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Following The Trends: Internet Levels Playing Field For Small Businesses (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 08/05/2010
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Thanks to the Internet, small companies having difficulty competing with large companies for customers are in luck. Despite the fact that search query results are crowded, small business owners can take steps to maximize their online presence via search and social media by following a few simple tips. For instance, by updating business listings or creating new ones for companies and choosing social media networks wisely, marketers can integrate the increasingly important localization of their product or company. Becoming “vertical” is also key, since doing so means companies participate in many social sites, as is getting one-to-one with customers by paying specific attention to exactly what products they prefer.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Formatting Plain Text E-Mails for Dynamic Delivery (Internet Evolution)
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Posted: 04/01/2010
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Not all programs recognize html, so it’s important to remember that you don’t always have to have fancy formatting to get your message across. There are tips you can use to maximize your plain text emails. Plus, there are actually many benefits to sending plain text e-mails. First, leave formatting plain text to last and finally, test your format across multiple platforms. Steps in between include: prioritizing key content in the first few lines, cleaning up your format and making sure links don’t get lost in the crowd. Plain text allows subscribers to read your email even on their cell phones and smartphones. They are also much more likely to get through all the spam filters on the Internet than html email, and therefore can be read by more subscribers.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
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FranchiseOpportunities.com Increases Own Opportunities (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 02/18/2010
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In an effort to increase its leads in finding potential franchise owners, FranchiseOpportunities.com changed its usual e-mail marketing tactics. Rather than sending the standard monthly e-mail newsletter highlighting six or seven franchises to all 100,000 of its prospects, the company now sends out targeted e-blasts. These e-blasts, which are sent to specific, smaller groups of prospects, highlight a single franchise (based on prospects’ industry, geographic location, available liquid capital, and net investment capabilities), and provide a direct link to the franchise owner’s page. E-blast copy is also more action-oriented. “It’s all about semantics—taking an active voice that uses language our prospects use,” said Garth Snider, president of FranchiseOpportunites.com. An increase in leads resulted. “From 2008 to 2009 we have increased the number of leads coming from e-mail campaigns by 50% to 75%,” Snider said.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
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From Business Revolution to Evolution in 15 Minutes (Harvard Business)
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Posted: 12/17/2009
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Struggling to create a breakthrough in your business strategy? The solution is as simple as turning the revolutionary into the evolutionary. It may sound like a slow process, but with the “15 minute competitive advantage” individual progressive steps occur quickly. As you build your business, each new lesson learned and experience gained (every 15 minutes) evolves into a step toward progress. Scott Cook, founder of Intuit, advises business owners “to turn business concepts into hypotheses to test fast.” Akin to rapid prototyping, this kind of “hypothesis testing” doesn’t require radical change when based on success markers like: Trial-able, Reversible, Familiar and Congruent with future directions, among others. The process gently leads consumers to the next level of business evolution without forcefeeding revolutionary new ideas before they are primed for mass consumption.
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Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
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From Buzz to Buy: Social Commerce and Word-of-Mouth Marketing (ClickZ)
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Posted: 04/01/2010
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There’s a new buzz in town: social commerce skilfully links customers to customers online and then bridges them into commercial connections... driving customers to transition from "buzz" to "buy." The ultimate goal for delivering a meaningful and measurable social commerce program is to integrate all marketing activities into one streamlined campaign, blending social programs like Facebook, Twitter and company blogs with more traditional programs like in-store, direct marketing and mobile advertising. Building a social commerce program entails the following: (1) give your customers a venue for creating user-generated content; (2) expand your customer-voice from the outside-in and (3) leverage customer feedback in all your marketing initiatives. The challenge then is to deliver meaningful products and services that meet your customers’ needs.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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