Tag: email marketing

Preparing For Online Holiday Retail Success

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According to both the June, 2010 Manufacturing ISM Report on Business and the Non-Manufacturing ISM Report on Business the overall economy continues to grow, joblessness is decreasing  (somewhat), and growth is happening albeit at a slow rate. So what effect can we expect this to have on online holiday retail?  And what do we need to do to get ready for the online selling season?

In an interview with AdAge at the end of the holiday shopping season last year, Phil Rist of Big Research stated, “Whether they were saving on shipping or using an in-store coupon, shoppers dug through every avenue of potential savings before choosing to commit.”

Finding ways to help consumers still have what they desire while realizing what they save may be even more important this year in stimulating consumer spending online. By starting with targeted email campaigns to loyal customers for savings on items you already know to be of interest to them, you are attracting their attention to your brand.  Follow up emails and search engine marketing initiatives with highly targeted landing pages focused on the ways in which they can save will work to maintain that attention throughout the holiday shopping.

Something to keep in mind is women are typically early shoppers looking for bargains while most men are procrastinators who don’t really enjoy holiday shopping and end up spending more money at the eleventh hour. That’s not to say, necessarily, that men don’t like saving money.  Focus your efforts where you are sure to garner the attention you need to get the ball rolling.

Consider solidifying the attention of your loyal customers first, particularly women, who are the early shoppers, and solicit them to use word-of-mouth to help you get new customers. Here’s where social media plays an important role. Get the conversations started early enough so shoppers know to go to you to find not only the quality and selection they are after but most importantly the deals.

Now is the time to start planning and scheduling your online initiatives for the holidays. The best approach online is going to be cross-channel in order to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the search engines, email, your website, and social media. A well-coordinated approach that delivers the right messages to the right audience at the opportune time puts you in the best position to ensure your online holiday retail success.

Beware of Harmful Phishing Emails

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With the volume of email that manages to make its way into your inbox, it is especially important to know how to detect those that can cause harm to you, your business or your family. I want to let you know about a type of scam spam that has resulted in both identity theft and the loss of data by harmful computer viruses.

Phishing emails look like they are coming from your bank, your credit card company, an online payment service, or even a government agency.  The subject line of the email may read: “Unreported Income Tax Account No. 668875432” or “Account Update Required.”  The intention is to lure you into clicking on a link in order to gather credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security numbers, passwords or other sensitive information. The scammers set up a website that looks like a trusted source such as Amazon, eBay or CitiBank in order to convince you that their request is legitimate. Next thing you know they have your mother’s maiden name, your social security number, and a brand new credit card thanks to you!!

If you receive a suspicious looking email there are several things you can do. First, do not click anything or copy the link into your address bar.

You do not want to follow the link but you do want to learn where it is pointing to. Scroll over the link and look in your web browser to see what the url says. You can almost bet it is not going to say Amazon.com!

You can also search the link in Google. Enter a portion of it into the search box only. Chances are it is going to show up on a message board or some other reporting tool identifying it as a phishing scam.

Apart from keeping your computer updated with spam filters, anti-spyware and anti-virus software, and a good firewall, forward suspicious emails to spam@uce.gov.  You can also contact the Federal Trade Commission’s ID Theft Clearinghouse at 877-438-4338 to make a report, learn how to put a “fraud alert” on your files at the credit reporting bureaus, and for information and advice for ID theft victims.

Spread the word.  Phishing emails can cause real harm. Talk to your kids, particularly your teenagers.

For more information visit the following resources:

Do You Seem to Be Spamming Yourself?

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Have you received annoying SPAM emails in your inbox selling Viagra or some other product that seem to have been sent by YOU?

You are a victim of what is called ‘email spoofing,’ a practice where SPAM email appears to be sent from one source, in this case you (or your company), but is actually sent from another. Your email address is being used by ‘spammers’ to send bulk SPAM email to hundreds (if not thousands) of recipients. What you are seeing in your inbox is actually legitimate “bounce backs,” or emails that were not delivered successfully.

Unfortunately there is really no way to determine if your email addresses are being spoofed unless you happen to receive a bounce back or someone notifies you. The information website About.com reported its daily newsletter was “the victim of a high volume of spoofed email from spammers attempting to sell Viagra.” Email recipients actually believed it was coming from About.com because the email spoofers went a step further to establish legitimacy by using not only the company’s email address but corporate logo as well!

So what can you do to stop it?

You may not be able to stop it altogether. But definitely inform your email service providers that this is happening. Here’s a couple other things you might consider as well.

You may want to talk to your email service provider about setting up an ‘SPF record.’  Simply stated, as the domain owner, you specify to your email service provider in an ‘SPF record’ all the servers your email is sent from. On the receiving end, the receiving server may check your ‘SPF record’ to see if the server is listed. If it isn’t, the email won’t be delivered. To illustrate what I am talking about, say I were to send out a bunch of physical letters to people all over the country, using your address as the return address.  Nothing would stop me from doing that. Email works the same way.  Now let’s say 25% of those letters were addressed to wrong and non-existent street addresses. The post office would stamp “return to sender” on it and the letters would come back to you.

With SPF records, it’s like you have notified the post office that unless the letter was sent from your local post office branch, then you must not have sent it and to just throw it away. But it’s up to the mailman who is delivering the letter to actually check this, and some mailmen might still deliver it. The hope is that the “majority” of them get caught.

So the bottom line is today there’s no real way to stop someone from spoofing your email.  SPF may cut down on successful delivery, but if the recipient doesn’t exist, the SPF check will fail and it will still generate an annoying bounce back to you.

If SPF isn’t a measure you want to take, then instead you can minimally establish a folder in your Outlook, or email client of choice, to gather the bounce backs and, as much as possible, keep them out of your inbox. Call the folder Spoof Mail or something.

Email spoofing is a global email problem and normally not the fault of your email service provider. The best thing you can do right now is be aware of what it is and deal with a responsive service provider who continually stays on top of new ways to decrease this unfortunate issue.

For further reference you can visit the following online resources:

Write Your Own Rich Text Signatures in Gmail

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For those of you who are avid users of Gmail, you will be happy to know that Google has finally provided you with an integrated rich text editor so that youcan write your own rich text signatures to attach to your emails.

From within your Gmail account, click on the Settings link to the top right of the page. Scroll down to Signature. Here you will find the rich text editor that will allow you to create the precise signature you want to accompany each email you send from your Gmail account.

There are many ways to personalize your signature to accurately reflect your professional or personal image. Click on the radio button next to the editor box. Start by selecting one of the eleven currently available font types. You can even use more than one if you like, but don’t make it too busy or it will be hard on the eyes to read. The editor also includes limited font sizes, styles, and colors; highlighting; sorting and bulleting; quotes; left, right and center alignment; indent more or indent less; and most importantly, the ability to add images, video, and links.

When you no longer wish to display your signature, simply click on the radio button next to No Signature. The only unfortunate thing about this new feature is it does not provide you with a way to store multiple signatures and select the appropriate one when needed. You have to write and re-write signatures for each purpose. And that’s a bit of a chore. So let’s hope Google adds this element to the tool next!

Present Your Business As An Experience That Shouldn’t Be Missed with Google Places

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Google Places has replaced Google Local as its online business listing solution. Google realized that the concept of “local” was limiting to its powerful Google Maps business search and locater tool. People no longer use the Yellow Pages print directory as they once did (if you haven’t noticed) and searching for a business or a service has moved online.  Google has rapidly become a primary player in this arena.

Google Places allows business owners to create a robust business listing account and provides a full set of tools to help you manage and get the most out of your listing. The idea behind the application is, once again, to create the best possible end-user experience Google can offer its users. By providing you with the tools and instructions you need to fill out your profile, Google is in fact guiding you to provide the type of information that will best help its end-users to understand what you offer and if you are the “right” business for them. Google maintains its dominance in search by designing an online experience that empowers the end-user with information easily by soliciting good information from listing owners up front.

Keeping Google’s objectives in mind, you can benefit greatly by playing by its rules. Maintain your profile with accurate, up-to-date, and compelling information. Take advantage of all the added features that allow you to add photos, videos, custom product/service categories, service areas, parking information, and even discount coupons to encourage business.  It’s what you should be doing on your main site anyway, so now you can get twice the bang for your buck!

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