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Vol 1, #9, May 12, 2009 |
Measurement standard for digital marketing now available Webtrends has just released a beta version of the first standardized model for determining how effectively organizations measure and utilize the data generated by their online marketing efforts. The Digital Marketing Maturity Model (DM3) gives businesses a framework and objective criteria for assessing their strategies, skills, tools and best practices that support the successful measurement of all digital marketing activities, as opposed to other industry models that focus only on web site measurement. “For online marketing to continue to grow and mature there needs to be standardized, structured approaches for organizations to ensure they are getting the most bang for their digital marketing buck,” says Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, VP of marketing for Webtrends. The DM3 helps businesses to:
Top of Page Email and online marketing solutions provider Silverpop now allows marketers to predict the ideal message delivery time using the Send Time Organization program. Send Time Optimization analyzes recipient behaviour on a rolling basis to determine the best time to deliver emails to each address on the list. The system then individually delivers messages to reipients at the precise day and time they are most likely to be in their inboxes. With a single send, Silverpop’s new offering even addresses international mailing challenges, eliminating the need to schedule multiple sends. “Marketers obviously want their messages to have high visibility when the recipient is looking at his or her inbox, but until now, predicting that ideal delivery time has been impossible,” says Bill Nussey, CEO of Silverpop. Top of Page Online retailers optimistic about sales, Forrester study According to “State of Retailing Online 2009”, the 12 th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research, online retailers are changing their marketing tactics in order to acquire and retain customers in this uncertain economy. While the survey found that more than half of respondents expect overall retail growth to slow over the next twelve months, four out of five retailers indicated that the internet is better suited than other channels to withstand the recession. One third said that the downturn has helped them to capture greater market share. “Online retailers are trying to weather this economic storm by doing more with less, making smart spending decisions and leveraging effective, affordable tactics like email to grow their businesses,” says Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. Almost half of retailers surveyed (46 per cent) have no plans to cut back on their original budgets and will spend as planned on their website business while 24 per cent will spend more on their online business than originally planned. Those planning to spend more will focus their investments on search, email and social marketing. “Because consumers continue to spend online, interactive marketing spend to drive web sales remains a lucrative investment,” says Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research principal analyst and author of the report. “While other channels struggle, ecommerce managers have a unique opportunity to drive more sales and test different tactics that resonate with consumers. Top of Page Social media release platform from Donovan Consulting Group A Social Media Release incorporates video, audio, print and online assets into a dynamic and engaging platform providing customers and their intended audience (i.e. consumers, traditional and online media) with access to a host of online features. It also provides a means by which to encourage two-way communication between an organization and its audience through user comments. Users can also bookmark the site and share its information with colleagues and friends. Combined with traditional media outreach campaigns the Social Media Release is an effective communication tool designed to enhance what the client wants to say to those who they want to hear it. "Our clients have appreciated our ability to take the leg work and the guess work out of researching and coordinating the right elements for their projects," said Andy Donovan, Principal, Donovan Consulting Group. "With more than a decade's worth of experience in coordinating projects across all sectors, we strive to provide our clients with short and long term solutions designed to enhance their internal resources and with the launch of our Social Media Release, we hope to continue these efforts". Top of Page MySpace Canada reinvents traditional classifieds In partnership with Oodle, MySpace Canada has launched MySpace Canada Classifieds, a social service that offers users a safe and social marketplace to buy and sell products and services within their trusted group of friends for free. “The growing prevalence of social networking sites such as MySpace Canada has enabled a new type of online classified service to emerge,” says Susan McGill, Executive Director, Sales, Marketing and Business Development for MySpace Canada. Through the social networking framework, users are able to easily share information about what they are looking for with their friends through MySpace bulletins and blogs. Because user profiles are attached to each listing, users get a better understanding of who they’re selling to, trading with, or buying from. “Online transactions rely on trust,” says McGill, “and by allowing users to understand who they are selling to and buying from, MySpace can help lift the veil of anonymity that can sometimes cause anxiety for any of the parties involved.” Top of Page New server adds web-based admin console to BlackBerrysResearch In Motion has introduced a new version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server for business customers, adding a web-based administrative console and enhancements such as the ability for users to access Windows fileshares from their BlackBerry handset. BES 5.0 integrates with corporate email systems based on Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise and pushes out messages to BlackBerry handsets. Other new features include BlackBerry Administrative Service, an update to RIM’s admin component with a web-based rather than a command line user interface; roll-based access which enables a BlackBerry administrator to delegate tasks to other members of the IT department. BES 5.0 also adds capabilities in the delivery of over-the-air updates. Admins can publish updates and optional applications for download by BlackBerry users, while job scheduling and throttling enable updates to be deployed with minimal impact on users. Top of Page iWeb makes top 10 in 2009 Branham300 rankings Montreal-based iWeb has placed 8 th in this year’s Branham300, the annual listing of the top 300 Canadian Technology companies. “We are very excited to be recognized as one of Canada’s top IT companies this year and we are particularly pleased to be ranked among the companies having experienced the biggest growth over the past 12 months,” said Eric Chouinard, President and CEO of iWeb. “iWeb’s 59 per cent growth compares well to the 22 per cent average growth rate for companies appearing on the 2009 Branham300.” The company, a global provider of internet hosting service and IT infrastructure was ranked in the ICT Hardware and Infrastructure category. Top of Page Google Friend Connect translates comments Site owners often comment that to build strong communities on the web, they have to be a jack-of-all-trades. With Friend Connect, Google aims to empower any website to awaken their community, even if the site owner doesn't have the technical background or the time to build social features from scratch. The comments gadget is just one way Friend Connect can help webmasters foster deeper interactions between site members. Other useful gadgets include the event gadget for promoting an upcoming event and letting members indicate if they're attending, as well as two gadgets built by OpenSocial developers: the Polls gadget, which gives opinion polls a social twist, and the Get Answers gadget, which lets members ask questions to the community and answer questions posted by others. Top of Page Classic Menu for MS Office 2007 bridges the gap for users Addintools Technology LTD has released Classic Menu for MS Office 2007 V4.01a, an updated version for the popular tool that bridges the two different interfaces of Office 2003 and 2007. It supports all the languages that are available in Microsoft Office 2007, making it an ideal tool for organizations and international enterprises working with documents or other Microsoft Office-related formats all over the world. Microsoft Office 2007 has been gaining popularity since its release two years ago, with a growing number of users. The expansion of documents created in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 are forcing many Office 2003 users to upgrade, but the completely different interface backed some users from using Microsoft Office 2007, while they cannot go back to Microsoft Office 2003 due to compatibility issues. Those who choose to upgrade have to spend a considerable amount of time just to get familiar with the new environment, which makes their work less efficient. Classic Menu brings back the classic menus and toolbars of Office 2003 to help users enjoy the benefits of Office 2007 under a familiar environment and will help users familiarize with Microsoft Office 2007 immediately. With this software users can experience a smooth training curve for all of the Office suites without tutorials. Under the familiar classic menu of Office 2003, the advanced features of Office 2007 are also available. Users can switch between interfaces as they like, without having to worry about affecting the data or the functions of the software. Classic Menu can be turned on and off at ease. Top of Page eBay closing Vancouver office, 700 jobs lost Online marketplace operator eBay will close its Vancouver customer service office in September as part of its plan to consolidate its North American customer service facilities. In a news release last week, eBay announced that the office, which employs about 700 agents, will shut down on September 30. The company intents to hire more employees at its Salt Lake City facility where more than 900 customer service agents work, and at some of its other facilities abroad. According to Chad O’Meara, vice president of customer service for eBay, the company doesn’t expect the shut down to cause any disruption in service for ebay users. “We believe that consolidating our North American customer service operations will help accelerate our efforts to continually exceed buyer and seller expectations,” O’Meara said. Twitter goes wireless with Fido Fido customers can now send and receive updates from Twitter by SMS test message over their mobile phones using short code 21212 at no additional cost. “With more than one million Fido subscribers across Canada, it is important that we continue to save money for our customers with value like Twitter SMS text messaging on their mobile phones,” says Sylvain Roy, Senior VP and General Manager for Fido. In addition to being able to send and receive tweets, customers will also have access to all Twitter capabilities including the ability to “follow” new people and to reply to updates. To limit the amount of received messages, they will also be able to select whether they want to receive updates from all the people they follow or just from a select group. Top of Page |
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