Today, PR Web announced the top 10 email marketing companies in the industry
as ranked by topseos.com, the independent authority on search vendors. We
all know there are tons of email marketing companies in the market. Choosing
the right one can be daunting at time. Take a look at this ranking to help
narrow down your choices.



All email marketing companies participating in this test went through an
evaluation system for the top ranking. The evaluation was examined by
experienced and well trained researchers. According to Jeev Trika, Managing
Partner of topseos.com, "The services of email marketing companies are
evaluated though five key points. They are submission interface, protocol
compliance, delivery rates, analytics, and support. These separate the
average from the best"



The Top 10 Email Marketing Solutions for August 2011 are:



1. Pinpointe On-Demand

2. SimplyCast.com

3. Elite Email

4. StreamSend

5. EmailLabs

6. My Emma

7. ExactTarget

8. Topica Inc.

9. iContact

10. Vertical Response



To read more, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/8/prweb8681892.htm

Interesting marketing quotes, compliments of HubSpot:



"Remarkable social media content and great sales copy are pretty much the
same-plain spoken words designed to focus on the needs of the reader,
listener, or viewer."

- BRIAN CLARK, FOUNDER, COPYBLOGGER



"Your culture is your brand."

-TONY HSIEH, CEO, ZAPPOS.COM



"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to
them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."

-STEVE JOBS, CEO, APPLE



"By listening, marketing will re-learn how to talk."

-DOC SEARLS & DAVID WEINBERGER, CO-AUTHORS OF THE CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO



"Good is the enemy of great... The vast majority of good companies remain
just that-good, but not great."

-JIM COLLINS, AUTHOR OF GOOD TO GREAT



".one way to sell a consumer something in the future is simply to get his or
her permission in advance."

- SETH GODIN. AUTHOR OF PERMISSION MARKETING



"What we really need is a mindset shift that will make us relevant to
today's consumers, a mindset shift from 'telling & selling' to building
relationships."

-JIM STENGEL, FORMER GLOBAL MARKETING OFFICER , PROCTER & GAMBLE

Research is important. Got to know your customers and your market. This is critical for anyone involved in product strategy. So what is the best way to approach market analysis? I wondered that myself. Here’s what I found.
There are three main approaches:

1. Google till you find something. I’ve tried this approach many times. Though laborious, it does work.

2. SWOT analysis. We all know what this is – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This approach allows you to assess your product in a competitive landscape. Here you identify your product strengths, what features are lacking, how to differentiate your product, and market factors/roapmap that could cause the product to lose market share.

3. The 5 and 6 forces model. This was a new one to me. This looks at 5 or 6 key forces that shape your business strategy. The 5-6 forces include: competition of your product, new market entrants that could compete in your space, bargaining power of end users/buyers, bargaining power of suppliers of the materials for your products, substitute products, and complementary products.

The 5 and 6 approach seems to be a good starting approach to identify what is available in your chosen industry for a potential product. The SWOT approach does a better job at looking at the competitive landscape. Last but not least, the Google approach is always a good source of finding additional information.

So you think email marketing is on its way out the door? Wrong, according to Forrester Research. In their June 2011 report, Forrester reports 88% of B2C firms currently use e-mail marketing and another 10% plan to start using email marketing before December 2011. For B2B firms, 71% currently engage in email marketing. No surprise there.

Although budgets are unlikely to increase any time soon, 43% of marketers still think that e-mail marketing will become more effective over the next three years while 46% think email marketing will stay the same. 55% think social media (blogs, podcasts, widgets, discussion forums) will become more effective while 51% lean toward mobile marketing. From what I see, email marketing is going nowhere. Social media and mobile marketing are definitely on the rise.

I wondered what the marketing trends for 2011 would entail. After reading
several articles by well known publishers and marketing agencies, I found
the same trends, listed below.



1. Content is key - quality content is the basis for all markteing
whether it be on a web site, email, social media, etc. The Web is cluttered
with so much information that content relevant to your audience is a must
for all marketing campaigns. The more relevant content you provide, the more
people will keep coming back.



2. Email marketing - email marketing is here to stay, at least for a
while. It is still the easiest way to reach a large number of people at a
low cost. Plus, it can be very effective if used properly. It comes back to
content - know your audience. The email blast call to action should be a
relevant offer whether that be a coupon, white paper, free trial,
complimentary pass, etc. Another trend (this is more than a trend, it's
almost a necessity) with email marketing is that email blasts should be
optimzed for SEO as well as optimized for mobile screens.



3. Social Media - every article said the use of social media will
steadily increase, as will spending on social media campaigns. That means,
companies need to embrace it and integrate social media into their marketing
campaigns. Social media has many uses such as a PR vehicle, promotional
tool, customer service tool (retain and engage customers), and branding
tool. Companies not only need a presence on Facebook and Twitter, but also a
presence on LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr as well as a blog. To make the most
of social media, companies should monitor the "buzz" related to their
company and competitors and then use that information for marketing.



4. Geotargeting and location based marketing - while this hasn't been
a huge priority for companies, it's increasing in popularity. The goal is to
create targeted, local marketing campaigns. Groupon does this well by
offering discount coupons based as metro areas. Yelp provides the a similar
service with local business reviews. The key to location based marketing is
to advertise incentives (raffles, check in specials) and not your business
in general.



5. This leads us to item #5 -- Mobile marketing. Recent Nielsen data
estimates that approximately 30% of cell phones are smartphones and 25% of
cell phones are BlackBerries. That means over 50% of cell phone users are
candidates for mobile marketing. In fact, the majority of these people are
already reading their email or engaging in social media on their cell phone.
Data from The Neilson Company estimates approximately 38.5% time spent on
mobile phones is for email while 10.78% is on social netowrking. These
numbers tell us that users are primed for increased mobile marketing.



While doing any or all the above items is fantastic (definitely better to do
one vs. non), it is also imperative to monitor, track and analyze the
metrics related to your marketing campaigns. Social media monitoring,
promotions, offers, call to actions, etc. all aid in the tracking process.
For companies, this ROI provides justification for increased marketing
spending.

According to the ninth bi-annual Email Marketing Metrics report by MailerMailer in February 2010, average unique open rate of emails is 12.52% and click thru rate is 2.8%. This data is based on 300,000 email messages dispatched over a period of 6 months that ended on December 31, 2008.

I recently attended a Webinar hosted by HubSpot on email marketing. I found some of the data quite interesting. The data is based on HubSpot’s analysis of 9.5 billion emails, B2B and B2C, from email provider MailChimp. Items to note:

• The best click thru rate was on Saturday and Sunday.
• The high click thru rates were emails sent between 6-7am.
• Most people read their emails in the morning.
• Only 12% of people use separate work and persona email accounts.
• Over 70% of people read the majority of email that appeared in their inbox.

The most unsubscribes were from emails sent on Tuesday.  Some of this information is contrary to what I always thought – such as the best day to send email blasts. Who would have thought sending an email on Saturday or Sunday would garner higher click thru rates? Also surprising is the fact that the majority of people use their work email for personal information -- something I don’t do for many reasons.

According to SocialMedia Examiner’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs were the top four social media tools used by marketers, with Twitter leading the pack by only a hair.

A social news Web site allows users to submit stories which are ranked based on popularity. Some sites include:

- Digg
- Reddit
- StumbleUpon
- Mixx

These are just a sampling of available sites. There are many other sites worth exploring.