1. Personalization – Nothing says, “I don’t care about you” like a generic email. It’s like getting those letters in the mail addressed to “Valued Resident.” Personalization can come in the form of customized salutations, messages sent with a specific initiative based on a recent user activity (taking advantage of list segmentation), or even just the tone of the message itself.
2. Branding – Every message should incorporate your brand in some way. It can range from the complex, like videos and Flash, to the utterly simple, like a custom logo, customized signature or slogan. The point is, you want each email to be immediately associated with the sender.
3. Call To Action – Every message, no matter its content, must guide a user towards a specific action. If you’re sending a product announcement email, provide a link to a pre-populated shopping cart and a FAQ page. If you’re soliciting feedback, provide a link to a form, or other places to connect with the brand like your Twitter account or Facebook page. In all cases, make your call to action prominent. Tell the reader what you want them to do early and often. Once users become accustomed to your email as a portal for interaction and education, they will be much more likely to read it and respond.
Christopher Bradley Web Design Email Marketing
Twitter is launching the first phase of a two-part effort to monetize the microblog, according to co-founder Biz Stone. The first step, which should begin in about a week, will educate both individual users and larger marketing concerns about available tools and services. For the second step, which probably will be in the fall, Twitter will certify businesses to use the services, or it could try to monetize the information it garners from users.
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Christopher Bradley SEO Services, Web Design twitter
NEW YORK U.S. retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will total nearly $132 billion in 2009, down about 0.4 percent from 2008. Assuming the recession ends this year, as many economists have predicted, eMarketer forecasts that online sales will begin to rebound in 2010 and hit full stride in 2011.
Web research has become a priority for value shoppers in today’s recession. Currently, 86 percent of Web users are shoppers who browse, research and compare products on the Internet, but they do not necessarily buy online. Often ignored, store sales influenced by online research are three times higher than e-commerce sales.
Many consumers opt to buy online for convenience, price and broad product selection. About 81 percent of Web shoppers are also online buyers. Web consumers who refrain from buying online often get hung up on security and privacy concerns or the inability to touch and feel products. Web retailers are adding new content and features to lower these hurdles.
Christopher Bradley Ecommerce Design, Web Design Ecommerce
