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When you read about spam in email marketing blog posts and articles, you probably notice writers rarely pause to define industry-specific lingo. While you undoubtedly know what block, bounce and tag mean, less common words and phrases might leave you scratching your head. Fortunately, Spamhaus fills in the blanks with a glossary that includes terms like these:
Listwashing. Simply put, spammers clean their list not by implementing a correct opt-in process, but by removing the address of anyone who complains. “Listwashing removes spam symptoms without curing the underlying problem,” explains Spamhaus.
Snowshoe spamming. This is a technique in which spammers use multiple IP addresses and domains to spread the load of their activities across a wide area, much like a snowshoe distributes a hiker’s weight. “Snowshoers have learned an important lesson from botnet spammers,” notes Spamhaus. “[T]he IP that delivers the spam does not need to be the same IP that runs the actual spam-cannon server.”
Cartooney. A conflation of the phrase “cartoon attorney,” a cartooney is a baseless legal threat that intimidates recipients by citing irrelevant or nonexistent laws. According to Spamhaus, “Many promise to sue under invented laws such as the ‘Freedom Of Speech Law’ or ‘International Email Law’ and are usually written by spammers reacting to what they consider undeserved censure, being publicly identified or added to spam filter blocklists.”
Brush up on that spam talk. With a little help from the Spamhaus glossary, you’ll get the most out of the email marketing conversation—and sound like a pro.
Source: Spamhaus.
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As marketers continue to see good ROI from finely tuned mobile strategies, the humble text message has acquired newfound cachet. And in a recent video posted at the CenterNetworks blog, Allen Stern interviews Tatango CEO Derek Johnson, whose one-to-many SMS service enables instant mobile communication with an entire list of subscribers via text message and voice call. It’s worth checking out; here are some of Tatango’s finer points to consider:
The service is free, supported by advertising inserted at the bottom of a message. This leaves you with around 120 characters at your disposal.
You can easily build an opt-in group by inviting customers or colleagues to join.
Johnson claims that there are no limitations on the size of your group: the service can be scaled for small teams or large customer segments.
Sending a message is easy, too. “You can go to the website or you can do it directly from your mobile phone,” says Johnson. “You simply text … your message to 68398, and if you’re a group administrator, we know that it’s going out to your entire group.”
Text that next ad message! According to Stern, services like Tatango’s—including that offered by tXt_blaster—have some serious marketing potential. “This method could be more effective than email marketing,” he says.
Source: CenterNetworks.
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Shrinking economy? Time to shrink that ad budget.
That’s the knee-jerk reaction being witnessed at quite a few B2B companies these days. And it may be the exact wrong thing to be doing. In a recent blog post, Justin Hitt makes a compelling case for not only maintaining your ad budget in tough times, but for doubling it.
Here are a handful of Hitt’s Six Reasons to Double Up On Advertising During a Recession:
- Customers still have problems to solve. “Just because the economy is poor doesn’t mean customers aren’t facing problems you can solve,” insists Justin Hitt.
- There’s more ad space available at lower rates. You’ll never find a better environment for getting a big bang for your ad bucks than in a tight economy. “[M]ore publications are more willing to work with those who have money to spend,” he notes.
- Fewer customers are willing to spend. Go after them! “In every market, someone is buying something; they are just a little harder to reach. That means, testing new outlets may pull up someone who you may not have previously reached,” Hitt explains.
“Recessionary times … are great for getting more from business advertising, if you know how,” Justin Hitt suggests, adding: “The key is to be more focused on buyers, better measure advertising metrics, and test your marketing for results.”
Get out there! Post positive ad messages in front of prospects and clients. “[Times like these] make people more discerning to only work with those who understand and can benefit them,” Hitt concludes.
Source: Ask Justin Hitt.
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Merchants are hard at work these days trying to influence customer choice. Here’s some new research that might help. Specifically, these researchers looked at how assortment size influences whether shoppers choose indulgent or practical products.
In one experiment, two groups of participants were shown pictures of ice cream, and were asked to select their preferred flavor. For each flavor, there was both a regular version (e.g., vanilla) and a reduced-fat version (e.g., reduced fat vanilla). The difference between the groups was this: in the “low-variety condition,” there were just two options available: one regular and one reduced fat. In the “high-variety condition,” there were 10 options available: five in each category.
Yummy! Ten varieties of ice cream! That group chose the most sinful options available, right? Well, of course not.
Surprisingly (at least for ice cream lovers), the participants who chose from the larger assortment were more likely to select a reduced-fat flavor—the virtuous option. A subsequent experiment offering cookies or fruit got the same result.
Why? These researchers concluded that “because choosing from larger assortments is often more difficult, it leads people to select options that are easier to justify. Virtues … are generally easier to justify than indulgences.”
Advice for marketers? The researchers suggest that manufacturers of healthy snacks or other more virtuous products may be better off “pursuing venues with larger selections.”
Match size to substance. Before you decide on an assortment size, figure out if your product is a vice or a virtue.
Source: “Variety, Vice, and Virtue: How Assortment Size Influences Option Choice,” by Aner Sela, Jonah Berger and Wendy Liu, Journal of Consumer Research
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“It’s hard to get analysis right,” says Gary Angel in a post at the SemAngel blog. “[And] even when you do, it’s hard to get it consistently right.” You increase your chances, he argues, with a good process that prevents common pitfalls like these:
Failing to establish measurements of success before deployment. “[I]t’s always possible to find some evidence of success when you are allowed to choose the measure of success after the fact,” he notes.
Allowing vendors to measure their own performance. It isn’t an issue of questioning a vendor’s honesty; rather, says Angel, any self-interested party is naturally inclined to read data in the most positive—and, likely, least helpful—light.
Conducting analysis without the aid of a professional statistician. According to Angel, this doesn’t mean you need an entire team. “But if you have a team generating reporting and analysis on a regular basis,” he says, “you need at least one gate-keeper reviewing it and quashing the most abusive practices.”
Neglecting to tell an analyst that something has changed. If your technology and marketing managers don’t coordinate with those who study your data, critical insights might be lost.
“Good process is very much about protecting ourselves from the things that cause mistakes so that we have a chance to be consistently correct,” says Angel.
Source: SemAngel.
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In a post at his blog, David Reich recounts the story of a PR executive who wasn’t exactly thrilled about traveling to Memphis for a meeting with clients. Unfortunately, the exec decided to announce his disdain in a very public forum known as Twitter: “True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I’d scratch my head and say ‘I’d rather die than live here.'” Ouch.
His clients took understandable umbrage at the slight on their fair city, and made public an email expressing their disappointment with the comment. After referencing their multimillion-dollar account with his agency, they noted, “[I]t is enough to expect a greater level of respect and awareness from someone in your position as a vice president at a major global player in your industry.” Again, ouch.
“It’s easy to get caught in a situation like this, since Twitter is about friendly dialogue,” says the sensible David Reich. “But what you write is going out there in public, and Mr. Big Agency Guy should have had a bit more sense and sensitivity.”
In other words, as social networks continue to blur the lines between personal and professional lives, remember that an off-the-cuff comment meant for college buddies are just as likely to be seen by customers.
David Reich’s Marketing Inspiration can save you unnecessary pain: “If you don’t want your comments made public, even by accident, don’t write them down anywhere online.”
Source: My 2 Cents.
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“I am still unsubscribing from lots of emails in an email account that I no longer wish to use,” writes Tamara Gielen in a post at BeRelevant!
“While doing so, I’ve come across a couple of practices that make me want to scream.” In truth, she has encountered more than a few worst practices, and her list of rage-inducing issues sounds all too familiar. Here are some of the lowlights:
Making the recipient log in to unsubscribe. “I usually don’t remember my login details, and asking for a password reminder results in more email in my inbox,” explains Gielen.
Using a word other than “unsubscribe” to label the unsubscribe link. Hiding the link behind words that obscure its purpose will only frustrate your subscribers.
Using a miniscule font size legible only with the aid of a magnifying glass. “I wear glasses because I have bad eyesight,” she says. “Don’t remind me of that every time I want to unsubscribe.”
Sending an email to confirm the request. According to Gielen, a simple confirmation at your website will do.
Be considerate when it’s time to say good-bye. A recipient might have benign reasons for unsubscribing—but you’ll have a much harder time winning them back if you make the process more annoying than it has to be.
Source: BeRelevant!
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When Tropicana unveiled entirely new packaging for its Pure Premium orange juice early this year, the company received an unexpectedly vocal response from a small cadre of customers. According to Stuart Elliot, writing at the New York Times, they didn’t mince words—using adjectives like “ugly” and “stupid,” the unhappy shoppers complained that the new packaging made Tropicana look like a generic store brand.
In an interview with the newspaper, Neil Campbell, president of Tropicana, said, “What we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research.”
Deciding he couldn’t ignore his most loyal customers, nor their emotional bond to the old look, Campbell made a drastic decision. The sleek new design was out; the old packaging, with its evocative image of a straw pressed into an orange, would return. The company even plans to contact everyone who left feedback and explain the changes they can expect.
Campbell provides Marketing Inspiration by treating the strongly negative reaction with equanimity. “I feel it’s the right thing to do, to innovate as a company,” he told the New York Times. “I wouldn’t want to stop innovating as a result of this. At the same time, if consumers are speaking, you have to listen.”
Source: The New York Times.
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On Friday 2/27/09, Skittles surrendered itself to the Zeitgeist. Visits to Skittles.com led users directly to Wikipedia (later changed to a Twitter search for “skittles,” then to the official Facebook fan page), and attempts to explore the site navigation—little more than a pop-up—guided users elsewhere still: flickr, YouTube, Summize.
The experiment in surrendering the entire brand entirely to users—orchestrated by Agency.com, inspired by Modernista—drove interest in the Skittles brand through the roof! On Monday 3/2/09, “skittles” was mentioned in about 1% of tweets on Twitter.
Boy, does that sound dreamy! A figure like that is fit to make any sane brand want to trade places with Skittles in an instant.
But wait! That’s not the whole story.
Bored with lavish brand love, and eager to exercise their power on a piece of Americana, users on Twitter began badmouthing Skittles late Tuesday afternoon. As expected, all that ill will appeared in freeform across the skittles.com “homepage” (which at the time pointed to a real-time Twitter search for “skittles”). By day’s end, the humbled (and smart!) brand yanked itself out of users’ fickle arms and pointed its homepage to Facebook.
What’s the lesson here? Simple: Don’t be afraid to let users help shape your brand, but remember it is still your brand. As in any healthy relationship, sometimes even prospects need a little pushback.
Be a good brand-parent. Part of maintaining a strong brand identity is knowing when to put your foot down!
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Are your sales pipelines feeling a bit clogged lately? Well, welcome to the recession, says Scott Gillum in a recent MarketBridge blog post. “With customers delaying and/or postponing decisions altogether, the ol’ pipeline ain’t what it used to be,” he notes. But, lucky for us, he then offers 7 Pipeline Management Tactics to help get B2B sales flowing again. Among his tips:
Apply a layer of BANT. “By qualifying and re-qualifying opportunities based on Budget, Authority, Need and Time, you will get to the bottom line on why leads are not advancing,” Gillum advises. “Reps will say that it’s ‘B,’ but I wouldn’t assume that,” he adds.
Define a lead, and stick to it. “Look, it’s going to be a difficult road, but be honest with yourself on what is truly a lead,” he says. “Leads are defined by meeting a BANT criterion.” Period.
Manage responses. You can still strike it rich here. “So sort the ‘junk,’ and find the diamonds in the rough, pick out the ones who are in the right companies or have the right titles, and work them,” Gillum advises.
Grab customer face time. “It’s during these times that you need to have your reps in front of customers,” he insists. “[T]hey can tell you why [they aren’t buying], when things might loosen, who you need to get to, etc.”
Be proactive. Act on solid B2B sales-management tips like these. You might get those pipelines flowing smoothly again.
Source: MarketBridge.
When you read about spam in email marketing blog posts and articles, you probably notice writers rarely pause to define industry-specific lingo. While you undoubtedly know what block, bounce and tag mean, less common words and phrases might leave you scratching your head. Fortunately, Spamhaus fills in the blanks with a glossary that includes terms like these:
