Internet Marketing

Email Marketing using Freestyler CMS - How it stacks up

I've been hearing a lot about Constant Contact (and to a lesser extent Vision 6) lately, and these types of email marketing in a box applications seem to have great appeal to people and is very popular.
I recently visited a client who used it regularly.  So I got a good opportunity to see what it could do and how it worked for them and the penny dropped.  After I had reviewed it, I explained to my client how they already had most of the functions in their Datalink Freestyler, they nearly choked as they told me how much they were paying to use the Constant Contact application.  When I came across a second and third contact who uses that or similar applications, I started to think about blogging on the topic.

Datalink actually once offered a similar product based on Freestyler CMS, but decided that we don't really want to compete in this space, so I'm not really afraid to make comparisons with more specialised products.  However our own customers, really don't need this application.  Most of what it offers is actually built-in to Freestyler.  All you have to do is harness its power. 

In terms of email marketing, products like Constant Contact appear to offer a lot.  What Constant Contact and others like it can't do, however, is integrate with your website CMS.  This is really important for a number of reasons, especially if you are running a customer portal, member portal or extranet on your site.  Conversely, if you are a fan of Constant Contact, and want something integrated into your CMS, then Freestyler could be for you.

So I thought I'd make a brief comparison between Freestyler and Constant Contact and other applications just like it.  I've also provided a brief video demo explaining what Freestyler is capable of in the area of email marketing.

So what do services like Constant Contact actually do ?
Constant Contact is an email marketing service.  You pay a monthly fee based on the number of people in your email list.  On the surface it looks cheap, but when you consider the amount per month it is actually quite expensive.  With Freestyler on the other hand, you get unlimited email sending capacity included with your licence.

Let's have a look at the specific features available:
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Is there a stigma around the YouTube brand ?

How important is choice of video host ?  This is a question I've found myself asking lately after quite a few clients have raised concerns about using YouTube as part of e-marketing strategy.

The concern seems to be that YouTube has a reputation as being primarily for young people, with lots of copyrighted content and not suitable for professional and scientific organisations.  Combined with the fact that YouTube and many services like it insist on having their logos on embedded videos as part of their free service makes many potential content providers think twice.

My personal opinion is that it is beginning to shake this image off, and I made this clear in a recent post.  Despite a few objections to YouTube (namely 1. restricted lenght/size of videos; 2. private/non-searchable videos; and 3. low quality and compression), YouTube is a very strong and progressive brand which is associated with many quality content providers.  With the association with Google (itself one of the strongest search engine brands) and means that it works well in searches to get the organisation much better exposure.  People expect YouTube to be low quality which has its own benefits, but because it is so popular it is by far the most feature rich, flexible and easiest to integrate platforms to work with.

 

Here is an interesting article about YouTube’s use by content providers:

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=80504

 

The Liberal, Labor, National, Greens, Democrats and Family First federal political parties all have their own individual YouTube channels. The Prime Minister, John Howard, often uses the Liberal channel to make announcements before turning to traditional mediums such as television and radio.

Australian providers including Network Ten, ABC, Seven, Sky News, Southern Cross View and Fairfax Media.

ABC has published on its various YouTube channels clips from Summer Heights High, The Chaser's War on Everything and Enough Rope with Andrew Denton.

CometTV is the only local YouTube partner using its channel for long-form content, posting complete episodes of Secret Life of Us.

Overseas content providers already partnered with YouTube include CBS, BBC, New Scientist, Al-Jazeera, National Geographic, EMI, Warner Music, Universal Music and various European TV networks.

 

We have created content provider accounts for many of our customers using YouTube, including several local councils and the Optometrists Association of Australia.

 

But if you are still not for YouTube, then what other options are there ?  I thought I'd explore some briefly.

 

Continue reading Is there a stigma around the YouTube brand ?

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Sink or SWM: The fine balance of Social Web Marketing

Joshua Porter has written quite a good article about Titled "The Problem with Social Media Marketing".

In it he is cynical of the claims of most people who call themselves "social media marketers" and instead talks about social media's "amplification" qualities and that you have to change your business for your business to get better.

If only things were this simple.  It certainly presents a challenge to the philosophy of many company directors and managers.  Too many of them will see social media marketing as just another selling tactic.  Marketers are traditionally given orders to get a product or service out there to meet certain targets, then they have to find the best way to do it - whatever it takes.  In doing so, too often they ignore or misrepresent their own customers.

Social Media turns the tables round.  Most companies don't want to change their business unless they absolutely must, let alone for their customers.  I think that these days you simply can't ignore it, people will talk whether you like it or not, and the web gives their messages exponential reach.  The first thing when I want to evaluate a product is type the name and brand into Google followed by the word "sucks" or "sux".  To me at least, negative comments seem to amplify much easier than positive ones.  I can't think of any real way for any snake oil can counter this.  In my opinion this is the first problem.

I believe that the best social marketers are experts at facilitating customer feedback in a semi-controlled environment, whether it is negative or positive.  This way they can generate some positive feedback just by participating.  They get a better feel for what the customers like and don't like and this should be channeled back into product development.  Therefore social marketers should have much more input into the direction of products and customer service.  They are the eyes and ears of the company.  The role of the marketer becomes more important, and to be most effective, they need buy-in from the highest level.  However this is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible.  That is the second problem I see with social media marketing - it requires huge cultural change.

The article is right in its assertion that at least on the web, consumers create the demand and buzz, not social marketers.  With the web, consumers have amplified choice.  It would be great to think that companies really had choice.  Unfortunately, in a more competitive marketplace, businesses have little choice because profitability only comes by amplifying the demand for your products.  Too many still consider consumers to be dumb, but long before sports stars started endorsing breakfast cereals people could still weed out the fake from the sincere - even if they still ended up buying your product.  People are naturally skeptical of positive comments, but take negative comments seriously.  The web is making consumers smarter, today they can make informed choices.  In today's market, it is no longer possible to sell a product with one or two testimonials.  If a company drops the ball, it faces a mass exodus to its competitors.  Social media marketing is actually becoming necessary but it has to be done right.  It is about weight of numbers and it will bring some honesty, ethics and accountability back to doing business.

Continue reading Sink or SWM: The fine balance of Social Web Marketing

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