Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

The Serious Business of Funny Email

It's no secret that using humour is a powerful marketing strategy that marketers can use to attract and acquire new customers. Every day we're likely to see a whole raft of 'funny' ads, the collective effort of creative teams who have worked very hard to come up with them.

I'm sure that you have, at least once in your life, been attracted to the products or services of a company because their marketing material made you laugh. (The same can be said of marketing material that is intended to make you cry, but that's another blog post...)

But what about using humour to retain customers? Which companies are making their current customers laugh for all the right reasons?

A little company called CD Baby is.

Until a few weeks ago I had never even heard of CD Baby. I stumbled across them while trying to find out where to purchase the debut CD from a Canadian band I admire, Delhi 2 Dublin. It turned out that their CD was available at CD Baby, an online music retailer that calls itself "the little store with the best new independent music."

"Cool," I thought to myself. I quickly found and ordered the CD on CD Baby's Website, and then promptly moved on to the next item on my to do list.

The next day, I got an email from CD Baby confirming that my CD had been shipped. This was no ordinary email, however. While most e-tailers send confirmation emails to customers once a product has been shipped - which is a best practice - this was the funniest and most memorable order confirmation email I have ever received.

Here's an excerpt:

"Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow...

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package..."

So as not to spoil the surprise should you ever become a customer of CD Baby and receive one of these emails, I have left out some of the email's content.

Not only did I laugh out loud when I read this email, but I immediately showed it to my wife (who was sitting near me at the time). "Wow. That makes me want to buy from them," she said. I couldn't agree more.

Thanks to the clever use of humour in their order confirmation email, CD Baby not only forged a tighter bond with me as one of their current customers, but they also motivated me to share my positive experience with prospective customers - first my wife, and now you.

And that's nothing to laugh at.

Does Your Domain Name Have a Dirty Secret?

When it comes to choosing a domain name for your business, it helps to have a 'dirty' mind. Otherwise you might end up being stuck with a domain name that will get you into trouble with word-based content filters.

That's right, if your domain name inadvertently contains a 'naughty' keyword or phrase, your entire Website may be blocked by content blocking filters still commonly used by large corporations, libraries, schools, and overprotective parents. Your site might also be hindered from showing up in some search engines, and some of the email messages you send from your domain could end up being blocked by spam filters.

Here are some fictitious examples of what at first appear to be innocent domain names:

• HireThisExCopper [dot-something]
• EssexWorld [dot-something]

Look closer, however, and you will notice that the first domain contains the word "sex" and the second contains the phrase "sex world." Both of these domains could end up running into trouble with filters, especially the second one.

And can you spot what's problematic with these domain names?

• ScanAlley [dot-something]
• CanalTours [dot-something]

Both contain the word "anal" which also poses a risk of running afoul of filters.

You get the idea...

So before deciding on your next domain name, be sure to scrutinize it carefully. Look for any and all 'troublesome' words and phrases. The last thing you want is to have your seemingly innocuous domain name misinterpreted by word-based content filters.

2007 Digital Marketing Conference

The death of Princess Diana. The Bre-X scandal. James Cameron's Titanic.

Where were you in 1997? And what were you doing?

Although it seems hard to believe, this year marks the - gasp! - 10th anniversary of the Canadian Marketing Association's Digital Marketing Conference.

I'm on the organizing committee for this conference and we've really tried to pull out all the stops in honour of this year's first decade mark.

Some of the featured speakers we've lined up include Mike Murphy from Facebook, Chuck Porter from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and Simon Assaad from Heavy.com.

Ipsos Reid returns for a second year with the results of The Canadian Digital Marketing Pulse survey and we've just added a very special surprise session for Thursday afternoon featuring four Canadians you won't want to miss.

The enormously popular roundtables, "The Experience Exchange," are back by popular demand, and yes, yours truly will be moderating one of the roundtables on podcasting.

If you're serious about Internet marketing, please join me and a few hundred other Internet marketing enthusiasts at the 10th annual Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto, Canada on Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26.

For more information and to register, visit the 2007 Digital Marketing Conference Website.

Tools I Love: Gmail

This is the first installment in an ongoing series dedicated to the tools I regularly use and recommend as an Internet marketer.

What the heck is it?
Gmail is Google's Web-based email service, although lumping Gmail in with other Web-based email services like Hotmail does Gmail a disservice. It really is in a league of its own.

Why do I like it?
Unlike any other Web-based email I have ever used, Gmail is as fast and full-featured as any desktop-based email solution (such as Outlook or Eudora). It has excellent message filtering and categorizing, the fastest search feature you will likely ever experience, and its built-in spam detection engine is one of the best I've ever seen. Most of the people I've introduced to it have pretty well abandoned all their other email solutions and have migrated to Gmail; it's just that good. Every account comes with a massive 2.5 gigs (yes, that's 2,500 megabytes) of storage space, so it's going to be a long time before you have to worry about deleting any email messages. Best of all, Gmail is constantly evolving as the geniuses at Google add new features and refinements to the system based on user feedback.

Where do I get it?
You can find out more about Gmail at www.gmail.com however in order to get a Gmail account you need to be invited by someone who is lucky enough to already have one. (Yes, if you ask nicely, I'd be happy to invite you into the fold.)

How much does it cost?
Gmail is free.

Insider's Tip:
You don't have to migrate to Gmail completely in order to enjoy its many benefits. Since every Gmail account has a ton of storage space, it's ideal for use as an ad hoc email backup system. Simply configure your main email address to also forward a copy to your Gmail account. Should you ever have problems getting email from your primary email server, simply log in to your Gmail account and retrieve your messages from there.

The Little Internet Marketing Tactic That Could

It's time to pay tribute to a powerful yet simple Internet marketing tactic that is often overlooked in favour of more "cool" options.

I am referring to the 'lowly' email signature file.

A signature (or SIG) file is a brief chunk of copy that is automatically appended to the footer of your outgoing email messages. Most email programs allow you to set this up in advance, and some allow you to easily choose and rotate between different SIG files.

If you work for yourself or a company, I strongly recommend that you - at the very least - include your name, title, company name, and contact info in your SIG file. (For those of you who are rolling your eyes at this 'obvious' suggestion, you'd be amazed how many people forget to include their phone number. Monitor your inbound email during the course of the next few days and you'll see what I mean.) Even if you don't have a Website, make sure that your email address is included as a clickable link.

You should also consider including a brief description of your business, your tag line (if one exists), and perhaps a specific offer or call to action. This could be a brief blurb about an upcoming seminar you're giving, a link to your blog, or an invitation (and link) to subscribe to your email newsletter.

Don't be deceived by their simplicity. A SIG file can be a very effective tool. It costs nothing, you can change it as often as you want, and it's a smart and efficient way to gently remind everyone you correspond with about your products or services.

The "Get GOT" Gotcha with Campaigner

When does 'branding' cross the line and become annoying? Here's when...

I've been a fan, and customer, of GOT Corporation (formerly GotMarketing) and their Campaigner self-serve email marketing system for many years. I've also set up a number of my smaller clients with their own Campaigner accounts so they can manage their own email newsletters.

The last time I set up a new client with a Campaigner account I made a shocking discovery.

In the good old days, Campaigner users had the option of toggling on or off a "Get GOT" logo and link in the footer of every email they sent using the system. If you felt like promoting the fact you use Campaigner, you could include the GOT Corporation branding at the bottom of your emails. If you didn't feel like giving GOT free advertising, you could choose to omit this footer.

Today, if you sign up for a new Campaigner account of less than USD $150 a month, you have no choice whether or not your emails get the "Get GOT" branding on them. The only way you can remove this free advertising is to pay an additional USD $250 service charge, and you have to contact an account manager at GOT to find this out.

I think GOT has this completely ass-backward. Why should I, as a paying customer, have to pay GOT an additional fee to stop involuntarily shilling for them? If anything, GOT should be paying its customers a fee for all the free advertising it is getting, or at least giving its customers an affiliate commission on any sales they generate.

Imagine if this obnoxious 'branding' strategy was applied to other similar services, like your phone, so that every time you called someone the person on the other end would be forced to hear "this phone call powered by Bell."

Of course, GOT did not invent this annoying practice, although they are apparently well on their way to perfecting it. Many other email service providers, as well as other online marketing Application Service Providers, have gone 'branding' berserk, although multiple wrongs do not make a right.

Mark my words, a major selling point and differentiator for email service providers (even at the low-end of the market) will be their willingness to let their customers choose whether or not they want to feature the service provider's branding in their emails.

How NOT to Turn a Hot Prospect Into a Customer

Every once in a while I am lucky enough to receive a marketing email of such pure ineptitude that I am awestruck. Just when I think I've seen it all, an email lands in my inbox that proves to me that there are still corners of the world where the work we do as Internet marketers hasn't penetrated.

About a month ago, I signed up for a free trial account of a Website server monitoring service from Alertra. I wanted to perform an independent test of the uptime percentage of a Website I owned because a number of customers had mentioned that the Website sometimes appeared to be unavailable.

For 29 days I enjoyed the free use of Alertra's Website server monitoring service. I'd be notified the moment the Website in question was not available, and I was relieved to discover that my weekly server uptime was in the quite decent 97%+ range. In fact, I was so impressed by the Alertra service that I was seriously considering signing up for a paid account once my free trial had come to an end.

And then I received this email:

Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005
From: system@alertra.com
To: Bill Sweetman
Subject: Free Trial Information

Bill Sweetman,

Your free trial has expired; monitoring service has been terminated.

With this one terse, 10-word email, all the goodwill that had been built up over a 30-day period between Alertra and me instantly evaporated.

Talk about squandering a golden opportunity. Alertra had a very qualified prospect - after all, we'd been 'dating' for nearly a month - and all they needed to do was gently 'propose' to me and I'd be theirs. Instead, they unceremoniously dumped me, without even suggesting that we can "still be friends."

Don't make the same mistake Alertra did when dealing with a qualified prospect. Here are some suggested ways you should consider handling the end of a free trial period in order to maximize your conversion rate:

1. Thank the prospect by name for trying out your product or service
2. Recap the benefits of your product or service
3. Let the prospect know that you'd like them to consider becoming a paid customer
4. Tell the prospect how they can become a paid customer (note how the Alertra email doesn't even include their Website address)
5. Provide a time-limited incentive (e.g., discounted price) to the prospect for becoming a paid customer (optional)
6. Directly ask the prospect to become a paid customer
7. Thank the prospect one more time for trying out your product or service
8. Ask the prospect to provide feedback on what they thought of your product or service (optional)
9. Ask the prospect to refer your product or service to a colleague (optional)

Whatever you do, don't underestimate the importance of this 'your free trial is over' email. You are very close to making a sale. Don't blow it like Alertra did.

Ten Questions to Ask When Considering Hosted Software

I'm a big fan of the Application Service Provider (ASP) model for obtaining access to powerful software for use in businesses large and small. In case you're not familiar with the term, Application Service Providers are third-party organizations that 'rent' online access to software to clients that they manage and host on their behalf.

Examples of solutions relevant to Internet marketers that I've used (among others) include www.campaignmonitor.com (for email marketing), www.salesforce.com (for CRM), and www.parachat.com for chat).

There's a 'hosted software' solution for just about anything you might want to do these days. But how do you ensure you are choosing the right one?

If you're an Internet marketer considering a 'hosted software' solution for yourself or your clients, here are 10 essential questions you must ask the software vendor before you sign on the dotted line.

1. If the software will be sending automated emails to your customers, what has the ASP done to ensure that their outbound email server does not get blacklisted?
2. What sort of editorial control do you have over these emails? Can you edit every single element, such as the subject line and "from" fields, or merely the body copy?
3. What sort of design control do you have over Web pages generated by the software? Is "customization" limited to including a logo or do you have full access and control over the entire page layout?
4. If the software generates Web pages, are they search engine friendly? How much control, if any, do you have over the page title and meta information?
5. If you plan to serve a Canadian market, and the software is from the United States or elsewhere, can the language be 'Canadian-ized' so that, for instance, colour is spelled with a "u"?
6. What is the uptime of the server that the software sits on? How fast is this server's connection to the Internet? And what happens if the server crashes?
7. If the software is generating or storing a database for you, how and how often is this critical asset verified and backed up?
8. What kind of instructions are available to you and your team to get the most out of the software? Is there a detailed manual or online tutorial section for you to refer to? Training? Samples and templates?
9. What kind of support will be available to you? Is it just email support or can you actually phone and speak to a ... gasp... live person?
10. What sort of guarantee will you be provided with? Can you test drive the software for 30 days, which is about how long it might take (at least) to know for sure if it will do the trick, or do you have to commit for a year right from the beginning?

The answers to these and other questions will help you decide if a specific 'hosted software' solution is the right choice for you. Good luck!

Five Simple Internet Marketing Resolutions for 2006

As we kick off what promises to be another record year for the Internet marketing industry, I'd like to propose five simple resolutions for you to make, especially if you're on the client side of the equation.

Don't worry, none of these resolutions involves breaking your precious caffeine habit or spending long hours on the treadmill. These should be simple resolutions for you to make and - more importantly - keep. Hence the simple part.

Here they are...

1. Visit your own Website right now and at least once a week throughout the year. You'd be surprised how many people forget to look at their own company's Websites, which is often the first and only impression prospective customers may have of them. Don't have a Website yet? (I know you're out there!) This is the year to finally launch one.
2. Do a search for your company's products or services on Google or Yahoo. Take note of which Websites rank high as well as which of your competitors, if any, are advertising in the search results. Is your Website anywhere to be found? Should it be? If so, do something about it. Repeat monthly.
3. If you already have an email newsletter, commit to publishing it at least once per quarter this year. If you don't have an email newsletter, start thinking about launching one or, alternatively, a simple blog or podcast. Something. Anything. No more excuses!
4. Figure out who your best customers are and send them a personalized e-greeting with a coupon or some other incentive on their birthday or Mother's Day or Canada Day.
5. Find some budget, any budget, and try a Search Engine Advertising campaign. (And if you've already tried AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing, try a different network.) The learning alone will be worth the investment.

Good luck, and Happy New Year!

Observed: Phishers Can't Spell (Yet)

I've yet to be duped by a fraudulent email scam, despite the fact that the email con artists are getting better at their 'trade' all the time. My secret weapon? I can spell.

Is it just me, or does every single phishing email contain at least one spelling or grammatical error? Whenever I'm trying to determine if a message is legitimate or not, the appearance of a typo is usually the most obvious sign that the message is bogus.

Don't these criminal 'masterminds' proof their messages before they send them out? Don't they take pride in their work? If they're going to break the law and wreak havoc around the world, shouldn't they at least know proper punctuation?

Seriously, phishers are getting so good at what they are doing that it really is getting hard to distinguish the legitimate emails from the fraudulent ones. Which is why reputable email marketers must be extra vigilant in their own quality assurance process. Right now, the only thing separating your legitimate email campaign from a fraudulent one could be the correct placement of an apostrophe.

Heaven help us when the phishers discover spellcheckers!