Cloud computing with Gmail can definitely save you money, but it also can save energy.  Results from the Carbon Disclosure Project show, “that by 2020, large U.S. companies that use cloud computing can achieve annual energy savings of $12.3 billion and annual carbon reductions equivalent to 200 million barrels of oil – enough to power 5.7 million cars for one year.”

Due to the movement of ‘going green’ and hard-working efforts to increase sustainability, Google decided to compare Gmail to locally hosted email servers in hopes to show how energy efficient cloud-based email really is. Here is an illustration of an inefficient use of email servers used by small companies in comparison to an efficient use of cloud-based email:

Source: Official Google Blog

Google then tabulated the results, “switching to Gmail can be almost 80 times more energy efficient (PDF) than running in-house email. This is because cloud-based services are typically housed in highly efficient data centers that operate at higher server utilization rates and use hardware and software that’s built specifically for the services they provide—conditions that small businesses are rarely able to create on their own.”

With the above calculation it’s safe to say Google continues to act as the ringleader not only in a technological perspective, but now serving to help sustain our environment, one energy molecule at a time.

Google has done it once again, made our lives easier with direct calling from Gmail. At the beginning one could simply send an email or video chat from right inside their Gmail account. Then Google released the ability to make a call to any U.S. mobile phone or landline directly from their account. And now, they have made it possible to make a call outside the U.S. with 38 new languages to select from.

Calling credit is available for purchase in four different currencies (U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, Euros or British pounds). With the pleasure of no connection fees, you will only be charged for the time you are talking. Another benefit, Google is lowering their calling rates to over 150 destinations worldwide.

According to the Google Blog, “it’s now only $0.10 (or €0.08) per minute to call mobile phones in the U.K., France or Germany (landlines are $0.02/min), $0.15/minute to call mobile phones in Mexico and $0.02/min to call any phone number in China and India. Calls to the U.S. or Canada placed within those countries will continue to be free at least for the rest of 2011. Calls to the U.S. or Canada placed from outside these countries will be charged $0.01 per minute (or €0.01, £0.01, C$0.01 per minute).”

To view a complete listing of the rates visit Google’s Rate Page.

This feature will be available to all Gmail accounts over the next few days; you will see a small green phone icon appear next to a contacts name in your chat window. Download the voice and video plug-in from Google and you will be ready to make calls from around the world!

Are you tired of scrolling down through your inbox, deleting about 50% of messages before you even read them? Well Gmail has come up with a solution to rid you of the unnecessary clutter! With their new organization tool, you now have the option to choose to view your inbox in one of three new ways. Read more to find out what these ways are.

Originally, one’s Gmail inbox is sorted based on the date received, known as the “classic” inbox, or chronological order.  According to the official Gmail Blog,  you are now able to choose to view your inbox from these additional options:

• Important First – You may have noticed the yellow arrow option that marks certain messages as “important.” This inbox view will separate those messages you mark as important (both read and unread) to the top and everything else below in its own section of your inbox.
• Starred First – Those messages you star will appear at the top and all other messages below.
• Unread First – The simple version; unread messages at the top, all other at the bottom.

A new tab will soon appear at the top of your inbox that will allow you to quickly choose which option you prefer. Once you are comfortable with a theme for about a week Google will eventually deem it as your preferred choice and this tab will disappear (but you will be allowed to switch back to an alternate theme quickly and efficiently in your mail settings).

Try it out! Go to your mail settings, then to Themes and click on one of these two options: “Preview” or “Preview (dense).” You will find the interface in a scene of white space which allows you to navigate around the clean and modern look that the new update will feature.

Here is a preview of one’s inbox:

And one of a sample conversation:

It will be interesting to see if these changes actually make viewing email a little bit more easier and helps us to sort our mail better.

A new study detailing the likelihood of referrals and purchases from Facebook fans and Twitter followers has revealed, perhaps unsurprisingly so, that fans and followers are a brand’s best friends.  The study explains that 60% of Facebook fans and a whopping 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend a brand or brands after becoming a fan or follower.  Furthermore 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to purchase products or services offered by a brand after becoming a fan or follower.

New meaning to “brand loyalty”

Skeptics of the lasting impact or advantage of a brand maintaining its presence on Facebook or Twitter may insert their feet into their mouths now.  The simple act of clicking “become a fan” or “follow” is likely not the sole reason these brand loyalists are recommending or purchasing from a brand.  Still, the regular interaction with and updates from their brand of choice remain influential in their decisions to recommend or purchase.  In some ways, a person’s news feed is the ultimate location to stage a marketing campaign, as updates are mixed between posts from a user’s friends, subliminally asserting that this brand itself is a friend. 

The end of the email era?

If critics still need convincing, they need only look at the frequency with which Facebook users are logging onto the social network.  The raw numbers of daily log-ins were detailed in a previous post, but they, nonetheless, indicate that almost half of Facebook’s user-verse (universe reference, anyone?) logs in each day, most times more than once, ensuring that an update or promotion is not left unnoticed.  Furthermore, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal announced the “End of the Email Era,” positing Facebook messages had replaced emails, citing a study by Prompt Communications.  In the study, 96% of respondents claimed to use Facebook messages as a means of communication, with only 91% of respondents admitting the same for email.

Just like video killed the radio star, Facebook messages have killed the email.   Armed with the knowledge that radio remains a viable means of mass communication, we know that death is not quite as final as the Buggles suggested.  Nonetheless, as medium replaces medium, the broad encompassing tool of email has been edged out in sheer usage by its cousin, the Facebook message.  The question remains over the qualitative differences between these media, as almost certainly deeper conversations and more information can be exchanged via email than Facebook message.  That being said, it is becoming increasingly clear, given the frequency with which the social network is utilized by everyday people and the inherent loyalty of fans and followers, that social networks are and will remain a crucial arena for marketing campaigns.

In the online world with the growth of Social Media,  continued need for Natural Search and Paid Search, email marketing is becoming the red headed step child of online marketing.  Email Marketing should be considered as much a part of the online marketing family project as any other piece.

In general, Email is one of the easiest and simplest ways to reach out and engage your customer with your brand. According to a recent study by E-marketer “Spending on email marketing by businesses will increase by $16 million  ($472 million in 2008 to $488 million in 2009) this year.” Also, E-markerter reported by 2011 online spending for email campaigns will increase to $677 million. Those are huge increases over the next few years. So the next time you think Email marketing is second to your SEO and SMO efforts, think again. Otherwise, you might be missing out on an easy and cost effective way to reach your customer, that your competitor is doing and taking away business from you.

Email Marketing Tips

• Always keep your email message simple with 1-2 direct calls to actions to engage the consumer
• Cut down on the images in the emails (looking pretty doesn’t matter, if no one can see your email)
• Keep your subject line short and to the point  (According to MailerMailer (2008) “Emails with shorter subject lines out performed emails with long subject lines by a significant margin)
  

Email is a powerful Internet email marketing tool and a cost-effective approach to communicating with your target audience. It allows you to engage with your customers on a regular basis and to connect with prospective customers who are almost interested in your offerings. Here are a few pointers to increase the likelihood of your email being open, read, and simply avoiding the trash bin.

Before you start, ask yourself:
What is your goal?

What is the message you wish to convey?
•    Deliver only ONE message.
•    Make it clear and concise.
•    The purpose should be detailed in the first paragraph, which keeping sentences short and to the point.

What are you marketing?
•    Include call to action i.e. phone call, link to website.
•    Mention your value proposition over the competitors.

How are you going to connect with your audience to what you are marketing?
•    Personalize your email i.e. include the name of the subscriber in the greeting.
•    Make your content interesting to your reader.
•    Offer tips and advice i.e. ‘How Tos’.
•    Make it interactive i.e. include a relevant video or a poll.

The Subject Line
A subject line is your headliner. Therefore it needs to capture the attention of your audience. Your subject line should connect with your audience on an intimate level. Ensure that the subject line is useful, relevant and informative to the message you are conveying in your email. This will increase the likelihood of your email being read.

The Content
Establish a tone, write with a friendly voice and avoid sounding like a sales person. Your email content should be direct and informative containing pertinent information about your message. Be sure to include your full contact information.

The paragraphs should contain no more than 3 sentences. If you are trying to convey something in more detail, include a link to your website for more details.

If you have case studies or testimonials, share it in your email. Utilizing customer feedback and experiences can entice your audience to want to relate. Additionally, it is a trust factor and builds confidence in your brand as if a best friend told them so.

The Visuals
The graphics and images used in an email should be used sparingly but effectively. For quick download, all visuals should be optimized. They should be relevant and give an illustration about your message. If your company has earned trust logos, be sure to add to these trust logos to your newsletter footer.<–>

Is social network communication outpacing email as the leading form of direct online communication?  Not yet, but it could.  Email has long since been the primary form of regular commnication between individuals and businesses, but as the popularity of social networks like FaceBook, Twitter, Yammer, etc. grow people and companies are offered alternative online forms of communication. 

It is doubtful that social media will replace email as the lead form of communication any time soon because email has too many advantages for business related and personal purposes.  The downside to social communication is that it lacks privacy.  There are business related online social communication tools such as Yammer where companies can perform all internal communication.  Like email, this give the ability to track all communication.  The problem is that it is only internal.  Email has too many advantages to be replace by social communication, especially for business.

Where does this leave email marketing?  In the same way, businesses still prefer email as the best for of internal and external communication.  Email marketing is still one of the fastest growing forms of media and people are starting to use it more effectively with better templates and landing pages to increase conversions.  From a marketing perspective email is very powerful especially from a B2B marketing angle.

Social media marketing however, is growing like wildfire and has many different components.  Social media can leverage many different channels and platforms and has the advantage of complete creativity and scalability.  The one element that may begin to outpace both email and social media is mobile marketing.  Naturally, with the popularity of the iPhone and 3G/4G networks, Internet marketing can lebverage all aspects of mobile communication. 

We’ll see how all this develops!

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Email marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing channels out there.  As more and more companies move away from print media and direct mail, more companies are enhancing their email marketing capabilities to target new and repeat customers.

3 Myths about HTML Email Programming

Myth #1

• I can design and code an email the same way I do for a web page

Truth

• Emails need to be written in the simplest HTML code as possible
• Minimum use of CSS style sheets should be considered in HTML coding of emails

Myth #2

• All email browsers render emails the same

Truth

• Email browsers such as Yahoo, MSN, Google all render emails differently
• Google Gmail does not support HTML Body background color elements
• Outlook 2007 does not support HTMl CSS background table colors

Myth #3

• Programming and deploying all image based emails will not hurt your email marketing campaign

Truth

• All image based emails are not a good email marketing strategy
• All image based emails generally have lower open rates, because most email service providers block from showing the images to the end user
• With the advancement of  web and email server spam software, there are a lot servers out there that block end users from getting image based emails all together

Valentine’s Day is upon us.  Everywhere you look, in your favorite TV shows, magazines, newspapers ads, movies, friends, co-workers, and yes, even social networks, the unmistakeable presence of Valentine’s Day can be seen and felt everywhere.  Fifteen or more years ago, Valentine’s Day did not really have a presence online, unless you were an uber-geek.  Nowadays, the love connection is all around us from websites catering to those seeking love, romance, a date, and yes, even a wedding.  People seek it, companies advertise it.  So how has social networking been affected by it?  If you have a facebook account, or MySpace, or any other social networking site, you can see it clearly on forums, banner ads, and by the daily postings from users and to one another.

Companies who want to become successful in the “love” bandwagon that is going on online, need to have a solid understanding what works, and how it ought to be executed.  Doing a simple email marketing campaign is not enough anymore.  People have setup countless filters to counteract the messages that companies are attempting to send out.  They view and treat these “spam” emails just like any other snail mail spam – it goes straight into the trash bin, both virtual, and physical.  If however, a person receives an email from a loved one, or a friend, or something so compelling to draw them to view the message, then you have success, and the ROI as a result will be much greater.  At OMS 09, they discussed among other things how email marketing as we know it is becoming extinct.  The results yielded are not as great as in the infant days of the Internet.  Netflix is a great example of how email marketing ought to work.  They send out emails to their members for specials, and every time someone rents a move from their online database.  The customers already have a vested interest in the messages from Netflix, and as a result, the email marketing done allows Netflix to further promote their services.

However, email marketing is not the only avenue for promoting.  Social networks are another great tool to use to get the message out.  Say you are an online flowershop, and you want to push an awareness campaign as well as receive more orders, the what you need to do is to cater to the needs of people.  The company creates a group within facebook, how to romance the lady (or gent) of their fancy, how to be romantic in different settings, where to travel, where to dine – all for free.  The money will be made from people who choose to use the company’s services.  Companies wanting to succeed in viral marketing and web 2.0, must adapt to its model.  Provide free information, tips, how to’s, and make money from the orders taken related to your product or services.  Until then, have a great Valentine’s Day with your friends, family, and loved ones.

Email marketing is a form of direct mailing using electronic mail as a means to communicate information or offerings to a specific audience (Wikipedia).  Generally used in the following ways:

• Sending emails to current or potential customers to enhance the relationship, keep them informed, notify them of certain offerings (events, products, services, etc.)
• Sending information for the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something

In 2006, US based firms spent approximately $400 million on email marketing.  The number has increased significantly since and email marketing is becoming one of the most popular interactive sales and marketing tools.

What are the advantages of email marketing as an integration of the overall Internet marketing campaign:

• Reaching a broad audience at relatively low cost
• Less expensive than direct mail or printed newsletters (also think GREEN)
• Exact ROI can be tracked
• Short delivery time
• Detailed analytics
• Used to effectively generate repeat business and retarget customers
• Over half of Internet users check or send email on any given day
• Automated email communication is very effective to generate repeat site visits
• Again, think GREEN

According to data from Marketing Sherpa, in 2009, 29% of B2B marketers plan to increase spending for email marketing.  The companies that use email marketing responsibly throughout the recession will be the ones that use creativity, personalization, segmentation, testing, and pristine list management.  Keep all this in mind and budget accordingly for 2009!