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?

Probably the most perfect opportunity to impress your brand image onto your customer is ignored for reasons that boggle the mind. Coca Cola, the world’s most recognized brand, is spending billions of dollars each year on marketing and advertising…virtually guaranteeing no single person could go through a day without being exposed to their brand.

However, Coca Cola must be sending millions of emails every year, yet they don’t brand a single one of them. You, as Small Business Owner, spend much less on marketing. But those dollars are probably much more sensitive to your bottom line. To prove this, ask your marketing guy to tell you straight how difficult it is to get funds approved for new campaigns.

So what’s so funny about all this?

Well, for starters, most of the abovementioned were written and published way back in 2001 already. Even though it was related to the Australian market, it still holds true for most countries today, eight years later. It is still one of the cheapest forms of marketing, performed through a channel that you own, and yet the market is still largely untapped.

There’s no competition for space, no bidding on placement and zero cost per click and with very little onset capital needed, the branding potential and ROI through this channel is huge.

MarketingProfs which I hold in high esteem, indulges us with 15 benefits of email branding:

Technical Benefits
1. Integrate templates into your corporate email system
2. Apply different templates for different situations
3. Control access to templates
4. Publish managed content to email templates to enhance corporate branding
5. Customize email templates to corporate branding and personalize to the sender
6. Minimize the impact to the email system with lightweight HTML templates
7. Utilize the centralized storage of a web server to store resources instead of sending them along with each email

Business Benefits
1. Reinforce your brand each time an employee sends an email
2. Ensures your company maintains a consistent professional profile
3. Differentiates your company from competitors by providing a flexible communications tool
4. Increases productivity and efficiency by directing recipients to relevant sections of your website, or to a free phone number
5. Enables your company to send targeted and focused messages, increasing brand awareness
6. Can be incorporated as part of a lead-generating process, using Web links
7. Increases customer retention through more effective and continuous communications
8. Contributes to the identification of new business opportunities by making your brand more visible

What are typical questions you want answered before adopting this approach?

From the Church of the Customer Blog:
“Amazon recently deleted the sales rankings of hundreds of gay- and lesbian-themed books. Writer Mark Probst blogged about the de-ranking and was told by an Amazon representative that the company will no longer include sales ranks for “adult” material on the site.”

Word soon spread across the Twitterverse (Don’t you just find these Twitterisms annoying?) and virtually within hours a global online community sang in unison: It is time to teach the big guns a lesson.

Probst’s blog post was dated Sunday, April 12 at 2:08 am. In 24 hours, here’s a quick look at how things developed:

Twitter: Users begin using the hashtag #AmazonFAIL. It was the number-one trending topic on Twitter search all day. After an Amazon spokesperson told CNET news that the de-ranking was “a glitch in our system and is being fixed,” Twitterers responded with a new hashtag: #glitchmyass.

Blogs: Over 5000 15 000 blog posts about the news. It was the top story on the widely read Techmeme.
Facebook. The AmazonFail Group launched, quickly gathering 1,200 3700 members out of the gate.
Online petitions.

Online petitions sprang up protesting the “adult” policy. One gathered more than 9,000 25 663 signatures in a few hours’ time.

Google bomb: A blogger launched a campaign to redefine “Amazon rank” on Google. It’s working. This page is #2 in the search rankings.

Hacking: Protesters started tagging the de-ranked books on Amazon site with #AmazonFAIL. At last count, 882 1500 books were tagged.

Logos: People created logos for the protest.

Merchandise: #glitchmyass boxer shorts, t-shirts and other apparel are for sale!

Complaint templates: Customers wanting to complain and who need writing help can use this pre-crafted complaint letter.

Boycotts: Customers on Twitter and blogs are talking boycott.

Over 335 885 mainstream media articles related to this story, including Wall Street Journal, Wired, and NPR.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says that the “cataloging error” was the result of a single Amazon employee in France who flipped the wrong switch, causing over 50,000 books to be flagged as “adult.” This is according to an anonymous source inside the company.

But Amazon’s customers are having none of it. It’s not difficult to see why so many businesses long back to the days before the internet considering that an alleged “mistake” could get you punished in a very unceremonious and indeed costly manner.

It also seems rather time consuming to go to these sort of lengths to have your voice heard, doesn’t it? Just when did the human become so annoyingly spiteful? I’ll tell you when…

When the opportunity arose to jump on a bandwagon. There’s a smarter saying for that: “Monkey see, monkey do.” Unfortunately, as always, word of mouth carries exceptional credibility. Only these days, one idiot’s opinion has the ability to reach so many more idiots on such a frequent basis that it has become critical to keep an eye on them.

So when was the last time you had a look at the conversations around your brand?

1. I don’t need marketing. I’m doing well enough as it is.
2. Technology doesn’t apply to my business.
3. This social media thing is hogwash. Who has time for all this?
4. I use my e-mail to communicate; branding it is a waste of money.
5. I’ve managed to keep my business going up until now, haven’t I? Why spend money on something new if nothing is broke? (spot the pun)

I think to best illustrate the embrace of change, a true short story would suffice. I have a friend, a photographer by trade, he is one of those people I would, rather carefully, label as pigheaded. Being employed could very well disguise this, but when he opted to go freelance a couple of months back, the reality of the situation quickly dawned upon him: He will have to source some clients.

Being in the marketing industry I was of course burdened with providing some cheap advice to help him along the way. But, being pigheaded made it especially hard at times to convince him of a change in tactics.

Having a presence online to showcase his portfolio was one of my first recommendations. Instead of opting for a blog that he could use to share his expertise, connect with fellow photographers and build a loyal community, and integrating the blog with (mostly) free 3rd party applications, he opted for a static website. Fair enough.

But this is where he got smart. He built up a personal (and of course professional) presence on none other than Facebook. He connected with industry peers, aspiring models, athletes and especially focused on groups where he could exchange ideas, subtly market his portfolio and establish trusting relationships with real people.

His static website now simply mirrors his portfolio, serving as a conversion platform for individuals or businesses wishing to employ his skills. It took him a couple of painstaking months to finally get his business rolling, but these days he is quite comfortably keeping shop by using those tactics.

Creating a brand impression is as critical as ever. In 2009, with the global recession underway, smarter tactics will have to suffice.

When marketing budgets are limited and businesses are conducive to it, these following tactics should be your first approach:

1. Establish relationships by connecting with peers and your target audience. There are a number of platforms like Facebook, Linked-In, Plaxo, Twitter etc.
2. Create a web presence, preferably a blogging platform which is far more receptive to Google search results. Share your thoughts, ideas and expertise. It established credibility.
3. Brand your e-mail. We’ve become to loathe e-mail, but we’ll be sending more e-mail this year than we did last. The opportunities are endless.

With these three examples from a buzzing 2008, I look forward to exploring the new trends in 2009 as they emerge.

[Image Source: Reply to All]

But what about entities that do not actually require branding at all? Companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Coco-Cola and the likes? (Despite the fact that they still do) And then consider entities of which the stakeholders prefer not to brand. Imagine the idyllic scene of Ibiza without the masses of party-goers, a section of undiscovered land with only but a handful of local citizens. Could this be heaven?

On the opposite side of this commercially driven island, a far cry from the internationally clogged celebrity hangout, you will find a peaceful, serene and unbranded little town I frequent during my yearly break.

The town of Pringle Bay, a smallish inconvenient drive from Cape Town is one of the few non-branded, non-commercial holiday destinations in South-Africa. And the locals go out of their way to keep it this way.

Branding by not branding. The image of a peaceful and laidback holiday destination without the mad rush of tourists, shoppers, party animals and the hype of properly marketed coastal towns is maintained by the low key and reserved nature of the precious few that have discovered this peace of heaven.

When a product, service or in this instance a holiday destination, is ‘branded’ by not branding, the return on investment for the supplier (and consumer) is focused on quality as opposed to profits. (I haven’t given this much thought, and will be looking to explore this a bit in depth still)

If you think branding is a complex mechanism then a whole can of worms have been opened when trying to strike the balance between branding by not branding and still make viable business sense.

In cases like these the objective hinges more towards quality consumer responses and word of mouth marketing than it is about massive profit scores through the use of explosive campaigns.
A campaign as such to spread the word of peace and serenity, only to the truly selected and like-minded few that would comprehend the essence of the product (destination) and realize the importance of keeping this sacred balance.

Many fly by night businesses continue to splash the cash in an effort to make a quicker buck during the immediate future that they sometimes neglect to provide the much needed substance (quality) to secure a lasting relationship. The fundamental principles of branding by not branding might just unlock the thinking behind the effect that quality (sometimes fewer) loyal customers have on a proper brand than just marketing for the sake of filling up the coffers.

Of course, those with an appetite for cheap thrills and tacky entertainment will recall that it’s not the first time that a wardrobe incident proved to be the catalyst for brand disaster as the prime time performance during the Superbowl has shown us when Justin Timberlake managed to expose more of Janet Jackson’s bosom than we seriously cared to see.

That may be water under the bridge, but today I’m proud to report that I have another example of brand reputation damage through means of wardrobe ‘malfunction’. It comes from none other than the guy that wrote the sequel ‘How to damage your personal brand by sticking your foot in it’ – the honorary George W. Bush.

It’s a mere five weeks before Bush hands over his reign to The King of Branding, Barack Obama, but even five weeks proved a rather stretching period for brand master Bush. Instead of quietly disappearing into oblivion, it was an unannounced visit to Iraq that would see off Bush with a bang. (Note: No puns are intended during the course of this article)

While Bush was addressing the Iraqi media and shaking hands with Prime Minister Maliki, an Iraqi journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi hurled both his shoes at the US president while shouting: “It is the farewell kiss, you dog.“

Fortunately both shoes seemed to have missed their target, but the damage to an already tainted Bush Brand has been struck a final blow straight in the jugular. One would imagine that going to Iraq would be rather punitive for the Texan, and while I commend him for his courage by going there and his sense of humour in handling the situation, I wouldn’t recommend reading his sequel.

Readers may argue that ducking for a couple of shoes would’ve been the last thing on a wary Bush’s mind as I’d be expecting a scud missile straight up his plane’s tailpipe, considering the relationship between country and cowboy…however, it is in the irony of the situation that Bush had been dealt his final send off into branding bankruptcy.

Books will be written about the Bush regime and while many will await the release of a political publication with intimate intelligence behind his reign, I simply cannot wait for some innovative entrepreneur to cast his lasso around the neck of the poor cowboy’s brand equity.

Watch the shoe hurling here.

Back in the day when Dell computers became the official weapons of mass destruction, going up in flames at the drop of a penny, the response from Dell’s superiors were to act is if nothing happened. When word got out, instead of addressing the issue, they simply attempted to stamp down their authority and request that the bad press be removed at once. The rest was up to Dell’s customers to make some waves. And they did. (Luckily, that has been rectified now)

When a stubborn George W. Bush launched his much profound war against terrorism, attempting to marginalize any bearded Muslim with a video camera, refusing to adhere to rationale in any form, shape or size…well, he was just obnoxious and probably not smart enough to realize his mistake anyway. (Bad example, sorry.)

The bottom line is that however much we discuss the importance of branding to establish a positive reaction toward our products or services among our customers, we also need to address the flip-side of the coin. Sometimes bad things happen: Computers explode, companies continue to produce trucks during an environmental revolution and presidents…well, some presidents remain ignorant.

When that icky stuff hits the fan though (or catches on fire), we have a couple of choices to make. We can either extinguish the actual fires and ignore the blazing waves of reputation damages that our customers proliferate among the internet wires at the speed of light, or we can acknowledge the issue, express our honest apologies and pro-actively engage in rectifying our brand image among our stakeholders.

Many, if not most companies, not surprisingly, choose the former. The reason is simple…it’s less work. Back yonder, when people still read press releases (was there ever such a time?), companies enjoyed vast authority and consumers were merely props in their puppet shows, it was easier to just wipe the entire episode under the rug.

My, but how times have changed. Blogging, social networking and micro publishing among other things came along. These three digital revolutions continue to either be rubbished as time killing, nonsensical nuisances or slated as unqualified, falsified content syndicators.

Unfortunately for numerous brands, big and small, they’ve proved quite damaging to some reputations, influencing bottom lines and in worst case scenarios, may have even caused operations to shut down. It is a real and present danger (sorry Harrison Ford, it was just so apt) to companies, if they prefer to look at it that way.

It could also be seen as an opportunity to address. Moreover, it can be used to drive your brand among your most loyal fans. I shudder to think that there are companies out there today still that simply do not employ these tactics, either as reputation management tool or brand campaigning mechanism. Ideally both.

We’re on the verge of 2009 and it is time for companies big and small to realize the changing of the times. In a blink of an eye you may find yourself at the feet of your nemesis, gnashing at the teeth and busking for bailout money where perhaps…just perhaps, this entire catastrophe could’ve been avoided if you took the time to listen to the people in charge of your brand…your customers.

That still applies today. The only thing that has really changed is how your clients interact, or better yet, prefer to interact with your brand. In simple terms, how you build your brand has changed.

Paul Isakson, my latest find in the clutter that is the internet, created a very neat presentation on brand building and I hope he doesn’t mind me extracting a couple of points that is especially important in my opinion.

A great brand is a great story –

Think Nike, Coca Cola and Starbucks. They have pro-actively engaged in creating a great story behind the brand. Back in the days, Coca Cola was synonymous with Christmas, a story most people related to very well.

Today, living on the Coke side of life, with the brand enhanced by cleverly produced commercials, social engagement platforms and interactive campaigns, leaves Coca Cola as one of the strongest brands in the world.

Stop Campaigning –

Campaigning is changing your core brand message to fit what you think people need or want to hear today so they’ll buy your product or service. (Think Politicians)

Start Committing –

Building your brand on core principles that never change. That implies marketing for long term growth. Creating an evolving a collection of coherent brand ideas and experiences over time, because commitment creates brand loyalty.

The Product / Service really is the marketing –

Make your product the best it can be. Let your product do the marketing. Then you’ll be able to focus on creating a story with appeal.

If you have the time, scroll through Paul’s inspiring presentation and while you do that, imagine your own brand in every slide.

We call them mothers. They are especially dangerous with a new born on the hip. It is no secret that we fear them. They move among us with an untouchable aura of scorning intimidation. They protect their litter with greater ferocity than a threatened lioness. Men and boys quiver at the feet through the mere presence of these maternal monstrosities.

The logic is simple: Do not annoy these individuals. Do not get in harms way and most importantly, when there’s a hint of uncertainty about your demeanor, best is to ask permission. This is something that the mammoth billion dollar pharmaceutical company, Motrin, clearly neglected.

Last week Motrin launched an ad campaign, lead by this video, in which they portrayed moms carrying their babies in hands-free slings as fashion seekers. Granted, judging by the fact that the VP of Marketing of Motrin is in fact female, one can only assume that the campaign was meant to be in jest. The mothers of the world, however, did not agree.

In short, what has happened is nothing short of a disaster campaign, force feeding Motrin some of their own medicine. If you’re in charge of a brand, this international outrage proved a couple of things. Do not think you’re untouchable. Do not assume you know your target audience. And do not for one second think that the internet does not have the capacity to shatter your dreams and bury your business.

This episode has once again highlighted the importance of brand, more importantly, managing your brand in the face of the public. Motrin made a dire mistake and a costly one at that, no doubt. Despite the fact that the outraged mothers of the world used the internet to vent their disdain, causing a massive tidal wave of negative brand impressions for Motrin in a matter of days, it has also taught us, one would assume, the value of the internet as brand channel and the ability to proliferate brand property throughout the wires of the net.

Everything about business starts and ends as a brand impression, the perception your target audience has of your business. Your brand is without a doubt your business’s most valuable asset. Unfortunately though, the only thing you have control over is how you put your brand to the public. Thereafter, it is up to you, your product and they way you deliver it that plays the deciding factor on how your clients reacts to your brand.

Motrin has taught us a valuable lesson. They will survive, simply because of the massive effort that went into establishing their brand way back. The result is a costly one, but one they’ll be able to absorb. Your business on the other hand may not be that lucky.

Keep your finger on the pulse of the internet. It can take your business to new heights, but also destroy it in a matter of minutes.

Let’s stop right there though. Writing about the mechanics of branding is about as exciting as a conversation in a Home Affairs queue. Let me rather entertain you with a story. A true story mind you. One that will prove that even an arrogant, self righteous marketer like I am completely powerless over the psychological impacts of proper branding (or improper actually).

At this stage I suggest you finish your meal before continuing, because I suffer from a proper tongue twisting condition called Gastroesophageal reflux. That should be enough for you to reach for an antacid already. The condition implies that my body is incapable of managing the amounts of acid that it produces, simply because the mechanism required for it is, well, absent. That may or may not be because of my refusal to live a stringently healthy, yet direly boring lifestyle (This is where the self righteous part comes in).

There are two options for treatment. One is to surgically create this mechanism or, alternatively, succumb to the responsibility of slugging down some pinkish pills for the rest of my life. The latter choice was an easy one to make, especially when I experienced the profound positive effect that Nexiam, the drug, had on my condition. I have been using it for 3 years now.

But with switching medical insurance companies comes unwanted change. My new insurers were justly refusing to support my outrageously expensive drug habit when a perfectly suitable generic alternative is available at 4 times less the original cost. I was distraught. I was refused my trusted brand, my friend and confidante when my intestines were ablaze with liquid acidic tidal waves. I couldn’t care less about the 80% discount on my levies. I’ll be having Nexiam no more and even though some might argue that it’s only a drug (for crying out loud), it’s evident that I had a profound affinity to the brand.

The new pills are yellow, different in shape and I don’t experience the same sort of solace when they cunningly find their way to my flaming underbelly. I sometimes long for the days when I could happily pop a Nex (my pet name for it) with the notion that all will be well within the hour. When I see the Nexiam packaging or hear people speaking about it, I sometimes feel saddened; feeling a distinct sense of loss, for no one sits well with unnecessary change.

I can never learn to love this new intestinal intruder. I can never trust its hard working ability and its willingness to perform Ph-balanced labour at reduced wages. Its cheap yellow clothing reminds me of municipal overalls, a far cry short of the efficient and trusted services delivered by an expensive seasoned professional with a pink tie.

To this day I continue with my love hate relationship with the yellow mercenaries that fight my condition reluctantly. Reluctantly, because I continuously remind them that they’re a weakened replacement, even if they’re not. Reluctantly, because my profound love for the Nexiam brand, a love built through years of consistency and loyalty, have inhibited my ability to love any other drug ever again.

Imagine your brand had the capacity to have the same profound effect on your prospects. Add to that the ability for them to choose. You might find me vastly delusional because of this story, but I’m willing to wager that the majority of your prospects behave in exactly the same manner, proven to be just as gullible as consumers centuries before. It is time to introduce yourself. And I have just the way. It’s called branding.