1. Having an Internet Presence
2. Why We Believe You Need an E-Newsletter for Your Company
3. E-marketing, the magical ingredient in your sales mix
4. Email marketing set to thrive in recession
5. How can social media marketing help your brand?
6. Why do email marketing?
7. Website hosting: Local or international?
8. Email marketing is obsolete
9. Email marketing is an effective tool for B2B marketers

Having an Internet Presence

If you're wondering whether you need a presence on the internet, you're not alone. If you're struggling to make sense of the various options, welcome to the club. Thousands of people, organizations and businesses are in the same situation. That's what this page is for - to help you understand the possibilities and make the right decision.

What Is An Internet Presence?

Many feel they need to get their business/organization "on the internet". Often they aren't sure exactly what this means, but think they should be doing it.

Being "on the internet" is a bit vague and could mean many different things. We use the term "Internet Presence" to describe all or any of the possibilities, but more specifically, being "present" and visible on the internet so that other people can find you. Here are some of the things your internet presence might include:

• Access to the internet
• E-mail address
• Website
• Listings in directories, search engines, etc
• Other communication tools

Do I Need An Internet Presence?

Some organizations really don't have much use for the internet, in fact many small businesses survive without a computer at all. However, if you're in business or if you represent an organization of any kind, then we can almost guarantee that some sort of internet presence will benefit you. It may be a full-blown website, it may be a lower-cost alternative, it may be a simple listing in a directory. In any case it makes sense to explore the options.

What if I Don't Use the Internet?

It doesn't matter. You don't necessarily need to use the internet to have an internet presence, just as you don't need to read the phone book to be listed in it. Just remember that most other people do use the internet - more and more use it as their main source of information. If you're not there, you're slowly becoming invisible.

Do I Need E-mail?

Do you need a postal address or a telephone? If not then maybe you don't need an email address. Otherwise you certainly should be considering it. Even if you've never needed an email address you may be surprised at how useful it can be.

Do I Need A Website?

This is a more difficult question and you should probably to talk to someone with experience if you want the best answer. Generally speaking, you should have a website if any of these criteria apply to you:

• You would like to provide information about your business/organization to the public.
• You would like people to have a good chance of finding you on the internet.
• You would like your business/organization to have a professional image.
• You would like to sell goods or services over the internet.

There are many other reasons to have a website but these are the most common.

Source: mediacollege.com

Why We Believe You Need an E-Newsletter for Your Company

What is an E-Newsletter?

If you use email on a regular basis, you're probably already receiving E-Newsletters from some of the companies you do business with. And while there's a tremendous amount of variation out there regarding what constitutes an E-Newsletter (or "electronic newsletter" or "E-zine" or "email newsletter;" they’re all the same thing), they do have certain elements in common.

First and foremost, E-Newsletters arrive in your inbox as email messages. The sending company writes the newsletter, drops it into a predetermined email format, and sends it to a list of people who receive it on the other end. There's a fair amount of technology that runs in the background to do this efficiently and effectively, but when you boil it all down, it's just an email sent to many people at once.

To dig a bit deeper, think of an E-Newsletter like an electronic magazine, with three principal pieces:

1. Content: The words themselves - what you write and how you write it.
2. Formatting and Layout: Like a magazine, an E-Newsletter has a consistent look from month to month for organizing and laying out the content. Fonts, graphics, sections, headings, links, etc. all come together to create the design and layout.
3. Delivery and List Management: Once the newsletter is assembled (content + layout), there needs to be a "machine" for sending it out to a predetermined list of people (your subscribers). The machine takes care of the logistics behind delivery. In addition to sending the newsletter out, that includes things like adding/removing names; managing bounced emails; sending automated messages to readers as they come on the list or make changes to their personal information; and collecting and reporting on data regarding reader behavior and preferences.

Taken together, these three elements make up an E-Newsletter.

Why Publish an E-Newsletter?

"The cost of acquiring a new customer can be as much as 5 times the cost of keeping an old one."(source: Peppers and Rogers).
"A 5% increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent"(source: Bain and Co.)
"Permission e-mail campaigns are ten times more effective than direct mail campaigns."(source: IMT Strategies)

The results of this research and dozens of other studies add up to a simple conclusion: It's lot more cost effective and profitable to grow your business by increasing revenue and referrals from existing customers, than it is to keep chasing strangers. If you've got a "house list" of business relationships, you've got an extremely valuable asset - an asset that a quality E-Newsletter is perfectly suited to take advantage of.

Specifically:

• An E-Newsletter Increases Lead Generation And Cross Selling. As your newsletter arrives month after month, it keeps you top of mind with customers, prospects, partners and others, and provides an ongoing, low-key mechanism for highlighting your full range of products and services.
• An E-Newsletter Increases Customer Lifetime Value. Competitors can buy their way into your market by matching your pricing, matching your products and even matching the look and feel of your company. What they can't buy are your relationships. Every newsletter that you send serves to solidify the connection between your company and your customers.
• An E-Newsletter Provides A Low Cost, Instantaneous Channel For Sending Messages.Your database of email addresses gives you instant access to your customers and prospects. Once the machine is set up, in addition to sending an E-Newsletter, you can send alerts, advisories and messages as frequently as you wish.
• An E-Newsletter Opens Up A Two-Way Dialogue With Customers And Prospects. E-Newsletters allow recipients to easily and immediately interact with you. Comments are made, information is requested, an exchange of ideas between you and your customers flows easily in both directions.
• An E-Newsletter Hypercharges Your Existing Marketing Efforts. Your E-Newsletter doesn't compete with your web site, print newsletter or existing marketing materials. It leverages them. It creates a steady pulse and focus that ties your other marketing efforts together.
• An E-Newsletter Provides Instant, Measurable Results.Advertising, sponsorships, and many other traditional marketing tactics offer few options for measuring the return on your investment. E-based tactics on the other hand, are instantly trackable. With each E-Newsletter you send, you'll know how many people opened it; how many links were clicked on; who clicked on which links; and more. Fact-based, real time metrics. If you already send printed materials out to your contact list – whether as a print newsletter or in some other fashion – the most immediate and measurable benefit of switching to an electronic format is a savings in time, printing and mailing costs. With a variable cost per newsletter of nearly zero, you will never again have to weigh the benefits of printing more materials or agonize over whether or not person X is "worthy" of the cost of sending information.

Source: Constant Contact

E-marketing, the magical ingredient in your sales mix

E-marketing is a highly effective and affordable way of promoting products, building a brand and increasing customer retention.  E-marketing adds a magic ingredient to the traditional marketing mix which is trackable on delivery.

Being able to track distribution and responses gives e-marketing immense value.  And the speed with which this is done allows the sender to adjust content during a course of a marketing campaign at very little additional cost.  Calls to action are made simpler for customers because they merely need to click to respond.

There are various types of e-marketing activities that you can undertake as a business owner. E-newsletters are widely used to build brand loyalty.  They are sent out on a regular basis (weekly or monthly) and provide information that is useful to the customer.  They also encourage feedback by allowing customers to click through to links on your website.  However, an e-newsletter is only as good as your contact information.  Without a well-managed database your messages could reach the wrong people or no one at all.

Bulk internet messaging systems can help you deal with this, but make sure that you are able to send personalised messages to hundreds of customers at one time, create web-based subscriptions, track when messages are sent and to whom, track incorrect addresses and even see how many people click on links in a particular message.

Viral marketing is the internet's equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising and is a cost-effective way to build your e-mail database. These campaigns comprise an e-mail message with an incentive (often a competition) to encourage people to forward the mail to friends and family.  These friends and family are encouraged to do the same.

Affiliate marketing is when someone promotes another merchant's products through their own website in return for a commission.

Permission and Privacy
An important aspect of e-marketing is to ensure that you customers have control of their e-mail relationships.  It's really annoying to get unsolicited mail, so you need to first get your customer's permission to send e-communication to them.  Upfront you need to let them know what type of mail they will be receiving and how often, and provide ways to amend or cancel subscriptions.  Good e-marketing is based on respect, value exchange and two-way communication.

If yours does not exhibit all three, you will be in danger of damaging your relationship with your customer.

Source: Mercury, 26 August 2009
Article: Amrei Botha

Email marketing set to thrive in recession

The recession is driving the need for cheaper more cost-effective marketing solutions. This development has already seen a reduction in a number of traditional channels, creating opportunities for measurable tools which can deliver a high ROI.
Email marketing offers results at a fraction of the cost to other marketing/advertising tools. It is fast, measurable, easy to track and can reach a limitless audience with just one click. It is also easy to integrate with other forms of marketing, whether it's acting as a reminder for a print campaign, or as a product awareness tool prior to a launch. It is flexible in nature and can be changed according to the needs of a campaign.

Long-term relationships

Email marketing also plays a key role in the development of long-term relationships, through tools such as e-newsletters, which serve as a fast and targeted channel for disseminating news and information to the relevant audience.

Despite the numerous benefits, a number of factors have limited the success of email marketing, with the biggest culprit undoubtedly coming in the form of spam. Due to its ease of use, email marketing has been abused over the years and until this problem is curbed, its reputation will continue to suffer.

This. combined with increasingly strict filters, means that a large portion of targeted campaigns never reach the intended audience.

To overcome this, campaigns should always be permission-based and geared towards the subscribers' specific preferences. Sending out emails too often will only annoy the receiver and could result in your email being filtered as spam. It might be easy to send out to an entire mailing list because you own it, but unless it is relevant, don't do it.

Something worthwhile to say

Poor content should also be avoided; make sure you have something worthwhile to say otherwise you probably should not be sending anything out.

If you are having problems getting users details, start building a subscriber list through your website or blog, offer incentives; newsletters, e-books, coupons, anything that can create value in the eye of the user.

In order to come out stronger from the recession, the key will be to shift spending, looking at measurable cost effective solutions that can ensure results. Email marketing should be the last place, where your company cuts its budget and the first place where it increases it.

Source: Bizcommunity.com

How can social media marketing help your brand?

Social media has been around for a number of years although we've only recently seen an increase in the number of South African social media campaigns. With South African Internet usage escalating and consumer behaviour changing, more and more brands are starting to see the array of possibilities presented by social media. As part of an integrated marketing plan, social media is the online marketing element that can best be described as the new word-of-mouth marketing. In the past consumers didn't have any control over marketing messages but new technology gives consumers power by allowing them to decide which brands they want to engage with.

This shift in power makes it vitally important for brands to entice consumers to want to engage with them. Social media present brands with the opportunity to engage with consumers and get them to spread the brand message. When this is done correctly, social media can turn brand ambassadors into brand evangelists.

With so many platforms available anyone with Internet access can become a publisher through networks like Facebook, Twitter and so many others. Consumers can publish their opinions, experiences and thoughts whilst choosing who they want to interact with. Thus, social media gives consumers the power to have their voice heard.

Social media ties in with other online marketing elements like search engine optimisation (SEO) and online reputation management (ORM) as part of an online marketing strategy. It's a mistake to think that social media and search are mutually exclusive. Twitter or Facebook profiles and blogs are showing up more frequently on the first page of search engine results, whether the group, fan page or blog is owned by the brand or not. In terms of your “Google CV” it looks good if the group or blog post is of a positive nature, praising the service of a brand, but it is a completely different story when it is negative. For instance on the first page of Google's search results for “SAA” the blog “SAA Sucks” is listed. This of course is where Online Reputation Management (ORM) is all too important to include as part of your social media campaign strategy.

Unfortunately, social media is not as easy as setting up a Twitter account, creating a Facebook fan page and ticking social media off on your marketing to-do list. Social media requires continuous activity and engagement. Amongst other things, social media platforms can be utilised to execute ORM. For instance, by using search.twitter.com brands can see what is being said about them in the Twittersphere. Vida e Caffé is one of the South African brands using Twitter to their benefit. Others include Virgin Active South Africa, First National Bank and iBurst. These brands use Twitter to respond to questions, complaints, compliments and offer advice.

You don't have to be everywhere, but it is important to have a presence on the more mainstream social networks like Twitter and Facebook. When a brand decides to engage with its consumers through social media there are a few generally accepted conventions to which one should adhere, for instance:

• Do not spam your readers and followers with marketing messages and promotional offers.
• Encourage dialogue and be interactive, remember it is a conversation!
• Always respond to questions, queries and comments, whether it is good, bad or ugly.

When a brand offers valuable content it is sure to see ROI from social media. Social media marketing can be complicated to execute, especially when it comes to closing the loop, maintaining consistency and starting a viral effect.

Source: Bizcommunity

If you would like to know how social media can enhance awareness for your brand as part of an online marketing strategy, contact CLT Solutions for a consultation.

Why do email marketing?

People unfamiliar with email marketing often wonder what all the fuss is about. Didn't spam kill email as a marketing vehicle? And if spam didn't kill it, what about web feeds, instant messaging and all the other clever ways we can communicate online? Isn't email outmoded?

Those wondering about the benefits of email marketing in today's ever-changing online and marketing environment will find the answers below.

It works

Businesses engage in email marketing because it works. And works well. Here are the numbers...

• According to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generated an ROI of $48.34 for every dollar spent on it in 2007. The expected figure for 2008 is $45.06, and the prediction for 2009 is $43.52. As such, it outperforms all the other direct marketing channels examined, such as print catalogs.
• A December 2008 survey of hundreds of marketers by MarketingSherpa saw pay-per-click search ads rank top for ROI, followed by email marketing to house lists in second place.
• Marketing service Epsilon determined that clients were getting $0.14 revenue for each email delivered in Q3, 2008.
• A February/March 2008 retailer survey by shop.org revealed that email marketing has the second lowest cost per order (CPO) of any online marketing tactic. The CPO of $6.85 compares favorably with, for example, paid search's CPO of $19.33.
• A 2008 survey by Newsweaver and B2B Marketing Magazine of 175 UK B2B marketers revealed 78% considered email "critical" or "very important" to their B2B marketing strategy
• Newsweaver also surveyed Irish marketers, and 78.1% said that email is either "important" or "very important" to their overall marketing strategy
• In a December 2007 survey of Internet marketers by MarketingSherpa, email to house lists beat paid ads in terms of ROI, with 42% describing email as having "great ROI - outperforms other tactics." Only SEO and behavioral targeting (which you can also do with email) scored higher
• In another December 2007 survey of over 2000 marketers by Datran Media (note: an email marketing service), 80% of respondents "indicated email was the strongest performing media buy ahead of search and display." 55% expected "ROI from email to be higher than any other channel"
• Marketers responding to a July 2007 global survey by McKinsey put email second only to paid keywords in terms of online marketing efficiency
• A July 2007 survey of over 3,000 marketers involved in search marketing(!) by MarketingSherpa saw "email marketing to a house list" garner the most votes as the strongest marketing tactic. And it gained more votes than any other tactic for "good ROI"
• A 2007 survey of over 1,000 advertisers by Outsell Inc. put email as the second-most effective online marketing tool after the company's own website
• Research conducted by Shop.org in 2007 revealed email generates sales at an average cost per order of under $7, comparing favorably to $71.89 (banner ads), $26.75 (paid search) and $17.47
• In a March 2007 survey of hotel marketers by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies, 58.7% cited email marketing as one of the Internet marketing formats that generate the best results and highest ROI
• In a March 2007 column, usability guru Jakob Nielsen listed an email newsletter as "probably the single-highest ROI action you can take to improve your Internet presence."
• A report in mid-2005 from JupiterResearch stated that..."when done right, $1 spent on e-mail can generate a $9 return."

The money is following the results...

• The CMO Council's Marketing Outlook '09 Report reviewed the plans and opinions of 650 marketers. Email marketing was the top target area for investment in 2009
• A survey of B2B marketers in November, 2008 noted that 68.3% intended increasing spending on email marketing in 2009
• The DMA estimate spending on email marketing (in the USA) will increase from $600 million in 2008 to $700 million in 2009
• A 2008 survey by Forrester Research revealed that 95% of surveyed marketers use email marketing, with another 4% planning to do so by year end
• In a 2008 survey of 200 corporate markters, 74% said they would increase spending on email campaings over the next three years
• In January 2008, Jupiter Research forecast that spending on email marketing will grow from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $2.1 billion in 2012
• In a December 2007 survey of over 2000 marketers by Datran Media (note: an email marketing service), 82% of respondents "indicated that they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2008"
• A November/December 2007 survey of B2B marketers and their spending intentions noted that over 70% expected to increase their email marketing budget in 2008
• An end-of-year 2007 survey of marketing and sales execs by PoliteMail found over 80% "have plans to increase use of email for sales and marketing."
• In a September 2007 article, eMarketer predict spending on email advertising to rise 82% to $616 million in 2011. And spending on email marketing to rise 11% to $1,650 million over the same period
• In McKinsey's July 2007 global survey of marketers, more respondents used email than any other form of digital advertising vehicle. 51% said their spending on email would increase over the next three years, while 11% said it would decrease
• In a 2007 survey of large retailers, 88% of respondents noted that email marketing had "...increased as a priority in 2007."

If you're wary of statistics, then consider the results obtained by real marketers in real organizations. Here's a list of over 90 case studies showcasing successful uses of email. And nearly all of those are published at independent media websites, not at vendor sites where they're just trying to sell their particular email marketing solution.

Why it works

Email marketing works for a variety of reasons...

• It allows targeting
• It is data driven
• It drives direct sales
• It builds relationships, loyalty and trust
• It supports sales through other channels

Modern email marketing services and solutions support database integration, segmentation and various other tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of outgoing messages. Advanced methods generate on-the-fly emails customized down to an individual recipient basis.

And every email campaign you send out generates a heap of actionable data you can use to refine your approach and messages.

Email promotions and offers generate immediate action: sales, downloads, inquiries, registrations, etc. Informative email newsletters and other emails send people to offline stores and events, prepare the way for catalogs, build awareness, contribute to branding, strengthen relationships, encourage trust and cement loyalty.

All in all, a pretty good way of going about your marketing business. But...

Let's not get carried away

Just like a garden only bears fruit if managed properly, so it is with email marketing. We know it can work, but you have to get the basics right. The basics of building a list of people who want to hear from you, crafting a message, and ensuring the emails get through to those on that list.

And once you have the basics right, there's a whole spectrum of more sophisticated tactics you can employ to drive further success. Because the metrics show us that there's plenty of room for improvement and plenty of rewards waiting for those who do improve.

For example, one report found that "using web analytics to target email campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and eighteen times the profits of broadcast mailings."

At a simpler level, just mailing a small coupon offer to customers who hadn't purchased for a while brought in a tonne of extra sales for one retailer.

Source: Mark Brownlow, Revised: March 2009 | First published: November 2006

Website Hosting: Local or International?

Hosting a website within the borders of South Africa has always been an expensive operation, particularly when the website was anything more than brochure-ware and likely to attract a lot of visitors every day. The only option to date has been to host websites with high traffic volumes offshore with one of the many providers based in the US and Europe. Doing so cuts bandwidth costs significantly but also has some potential pitfalls. We look at some of the options.

What type of site?

Most users setting up a website for the first time imagine huge amounts of visitors and hundreds of thousands of pageviews every day. The reality is that unless they are starting a news portal, a social networking site or forum-based website with potentially thousands of community members, the website is very likely to have just a few hundred visitors a month, each looking at a handful of pages each month. This is particularly true of a website that is used to advertise a small or medium business with primarily contact details and a few customer references on it. Unlike large news sites or community-driven and interactive sites which have users returning to the site more than one a day, most websites will have few returning visitors each month.

A site that is expected to generate just a few hundred visitors a month, each viewing three or four pages, will probably need to cater for a maximum of 1 000 pageviews a month to allow for growth and small spikes in traffic. Which could realistically translate into around 300 - 500MB of bandwidth used a month assuming the pages don't include multimedia or heavy graphics. Of course the webpages could be stripped down even further but to be safe it's worth overestimating the bandwidth needs.

Unless the website is expected to serve up significantly less than 1 000-plus pages month it's best to plan for this type of bandwidth allocation and shop around...

Packing in the visitors

The real challenge comes when you're planning a dynamic community or news site which is expected to draw in thousands of visitors a day, many of them potentially visiting more than once a day. In this case bandwidth bills are going to mount quickly and eventually, unless the site is generating significant income, the cost of running the site could quickly overwhelm the incoming money...

... The alternative for sites of this size is to switch to a dedicated hosting setup, which can be costly, or move the site offshore. Moving a website to an offshore hosting provider can slash the costs of bandwidth significantly. US hosting provider MediaTemple, for example, offers its Grid Service solution for $20 a month (around R200 a month) which includes up to 1 terrabyte of bandwidth of bandwidth per month, MySQL databases and the option to host up to 100 domains under the same account. Other providers such as HostGator offer unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage for even less on mostly a per-domain basis. HostGator's Hatchling package offers users a single domain with no bandwidth limits for less than $9 a month (R90).

Hosting offshore offers a significant cost saving for users but also comes with some pitfalls. One of these is that for sites wholly focused on the South African market performance may often not match local equivalents. If the site is relatively static and speed is not a critical factor then offshore hosting is a definite option, but for a site that is largely forum-drive or requires speed this could become a significant obstacle.

The other consideration is that sites focused on the South African market will largely want to maximise the experience for SA visitors. With many local users opting for local-only ADSL packages to contain costs a site hosted internationally will be inaccessible to them. And even if they don't have a local-only account bandwidth caps may mean that at the end of the month, when they normal cap is exceeded, they will not be able to view the site. This is an important consideration for sites looking for constant readership throughout the month.

The other consideration is that, depending on the hosting provider, services levels may vary depending on their location. A South Africa-based hosting provider can be contacted during workhours using a telephone. A US-based provider may be less accessible by phone and contact may largely be limited to email and call centres.

Choosing a local or international hosting provider depends on the type of website being run, the target audience and the growth expectations and is worth serious consideration before launching the product.

Source: Alastair Otter - MyBroadband

Email marketing is obsolete!

Actually, no, it's not obsolete.

What's obsolete is the way you used email five years ago.

Today the accepted practices for effective email marketing are more developed than ever. On top of that, according to annual studies by the Direct Marketing Association email still delivers the top return of ANY marketing channel.

I happen to agree!

Here's three strategies to keep your email marketing current (and effective).

Think Long Term. Keep in mind that with the unsubscribe button in every email and the report as spam button not far away, a reader needs to want to continue to receive your email. That means offering something valuable or useful right now but also a year from now. Think in terms of a series or topical messages or seasonal information.

You Have to Give Before You Get. Often you send email because you want GET sales or GET reader loyalty. These days you'll want to consider very carefully what you can offer your readers that is of VALUE to them. Please don't be in the habit of sending a company newsletter with a fancy graphic. That's not a give at all. Give usable information. Your reader will want to see what you've got coming next. You'll see it in a higher open rate.

Build a Connection. Often emails come from a corporate email address like info@ or sales@ and there is no person associated with the communication. You can't feel a connection to Mr Info@. Send a message from the CEO, or VP Marketing or Company Spokesperson. Sign it with a name and make sure the email address matches. Your readers will be most likely to reply to an email if they thing there is a real person sending it and reading the responses.

Take a look at your email marketing practices and see if you stack up.

Source: Mitch Tarr | www.ZinMarketingAgency.com

Email marketing is an effective tool for B2B marketers

While I advocate innovative thinking in the areas of business communications, there remains a place in a company's marketing mix for more traditional ways of communicating, especially for B2B sectors. One such electronic tool is email.

Mark Brownlow points us to a study by B2B Marketing Magazine and Newsweaver, which reports that over 80% of B2B marketers in the UK who were surveyed consider email marketing as an important part of their marketing mix, with most expecting to increase its priority in the B2B marketing and communications strategy. This is because email offers marketers an effective way of increasing a website's traffic, and can be useful in distributing targeted, response-driven content.

With the advent of tools and technologies such RSS, email marketing was (and is) considered by many as a dying business tool, especially in light of increased spam, but as Denise Cox of NewsWeaver believes, companies can overcome this issue by focusing on a permission-based, timely and relevant emails - instead of unsolicited, untargeted emails.

Another important issue is the optimisation of email campaigns, most importantly the landing pages for email marketing campaigns. From carrying through the same look and feel, tonality, and conversation from the email message to the landing page, to reinforcing strong, clearly visible calls-to-action, both on the email and on the landing page - such a white paper downloads - marketers must put emphasis on optimising all the elements of the email campaign, in turn improving its success rates.

Online marketing is a very valuable tool for B2B marketers, especially when budget, lead generation and ROI are concerned. While new tools and tactics, such as Web 2.0 strategies, should be included in the overall B2B marketing strategy, email marketing should join Search as the top Web marketing tactic for B2B marketers.

Source: Cosmedia