According to email management firm Oasys Software, 96 percent of employees say that they believe their companies are at some level of legal risk due to poor email management. Oasys came to these results after conducting a survey of its customers, which include lawyers, accountants, and others.
Alec Milton, the CEO of Oasys Software, told us that the results were “quite shocking.” As he explained, the company found that nearly 92 percent of employees spend up to one hour per day searching for email. In addition, another 64 percent of those surveyed said that they were forced to delete emails because their inbox was too full.
Milton recommends that companies and employees organize their emails into folders just as they would important documents. There are also software services, such as Oasys, that companies can use to help secure email systems.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jan 8th, 2012. 
Businesses that combine email marketing with social media marketing are more successful with their integrated marketing campaigns than those who use email alone.
That was the conclusion gleaned from a study conducted by email marketing provider Constant Contact and absolutely came as no surprise to me because I am huge believer in the fact that an integrated marketing strategy is vital to success and anytime I hear the word “integrated” or “integration” in the context of marketing and advertising, it catches my eye and gets my undivided attention. Unfortunately it would appear, at least from recent surveys and findings that the majority of marketers and marketing type folks are not practicing integration – be it integration of offline and online tactics or any other form integration.
The title of two of my most recent posts say it all…
Marketers Still Not Integrating Their Marketing Strategy & CMO’s To Increase Spending On Social Media But Integration Still Lacking.
However, there is hope… hope that marketers will realize the need for integration across all channels and all departments and eliminate those silos that threaten their very existence. Yes, that was melodramatic but I meant it to be as
I believe the lack of integration is that serious. And there is hope that marketers, – B2B Marketers, B2C Marketers, CMO’s will see results of surveys such as this one and realize that integration is key.
And from the looks of the findings integrating email marketing with social media marketing can prove to be very beneficial…
Constant Contact examined results data from small businesses and nonprofits that have combined their email marketing with social media marketing to those using only email marketing. Key findings include: 
- Faster list growth: From June 2010 through August 2011, those using both social media and email marketing saw 14.43 percent list growth, while those using only email marketing saw 8.96 percent list growth.
- Larger average list size: Those using both tactics have email lists that are 53 percent larger on average than their email-only counterparts.
- Higher click-through rates: The average click-through rate for those using both email and social media marketing was 59.3 basis points higher than for those using email only.
Now, I realize this study dealt with “small” businesses but… I am confident that larger companies would see similar results. I also agree with Rick Jensen, chief sales and marketing officer for Constant Contact who, when asked whether to use email marketing or social media marketing said “… it’s not either/or; it’s both. Use email to communicate with your current customers and social media to reach new customers.”
I’m sure, however, that Mr. Jensen is also a proponent of renting mailing lists of prospects and not just using email marketing for existing customers but he is right in so much as your current customers are, one would assume, accustomed to receiving emails from you, hence the assumed higher click rate, whereas prospects may not be as receptive to email. They may, however, be more apt to engage via social media, which lends itself to a more personal experience, especially during that all-important first-impression part of any relationship.
What do you think? Do you use email marketing? Do you use it alone or with social media marketing? What has your experience been with email marketing and/or social media marketing?
Source: Constant Contact, Google Images, The Star Group, Use Email Marketing And Social Media As Part Of An Integrated Marketing Strategy
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Sep 23rd, 2011.
While social media seems to be the newest and coolest form of marketing, we have seen that more traditional forms of marketing, such as email marketing, are still effective. Ben Lerer, the co-founder of lifestyle website Thrillist, further proved this idea in a recent interview with WebProNews.
He told us that even though social media was important, his company has found that its users embrace email in the same way that others share on social sites.
“We’re really good at getting people to forward emails and to use email as sort of social media,” he said.
Thrillist recently rolled out its own version of daily deals, called Rewards, which are geared especially toward young professional men. The company has, however, been able to successfully utilize Foursquare to promote its localized Rewards.
What works better for you: email or social media?
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jul 13th, 2011.
Twitter is rolling out email notifications letting users know when someone they follow retweets or favorites one of their tweets.
This could be a subtle, but major step in increasing user engagement with Twitter. Upon Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s return to the company, he spoke at Columbia University about some of his goals for the company. He talked about the challenge of keeping users engaged with relevant incoming tweets, which can be a major element of making the product more useful to the user. Here’s what Dorsey had to say about that (as quoted by Peter Kafka):
We built very easy ways to input information. But extracting that information in a relevant way, in real time, is still a big, big challenge. So we need to build technologies that immediately surface what’s most revelant and most meaningful to you.
And that’s still a very, very large challenge, and difficult. You have to follow all of these accounts, and sometimes you miss some tweets that were extremly relevant to you. We can solve that through technology, and we will solve that, but it is going to be quite difficult to do.
@twitter
TwitterStarting today, we’re rolling out an email notification that lets you know if someone you follow retweets or favorites one of your Tweets.
16 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
Twitter of course already has email notifications for when a user is sent a direct message, and when they’re followed by someone new, as well as updates from Twitter itself about new products, features, and tips and product or service updates related to users’ accounts.
The email notifications aren’t going to be the complete magical solution, but it is certainly a simple addition to Twitter that could end up going a long way in keeping users returning to Twitter. It works pretty well with Facebook. I know people that rarely go to Facebook at all, unless prompted by an email notification.
Both Twitter’s and Facebook’s use of email notifications highlight the fact that email is still a very important communication channel in the age of social media. You might even say that in some ways social media is largely dependent on email (don’t forget you need an email address to sign up for an account too).
As Twitter said, the feature is rolling out, so there’s a chance you don’t have it yet, but presumably you will soon.
Expert Articles – WebProNews
Internet Marketing Tools For The DIY’er HERE
Filed under Internet Marketing by on May 24th, 2011.
I’m not sure which came first, the idea that social media is killing blogs or social media is killing email. Both arguments are brought up every so often, and both are equally ludicrous if you ask me. Earlier this week, we examined the former, and interestingly enough, the latter was also brought up by recent data from comScore and the Pew Internet Project.
Actually, it was The Discovery Channel, who looked at the data and asked, "Is email dead?"
Is Email dying at the hands of social networks and texting? Tell us what you think.
"Overall, when you look at how many teens have ever sent an e-mail, it’s most of them, so it’s still being used," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist with the Pew Internet Project. "It just isn’t used for communicating with people you’re primarily communicating with in your life, namely your friends, and it’s absolutely true that text messaging and messaging through social networks has supplanted e-mail messaging to friends."
People might turn more and more to social networks for casual conversations, link sharing, and things like that, but call me when your banking and all your professional communicating are done through Facebook. In fact, call me when you receive notifications from all the social media sites you participate on are sent to your Facebook account (unless you count Facebook’s new email service). The jury’s still out on Facebook’s new messaging system, but let’s not forget, it launched with Facebook.com email addresses.
Is mobile killing email? Not so much. Recent data, also from comScore finds that mobile email usage is seeing significant growth.
Email will continue to evolve, but it’s not going away – at least not in the foreseeable future. If social media’s going to kill email, it’s going to have to do a lot better than what it does so far.
If anything, social (along with mobile) is helping email.
Filed under Internet Technology by on Feb 26th, 2011.
