WrapMail Should be in AdAge

I read this morning on AdAge that advertisers are going to begin using store windows for ads.  Why?  Well, two reasons.  First, advertisers are looking for new ways to reach consumers, specifically in large cities with heavy foot traffic.  Second, store owners and building owners are hip to it because it has created a new stream of revenue.  The end game here is to engage consumers in a new way.  New technology makes this possible as window advertisements can be three dimensional and interactive.  

Hmmm, new technology that makes new advertising tactics possible.  Sounds a lot like WrapMail. Which, if you have not been reading this blog daily, is a software-for-service product that “wraps” every external email from every employee with an interactive letterhead that is linked back to your website.  Our technology enables companies to advertise their products and services within their daily everyday emails to prospects and customers.  OK, so we match up on reason #1 above – a new way to reach and engage customers/prospects.  Regarding the second reason listed above, our customers could sell advertising space in their Wraps much like store owners selling space on their windows. Given the right scenario of course. Take the Dallas Mavericks for instance, they could sell space in their Wraps to many of the team sponsors which would create a new source of revenue.  Do you think P&G would pay handsomely to “sponsor” every external email that is sent from every Wal-Mart employee?  I do.

New way to engage consumers. Check.  New way to generate revenue.  Check.  Why isn’t WrapMail in AdAge?

Dave Kustin – EVP Marketing, WrapMail

Media Tracking

A big element of marketing is knowing what works and what does not.  There is a famous quote by John Wanamaker, pioneer of the department store in which he says “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”  That’s a scary thought isn’t it?  Mr. Wanamaker made that quote a long time ago so our measurement capabilities have improved immensely since then, but many still share his sentiment. 

In 2007 AT&T spent $2.2BB on measured media which means, if you feel like John Wanamaker, AT&T “wasted” more than a billion dollars on media without knowing if it droves sales.  Ouch.  Considering their poor branding efforts as it relates to the Cingular acquisition, I guess it’s no surprise.  Imagine though, if you did know where your sales came from.  Imagine if you knew that the customer standing before you was doing so because of the TV ad that ran on Sunday at 6:05pm in Omaha versus the print ad in the same town that ran three weeks prior.

I think John would have appreciated WrapMail because it would have told him which half. WrapMail can tell you exactly what your customers are interested in and in real-time.  When any element of a wrapped email is clicked on that person will be taken to your website.  Simultaneously, you will receive an Instant Click Alert, which is essentially the same thing as a bell ringing when a prospect walks into your store.  If you had one of course.  Which many of us don’t.  Our website is our only store.  Knowing which media drives your sales is a good thing.  Knowing when customers are in your virtual store (website) is even better.

Dave Kustin, EVP Marketing, WrapMail

 

do-not-reply@massemailgenerator.com

What’s with the Do Not Reply mass emails?  I receive these pretty often and often I want to reply to the sender of said email.  Upon doing so, more often than not, the email address to do so is a derivative of what you see above.  WHY!!!!!  This action is like calling one of your customers or prospects, telling them some news or information, then hanging up on them.  I must have missed that technique is Salesmanship 101.  There are many flaws with mass email systems but this one is the most frustrating in my opinion.  I think mass emails and newsletters should be a part of a comprehensive marketing mix, but why not give your audience an opportunity to respond to your email communication?  

Clearly one of the main attractions for users of mass email solutions is the ability to send visually rich communication which will/should attract attention.  Don’t get me started on the fact that most of them show up with a RED X where the images are supposed to be.  Be that as it may, it is an attraction.  WrapMail solves this problem. And does so with every email, not just the one that is sent monthly or quarterly.  Every email, from every employee can be surrounded by a visually rich image that will be seen (our emails do not get the RED X) by your audience.  And most importantly.  After your audience reads your stimulating email they will be able to reply.  To you.

Dave Kustin – EVP Marketing, WrapMail

The Power of a Simple Idea

6 days ago we posted a video pitch on the pitch section of TechCrunch, which is one of the most read blogs on the internet.  Today, our pitch is the highest rated on TechCrunch. I believe it is the highest rated because of the power of “the simple idea.” In the years before email, corporations ALWAYS sent external written correspondence on stationery, which of course included a logo and contact information.  

Fast forward to the days of corporate email and there are currently billions of corporate email users sending out trillions of emails that are essentially on blank sheets of paper. Think about that.  Imagine you are corporation and you send an introductory letter to a prospect and you send it on a plain white sheet of paper. Wow, that’s pretty memorable…I mean forgettable.  Yes, some email users include a logo in their signature, but c’mon this is the 21st century we’re more high-tech than that aren’t we?  

WrapMail takes that blank email from every employee and turns it into a branded piece of collateral and is linked back to your website.  The links are clickable and trackable which means that corporations now have their very own research tool as part of every email that is sent from every employee.  Mind you, these are emails that are going to be sent anyway, might as well put them to work.

Interactive letterhead for your email.  Simple.

 

Dave Kustin – EVP Marketing, WrapMail

Marketing – Focus

I just read that Twitter has secured another round of funding and one of the founders says that they will worry about the business model (read = revenue) after they firm up their infrastructure.  Huh?  I’m trying to think hard about this, but I’m pretty sure had I told my finance professor in business school that “I’ll worry about the revenue model for my business plan later” I think he would have flunked me.  How do these companies get funding without a clear revenue model? Amazes me.  

Marketing is no different.  Having a clear focus on what your brand means and stands for is utterly and completely essential to long term success, it cannot be overstated enough.  Being able to create a brand and word/concept association in the minds of consumers is key.  For example: Volvo = safety, Red Bull = energy drink, TechCrunch = source for tech news, Apple = cool/hip consumer electronics, WalMart = retailer of all things…get my point?  Focus is what enables consumers to create a mental shorthand for your brand.  This is ultimately done by having a clear, PRE-planned business strategy (see above) and then following that with clear, concise language, images, advertising strategies, etc.. that are memorable and different from the competition.  Being first helps too (see this post).

 

Dave Kustin – EVP Marketing, WrapMail

 

WrapMail on YouTube and TechCrunch

Watch WrapMail’s Youtube video

WrapMail on TechCrunch

Positioning & the iPhone

There has been a great deal of talk about the iPhone - how revolutionary it is, the latest version and of course competitors to it.  The iPhone is beginning to take a chunk of the Smart Phone category away from BlackBerry.  Additionally, much of the recent press has been about the competition releasing devices to combat the iPhone and how great the devices are, blah, blah, blah.  I have some bad news for the competition.  They will never surpass the iPhone in popularity.  I am not saying this because I am an Apple loyalist (I do not own an iPhone).  I am saying this because it is law.  It is part of the laws of “Positioning” which in marketing-speak is to say that the iPhone has captured the “first-mover” position in the minds of consumers.  In addition to their superior operating system, which the competition cannot copy, they have created the perception of innovation with the iPhone as it relates to what consumers were used to.

All that said, the iPhone will most likely never supplant BlackBerry as the number one Smart Phone either and will remain the #2 in the category.  But, the competition will never supplant the iPhone and what it has done in terms of its market share.  The iPhone will however, be the #1 touch screen phone, if it already isn’t. Remember when the iPod came out and was subsequently followed by all the iPod killers like the Zune? Umm, where’s the Zune now?  Same law is in effect.  First mover, combined with innovation, from a company that has the ability to let customers know about new products will always own the mind of the consumer.

WrapMail will abide by the same law.  We have the first-mover advantage and have created innovation to the most frequently used business communication tool there is – email. Much like the iPhone did for Smart Phones, we will benefit from the same transformation in consumer thinking and perception about email marketing and how to use ‘everyday’ emails to communicate to customers and prospects.

 

Dave Kustin - EVP Marketing, WrapMail

 

Turning Distractions Into Attractions

If your inbox is anything like mine several times a week you get emails that start out:

I know not all of you are women that I am sending this to but I’m hoping you will share this with your  wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, etc

Or:      

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW.  READ ON. Gas rationing in the 70′s worked even though we grumbled about it.  It might even have been good for us!

 

And typically end:

 Again, all you have to do is forward this message to 10 people. How long would that really take you?  If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people, within one day all 300 MILLION people could theoretically be contacted during the next eight days! 

 

They are called forwards and I’d say I get about 20-30 different versions of this form of viral email a week. Some are entertaining, some are informative, and some promise to send me money by simply passing the email on to five of my closest friends. No matter the subject, the majority of forwards I receive have one thing is common….they are being sent by people I know. Relatives who want to share a laugh, friends who are trying to waste time at work, and even business contacts who consider it a way of developing our relationship by including me in their circle of friends.

 

What used to be a huge waste of time and company resources though is now a new way to attract potential customers thanks to WrapMail. As you know WrapMail is basically a letterhead that wraps around all out going emails and provides numerous details about the sender. WrapMails are easily designed and can be custom fit to include promotions, product info, or even links to various departments within a company. However what you may not know is that when an employee sends out a forward to their twenty closest friends Wrapmail goes along for the ride!!! Instead of an employee costing the company money by emailing silly jokes all day, what you now get is a way to reach hundreds and thousands of potential customers with one click of a mouse. After all what’s the first thing somebody does when they receive a forward? They pass it on! Soon the email has been sent all across the world and with each new recipient comes another person who is exposed to your info as they scroll down to the bottom of the message. Thus creating a viral loop that continuously brings people to your company! How’s that for creating buzz!!

The 1′s,2′s, & 3′s Of Relationship Building

One thing we love about WrapMail are the relationships it helps build. Unlike other types of direct marketing, WrapMail doesn’t get caught in spam filter because it’s not spam. By taking the emails an employee sends out on a regular basis (whether it be to established customers, friends and family, or new contacts) and adding what is basically a custom designed letterhead, companies who utilize WrapMail only stand to gain from the enhanced relationship that comes as a result of using it.  But what are some other ways we as small business owners can improve upon our relationships with out making the customer feel like we are only in it for a quick buck?

 

The first thing I would suggest is that you communicate with your customers frequently. Think about it like this, in a typical month how often do you talk to your next-door neighbor? I can say that personally speaking the it’s more than about 4-5 times a month. Now this may seem like an extreme when it comes to the business world, but the point is every time you make an effort to communicate with a customer the more that relationship grows.

 

Forget about that stack of form letters you keep on file for every type of situation and show a little bit of personality. Nobody likes to read junk mail and people can smell a computer-generated message a mile away. Does the entire email need to be original? Of course not, but there is something to be gained from adding personal touches depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the email.

 

Be prepared to respond to feedback because you might not get a second chance to stick that foot in the door. There’s nothing worse than being ignored especially when somebody asks your opinion. You take the time to give them your honest answer and then they just move on like you never responded. If someone you have contacted has a problem with your company do everything you can to not only make the situation right, but to show them you care. By showing concern and thanking them for their response while at the same time taking the appropriate measures to make sure the next customer in line doesn’t face a similar situation you are only increasing the chances of a repeat sale. Plus you are creating the all-important word of mouth as the customer goes on to talk to friends and family about their experience with your company.

 

Don’t be afraid to ask customers what they think and remember to respond to their concerns honestly. At the heart of every successful business lies a foundation of relationships that was built one person at a time, so the next time you speak to a customer do yourself a favor and make sure they know they aren’t just speaking to a machine.

Consumer Satisfaction Tool Taking Small Business By Storm

In today’s rough and tumble market everyone is looking for an edge in hopes of accomplishing what many are currently failing at….making a decent profit. As a result hoards of small business owners are turning to a new customer satisfaction system that may just lead to the dawning of a new era. I’m talking about NPS (Net Promoter Score) and believe it or not many companies say it’s changing they way they respond to customers by giving them a direct hotline to what they are most excited about.

 

Simply put NPS is a series of questions each of which are answered on a scale of 1-10 (the higher the number the stronger the customer feels about the question) and then tallied up to produce an NPS SCORE. A score of 50+ means the company in question is a mega-star in terms of the love it receives from consumers. Fred Reichheld spent over ten years trying to come up with an easy was to judge customer satisfaction and the end result is quickly becoming a standard for such companies as Whirlpool and Intel. The ultimate goal of the NPS is to figure out the percentage of customers who are not only satisfied with a product but actively promote it among friends and family thus increasing the chances they will influence others to purchase it as well.

 

The key to figuring out your NPS is one simple question: On a scale of 1-10 how likely are you to recommend us to your family and friends? Answers are then split into three categories: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. The score equals the percent of Promoters less the percent of Detractors. NPS may be relatively easy to calculate, but what it leads to is a very complex understanding of why customers leave feeling the way they do.  What happens next is a better relationship with the consumer built around finding out just why they answered the way they did. If a negative response was given, questions such as “What could we do better?” or “What about the product left you wanting more?” are then asked.  A positive response helps a company know just what they are doing well with a follow-up such as “What did you like most about your buying experience?”

 

The idea that NPS is the best way to read what customers are thinking is becoming such a force that many who use it have started sending out their NPS score to employees so that they can make changes in they way they are handling day to day operations. The way one small business owner puts it” Everyone just got it. Here’s a single number that can go up or down, depending on interactions with customers. Sure, it takes some time,” allows Byers. “But the benefits so outweigh the time spent.”