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Email marketing is suddenly all the rage. I’m sure you’ve probably gotten an email or two about it. Wondering what all the fuss is about? After all, a lot of the wind went out of email a while back with spammers taking all the fun out of everything, right? Well, it’s actually been working fairly well for TKG and our clients.
While TKG has always done a bit of email marketing, we have recently decided to double our efforts in this area. There are a number of reasons why we would choose to do this, and why we would encourage our clients to follow our lead in this:

1. It can be very cost effective
2. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your clients/prospects/community
3. Helps build your brand, image
4. It works – we get a pretty good response from it – both in seminar sales and comments from clients and prospects who actually appreciate the content we are sending

A few things to remember when creating an email campaign might be to make sure you are giving good information. Make sure your list is for folks who actually want to hear from you, and are targeted for this particular information. Make sure it is well written, and looks good.

Some basic email marketing tips:
1. Play by the rules. Always provide an opt-out, and be sure it actually works!
2. Good way to generate list – newsletter sign-up on site, giving your free info in exchange for sign-up.
3. Make sure they look good – good design.
4. Provide good, concise content.
5. Don’t just sell. Give info that is actually valuable to the recipient, whether they buy or not.
6. Don’t overload it. Too much info will just be ignored.
7. Don’t do it every day. Once or twice a month is probably enough unless you have really good info that no-one else has.

So, are you using email marketing? Have some questions? Drop us a line, we’d love to help you out!

I found an interesting article in my inbox this morning. Jason Lee Miller discussing what women want. Finding out what women want, at least as far as marketing goes, is always a good idea.

What Mr. Miller points out, that many of us tend to forget, (hopefully none of my clients!) is that women make 80% of the day to day purchasing decisions in the U.S. This is a significant thing to keep in mind when designing an e-commerce site, doing SEO, or any type of marketing. Women, I think we can all agree, are the main spenders of the money. They need to be a target audience for a good chunk of your marketing budget if you are the owner of consumer oriented e-commerce site, especially one that sells any kind of household, apparel, family type items. Guys just don’t do a whole lot of that stuff, and what we do, tends to be at a brick and mortar on the way home from work. Not to sound too 1950s, but that’s just the way it goes. Guys tend to spend more time looking for cars, car parts, sporting goods, or other targeted items online. If you need to grab a new pair of sneakers, how many guys do you know who will research and spend a day or two contemplating the best deal between a couple of different web sites before they buy? Most guys will just head to where ever they have purchased them before, and most likely, pick up a pair of the same thing they always buy.

Women, on the other hand, research. They want the best deal for the best shipping rate, while getting the best product. So where do they do this research? Turns out, a lot of it is by reading blogs, commenting on blogs, and other social media outlets. So your wife wants to buy a new vacuum, she’s probably gonna do a search two to find out who has been talking about what vacuum, where.

I’ve talked about the need to utilize social media before, but this article is really making a case for it’s use. Many people are becoming less interested in traditional media, preferring the web as a way to get news that is not quite so slanted, as well as finding venues for information that are more in their particular niche. There is a blog out there for everyone. You can find a news source that is more suited to your ideology, whether it be conservative or liberal, or even somewhere in between, and commenters will keep it somewhat more honest. If you post something that is absolute bunk, you will have someone call you on it. Even if you don’t reply or retract, they will get a discussion going, especially if it is a hot topic.

So where does that leave traditional media? Somewhat in the dust, I think, especially as women, the group with the greatest purchase power tend to prefer blogs and other social media to gather information. The Miller article also pointed out another interesting tidbit. Women appear to prefer blogs and a Facebook type of network to Twitter. Women are social, they just are. The interaction of blogs and Facebook, the ability to keep in touch is what appeals to them, he says. Well, that very well may be… I tend to think that perhaps 140 characters just isn’t enough room for females to say all they need to say…

NASA announced on May 10th that astronaut Mark Polansky, commander of the next space shuttle mission to the International Space Station in June, will be sharing updates and other comments about his shuttle experience on Twitter! He will be asking people to submit video questions to You Tube to be answered while he is in orbit.

Polansky, a former Air Force test pilot, will command the space shuttle Endeavour on a flight slated for launch June 13, taking some parts to the space station’s Japanese laboratory.

Polansky’s Twitter account is Astro_127, and can be followed at:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_127

According to the news release here are instructions for posting a question:
“To submit a question, Polansky’s Twitter followers should post a video question no longer than 30 seconds to YouTube and tweet the link to Polansky’s account, @Astro_127. From now through the launch of STS-127, one or two of the questions submitted will be selected each week to be answered from orbit. A video invitation from Polansky may be viewed at:

http://www.youtube.com/reelnasa ”

This is very cool, and if you would like more information there are a few links below:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts127

For a list of NASA missions providing updates on social media Web sites, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Totally loving the fact that NASA is using social media as a way to promote and educate – really awesome, one of the most technologically advanced organizations in the world is using this medium to communicate what they do to really a generation of kids and adults who grew up hearing about the space shuttle so much that it just doesn’t seem like that big a deal anymore. I bet this will generate some interest, and teach us all a thing or two we had no idea about the shuttle missions. Looking forward to it!

A few months back I mentioned that Google was running a neat competition for school students, inviting them to design a “Doodle for Google”. This doodle was based on the theme “What I wish for the world.” and entries were to be submitted with this theme in mind. Well, it is now time to vote on your favorite doodle! Just go to the Doodle for Google page and cast a vote for the one you think is best, or reflects the them the most.

These are a few of the ones I thought were really cool: check ‘em out!

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Just a quick note to let you all know about a pretty neat Twitter happening.
Carson Daly apparently has decided to show support for our men and women serving all over the world by starting #militarymonday on Twitter.

This is how it works:
Simply go on your twitter account, type a message of support to our troops and put #militarymonday at the end.

This is a pretty neat, quick way to show our troops and the rest of the world that we are always behind them, pulling for them and praying for them, and that we appreciate their sacrifice.