Spotlight on IMS: Tips on Reaching Your Email User Base from Mike Veilleux of Dyn

May 15, 2013 by

Check out this Spotlight on IMS as Mike Veilleux, Direct of Email Product at Dyn, shares his advice for email marketers who are trying to provide their customers with valuable messaging through email marketing.

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1.       Evolution of Deliverability

Over the past decade, spam has significantly changed the way people receive emails and engage with them. In the past, nearly all spam emails contained ads for free Viagra and Viagra knock-off products. Now, spam is defined as unsolicited emails from a company, website or individual – emails that customers do not sign up for or don’ want to receive. Since the days of the Viagra spam, however, spam has evolved to the point of outsmarting many filters. Key deliverability aspects emails marketers need to take control of are engagement among email customers and building a strong, credible reputation of your brand, domains and IP address in order to avoid being noted as spam.

2.       Protect Your Brand

Hackers tend to try to impersonate brands and companies digitally in order to phish your recipients.

Sometimes people impersonate you to phish recipients to steal people’s information, including their login credentials and passwords. A new specification for email marketers has been implemented to help email marketers and end-consumers keep their information safe, called DMARC:

New specification called DMARC

  • Domain-Based
  • Message
  • Authentication
  • Reporting &
  • Conformance

3.       Incorporate Transactional Email

Transactional email is one of the least focused email assets in most companies. Transactional emails are emails sent by companies welcoming a new member to their database, confirmation emails sent after a purchase and follow-up mails sent after a product has been delivered. These emails have a statistically higher open rate as they tend to contain information specific to the recipient. There is plenty of valuable space in these emails for companies to explain more about their brand, take advantage of upsell opportunities and cross-sell additional products and services. Marketers should make sure that they are focusing equally on their transactional emails as they are on their brand marketing emails.

 4.       Offer Unique Messages and Content

Providing your email recipients with unique messages and content will help your brand gain value, deliver the highest engagement rate (opens, click-thrus), and assist in deliverability. Your recipients will be more likely to actively participate in your email campaigns if you provide them with value.

 5.       Incorporate Real-Time Information

Providing real-time information is essential to unique messages and content. By developing an infrastructure which drives real-time information from your website, social networks and including timely, relevant industry news, you can position your brand as a resource for current events.

 

The Pulse Network is very excited about our upcoming Inbound Marketing Summit is taking place in San Francisco on July 30-31. You can register today for as little as $50 – click here to reserve your spot for this low price.

Check out our Spotlight on IMS New York series, featuring some of the brightest minds from the IMS Community, as we roll them out over the next few weeks leading up to the next show.

Want to continue this conversation? Feel free to Tweet to us and follow @IMS_Conference, @ThePulse, or join in this conversations with the rest of the IMS Community using #IMS13.

Filed Under: IMS New York 2013, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Spotlight on IMS: Three Myths of Website Errors From Dave Dabbah, GM of Hawq

May 13, 2013 by

Every day, thousands of website pages are created and edited. Most of the time, the creators of these sites are unaware of any errors in the content that they are publishing – mostly because they don’t think that there are any errors in their content. Dave Dabbah, General Manager of Hawq, wants to clear up some of the myths about website errors.

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Three Myths of Website Errors:

1.    Our Website is Perfect – We Don’t Have Any Errors

Last year, Hawq scanned the top 50 e-commerce sites in North America and found that each of these sites had over 200 website errors.

Hawq defines website errors as:
•    Broken links (external and internal)
•    Spelling errors
•    Branding errors
•    Typos
•    Accessibility mistakes

How do you fix these types of errors?
-Monitor your website content regularly. Performing content inventory audits regularly (daily, monthly, or weekly) depending on the size and depth of your website will greatly help these efforts.
-Fix these errors in a timely fashion.
-Make fixing these errors a priority and a large part of your organizational goals.

2.    Our CMS Prevents Errors From Being Published

Between commercial and open source content management systems, these platforms struggle to identify content errors. They won’t always recognized typos or bad URLs.

What’s the fix?
-Develop processes for locating errors before they are published.
-Monitor your site using secondary tools.
-Customize your site scans to incorporate your brand and product names

These three steps will help your CMS function better

3.    We Have an Editorial Process Which Eliminates Errors
Although having an editorial process is great, these processes always tend to break down. Sometimes these processes become so convoluted that it’s impossible to publish any content.

How do you fix your process?
-Identify the gaps in your process.
-Implement process improvements on a regular basis.
-Monitor your site with an automated tool
-Don’t be afraid to be the brand police! (Somebody has to do it!)

The Pulse Network is very excited about our upcoming Inbound Marketing Summit is taking place in San Francisco on July 30-31. You can register today for as little as $50 – click here to reserve your spot for this low price.

Check out our Spotlight on IMS New York series, featuring some of the brightest minds from the IMS Community, as we roll them out over the next few weeks leading up to the next show.

Want to continue this conversation? Feel free to Tweet to us and follow @IMS_Conference, @ThePulse, or join in this conversations with the rest of the IMS Community using #IMS13.

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, IMS New York 2013, The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Five Tips for a Fast On-Site Registration System – A TPN My5 Featuring Stephen Saber

May 9, 2013 by

CEO Stephen Saber of The Pulse Network shares his five recommendations for Fast Registration Systems. In order to provide fast and efficient on-site registration at an event or trade show, following these recommendations will help your event result in happy event attendees.

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1.    Electronic Check In: People use electronic check in systems at airports, movies and even major sporting events. Using a bar code on your event registration confirmation emails will allow attendees to check in simply by scanning the bar code. Event managers will be able to move attendees through the registration process up to five times faster – leading to happier guests.
2.    Self-Registration: Today, you can sign up online for everything. Make a kiosk available for event attendees to register on-site. Providing a computer for attendees to do this independently rather than through an event manager will allow them to provide accurate information efficiently. At the end of the event, you will have rich, clean data to add to your database.
3.    Operational Flow:  Stephen uses Disney World as a prime example of operational flow. When guests are waiting in line for a ride in the amusement park, they are constantly moving through the line while engaging with entertaining elements of the ride before they even get on. Park guests don’t even realize that they are waiting in line for an hour because they are constantly moving. You need to consider your operational flow and answer three different questions:
a.    What is your operational flow?
b.    How can you move them through the line as quickly as possible?
c.    How can you assure they are constantly moving through the line?
4.    Evaluate the Efficiency of Your System: You need to make sure that you system is built well for what happens at the event. Take the time to make sure that your registration application is simply, easy to use and quick for event processing. Ensure that it is efficient for getting people through the line in the fastest way possible.
5.    Break Registration into Pieces: The biggest mistake most event managers make is trying to process all different parts of registration at the same place and at the same time. Breaking registration into smaller pieces will allow people to keep moving instead of stopping and waiting at one registration point for longer than they need to. This allows for a consistent flow of traffic. If you create a backlog, you will get a backlog.

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, Event Marketing 365, My5, The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

5 Tips for Enhancing Your Brand’s Digital Presence – A TPN My5 Featuring Jen Videtta

May 7, 2013 by

The evolution of digital media has vastly changed how marketers reach their audiences, and having a strong digital presence is essential for companies trying to attract new customers to grow their business.

Check out my five tips for enhancing your brand’s digital presence:

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1. Be Active 24/7/365: In order to ensure that your brand’s digital presence is reaching your targeted audience, you need to make sure that you have an online presence consistently throughout the day. It may be helpful to use tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck for scheduling early-morning or late-night posts. Some people may only be checking their social accounts and newsfeed early in the morning or in the late evening. Don’t be afraid to share the same content more than once through your social networks – it will significantly increase the reach of your message. Guy Kawasaki and The Huffington Post are two examples of people who share the same message multiple times to ensure they are maximizing their reach.

2. Be Consistent: Consistency is another key factor in enhancing the digital presence of your brand. Companies who use different logos for different social accounts will run into issues with consumers who are confused by the different imagery. In addition to having consistent logos, having the same usernames across different channels is also helpful for your customers who are trying to find you on certain social networks. Some bad practices we’ve seen in creating usernames includes using characters that don’t belong. Creating a username such as *ThePulse* on any network will be hurtful as people will not include the asterisks in their searches, making your brand less visible.

3.  Implement a Workflow: To properly implement your digital marketing strategy, creating a workflow is critical. Having a workflow and being able to show the process behind your social activity will help during the on-boarding process for new employees joining your digital marketing team as you grow, as well as encourage buy-in from upper management.

4. Engage With Your Fans: Instead of writing posts that are targeted at your fans and followers, try talking to them instead. Engaging in a higher level of conversation with individual customers is a valuable advantage that marketers now have due to the rise of social media. People love to hear back from their favorite brand, and knowing that there is a real human being behind your accounts humanizes your company.

5. Pay Attention to Analytics: The key to analytics for digital marketers is that you will gain an understand of what your audience wants, needs and expects from your social channels. The higher the level of engagement on each post, the number of responses and, ultimately, the amount of traffic you’ve driven to your site and turned social followers into leads will be the results that you want to show off.

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, My5, The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

TPN Team Joins Over 30,000 in Annual Walk for Hunger

May 6, 2013 by

On Sunday, May 5, 2013, The Pulse Network Team participated in Project Bread’s 45th  Walk for Hunger. Project Bread, a Massachusetts non-profit organization, puts on the Walk for Hunger every spring in order to raise money for Massachusetts families who struggle to put food on the table every day. This year, the Walk for Hunger raised $3.1 million which is donated directly to over 430 emergency food programs that support families in crisis.

 

 

team-photoThe Pulse Network Team joined over 30,000 individuals in the 20-mile walk through Boston, Brookline, Newton, Watertown and Cambridge, raising close to $1,500 – enough to provide 72 families with a hot meal and a week’s worth of groceries through a weekly supper program.

Unfortunately, the number of Massachusetts residents who are at risk for hunger increases  every year. Through supporting local organizations like Project Bread, The Pulse Network aims to provide assistance for our own neighbors and members of our communities who are in need.

Thank you to everyone who donated to our effort this year! To see pictures of The Pulse Network team participating in the Walk for Hunger, click here.

 

Filed Under: The Pulse Network News Tagged With: , , ,

Spotlight on IMS: Tips on Content Generation and Engagement from Michael De Monte, Founder and CEO of ScribbleLive

May 3, 2013 by

Michael De Monte, Founder and CEO of ScribbleLive, shares his advice on Content Generation and Engagement – and why advertising has never been the way it should be.

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1. Create Authentic Content

Creating authentic content will get you much further than producing a large amount of aimless sales-pitch sounding content. Instead of pushing your brand at events and talking to potential customers and clients, tell your story. Telling your story effectively and providing quality content in the context of that story is far more effective than producing content that no one will be interested in hearing.

2.  Create Rich Content

Rich content is a key factor in boosting engagement among consumers. To enhance text posts, use videos, photos, slideshows and polls to keep your audience coming back for more.

3.  Promote Through Social Media

When you’ve produced a great piece, you need to use social media to share that content with your fans and followers. Once you share the content with them, you can provide them with a call to action, drive them back to your site and monetize them.

4. Extend Your Reach

Not everyone can be on your site at the same time, so how can you engage your consumers in the content you’re producing? Traditionally, publishing a press release was the most efficient means of sharing your messages.  Now, we have platforms and channels that allow us to create rich content and distribute in real-time.

5.  Measurement

All of the content you’re creating needs to be measured. Some metrics to look at include the quality of the content, the level of engagement, the number of comments and questions being asked? All this create content and authenticity needs to be measured. Making these assessments will help your content marketing efforts going forward and will lead to a better ROI at the end of the day.

 

 

The Pulse Network is very excited about our upcoming Inbound Marketing Summit is taking place in San Francisco on July 30-31. You can register today for only $25 – click here to reserve your spot for this low price.

Check out our Spotlight on IMS New York series, featuring some of the brightest minds from the IMS Community, as we roll them out over the next few weeks leading up to the next show.

Want to continue this conversation? Feel free to Tweet to us and follow @IMS_Conference, @ThePulse, or join in this conversations with the rest of the IMS Community using #IMS13.

Filed Under: IMS New York 2013 Tagged With: , , , ,

The New Era of On-Demand Marketing

May 1, 2013 by

Victoria Headshotby: Victoria Fields, Copywriter for Momentum Telecom, a cloud-based communications provider

 

 

 

As many marketers know, the landscape of marketing is rapidly changing. Over the past years, we’ve moved from traditional to content-based marketing that encourages interactive feedback and conversation with customers.

Now, digital marketing is about to enter even more challenging territory.

smartphonesBuilding on the movement toward consumer power brought on by the digital age and social media that encourages consumers to share, compare and rate experiences, marketing is headed toward being on-demand – not just always “on” but also always relevant and responsive to customers’ desires that cut through other advertising noise with precise delivery.

Mobile devices add a new dimension of “wherever” to the digital climate. Marketers have a great opportunity to be in the pocket of consumers, but need to find ways to take advantage of this opportunity and privilege.

According to a recent study by the McKinsey Institute, as digital capabilities multiply, consumer demands will rise in four specific areas:

1. Consumers will want to interact anywhere at any time. Marketers have already started to take advantage of their customers’ desire for real-time and unique content, but in the new on-demand environment, digital technologies will need to operate behind the scenes to integrate data into all interactions a consumer has across the decision journey and provide insights into the best influence pathways for companies, while also triggering new experiences for customers.

2. Customers will want to do truly new things as more information is deployed in ways that create value for them. Marketing will no longer interrupt an experience that consumers enjoy; it will need to become the experience they enjoy. The challenge will be for companies to look beyond today’s interfaces to create an instantaneous series of interactions that remove the hassle of searching and sharing in multiple places.

3. They will expect all data stored about them to be targeted precisely to their needs. A phone tap or a click will need to instantly personalize offers, using information captured on “likes,” recent travel, income and other targeted information. With each interaction in the new digital age, consumers will be creating new data footprints that can complement existing digital portraits and enhance customer experience for your business

4. They will expect all interactions to be easy. A tap-and-go approach to delivering services and information and streamlining processes will be critical. Interactions can be more inviting, especially on mobile devices, by using touch and swipe to make changes and data in phones to recognize consumers and automatically customize interfaces.

Businesses can improve their approach to marketing by staying ahead of the design, data and delivery requirements of on-demand customers in the upcoming years. In fact, competitive advantage in the future will depend on it.

 

Filed Under: Marketing, The Pulse on Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Getting Started with Content Marketing – Content Marketing 360

April 26, 2013 by

Content marketing is a popular buzz phrase among marketing professionals right now. Everyone is talking about different ways to create content, the different forms of popular content and sharing tips and tools for content creation and distribution. But one question that many business owners ask is “how do I actually start doing content marketing?”

John McEvoy, owner of CrossFit Craic – a CrossFit gym in Dedham, MA – recently joined  Nick Saber, President of The Pulse Network and host Tyler Pyburn to discuss how John has used content marketing to build an online community.

Watch this video clip from their interview as John describes how he started building content around CrossFit Craic before the gym even opened:

To watch the full Content Marketing 360 interview with John, follow this link.

According to John, the hardest thing about content marketing was getting started. By building content with photos and videos during the early stages of construction of CrossFit Craic, however, John has created an index of content that can be re-purposed and reused for his audience.

 

Tips for Starting Your Content Marketing

contentmarketing

1. Set Clear Goals.  Before you do anything, ask yourself: What am I trying to do through content marketing? Are you trying to create buzz around a new product? Do you want to drive sales? Generate qualified leads?  Knowing the answers to these questions is critical in being able to reach your target audience.

2. Define Your Buyer Personas. Who exactly is your target audience? Are you trying to promote your product to individual consumers or sell a business solution to an enterprise? Understanding who will be consuming your content will help you determine exactly what forms of content will be the most effective for reaching this audience and what channels to use.

3. Develop a Strategy. Like traditional marketing, content marketing needs to have a strategy behind it. Identify specific channels for your content to live on, the voice your content is going to take on and your desired audience perception.

4. Appoint Someone To Do It. Content marketing is a time consuming task, and finding the right person to execute this strategy is important for ensuring that it doesn’t fall flat. In addition to having an internal employee promoting your business through content marketing, identifying influencers within your industry will become valuable for syndicating your original content and growing the reach of your content.

5. Measure Your Results. Measure the results of your content regularly. Creating benchmark reports which contrast and compare your goals and your actual results will provide valuable insight into what forms of content are most effective and what channels are most popular with your targeted buyer personas. Benchmarking will also give you an opportunity to make adjustments to your content marketing strategy as needed to achieve your long-term goals

Yes, content marketing is time consuming, but it has also been highly effective for businesses small and large. During his interview, John McEvoy compares content marketing to developing a great physique. “It’s all done one step at a time, the same way that you see someone in amazing shape. It takes time…you just have to make the decision to do it.”

Interested in learning more about content marketing? Follow @ThePulse on Twitter and join in the conversation using #CM360.

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Digital Leaders: Tools for Enterprise Marketers

April 26, 2013 by

Debi Kleiman of MITX and Butch Stearns of the Pulse Network speak with Mike Troiano of Actifio about building brands and helpful tools for marketers.

 

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Mike Troiano’s Keys to Building a Brand

  • Developing a product that works as advertised
  • Generating a base of loyal customers
  • Delivering on promises of business results
  • Establishing strong brand advocates

Reference Links

 

Tune in to our next episode of Digital Leaders on Tuesday, May 7th at 11:00 AM. Join the conversation on Twitter using with #DigitalLeaders.

Follow The Pulse Network on Twitter – https://twitter.com/ThePulse
Like The Pulse Network on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ThePulseNetwork

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Digital Leaders: What’s Next for Enterprise Marketing?

April 25, 2013 by

Debi Kleiman of MITX and Butch Stearns of The Pulse Network discuss current trends in enterprise marketing and the different strategies and tactics for B2B marketers.

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To view the full episode of Digital Leaders, follow this link.

Reference Links

 

Tune in to our next episode of Digital Leaders on Tuesday, May 7th at 11:00 AM. Join the conversation on Twitter using with #DigitalLeaders.

Follow The Pulse Network on Twitter – https://twitter.com/ThePulse
Like The Pulse Network on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ThePulseNetwork

Filed Under: Digital Leaders Tagged With: , , , ,
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