Copious Blog

Whatever it is you sell, keeping in touch with your clients and customers is vital. Email is one of the best ways to do just that. According the PEW Internet & American Life Project in association with ComScore Media Matrix, over 91% of all Internet users have sent or received an email. That's nearly everyone sitting in front of a computer. And chances are, many of them could be your customers.

The idea behind eCRM is to build a personal relationship using all you know about your customer. Many times, new clients at Copious tell us they cannot email their clients effectively because all they know about them is their name and email address. In reality, they know a lot more.

If a company looks deeper, they'll see they have a wealth of information about their customers. In addition to buying patterns and preferences, they also know when purchases are being made, how much is being bought, what kind of credit card is used, where the customer lives, and more. With that information, it's possible to boost sales and customer satisfaction - all thanks to a well crafted, non-intrusive, email that speaks to the customer when they're ready to listen.

The right eCRM should integrate into all aspects of your marketing plan. Let's face it, brands are decided be the people for whom it represents. Your customers are your brand identity. Without them, you'd be nothing. But don't forget, it's a symbiotic relationship. They need your company too - as long as you have something they want. Therefore, you need to keep in touch with who they are and what they aspire to be. Doing so via email will keep your company relevant and in business.

My best advice is this: Keep close track of everything your customers say and do. You'll quickly discover they are telling you everything you need to know to make a sale. All you have to do is listen.

Budgets everywhere are being trimmed. But the smart advertisers are keeping in touch with their customers, making sales, and improving ROI with interactive.

Unlike traditional media, interactive can target a customer who is ready to buy. If a person is poised to purchase a pink widget, and they're doing a Google search for that product, it's smart to put yourself in front of that consumer - especially if you sell pink widgets. One of the ways to do that is with performance-based ads.

The beauty of performance-based advertising is the ability to shape your results. If it's not working, you can quickly make adjustments, alter the message, increase frequency across many channels, or change the offer. And if it's still not working, you can find a new, online home for your ad dollars, which might include email marketing.

Use email to your advantage. When done right, email is inexpensive and personal. Plus you can target specific segments for positive results. Throw in analytics and you may better understand how your customers respond to your marketing efforts now and in the future.

Optimizing your search engine ranking results is like money in the bank. While your website is important, it's useless if your customers can't find it. The old saying "Build it and they will come" does not apply online. That's because there are billions of websites all vying for your customer's attention, like finding a needle in a Texas-sized haystack. Using search engine optimization, pay per clicks or another form of search-based advertising can help achieve a positive ROI, even in times of economic slowdown.

Take a look at mobile and social websites. Depending on your customers and their needs, there can be reasons to build a mobile version of your site. If your customers are fast-moving executives whose time is worth gold, it makes sense to add mobile to your marketing strategy. But social applications and blogs are different stories. Today, nearly every one of your customers has a blog or two they read on a weekly or daily basis. And with younger customers, you can find almost all of them participating in a social networking site. In a nutshell, extending your brand into social networking sites or similar applications is a smart move if your customers are already there.

Give us a call. We'll talk about other ways to add some armor to your budget, including your own company blog, search engine optimization, email marketing and other proven methods of improving your ROI.

We've all been witness to ups and downs of the mobile world. One month mobile web is hot, and the next it's lukewarm. So, which is it? Listen to the biggest minds in the business and you'll clearly see that mobile web is here to stay.

Some of the largest online brands have been building mobile sites for their customers over the past couple of years. Obviously, they have seen the need for anywhere-anytime web surfing. Now, mobile providers as well as advertisers are lining up to cash in on the mobile future.

As this new future takes shape, online advertisers will be ramping up their spending to reach the new, mobile population. According to a Sterling Market Intelligence forecast, mobile ad revenues could exceed $5 billion in the coming years.

Consider your own mobile web use. We've all employed a mobile device to look up a phone number, get directions or even link our laptops to the Internet. The way things are going with the iPhone and other devices, it's only a matter of time before all handheld devices will be web-ready and service plans come hard-wired with online access. Whether you're checking the weather, the news or buying movie tickets, mobile will increase its push into your everyday life as more and more companies add mobile to their marketing arsenal.

Where does this leave business? The same place we all were about a decade ago. A lot of businesses looked at the online world and decided to dive right in. A few years later, they had to rebuild their websites to be more profitable.

In the coming years, smart companies will do their research, hire smart people to craft a customer-centric mobile presence, and then dominate the marketplace. Whether the first success story will be an online book reseller or something entirely different is anyone's guess. But one thing that's for certain, mobile web is not going away. And if anything, it will become an integral part of our everyday lives.

Stay tuned. We'll be launching a number of mobile sites for our clients in the coming months.

If you'd like to talk about your mobile project just drop us an email or call.

Recently Media Inc. requested that regional executives in the advertising field answer some questions that clients often wonder, but don't necessarily want to ask directly. It was a fun chance to put my thoughts down and here's a few of the questions and my answers.

Q:
In what areas would an agency complement an in-house marketing, design and Web department that feel they do a good job already but is a bit overwhelmed?

A:
An agency can help plan and facilitate overflow work by partnering with the internal team. As opposed to bringing on a freelancer, we have an established workflow and process that supports projects large and small, resulting in a significantly higher level of execution and accountability.

Q:
What should I expect from a good agency as far as service, time and financial investment?

A:
On the service side, the agency should start to feel like part of the company team. We're here to support brand and business growth, and to do so, we have to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your projects or services.

The time/financial investment is best judged on a situational basis. It's often true that you get what you pay for...and it's important that what you're paying for will meet both the company's short-term and long-term goals.

Q:
How will you educate yourself about my company and my competition?

A:
Time and research. We like to establish an active dialogue with each company. If you've got a product, we want to get our hands on it, use it, understand it. We take the same approach with services: We want to experience the internal process and also understand why your customers buy from you and what we can do to leverage your current relationships and create new ones. The only way this can happen is to know your company and know your customers -- and since, as an agency, we're neither, we can offer perspectives and ideas that facilitate the relationship between the two.

Q:
What kinds of things can be used to quantify the results of an ad campaign, and what time frame should be used?

A:
Goals should be established on a campaign-by-campaign basis. Depending on the execution, we need to establish a base point and decide what the goals are: brand awareness, sales, etc. The time frame depends on what you're advertising and your typical sales cycle.

When clicks convert to cash

Let's say you need a new widget for your gadget. You walk into Widgetmart and begin your search. After a few minutes of looking around you give up and ask an employee for help. Then you get in line to checkout. However, it seems your item is actually not in stock. The one in your basket is only a display model. And in the meantime, you're being asked to fill out a complicated new customer form.

Let's be honest, if the above happened in the real world, the company in question wouldn't stay in business long. So why is it so many e-commerce sites are okay with poor usability and haphazard experiences? Is it because consumers are used to it? Or is it simply that many companies feel that being online is enough - that if the customer really wants something, they'll figure it out?

Online Retail is the New E-Commerce
Smart companies are realizing that what works in the real world, such as intuitive store layout, well-crafted displays, perfectly placed loss leaders and convenient checkout, can work online, too.

Your customers want to find things quickly. They want to be cross-sold items they might not have considered and up-sold if the item they've picked won't meet their needs. Plus, they want to be told about amazing offers from manufacturers they know and trust either while shopping your site or via a newsletter from your company. 

To tap into this profitable online world, all you have to do is give customers what they want. Chances are, you do it already at your physical locations, or if you don't have a physical store, you understand when it's done right. Take that sort of approach online and you're almost guaranteed to attract happy, repeat customers.

It's Time to Rethink the Web
Companies will spend millions researching and designing the perfect retail experience that meshes the company's brand with the customer's expectations. The same care and attention should be given to an online retail store. When a company goes into the planning and development of a site with clear goals in mind, the end result is almost always positive.

How To Create an Online Retail Experience

Some things to consider when creating the perfect online retail experience are usability, imagery, and simplicity.

1. Your home page should take no more than five seconds for a new user to successfully navigate. This means usability throughout the site will need to be incredibly clear and intuitive.

2. Your search feature should look through your inventory, not your About Us page. Yes, your company history is important, but consumers want to buy something from you, not learn about your founders.

3. Keep your store as fresh and up-to-date as you would a physical location. Update displays (banners, features items, etc.) to reflect current holidays or national events, ensure your promoted items are selling as you expect (if they're not, move them to a sub location), and tell your shoppers about closeout deals and new products.

4. Make sure your checkout processes aren't slow, confusing or overwhelming. After all, checkout is where the rubber meets the road. 

These crucial elements will help ensure that you are making the most of your online investment.

Welcome to the updated Copious site. We've been working hard over the last few months on a new look and feel...and more importantly a new renewed focus as a company. When we really come down to what a brand is, it's about a lot more than just a logo, tagline and business collateral. It's about something that reflects who you are internally and externally in a real way that helps to set your place in the market and communicates what you are all about.

We're all about interactive. Copious has always had a core team of designers, programmers, developers and strategic thinkers who loved the power of interactive. We've worked directly with clients large and small and partnered with agencies across the country, all in an effort to deliver meaningful experiences that resonate with our clients' customers.

Take a look around the site and check back as we roll out more content and features in the coming weeks. If you're interested, drop us line and let's chat about open source, social networks, emerging media and your interactive needs.

Online Security Policies Are Essential
Create a game plan today to avoid an ulcer tomorrow

It's okay to be paranoid when it comes to your company's online security.

Ask a Chief Security Officer (CSO) what keeps them up at night, and they'll go on and on about logins and passwords. They understand, even if others don't, just how vulnerable a company is. Let's say one disgruntled employee posts their username and password online days before quitting. Or a worker who was just fired goes home, logs in and deletes company data, images and consumer information from "secure" servers. Chaos ensues. Websites go down. Sales stop.

There is an alternative. Your best bet is to listen to your CSO, hire a security consultant, or work with a smart interactive agency to help put a security policy and procedure in place. The policy should cover data back-up initiatives for both disaster recovery and direct attacks and detail how to get your website back online if it's taken down. The important thing is that you get everything working again in minutes rather than days.

Constantly scrutinize all passwords. Think about how many employees you have. That's how vulnerable your servers really are. Keep things a bit safer with password education and mandatory bi-annual password changes. According to the experts at Microsoft, your employees' passwords should be at least 14 characters long, and include a combination of uppercase and lowercase numbers, letters and symbols.

Want to test your own password strength? Visit http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx and follow the directions. If you're like most busy business people, your password is probably lacking.

Take action with every exiting employee. If a person leaves your company, whether on good or bad terms, remove all of their access before they leave the building. It's a smart way to keep them honest and your data secure.