Shifting alliances and partnerships in the credit card industry create big headaches for sites that use recurring billing. And it’s time to break out the aspirin again.
I just finished helping to select the winners of the 2008 MarketingShera Viral Marketing Hall of Fame, and I learned viral campaigns are strange beasts.
They’re not as straight-forward as AdWords accounts or press releases. It doesn’t seem to matter how much time and money you invest–you must appeal to the fickle whims of the Internet.
Higher cart abandonment and bounce rates may be a sign of the gloomier economic times for eretailers. Both rates are up, according to a new report from MarketLive, Inc., which compiled data from almost 100 eretailers.
When the economy starts slumping, many marketers start sending specials to their email lists more frequently. After all, zapping out a special offer to your house list is about the cheapest and easiest way to drum up some fast responses. It’s also a pretty big mistake.
Why? Because if you send too many specials, too frequently, to the same exact people, they become tone deaf and they stop adoring your brand name and wanting to buy from it.
Compounding this problem is the fact that the people on your house list are usually Your Biggest Fans. They are on the 80-side of the 80/20 rule about profitable accounts. They are your evangelists and word-of-mouth spreaders. They are the email audience who, if treated right, will have an astounding lifetime customer value.
Example: I’ve been pounded no fewer than 10 times with different ‘special offers’ from a particular home decor brand in the last three weeks. I’m a multiple-time past purchaser. Although I eagerly clicked on the first couple of email specials, now when I see an email from them in my inbox, I snort with boredom and hit ‘Delete.’
What can you do to keep both the bottom line and the house list happy?
Try giving your biggest fans a big reason to open your email. As a fan, I don’t just care about specials. I care about YOU. I would love a behind-the-scenes story, perhaps some photos and bios of craftspeople making the products. Or maybe a story about what the purchasing directors are seeing trend-wise for the coming year (things I can look forward to buying from you.) Or perhaps a funny, home-made music video made by the guys in shipping …
The more I know about your brand — the people’s faces, voices, stories, etc. — the deeper my personal connection is likely to grow. As a member of the house list, I begin to feel like an insider. And the next time I get an email from you, I open eagerly.
The good news is, this “infotainment” email tactic raises short-term sales as well as customer lifetime value.
Want a real-life example of how this can work? Check out Sherpa’s classic Case Study of how Land’s End’s weekly email newsletter was partly responsible for lifting the brand’s online sales from $138 million to 218 million in 2001, during the worst of the last economic downturn.
Their highest-response newsletter of all time was about a local tractor auction … but it sold a lot of chinos! Includes 10 useful creative samples. Open access until June 5th.
Lands’ End Discovers Stories Work Better Than Sales Pitches in Its Weekly Email Newsletter
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=22943
An interview with Rick Keller, COO, Save-R-Planet Kids, a non-profit dedicated to educating children and adults about recycling in Leesburg, FL, yielded an interesting use of blogs in the nonprofit world. Read more…
No one has yet discovered how to turn video-on-demand into a mass market, but that isn’t for a lack of trying.
A spate of recent announcements, rumors and transactions in the VOD market indicate that interest is growing among would-be service providers — particularly DVD rental services planning ahead for a post-DVD world.
After writing a Special Report and a Case Study about online video contests, it’s time to draw a few conclusions about what promotional tactics successfully drive them. Read more…
I think it’s safe to say that Twitter-mania has arrived. In every other interview I do, someone mentions Twitter. Doing a keyword search for “Twitter” in my RSS reader, I found thousands of blog posts about it.
But how does this micro-blogging site help marketers and PR professionals?
It’s the Facebook marketing secret hardly anybody knows about yet. Each of your products and brands can have their own special Facebook pages — without charge currently.
I’m not talking about regular Facebook profiles. Those are for real human beings only — you’ll get booted if you try to make one for a product or brand, so don’t do it. (Unlike MySpace, where even my dog, Betty Boop, has her own account.)
Facebook has created an alternative for marketers. To check it out, go to the homepage of Facebook (the one you see before you log in). Click on the small text link titled “Advertisers” at the footer of that page. This takes you to a homepage to buy ads. If you look closely, though, you’ll also see a free offer to post a Facebook page for your product even if you don’t advertise.
Obviously, Facebook hopes to monetize this somehow, someday. In the meantime, why not take advantage of it?
Then your product or brand can start networking with customers, fans and their friends and their friends … etc. Probably works especially well for strong brands that already have built-in enthusiast and fan bases.
Let me know how it works out for you.
Social networking is an interesting topic, so whenever I hear about new ways people are using it I get a little excited. Listen to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing.
John has been blogging about all things practical in marketing for the small business owner for years. After working with roughly 25,000 small business owners throughout his career, John has a pretty solid grasp of what they need. Read more…
