Back in the days when the Hare Khrishna were spreading the Hindu word at airports and other public places, single-stem flowers could be found in the nearby trash cans. For anyone who was paying attention, the Hare Khrishna would, from time to time, fish those flowers straight out of the garbage. This odd behavior was described in the book "Influence: The Power of Persuasion," written by Robert Cialdini. In it, Cialdini described the rule of reciprocity, which the Hare Krishna leveraged... Category - Marketing
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Back in the days when the Hare Khrishna were spreading the Hindu word at airports and other public places, single-stem flowers could be found in the nearby trash cans. For anyone who was paying attention, the Hare Khrishna would, from time to time, fish those flowers straight out of the garbage. This odd behavior was described in the book "Influence: The Power of Persuasion," written by Robert Cialdini. In it, Cialdini described the rule of reciprocity, which the Hare Krishna leveraged... By checking the “remember me” box when logging into a website, so much more is retained than just a username and a password. At this point in time, frequent online shoppers understand that. They understand that the ease of eCommerce doesn’t come to full fruition until they’ve created an account and logged in. Without registration, return visitors will need to re-enter their credit card, billing and shipping information every single time they go to make a purchase. The formal term for...
Crowdsourcing comes in all shapes and sizes. Individuals and businesses alike solicit support for everything from developing the world’s best hoodie to restoring an historic movie theater. But when crowdsourcing is big, it can be really big. Take the Pebble e-Paper smartwatch, for example. On Kickstarter, one of the world’s biggest funding platforms, the goal was to raise $100,000. When all was said and done, it raked in more than $10 million. Clearly, the benefits of crowdsourcing are limitless. Crowdsourcing, however,...
Historically, consumers have held off on big electronics purchases during the early part of the year, saving them for Black Friday’s door-buster deals. This year, however, the verdict is still out as to whether the biggest shopping day of the year still holds the same level of anticipation. Regardless, anyone in retail can agree: Black Friday and Cyber Monday have taken up a big chunk of the daily workload over the past few months – and then some. So although... 
If content is king, then Google is emperor. And that’s because the world’s biggest search engine is able to dictate what’s acceptable when ranking pages and what’s not. But before anyone starts questioning the emperor’s authority, it’s important to understand that Google’s law of the online land isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, Google is the long-time leader in search engines because it is constantly looking out for all parties’ best interests – websites and website visitors alike. With... 
Launching a new website (or marketing campaign for an existing website) can be incredibly exciting. Seeing all of your hard work come to life in bright, vivid online colors is definitely deserving of a little pat on the back. And it’s also fitting to let others see the fruits of your labor. Because after all, the website is just the beginning of what could be a long and successful eCommerce endeavor. When it comes to getting your website in front... Don’t do this or don’t do that: Life comes with so many rules that it can almost stifle an individual’s ability to be an individual. Everything we do, from what time we get up in the morning to what we order for lunch, can be dictated by someone else’s preconceived notion regarding what’s best for society as a whole.
Even something as simple as how to write a subject line for an e-mail carries dozens of rules. There are so many “tips” tied up in writing those few words that a business will grapple over the task to the point that a simple marketing campaign can’t even make it out the door.
1. Don’t use all caps
2. Don’t use the word free
3. Don’t use more than 30 characters
4. Don’t use special characters
5. Don’t use exclamation points
And those are just a few.
In the video above, DJ Waldow presents a few examples where companies bucked all of those trends and found success. He says that at times, breaking the rules of e-mail marketing has garnered more click-through rates and customer conversions. And he would know. He’s the author of “The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing,” which touts the idea that marketers have more opportunities than ever “to guide customers from consideration and trial to repeat purchase, loyalty, even advocacy.”
So check out the video, and don’t be afraid to do what’s best for your customers, your company and your product. Rules, after all, were meant to be broken.
Who, what, why, where, when and how serve as the proven foundation behind any good piece of news. As long as all those bases are covered, the general public shouldn’t walk away from an article with unanswered questions. And the same holds true with a social media marketing plan. Whether a small business is Tweeting or posting content on Facebook or LinkedIn, it’s important to deliver a well-rounded message. But, for today’s purposes the team here at NetSphere Strategies...