Blind blasts!

Internet marketing, in some organisations is looked at as just e-mailer blasts to different databases to get an instant sale for your products. And this could be because marketing on the internet is looked as something which is catching on, so while the organisation is pumping money on hoardings and publications and TVC and all the jazz, well, let’s just do something on the internet, cause everyone is, and see how it goes.

What most marketers miss is that internet marketing is not just about sending e-mail blasts. Since there aren’t many valid good databases around, the same set of e-mail ids keep on getting e-mailers from different sources. And very soon, as expected, the open rates drop (more and more people recognise these mails as spam, even though database owners market them as ‘promotional material’ meant to benefit the users..).
So in a nutshell, how ever much you space your mailers – if you’re sending it to same databases over and over again, the open rates will drop, response rates will (obviously drop) and so will the ROI per order.

So what’s the solution?

A comprehensive online marketing strategy as I understand it.
This should include the long and short term objectives, and then create activities around these to achieve the desired results.
And e-mail blasts should be just one activity, sent to extremely select group of people who have opted in to receive these mailers.

TV channels on your mobile phones

I am sure everyone knows, but for those who would like to brush up – Mobile VAS are the Value Added Services which are provided to the subscriber / users (people who use the cell phones, like you and I) by service providers (like Airtel / Vodafone etc).

There’s a lot of buzz in the industry around VAS cause it is supposed to be all about Mobile 2.0, with customized services & data, flexibility to book travel tickets on the move, user generated content (Reliance has mobile blogging) and is as of now dominated with the ABC of Astrology, Bollywood and Cricket.

While content providers are wondering how to market services through SMSs, gaming, searches on the mobile net, tiny blinking banners & small tickers running across the screen etc, Mobile TV via MTNL was launched in Delhi.

“We have tied up with a technology partner, who is carrying out the field trials. We would provide 21 channels,” MTNL Executive Director J Gopal said.

From what I have read - The handsets must be compatible with Symbian operating system, the phones must have at least 2MB of memory and have the Real Player application.

Whoa! Doesn’t that sound fun?!

I mean, next time we’re going out for dinner and the aunty wants to watch whatever happened to Tulsi when she slapped her 5th husband with tears in her eyes, all she has to do is look into her cell!
Same pinch if Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab are battling away while you’re stuck in a traffic jam on the way back home.

I wonder if cell phones will be made with a tiny CD drive or of we could just plug in a pen drive and watch a movie on the cell. Or are they already making such phones?!

Online marketing's due in the entire marketing scheme...

In the midst of changing times where old age marketing is the new age "conversation" between people of internetworks and intranetworks,
when blogging as a marketing tool has come and gone, where widgets and the likes are picking up pace,
where social networking is the new bandwagon (which everyone seems to be wanting to be a part of),
SEOs are already being discouraged by some due to google holes and SEM is getting more and more contextual with each click, Virals have done the rounds ages back (with some tongue in the cheek humor), and marketers are finding newer ways to market their products and fit the communication into tiny screens of mobile phones.

How important is digital marketing? Is it worth spending money on it? After all, how many netizens log on to blogs / read SEM ads / understand widgets / log on to the net on their mobiles and search for information?

Just inviting comments on what should be the place / role of online marketing in the entire marketing scheme of organizations...

Dilbert

Adding the Dilbert comic strip to the blog...

Workplace Goof Ups! :)

Here are some actual bloopers from interviews that we took:

• Me (to the guy being interviewed): would you want to throw the chewing gum for this round of interview? Interviewee: Nope… It still has some flavor left

Workplace goof ups:

• In a conference being held to understand why a certain process took awfully long, my colleague explains: “The server to explode images was down”
• A friend thought she was chatting online with me n went on and on about this new guy @ work who she had a crush on… a little while later – the guy gets up and asks – “who is sending these weird messages to me on IM?” She didn’t realize she was messaging him and not me! She sunk into her chair and didn’t look up for what seemed like a whole day!

:) Will be posting in some more in a while...

Ciao!

Appraisal Time!

Dear Upasana,

Let's meet tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM for your annual appraisal.

Regards,
Boss

:) Does it ring a bell? Does it give you a swirl in your tummy… or a tiny little voice from with in recalling all projects gone live & all the ‘oh damns’gone by in the yr?

I for one, am on the ‘self appraisal mode’…

Am I where I want to be?
Is this want I want from my life? From my career?
Am I heading in the right direction? Not just professionally, but personally as well…

And while thinking about all this, I am beginning to realize that from a college student, who had no clue what career should I choose, I have come a long way where I know what I want from my career, where I have a clear direction about professional growth.

But personally – from a college student who was busy dancing all the time (so much so that I never attended more than 3 classes of some subject I cannot recall! Oops), I haven’t really done much about the things which I really loved.

So besides setting professional targets, it is also important to set personal goals.
Get back to painting, sketching, dancing - whatever you enjoy... Set goals and see how far you have reached.

Ciao for now!

test

Test...