Online marketing solutions

The Internet has truly been the best thing that has happened for anyone involved in e-mail marketing strategies and e-mail marketing campaigns. With the emergence of the Worldwide Web and a constant growth and expansion of our state of the art technology, a more innovative, creative and more accurate e-marketing keeps evolving, with every campaign and new market segment opportunity found.

No longer for the young, the geeks, or the techies, technology has integrated itself into all our daily lives.  People rely more and more on e-mail and the internet as a source of information and survival.  No longer a luxury, the Internet is a real necessity, essential in everyone’s life. Using the Internet and e-mail to market, generates more sales than the older traditional ways of print, snail mail promotions, and announcements. Nevertheless, any good marketing campaign requires skills and tools to create successful and profitable results.

Whether you are a minor or major player, small or medium business, e-mail marketing has a great appeal to all and is constantly gaining popularity.  E-mail marketing is still the most cost effect tool a marketer has at their disposal allowing for lower costs while resulting in higher conversion rates.  So, how does one effectively use e-mail marketing to market?

Building an E-Mail Marketing Address List
Whatever your profession, an e-mail list plays a very integral role.  Your list will be the heartbeat of your strategies.  Building an accurate list, based on accurate demographics, along with researched behavioral data, will enable you to communicate market your clients, with relevant and interesting information pertaining to their interest, age, gender, and lifestyle.  Whether someone is buying your products, wanting further information on your company, or is visiting your website, you need to build a finely tuned e-mail marketing subscriber list.

Good Content or Just Another Sales Pitch?

Content – Every direct e-mail marketing campaign needs good copy.  Remember, your client may never meet you.  Your content will always reflect your voice, whether it is personal or just another sales pitch.  Their responses and decisions will be solely based on what they see, read, and perceive.  Realistically, both content and a good sales pitch are needed.  Without good copy, no one will read past your first paragraph.

Sales Pitch – Without a good pitch, you may never see any click through results.  But as we have said above, your content needs to be relevant and targeted to a specific audience.  Once size does not fit all.  Demographics and behavioral research proves this out over and over again.  While focusing on relevant and dynamic content, the average user is scanning their inbox using only seconds when deciding to read, keep, or trash their e-mail.  Use that window of opportunity wisely.

Building Relationships
Digital relationships are very fragile and need to be nurtured. Your clients and prospects are constantly being bombarded with aggressive email marketers looking to entice and lure them away, as they build their own successful email address lists.  This action calls for a smart strategy on your part, making sure that you are sending the right message to the right audience.  Bring your campaigns to a personal and dynamic level.  Let your audience know that they are important and their choices and opinions are respected and noted.  Do not give them an excuse to leave.  Loyalty is built slowly and consistency.  Trust does not come overnight.

Create a Secure Environment

Identify Theft is a very real threat.  With a majority of people giving out their personal information online, there is a need to be concerned.  In a report put out by e-marketer.com in March 2010, it was stated:   “Overall, consumers expressed the most concern about conducting financial transactions online, including banking and bill pay. E-mail was a greater concern than online shopping, perhaps because of the wealth of personal data contained in e-mail accounts.”

Never forget that you are marketing to real people, with lives, families, jobs, and responsibilities.  Respect their time and intelligence.  Send campaigns out that are relevant, valuable, and worth reading.  Make your communications worth waiting for and greatly anticipated.

Using effective and powerful tools, does not guarantee success.  Tools cannot do anything by themselves.  As a captain needs to steer his ship, keeping it on course with precise and accurate instruments, an e-mail campaign needs to be kept on course with good strategy, great content, and the right targets to bring in a successful ROI.

Behavioral marketing gives the e-marketer the ability to accurately segment and target your audience by present and past online behavior.  Utilizing this method when creating your email campaigns, can significantly change the way you plan and send your emails in the future.

“eMarketer projects that behaviorally targeted ad spending will reach $4.4 billion by the end of 2012.”

Behavioral targeting is predicated to become more widespread, resulting in better customer experiences, as they are targeted with more relevant information.

“Using behavioral targeting with email is not a new idea,” says Shar VanBoskirk, senior analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, MA. “It is something that good, smart marketers have been tuned into for several years: understanding that the activities within an email are good clues to the types of offers that would be useful to send in a subsequent message. In fact, email used BT even before other types of online advertising did.”

E-mail campaigns need to evolve.  Irrelevant email campaigns must change focus and deliver messages that their recipients want to see, hear, and read.  What does this mean?  Direct email marketing campaigns need to make use of behaviorally triggered e-mail in response to customer actions.  Content needs to be more personalized and much more dynamic.  E-newsletters need to have more valuable and interesting content, not becoming a replacement for an autoresponder type message.  All e-newsletter content needs planning and purpose.

Implementing Behavioral Marketing in our Email Targeted Campaigns:

Broadcast email:  According to Jupiter Research “when marketers actively target their email campaigns to specific behavioral and demographic characteristics, they can produce more than 18 times the profits that broadcast messages produce.  Think of the effect on your ROI?

Re-marketing: Marketers can easily track when an email is opened, what specific pages are explored, what links are clicked on, or any combination of actions and responses.  This important and recorded data can then used to create dynamic and strategic behaviorally targeted email.

Email Address Lists:
By collecting and utilizing specific and accurate information from your email address lists, you can send relevant offers and information based on a user’s preferences and prior purchases.  Instead of just depending upon your demographic data, you can now deliver unique offers and information that they want, according to their behavioral patterns.  This is differentiating the differences in specific actions that have happened, opposed to behavioral, demographical theory.

Actions are Key – Don’t Assume

Demographics are important but cannot be relied upon as the sole means to understanding your audience.  For instance, if you are selling perfume, and have targeted just women, within a certain age range, and location, you have automatically left out the all the men who buy perfume for their wives or girlfriends.  When the holidays come, men buy perfume, flowers, chocolate for various reasons and various people.  You can now see the implications and importance of targeting behavior and actions.

Up-selling to the Full Person

Combine past and present behavior.  Using the above approach let the actions speak louder than statistics.  Using past purchase behavior coupled with recent purchase activity, gives you a better and wider scope of understanding the entire person.  The more you know about the interests and overall purchases of anyone, the better chance you have of sending them a campaign that speaks directly to them.

Behavioral targeting is an ongoing process.  Remember, the more accurate the campaign, the better chance you have to convert browsers to clients.

What is Email Harvesting? Email harvesting is the process Where your email address lists are obtained, without your permission or knowledge.  They are used in various bulk and direct email marketing campaigns, usually labeled as spam.  Through spiders, spammers have obtained programs which look through web pages for email addresses, as well.

How does this affect you?

Email address harvesting is not a good thing.  Once your client’s email address is stolen and is now in the hands of a spammer,  your client will get flooded with spam and trash – almost immediately.

You could even be held liable, especially if your email address is displayed somewhere in that spammer’s email.  Your client will think it is from you and soon you may be trashed, and spammed.  The implications and results will be chilling.  Imagine  having to cancel and create a brand  new business email address?  Think of all the clients, associates, and prospects who are already signed up and linked with an email address taken years to build!

Why are they doing this?
Their one goal – to sell something or to conduct some illegal activity benefiting them with some monetary gain, all at your expense.  You have inadvertently become a target of their bad intentions now that they have your your email address list.  Some, just collect email address lists and sell them to marketing companies.  Pretty upsetting don’t you agree?

Reunion.com – Reunion.com dupes new members into signing up by sending them an email that pretends to be from an acquaintance who’s been looking for them (on Reunion.com, naturally). After signing up, the site extracts your contacts and immediately begins spamming them to join by sending out a similar email.

More and more companies have been considering engaging in marketing campaigns that involve “address book scraping, (address book harvesting)”  in which a user is asked to import his contacts (i.e., the e-mail addresses he has stored in his e-mail account address book) into his social networking Web site or other online service so that a message can be sent to those contacts inviting them to join the social network or to participate in a joint offering of the company and its partner.  In some cases, the user is asked to provide the username and password for his e-mail account so that the import can be done transparently.  Read Full Article

Legitimate sites use deceptive email marketing tactics as well.
Upon my research, I came across an article about a site known worldwide called “Classmates.com” which promises to hook you up with former classmates who just might be looking for you, if you upgrade to their gold membership.

Classmates.com Agrees to $9.5 Million False Advertising Settlement
Classmates.com — the website that promises to reunite people with their mullet-haired friends of youth — has agreed to pay out a $9.5 million settlement for a lawsuit dating back to 2008 accusing the company of “false advertising” through “deceptive” marketing e-mails.

OK – You  have convinced me – What should I do?
First, for those of you who want all the technical ways to protect your email lists online, please see:  Effect Methods of Protection.

As for me, I am a simple kind of gal living by the rules of  “make it simple – PLEASE!”.  After my research in this topic, one thing is for sure.  I will never import my address list anywhere, on any website, EVER AGAIN!

If you know a better way, please share.

No business wants to spend money on a marketing campaign if they can’t see a return on their investment. Recent reports have estimated that for each business that spends a dollar on an e-mail marketing campaign, they can see over 40 times that amount in profits. That means $1 spent is equal to over $40 in profit for a business. Of course, it helps if you know how to make a good e-mail marketing campaign. If you listen to the following tips, you might end up with much more money in your pocket than when you started.

Plan your campaign before you begin

Don’t just send out emails with a loaded message of advertisements, coupons, and the life story of your business. An email campaign is not a one-time thing, it takes place over a longer period of time, like a year. You have to introduce yourself to your customer, gain their trust, and tell the customer about your business, a little bit about your products and services. Give the customers and prospective customers time to believe in your expertise and your excellent service and then you can make some friendly offers for sampling your services.

Send the right messages to the right people

Remember that not everyone is interested in the same thing. Certain customers will want to know about your new products and others will want to know about your sales. If you specialize in selling both paper and puppies, you can’t sell both of them together. A printing shop will be much more interested in the paper than the puppies, and a pet shop will be more interested in the puppies than the paper.

On a different note, you can’t send the same message to the same people because they have different roles in their businesses. It’s different if you’re trying to make a small individual sale or if you’re trying to be the sole supplier for a large company. You wouldn’t talk to an individual customer the way you would to the CEO of a large corporation.

Make it personal

Remember when you’re organizing your emails to customers or potential customers that you can’t just think of them as a mass of people. You have to tyr to use language that makes a person feel as if you’re talking only to them. Try to stay clear of the stereotypical marketing lingo that makes people want to automatically click delete.

Pay Attention to your own e-mail address

The name of the email address that you send your messages from matters. It shouldn’t look like spam and it should be something that customers will be able to easily recognize in their mailbox.

Don’t use words commonly used in spam

Remember you don’t want your email to be filtered as spam and you don’t want the customer to automatically delete it. If you start with an advertisement with the word “FREE”, and write a generic message, no one will be interested. Look up words commonly used in spam, and don’t put them in your emails. Also learn the spam rules so that your emails don’t automatically get shoved into spam.

Sample different colors and texts

Every email doesn’t have to look the same. If you think that a color change might improve traffic, then try it, or maybe a font change or different words. But try one change at a time, to see which is working and which isn’t.

Use few images

Don’t overload your messages with graphics. If you do use some that are related to your business or brand, try to make them look custom-made. Don’t steal others’ graphics.

Create a nice landing page

If the customer decides to click on a link you attached in your email, you should have a nice landing page that goes into greater detail about what you began talking about in the email.

As e-mail marketers know, life is constantly changing.  The ever growing global population relies more and more for its knowledge and communication on the Internet, as its heartbeat and sustenance.  From interest to need, from hobby to livelihood the years have produced great change in the world around us.

A large part of that change includes our prospects and clients that we target and communicate with through our direct e-mail campaigns.  We spend many hours compiling data, information, stats and studies in order to create compelling and valuable targeted messages, worth opening and reading.

E-Mail Overload

As we plot and plan our next e-campaign strategies, we join hundreds of others desiring the same goals – walking the same path – turning prospects into clients, turning clients into repeat sales.  Daily, all of our in-boxes are constantly being bombarded not only with legitimate mail from our friends and family, but with the latest announcements of sales and specials from so many other companies.  Illegal spammers create stress and annoyance, affecting even those whose campaigns are legitimate and anticipated.

With all our good efforts, the surveys still assure us, that people are going to unsubscribe at some point in time.  Marriage, divorce, children and relocation, play a large role.  Our e-mail preferences change along with our new perceptions of e-mail and its relevancy to our daily lives.

Just give me the facts and stats

So what can we do?  Can we change or influence the number of unsubscribers?  Yes we can.  Knowing all of this is important, but applying these truths, must be done knowing the facts.  If we have to invest our time and money, making costly decisions and revisiting our strategies, we need to know that we are not wasting our time on someone’s opinion.  Here are some of those facts from MarketingSherpa.  Make it work for you.

Why do consumers unsubscribe? According to MarketingSherpa, people unsubscribe for the following reasons:

Relevancy:  One Size Does Not Fit All.  If we do our due diligence with our e-mail list demographics, it is obvious.  Each campaign must have its own targeted segment.  Age, gender, and profession are strong influences in a purchase decision. Our offers must fit their interests and lifestyle.  Make your campaigns meaningful and valuable.

E-Mail frequency:  How many e-mails constitute too many?  The consensus seems to indicate that keeping in touch at least monthly to maintain a dialogue with your clients is good.  The most important rule is to keep your communications fresh, relevant, and timely.

E-mail bankruptcy: (a form of e-mail mental breakdown.) There are consumers that have reported they are just overwhelmed and overloaded in their in-boxes.  They have had enough.  In one swoop, they decide to unsubscribe to every mailing list that they see.

Wrong person – Wrong timing: Maintaining up-to-date database lists are the key to successful campaigns.  Using accurate metrics and stats will quickly help you see how each e-campaign performed and who your active and inactive clients may be.  Keeping accurate and regularly updated demographic e-mail lists, helps modify, target and optimize all future campaigns.

Social Media:  The report states that a small percentage of people have unsubscribed and are using text messages and social media to remain updated.  Maybe it’s time for a e-mail marketing coupon campaign?

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  Here are a few creative suggestions:

1. Reward your customers: Give them a special discount or bonus on their next purchase.
2. Awaken the Inactive Buyer: You can send a special sale to those who have bought in the past, and have not returned.
3. Prospects: Offer a special discount for first time subscribers.
4. Valuable Tips: We are all experts with loads of experience in some area.  Whatever your service or product is, offering some helpful tips or a “How to do” tutorial.  Free is always good – when it is relevant and meets a practical need

Do not fear the unknown little grasshopper.  Dare to be different and innovative.  Reach out to your mail recipients and ask them why they unsubscribed or stopped purchasing your product.  Listen and learn.  Everyone has an opinion and appreciates being heard.



I watch Fox News every evening.  OK I am addicted, I admit it.  Unfortunately, the economic news has not been very uplifting lately.  Every economist seems to have a different take on what we are experiencing.  But what we can ALL agree on is this one simple statement – the economy is not good.  Kind of depressing?  For small businesses or email and internet marketers that advertise and sell online, there is a light at the end of the tunnel – the news is not so dark.

This will be a good time to take a look at what people are talking about on the Social Networks.  Surf around on Facebook and Twitter.  Google blog posts for subjects that deal with your market niche.  What are the problems and concerns that are being voiced?

Offer Solutions that Meet a Need

Can you offer solutions and help?  Start spreading your internet voice and solve some problems for your clients and prospects that the current economy has created.   Are you up to and ready for a challenge?

Everyone loves tips on how to save money and time.  In our years of  experience and just living, all of us are experts in something.  Sharing your expertise and experience, without an agenda to sell, just might bring in an unexpected return.

The Economy is not a Crutch or an Excuse for Failure

Bad news is everyone and is affecting everyone.  It is times like this that you must rally within yourself and start your creative juices flowing.  Your goal is to be a catalyst – continuing to create interest in your services and products.

People are under a great deal of stress these days.  They are worried about their futures and hoping for better days.  So, here are some helpful suggestions to get you on a positive path towards creating  more opportunities to be seen and get noticed in a difficult economy:

Existing Customers are Crucial for Sustainability

All B2B and B2C businesses know that turning prospects into clients take time, planning, and trust.  But once you have created that trust, it is priceless.  The reason we exist is not because of a one-time sale, closeout, or discounted item.  The reason we can pay our bills is totally dependent upon our existing and repeat customers.

We all know how important building our customer base is.  But keeping your customers happy and satisfied is even more important.

Showing your appreciation to them, in tangible ways, will not only give them a lift, but keep you and your brand alive and in the front of their minds.

The Element of Surprise

Do you have a newsletter that you send out?  If you don’t, this would be an opportune time to do so.  How about offering a special deal or discount, just to your loyal repeat clients?  In a bad economy, any kind of valuable offer will be appreciated.

Reach out in a personal way.  Bring people in behind the scenes of your company.  An event, a promotion, or just some interesting comments from you on a personal note.  Let people know your voice.

Whenever I see a movie that I love, I always look for a special presentation called:  “Behind the Scenes” -  of that particular movie.  I find it fascinating to be able to find out what went on during the filming.  The stories are so interesting.  You start to feel that you know the actors and directors personally.

Be Generous in an Ungenerous Age

Donate some of your specials to a worthwhile charity.  People tend to have more respect for those organizations that give to worthwhile causes.  Don’t be surprised how wonderfully that will affect you and all those who work for you.

Create a Team Spirit

The most underutilized part of an organization is its employees.  Mangers and executives tend to forget that the “underlings”  are on the same ship, weathering the same storm and trust me, they don’t want to drown.

Call for a power meeting in your board or conference room.  Shock your entire staff  by sending out an internal email request, asking for some creative ideas for your marketing mix.  This is a win-win.  You will probably get some interesting responses but most of all, you have let them know that they are integral to your survival, and you have just created genuine loyalty and trust within your own organization.

Reality Check - Get out There
The same old just won’t work anymore.  Use this time to re-think, re-plan and  re-structure.  Dare to be different, and determine to be creative.  This is a good time to not only step out of the box, but to break the box open, completely.

With millions of people using the Internet and the Worldwide Web for shopping, communications, and business, reaching your targeted segment online becomes easier each day.  No one can promise any method of marketing brings in 100% results. However, the bigger the marketing mix, the better your chances are for success.

An email campaign marketer should use every resource available to create buzz about their company, product, or service.  The acceleration of knowledge and technology is growing and changing at lightning speed.  Sometimes is seems that we will never be able to keep up, but keeping up and staying on top, are the key elements of remaining competitive.

Marketers are very resourceful people, constantly looking and searching for the latest new technology to help their business be seen and heard.  Well Google and Yahoo are actually out there helping.  Not only do these tools work, but they are free!

Google Local Maps: There are so many ways to be found on the web.  When people are searching for products and services, does your business come up on top?  Do you know how your business ranks in the search engine results pages (SERPs)  Some marketing analysts  have stated, it may take from 3-6  months to gain good rankings.   Is there a way to expedite your business ranking?  Yes, with Google Local.

1.  Go the Google Maps. Click “Put your Business on Google Maps.”  -  If you do not have a Google Account, take a few minutes to set one up.

2.  Log into Google with your user name and password.  Click on “Add New Business”.  Note:  If your business has more than one location, you will need to create an excel spreadsheet and use the selection “Upload a Data file.”

If you need any help or information before proceeding, watch this video:  http://www.google.com/help/maps/tour/

3.  Fill in all the information  You will be able to edit, add photos, etc. after completion  Please read paragraph on top of the website page before going on.   Review all your information before hitting next and submitting.

4.  You will have the choice to be contacted by phone or by post card via mail.  Make your choice and hit submit.

Once you are confirmed, check to see if you are coming up with your search tags in the listings.  Google suggests 7-10 days.  Some people have found their listings within hours of verification.

Yahoo Local Maps.  Yahoo combines a search engine with a yellow pages style type listings.  Yahoo gives most of its space to business listings, while providing a tiny map in the left column.

Go to Yahoo Local Maps.  Click Sign up.

1.  Fill out all the information provided on the screen.

2.  Review and submit.  Yahoo states it will take around 3-5 business days.  Check your submission status at:  http://local.yahoo.com/ – for questions or to contact Yahoo Local,  go to this link:  http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/local/

Be aware, that Yahoo gives paid ads more prominence than Google.

Research and  use every tool available to help create a buzz about your business or service.  In today’s Internet marketplace, you need to be a very active player.   The tools are there, using them is up to you.

Valuable Resources: Here is a link that gives you great sites in which to start networking your site, service,  and brand.  Happy surfing!

During an economic recession, very few businesses have the option to expand their budgets. Most businesses are strapped for cash and are cutting all extraneous expenditures wherever possible. This being said, it’s hard to imagine any business being able to spend as much as they want on a marketing campaign. I know every business dreams of having TV spots during the Superbowl reaching millions of potential customers in 30 seconds, but chances are that your business can’t afford it.

But without marketing, how will you continue to stay in business? You can’t just rely on your old customers, especially if you’re a new business because you don’t have any old faithful customers. No matter what, you have to continue to maintain some kind of marketing campaign. Email marketing is an effective way to market your products, services, and/or business to those old faithful customers and to potential customers as well.

Why use email marketing?

There are so many reasons to use email marketing, especially in a time of financial crisis. One reason being, that it’s just cheaper. Sending emails into the inboxes of all of your customers and potential customers is much cheaper than using snail mail. Direct mail involves extraneous costs for paper and postage stamps. Let’s not forget that it is much less effective than email marketing.

Email marketing lets you directly communicate with your customers, instead of sitting and waiting for them to get in touch with you. It reminds them of your presence and what you have to offer them. You can your customers updated, entice them with sales and post direct links for certain services or products that you know they’ll be interested in. The truth is that Google does this all the time. They watch and take note of all of our activity on the web, and then they begin to advertise certain products that they know we’re interested in.

With an email marketing campaign you can see how effective your advertising. You can see how many people click on your links through CTRs (Click Through Rates) and want your services. And you’ll see more traffic to your website. The nicest thing is that email marketing is fairly simple and there are products all over which will help you set up your campaign and continue tracking it to see how effective it is.

According to marketingterms.com,  “viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.”

This type of marketing depends upon  passionate  individuals – passing on your marketing message,  increasing its potential of exposure and influence within seconds.  Like a virus, its ripple effect is passed on quickly, infecting hundreds and possibly thousands, in a relatively short space of time.

Of course, there was a time the expression “word of mouth” was sort of the same thing.  In a way, viral marketing is the Internet parallel, since most of us will be blogging, emailing, using SMS and Skype, to share and announce our latest and most exciting discoveries of products, resources, and specials.  With just the multiplicity of email, a company’s ROI can skyrocket within a matter of weeks.  With all this potential and power at our fingertips, we need to make our campaigns as effective as possible.

Viral Market Strategies:  Here are some effective components to include in your next Viral Marketing Campaign:

1.    Free is good: Free has a powerful pull, but free should never represent poor quality.  The free approach draws people in, after that; there are more opportunities for a sale, according to Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-commerce Consultant.

2.   Easily transmitted:   As a virus spreads quickly and rapidly from person to person in the right conditions, you need create and use the fastest and most seamless vehicle that will spread your message without delay.  Using email marketing campaigns to your targeted lists will help expedite that process.

3.   Backlinks and Affiliates: Network with different affiliates.  Get your links, ads and logos out there.  The more back links pointing to your site, the greater importance your site is deemed by the search engines, thus, giving you a higher standing in the Search Engine Results Pages known as the SERPs.

4.  Evoke Reactions: Your message needs to be a catalyst of emotions and opinions from your audience, piquing their interest and curiosity to read further, and know more.  Why not do something unexpected or different.  Catching people off guard with the unexpected is great marketing.

5.  Market the Social Internet Communities: The more accessible information can be shared, the more rapidly it will be spread.  submit your news on the social networking and bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg.  They have established niche communities.  Find yours.  Submit articles, make comments on other stories, be seen, be heard, and be out there!

Have you signed up with Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn?  What are you waiting for?  With thousands of people registering per day, it would be foolish to pass up such a lucrative marketplace.

The tables have turned with the evolution of the Internet.  The power has shifted from the marketer to the consumer.  Within a matter of seconds, their opinions and voice are spread rapidly throughout the world by one single email.

So don’t be a viral marketing casualty as Laura Lake reminds us to:

1.    Mean what you say and say what you mean.
2.    Stand behind your product or service.
3.    Under promise and over deliver … always!

Let’s face it.  We are in a war against time and numbers.  The competition is fierce and all of us must use every resource available to keep up and stay ahead with our email marketing campaign strategies.  Ironically, one thing has not changed.  A business thrives or takes a dive, depending on their customer service.

What we email marketers fail to remind ourselves about is that at the end of the day it is the customer, not us that hold the power.  They sit on the ROI throne.  There are many voices and offers knocking at their door, so they know that they hold the upper hand.  Without a good client base, no email marketing campaign can be successful; no business can remain, and continue to grow.

Effective and strategic online business marketing campaigns are like planning a party with gifts and surprises.  But planning this party with bad customer service means you when you show up, you will be the only guest.  That’s no fun and sure as heck is not profitable.  Like I said, the customer can makes or breaks your business.  So we need to get back to the basic foundation of good old fashioned customer service.

The Best E-Campaigns Never Replace Good Customer Service

Internet Marketers and Customer Service

The Internet has a voice that is loud and clear.  The internet has become a steady source of income, marketing, networking and social media building for all business email marketers.  But it can also turn like a trusted pet, becoming a source of repeated negativity when dealing with unhappy consumers via the Web.  It’s like that bunny rabbit with the Duracell battery; it just keeps on going and going and going.  Whether a true criticism or not, once posted, it can create a domino effect as it gathers readers all over the world.  In this revolutionary age of lightning fast communication, we need that communication to be as positive and helpful as possible.

The table has turned, for in the electronic age, this is the age of the consumer and their voice.  They now have immediate access to voice their opinions, good and bad, traveling the entire world within just seconds.  Now everyone can hear about their complaints and problems.  They are not vulnerable and helpless anymore.

Social Media Does not Replace a Bad Customer Experience

Social Media is hot.  Everyone is blogging and tweeting everywhere.  But if you are only about your bottom line, don’t go there.  By using social media, you are giving an open door and giving ear to your clients and prospects to actually communicate with you, in an open and casual environment.  The keyword phrases here: – Are you a good listener?  Do you want to hear them and respond to them honestly?

Email marketing campaigns are directed at people.  We spend our strategies on catchy subject lines, clear and concise call to actions, great content and the list goes on.  This is good, acceptable strategy, but hello to direct and open dialogue for 2010 – deemed “The Age of 24/7 Accessibility.”

B2B and B2C Marketing channels are changing constantly, especially by using Social Media.  Our methods and strategies must be reevaluated and change with the growing need and obsessions with twitter tweets, facebook, and blogs.  Our clients want to talk to us and we must respond.  No longer an obscure label or brand name, we now emerge as people, with our own voice and opinions, entering the conversational arena of direct communication at all cost.

How we listen and respond is not only being judged by our customers, clients, and prospects, but by Cyberspace itself.  Its timeless Internet vault will store our actions and words forever.  A blessing and curse at the same time.  Let’s use these tools to our advantage and re-examine and create a new Customer Service Bible for 2010.

Customer Commandments – Thou Shall
1.    Listen and hear them.
2.    Identify and anticipate their need and requests.
3.    Let them know they are valued and appreciated.
4.    Provide quality service at all times.
5.    Be dependable with deadlines.  Stand by your promises.
6.    Follow up – don’t leave clients in limbo.
7.    Always have a spirit of “how can I help you?”
8.    Admit your mistakes, when necessary.  Have humility.
9.    Go beyond their expectations.  Not everything is money.
10.  Encourage feedback. Hey, you might get some fresh ideas from them.
11.   Focus on building loyal and sustainable clients – not just numbers.

Don’t neglect your employees.  Without them, where would you be?

One of the most important areas when growing a successful and strong e-marketing Internet presence is, and will always be, the development and establishment of good customer service.  The bottom line simply boils down to this and this alone – relationships.  How do you treat them?  Remember, reputation precedes your voice.