Disruption Tour --- Run To Survive

Dear Catalog CEOs: Six Catalog Trends

from Kevin Hilstrom minethedata.com

Hello there, my catalog friends!

These are interesting times, aren't they?

We are truly caught between two eras. The past 100 years were very good to catalog brands. And in five or ten years, there will be a road map for the catalog brand looking to enter the future.

Between the past and the future, that's where we are stuck. We're stuck in a period where, as one business leader recently told me, "nothing works".

We know that's not true. Plenty of things work. But nothing works at a scale necessary to cause optimism.

So let's discuss six important catalog trends that help the catalog brand bridge the past and the future.

Trend #1 = Micro-Targeting: This has been talked about for decades, but we're getting closer to seeing it happen. There simply isn't a need to send a 96 page catalog that has a lot of the merchandise you love to sell when there is this thing out there called the "internet" that also has a lot of the merchandise you love to sell. We're likely to see a 96 page catalog become three or four different 56 page catalogs, with the customer receiving just one of the 56 page offerings. People are using this strategy to generate 95% of the demand on about 60% of the pages --- mathematically, folks, it works! And instead of sending remails, you can send a different 56 page version to a customer a few weeks later. I cannot predict where micro-targeting is going to take us. I can predict that catalogs will get smaller and smaller and smaller, since the website is the store and we don't need to advertise everything anymore. E-mail will continue to progress down the micro-targeting path, with more an more versions that are sent on a triggered basis. Long-term, we'll see the slow death of the "campaign" ... sure, campaigns will be here twenty years from now, but we're headed down a path that cannot be reversed anymore.

Thegies: For the first time Merchants can digitally merchandise product offers and promotions to consumers by category and subcategory communities of interest when they work with the ShoppeSimple Loyalty and Customer Acquisition Tools.

Trend #2 = Filtering: We will see a dramatic change in how a catalog brand views customers. In many of my Multichannel Forensics projects, customers fall into four buckets.

1. Catalog shoppers who order via the telephone.
2. Catalog shoppers who order via the internet.
3. Online shoppers who order because of online marketing.
4. Brand buyers who like the merchandise.

It will take every ounce of energy possible to not mail catalogs to online shoppers and brand buyers. But this will be essential for the catalog brand to survive the transition that is coming/happening. Honestly, if I had to communicate one thing for a cataloger to do right now, it would be to start filtering, immediately. I've been able to generate a half-million to a million dollars of profit achieved for businesses between $30,000,000 and $100,000,000 in size just by doing a reasonable job of filtering. Quite honestly, filtering may be the difference between profit and loss for many catalogers. And psychologically, it isn't easy for a cataloger to transition the mindset from a customer buying because a catalog was sent to her and a customer buying because she loves the product. This transition has to happen, and filtering is a great place to start --- especially from a profit and loss standpoint.

Thegies: Imagine if you can take the above point from Kevin and deliver product messaging (whether it is new arrivals or promotional products) several times a day, 365 days a year without opt-out. At ShoppeSimple YOU Can!. Our client has seen substantial increases in site traffic, a 5X increase in conversion over email and an increase in Average Order Value. To estimate a mature TransactionalRSS (TRSS) program from ShoppeSimple an email program is estimated to be 10% of online revenue. A mature TRSS program is estimated to a 1/3 of email revenue. And if you take 25% of this number and only pay a Pay Per Transaction fee to get the sale, we haven’t had anyone say pass. Check out shoppesimple.com for more information.

Trend #3 = Dynamic Landing Pages: Folks are doing this as well (just hit refresh when you visit Amazon.com). Merchants will submit the items they want to feature, while the rules-based system that feeds e-mail campaigns to customers will fill in the holes with customer preferences. Catalogers will not pursue the algorithmic approaches of their online brethren, and that could be acceptable as long as there is a warm story being told to the customer. Again, this isn't a new idea, but it is one that catalogers will embrace, because catalogers will understand that the merchandising of landing pages is very similar to the merchandising of spreads. In fact, any online strategy that can be made to look, from a process standpoint like, old-time cataloging will be embraced by catalogers.

Thegies: Through the ShoppeSimple Loyalty and Customer Acquisition Tools we build dynamic landing pages for every TransactionalRSS Feed we publish.

Trend #4 = Co-Op Evolution: We're going to see between one and three companies emerge (could be existing catalog co-ops, could be online co-ops, could be the big data providers, could be one of the web analytics companies), companies that focus on evaluating real-time customer behavior. This is a very different strategy than what we see today. Today's catalog co-ops are very good at massaging past purchase history across brands. Tomorrow's co-op leaders will combine web analytics data with offline data and web surfing behavior. You won't pay $0.06 for one-time access to a name. Instead, you'll pay $0.03, and you'll get to pick the contact you wish to employ --- catalog, e-mail, personalized online landing page, etc., or you'll pay $0.15 to employ a multiple micro-channel campaign (catalog + e-mail + online display ads + search optimization + ads on social media platforms). Of course, catalogers will pay about anything for the multiple micro-channel campaign. This will be transformative, especially among catalog brands targeting lapsed buyers.

Trend #5 = Frenemies And Pods: As catalog productivity continues to decline (not yours, but industry-wide), you'll see new and unusual partnerships. Expect to see contact center and distribution center consolidation --- a company in one industry (automotive parts) and a company in another industry (gifts) will share contact center and distribution center resources, human resources, information technology departments, database marketing teams, circulation teams, all in an effort to conserve back-of-the-office expenses. Customer lists and resources will be freely shared across what I call "pods", a half-dozen or dozen frenemies who leverage what each other are good at. Catalogers already share all of their customer data with each other, and private equity firms already consolidate lists and back-of-the-office operations. It's only a matter of time before frenemies form pods.

Thegies: In ShoppeSimple Feeds there are opportunities for merchants to place your ads on the iGoogle/My Yahoo Home pages, on Facebook, Twitter and on Smartphones.

Trend #6 = Organizational Transformation: A generation of catalog marketers, age 50 - 65, are getting ready to retire. Quite simply, this generation will not be replaced by individuals who have the same passion for catalog marketing that the generation of catalogers raised in the 1970 - 1995 timeframe had. During the next ten years, we will see a considerable number of business failures, because a generation of individuals used to communicating with customers age 50+ will be replaced by a generation of leaders ready to market to customers in their 30s and 40s. The disconnect (strategies for young customers, marketed to older customers) will drive down productivity, and result in organizational transformation. Leading catalog companies will recognize this well ahead of time, and will cope by developing new brands that are targeted to a younger audience, led by a younger generation of leaders. Think of a business like, say, Cuddledown of Maine, building a new online brand for a younger demographic, training younger employees to manage this business, so that when a generation of leaders and customers move on to retirement there is an infrastructure ready to replace the core business.

Thegies: We ask our clients what is the strategic and tactical direction regarding Social Media and Mobile and it is surprising how few merchants can share the strategically vision in these areas. But today Shoppesimple can help you monetize both your Social Media and Mobile strategies. Simple checkout RSSCheck.com for answers and contact information. Email info@rsscheck.com

iDEAS to BUILD your brand in a continued downturn

Check out this video from http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24361.asp and then contact ShoppeSimple who can put your New Arrival and New Seasonal Offerings in front of your consumers every day 365 days.

Worried about being to promotional and as a result loosing contribution margin? Then ShoppeSimple can give you a cost affordable way to let your customers know about merchandise you want to show them.

Through ShoppeSimple's TransactionalRSS (TRSS) Content Management System (TCMS) you can now digital merchandise your product line to consumers who have requested to see you merchandise every day

To learn more check out RSSCheck.com and also ShoppeSimple.net for more information email info@RSSCheck.com or phone 612.349.2740

Take a peek at our new online customer acquisition portal at shoppesimple.net

RSS Subscribers or Twitter Followers: Which Are Worth More?

http://gigaom.com/2009/08/01/rss-subscribers-or-twitter-followers-which-are-worth-more/

By Blake Snow 

Mark Ormond can’t get his “followers” to do anything. After they increased to several hundred only days after creating a Twitter account, the Internet marketer was encouraged by the prospects. Now he wonders how much influence he really has over the fast-growing but unproven community.

“They don’t click on anything I share,” he says of his followers, admitting that he sometimes propagates links to online ventures he’s involved with. “I get a way better response from RSS subscribers,” he adds, “regardless if I’m genuinely sharing something or commercially promoting it.” It’s a fair criticism. And one that hasn’t been fully explored. So just how loyal are Twitter followers? And which provides a more captivated audience: Twitter or RSS?

“Under a direct comparison, I would say that RSS subscribers are worth more than Twitter followers,” says Daniel Scocco, proprietor of Daily Blog Tips and purveyor of 8,000 Twitter followers. “A Twitter account with 1,000 followers has a much smaller reach than a web site or blog with 1,000 RSS subscribers.”

As it stands, Twitter followers are at a significant disadvantage over RSS subscribers, because the former are less engaged than the latter. This is due to a number of reasons:

1. Lack of context. Finding value in a character-restricted tweet is a lot harder to do than a dynamic and expandable RSS item. As a result, it’s a lot easier to tell a story and make a lasting impression via RSS than Twitter.

2. You don’t have to work for it. It takes more effort to subscribe to an RSS feed than to follow someone on Twitter (i.e., choosing your reader, selecting the right feed, and so on, compared with simply clicking on “follow”). Consequently, subscribers have a greater vested interest in what’s being broadcast than who they are following.

3. Spam. Ashton Kutcher may have been the first to record 1 million Twitter followers, but only the Fail Whale knows how many were legitimately interested in his affairs. Twitter is combating the problem, but there’s no such thing as spam subscribers.

4. Deficient continuity. Unlike RSS, unread tweets or status updates “drop off the stream” — that is they are not stored and labeled for a follower’s later use. An RSS reader, on the other hand, keeps everything tidy in reverse chronological order, so subscribers don’t miss a thing (unless they want to).

5. More noise. Twitter’s open API is great. But it comes at a price. Because third-party platforms are allowed to tweet on a user’s behalf, readers have to filter an increasing number of tweets they may have not originally signed up for. RSS, on the other hand, comes directly from the source.

6. Vanity. Being able see who’s following whom dilutes the value of Twitter, perhaps inadvertently. Instead of judging individual Twitter accounts by the utility of their postings, some readers follow and expect to be followed in a childish and unwritten law of reciprocity, resulting in even more noise.

This isn’t to say Twitter accounts can’t be highly influential, just that they require a lot more skill on the part of the author to engage his or her audience, says Scocco. “It really depends on the content of each tweet, and how the author interacts with his audience. People who are very active on Twitter and are always trying to add value through their tweets can still enjoy good click-through rates.”

That said, the active Twitter user said he thinks “having a web site or blog is far more important,” adding that he would trade multiple followers for one extra RSS subscriber in a heartbeat. “I would need to test first to find the optimal valuation, but I am guessing it would be between 5 and 10 Twitter followers for each RSS subscriber.”

Image courtesy of Twitter Tees by Threadless.

Google as a channel

From Kevin Hillstrom Minethedata.com

Google. There's a channel. The algorithm that is managed by algorithms!

• Does The Channel Scale? This depends upon who you are. I've yet to meet an online business that says that Google scales. In fact, every online business I speak with looks to "detether" from Google. You're less likely to detether from a channel that has unlimited sales potential. If you're tiny, like me, then yes, Google scales. But if you're everybody else?

• Does the channel do a good job of acquiring new customers? For a period of time in the middle of this decade, when we went from 2 billion searches a month to 32 billion searches a month, Google did a good job of helping us acquiring new customers. I fear our potential peaked in 2008. How do you break through now? Search for a sundress, and all the big and mid-sized players are there in paid search (JCP, Victoria's Secret, Target, Macys, Zappos, Nordstrom, American Eagle). Algorithm fanatics dominate natural search. There was a time, five years ago, when you could make some hay here. Now you're just part of the echo chamber.

• Does the channel aid in profitable customer retention? Have you seen a study that indicates that, without Google, customer retention drops by "x" points? I haven't seen such a study, either. Then consider that many of you tell me that half of your paid search customers are existing customers. Does that mean that Google is helping us? Is Google sending our customers to competitors (you bet they are). If Google isn't helping you retain customers, and half your paid search customers are existing customers, well, then, who the heck is benefiting from that relationship? Just something for you to think about the next time you hand over $0.40 for the phrase "sundress" so that Google will steer your own customer back to you.

• Does the channel aid in customer service? At best, a "maybe".

• Does the channel feed other channels? Google customers are loyal to Google, aren't they? They're more loyal to Google than to our e-mail or catalog marketing programs. And we consistently find that Google customers have lower lifetime value estimates than customers from other channels. Too often, Google is in isolation mode, yielding low value customers.

• Does Google generate profit? The secret to making Google a profitable channel seems to be two-pronged: Step 1 = Hire somebody to manage a bidding algorithm that outperforms other bidding algorithms. Step 2 = Hire somebody to game the natural search algorithm --- you're not selling to your customer when you work with Google, you're selling to an algorithm that reserves the right to change the rules of the algorithm without your consent. Do these two steps well, and Google generates profit for you.

• Does Google educate customers? Google does educate your customers. Google tells your customers what your competitors are doing. Customers have never been more educated! Google might be the best thing that ever happened to small businesses, but is frequently detrimental to the brand that uses offline advertising to drive a customer online for research purposes.

• What is the exit strategy for Google? What are the business scenarios that would cause you to not participate in paid search, and to not care about natural search results? Or what if you're a small business owner that hosts your blog on Google, runs your RSS feeds through Google/Feedburner, analyzes your visitors via Google, and obtains a third of your traffic through Google (oh oh, that's me)? Many online businesses seem to have an active strategy to grow the business independent of Google.

• What is your R&D strategy for Google? This means so much more than adjusting your keyword bidding algorithm. In our world, Google offers things like Google Checkout, and some of you have told me that Google offers some companies the opportunity to tie inventory systems into Google's systems in exchange for preferred search outcomes. That's exciting and terrifying all at the same time, huh?

• Does Google lend itself to in-house expertise or vendor expertise? More and more often this expertise is best managed via the vendor community. It seems to make sense to couple smart in-house knowledge with outstanding vendor-based knowledge.

The Channel Advisor walks a fine line working with Google, almost playing the role of a "risk manager". The Channel Advisor recognizes that Google is important, while realizing that one cannot let Google control more than a small minority of the total sales volume --- the volatility makes inventory management very challenging. The Channel Advisor works overtime to find micro-channels within Google (i.e. keywords) or advertising micro-channels (catalog + Google, e-mail + Google) that deliver significant value.

Of course, Google isn't my area of expertise, so your thoughts about how a Channel Advisor manages Google are welcomed.

Is the social stream the new email?

Certainly with over 100 + consumer actively using social application platforms + the number of mobile users the next frontier is to move from Readers and MyHomepages to a unified social application platform that will pass along all of the consumers desired informational streams.

At Rsscheck we are agnostic where our consumers will want their Transactions RSS content and today we push the information to their Readers, MyHomepages, Social Media Platforms like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Plus to all mobile users who have enabled mobile browsers. For more information check us out at RSSCheck.com.

MG Siegler | 

During the “Feed Me: Bite Size Info for a Hungry Internet” panel today at SXSW (moderated by VentureBeat’s own Eric Eldon) all the participants agreed that social streams of data are going to be an integral part of the web going forward. David Sacks, the chief executive of Yammer, went farther, calling these streams “email 2.0.” No one seemed to disagree.

With Facebook’s new redesign now fully in place and focusing on real-time updates in your feed, the concept of social activity streams is moving into the mainstream. And while Facebook previously helped bring the idea of the news feed itself to the mainstream, this next iteration which includes live updates, comments and “likes,” was pioneered by others. But everyone on the panel today, which included representatives from FriendFeed, Microsoft, Yammer and Facebook, seemed to agree that the future of this space was making this data accessible no matter which service you are using.

FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit likened it to the old days of AOL (the dial up, closed system variety), when you could only send email to other AOL users. Eventually, he noted, AOL was forced to open up to these messages to the rest of the Internet. He believes that status updates will eventually become a federated medium as well. And perhaps it’s no accident that Buchheit started one of the services which is already helping to spread this social data around the web (it both pulls in and posts back to Twitter, for example) — when he was still at Google, he helped create Gmail. So maybe the social stream really is the next email.

A lot of these services even look a lot like email. The central focus is on a stream of messages, with the left hand side devoted to filters, which are more or less like folders, as Sacks pointed out. One company, Microsoft, is even using its email service, Hotmail, as the foundation for its social stream. Others, like Yahoo, are starting to do this as well.

During the question and answer session, David Karp, the co-founder of Tumblr, who was in the audience, asked why any of these services really matter — why not just use a standard like RSS to syndicate this data everywhere, he wondered? Dare Obasanjo of Microsoft pointed out that the reason people need services for the social stream is that while something like RSS may be fine for the tech savvy crowd, mothers or grandmothers would take one look at it and not understand what is going on. Seeing everything in a stream on Facebook though, and having a simple publishing tool that makes it clear how you insert pictures and other elements, is the key for the mainstream.

Ari Steinberg, an engineering manager at Facebook, more succinctly noted that while the concept of RSS is sound, the interface has failed. Each of the companies on this panel are attempting to put the right interface on this new movement.

But not everyone agreed on all points. Sacks made it clear that he felt that with Facebook now fully in the social stream arena, it stands a good chance of being the clear-cut winner in terms of users. That doesn’t bode well for other services out there, like FriendFeed. Sacks believes Yammer can excel however because it’s focused on streams for businesses, and he doesn’t believe that users want to mix personal streams with business ones. Of course, he didn’t bring up to possibility of a large business social network like LinkedIn getting into the space.

While these panelists were a solid core of the stream movement, there was one glaring absence: Twitter. One audience member noted as much, to which everyone laughed. (SXSW invited Twitter to participate in the panel, but it turned down the opportunity.)

Twitter, the current media darling of the lifestream movement, may have not been there, but it was on everyone’s mind. In my notes on the panel, I counted 13 different mentions of Twitter by the panelists. Steinberg downplayed Twitter’s importance a bit — notable because Facebook tried to buy Twitter in November of last year, and its new update emphasizes some similar functionality. Steinberg noted that Twitter was pretty simple, but Facebook offered a lot more functionality.

And, the way it handles relationships is very different. On Twitter anyone can follow anyone else (assuming they have an open stream). On Facebook, you need to confirm users are your friends — though, that is changing a bit with its new Pages.

Towards the end of the panel, the issue came up of people being wary of Facebook taking over the social streaming space because of its traditionally closed model when it come to data. Steinberg reiterated the more recent company line that its committed to allowing users to share data both inside and out of Facebook, but that user privacy remains a bit of a road block.

If the stream really is going to be the new email, that road block will need to be removed. Or, as Buchheit mentioned, Facebook may one day suffer the same fate as the old AOL.

Is the inbox the beating heart of the Internet?

Stan Rapp, known as the father of direct marketing, threw some of the following nuggets (based on a real-time Twitter play-by-play of Rapp's keynote):
• "The inbox is the beating heart of the internet, and email is the tightest link ever invested between seller and buyer."

Really Stan...

If it was the tightest link why is the open/delivery rate maxing out at 15%?

Why is email looking a lot like throwing bytes against the consumer digital wall with conversion also parked at 2% or less?

• "Advertising's new role is to drive prospects to the web for relevant opt-in experiences."
• "Email is the backbone of all digital communications."

But have you thought about entering the new Transactional RSS Channel?
Have you thought about the potential for your business to connect with your consumers and have them pre-selected offers from your business?
Instead if talking to just 2% what if you could have a 5X increase in response with a 20% increase in average order.

Epsilon's new research echoes this. The firm found that 50 percent of consumers surveyed said they're more likely to buy products from companies that send them email, whether their purchases are online or at a place of business.

What is the percentage for the Transactional RSS Channel?

The money and resolve is following these sentiments, recession and all. The Aberdeen Group found that while 60 percent of marketers plan to cut their traditional marketing budgets this year, 47 percent of marketers plan to boost their email marketing budgets. A Datran Media 2009 survey of marketing executives found that email marketing was viewed as the strongest advertising performer.

Now if your follow these stats and want to learn more check out RSSCheck.com and discover how you can join the new digital revolution around Transactional RSS Feeds.

How far away is your emergency?

As a merchant how frustrated are you with with your current email program to communicate your messaging? What are your open rates to your customers. What are your deliverables? What is your conversion rates? Do you feel a sense that your consumer isn't listenting to you anymore?

Do you feel like your email marketing efforts are facing an emergency?

Now as one of your consumers how do you think they are feeling about your email efforts? Are they giddy, excited and interested or they hitting the delete key each time you send out an email? What does your email stats tell you? Can you remember a differerence in what was to what is now?

When was the last time your consumer expressed a pre-selected interest to communicate with you. If you are thinking and or concerned about the above...continue to read on...

Then check out RSSCheck.com for the next waive of solutions that will help you overcome your current CRM emergency by jumping into the Transactional RSS revolution. Why not learn more by contacting an RSSCheck representative at info@rsscheck.com.

From Seth Godin's blog

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/how-far-away-is-your-emergency.html

It's amazing that people have so much time to fret about today's emergency but almost no time at all to avoid tomorrow's.

A glimpse at the TV and internets shows one talking head after another angsting about today's economy. These are the same people who needed to devote entire hours to mindless trivia nine months ago when they could have done an enormous amount of education about avoiding this mess in the first place.

Six years ago, I gave a mildly controversial talk to the newspaper publishers at an annual convention. I explained in detail why they were just a few years from bankruptcy and how they could use the momentum and assets they had to build up a hyperlocal internet presence and permission asset now, because it would be too late when the emergency hit. Of course, my talk wasn't an emergency, they had other priorities, and so the dire protection comes true.

When gas is $10 a gallon (and it certainly will be), we'll have plenty of time to obsess about what we can't change and what a mess our world is. So I wonder...Where are the groundbreaking reports about how this device or that organization are wasting so much energy today, when we can still do something about it? Why not shine a light on the holes we're digging today as opposed to the canyons we'll have to deal with years from now?

They say the best time to look for a job is when you don't need one. And the best time to invest in a new Purple Cow is when you're still milking the old one. Move your emergency back in time and you'll be amazed at how far your money goes.

It's amazing that people have so much time to fret about today's emergency but almost no time at all to avoid tomorrow's.

A glimpse at the TV and internets shows one talking head after another angsting about today's economy. These are the same people who needed to devote entire hours to mindless trivia nine months ago when they could have done an enormous amount of education about avoiding this mess in the first place.

Six years ago, I gave a mildly controversial talk to the newspaper publishers at an annual convention. I explained in detail why they were just a few years from bankruptcy and how they could use the momentum and assets they had to build up a hyperlocal internet presence and permission asset now, because it would be too late when the emergency hit. Of course, my talk wasn't an emergency, they had other priorities, and so the dire protection comes true.

When gas is $10 a gallon (and it certainly will be), we'll have plenty of time to obsess about what we can't change and what a mess our world is. So I wonder...Where are the groundbreaking reports about how this device or that organization are wasting so much energy today, when we can still do something about it? Why not shine a light on the holes we're digging today as opposed to the canyons we'll have to deal with years from now?

They say the best time to look for a job is when you don't need one. And the best time to invest in a new Purple Cow is when you're still milking the old one. Move your emergency back in time and you'll be amazed at how far your money goes.

Thegies has an equity interest in RSSCheck

The consumer's preferred inbox is changing.

Shift 3

You may not agree that you need a messaging strategy outside of email marketing, but you must adapt to the reality that how consumers get their content, promotions, and updates has changed. Most online users don't just rely on their work and home email address for these communications anymore.

Yahoo! in a white paper published in 2009 indicated more then 50% of consumers are now using Readers and My Home pages to aggregated information they want when they want it.

As discussed earlier, some consumers prefer to get special offers via SMS messaging, while others may ignore their Hotmail or Gmail accounts and head right to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter for all of their communications -- whether from their old college girlfriends or their favorite restaurants.

The next revolution is to download a Reader application to your browser enabled phone/IPhone and you then take your promotional coupons with you right into the store. Wouldn't it be cool to scan your coupons right off your IPhone at Point of Sale. Check out RSSCheck.com for a demo of this capability.

You may be fortunate to build what amounts to subscriber communication preference segments based on all of these, whether you know you are doing so or not. Most companies won't thrive if the only way of opting in with the company is through a website-based email signup form that captures only an email address. Establishing ways to capture preferences and points of communication is crucial as your customers' habits evolve and migrate to other digital channels. This leads us to the next item.

2009 is the year of the preference center. 

With this sea change happening in front of us, companies that fail to offer their customers more choices will be in trouble. So this fundamental digital principle -- offering the user more choices -- is the right place to focus in 2009.

Over the years, companies have offered an email signup page and/or website registration form (albeit sometimes mutually exclusive of each other) to capture consumers' opt-ins, which are arguably one of the most valuable commodities in the digital world. Remember, these are customers and would-be customers raising their hands to say, "Yes, please market to me." That doesn't happen in all media and marketing, so elevate the value of these opt-ins within your marketing strategy.

In 2009, marketers need to offer a clear and seamless user experience through which interested parties can sign up for communications (B2C promotions or sale, B2B  coop-dollars or special offers. You may be saying, "Should we have that yes you consumer is asking you for it...they are demanding that you provide it to them." So do you provide the following?

·    Ability to receive communications in multiple platforms (Transactional RSS, email, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

·    Ability to allow consumers to pre-select their preferences, formats, devices, languages, etc.

·    Ability to give your consumers complete control over the frequency of promotons they recieve

·    Ability to choose types of communications and adjust as you go, as opposed to unsubscribing from all

·    Ability to get a sneak peak of any offered communications

·    Ability to understand that consumers what their data to be completely private and they want to exchange their digital rights for a monetary amount. 

RSSCheck’s new role in digital marketing (post #3)

So how often does a marketer get a rare opportunity to excel in their space -- not just email/ppc or seo marketer -- but to find an opportunity that will enable you and your company to thrive in a difficult and challenging environment. Why wouldn't you use the Transactional RSSCheck opportunity to greatly improve your online marketing efforts? Not only would it give you another tool in your online tool box but it would give you a proven new incremental selling channel that is asked for by your consumer. All of this comes to you/your business from RSSCheck free of charge and for only an affiliate fee.

Plus RSSCheck’s technology enables barcodes to be embedded in Transactional Feeds which are also printable by the consumer. Then these coupons can be brought into the store and redeemed at POS. Through your Twitter and your social media accounts merchants can easily publish RSSCheck's Transactional RSS Feeds right to your IPhone. Imagine going into a grocery store for instance and getting the specific coupon/sale offer you want in the category you want right on your IPhone as you walk the isles. This can happen on any browser based enabled phone. The same can happen for any retailer interested in pursuing RSSCheck's Transactional RSS marketing opportunity.

PR Secrets for Startups

techcrunch.com

At a time when anyone can broadcast their opinions about your startup to the world, public relations requires a new level of engagement on the part of companies and entrepreneurs. But what are the new rules of PR? Guest author Brian Solis, who earlier this month wrote a post for us on the evolution of the press release, explains how public relations has changed and offers up 12 secrets of PR for startups. Warning: This a lengthy post. Its intent is to help companies navigate through the rough seas of traditional PR as its struggles, forcibly, to evolve and adapt to the new rules set forth by the Web (regardless of version number) . Solis is the Principal of FutureWorks, a PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley and also blogs at PR 2.0. Along with Geoff Livingston, Solis recently co-authored Now is Gone, a book that helps businesses learn how to leverage new and social media. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’ve been overwhelmed with requests from executives and PR professionals to explain how this new media (r)evolution applies to them specifically and how they can make PR more effective and personal during these interesting times. I recently discussed it here and have been doing so for a long, long time. But since conversations and attention is discontinuous and distributed, I asked if I could bring this discussion to a more prominent online epicenter to help reach a wider array of those looking for answers. The Long Road Back to Public Relations Public Relations is experiencing a long overdue renaissance and its forcing PR stereotypes out from behind the curtain where they operated comfortably for far too many decades. It didn’t begin this transformation because of Web 2.0 or the latest Social Media wave, but instead in the 90’s when the Web gained mass adoption. Yes, it’s taken that long and it will continue to evolve over the next decade as communications professionals struggle with putting the public back in public relations. Regardless of what we think we know about PR and the New Media or Social Media revolution, the truth is that we actually may know less about everything than we care to believe. These are times where we can lead and learn in order to improve an industry long plagued by misconceptions and the lack of PR for itself. PR is now more than ever, something more capable and influential than simply writing and sending press releases to contacts generated by media databases. The media landscape has been completely blown open to not only include traditional media, but also bloggers and most importantly the very people we want to reach, our customers. PR 1.0 About 100 years ago, Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays created and defined the art and science of modern-day PR. Believe it or not, their philosophies and contributions can still be used to further evolve PR today – especially when it comes to Social Sciences. Over the years, the PR 1.0 publicity machine lost its way and its spark. We got caught up in hype, spin, buzzwords, and spam, and forgot that PR was supposed to be about Public Relations. But, its still how many companies continue to approach PR today. Enter Social Media and the democratization of the Web and content. Now media and content producers are pushing back, demanding a more targeted and relevant form of outreach. For those who confuse Social Media with online marketing, Social Media is anything that uses the Internet to facilitate conversations between people – it is not the practice of social marketing. I say people, because it humanizes the process of communications when you think about conversations instead of companies marketing at audiences. PR 2.0 = Conversational PR The Web changed everything and this ongoing reinvention of PR has been dubbed PR 2.0 or New PR. PR 2.0, as I defined it many years ago, is the realization that the Web changed everything, inserting people equally into the process of traditional influence. Suddenly we were presented with the opportunity to not only reach our audiences through media gatekeepers, but also use the online channels where they publish and share information to communicate more directly and genuinely. At the very least, PR 2.0 is going back to the roots of PR to bring back relating to the public back into the process. Now it’s about listening and, in turn, engaging influencers and stakeholders on their level. It forces PR to stop broadcasting and start connecting. It is a chance to not only work with traditional journalists, but also engage directly with a new set of accidental influencers, and, it is also our ability to talk with customers directly. No BS. No hype. It’s an understanding of markets, the needs of people, and how to reach them at the street level—without insulting everyone along the way. Conversational PR is becoming a hybrid of communications, customer service, evangelism, and Web marketing. The evolution from PR 1.0 to PR 2.0 will result in more informed, effective, and meaningful Public Relations, without a version number. It’ll just be good PR. So what does this mean for you? It means you have to start thinking about things more intelligently, differently, and personally. The Secrets Maybe you’re an entrepreneur with a recently funded company in need of users, or perhaps you’re bootstrapped and actively seeking financing and you need a little something that will land you a more attractive term sheet. Every VC, as well as every successful entrepreneur, will tell you that great PR can make you, whereas bad or mediocre PR can stifle your growth and possibly damage existing and prospective relationships. And, they all have ideas on how you should proceed. But right now, the main thing that stands between you and success is getting those customers – and good press (traditional and new media) builds the bridge between you and them. In order to get to the next level, you need to know the secrets of effective PR, especially in today’s competitive Web 2.0 world. These are critical times for your business and you can’t simply entrust the future of your brand to anyone who knows how to write a press release, place it on the wire, and send it via email. Secret #1 Understand You’re Not the Only Story in Town Bloggers and reporters are some of the busiest people you could possibly hope to meet. They’re actively looking for the most interesting, relevant, and linkable stories out there, preferably before anyone else can run with it. But truthfully, they spend most of their time hacking through the weeds of generic or over-the-top inbound emails, press releases, Facebook messages, Skypes, SMSes, Tweets, and IMs. It’s almost a small miracle that anyone can ever get their story told. At the end of the day, you’re not the only company with a great story. Just because your story is new doesn’t make it newsworthy. Bloggers and journalists are interested in good stories and the more time you spend developing that story up front, for each person you’re trying to reach, the more you can help them help you. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily