Munir Ahmad Blog

Ask any marketing expert and they’ll tell you “the money’s in the list”. Email is a powerful and easy way to build a list and communicate your marketing messages to leads and customers.

Here are the top 10 reasons to use email marketing:

1. Email marketing is virtually free. Email is truly unique in it’s ability to put your marketing message in front of thousands of potential customers at virtually no cost. This means that virtually 100% of revenue generated from email campaigns is pure profit.

2. Email is personal. Everyone’s favorite sound is the sound of his or her own name. Most email marketing solutions allow you to automatically customize email messages with personal data such as the subscriber’s name.

3. Valuable demographic data can be collected. When a lead subscribes to your email list, you can collect valuable data about your potential customers. This data allows you to better target your marketing messages to your list.

4. Email messages are sent instantaneously. With the touch of a button, your marketing message is sent to your list. There is no waiting for the post office to deliver the message to the customer’s mailbox.

5. Email is transparent. With email, virtually every marketing metric can be tracked with a high degree of precision. Among the metrics that can be tracked are delivery rates, open rates, click through rates, and conversion rates.

6. Email marketing is highly automated. Very little manpower is required to create an email campaign. Essentially, the only manual work required is the copy writing of email message itself. Other aspects such as delivery and tracking are done automatically.

7. Email messages do not necessarily require any design work. Unlike many other forms of marketing, email messages require little to no designing. In fact, it has been shown that plain text email messages with no HTML tend to be more effective. Plain text messages are much less likely to trigger spam filters and consequently have significantly higher delivery rates.

8. Rapid response time. Particularly if you sell products online, an email campaign can begin to generate a response almost immediately. Customers don’t have to leave their home and can make a purchase with the click of a button.

9. Email is the ultimate “word of mouth” marketing vehicle. If your email message is “viral” in nature, your customer can quickly and easily forward it to friends and family, spreading your message to new potential customers.

10. Email helps you build a relationship of trust with your customers. Email solves one of the greatest challenges in marketing: building a relationship with customers. Email allows you to keep in touch with customers, get their feedback, offer support, etc.

Email marketing is a powerful, inexpensive, and cost-effective marketing medium. Start using email today to build your online business.

BonArtisan.com is an innovative portal that enables small businesses to put their word of mouth on the Internet and consumer to select them in confidence. So far only in France and dedicated to craftsmen, BonArtisan.com is the largest database in France with more than 380 000 businesses.

Businesses can improve their visibility by creating a customized web site in a matter or minutes without any web technology knowledge. The real innovation lies in a patented fraud detection technology that enables consumers to rate the businesses in confidence. According to customer’s rating, craftsmen’s web site will display a color helmet from gold to bronze, or grey if no rating is available. A guest book is also available to leave comments.

Creating and hosting a web page with rating services only costs 14.90€ /month, a fraction of the cost of any other alternative and about the same price as a very basic directory service from traditionnal providers.

This innovative service is really the proof point that technology is now readily available and accessible to enable small businesses to promote their service effectively using the internet at a very low cost and with basic PC technology knowledge.

The consumer portal is designed with women in mind. This is a gold mine for people looking for the latest product or ideas in decoration and renovation. A forum allows consumers to share their experience with eachother and finally to choose a good professional near them. The site is accessible on mobile phone as well as traditionnal web browsers. So far vailable only in France, the service will expand to other service providers and soon countries.

Give it a try at www.bonartisan.com and tell people about it!

Phishing is the use of fake email and websites to trick a user into supplying confidential or personal information. These emails appear to be from a reputable organisation and would have a link to a replica website for that organisation. Any details entered (bank account details for instance) into such a website are stolen by those who created the website.

No institution will ever send an email requesting login details. In the unlikely event that you do receive an email from a financial institution requesting such details, contact them directly via your statement contact details (not the ones in the email) to check prior to responding. In general, any email requesting personal details it is not to be trusted. If you receive such an email, contact the sender directly to confirm the request and do not reply to the email.

Phishing websites look and feel exactly like the real Websites they imitate. In order to determine whether a site you are directed to is real, check to see whether it has a valid and correct certificate. If it is a website you use frequently, use a bookmark to access the site rather than any email supplied link.

As a rule of thumb, phishing requests are characterised by:

• They seem to come from a recognisable source but they use external addresses for replies.
• They mention familiar names or roles- e.g. the Registrar or CIO.
• They contain urgent and immediate requests for action (respond today!). These are designed to influence users to comply rather than consider requests.
• They threaten consequences for non-compliance (your account will be disabled etc.

These emails and sites exist because they work. Many people, even those who know better, can be distracted or even accidentally comply with the requests in these emails. Should this arise, it is very important you contact the service or IT Services to report the matter, and change your account passwords immediately.

Viral Marketing has been around since 1996, but has been in a constant state of flux since it was first used as a marketing tool. Although many people have heard the term for years, it is very surprising how few people actually know what Viral Marketing is and how it works.

When used correctly, Viral Marketing can make a huge impact almost immediately. On the other hand, incorrect viral marketing can be a major waste of both time and money. How can we ensure that our viral marketing efforts deliver the desired results?

First, let’s make sure we are all on the same page regarding this mysterious advertising technique. What exactly is viral marketing? The definition of viral marketing is … a method of advertising products or services that causes recipients to pass them on to friends, associates and family members. Viral marketing got its odd name because the word spreads like a virus.

When done correctly, one person will give it to a few people who in turn will pass it on to several other people. This is what makes viral marketing so effective. For instance, let’s say you developed a training website and offered the training FREE to 10 people, who in turn forwarded the site to 10 people, who in turn passed it on to 10 people each. This simple viral campaign would put your website in front of 1,000 people almost immediately.

Now here’s where it gets fun … if everyone passes it on to 10 people and this progression continues just three more times, one million people will have access to YOUR website. Continue the progression twice more and 100,000,000 people (100 million people) will have been exposed to YOUR website. And because the Internet is so efficient, it could realistically happen in a matter of days, weeks or months.

In the beginning, email was the only way to effectively start and execute a viral marketing campaign. In the decade since, viral marketing has evolved from a marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to accomplish the objective of creating a successful viral marketing campaign. Here a just of few of the ways you can start a successful viral marketing promotion:

Email - This is where it all started. This is still the most widely used viral marketing medium, but government and ISP restrictions have made email marketing more challenging. Before investing in an extensive email marketing campaign, make sure you are working with a proven vendor and technology. When done correctly, this is still the best way to start and stimulate your viral advertising promotion.

Blogging - Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message about your product of service out there and being talked about. Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and services.

Training Articles – By providing valuable resources to a targeted audience (home business owners, Internet marketers, pet owners, chefs, etc.), you can easily penetrate the market through the ‘back door.’ By offering high quality FREE training to specific niches, you increase your exposure and credibility, all in one fell swoop.

Newsletters - eNewsletter and eZines are a variation of email marketing and can be very effective tools. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.

Refer-A-Friend – If you add this with a statement saying that e-mail addresses supplied will never be shared with third parties, you can increase your potential customer list greatly.

The main thing to remember about effective Viral Marketing is that it all starts with a valuable tool or resource. The most effective viral advertising includes a product or service must provide tangible, measurable benefits at no cost to the recipient.

Once you have a product or service of value to offer, you have to get the ball rolling by ’seeding’ your viral marketing campaign. Think of it like a snowball rolling down a hill. In the beginning, you have to work hard to push the snowball while it gathers mass and speed. After the snowball reaches ‘critical mass’, it begins to take on a life of its own. Your viral marketing promotion is no different. Get it started, keep working at it, and soon it will begin to promote itself.