The From Line

Say goodbye to the days of needing a routing number or credit card to pay a store or vendor electronically. Say hello to a real game changer in electronic payments that combines mobile email, SMS and QR codes. Big banks are partnering to allow phone-to-phone, bank-to-bank payments.

Read more to learn what this means for merchants, e-tailers and marketers...

New laws in the UK governing the use of website cookies go into effect May 26th.  These new laws will cause issues for companies practicing marketing automation linking website behavior to an email address.  The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK has issued a 9 page document of guidelines about how companies should comply with these new laws.  Similar laws are coming to the U.S. and companies engaged in certain marketing automation practices will need to seriously rethink their tactics.  Permission-based marketing is real and is here to stay.

If you're using markting automation that combines web analytics with email marketing get ready to change your game plan.  Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), head of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced a new privacy bill Monday that instructs the Federal Trade Commission to craft rules establishing standards for a universal do-not-track mechanism.  If passed, this new legislation could cause logistical headaches for marketers, especially B2B ones, who use web analytics to track and "score" leads (subscriber activity).  If you're thinking about PAYING EXTRA for these types of marketing automation systems, my advice is to hold off a bit to see where this proposed legislation ends up. 

Marketing Trend

Our trendwatchers are seeing a growing need for even the savviest of marketers to educate themselves on workflow improvements. The concept of how to mass-produce automated marketing campaigns (without reliance on excessive human interaction) is not difficult to implement, yet many businesses aren’t aware of the right strategies. Furthermore, while the cost of marketing mediums has decreased due to the rapid growth of online advertising opportunities, production costs have skyrocketed. This leaves marketing budgets vulnerable to what our experts call The 21st Century Marketing Paradox – a cost shift from channel to production. 

About a week ago, we posted a query in our GLJive Client Community for our clients to come up with 10 uses for our RSS to Email feature.  If you aren't familiar with this feature, here are a few of the sticky points:

* Automate your Email Campaigns based on your RSS feed(s)
* Customize messages and templates easily to include RSS feed(s)
* Control which feed(s) are included in which campaign including multiple feeds per campaign
* Control the times that the campaigns go out (daily, weekly, or monthly)
* The ability to choose the launch of the campaign only when RSS feed(s) are updated (validation)

There are so many uses for this feature in pretty much every industry.  If you don't believe that this saves time and creates a huge efficiency, ask Gary Smith of Fox's Bull's and Bears and owner of  The Chart Man Website.  With the help of Gold Lasso, he saved countless hours for him and his staff by automating his daily email campaigns using the RSS to Email feature. Our group came up with some great uses, so here they are in no particular order.

Usage #1 - Deal of the Day

Post exclusive deals for those who follow your RSS feed. Let the RSS to Email feature do the rest for you.

Usage #2 - Internal Communications

Aggregate RSS feeds of competitor information: tweets, news releases, Facebook updates, etc. Automate a campaign that’s internal to your company and sales team. Not many subscribers, but it could be quite useful!

Usage #3 – Automatic Photo Updates via Email

For a website constantly uploaded with photos, pull an RSS feed of new photos into scheduled campaigns. Several applications: Dating Site, Real Estate, News, etc.

Usage #4 - Deal Roundup

Similar to Usage #1, a website that posts MULTIPLE sales/deals can send a weekly or daily email that pulls all deals into an email.

Usage #5 – Candidate Recruitment

Insert feed of resumes titles, even by category, into an email to HR and recruiting managers. Use campaign categories for highly targeted approach.

Usage  #6 - Job Listings

Insert feed of job listings, either by zip code or by category, into email for job-seekers. Schedule weekly or daily campaigns.

Usage #7 – Automate message assembly

Instead of designing new messages and campaigns, create a message template with space for your private feed. Update the feed and your campaign is sent automatically.
Usage #8 - Live Event Coverage

A lot of bloggers and tweeters constantly update from live events.  You could sum up all of the posts from the event in an easy to read re-cap.  

Usage #9 - Writers/Authors

Authors could send teaser chapters from an upcoming book to get readers excited.

Usage #10 - Public Postings

Public postings could be used by colleges and other higher education, regulatory, state run groups, government, etc.