Posts Tagged ‘email’

Are you giving away the store with e-coupons?

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Image courtesy of ehow.com

Given today’s economy, it’s no surprise that coupons are being clipped faster than the dialog in a David Mamet play. A quick Google search will tell you that e-coupons are just as prevalent. And while retailers may be chalking up incremental sales due to e-coupons, they may also be giving too much away too easily.

According to Alex Rampell, CEO of TrialPay, an e-commerce solutions company in Mountain View, Calif., many companies are offering e-coupons to prospects who were ready to complete their online transaction without any additional incentive.

Look for smarter ways to link coupons to behavior. Take a company like the Gap — anyone can shop at the Gap online, then do a search for coupons and pay less. Wouldn’t it be better for the Gap to target people who are non-Gap shoppers? Instead of making coupons available to Joe Public on the Internet, it might be better — just as a for instance — to offer Gap coupons to consumers when they sign up for Weight Watchers, or when they buy a baby book at Amazon.

Read more of what he has to say in this interview with Media Post’s Sarah Mahony.

Image courtesy of ehow.com

The decline of direct mail and the rise of social media

Monday, June 29th, 2009

No surprise here, as social media commands more marketing focus and funds, resources dedicated to direct mail are in decline. In a recent Email Insider post, Chad White discusses this shift and its many impacts.

The current recession has accelerated the shift to digital media and marketing. Recently, Borrell Associates predicted that advertising revenue from direct mail is expected to plunge 39% by 2013. Email was singled out as the key beneficiary of direct mail’s decline

Read the entire article here.

Streaming video in your email

Monday, June 29th, 2009

It’s perhaps the last frontier on the email front; messages with streaming video directly embedded. And with developers already testing systems, it isn’t far off. Below are excerpts from recent MediaPost article by Elie Ashery highlighting the advances of two developers:

Gmail recently announced a new “Labs” feature allowing users to preview YouTube videos in emails. This technology is currently only for Gmail users, and is limited to YouTube videos, but it stands as significant progress in the move towards true video embedding.  Many marketers are experimenting with Gmail-only campaigns, segmenting their lists for gmail.com subscribers and embedding short video clips as part of the campaign.

GoodMail Systems has also found a way to insert and play videos from email messages. The CertifiedVideo platform enables qualified senders to incorporate rich video and audio content directly in email messaging, without additional mouse clicks and pop-ups.  CertifiedVideo is based on GoodMail’s core CertifiedEmail technology with the addition of a new CertifiedVideo tokenclass. Senders’ messages are delivered directly to the inbox and ISP restrictions are lifted, enabling video to be instantly viewed by recipients. CertifiedVideo supports streaming and progressive download of .SWF and .FLV files, playable in Adobe Flash Player. If you qualify for GoodMail services, you should definitely take a look at CertifiedVideo.

Read the full text of the article here.