I met with a client this morning who currently uses Net-Results to track website visitors and identify companies coming to her site. When she sees one who could be a good prospect, she picks up the phone and attempts to call the person who came to her site. She doesn’t always get to the right person, but she does typically make contact with someone in the organization and has a good initial prospecting call. When I asked her how she normally follows up with those prospects, she said she generally handwrites notes and mails them. I thought that was a great idea – very few people do that because email is just easier – so it really makes her standout. But, I felt that the combination of handwritten notes and automated lead nurturing could further enhance her follow-up strategy and give her greater insight into the actual interest level of her prospects. Read more

There are certainly benefits to sending both TEXT-Only and HTML emails when launching an email campaign. HTML emails are of course attractive when well-designed, allow you to insert images which help you determine an open rate, can be more compelling to click through, and convey multiple messages in an organized format. On the other hand, text emails can have a better deliverability rate, look more personalized, and are generally less likely to be confused with spam (although many spammers these days have caught on to that notion). So which one is right for your campaign? Well, it all depends on what message you are sending to what audience. Read more

An article in today’s Emarketer newsletter, “The Sad Tale of Abandoned Shopping Carts” reaffirmed what we’ve been preaching for quite some time now: every potential customer who puts items in their cart and leaves without ordering is a significant loss. Just how big of a loss? Well, according to Emarketer, “the average cost of abandoned goods in those shopping carts was $109.” And just how rampant is this problem? According to a Paypal and comScore study, 45% of US online shoppers have abandoned MULTIPLE carts in the past three weeks! What is a retailer/advertiser supposed to do? Read more

I’ve found that a lot of software companies have regular meetings to sit around and discuss what they think their customers want. These meetings often involve the marketing, development, and executive teams – sometimes they might even include sales. But how confident can a company be that what they think should be done in terms of development, new features, and enhancements, is actually what the customer wants and/or needs? The truth is… we don’t always know – and when we guess, we usually come up short. That is why software companies need to stop guessing and start listening to actual users and potential uses. Think: Windows Vista. Read more