Monthly Archive for December, 2008

Don't Underestimate the Power of Offline Marketing

Published on December 29, 2008 in PR, from HTI and site of the day. 0 Comments Tags: 10000 winners, branding, campaign, coach tom, declaration of financial independence, facebook, funny, gift it for free, giftitforfree.com, how offline can drive online, ing direct viral campaign, offline marketing, online marketing, SEM, staples, staples sweepstakes, traditional advertising increases web traffic, twitter, using social marketing in viral campaigns, viral campaign, we the savers, wethesavers.com, Windows, winner, youtube, Youtube.com.

A few weeks ago we published a post on Staples’ “Gift It For Free” Sweepstakes, a contest that promises 10,000 winners.

We discovered the campaign while standing in front of our building in Manhattan as a school bus drove by with only the sweepstakes’ Web address – www.GiftItForFree.com – scrawled across the windows. Such enigmatic advertising was enough to pique our interest, eventually driving us to check out the site. The rest is history: we loved it so much that we immortalized it on our blog.

Something similar happened a few days ago while we were in a Grand Central subway tunnel, where we noticed a blanket of advertisements, the subject of which was a Web site called WeTheSavers.com. Each ad contained some sort of tag line and a logo (an orange sphere; simple and unrecognizable to the untrained eye) in the lower right-hand corner, but it was clear that whoever was behind these ads wanted people to visit the site.

It worked; we visited the site as soon as we sat down at our computers.

Continue reading ‘Don't Underestimate the Power of Offline Marketing’

Bridging the Internet Gap from 2000 to Today

Published on December 25, 2008 in In The News, Uncategorized and from HTI. 0 Comments Tags: bridging the internet gap, emarketer, emarketer report on internet users by skill level, Internet usage statistics, report on internet usage skills, survey, USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future.

The Judds were right – love can build a bridge!

In this case, it’s a love of the Internet that’s built a bridge from the year 2000 to now.

Eight years ago the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future conducted a survey in which 44% of Internet users said they felt good or excellent at using the Web. Fast forward to 2008 and nearly 80% of Internet users say the same.

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Is Outbound Marketing About to Bottom Out?

Published on December 22, 2008 in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), emarketing, from HTI, social marketing and social media. 0 Comments Tags: Ad Spending, decline in ad spending, emarketer, future of inbound marketing, how are marketers affected by recession, how is advertising changing, how is financial crisis affecting businesses, hubspot, inbound marketing, internet marketing, mobile social networking, new era of marketing on the web, new era of web marketing, outbound marketing, recession, shift to inbound marketing, social marketing, social media marketing, stats on ad spending, traditional advertising decline, us advertising spending growth.

Last week we published a post on the bright future of inbound marketing, and we promised to bring you figures to back up the claim that this method of marketing signifies “a new era of marketing on the web,” according to Internet marketing company Hubspot.

If the predictions below, provided by eMarketer, on traditional ad spending declines are any indication – even despite the occasional wide margins between sources – outbound (or traditional) marketing may be a thing of the past faster than expected.

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Poll: Best Week for E-Commerce Holiday Sales

Published on December 19, 2008 in BtoB, e-commerce, email, emarketing and from HTI. 2 Comments Tags: best week to send holiday e-mail campaigns, campaign, cyber monday, e-commerce, holiday sales, poll, results, statistics on holiday e-mail marketing, survey.

pollbadge We’ve written a lot about holiday marketing lately, and we figured it’s time to find out how other online marketers are faring in the face of the financial crunch.

As we previously reported, Cyber Monday made gains this year, but according to industry analysts the highest sales of the season may not have come until earlier this week. Still, while conjecture and hypothesis is valuable, we’d like to get real results from real marketers .

Did you launch an e-campaign to boost holidays sales? Did you see more traffic on Cyber Monday versus Dec. 15 or later? Or maybe the week of Dec. 8 fared more favorable for you. Take our poll and let us know which week received the highest response rates for your campaigns.

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A Little Holiday Gratitude Can Go a Long Way

Published on December 18, 2008 in BtoB, PR, Uncategorized, Viral Marketing, e-commerce, email, emarketing and from HTI. 0 Comments Tags: air charter services, campaign, chart, conference, coupon code, coupon codes, free shipping codes, funny, golfetail, holiday campaign open rates, holiday e-mail greetings, how are e-mail campaigns performing, humor, internet marketing, internet marketing firm, keeping in touch with customers around the holidays, newsletter, non-discount holiday greetings, online shopping, the coleman center.

UPDATED: WE thought we should add our own holiday greeting email for you to see:

Internet Marketing Firm Holiday Greeting

Internet marketing at holiday time isn’t just about percentages off and free-shipping coupon codes.

Sometimes (biiiiig emphasis on sometimes), customers are content with a greeting that simply shows a measure of gratitude for their loyalty.

Take a look at our first example below. It’s a newsletter-type e-mail that we sent on behalf of The Coleman Center, a client that offers meeting space within its Manhattan-based meeting and conference center.

The Coleman Center isn’t a client for which we send e-mail discounts on their services. Their business just doesn’t lend itself to that kind of marketing. But, because its guests extend a generous amount of resources to hold their meetings at the center, we decided that a holiday greeting was in order to show appreciation. With an open rate of 26.8%, this campaign was a success in spreading cheer and well wishes while helping keep the center on the minds of its constituents.

The second holiday message we sent was for a new client called Air Charter Services. ACS approached us with a general idea for a humorous greeting. After our illustrator created the art, we wrote several funny tag lines, ultimately settling on the copy below.

Continue reading ‘A Little Holiday Gratitude Can Go a Long Way’

Monthly Archive for December, 2008

Bridging the Internet Gap from 2000 to Today

Poll: Best Week for E-Commerce Holiday Sales

VisibleU Internet Marketing

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