On Internet Business

When Email personalisation doesn’t feel very personal

Posted by Michael under Email Marketing

 Personalising emails to the recipient has been proven to increase click through rates. The major downside of personalisation is when it goes wrong.  

 Below is an example of a personalised email that isn’t very personal.

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Who is Guy Kawasaki and why does it matter what he thinks

Posted by Michael under Business Growth, Social Media

Guy Kawasaki is the managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Forbes.com. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. where he was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer.

 He is now regarded as a leader figure in the use of social media as a commercial marketing tool.

 In his blog, “How to Use Twitter as a Tool”, Guy Kawasaki explains various tools and tips for using “Twitter”.

 Guy Kawasaki’s key recommendations on increasing effectiveness of marketing through Twitter are:

• With the proliferation of websites and blogs seeking recommendations from top journalists to create awareness has lost its significance. To gain popularity, people need to discuss and tweet about your brand. With Twitter, your chances to reach people will increase with the increase in the number of followers. For that Guy recommended SocialToo to automatically follow a follower on Twitter.

• Use TwitterCounter to track the number of followers for each Twitter account.

• To monitor what others say about your brand or product using Tweetdeck.

• To get email notifications of your twitter mentions, you can use Twilert.com which works just like Google Alerts.  

• Be proactively responsive for every tweet that you get.

• Use Twitterfeed to make your blog posts automatically appear as your tweet.

• To avoid duplicate announcements and unintentional automated tweets, e-mail listing is a good option. Email notification by organising an email list of followers is an effective strategy to announce new topic and help the recipient to decide if they want to tweet it to others. 

• Use Brightkit to tweet several people at a time and to schedule your tweets.

• Use Twibs to track what other companies are doing on Twitter.

• Use Twhirl to help you to manage your Twitter accounts.

 Social marketing is one of the most promising internet marketing strategies. Social marketing platform like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace have already gained immense popularity among online entrepreneurs. In this scenario, Guy Kawasaki’s in-depth understanding on Twitter and its tools can be a valuable asset for anyone who is interested in building a strong foundation for his online business.

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What is Google Wave?

Posted by Michael under Search, Social Media

Google Wave is a new in-browser tool for communication and collaboration that is expected to be launched by Google at the end of this year.

Google Wave has the features of email, IM, blogs, chats, forums and project management software all rolled into one interface that will ensure a distinctive and unified experience to its users. With Google Wave you can communicate and work simultaneously.

Features include:

You can send invitation to an unlimited number of Wave users to join your network.

You can post comment or reply on anything that is posted by another wave user.

You can post rich-formatted text, photos, links and videos just like Facebook feeds. You can also attach any file (photos, pdfs, and videos) or documents from your desktop to your Wave by simple drag and drop.

Twitter and FriendFeed can be streamed in Google Wave.

You can embed your Wave in your website or blog.

You can view character-by-character “live” transmission of instant messages and it can also be disabled if you want to show your message only after it is completed.

Google Waves has an interesting feature, called “Playback”, that allows new users to see how conversation has evolved up to that point.

You can select a part or complete conversation as visible to everyone or a selected group.

Google is making this open source to encourage developers in creating more extensive applications and products. Some of the tools created are:

• Polly – It lets you to add polls to your wave and it has an RSVP feature that can help you in inviting people for any occasion as eVite.

• Bloggy – It lets you start your wave as a blogpost where readers can post their comments in different ways.

In the sidebar of your wave you can play interactive games.

An interesting feature of Google Wave is its ability to export an existing wave as a new wave if gets cluttered and gets confusing.

It is believed that versions for Android and iPhone will also be available this year.

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Affiliate Marketing Dates – a4uexpo London 13-14th October 2009

Posted by Michael under Affiliate Marketing

The 3rd annual 4uexpo London is taking place on 13-14 October 2009 which is just over three months away.

Don’t forget to make a note in your diary to register. For discounted pricing register during the Early Bird Period which finishes on 31 August.

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EDF pretends to be Green and British

Posted by Michael under Uncategorized

I have received this message from fellow EO member Robin Smith.

“2 years ago I created an icon to represent Dale Vince’s Green Britain campaign, it was used to acknowledge Gordon Brown’s debut as Prime Minister (“I’m all for a change of power” Dale Vince: back page Guardian). It has since developed into an identity for Ecotricity and, very recently, was emblazoned across Greenbird, the craft that broke the land speed record.

EDF, the 85% French Government owned nuclear power company, has ripped it off. They are using a Green union jack to promote Green Britain day, which is also a campaign we came up with for Ecotricity. There are posters and TV ads and even designer dresses all based on the Green Union jack. And it is making me actually feel ill. The longer it goes on the worse it gets, they are going to build and build this masquerade, knowing that they are so rich there is little we can do to stop them. They are not British and they are not green.

So, please, a favour. Complain to the advertising standards authority that this nuclear giant has stolen the identity of an independent British renewable energy company and that this is outrageous, unethical and un-British. It is an attempt to mislead the British public the company is clean, which it is not, that it is British, which it is not, and that it has climate change at heart, which it does not.

Here is the address. http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/complaints_form/

Here is a site where you can show your support for the authentic green Britain campaign http://www.gbday.org/

If you are an EDF customer and you have 5 minutes to spare, maybe you would consider switching to Ecotricity https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/switch/step1-your-details/ which matches regional price, is british and is green and is run by a bloke who is fighting climate change.

You could also forward this mail to some friends if you think they’d be willing to help me out here.

You have the power to make change and it lives in the companies you support, and you have the power to stop huge rich political lobbyists take people seriously.

Thanks for reading and extra big thanks for acting”.

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Marks & Spencer and Twitter

Posted by Michael under Online Retail, Social Media

M & S has been on twitter since May 12th 2009. So far they have acquired 1676 followers. (Up to 18th June 2009). It will be interesting to see how this retail giant uses Twitter and the level of engagement it gets.

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UK online retailing market to grow 13.3% in 2009

Posted by Michael under Online Retail

Verdict Research predicts online retail sales will reach £31.2bn in 2013 accounting for 10% of all retail sales.

 In the UK overall retail sales are expected to shrink by 0.6% this year, however Verdict Research in its report, UK e-Retail 2009, has predicted that the online retail market will grow by £2.4bn (13.3%) to £20.9bn and by 2013, it is expected to reach  £31.2bn accounting for 10% of all retail sales.

UK e-Retail 2009 is a new report published by Verdict Research that analyses the reasons behind the continued growth in online retailing and identifies the strategies that retailers can use to maximise the commercial potential of their online presence.

In 2008 there was a 1% (34.4m) increase in internet users and 18.1% (26,7m) increase in online shoppers. It is estimated that each of these individuals is spending an average of 5.8% more compared with 2007. The increase in the number of internet shoppers and higher expenditure per head will drive growth in the online retail sales sector.

According to Verdict:

“Internet prices are frequently cheaper than they are in physical stores and shoppers are able to more easily search out bargains, including second-hand goods. Moreover, as a method of shopping, it is disproportionately popular with the more affluent, and therefore more resilient, AB shopping class. For this increasingly time-pressed group, making effective use of their limited leisure time is of the utmost importance. Indeed, Verdict’s report revealed that the AB group is now responsible for a massive 56.8% of all online spending.”

Online shopping is more popular among the affluent groups and about 56.8% of online spending comes from middle-class and upper-middle-class consumers.

“Those with less money to spend are turning to the Internet to search out bargains on branded items like electricals,” says Malcolm Pinkerton, senior retail analyst at Verdict and author of the report, using the British term for consumer electronics. “Additionally, the more affluent groups, who do still have money to spend, continue to appreciate the Internet for its convenience, making the channel doubly resilient to the downturn.”

“With the expansion in market capacity slowing, retailers are inevitably going to find themselves having to compete much harder against their rivals in order to achieve the same levels of growth that they have previously become accustomed to,” Pinkerton adds. “Success will depend on a company’s ability to create retail theatre and a consistent shopping experience across all channels, with highly differentiated, targeted, propositions heightening the consumer experience. In addition, retailers will need to become more adept at using technology and unfailing at implementing innovations on their websites.”

He concludes, “The key for individual retailers is to formulate two clear strategies, one for succeeding through the recession and one targeting growth beyond this, as the online channel begins to approach maturity.”

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Facebook sees enormous uptake in Vanity URLs

Posted by Michael under Social Media

A Vanity URL is a personalised Web address that makes it easier for the users to find profiles through Web searches and to create a distinct online address. In short Vanity URLs let users use their Facebook page like a personal home page. 

Facebook launched Vanity URL’s on June 13th midnight (12:01 a.m. ET Saturday). According to the social media blog Mashable, which covered the registration process live from Facebook’s headquarters 200,000 names were registered within 3 minutes.

The biggest potential problem that can arise from this change is Facesquatting where third-parties register the name of a celebrity or brand name.

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Internet Sales growth at Argos

Posted by Michael under Business Growth, Online Retail

In its latest quarterly trading statement for the quarter ending May 09, the Home Retail Group has reported total sales at Argos up by 0.9% to £937m.

In its annual account the internet accounted for £1.1 billion of sales at Argos in the year ending Feb 2009, up 22% from £900m the previous year . The internet is responsible for 26% of Argos sales, up from 21% in 2008. Gross margin was down 1% at Argos.

Argos is the UK’s leading home and general merchandise retailer. On average, 17 million UK households, or around two thirds of the population, have an Argos catalogue at home at any time. Argos expects to add around 30 stores per annum with the chain expected to exceed 800 over time. Its internet site is the second most visited internet retail site in the UK.

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New iPhone launched

Posted by Michael under Mobile Search

The new iPhone 3G S, featuring improved speed and performance—up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G—longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control in comparison to iPhone 3G.

iPhone 3G S will be available in the UK on June 19th with pricing available at launch. iPhone OS 3.0 software will be available on June 17th as a free software update via iTunes 8.2 or later for all iPhone customers.

iPhone 3G S will be an O2 exclusive.

As stated by Apple, the pricing in UK will be available at launch, however O2 via its official Twitter feed has provided information on pricing – 3G S will cost up to £184.98 for the 16GB, and up to £274.23 for the 32GB, depending on what tariff you go for. 

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