Leading the charge in assisting the NSBC in the development and empowerment of the small business sector of South Africa is Managing Director of Rocketseed South Africa, Johan Huisamen, who admits: “Because our solution was originally developed and patented locally, we have a natural affinity towards South Africa, in particular the small business sector as it is the biggest catalyst for economic growth and job creation in the country.”

Research shows that the average small business employee spends two hours per day sending approximately 309 emails per week. Considering those emails are sent predominantly to clients, influencers and other key decision makers provide them with countless opportunities to build brand and interactively market their goods and services.

“It is the absolute logic behind using a channel that you already own, a task your staff performs for two hours every day and the quality of the audience they address that makes this channel the most cost effective marketing medium available. Combined with a tool that has the ability to extend your brand, increase staff productivity and drive sales makes this a must have for any small business.” adds Huisamen.

Rocketseed boasts with a repertoire of marketing tools that are suited to businesses of any size, but it is its cost effective pricing model, its comprehensive sales partner program, effortless implementation and endless range of applications that allows small to medium sized businesses to generate a return on something they already do every day. All of this at less than the price of a cup of coffee per week.

Concurs Mike Anderson, CEO of the NSBC: “E-mail marketing is a back-bone solution within our organisation. There is no doubt that Rocketseed is a cut above the rest and has given us that all important extra edge.”

Rocketseed shares the National Sponsorship platform with a number of other leading corporate brands such as Microsoft, Internet Solutions, ABSA and SARS, all of which Huisamen feels could add tremendous value to the growth of the small business sector.

Concludes Huisamen: “There is a natural synergy between Rocketseed and the NSBC and by working closely together with them, its members and fellow sponsors, we can ensure that the small business sector of South Africa has access to information and tools that will enable them to achieve success and tangible growth. This in turn will secure a greater economical welfare and a better future for countless South Africans.”

By supplementing employees’ everyday email with interactive marketing software as part of the organization’s outgoing communications strategy, Rocketseed is mobilizing entire staff complements as an extension of the business’ marketing and sales departments, at no additional cost of resources.

The versatility of Rocketseed’s patented software enables the client to optimize and enhance the impersonal white space of their email messages by embedding dynamic images, relevant public relations messages and a host of new media features such as RSS, Youtube, Twitter and LinkedIn, without spending excessively on other media that is difficult to measure and which does not guarantee reach.

Says Chairman of Rocketseed South Africa, Gerrie Heyneke: “We see a lot of publications, applications and platforms launching from which to market goods and services, which omit placing due emphasis on serving existing clients by positioning new products, services and resources to grow their business.

Rocketseed is not reinventing the wheel. It’s simply adding value to an existing business critical communications medium by providing a technology that transforms everyday emails into real time, measurable marketing channels.”

When the chips are down, it is effective and profitable management of clients that are trumping the game. Rocketseed’s integrated everyday email marketing solution provides businesses with analytics and reporting in a right here, right now style to enable them to consistently deliver relevant and accurate marketing material to a pre-qualified and reciprocal audience.

Concludes Heyneke: “Virtually all businesses already use everyday email – thus the capital expenditure has already been made. By adding Rocketseed to the marketing mix, your infrastructure not only starts paying back towards that investment, it can also significantly boost your bottom line.”

But that doesn’t mean your email should be regarded as a necessary evil. It is the MacDonald’s multi-billion dollar line “Would you like fries with that?” that clarifies the power of the up-sell and together with Rocketseed’s ability to embed actionable sales messages it introduces the potential of email to perform this role inside your company.

It can be tricky business to propose a change in marketing strategy, and I reckon even more so when considering a change from the tried and trusted, say pay per click campaigns, bulk mail or search engine optimization.

While the cost of properly performed search engine optimization and carefully monitored pay per click campaigns are justified it pays to look at intelligent email marketing as a complementary tool to your current strategy. Let me explain.

The “who you know” vs. “whom you don’t know” paradigm
Acquiring new clients is said to be six to 12 times (others say eight to 10 times) more costly than selling to existing customers. It is also estimated, online, that it takes up to seven personal impressions for a sale to be made, credibility and brand awareness assumed. Pay per click and search engine optimization both go to great lengths to at least target and qualify these leads, making it easier to convert people we don’t know to customers we do know.

When we focus on the people we do know, our current customers and acquaintances, the proof is irrefutable that “Would you like fries with that?” transpires into an unmatched opportunity to bolster our bottom line.

When equipped with the tools to drive qualified traffic to our websites, respond to potential leads immediately and track / analyze our campaigns with detailed reporting, email becomes one of our safest and most effective up-selling channels.

Can you make money sending email? As soon as the mind is shifted from regarding email as just a communications tool to realizing the effective sales force that lies within, we will be able to profit from the power of change.

Usually, this form of marketing employs bulk mail (typically referred to as newsletters) with lists of user email addresses obtained through newsletter sign-ups, lists bought from (un)trusted sources, or through meticulously accumulated email addresses of current / past / potential customers.

Wikipedia goes on to explain the workings of bulk mail marketing in depth, but it is the second part of the definition: “In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing.” that highlights the opportunity within everyday business email for effective email marketing. This is based on intrinsic trust / relationship between the sender of a personal business email and its recipient.

Day to day emails serve as the most powerful platform from which to run targeted marketing campaigns. With day to day emails hitting 95% open rates across the board and the majority of your recipients engaged in a peer-to-peer relationship with you, the audience you are addressing is already highly qualified.

This underlines the advantages of using Rocketseed to effortlessly run targeted marketing campaigns, through your everyday business emails. Using interactive content, you can create targeted and actionable messages, virtually guaranteed to be seen by your target audience.

Putting your most trusted communications channel to “marketing-use” strongly outweighs that of more traditional channels like print, radio and television, on cost alone. The inability to accurately track these more traditional marketing channels, or quickly respond to market changes, unquestionably supports the argument for Rocketseed.

Even when compared to other measurable channels like search engine marketing, the quality of leads and zero cost per click, starts to lean heavily in favor of an option that also gives you the confidence to experiment with multiple campaigns.

And finally, because the message contained within your email will always be the primary objective, it allows for virtually any form of promotion. Products and services, advertising, branding or publishing can be positioned around the message without jeopardizing the integrity of the message itself, or the sender.

This emphasizes the opportunities available within each and every email you send to:

a) Cross-sell & up-sell new products & services to current and prospective customers

b) Put your brand in front of potential customers; present a professional image that instills trust

e) Receive real-time email alerts from banner click-throughs, allowing for immediate follow-up

c) Secure new leads through recommendations, email forwards and brand recollection

d) Increase the qualified traffic driven to your website

Smart marketers would seize the opportunity to optimize the marketing real estate that exists within their everyday email, integrate marketing strategies and stand ready to profit from their efforts.

What are you doing today to make every email count?

One email marketing channel is being over-looked however, and it can reduce your SEM cost-per-click in the process.

Email marketing with a twist – branded business email

When you think about email marketing and your email marketing budget, two channels probably spring to mind – email newsletters and transactional email. Yet few marketers think about the most widely used email channel of all, everyday business email.

• Branding everyday business email, turns business email into your highest converting, sales and marketing channel.
• Sending branded email enables you reach your key customers, contacts and providers on a daily basis, allowing you to save on other more costly but less effective marketing initiatives.
• Segmenting your email senders and recipients means you can run targeted campaigns to specific individuals or groups, allocating targeted banners to the relevant person or department in the process.

SEM / Cost-per-click

SEM is an important part of most marketers armory. It is an increasingly competitive marketplace however , and your cost per click is on the rise. It is therefore important that other web-traffic driving channels are open to you on a daily basis; branded everyday business email is that channel.

With your organization’s emails reaching thousands of people on a monthly basis, branding your business emails is your alternative, trusted, cost-per-click marketing program. The only difference is, you don’t pay on a cost per click basis.

Reporting & ROI

Which brings us to reporting and measurement. Rocketseed’s reporting is compatible with all major analytics platforms and will feed the results directly into your website analytics reports. This makes your branded business email the most direct, effective and measurable marketing program in your armory, and that’s how you maximize your marketing efforts.

By utilizing Rocketseed’s campaign trackers, all traffic that Rocketseed drives to a business’s website can be measured and reviewed within the “source” results of the Google Analytics dashboard. This analytics data enables businesses to review the success of sales and marketing campaign results within one consolidated reporting view, negating the need for marketers to review or consolidate multiple reports.

Scott Ellis – CEO of Rocketseed commented: “Harnessing the power of Google Apps, specifically Gmail and Google Analytics, is an area where Rocketseed can add real value to businesses and marketers alike. With the increasing number of businesses moving across to Google Apps, Rocketseed is focused on providing robust email marketing tools and solutions to these users. We not only want to build upon Google Apps existing capabilities but also provide marketers with measurable solutions within their existing reporting platforms.”

As part of its ongoing development strategy Rocketseed is focused on making its products accessible to businesses worldwide regardless of which email client they use. To this end Rocketseed is focused on extending its browser apps to include Chrome & Safari as well as extending the range of webmail clients that is supports.

Rob Love, Rocketseed’s Chief Product Officer commented: “Many small and medium size businesses use Gmail and Yahoo! Mail to run their businesses and an increasing number of businesses are moving across to the Google Apps suite of products. In order to pursue our goal of making Rocketseed accessible to businesses of all sizes, supporting Gmail & Yahoo! Mail was an obvious next step, which we are delighted to have taken.”