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Over 70% check their personal email at work - and nearly one-third said they did so more than three times a day.
AOL/Beta Research Corporation

Email Marketing Tips for Travel Agents

Published on April 12, 2012 in Best Practices. 0 Comments Tags: , .
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With the rise of online tour sellers like Expedia and Travelocity, travel agents are competing in a market that’s increasingly competitive. Travelers now have the ability to go online and book their own travel deals, leaving the travel agent completely out of the picture. That why it’s important for travel agents to find low cost ways to market to potential customers. One of the best ways to do that is through email marketing.

Why email? Email is immediate, cost-effective, and it can be personalized. It’s also one of the best ways for a travel agent to develop a long-term a relationship with customers and market to them again and again. If you’re a travel agent, here are some tips for using email marketing to reach travel customers.

Travel Agents Can Use Email to Build a Relationship
Travelers book with agents that they know and trust. If you’ve established a strong relationship with your customers, they’re more likely to book with you again and again. Why? You’ve built a relationship with them, and they know you. People feel most comfortable buying from companies and agents that they trust, especially online. Email allows you to build that trust by sending customers helpful information. The best way to use email is to give customers something of value. “Soft sell” to them by sending a regular newsletter with useful travel information, suggestions for places they can visit and tips for traveling safely and comfortably. How about some of these articles?

10 Things You Should Always Pack When Traveling
5 Tips for Vacationing with Kids
10 Top Travel Destinations to Visit in 2012

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Create a Newsletter You Could Sell, Not Just a Newsletter That Sells

Published on April 6, 2012 in Best Practices. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .
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You work hard to persuade people to join your subscriber list. You might have created a free product that they can download in return for their email address. You might swear blind that you’ll never share addresses with anyone who looks remotely spammy — or anyone at all. And you’ll have played with the text around the subscription box to make sure that you’re capturing the addresses of as many visitors as possible.

Whatever you do, the assumption is always that the lead doesn’t really want a newsletter, will worry that you’re going to bother him with spam and has to be battled with in order to land the address.

But supposing that your newsletter wasn’t just an easy sell but an asset that you can actually exchange for money. Imagine that instead of paying for subscribers with the use of a free ebook, your leads were willing to pay you an annual fee to read your newsletter.

That happens. It doesn’t happen often for businesses but it does happen for non-profits. When campaigning groups like PETA try to sell an annual membership, one of the products they offer in return is their newsletter.
So what’s the difference between a newsletter that people will pay to read and one that you have to pay them to read?

Join the In Crowd
The content will be slightly different, of course. Non-profit newsletters tend to be much longer than commercial newsletters. They’re often printed too, an easy way for the group to demonstrate the value of the information it’s offering. But there’s really one fundamental difference between a newsletter sold by non-profits and one pushed by companies…

…the brand loyalty.

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Email Marketing for Law Firms

Published on April 4, 2012 in Best Practices. 0 Comments Tags: , .
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Email is one of the fastest and most cost effective ways to get in touch with clients.
Sending emails to clients costs nothing, and it’s a timesaver since you can preload a series of messages to send out on a set schedule. You can also use email marketing to build a relationship with clients to increase your future business. Here are some tips for using email to market a law firm.

Give Your Readers Something of Value
People can unsubscribe from your list with only a mouse click, and if they don’t feel like they’re getting something of value, they’ll quickly remove themselves from your list. Give them something to think about. Keep your customers educated and informed with emails that inform them about new laws or court decisions that could have an impact on their lives. An example? A personal injury attorney can send out safety warnings or information about new product recalls or tips on how to avoid a rear end collision. That’s relevant information people can use.

Think about questions that your clients frequently ask and address them in your newsletter. If you discuss what’s on the mind of your clients, you’re quickly gain a following. Keep your eye on the news for fresh ideas to talk about from a legal perspective.

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Bayesian Spam Filtering: What You Need to Know

Published on March 30, 2012 in General. 0 Comments Tags: .
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Bayesian spam filtering is an important process with yet another strange sounding name. Bayesian refers to a theorem of probability originally put forth by Reverend Thomas Bayes. In a nutshell, Bayes’ theorem involves understanding how the probability that something is true changes based on new evidence. With Bayesian spam filtering, Bayes’ rule is put to work.

HOW IT WORKS?
As a user marks certain emails as spam, the Bayesian filter compares those marked emails against the user’s legitimate emails and creates a database containing information about what makes the marked email look spammy. For example, a spammy email may be loaded with certain words such as Cialis, Viagra, or debt relief while the users’ legitimate emails never, or rarely, contain those words.

As new emails come in and are marked as spam, new evidence is introduced. Bayesian spam filters look at the new evidence. In this example, if the newly marked spam messages also contain the same spammy words, then the new evidence supports the spam filter’s original theory that any message containing those words is probably spam. Bayesian spam filters learn, compare, and adapt. They assign scores to certain triggers, and if an email’s score is too high, that message is marked and treated as spam.

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The Power of Internet Memes

Published on March 27, 2012 in General and Internet marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , , .
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The internet has changed the face of marketing. Using the power of social media, ideas can propagate at the speed of a mouse click and become a sensation almost overnight. One way ideas and messages are spread is virally through the power of memes. An internet meme is a concept or message that spreads virally from person to person online – and it’s a powerful marketing tool.

Memes can take the form of a photo, hashtag, link to a website or even simply a play on words that readers want to share with others. Most memes are humorous. Everyone loves to laugh, so funny memes are more likely to go viral. Memes not only make people smile, laugh and think, they also create buzz for your business. When used correctly, memes are a good branding tool and a way to draw new customers to your products. Here are some tips for using memes in your marketing campaigns.

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5 Social Media Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Published on March 23, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .
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The online world is an increasingly social one. People and businesses and connect with one another with a few clicks of a mouse. You can’t afford to be silent or to bow out of social media marketing, and why would you want to? Social media sites are one of the most cost effective ways to connect with your customers and find new ones. But you can’t just sign up for accounts on Twitter, Facebook and the latest social media sensation, Pinterest, and start promoting your company.

Social media is about building relationships. If you want to engage your customers and inspire them to hit the “like” button, here are five social media marketing mistakes you don’t want to make.

1 – Being Overly Promotional

Social media is a slippery slope. On one hand, you need to get the message out about your business or products, but you don’t want to alienate your friends and followers by sending a non-stop stream of promotional messages. Do it too much, and you’ll lose your fans, friends and followers. Think about other information or news your target market might be interested in, and post links to it along with helpful tips they can use to make their life better. Don’t let every Tweet and Facebook posting sound like a press release for your company. Use social media as a tool to offer something of value.

2 – Not Listening and Responding

As many as four out of ten online businesses don’t respond to comments on social media sites. That’s bad business. When a negative comment goes without a response, it reflects poorly on a company. Responding to comments builds credibility and shows people you care, and that goes a long ways towards building your brand. When people post positive comments, you may not have time to respond to all of them, but take the time to “like” the comment out of courtesy.

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Google’s Gmail now tells you why a message ended up in your spam folder

Published on March 21, 2012 in General and News. 0 Comments Tags: , , .
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Starting yesterday, all Gmail users are automatically receiving a new information that allows them to determine why a message was sent to their spam folder.
How it works? Every time you click a message ended up in your spam folder, Gmail will give you a brief explanation – placed at the top – about why the message was filtered and placed in Spam.

Ela Czajka, a Google software engineer, wrote:

“We hope that this is not only interesting, but also helps you learn about scams and other harmful messages that Gmail filters out. Whether you prefer to leave your spam folder untouched or do some educational digging, the information will be there for you.”

In particular, there are at least 5 reasons a message might be ended up in the spam folder:

- Phishing Scams - fraudulent messages that try to trick you into sharing sensitive information 
- Unconfirmed Sender -  messages that did not pass the standard authentication process
- Message you sent to Spam – messages previously marked as spam by you
- Similarity to suspicious messages - malicious or potential harmful messages  (low sender IP reputation, spammy content,..)
- Administrator-set policies - messages marked as spam based on the policy created by your mail administrator

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