"O2 has begun trialling a 'wallet' system, which allows its phones to be used as Oyster and Barclaycards to make payments." (Full story)
The potential of the billing relationship that mobile operators have with their customers has long been recognised, but so far no-one has been able to put a system in place to leverage it successfully. mCommerce has been largely restricted to payment by txt or to using proprietary systems that have failed to achieve critical mass (eg. Reparo which I tried and failed to install twice on my Smartphone).
It remains to be seen whether this latest develoment by O2 will work, but as it is being promoted by one of the big operators, it has a good chance. In an ideal world the operators would agree the basis of a standard platform and push forward together (as BBB, ITV and Channel4 are doing on the proposed download venture), but we have yet to see the mobile world work in such a grown-up way.
One to watch with interest.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
HTML emails are not always the right thing
You shouldn't use rich HTML emails for your important marketing communications with key clients?
Where you have a key communication with an individual who knows you by name, it is well worth the effort of going the personal route, either by sending emails out of your mailbox, or by making it look like you have.
There is plenty of evidence that email marketing campaigns done using well designed html emails ("rich HTML") get better response rates. If you are putting your marketing message in front of a large audience, you need to grab their attention and get the offer in front of them quickly. Images and design help to do this.
But when you are communicating on a one-to-one basis, it is more valuable to emphasise that the communication is a personal message. Rich HTML emails immediately identifies a message as "marketing" material, which allows people to filter it out easily. As does the use of a company mailbox address.
On the contrary, a message that looks like you have sent it from you personal mail box (or which is actually sent from you personal mail box) will go through that filter. The recipeint will need to read the content to before they can make a decision whether to reject the email. They also tend to feel that the email merits a response.
We have examples of 2 clients organising key seminars which they wanted certain people to attend. Their comment on the most recent one was, "Sending the personalised email made a massive difference!! I received over 25 responses to say that people couldn't make it - I didn't get any with the graphical version - and within an hour I received 6 more registrations - these were in dribs and drabs with the graphical version."
Beware, however, you must not over do this. If your marketing and business messages become confused, you run the risk of the marketing filter being applied to your business emails.
The rule to remember is to make sure that the method of communication is appropriate to the response that you want to achieve. And if it's really important to get you message across, why don't you phone instead!
Where you have a key communication with an individual who knows you by name, it is well worth the effort of going the personal route, either by sending emails out of your mailbox, or by making it look like you have.
There is plenty of evidence that email marketing campaigns done using well designed html emails ("rich HTML") get better response rates. If you are putting your marketing message in front of a large audience, you need to grab their attention and get the offer in front of them quickly. Images and design help to do this.
But when you are communicating on a one-to-one basis, it is more valuable to emphasise that the communication is a personal message. Rich HTML emails immediately identifies a message as "marketing" material, which allows people to filter it out easily. As does the use of a company mailbox address.
On the contrary, a message that looks like you have sent it from you personal mail box (or which is actually sent from you personal mail box) will go through that filter. The recipeint will need to read the content to before they can make a decision whether to reject the email. They also tend to feel that the email merits a response.
We have examples of 2 clients organising key seminars which they wanted certain people to attend. Their comment on the most recent one was, "Sending the personalised email made a massive difference!! I received over 25 responses to say that people couldn't make it - I didn't get any with the graphical version - and within an hour I received 6 more registrations - these were in dribs and drabs with the graphical version."
Beware, however, you must not over do this. If your marketing and business messages become confused, you run the risk of the marketing filter being applied to your business emails.
The rule to remember is to make sure that the method of communication is appropriate to the response that you want to achieve. And if it's really important to get you message across, why don't you phone instead!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Online reviews - friend or foe?
Online reviews are very powerful. Recent studies show that consumers trust them, putting faith in recommendations of people that they have never met and know nothing about. (See article.)
Increasingly the web is about having your say and, incredibly perhaps, people reading about what you have to say. Blogs and social network are leading the way for this user generated content (UGC), which is central to Web 2.0. Reviews are a part of this phenomenon.
There are 2 ways to deal with online reviews of your products. One is to ignore them, the other is to try to actively manage them. Since you can't manage content that is published on other people's sites (blogs, review sites, personal sites, social networks etc), your best bet to gain an element of control is to encourage people to publish them on your site.
If your product gives your customers a good experience, you are likely to generate good reviews, which . And, as the surveys show, this has a very positive impact on potential customers.
On the other hand, if people are criticising your product, it gives you nowhere to hide. But people are likely to criticise anyway and this way at least you will know what they are saying and will have a chance to address the issue, either specifically by engaging in a dialogue with the reviewer, or by using this feedback in improving your product.
Engage with your audience and view it as an on-going user test / consumer panel. Do not try to control or suppress, be open, be honest. If you are confident in your product, you have little to lose and much to gain.
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