The effort to bring Facebook into the enterprise continues with more services using Outlook as a gateway to extend a contact network and use as a foundations for a CRM environment. SenderOK is one of the latest effiorts to give more context to email by showing a picture of the sender in an email message. Too bad it only works on Windows XP or Vista. Ugh. Sponsor But let's take a look at the service as we are seeing more services that use email as a foundation for a social CRM environment. SenderOK compares itself to Microsoft's Outlook Soclal Connector and Xobni , an email plug-in that provides a search and profile element for Outlook. But we hear a lot of criticism that Xobni is a memory hog and slows down computers. As one reader said about Xobni in our last post concerning Outlook plug-ins : "Interesting article, although I have my doubts about Xobni which I used for several months but had to uninstall as it had gotten to the point where it was nearly impossible to use (too slow). Harmony sounds promising; sharing documents in place of merely sending them as attachments (hence overloading the network) is becoming critical if one wants to keep only one copy and not scatter several around." To be fair, Xobni is the leader in this space compared to other services. They have a loyal following. It makes sense that companies like SenderOK would go after this sector of the market. SenderOK features include a smart mapping capability to give a view of the person's unread email across multiple accounts. It will also prioritize the email. Our interest stems from the SenderOK "business card" feature. Email includes an image of the person and their profile information in the header of the message. In Outlook Social Connector, the image of the sender blocks out the message. In Xobni, the image and contact information appears in a widget. We expect these services to proliferate as more startups turn their attention to Outlook as a way to build a user base. Xobni has proven that this approach works. Further, Google Apps now integrates with third party applications. Services such as Zoho CRM and Intuit are leveraging GMail integration to offer hybrid applications. Perhaps 2010 will be the year email is viewed more as a foundation than a nuisance to be eliminated. Discuss
Businesses are only as strong as their customer base, and the same is true for web based businesses and their audience of only visitors and clients. Many people don’t understand that maintaining and online audience is constant work, and if you can’t figure out a creative way to stay in touch with your online customers and prospective customers, you’re going to lose their business.
Many people are searching for the right marketing techniques that will keep the interest of their audience members without annoying them or making them feel like they are constantly being sent promotional materials that just end up in the recycling bin.
One of the most successful marketing tools that online business owners have turned to is email advertising. This is a tactic that will reach your online audience right where they are: surfing the internet. It also eliminates waste and doesn’t take more than a click to delete if they’re not interested.
There are many reasons why choosing email advertising is a smart decision for online business owners that want to make the most of their advertising dollars. First of all, this type of advertising makes determining your ROI very easy, through link tracking and reception rates.
If you think that email advertising might be the method for communication that you’ve been searching for, you have to find a marketing service that will allow you to create the dynamic email advertisements that you need without charging you an arm and a leg to send them.
The best email advertising companies will offer you several levels of participation, so that you can try out the service without committing to a large investment in emails that might not work out. Start with a number of emails that represent just a fraction of your customer base, and after a week or so, compare the number of sales in that group to the sales in the rest of your base. If you notice an increase amongst the email recipients, you might want to try a larger round.
No matter which email advertising company you choose, be sure that they offer targeted distribution, meaning that they will help you to tailor your email announcements and product sales to people who are likely to respond favorably to them.
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