Crumbs from the Scone
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.
Crumbs from the Scone
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.
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:
