As Solid Cactus team members, we don’t have as many opportunities as we’d like to hear what the attendees liked best about Boot Camp. We find ourselves happily and busily rushing about, fielding questions, and getting to know our clients on a more personal level.

I decided to take one of the opportunities I did have to talk to one attendee who attended our most recent Boot Camp. After a week of trying to find a free moment in the busy calendar of Peter Massey, owner of TheAfternoon.com, I was able to gain some insight into what he thought of his experience.

Peter said he enjoyed all aspects of Boot Camp from meeting the team of people who work hard every day on his store, to the infamous Karaoke Night, presentations, and Magic Show at the closing of the Boot Camp Festivities. There was no time wasted in making face-to-face introductions. Peter said that “face time is important”, and having the chance to meet and “get into each other’s heads” really is beneficial when moving forward with either Store Development or Marketing projects on the horizon.

This was true with the 2 hour strategy session where Shana Cavuto, George Sisco, Kevin Baranowski and I hammered out future plans for TheAfternoon.com, as well as the aside that Kurt Illian and Peter got to have. Kurt was one of Peter’s first contacts here at Solid Cactus, and Peter said it was nice to see that Kurt “still takes interest in my site” after all this time.

When it came to presentations, Peter found most of the presentations very helpful and is using the design, marketing, and optimization tips he picked to make improvements to TheAfternoon.com. He says his favorite part of the presentations is Site Deconstruction because it allows “Solid Cactus to be Solid Cactus,” really breaking everything down to “show what works best and being constructive in their advice.”

When it came to the social events, Peter thought the food was delicious and the restaurants picked for the events were “wonderful.” He also noted that there wasn’t a shortage of entertainment either. He was happy to be able to catch the magic show at the end of the festivities, but the moment that will be forever stuck in his head is when “the Emperor had no clothes.” I’ll let you ask him about that one.

As you all know from my Esteemed Colleague’s recent post on our PPC Blog, our afternoon activities include throwing our Frisbee, catching our Frisbee, and (if there is a mishap in the execution of either of the last two processes) running down the steep hill to retrieve our Frisbee. This is our little way of relieving stress and breaking up the day to have some fun.

While playing Frisbee is a fun activity, and a fun subject to write about, many of you out there may ask what it has to do with Internet Marketing. Well boys and girls, gather round while I regale you with metaphors and comparisons that will make your head spin faster than a record (or, ya know, a flying Frisbee).

Let’s say it’s a nice day and you want to start a game of Frisbee (email promotions) with a couple friends (your contact list). Now you’ve played games with these guys before – basketball (PPC), golf (SEO), and cards (Affiliate) – you know they are more than likely up for a fun, outdoor activity (your products).

Frisbee isn’t a hard game to play and it doesn’t take a lot of skill to catch the disc (receive an email), so anyone can get into it. Since you have a group of people who already regularly play sports (do business) with you, it’s very easy to invite these people into the circle. All you have to do is toss them the Frisbee (send them an email promotion) and if they feel like playing they will catch it and throw it back (go to your site and potentially purchase a product). It’s a very quick way to stir up some activity!

This game is fun, and people can play it for as long as they like. Eventually they may tire and choose to opt-out of tossing the Frisbee with you for that day (bounce from your email) or decide that Frisbee isn’t their thing (unsubscribe to your email promotions list). Don’t let this get you down! While some people leave your circle (contact list), others will join either through playing other games with you (purchasing from your site) or taking a passing interest (signing-up through a newsletter subscription link on your site).

To make a game of Frisbee worthwhile, you have to know the people you’re playing with (be familiar with their level of athleticism). You wouldn’t want to give people the expectation that they’re playing Frisbee and then throw them a football – they might not be into it. Staying true to what your intentions are is always the best way to engage people. If you trick someone into playing Frisbee when they were expecting to play something else, it could damage the relationship you have with them and you may never see them again (Tricking people into opening your email promotions can almost certainly make them shy away from your business, unsubscribe from your list, and report you as a spammer).

So, next time your want to reach out to your friends (customer base/contacts), it’s good to use the direct approach. Toss them a Frisbee (email promotion) and see if they’ll toss it right back. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how often they’re ready for a round!

Qualifying nonprofit organizations holding the charitable 501(c)3 designation from the IRS can enroll in this program at http://www.verticalresponse.com/non-profits/.

According to Vertical Response, “VerticalResponse is committed to being a force for good in the community. We’ve supported our non-profit customers for years and we’ve worked on major community projects because it’s important to us.”

Solid Cactus currently has partnered with Vertical Response to provide e-mail marketing services for the SPCA of Luzerne County.

According to a new survey by Marketing Sherpa (http://www.marketingsherpa.com/) the recession and budget constraints are forcing marketers to concentrate on tactics that deliver the best return on investment. So it’s not surprising that B2C marketers rank the highly measurable tactics of paid search marketing and email to house lists as the top performers for ROI.

There are some provisions in tough economic times according to their study (however, these are general rules of thumb that should be followed in any economy).

Be careful not to wear out your house lists with repeated messaging and offers. The competition for space in the inbox likely will be more intense than ever in 2009. That will require the creation of more efficient and relevant email campaigns, through techniques such as:
o Creativity
o Personalization
o Segmentation
o List management
o Testing

Email plays a central role in generating and nurturing leads, according to the survey.

First, an explanation of this chart: The bubbles show the relative importance of specific marketing tactics in lead generation and lead nurturing. The ‘x’ axis shows the percentage of marketers who said a tactic makes a major contribution to lead generation. The ‘y’ axis shows the percentage of marketers who said a tactic makes a major contribution to lead nurturing. Finally, the size of each bubble represents the percentage of marketers who engage in each tactic.

House email stands alone at the upper right corner of the chart, with the most marketers saying it makes a major contribution to both lead generation and lead nurturing. That prominent position is understandable – email can be the primary vehicle for a marketing campaign or an enabler of campaigns in different channels.

Email messages support event registration, content downloads, newsletter subscriptions, community membership and interaction, and more. As an email marketer, your contributions to those integrated campaigns will be as important to your organization’s overall success as are your solo emails and newsletters to your house list.

I understand many of you are the picker, packer, phone answerer, bill payer, errand runner (you name it, you do it) for your business, so the thought of taking time to sit down and strategize a marketing plan for the entire year sounds like a laughing matter – but seriously, it can save you time, money and stress later down the road.

Think back (without having nightmares) to the craze you were in from Thanksgiving through New Years. Now, remember that in the midst of all that chaos, your marketers, like me, were asking you what promotions you were looking to offer, what images you wanted to use, let’s update your mailing list, etc.

All that nuisance work can be avoided by setting up a plan now.

I highly recommend at the very least breaking down your marketing efforts into quarters. This way you know what to expect for every three month stretch of the year.

I know, many of you are saying, but I don’t even know what new products I’ll have three months down the line. No, but you know there will be something, so plan accordingly.

Or, are you a candy store? If so you know your busy seasons – Valentine’s Day, Easter, etc. – you know your business best. Design those campaigns first and fill in the rest of the year with incentives to keep your store in the mind of the consumer so you aren’t forgotten on that next appropriate holiday.

How can this save you money? Making these decisions on the fly, while knee deep in boxes and paperwork, isn’t the right time to make financial decisions about your company. If you are too overwhelmed you might pass up on an opportunity to make more money. Or, much to my chagrin, you’ll wait until sales are slow to have a sale. E-mail marketing is not about giving your site a sales boost. It’s about building a life-time relationship with your customers. Cause, as I like to say, gaining a new customer is more expensive then retaining an old one.

So, my challenge to you before February 1st, sit down for a few hours with a cup of coffee and look ahead to what your busy seasons are, what value can you give to your clients to keep them coming back during the slow periods and map out the ever-important holiday promotions. You’ll thank me come New Years 2010, I promise!

The digital channels they use to communicate their news follow a familiar pattern: E-mail and the telephone were more popular with older boomers, while more younger boomers used mobile phones, instant and text messages, social networks and blogs, according to BIGresearch.

However, given the choice between instant messaging, text messaging or sending an e-mail, 80% of younger boomers and 87% of older ones still preferred the “old-fashioned” digital channel, according to a May 2008 white paper from ExactTarget.

E-mail marketing messages are not lost on younger boomers, especially. A JupiterResearch study conducted in August 2007 showed this group was most likely to forward an e-mail message from a marketer to another adult, at 10%, compared with 7% for all adults. Recommendations from friends and family are valued highly by boomers, so marketers should consider e-mail messages as an important medium to reach them online.

Running dry on creative marketing juices? Here are some blast ideas that you can start pushing today:
* Last Minute Gift Giving Ideas
* Weekend Promotion - 2 Days to Shop and Save
* Giveaway - Order now through December X and be qualified to win X?
* Shipping Deadlines
* Day reminder of shipping deadline; today’s the last day for ground, today’s the last day for three day, etc.
* Gifting on a Budget
* Great Gifts Under X dollars
* Free Shipping
* Savings Promotion on the last day for Guaranteed Shipping

Be creative, stay in touch with those clients and you are sure to reap the rewards and be able to sit back this Christmas happy with your returns!

Happy Holidays!

Sender Address
The sender address is critical to getting your e-mail opened. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed cited “knowing and trusting the sender” as a reason to open an e-mail, according to a 2007 Return Path research project.

What makes a good sender address? It needs to be an accurate representation of your company and instantly recognizable to recipients. Since they’ve done business with you in the past, these standards should be easy to reach.

Subject Line
Subject lines are both an art and a science. Mentioning the promotional offer without referencing the renewal fails to leverage the power of the existing relationship. But general subject lines like “Notification” or “Important Account Status” seem like junk mail, thanks to their lack of specific detail.

One type of subject lines working for renewals today includes these three key elements:
* The brand name
* The term “expire,” “renew,” or some variation (”expiration,” “renewal,” etc.)
* A promotional offer (”save 50%”) or urgency (”expires in 1 week”)

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Be sure to update the meta tage on images, otherwise all a customer will see in their preview pane is a “Right-click here to download pictures.” Instead, be sure your top images feature the promotion, offer, etc, along with call to action.

Yes, once again e-mail leads all other direct response channels in ROI. The DMA estimates that companies using e-mail marketing in 2008 generated an average $45.06 in revenue for each dollar they spent.

E-mail is a relationship medium, meaning it helps develop, build, and strengthen connections with customers and potential customers. It’s especially effective at eliciting response from current customers, which is where renewals come in.

E-mail renewals are a form of transactional message; they relate to a previously agreed on business deal. A 2007 survey done by MarketingSherpa, StrongMail, and Survey Sampling International found that 75 percent of respondents said they “very often/always” or “frequently” read transactional e-mail messages. Only 55 percent of the same group said they “very often/always” or “frequently” read other types of opt-in e-mail messages.

Renewal messages’ transactional nature generates more interest and engagement than a promotional e-mail sent to non-customers. This supports the idea that it’s less expensive to keep a current customer than it is to find a new one.