Seth Godin describes marketing in a away that has really opened my eyes. He believes that people are running around devising products that are aimed at people who are “unreachable”. What he means is that different people (target markets in marketing speak) have different levels of accessibiity and this level of accessibility varies with time. Joe Normal will be far more accessible for furniture companies the day after his house burns down and he has an insurance payout than the day before.

Is this anything new ?

I think so … he says don’t waste your time trying the reach the unreachable. Prioritise your efforts in terms of “reachability”. Ironically new media is terrible at reaching the unreachable – so this isn’t just another new argument for new media.

What I like is it goes back to basic marketing theory. Start with the customer and work back.. instead of starting with the product and moving forward..

eFOREX is an online global trading services provider acting as both an agent and a market maker in over the counter markets including foreign exchange, precious metals, commodity and equity derivatives. eFOREX caters to a broad range of clients including private banks and institutions, speculators and hedgers, money managers, as well as institutional and self-directed traders.

Indiemark, a full-service email marketing agency, will develop and manage comprehensive email marketing communications plans for the company, including all client relationship and acquisition efforts.

“Given the company’s rich tradition in forex and online trading, Indiemark is honored to work with them in determining and executing their future email marketing directions,” said Scott Hardigree, CEO at Indiemark.

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A Solus email is very different from an email to your own engaged database. When you send an email to people you know, you can choose to personalise the entire thing (subject line, content, tone of voice, imagery, calls to action and links) based on what you know about them.

With a Solus email, you’re actively looking to solicit a response from a wide range of unknown recipients, who may not be familiar with your business.

Hopefully your media buyer has done a great job and bought a highly targeted list, but even so, you will need to make sure you have the best possible chance of converting the email recipients into clients.

Here are some handy tips to help your Solus emails engage with recipients and deliver better results.

The subject line

Three things you need to remember:

1. The success or failure of your email could well be down to its subject line.
2. Solus emails are different to newsletters; the recipients have a relationship with the website publisher not you and you are unable to control the “From address”.
3. You only get 50 characters to make the recipient act. Delete or Open?

For these reasons the subject line becomes even more important.

No pressure then – this is a topic in its own right. In my opinion these are the key factors in getting a subject line to work.

Don’t try and be too clever, just describe the subject of your email – an obvious one! But if you have gone to the effort of purchasing a Solus email it is likely that the subject of your email will be relevant to the people on that list. Explaining what’s in your email using the subject line allows them to understand that.

Curiosity killed the cat – we can’t help ourselves when confronted with something that intrigues us. So, do be provocative but try to avoid cheese. Allude to a story that the recipient will be disappointed if they miss. Don’t make up that story or they will be disappointed that you’ve tricked them.

Instill some urgency – if your launch offer period or your product rate is about to end. Tell them in the subject. Being told you have a limited time spurs you into action.

“Is this relevant to me?” They’re bound to be thinking this thought as they decide to delete or open. Write about the benefits that matter to your recipients not the features you’re proud of.

Questions are more enticing than statements, where relevant.

The email

You’ll probably be broadcasting your Solus email as part of an integrated campaign. If you want great results don’t just re-hash a press release or a printed ad and think it will do the job. Allow enough time to consider the email in its own right.

Remember, most people scan emails and skim-read the content.

Summarise the benefits of your offer and the calls to action in a clear and concise manner. Make sure this information is in text and prominent at the top of the page it should be easily readable and above the fold:

• In the plain text version
• In the HTML version
• With images off (use imagery only to support your offer or brand not as the primary source of information – one common mistake is relying on imagery to portray your company name).
• In a horizontal preview pane
• In a vertical preview pane
• In all common email clients and if you work in the B2B financial services industry, don’t forget to test in Lotus Notes!

Personalise
Even though it’s a Solus email it is still possible to personalise the email with the recipient’s name. You are instantly engaging with the recipient and they will appreciate that you’ve made the effort to do so as a result they are far more likely to respond to your offer.

Build rapport – get inside the mind of your recipient and write copy that addresses their needs. Tell them the benefits of your offer and guide them to take action. Ask the publisher if it is possible to segment the list any further to enable you to tailor the content or tone of voice specifically for each smaller group.

Calls to action the dos and don’ts. Don’t just say click here as this doesn’t explain, to the scanning eye, what the link leads to – it also becomes very repetitive and boring. Don’t just use underlined words and assume the reader will click them. Do tell your recipient what you want them to do. E.g Download our “Guide to ISAs” now or if you_must_use the click word try: Click here to download our “Guide to ISAs” now.
Repeat key calls to action several times throughout the email. Ensure all calls to action have an obvious prominent text link and do not rely on imagery.

Expand your database – use this as an opportunity to expand your in-house database by including a link so recipients can register to receive your email updates. As this is a cold audience you may need to include an incentive or really stress the benefits of your email services to boost this conversion rate.

Imagery
Use imagery to visually promote your message and enhance and support your brand. As they say a picture tells a thousand words…
However, be aware of the file size for the images you are using, remember not everyone has super speed Internet connections.

Sign off
Sign your email off from a real person. Even better include a scanned in image of your signature with a return email address and a telephone number. This will build trust with the recipients and endorse the fact that this is a genuine offer.

Your contact information
Always include your contact information, including your company name, address, telephone number and registered number – this information builds trust in the recipient’s mind.

Terms and conditions
If there are any terms and conditions relevant to your offer include these or a clearly marked link to these in your email.

SPAM phrases
Avoid words that might lead to your email getting blocked in SPAM filters. E.g Free, Cheap, Offer. Most spam filters publish lists of words to avoid. If you do need to include words that might trigger a spam filter like cheap or free, putting them in an image is a good way to ensure your email won’t get blocked.

Unsubscribe / Privacy policy
Most of the Solus email providers will automatically take care of this for you – as they are sending on your behalf they will need to ensure the emails are legally compliant. However do check.

A few technical tips

1. Keep the width of your email to less than 550 pixels, this way the recipient won’t need to scroll left and right
2. Keep total file size (including imagery) of your email to less than 60KB – even though most people have broadband – connection speeds still vary dramatically.
3. Don’t include:
   • Cascading Style Sheets – email clients are far less sophisticated than web browsers and an email with CSS style sheets will not display correctly in most email clients.
   • Animated GIFs – these won’t rotate in many email clients, so your reader will only see the first frame.
   • Flash / ASP / JavaScript – all of these will result in your email getting blocked by firewalls / spam filters. Potentially they could all be used to run nasty scripts on a recipient’s computer.
   • Background images – Outlook 2008 and Lotus Notes will not display these

Reporting

Check what level of reporting the publisher will be able to provide you with. You can always add tags to your links from your own web statistics software e.g. EVisit Analyst, Google Analytics; or your media buyer may have their own tags.

It’s important that you keep track of:

• Open rates
• Click throughs by link
• Post click analysis – what happened after the click, what did these visitors do when they reached your website. This is the most important information. Getting clicks is great but potentially meaningless if visitors aren’t going on to perform a desired action on your website – even if it’s just to visit your contact page. It’s a good idea to set an objective before the email is broadcast, even if direct applications are not relevant – e.g. hits on a thank you page after an enquiry form is completed, or brochure downloads, or visits to your contact page. All of these conversions can be measured using a good analytics package. You will then be in a position to evaluate your cost per conversion.

How to test your email

We thoroughly test our client’s emails even if they are being broadcast to a third party Solus list.

These tests must include:

A SPAM Filter test at the following levels:

• Desktop – the recipients own PC/MAC
• Network – their corporate firewalls
• ISPs – their or their corporation’s Internet Service Provider

A good tool will highlight what might cause your email to fail, whether it’s because you’re using words that a spam filter may not like or maybe there are problems at a technical level

A link check – you don’t want a broken link getting in the way of conversion

A spell check – yes obvious!

A Reporting check – are clicks are showing up in your web stats?

A rendering check – how will your email display in any of the 64 main email clients, how about a hand-held device like a Blackberry? How will it look it look if the preview pane is on the right or any of the other variables I mentioned earlier?

Our email marketing system ReportMail has an in-built test centre that caters for all of these tests. We test any Solus email we build free of charge.

And probably most importantly always do a sense check – get several people in your organisation who have not been involved with the email to take a look at it and let you know what they think.

Questions for the Publisher

If you’re negotiating your own Solus email it is worth asking the publisher the following questions before going ahead:

• How clean is the data? i.e. what is their policy for removing bounces and unsubscribes
• How frequently is the list mailed?
• Can they provide you with average open and click through rates for that particular list?
• Will they host images at no extra cost?
• Can the email be personalised?
• Is it possible to segment the list any further?
• What reporting can they provide?

And once you’re done…

…do it again!

Take out individuals who have responded and do a slightly different follow-up email to the same database. Recent research shows that you might expect a 25% increase in response rates from the second campaign.

My disclaimer: This article has been written to provide advice for getting the most from your Solus emails and not your regular communication to your own database – more on that another time.

VerticalResponse, Inc., a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys and direct mail solutions for small businesses, today releases the results of a survey of 831 small businesses of under 500 employees, which showed that 74.1% of respondents plan to increase their use email marketing and 68.3% will increase their use of social media in 2010.

via VerticalResponse, Inc. Surveys the State of Small Business in America; Reports on Planned Marketing Spend for 2010 – VerticalResponse.

There IS such a thing as too much pre-header and I think Pottery Barn has officially taken the pre-header to new heights in terms of putting too much information in there.

There are 4 links,  6 lines, 206 characters, All CAPS, small caps, punctuation, dashes, arrows, underlines and soooo much more.

Too much pre-header is like going to a party and having all the appetizers shoved in front of your face all at once.  It’s just too overwhelming

Technorati Tags:
pre header, email, email marketing, email strategy, promotional email, email intro, email pre-header, view web version

Posted By The Messaging Times

Tis the season to get busy – for email marketers and others who are attempting to leverage this holiday season to drive up sales.

This year could see more online shopping as the nasty Swine Flu is sweeping the country and forcing some poor shoppers to be housebound for a week or more. For some, that is a great time to do some shopping. Of course, the economy is still dragging around the world which could affect online sales this year. Only time will tell.

Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) is traditionally the kick off for a surge in online shopping activity. Last year, even in a struggling economic environment, online shoppers spent an average of $372.57 during Black Friday weekend, up 7.2 percent from 2007 according to the National Retail Federation. I have some more stats about Black Friday 2008 if you’re interested.

But Black Friday isn’t traditionally the biggest online shopping day of the year. Both Cyber Monday and Green Monday and the December days in between are bigger days for online shopping. According to ComScore, the biggest online shopping days in 2008 were:

* Source: ComScore

Interestingly, historical data shows us that the biggest online shopping day is getting earlier and earlier. According to ComScore Data, the biggest online shopping days for the last 8 years were:

2000: December 18th, Monday

2001: December 17th, Monday

2002: December 16th, Monday

2003: December 15th, Monday

2004: December 13th, Monday

2005: December 12th, Monday

2006: December 13th, Wednesday

2007: December 10th, Monday

2008: December 9th, Tuesday

Notice the trend?

People seem to be shopping earlier and earlier online. Also, whatever it is about Mondays, there is definitely a trend of heavy shopping on Mondays. Perhaps people are depressed on Mondays, being the first day back to work after the weekend holiday parties are over – and some online shopping makes them feel better? Interestingly, the day of the week seems to be less telling during the last three years. Perhaps the Monday trend is shifting?

The best strategy for email marketers and online merchants is to:

1. Be present with special offers in place from Thanksgiving Day (”Eighty percent of success is just showing up” – Woody Allen)

2. Communicate your special offers regularly via email, twitter, facebook, your blog and website (spread the word)

3. Offer free shipping with no minimum purchase (my wife looks for this)

4. Provide friendly, timely and enthusiastic customer service (encourage them to come back for more with a good attitude)

5. Fulfill orders in a timely and professional manner (to prevent complaints, returns and refunds)

6. Present customers with value that they will talk to others about (Word of mouth is your best friend)

Are you ready?

There IS such a thing as too much pre-header and I think Pottery Barn has officially taken the pre-header to new heights in terms of putting too much information in there.

There are 4 links,  6 lines, 206 characters, All CAPS, small caps, punctuation, dashes, arrows, underlines and soooo much more.

Too much pre-header is like going to a party and having all the appetizers shoved in front of your face all at once.  It’s just too overwhelming.

Technorati Tags:
pre header, email, email marketing, email strategy, promotional email, email intro, email pre-header, view web version

Compelling new release with powerful new features to provide highly efficient and effortless management of email marketing campaigns.

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, November 30, 2009

SimplyCast, a leading provider of email marketing solutions for organizations worldwide, is proud to announce the release of version 5.0 of its email marketing service. The application was built to simplify the management of email marketing campaigns. It enables campaign creation, link tracking, detailed graphical reporting and access to important unsubscribe data, while ensuring compatibility with Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, Chrome and Opera browsers.

SimplyCast’s upgraded service is now available to all clients and trial users worldwide at www.simplycast.com.

Click here to read the full release

Email marketing, commonly associated with “SPAM” has a less than stellar reputation. We’re all used to cleaning out our spam/ junk mail folders, while skimming through computer-generated promotions for products we aren’t particularly interested in.

But the reason that email marketing still thrives, is that bulk email blasts cost little to nothing to produce and send. Promotional productions avoid the likes of direct mail costs, such as packaging, printing, postage, and affiliated manpower. So, if only one out of ten-thousand consumers buy the “Deluxe Rolex Watch – CHEAP!!”, the promotion is profitable. Businesses are now introduced to an inexpensive means to mint money from good strategy.

A clear incentive in email marketing is the ability to create a legitimate consumer audience (address book), engage them through strategized promotions, and expand network through automated referrals. Tracking of bounced emails & adherence to SPAM laws maintain a genuine network of interested consumers, with very little expense. Promotions can be strategized in advance, tested for efficacy (focus groups), and successful campaigns can be promoted to out of network consumers by means of incorporating a “Forward to Friend” feature within each campaign. Additionally, the Social Media surge (facebook, myspace, twitter, etc.) has amended the tradition structure of an email promotion to include posts to consumer profiles with a single click.

Email marketing’s most exciting attribute is in accumulating brilliant market research on target audience & consumer trends. Businesses can acquire demographic details during consumer registration, allowing them to construct segmented email lists, and devise targeted promotions for specific consumer groups. Male & female recipients can now view the same Rolex promotion with imagery that compliments their personal style. Additionally, with the advent of embedded tracking cookies, campaign strategists can ascertain the success of individual promotions, creating priceless market research.

While 92% of emails are considered SPAM, recent consumer surveys indicate that majority of people (62%) prefer to receive marketing promotions via email, than direct mail. In fact, three-quarters of consumers report they’ve bought something as a direct result of e-mail marketing. Don’t be mistaken, the email marketing strategy will create record buyer rejections, but don’t take it personally. Always, remember that a few hot minutes can alter the tide of your sales and proper analysis of each promotion will create an encyclopedia of effective sales pitches.

By Ben Jacoby

This is a collaborative post with John Stone of Revenue Architects. I met John at Schwab’s IMPACT conference in September of this year when he was giving a presentation on social media. Since then, we have collaborated on a couple of projects together. In this post, John and I combine our expertise to give you a roadmap of how to launch your new media marketing strategy.

This is the time of year for lists – holiday shopping, family dinners – why not add on one more: Getting started with your 2010 new media marketing agenda!

During 2009, you likely learned about the potential role of social media in your marketing plan. You recognize how the explosive growth of social networking – with tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Viddler, BlogTalkRadio, and YouTube – is fundamentally changing the way your clients learn, evaluate and ultimately make their decisions. You recognize that these web 2.0 tools are an increasingly important influence in the buy-sell process. Buyers seek evidence online to validate decisions and get instant feedback from others by listening and participating in the online conversations.

We work with leading wealth managers and financial advisors who recognize that their clients are using social media and the web to help them evaluate an advisor. The content and professional credentials visible online are an increasingly important part of their decision process. Successful advisors use their online presence to drive new business. They use blogs, Facebook Groups / Fan Pages and Twitter to engage in the online conversation increasing referrals and attracting new clients.

However, new media marketing is not a panacea. Your online presence and activity won’t replace your existing relationship building activities and the quality work you perform with clients. Your approach to new media marketing should be authentic – engaging in meaningful activities around the quality of your work and personal relationships. Tackled the right way, a new media marketing approach will further accelerate your growth.

But where do you begin? Which networks should you join? How do you build an online presence? How do you avoid introducing risk with your current brand? What is involved in using social media and inbound marketing techniques day-to-day? To help you get started, we developed the following checklist. This ten-step plan will guide you in taking positive steps forward in your new media marketing plan. With a thoughtful approach and a committed strategy, you will be rewarded with professional online presence and accelerated growth.

10 Steps to Get Started with New Media Marketing

1. Define your purpose. Determine in advance why you are engaging in new media. Is it for educational purposes or to market your business? If you don’t have clear intentions, how can you expect to have clear results?

2. Find your target market. Join the social networking sites which are comprised of your target niche market. Remember that the most popular social networking sites might not be the sites where your ideal clients visit. Go to where your potential clients are and don’t just spend time with your peers.

3. Craft your message. Your audience will only hear bits of pieces of your message at a time, so it is critical that you consistently and frequently broadcast a clear message about who you serve and what you offer. Don’t make your audience guess what you do, make it clear to them.

4. Gather and create content. Content is king in new media marketing. Demonstrate your expertise by educating your audience through blogs, articles, videos, or podcasts. Gather or create useful content to aid you in your new media marketing efforts.

5. Build your web presence & social media profiles. As you build out your profiles, you will be building a web presence that will give you a footprint beyond your website. This presence will increase your exposure to potential new clients. As you decide to participate in LinkedIn, Facebook, or other networking sites, it is important that you complete your profiles. A person is likely to only visit your profile once, so make a lasting first impression.

6. Build your network. The more people you connect with on social networking sites, the more people will see your message. Make a conscious effort to continually build your connections on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and other networks you are targeting.

7. Promote your profiles and cross connect. Let people know you are on the various social networking sites by promoting links on your website and email signature. This will help you organically grow your network. The more sites where you connect with someone, the stronger your relationship will become. Where it makes sense, find and connect with contacts across multiple social media sites.

8. Build an inbound strategy. Craft a strategy for your own website and your email/newsletter marketing programs. It is important that when potential new relationships click back to your website that they experience your brand in the right way. Ensure your website is professional and visually branded for your target audience and includes interactive web features like RSS and social bookmarking. Search engine optimization (SEO), landing page lead capture, and lead nurturing should be part of your website strategy.

9. Communicate Persuasively. Ensure your messages are sharp and clear. Are you delivering a persuasive message? Is your logic clear and concise? Are you listening and empathetic to client needs?

10. Actively engage. Use social networking sites and your website as a way to promote your content to your targeted market. This helps educate your audience and keeps your name top-of-mind. Social media is the same as any networking or marketing strategy – the more consistent you are, the better the results. Actively participate in the various social networking sites on a weekly basis to achieve the greatest results.

About Kristen Luke
Kristen Luke is the Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicated to providing marketing strategies and support for financial advisors. Kristen works with independent advisors to develop effective marketing plans and provides the back office support required to implement the strategies. For more information, visit www.wealthmanagementmarketing.net.

About John Stone III
John leads Revenue Architects and provides consulting, general management, education and solution services focused on profitable revenue models and integrating sales, marketing and technology systems. Clients include Putnam Investments, Natixis Global Asset Management, Charles Schwab, and HighMark Funds. For more information visit www.revenuearchitects.com.

If you are prepared to carry out your e-mail marketing campaign, and you’ve already selected some quality email selling service, you must take time to analyze what factors make for a top-notch email in an email campaign. Below you’ll find some good tips for designing a top quality e-mail that were derived from numerous gurus in the field of online promoting.

Target your emails to the correct recipients. A lot of failed email promotional programs didn’t work as the sender treated every e-mail recipient equally. The person who loved blue wallpaper got the blanket e-mail featuring the green wallpaper. While the folks that like green wallpaper were happy, the rest of the email recipients were divided. Don’t make the same mistake. Gather as much info as you can, from geographic location to shopper buying habits. Study that data and divide your list appropriately. If you’ve got a group of folks who love one type of service you offer and another group that could not care less, strategize appropriately.

Personalize your emails. Call your customers by name in emails if you can. Send your emails from the same from address each time. The more personal you can be, the less complicated it is to develop trust. You’ll also have an improved chance of your emails being opened and read.

Maintain your layout simple. Don’t overload your layout with fansy graphics, huge fonts and other in-your-face things. Maintain your layout clean and easy. Your layout should look professional and easy to navigate. An excessively busy layout will turn your viewers off and send your email campaign or newsletter right into the trash file.

Don’t overload on copy. It’s captivating to use three paragraphs to describe a product you really love and think your customers should love also. But do not do it. Use tiny paragraphs and economy of language to cater to the short time period your customers have to go thru all their emails. If you have something you would like to expand upon, link to the rest of the story through a landing-page on your website.

Include an action call. What is the purpose sending an email touting products if you do not ask your clients to do something beyond look? Your action call can do many things : ask buyers to click on a link, ask clients to fill out a survey, ask purchasers to make a purchase. Whatever call to action you choose, just ensure you actually have one in the emails you send.

Make a forcing subject line. Your subject line will make or break whether customers open your e-mail or delete it. Do your due research. Come up with a honest, compelling subject line meant to grab the eye of your customers. Avoid hot-button words and phrases like’make money!’ and’earn cash!’. Go for subject lines that pique the recipient’s curiosity, but tells the truth at the same time.

Keeping these things in mind as you create your campaign will not guarantee your success, but they’ll significantly enhance your chances to drum up sales and improve your ROI.

In questo articolo avevo lasciato detto che avrei mostrato un metodo per ottenere le informazioni di interesse per la nostra attività sfruttando FaceBook, e così farò, sebbene non per colpa mia ma di alcuni aggiornamenti che facebook stà effettuando ai suoi sistemi, non possa mostrarvelo in atto, ma solo raccontarvelo.
Essere presenti in un social network significa generare contenuti, che possono essere scritti, multimediali, o di altra natura, non è importante il come sono fatti ma il fatto stesso che siano “patrimonio informativo” legato a voi. Scrivendo una nota sul vostro stato in FaceBook piuttosto che un twit in Twitter o in altri microblog, commentando quella di un vostro conoscente, partecipando a una conversazione su un gruppo di discussione, commentando una foto o concedendo una preferenza in una delle tante pagine dove si può lasciare un’approvazione, state dicendo qualcosa di voi. Un infinitesimo magari anche non caratterizzante i vostri interessi, ma quando gli infinitesimi diventano migliaia di dati, migliaia di vosri interventi, allo si che qualcosa su di voi può essere detto.

Bene, ora come già immaginate vi dirò che tutte queste vostre azioni on-line vengono registrate e catalogate, nulla di strano a dirsi se qualcuno non ha una grossa ossessione per la propria Privacy che viene inequivocabilmente violata più volte al secondo… ma vi dirò anche che queste informazioni sono a disposizione di chiunque abbia un poco di dimestichezza con i database… si possono richiedere e si possono ottenere per lavorarci… e creare nuove informazioni… mirate ai vostri interessi.
Per esempio se vi interessasse sapere chi dei vostri “amici” o clienti su facebook apprezza una bistecca alla fiorentina, è possibile con una interrogazione alla nostra grossa banca dati una cosa come questa: ” chi ha mai dato la preferenza a una delle tantissime pagine amatoriali che parlano di grigliate di manzo o di fiorentine, oppure a commentato una foto di qualche suo amico utilizzando gli stessi argomenti nel suo commento, oppure chi è iscritto a uno gruppo sulla carne alla griglia toscana”… non molto difficile, e il risultato di questa interrogazione potrebbe essere un elenco dei vostri amici in cui c’è un riscontro positivo… è solo un esempio, certo, ma fattibile. E con quei nomi si potrebbe fare un invito personale a quelle persone di cui abbiamo avuto i nominativi per una serata particolare a base di Fiorentina e Chianti. Con buona probabilità otterremmo una percentuale di risposta all’invito molto più alta che mantando indiscriminatamente a tutti un invito per una mangiata di carne come tanti altri. Eh si… si può fare!

Vi propongo una prova pratica (solo se avete un account su FaceBook, ma se non avete dimestichezza ci vorrà un pochino di attenzione:

1. andando a questo link troverete una console per fare esperimenti di interrogazione del database di facebook, che appare come nell’immagine seguente:

2. compilate i campi sulla sinistra come nell’immagine qui sotto, fatta eccezione per l’ID che verrà automaticamente visualizzato diverso per ognuno di voi.

3. ora, dovete modificare il codice che vi scriverò qui sotto mettendo il vostro id (apparso in automatico come nell’immagine precedente) al posto del campo VOSTRO_ID:

select name, page_id from page where page_id in (select page_id from page_fan where uid in (select uid2 from friend where uid1=VOSTRO_ID))

e copiare questo codice modificato nella casella vuota che sotto a dove avete compilato i dati di poco fa:

4. ora potete cliccare sul tasto “Applica Metodo” e aspettare alcuni secondi (possibili anche fino a 10) per ottenere un risultato. Non abbiate fretta e non crediate che non funzioni se per alcuni secondi sembra che non succeda assolutamente nulla, dopo 6-8 secondi apparirà una cosa come quella che segue:

notare nella prossima immagine il numero di risultati che sono usciti alla fine:

Ottimo, i dati che abbiamo estrapolato e che abbiamo nell’elenco davanti ai nostri occhi sono l’elenco delle pagine di cui tutti i membri della nostra rete di amicizia sono FAN, è un esempio. Se come detto in precedenza FaceBook non stesse facendo lavori di manutenzione, vi mostrerei come molto facilmente si può controllare all’interno di questi dati se vi è la presenza di parole o frasi che ci possono interessare dal punto di vista commerciale, come la parola Fiorentina o Bistecca alla fiorentina del discorso che vi ho fatto all’inizio. Sapedo quali degli elementi precedenti contengono le parole da noi ricercate, si può immediatamente risalire alle persone che sono associate a quelle pagine. (ricordo che questo elenco è fatto solo con le pagine di cui i membri della nostra rete sono FAN).

Esempio ulteriore: cercando appunto  le parole “Grigliata“, “Carne alla Griglia“, “Bistecca allaFiorentina” ottengo i seguenti codici di riferimento per quelle pagine:

Grigliata : 32627484462

Carne alla Griglia : 49159281709

Bistecca alla Fiorentina: 28109153543

Lo stesso discorso si può ampliare come detto in precedenza a tutte le altre parti in cui in facebook si può dire qualcosa, dallo status, ai commenti, alle immagini, ai link… tutto… e si può creare, controllando a quali utenti corrispondono i codici così trovati, davvero un utile elenco di persone a cui poter fare una offerta commerciale personalizzata!

Last Thursday on Thanksgiving, after my family said grace and gave thanks for all being together, the conversation shifted to a more important topic: what everyone wants for Christmas.

I am one of five semi-preppy 20-something siblings, and all of us receive marketing emails from J. Crew. Santa receives these emails too, and with frequent offers of 20 percent off of orders over $150 and free shipping,  the chances are very high that this Christmas morning we each open a box with a fuzzy new J.Crew sweater in our favorite color.

But, after dropping the requisite hints about how cute we all think the new cable knit v-necks with the ruffled detailing are, we began discussing how exactly we all know about that one cute sweater: J. Crew’s marketing.

In the past, we have all agreed that J.Crew’s marketing efforts have been superb. The company is religious about sending a glossy catalog to our residence each month. Its marketing emails are timely, and keep us informed of its sales, deals, and new merchandise. But its emails are pretty much always the same bargain – 20 percent off and/or free shipping, mostly on orders over $150. And that’s where the complaints began. The “deal” emails usually come in the same format – white lettering on a black background touting those same, predictable sales.

We started talking about marketing and the value of a brand switching up its techniques to keep things interesting for their consumers. We love J. Crew – we already want what it sells.  It does a great job of taking its tried and true concept and tweaking it just a little bit each season in order to keep things fresh.  That may be the reason we like its clothes, but it’s the reason we don’t like its marketing. We want J. Crew to surprise us, because we already know it can surprise us with little bows and sparkles on otherwise basic tee-shirts and headbands.

This leads me to our biggest complaint about J. Crew’s recent marketing – its social media campaign.  We all received the same email recently: J. Crew told us that if we became a fan of the J. Crew Facebook page, it would give us a special exclusive deal. “Ooooh” we thought, “maybe it’s a free tote bag or keychain! Maybe it’s 50 percent off!” But when each of us signed up as a Facebook fan and saw the deal, we were disappointed.  It was the usual twenty percent off.

Wow, never seen that before, J. Crew. Pretty exciting. You enticed us, your already devoted consumers, to be your Facebook fans, published that information on all of our friends newsfeeds, and will now flood our homepages with product and company updates. And all we get is a measly twenty percent off? Thanks a lot, really. Now, instead of making us happy, you’ve irritated us. You haven’t irritated us enough to stop buying your products, but maybe you’ve irritated us enough to de-fan you on Facebook, or worse, to unsubscribe from your marketing emails.

The moral of this story is that when your consumers are doing you a favor, you better reward them properly. Keep them interested, give them something unexpected to show them how valuable they are. But it has to be genuine – it can’t be the same old ploy. If J. Crew really had given us that tote bag or keychain, its dedicated consumers would have felt special and appreciated. We would have forwarded the offer to all of our friends, and the campaign would have generated hundreds of thousands more Facebook fans. Instead we feel annoyed and bored.  J. Crew is doing all the right things as far as keeping its consumers informed with email, social media, and direct print marketing, but it needs to work a little harder to keep things its marketing as exciting as its knits and tees.

“Think about Apple’s marketing campaign for the iPod: 1000 songs in your pocket. That line creates an instant emotional connection. Nobody cares about technicalities like higher compression rates or larger disk capacities. They care about what it means to them.”

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