Golden Leads

Sorry for the pathetic week of posts last week, I am back with a vengeance this week. Consider yourselves warned.

So I was thinking, with Google’s recent acquisitions of Feedburner and Postini, what is stopping Google from targeting an ESP next?

There has been some debate around the office as to why Google would want to enter the ESP space. I say, more ads, obviously. My only thought as to why they wouldn’t is their motto, “Don’t be evil.” What ESP hasn’t been considered evil by someone daily. We get people reporting their double opt-in message as spam for example.

I think Google has a real opportunity to go after small businesses with a basic email marketing service, which would be a great intro to their Apps, which seem to be a very high priority these days. When you look at the market share Constant Contact and Vertical Response are getting with low volume, low need clients, why wouldn’t they swoop in, like they did with Analytics?

Maybe the brains at Google can figure out how to make sure their users have a clean, 100% opted-in list, and help them get 75% read rates, 50% click rates, and deliver 99% inbox?

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

So, today is my birthday. The older you get, birthdays start to go from exciting days to not so exciting days (”damn I’m getting old!”).

That being said, it is still nice to get a happy birthday message - from anyone.

Aside from my friends and family, I received quite a few from brands and companies. They were all a nice touch. From coupons for a free Ice Cream cone (Coldstone Creamery) to just “Happy Birthday” (My Coke Rewards), they are a great tool for to pat your subscriber on the back and make them think you care, even if you don’t.

Most ESP’s have an automated tool to trigger birthday messages. If you can capture that birth date on Opt-in, try to send out a personalized b-day message. It is just an additional opportunity to get an email out and get people remembering what a great company you are.

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.