Using Google Custom Campaigns and Short Urls in a Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign

Monday, April 1, 2013 by

In my last blog post I described how I was planning a multi-channel campaign using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, printed materials, QR codes, a mobile-optimized web site, my e-newsletter and postcards. I am using Google campaign tagging along with short urls to see which channels are the most effective.

To make use of Google Campaign tagging, first create a Google Analytics account for yourself if you don't already have one and put the Google Analytics code on your web pages.  Your webmaster can help you add the Google Analytics code if you need assistance.

Next, add a question mark to the end of any urls you want to track and add tags for "campaign", "medium" and "source" as in this example. There are five available codes but you can do a lot with just these three. (If the question mark does not work, try an & sign instead, that worked for me on one type of url.) The bold part is the campaign code added to the original url.

http://www.example.com/?utm_campaign=spring&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter1

campaign - is what you select as the identifier for the whole campaign. For example for my clearance sale I picked "clearance2013".

source - is where the traffic is coming from.

medium - is what type of media was used, for example two urls could be on the same web site but one is a banner and one is a link so I could use "banner" for one and "link" for the other.

Here are what two of my urls look like that are for the clearance sale campaign, coming from the web site www.sell66stuff.com but one is a banner and one is a link. The bold part is the campaign code added to the original url:

http://carolynsstampstore.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=48&utm_campaign=clearance2013&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=sell66stuff

http://carolynsstampstore.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=48&utm_campaign=clearance2013&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sell66stuff

For more help with Google Custom Campaigns, see the Google documentation.

Long urls such as those are fine for situations where the end user cannot see them, but for a printed advertisement or a social media post that is too long and confusing. You can use a url shortening service, such as the one offered by MobExMeTM - QR Code Generator and URL Shortener, to generate one of the above urls into something like this: http://mobex.me/clearweb.

Once your campaign is underway, you can check Google Analytics to review and analyze detailed tracking data. Log into Google Analytics then go to "Traffic Sources", "Sources", then "Campaigns". You will see a graph of visits with a list of your campaigns below it. Click on the name of the campagin to see more detailed information. All of the parts of my campaign are not yet built but some parts are working already and have left a record in my stats:

Google Custom Campaign Tags

This information will be very valuable to me the next time I plan a multi-channel marketing campaign!

Planning a Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign

Tuesday, March 5, 2013 by

My ecommerce web site, Carolyn's Stamp Store, is a real business but it also functions as a laboratory for testing out techniques and strategies to employ on behalf of our clients. I am currently running a Spring Clearance Sale campaign. I would like to share with you some ideas on how to plan your own multi-channel marketing campaign.

  1. The first step in my planning process was to decide what the purpose of the campaign is - in my case, to let people know about my clearance sale and to recruit signups for my free e-newsletter.

  2. Next I made a list of all the media, channels and tools that I wanted to utilize in the campaign. My list includes:
    • Carolyn's Stamp Store web site
    • Google Analytics campaign tags
    • Banner ads displayed on other web sites
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Packing slips that go in outgoing orders
    • QR codes
    • Mobile optimized web site
    • E-newsletter
    • Postcards

  3. As I brainstormed about how I was going to use all the channels and tools and how they would integrate with each other, I made a list of tasks I would need to complete for the campaign. I put the jobs in the order in which they would need to be executed. The list is too long to reproduce in full here, but here are a few examples to get you thinking of your own campaign ideas:
    • Design banner ads for web sites and e-newsletter
    • Create new mobile-optimized web site that includes space for advertising current promotions and e-newsletter signup form
    • Reprogram existing QR code already on printed materials and aim it at new mobile-optimized web site
    • Promote ad and links to clearance section on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest
    • Design postcard
    • Prepare mailing list and print mailing labels

  4. With the use of a number of media in one project, it's important to get an idea of which strategies brought the best results so that your next campaign can focus on the most effective channels. Before beginning work, my last step in the planning process was to create a series of Google Analytics campaign codes and short urls designed to let me know how my campaign is progressing. In my next article I'll describe the process in detail to give you ideas for how you can use campaign tagging in your multi-channel marketing efforts.

Five Essential Elements to add to your Welcome Emails

Monday, January 28, 2013 by

Last week I subscribed to the newsletter of a non-profit organization and was very pleased with the welcome email that arrived in my inbox. I thought it did a good job of addressing concerns that people are likely to have when they provide their email address to someone.

  • "Why am I getting this email?" - covered
  • "What will I receive?" - covered
  • "Will you sell my email address?" - covered
  • "Will I be able to unsubscribe if I change my mind?" - covered
  • "Who are you and how do I contact you?" - covered

I decided to create a new welcome email for our newsletter subscriber list that addresses those same concerns. Here is a screen shot to show you how it turned out.

Example of a welcome email

In addition to making subscribers feel good about signing up for our newsletter, they will also get a look at what our email header graphic looks like when the act of subscribing is still fresh in their minds - hopefully this will increase open rates for our e-newsletter in the future.

A welcome email is also a good opportunity to deliver a special message or offer to your subscribers to thank them for their interest in what you have to say.

There are many benefits to a good welcome email - we recommend setting up a welcome email for all your subscriber lists.

What Are You Doing For Your Mobile Customers?

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 by
A new survey of 20,000 adults by BIGresearch shows that 13.2% own a BlackBerry device, 11.3% own an iPhone, 9.3% own a device running Android and 5.2% own an iPad. Among other things, these devices enable consumers to browse the web, view multimedia content, scan bar codes and QR codes, compare prices at the point of sale, download coupons and share information with their social networks. These are all intriguing possibilities for a business to explore as part of the multi channel marketing mix. But are the number of users of smartphones and tablet computers large enough to make the effort to cater to them worthwhile? At first glance those don't sound like terribly high percentages of users.

There is other data in the survey to consider. Perhaps not surprisingly, mobile device users are more likely than the general population to shop online. They are more inclined to research products online before making a purchase. And according to Gary Drenik, president and CEO of BIGresearch, "...mobile device owners are more likely than average consumers to give and seek advice on products and services."

The findings of this research lead me to conclude that campaigns designed to woo mobile users are likely to have a very good return on investment, and therefore are very much worth the effort! For example I've recently made a mobile-optimized version of my design portfolio. At Webinar Resources, we are developing a line of mobile-ready applications to support lead generation, multimedia content delivery, personalization and cross-channel communication. Here are a couple of examples of our mobile mix Mobile Replay and url shortener and QR code generator. We invite you to keep in touch with us via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or our newsletter to stay updated about our latest mobile offerings.

Santa's Call to Action

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 by

As the holiday season approaches, more marketers are getting prepared to capture orders through effective customer acquisition processes.   Santa is no exception.

As more savvy business people use multi-channel marketing to communicate their message, more unique ways to touch the customer are generated.  By creating community through subscribers (email), fans (Facebook) and Followers (Twitter), businesses can reach out to prospects they had never thought of and encourage them to interact through a "Call to Action", CTA.   A CTA is an effective lead generation tool.  It may be in the form of a coupon offer, a subscription to a newsletter or a download of a white paper. 

Magic Ticket - QR CodesIn the webstory of "Santa Claus and the Lost Dog", Santa uses a post card as his CTA.   This is no ordinary post card as it includes a magic ticket with a personalized URL (PURL) and a QR (quick response) code to get immediate action from a child with the help of a grown up that may have a grown up toy like a smartphone equipped with a camera. 

Yes, Santa has gone hi-touch and hi-tech and has joined the social media world.  The days of traditional Santa calls over the phone are going to be replaced by tweets, likes, comments and good little girls and boys will get badges.  Will Santa's updates on FourSquare take the place of NORAD's tracking of jolly old St. Nick on Christmas Eve?

You can visit http://www.mychristmasbook.com to order the webstory book.   It makes a great stocking stuffer and can play on mobile devices on your way to Grandma's house.





 


Send a free Halloween eCard!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 by
Send a free Halloween eCardSend a personalized ghoulish Halloween greeting to your guest and join our Webinar Resources email newsletter. Enter your name and email address and the name and email address of your guest and we will send your Halloween greeting on your behalf.

Registration ends on October 27, 2010 and the eCards will be sent on October 29, 2010.

To register for the Halloween eCard, go here.

Strategic Use of Social Network Applications

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 by
I've previously written a blog series on how to get the most out of your online content in which I focused mainly on technology and social media and how it can help leverage your content to a larger audience. You can also get more exposure for your content by thinking strategically about social network applications.

We all know about the social media applications that are meant for a general audience such as Facebook and Twitter. If you have a wide variety of hobbies and interests as I do, you may be aware that many web sites that cater to a niche audience engage in community building by incorporating social network applications into their web sites such as personal blogs.

I supply blog posts and articles for several web sites, a magazine, and two e-newsletters. When I'm deciding on what topic to write about, I often will choose subject matter that is appropriate for more than one channel. Here is an example: I recently joined Weight Watchers. The Weight Watchers web site includes an online community and each member gets a blog for sharing his or her thoughts on food, health, fitness and other suitable topics. I have been writing a blog series for the Route 66 Association of Missouri called Fit and Healthy on Route 66 in which I describe my experiences on hiking and biking trails on or near historic Route 66. It seems logical that Weight Watchers members might also want to read these, so I've been posting excerpts from my articles on my Weight Watchers blog with a link back to the full article on the Route 66 Association of Missouri blog site. With very little extra effort, I've gained another link which is always valuable, and increased the potential audience for my content.

Whatever it is you're trying to accomplish online, whether it's personal, business-related or both, growing your audience will help you reach your goals, so use your multi channel mix to seize opportunities to do so whenever you can.

Blazing the Acquisition Trail with Webinar Trailers

Sunday, May 23, 2010 by

At Webinar Resources we have been producing short 2-3 minute Brainshark presentations as ticklers or "webinar trailers" to promote our series of Webinar Wednesdays events.   Webinar Trailers are a very effective customer acquisition process for engaging and acquiring registrants as they appeal to more modalities than traditional email invitations.

With Webinar Trailers, we can strengthen our marketing message with an on demand presentation that consists of audio, slides and capture a registration at the moment of the viewing of the presentation.   We also can post Webinar Trailers in many different locations - social network applications, webinar newsletters, landing pages and of course link directly to a personalized email.   Using our proven process of selecting the appropriate multi channel mix, we gain the attention needed to capture registrants for our webinars.  

We are now extending the reach of our multi channel marketing to SMS text messages and mobile video.   Registrants and/or past participants can subscribe to our Webinar Wednesdays SMS reminders and alerts by texting to the word "webinar" to short code 88769.   Once the subscriber is added to our list, we can then reach out to them in their preferred communication method with a text reminder.

Soon we will be delivering mobile content to our Webinar Wednesdays SMS subscribers.  Stay tuned for more information in our blog or text "webinar" to 88769 and join our Webinar Wednesdays subscriber list.

Building customer acquisition is all about extending your reach through an effective multi channel mix using cross media applications to drive attendance and list growth for your events.   We have partnered with Peter Muir, and his Bizucate team to communicate these strategies and enable our participants to learn how to develop a marketing plan to drive effective events.   Join us at our next Webinar Wednesdays event on June 23rd, from 1-2pm CDT.   Listen to our webinar trailer and register at:   http://www.brainshark.com/webinarresources/WebWed.  We hope to see you there.

 


Phase 3: Event Delivery

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 by
The day of the event (DOE) represents a major influx of responsibility for both the organizer and the attendees. Organizers have to manage a myriad of variables to ensure a successful event from catering coordination to registration to setting up tech requirements, wrangling presenters and more. Attendees have fewer responsibilities but ideally they’re coming into the DOE with the desire to learn, network and/or do business. The multi channel marketing strategy focuses on distributing the traditional pressure of event days through the entire pre & post event campaign. Using the multi-channel approach can help make the DOE far less stressful and chaotic for all involved. Of course, planning & organization are both central to executing a successful event; here are some suggestions for managing the day of the event.

Begin at the very beginning. Before you plan or schedule the pre-event efforts consider what items you anticipate having on your “to do” list on the DOE. Then look at how you can distribute management of them in the pre-event stages so when you get to the day of the event there is less to worry about.

Examples
  • Make sure you’ve set up a series of informational emails or a website for support staff and presenters. They should know what is expected of them; where to be at what time on the day of event, deadline for submitting, tech requirements for laptops and presentations, etc.
  • If it is a large event like a conference, let attendees set their schedules early to establish presentation expectations and to cut down on people asking questions.
  • Delegate the compartmentalized or smaller tasks, like catering and registration, to someone with fewer things to worry about on the DOE.
  • Delegate the updates of social network applications during the event such as Twitter, blogging and Facebook updates.
Identify three main goals you have for the DOE. They should be tied to the larger goals of the full multi-channel campaign but focused particularly on the day’s events. Then make these three things your mantra. It will keep you focused and make decision making a little easier when you have already identified your priorities.

Examples
  • To ensure attendees walk away with the information/material they came looking for.
  • Make sure messages, observations and news from the event are captured for post-event newsletter/follow-up or to share with those who could not attend.
  • Facilitate smooth running presentations to ensure everyone gets to present and/or learn.
  • Help make networking as easy as possible for attendees and vendors alike. Assign a QR code to every attendee so they can simply scan to exchange information. Or, offer team with a local print shop to offer discounts on business cards so they have something exchange.
Maximize the multi-channel opportunity. Using new channels for communicating is just as relevant on the DOE as it is to support the pre & post-event variables. Keep in mind ways you can use them to create a more accessible and effective event

Examples
  • Use SMS to send attendees a link to their event schedule on the morning of the event.
  • Consider a live webcast or recorded podcast to share the event with those who weren’t able to attend. Webinar replays can be used as a review for those who attended as well as a customer acquisition process in your grand lead generation conference strategy.
  • Place QR codes or Microsoft tags on presentations, collateral or exhibition displays to enhance attendee’s interaction with content.
To find out more about how to better use the multi-channel approach to events on the actual day of the event, tune into the June edition of Webinar Wednesdays, June 9th from 1:00-2:00 p.m. CDT.  Visit events.webinarresources.com/WebinarWednesdays to save the date and receive a reminder for the June 9th event.

And don't forget the May edition of Webinar Wednesdays on May 12th from 1:00-2:00 p.m. CDT. We will cover Phase 2: Pre-Event Efforts of Successful Event Planning.  Visit events.webinarresources.com/WebinarWednesdays to register for our May 12th Webinar Wednesday session.  You can view replays of past webinars at our Webinar Resources replay portal.

Peter Muir, president Bizucate Inc.
www.bizucate.com

Share the Music, the Love and the News - Webinar Resources Newsletter

Thursday, February 11, 2010 by

Webinar Resources just distributed the latest newsletter and it contains some exciting announcements, enhancements and tools to keep you in touch with industry news and trends as they relate to event management and customer acquisition.

You still might have time to order your Sweetheart a personalized eCard along with their favorite audio clips from iTunes.   This Valentine's Day, we are adding music to the mix and further personalizing the experience of the recipient. Provide us the name, email address, a special message and the name of your Valentine's favorite musical artist and we will deliver a personalized eCard and iTunes Preview landing page with album selections that your special Valentine can listen to. Webinar Resources will be posting an iTunes redemption code ($15 value) in ten of the lucky Valentines' personalized landing pages on February 14th.

Order now at this link.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates on our Webinar Resources Webinars.    Happy Valentine's Day!

Send a free eCard to your favorite Valentine, with a personalized message!

Friday, February 5, 2010 by
Join our Webinar Resources newsletter list and we will send a personalized vaFree Personalized Valentine's Day eCardlentine to the person of your choice. Registration ends after February 11, 2010. Get it here - Free Valentine's Day eCard

MyChristmasBook Trailer Most Viewed/Popular Presentation on MyBrainshark

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 by

The elves at Webinar Resources are busting their buttons as the MyChristmasBook Trailer on MyBrainshark is now the most viewed and most popular Brainshark presentation.  Says Santa, who just read this latest update in the Webinar Newsletter from Webinar Resources, "We are very proud that this on demand presentation has received such wide appeal.   Rudolph told me that "rich media" was the way to reach the masses so I thought I would give it a try."


The MyChristmasBook Trailer has been viewed across the country and across the world.  Webinar Resources launched this campaign to drive lead generation for North Pole IndustryCo.   Every MyChristmasBook online Christmas Photo Story Book contains personalized text, images and audio using a good little boy or girl's name and is delivered on a unique personalized North Pole web page.   Says Jack Frost, CMO in charge of North Pole's lead generation and personalized marketing campaigns, "We hired Webinar Resources to produce the story of Santa Claus and the Lost Dog as they are the experts in demand generation marketing and the theme song has the reindeer tapping their hoofs."

The success of the campaign can be summed up by Mrs. Claus, "Things have gotten a lot more jolly around here now that the old man is coming home from the shop at a decent hour. Thanks to Webinar Resources launching MyChristmasBook.com with their partners ExactTarget, Brainshark, Vontoo and Compendium, Santa is much more productive and best of all, there are no more cold calls which is important in the frozen North.

Re-purposing Content to Drive Lead Generation

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by
Webinar Resources recently launched MyChristmasBook.com where you can order a personalized, online Christmas Story Photo Book and display a child's name in text and images.    We created a Brainshark presentation and have made several versions of the presentation by re-purposing the content.   There are now actually four different versions of our Brainshark presentation being used to promote MyChristmasBook.com

Re-purposing content with Brainshark allows you to quickly recreate content for different audiences to drive lead generation.  The original version of the Brainshark presentation is embedded in the MyChristmasBook.com main page.   We then re-purposed the content and posted it on our Webinar Resources landing page.  You will also find some of the latest Compendium webinar replays on our landing page.

There is also a MyChristmasBook Trailer posted at http://www.mybrainshark.com.  It has been interesting to watch the popularity of the trailer as it has been viewed across the world.

Finally, we launched an email using ExactTarget today to our newsletter subscribers which provided a more personalized experience with a unique personalized URL or PURL.   We call it a unique North Pole webpage address for the kids.   You can visit and share my North Pole address to see how personalization works and hear part of the story of Santa Claus and Lost Dog - http://helper.mychristmasbook.com/NorthPole/markrice@riceresources.com.

We found after creating more content for some of the newer Brainshark presentations that we could reuse the content for earlier Brainshark presentations.   So our most recent content that we created for our North Pole webpage address has been repurposed to improve the original Brainshark presentation on MyChristmasBook.com.  

Launching this campaign using our partner applications from Compendium, Brainshark, ExactTarget and Vontoo has enabled us to blend the best and create an effective lead generation holiday campaign.   Visit any of the links and learn more.

Get Your Emails Delivered

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by

In my last blog post, I discussed ways of getting people to sign up for an e-newsletter. Now I will talk about how to help make sure your e-newsletter or other email sendings actually get to the people who want them.

ISPs are understandably on a mission to block the emails people don't want, and to let in the emails their customers do want. Many spam emails do get blocked through their efforts, but unfortunately some legitimate emails also get blocked accidentally. As a sender, you might know what the official definition of spam is, but to an end user, spam might just mean something they aren't interested in right now. Did you know that some users use the report spam button as a way to unsubscribe from a sending they no longer want instead of using the unsubscribe link provided in the email? Did you know that some email recipients use the report spam button on their email client as a delete key? Did you know that you can even get banned for being on the same ISP as someone else whose emails were labeled as spam, either rightly or wrongly? It's unfair, but it is possible to get on banned lists without ever doing anything wrong. The retail holiday season we're in now brings an increase in commercial email traffic, and with it more potential false spam reports as people get impatient with all the email they're getting.

What can be done to help make sure your emails are getting to your customers, and your customers' emails are getting to you? Here are some suggestions:
  1. If you use forms on your web site, test them using multiple email addresses from different domains. You might find that your forms will accept emails from some domains and not others. If that happens, contact your site's host for help.

  2. On the success pages and acknowledgement messages from your forms, suggest that users add your email address or addresses to their approved senders lists (whitelists).

  3. Check all the email links on your web site periodically to make sure you actually get the emails. In addition, make a list of all the email accounts you have, with login information, and keep the list in a safe place. Check the spam folders on all of them on a regular basis. Many email accounts will stop working when the spam folder or the trash folder gets full. Also some legitimate emails might be caught by your spam filter, so you'll want to add those email addresses to your lists of approved senders. Some customers will try another way to contact you if they don't get an answer from your email, but most will just give up.

  4. Have your web developer program an appropriate subject line in capital letters into all the email links on your site. Although use of all caps is something I normally stay away from, in this case I do use them because it makes the emails sent from my web site much easier to distinguish from all the spam.

  5. Consider not having your email forwarded from one account to another, but getting all of it right from the source. The article Tips to avoid getting your server blocked by Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail explains why.

  6. Examine your email sendings, including acknowledgement messages from forms, for characteristics that might cause them to be mistakenly flagged as spam. The following resources provide helpful guidelines:
    Some email sending software, such as ExactTarget, has a built-in content checker that will alert you to possible problems in the text of your email, such as "Click here" or "Free".

  7. Only send to engaged recipients. Believe it or not, some major ISPs are starting to flag messages as spam just because the end user doesn't open them. Consider sending periodic updates to subscribers to verify if they still want to be on your subscriber list.

  8. Open up other channels to help compensate for the people you're not reaching by email, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, a Webinar for One Brainshark presentation, text messaging, and voice messaging. At Webinar Resources we use ExactTarget's social forward feature to add social media links to our customers' emails to drive customer acquisition.

Why Aren't Customers Signing Up For My E-Newsletter? - Part II

Friday, October 23, 2009 by
In a previous blog post, Why Aren't Customers Signing Up For My E-Newsletter?, I speculated why few people who buy products from my e-commerce site, Carolyn's Stamp Store, have been agreeing to subscribe to my newsletter during the customer sign-up process. I decided to think about what might make potential subscribers wary, and do a better job of addressing their concerns:
  • Will I give or sell their email address to someone else?
  • Will the newsletter be interesting or valuable to them?
  • Will they be able to unsubscribe if they decide they no longer want it?
  • Will they be bombarded with a lot of email?
If you haven't read my previous article yet, you might want to look at it to learn exactly what changes I made in my signup process.

Enough time has gone by now to see if the new improved process had the desired effect of getting more newsletter subscribers. I looked at data from new customer signups for an equal amount of days before and after, and was pleased to find out the following:

  Old Sign-Up
Process
New Sign-Up
Process
Rate of customers opting in to e-newsletter 5% 32%

Wow, that's a significant increase! Now I should be in a position to retain more of my most engaged customers by sending them information that they want to receive.

Why Aren't Customers Signing Up For My E-Newsletter?

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 by

Do you publish an e-newsletter as part of your customer acquisition program? Are you pleased with how many subscribers you're getting, or disappointed?

If you're not getting as many subscribers as you'd like, it might help to think about some of the factors that might make potential subscribers reluctant to give you their email address.
  • They fear that you will give or sell their email address to someone else
  • They don't know what benefit they will get from your newsletter. Do they get something free for signing up? Is the content valuable?
  • They worry that that they won't be able to unsubscribe if they decide they no longer want it.
On my personal e-commerce site, www.carolynsstampstore.com, I've noticed that the vast majority of people who buy things from me do not choose to receive my e-newsletter. One would think that if someone is interested enough to make a purchase, more of those people would want to become subscribers. What am I doing wrong?

The shopping cart software I use, osCommerce, requires customers to create a profile in order to complete a purchase. Customers can select whether or not to receive an e-newsletter during the sign-up process. I decided to pretend that I am a new customer and fill out the form to refresh my memory of what the customer sees - something I haven't done since I first set up the site.

In the box where I ask if they want the newsletter, I had links to the first three issues and the checkbox to select to opt in is worded "Sign up for Carolyn's Newsletter". There was no description of what the newsletter is about, so I have added the following descriptive paragraph:
The Carolyn Hasenfratz Design and Carolyn's Stamp Store E-Newsletter is sent to your inbox around 6-8 times a year and features articles by Carolyn about rubber stamping techniques and projects, as well as online marketing and other business tips. You will also be updated on my sales and specials, free template downloads, new products, and show appearances. Click here to view my privacy policy.
In that paragraph I have attempted to answer potential concerns that customers might have about getting yet another newsletter in their already crowded inbox. "Is this newsletter of interest to me?" "How many emails will I get?" "Is it easy to unsubscribe if I change my mind?" I also changed the wording of the call to action to "Sign up for Carolyn's Email Newsletter - check box if yes"

What do you think - can I look forward to an increase in the number of customers who subscribe? We'll see!

Still Keeping in Close Contact with Customers

Thursday, January 15, 2009 by

It's hard to believe that webinars and internet marketing tools are still relatively new concepts in some companies.  Just before my 7-year maternity leave back in 2000, I was helping my sales team at MCI Conferencing introduce the concept of "web-based data conferencing" to our customers which included Xerox.  Ironically, though we never met, within a few months of my leave, my boss, Mark, was working at Xerox on the team that was developing the Xerox Webinar program.

It's 8 years later, and we have been working together for almost a year in a much different technology and a much different world than we had in 2000 and early 2001.

What better time than now are we all positioned to make the most of this technology!  Want to really partner with your customers?  Let them know that their success is important to you!

In your customer acquisition, build a reliable and approved list of customers, and give them information, presentations, and tools to help them grow their own business while you grow yours.

Look for synergies between your customer's industry and your own, and build a presentation series around it.   Back in 2000, my VP of sales partnered with one of my customer's VP of Sales to conduct a short webinar series at both companies.

Today, we have customers who do the same, and then also bring in industry experts to a "round table."  The presentation is then broadcast on a webinar, and provide the Brainshark replay later as an on-demand "webinar for one" for those who missed the live version.

Every company should have a regularly scheduled presentation series designed to help their customers grow their own base. Your monthly or quarterly newsletter should have a dedicated space for your webinar news. 

Our customers always provide live links to register for upcoming webinars, and to go directly to the Brainshark replays of webinars that have passed.  We are also developing personalized landing pages for key customer contacts. These are like a little mini-reference books compressed down to a singular web page that provides the customer with all the tools and reference points he needs for past, current and upcoming web events.

Mark and I marvel at how closely we missed each other back in 2000, when our entire business was a budding technology.  With the tools of today, we'd be much less likely to miss each other, now.

Blogging and Google Alert

Monday, December 8, 2008 by

It is amazing to witness how quickly blogging can drive activity.   One of my team recently blogged about the Discovery Light project that we supported at a recent trade show.   Using our webinar service, we posted a Brainshark presentation about how we marketed the show and our lead generation conference exhibit.

As we were using a combination of email and personalized landing pages to drive customer acquisition, our reference to the words "landing page" triggered a Google Alert for another company, ExactTarget.   Within one week of posting our blog, ExactTarget contacted us after visiting our post.   They had set up a Google alert for the words "landing page".   ExactTarget recently released their Landing Page feature and we have been putting it to good use for our demand generation marketing programs.   Make sure you opt-in to receive our next newsletter to see a great example of a personalized image marketing campaign.

Quite often we receive a Google alert after posting a blog as we also monitor keywords.    We have heard Chris Baggott, of Compendium Blogware, a number of times comment on how Google likes old content, recent content and frequent content.   We produce Webinar for ONE replays of their webinars and we hear these words in every presentaiton.  

Chris is right on target.   You can drive effective lead generation through frequent and relevant blogging.    We are witnesses to the process and we are becoming evangelists for compended blogging.    The combination of blogging and Google Alerts is another step to helping you achieve that "virtual knock" on the door and another step away from no more cold calls. 

Other people are watching and waiting for their Google Alerts to trigger a message about keywords they monitor.   The more you blog about a particular subject, the more chances you have of driving effective lead generation.

It's Time for a E-Newsletter Makeover - Part II

Friday, June 20, 2008 by

In "It's Time for a E-Newsletter Makeover - Part I", looked at what we were doing right with our newsletter design, using the whitepaper published by ExactTarget, Email Marketing Design & Rendering: The New Essentials as a guide.

Now I'll list the improvements I saw fit to make to our email newsletter template.

The main call to action was not formerly visible in the upper left 4-5 inch square of the email, so to fix that I modified the header to include a customizable button that will link to whatever the current call to action is.

Some email clients will not display underlined links automatically, so for maximum consistency in appearance, I set the "text-decoration" property to underline with an inline CSS style in the anchor tag of each link.

According to the Exact-Target's whitepaper, Hotmail will render all text as dark gray unless you set a specific color, so I specified what I preferred, in this case black.

Despite everything we've done to make sure our newsletter displays properly with as many email clients as possible, just in case someone might still have trouble viewing it, I added "Click here to view this email as a webpage" in small text at the top with a link to our online archive.

For comparison, here is a link to the newsletter before the makeover:
Webinar Resources Newsletter Vol 1 No 3

And now here is a link to the newsletter after the makeover:
Webinar Resources Newsletter Vol 1 No 4

It's Time for a E-Newsletter Makeover - Part I

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 by

After reading the whitepaper published by ExactTarget, Email Marketing Design & Rendering: The New Essentials, I decided it was time for a makeover of the Webinar Resources Newsletter template. We are already using a lot of the best practices described by ExactTarget, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.


Here is what our current newsletter looks like - Webinar Resources InTouch, Volume 1 Number 3. The following are things we are currently doing right:


The maximum recommended width for an email is 600 pixels. Ours is now 580 pixels wide.


Webinar Resources Newsletter Screenshot ExactTarget recommends putting your brand and a call to action into a 4-5 inch square (between 288 and 360 pixels) at the upper left corner of the email. This is the most viewed part of the message. Our logo, company name and color scheme are comfortably in the critical area, so I would say our brand is where it is supposed to be.


In order to get viewers to look at the content "below the fold", it helps to include "above the fold" links to the content below, a table of contents, or some other kind of hint of what the newsletter contains so that the recipients will want to scroll down. Our introductory paragraph describing the contents in this newsletter issue fulfills that requirement.


We have kept our branding consistent on the landing pages that viewers will reach if they click on any of the links to our web site.


It hurt to do it, but we removed CSS styles and HTML background images some time ago because many email clients do not support them.


How to Create and Manage Blog Content We do not embed rich media right into the email message, rather we provide an image which links to the rich media content. In the example pictured, the featured content is a Webinar for OneSM Brainshark presentation. This is the best way to email a flash movie or a movie clip.


In my HTML coding, I have had the following habits for a long time, for other reasons:

  • Providing width and height attributes for all images
  • Giving alt and title tags to all images
  • Specifying width and height for tables and table cells, unless there is a reason not to
In HTML email, images without size attributes can expand in unpredictable ways, images might be blocked by the email client making alt and title tags useful for helping the viewer to see what the image is supposed to be, and tables can render in unexpected ways without accurate size attributes. These habits are especially good to have when creating HTML email messages, as apparently email clients are generally a lot less forgiving than web browsers.

It sounds like we have all the bases covered doesn't it? In my next post we'll find out when I take a look at all the improvements we can make in our email newsletter template.