Last week U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner met with United Steelworkers and US Steel, and visited a local factory where Allegheny Technologies produces specialty metal plates. He was trying to point out that heavy industry can succeed in the US even with tough competition from abroad. Geithner said the sector “will play a critical role in helping to spur our economic recovery and contribute to our long-term prosperity.”
It may be that he’s already preparing for an upcoming April ruling about China’s manipulation of its currency. US lobbyists and labor unions have been pushing for the Administration to take a tough stance on China’s policies. Highlighting successful manufacturing companies — instead of failed ones and high stats of unemployment — may be a sign that the government is going to back off.
But whether it does or doesn’t: the real question isn’t what China does or doesn’t do. Competition is never a level playing ground. Ask the auto industry: they’ve won and lost. And are now crawling back. Even Toyota — with all its recent problems — is seeing sales rise.
How? It’s all about good marketing. You can put all the limits you want on manufactured imports, but people aren’t going to buy domestic products unless they’re marketed properly. Detroit had to figure this out the hard way and now they’re finally making smarter decisions about the cars they manufacture in terms of fuel efficiency, features, and pricing.
US manufacturing needs to stop pulling on the apron strings of Lady Liberty and start learning how to better market and sell to diverse buyers. Today’s marketplace — even B2B — is crowded and competitive. No one’s going to pick up the local phone book today and look for your phone number to call in an order. The world of marketing has changed. If you haven’t noticed: it’s all about Global Search via Google or Bing or other search engines. It’s about personalized marketing through email and behaviorially-targeted ad placements. It’s about knowing your customer and knowing how they want to receive information from you about products you sell or services you offer.
You want to win in the global manufacturing marketplace? Stop whining. Start doing better marketing.
For more information about Secretary Geithner’s visit to the Pittsburgh area, click here.
Posted in News, eMarketing.
Tagged with eMarketing, manufacturing, Search.
By Carol Wolicki
– April 7, 2010
Marketers are always looking for innovative ways to drive interest in their products and programs. With email in-boxes getting more and more saturated with promotions that are turning customers ‘off,’ online sweepstakes is a great alternative to more traditional marketing channel strategies as a way to turn customers back ‘on.’
Case in point: When Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) needed a way to increase awareness of its speedy train service from San Francisco International Airport to the Bay Area, it implemented a successful online sweepstakes campaign, with monthly roundtrip flight awards donated by Southwest Airlines. The online sweeps actually was designed as a viral campaign as well. To read more, click here.
Ennect Turnkey Sweeps Infographic
Are you considering adding an online sweepstakes to your promotion efforts? To understand better how this might work for you, download a free infographic that maps out a typical sweepstakes flow. Download here.
Posted in Ennect Sweeps, eMarketing.
Tagged with BART, EnnectSweeps, infographic, sweepstakes.
By Carol Wolicki
– April 5, 2010
Bowie State University’s new Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts (VCDMA) Program - formerly a loosely-organized “computer graphics art concentration” - is an official degree program today, thanks to thoughtful use of Ennect e-surveys by University administrators. Bowie State used the online surveys to gather data to validate interest and make its business case.
“Five years ago, when I came to Bowie University, the computer graphics program, which had been started in the late ’70s, really lacked focus,” said VCDMA Associate Professor Tewodross Melchishua. “But today’s students want a broader experience than just ‘computer graphics.’ Their interests bridge design, multimedia, video and animation.”
“We needed to upgrade the program to make it competitive and we wanted to change its name. But to do that and have the new major approved, we had to submit a proposal to the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC). To shore up our proposal, we needed to explore what areas students were interested in for college majors,” explained Professor Melchishua.
“The proposal needed to include demographics showing who would potentially attend the program. The e-survey results provided that. Ennect Survey was really instrumental in helping us figure out what programs and what areas of concentration we really needed to offer,” said Professor Melchishua.
In early 2010, the new program was approved. Much different than the old computer graphics curriculum, the new VCDMA program includes five different concentrations for students: fashion design, advertising design, animation and motion graphics, digital filmmaking, and an interdisciplinary concentration of digital media arts that combines traditional art classes with digital methodologies. The e-survey helped identify the student interest which resulted in these programs.
To read the full case study and learn more about how the University developed and distributed the survey, the kinds of data it collected, and how that shaped and influenced the business case it prepared to gain approval from the Maryland Higher Education Commission, click here.
Posted in Ennect Survey, eMarketing.
Tagged with education, EnnectSurvey, esurvey, university marketing.
By Carol Wolicki
– April 1, 2010
Goodness can be rewarding! (Don’t you wish Wall Street recognized that? And wouldn’t we all be better off if it did?) As proof, take a look at the 100 organizations on the list of the 2010 World’s Most Ethical Companies.
According to the Ethisphere Institute, which publishes the list, ”the World’s Most Ethical Company designation is awarded to those companies that have leading ethics and compliance programs, particularly as compared to their industry peers.”
Most important, it apparently is beneficial to be an ethical company. The graph below – copied from the Ethisphere site - shows a comparison of publicly traded 2010 World’s Most Ethical Company honorees against the S&P 500 and FTSE since 2005.
WME Index Performance
Are ethics driving your company’s successes… or, even, your own emarketing activities? Are you, for example, following best email practices and CAN-SPAM guidelines? If not, maybe it’s time to see how really rewarding good ethics can be.
For more information on how the list was compiled and to see who’s on the list, click here.
Posted in News, eMarketing.
Tagged with eMarketing, ethics.
By Carol Wolicki
– March 26, 2010
The 9th Annual E CITY Awareness Breakfast is coming soon: Tuesday, April 13th, at 7AM.
This is a cool organization and if you’re a fan of entrepreneurship and live in Northeastern Ohio (or maybe even western PA) and want to support a good cause, check it out here: http://ennect.com/e1060.
E CITY is a non-profit organization that teaches students entrepreneurial, business and life skills to enable their economic independence. The organization’s website says that ”E CITY makes business education relevant by teaching urban students how to start and operate their own small businesses. The program reaches out to youth in the Greater Cleveland area to teach the skills of entrepreneurship as a path toward economic self-sufficiency. E CITY inspires these teens by showing them that their innate street smarts, mental toughness and creativity can be turned toward viable business ideas.”
E CITY’s mission, it seems, is to achieve more than just teach students how to run their own businesses. The organization strives to teach a new way of looking at money, education, life, and the future. Says the website, “It’s about giving them a set of skills that assure them they are smart enough and good enough to make a contribution to our society and economy, and play out their own dreams.”
Attendance to the April breakfast is only $20, but even if you’re unable to attend, you can support their good cause. To donate, go here: https://ecityc.sslcert19.com/tacc5/donate.asp.
Posted in Ennect Event, eMarketing.
Tagged with Cleveland, Ennect Event, event.
By Carol Wolicki
– March 22, 2010
PA Tech Entrepreneurs Meet
On May 12th, at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center in Bethlehem, PA, more than 600 technology entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, educators, and business leaders will converge to network, learn, and celebrate the success of what is now a thriving tech community. That’s when the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania hosts its annual i xchange (short for ‘idea exchange’), the region’s premier business networking event.
I xchange keynoter Joseph Michelli, Ph.D., will address how “Innovation Leads Transformation.” Dr. Michelli will explore the critical importance of creativity and innovation for delivering customer value and creating business opportunities. According to Dr. Michelli, abundance can lull business leaders into complacency. In strong economic times, leaders can prop up bad ideas with money. Conversely, scarcity can drive creativity. For more information on the keynote address, click here.
“The i xchange has grown into the premier networking event for the business technology community in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area,” said Laura Eppler, director of marketing for
Ben Franklin Technology Partners. “Attendees include high-level individuals from throughout the region, allowing for very productive interactions among guests.”
Continued…
Posted in Ennect Event, eMarketing.
Tagged with award, eMarketing, Ennect Event, entrepreneur, event, Pennsylvania.
By Carol Wolicki
– March 17, 2010
According to industry analyst firm AMR International business-to-business (B2B) online advertising is just one of the areas that will start to climb out of the recession-driven trough it has been in. But while AMR’s B2B online marketing report reaffirms what others are saying about growing investments in various marketing channels, it, also, identifies a large descrepancy between how B2B marketers rate the effectiveness of paid search results. Apparently marketers who measure results rate the effectiveness of their online search ad campaigns higher than those who don’t.
Which got me to thinking: if marketers who don’t measure results think their ads don’t count, then why are they still buying search ads? More importantly, shouldn’t this raise red flags for SEO services vendors? I’d be beating a door to my clients with reports in hand to help validate the effectiveness of their campaigns.
You can read more on the report in the 4 March 2010 article called, “B2B Online Marketers Focus on Lead Gen,” on eMarketer.com. Here’s a copy of a chart from eMarketer’s site illustrating the broad differences between marketers who measure paid search results and those who don’t.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this…
Posted in eMarketing.
Tagged with eMarketing, Search.
By Carol Wolicki
– March 8, 2010
All indications are that today’s consumers are increasing their use of coupons, especially digital coupons. According to a recent study released by Coupons.com Research, digital coupon redemptions outstripped newspaper coupons last year by ten to one! E-coupon redemptions have helped the coupon business grow.
“For the first time in almost two decades the use of coupons increased in 2009, in part due to the growth of digital coupons as more consumers made them part of their shopping routine and more brands tapped them to engage with their consumers,” said Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com Incorporated, in a news release posted on the company’s web site.
So, is it time for B2B marketers to cozy-up to coupons? Lots of other consumer-oriented marketing methods have been adopted by B2B marketers.
We don’t have an answer, but we know companies who’ve used email marketing to offer coupons for their services and products in a B2B marketplace. We’ve done it ourselves.
Take our quick survey on this question and we’ll enter you into a drawing for – what else? – a coupon for free use of Ennect Event. Click here to participate…
Posted in Ennect Event, Ennect Survey, Ennect Sweeps, eMarketing.
Tagged with coupons, Ennect Event, EnnectSurvey, EnnectSweeps.
By Carol Wolicki
– March 1, 2010
Not long ago, some students in an email class I was presenting at, got into a discussion on CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003). New users are often surprised at the extent of the penalties associated with sending SPAM or, while they’re aware of the Act itself, they’re fuzzy on the details. Some think that CAN-SPAM doesn’t apply to them.
So, I thought I’d write a short post with some answers to commonly-asked questions and provide pointers to CAN-SPAM resources that provide more detailed help.
First, I’d advise anyone doing opt-in email marketing to read about CAN-SPAM before starting their campaigns. Ennect posts a link to CAN-SPAM info right in our application, so users can review it before sending. Since we’re outside the application, here’s a link to the Act itself: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ187.108.pdf
It’s not the most scintillating reading or the easiest to understand, especially if you’re new to email marketing. The FTC provides an easier way to digest the main points outlined in the Act here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm
One question I get a lot is: how long does a sender have to remove a name if someone opts-out? The law clearly states that it’s illegal for a sender to email someone 10 business days after they’ve opted out. It also says that is unlawful for someone else to email to an opted out address on the sender’s behalf or for that address to be sold or otherwise transferred to someone else for any purpose other than to comply with the opt-out request.
Another question that comes up is: does the email have to provide the sender’s business address as well as email? The answer is: yes! The Act clearly states that “a valid physical postal address of the sender” must be included in the email.
Sourcing email addresses seems to be a murky area as well. Some new users seem to think it’s ok to pull email addresses off of websites in order to build their lists. Well, it’s not! That’s called ‘harvesting’ and it’s also outlawed by the CAN-SPAM Act.
What’s the cost of violation? It depends on the specific infraction, but if convicted, a single incident can cost $250 per email sent up to $2,000,000. But the court can increase that by three times and add attorney fees. So, unless you have some serious spare change in your pocket, you should learn the rules and follow them.
Posted in Ennect Mail, eMarketing.
Tagged with CANSPAM, email, Email Marketing Best Practices.
By Carol Wolicki
– February 22, 2010
Why not?
Large corporations have made use of sweepstakes to promote their companies’ brands and products for years. With the emergence of online sweepstakes tools, even small businesses can make effective use of sweeps to gain attention for themselves.
But online sweepstakes can do much more. For companies that think creatively, online sweepstakes can be an inexpensive way to address customer service, sales, marketing research, employee motivation, and product development issues.
With online contests in easy reach, it’s simple to expand the scope of sweepstakes’ usefulness. Consider three ways to implement sweepstakes that you might not have thought of:
1. Use sweeps to collect marketing research data. Rewarding survey participants with chances to win prizes in sweepstakes drawings is a great way to motivate them to provide feedback on new products, services, or company directions.
2. Use sweeps to motivate employees. Inject a little fun in the workplace. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a sweepstakes for your employees. You could raffle off a bonus vacation day or give away a free lunch. Do it in return for completing a survey on employee programs and you’ll not only make employees happy, you’ll get valuable information in return.
3. Use sweeps to strengthen customer relationships. Giving your customers an exclusive opportunity to win a sweepstakes giveaway or special offer shows you value their business. If you’re in the services industry, offering a discount on a future service is sure to be appreciated.
It doesn’t take a lot of time or money to design such sweepstakes. Take a look here for some other ideas on how online sweepstakes can help you.
Posted in Ennect Sweeps, News, eMarketing.
Tagged with EnnectSweeps, sweepstakes.
By Carol Wolicki
– February 15, 2010
Last week U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner met with United Steelworkers and US Steel, and visited a local factory where Allegheny Technologies produces specialty metal plates. He was trying to point out that heavy industry can succeed in the US even with tough competition from abroad. Geithner said the sector “will play a critical role in helping to spur our economic recovery and contribute to our long-term prosperity.”
