sure there is some powerful macro-economic trend at work there, but in the meantime, it’s a great case for testing offers prior to committing to your sale strategy!

Creating great subscriber experiences is the only way to improve response and sender reputation (which determines if your messages make it past the spam filters and reach the inbox). However, too often, the email channel is used for discount promotions that go the entire file – pleasing a small subset, but fatiguing the rest of the file.  Many retailers are lulled into a false sense of security by the revenue generated with email campaigns.  In fact, most subscribers are not responding and not buying.  That lack of engagement leaves revenue on the table.

Most subscribers don’t bother to unsubscribe.  However, the “passive unsubscribe” is just as dangerous to future revenue, as those customers are tuned out, and no amount of promotion is likely to re-engage them.  Plus, who wants to be in a position of trying to bribe back a big group of non-responders with ever increasing discounts?  Sales without margin is a hollow victory.

Since the holidays, we’ve found that Q1 frequency is down a bit, but some retailers have not yet turned off the spigot from the holiday intensity.  That’s a shame – as it’s a sure way to burn out the file and reduce the opportunity for future seasonal markets.  If you are already mailing 7 times a week, it’s hard to generate more revenue or capture new attention when a new buying cycle starts.

How does this anecdotal data jive with your results?  Please post to the comments below and also let me know what I can clarify.