Facebook Is Changing The Game With Facebook Messages
As planned, Facebook made it’s major announcement today – Facebook Messages. The poorly kept secret that Facebook was entering into messaging was greeted with mixed response. With Facebook’s extensive reach of approximately 500 million users, many observers believed Facebook Messages could challenge the leading email providers like Google’s Gmail. The early hype of “Gmail killer” may have been overstated, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook engineer Andrew Bosworth explained that their new endeavor, code-named Project Titan, is more than just another emal client.
Facebook Messages is a re-imaging of messaging and a new look at digital communication. It integrates email, instant messaging and text messaging into one ongoing conversation. At the center of the platform is what is described by the company as “seamless messaging”. It’s a system that combines the conventional communication lines. It allows users to communicate via email but if you’re signed into Facebook with Chat open, an incoming email will pop-up in an IM window so it is readily available. When you respond, it is automatically returned as an email. If your friend continues the conversation after you have signed out of Facebook, your message can be pushed to your phone via a Facebook iPhone app (and a likely upcoming Android app).
In addition, Facebook has eliminated the usual email threads and separate chat logs, in favor of a single conversation history it calls the “Social Inbox”. If you’re thinking that a single chat history will lead to a lot of noise, spam, and a generally cluttered inbox, Facebook is using what it knows about your social network to filter priority messages from messages that aren’t immediately registered as spam by Gmail’s Priority Inbox.
I believe the integration of various messaging methods is a big step forward in communication which will be readily accepted by Facebook fans and probably has already caused some emergency strategy sessions at Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and especially Google. Facebook expects to add IMAP email integration so the new service will work with Gmail.
Despite Facebook’s innovative approach, I don’t think it’s a “Gmail killer.” For example, Facebook Messages will eliminate the Subject Line, CC, and BCC (I would imagine because it’s difficult to add to the integrated SMS and IM messages). This alone will be a deal breaker for many users. It is also likely that Facebook Messages will not support HTML messages since it will be integrated with SMS and IM, although we do not have confirmation on this point. If true, users will not be able to send any specially formated messages. Meaning no messages with images or a company banner can be sent through this system. Facebook Messages is clearly designed for social messaging between friends and not for business oriented activities.
Facebook hinted at its future plans on its blog, “Relatively soon, we’ll probably all stop using arbitrary ten digit numbers and bizarre sequences of characters to contact each other. We will just select friends by name and be able to share with them instantly. We aren’t there yet, but the changes today are a small first step.” Facebook Voice anyone?…the Google Voice team will be meeting bright and early tomorrow morning.
According to Zuckerberg, the new Facebook Messages system will be rolled out very slowly over the next couple of months, starting today with an invite-only beta launch. You can request your own invite here at the Facebook Messages page. Check out the Facebook video below.
Let us know what you think of the new Facebook Messages, leave a comment below.
8 Essentials To Power An Effective Email Marketing Campaign
Email marketing is not as easy as it used to be. Gone are the days of people opening every email and readily reading your content. Today, email is too closely associated with bulk mailings, spam and viruses. Savvy email marketers implement these 8 essential techniques to boost the success rate of their email marketing campaigns. In this post, we assume you already have an email list. We will address how To Obtain a Huge Email Subscriber List in future posts.
1. Determine A Clear Goal For Your Email Marketing Campaign In Advance
Decide what a successful campaign is for you and how you measure it BEFORE beginning your campaign. Is it open rates, number of leads, or total amount of sales? Sometimes people have unrealistic expectations of their campaign or just don’t know what to expect. Having a pre-determined goal will help you craft a successful campaign.
2. Remember TMAT – Test, Measure, Analyze & Tweak
TMAT maybe the most important factor in a successful email marketing campaign. You must be able to test your message, measure by receiving relevant data such as click through rates, analyze that data effectively to determine trends, and tweak the campaign to make your next email blast more effective.
The key to this methodology is testing. Only use email list serve companies that offer Split Testing Capability. Split testing allows you to create and send multiple versions of a message (and subscribe forms). For example, we might send a message to a small test group from our list about a special offer; we can have different variations of the SUBJECT line in the email blast. That way we can tell which one yielded the highest open and conversation rate. Then we use the best performing SUBJECT line and send the message to our entire list.
If you’re serious about email marketing, you MUST use split testing. If your present company doesn’t offer split testing, get rid of them. We suggest using Aweber. They are the email list serve company of choice for internet marketing professionals because of the features they offer like split testing.
3. Segment Your List For Better Targeting
The flexibility and economies of email allow you to target with precision. So, make the most of this advantage. Use the data you’ve collected on sign-up to segment your list so that your email marketing campaign would be more targeted. For example, if you’re making an offer applicable to two different audiences — IT professionals and marketing managers — write two versions of your email marketing message. The more you customize your email to specific target groups, the higher conversion rate you’ll have. Important Tip – only use email list serve providers that allow you to have an unlimited number of segmented lists. Once again, we suggest using Aweber.
4. Use Auto-responders To Build Report With Your List
Auto-responders are pre-scheduled emails that are sent to your list after a subscriber has taken an action. For example, once a person subscribes to your list, a confirmation and thank you email are sent. However, the best email list serve companies allow you to send an unlimited number of auto-responder messages scheduled well in advance.
Use this function to build report and “train” your subscribers. For example, once a person subscribes to your list send them “free” reports or series of emails over a few days (keep it under 7) with good, credible information related to your industry. Do not just talk about your company – this is not a sells pitch. It gets your subscriber used to receiving emails from you, opening them, and they begin to look forward to reading them because of all the great content.
5. Pay Attention To How Your Message Is Structured
How your email marketing message is structured determines 50% of its success. Things to pay attention to are:
- Customize the FROM, TO, & SUBJECT fields
- Use Your Name and Company in the FROM field
- Address Recipients with Their Name in the TO field
- Use attention grabbing verbiage in the SUBJECT field
- You have only 60 characters
- Use questions
- Use testers
- Use deadlines
- Concentrate on the body of the message
- Put key message in the first few sentences
- Put hyperlink next to Call To Action
- Use the right signature
- Include additional sales pitch in signature
6. Don’t Forget the Preview Pane
Many of your recipients, particularly business people, use an email client with a preview pane that displays the first few lines of an email. They use this to scan the message and determine if they want to open it. Therefore, the preview pane should be filled with the unique selling point of your campaign, your most intriguing benefit, or your best offer. Always, put one of these points in the first few lines of your email message.
7. Create a Clear Call to Action in Email Marketing Campaigns
One of the crucial elements of an email marketing campaign is a clear call to action. That’s why you’re sending the message. You’re trying to get the reader to take some kind of action such as going to your landing page.
It’s very important that you lay out exactly what you want the recipients of your message to do. Don’t distract with too many links or offers and design the message to make that path clear for the recipient, and easy to follow. This can be as simple as “Click here for a 20% off on your next purchase.” Never state an offer without associating it with the response instructions.
8. Make Landing Pages Fit Your Email Marketing Campaign
Landing pages are an essential part of every email marketing campaign. Landing pages have one purpose – convert the visitor into a lead or sale. The landing page should include the same marketing message as the email but possibly with more details that couldn’t fit into the email.
Landing pages should make it extremely easy for your visitor to take whatever action you want. For example, a person following a link from an email marketing message should expect purchasing to be simple (by easily finding forms above the fold and having them prefilled with relevant data, for example). The page should fit the design of the email message as well. If not, they may be reluctant to make a purchase. Pay attention to the colors, the images, font size, but also to the wording and tone of the landing page.
Follow these tips to create a successful email marketing campaign. Did we leave anything out? Do you have any additional tips? Let us know by leaving a comment.
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