What's New in Personalization

KickOffLabs believes that nothing is more important for new businesses than customer engagement. KickoffLabs gets new businesses up and running online fast by helping build easy sites and assisting clients with their first customer mailing list. KickoffLabs plugged into Rapleaf to provide clients with age, gender, and location on their platform.

Getting Rapleaf demographic insights helps their clients:

• Refine the pitch and marketing message.
• Learn if you are getting the “right” customers signed up.
• Target customers specifically within a certain demographic segment such as location

“Rapleaf helps us offer this data to businesses without having to add any additional barriers or questionnaires.  That’s important because those things just make customers think twice and prevent more signups. All they have to do is collect the email address and learn!” Josh Ledgard, KickoffLabs Founder.

KickOffLabs is also working on new ways of using Rapleaf data to help new businesses connect with the key customers they are looking for.  Check out KickoffLabs yourself and try it free today!

See what our partners are saying about the Rapleaf Experience here.

Thanks to Newsletter.ie, an Email Service Provider, for putting this together! Want to plug Rapleaf data into your ESP Platform? Let us know!

The following is a guest blog post by Lindsay McMurdo, VP of Marketing at Topica- a leading email marketing service provider located in downtown San Francisco.

Email marketing isn’t new, but getting started in the email realm can still be a daunting task for large and small business owners alike. With the abundance of email being sent everyday, how do you make your campaign stand out in the sea of other messages reaching your subscribers’ inboxes? Although there isn’t one secret recipe that will work for every business, here are five email marketing tips for campaign success that will surely increase the reach and ROI of your messages.

1. An attention grabbing subject line.

Currently I have open 6 internet browser windows, 2 email inboxes, 2 chat services, a calendar, iTunes, TweetDeck and a Word document- your email campaign has a LOT of competition to get my attention. The subject line of your email marketing campaign is the first thing your subscribers see in their inbox and determines whether that message gets opened or junked. Don’t risk the latter by leaving your subject line as an after thought of your campaign creation! Start thinking about those precious 50-60 characters as soon as you start putting together the content and HTML of your message. Make sure the subject line introduces the campaign and makes your subscribers jump out of their seats, literally (well, almost literally).

2. Sending targeted messages with list segmentation.

You wouldn’t have a conversation about cat food with a strictly dog lover, would you? The same goes for your email marketing campaigns- make sure you are sending the right information to the right subscribers based on their interests and lifestyle. How to get these nuggets of information? Easy, just ask! Create forms that are easy to fill out and include them in the footer of every email you send. Also, ask your subscribers for more information as soon as they are signing up for your list either in the sign-up form itself or with an auto-responder message after the sign-up has been completed. Create audiences based on these specific groups, and send them the targeted messages you know they want to receive. (Psst- our friends here at Rapleaf could help with gathering this information as well!)

3. Content worth sharing.

Everyone hopes that their email newsletter will go as viral as a video of an surprised kitten that loves to be tickled, but you have to give your subscribers a reason and the means to share your content. Start by creating content worth sharing that is fun, witty, and appeals to the masses. (Having a case of email campaign writer’s block? Check out our blog post What to Write About When You Have Nothing to Write About.) Next, include those all too important sharing links such as forward to a friend, Facebook, and Twitter. Finally, give the subscribers who have shared your content a well-deserved virtual pat on the back to encourage repeat sharing through a simple “thank you” email/tweet/message or a coupon to receive a discount for one of your products or services.

4. Clear call to action link.

There’s a reason you are sending this email campaign to a targeted list of subscribers with an eye-catching subject line and creative content that will blow their minds, right? (Wait, what was the reason again?) Your call to action link should be the driving force and reason behind your email campaign. Whether you want to drive traffic to your website, encourage the download of a white-paper, or have subscribers participate in a contest make sure you are announcing this to your audience loud and clear. Also, try to pepper the link in throughout the entire campaign instead of just one large, postcard like button image. This will decrease the content score of your campaign that is used by ISPs to determine if a message is sent to the inbox or junk folder. Also keep in mind that the more call to action links used throughout your campaign the more likely your subscribers are to click.

5. Test, test, and test again!

One of the biggest mistakes email marketers make when it comes to their email strategy is to get stuck in a sending rut and assume they are already doing everything perfectly. Most likely this isn’t so (sorry- truth hurts!), and to keep up with changing trends as well as your subscriber base you should constantly be testing the components of your email strategy. Try playing around with image placement, template colors, subject lines, the day or time of send, or the call to action placement. One way to do this is through A/B testing, splitting your subscriber list into 2 groups and sending one group a different than normal campaign while the other group serves as your “control” group. Another testing method is to take a small sampling of your subscribers, split them into multiple groups each with a different variation of the element you are testing and send them your newsletter the day before. This method works best for campaign elements such as subject lines where you may have multiple variations and for non-time sensitive material. For both testing methods monitor your results, adjust your campaign accordingly moving forward and watch your ROI come rolling in!

Lindsay is the main contributor for Topica’s blog filled with email marketing tips and hints and can also be reach through Topica’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Want to be showcased on Rapleaf’s Blog as a guest writer? Let us know: info@rapleaf.com.

For one week, July 22-29, 2011, the world of technology will take over Chicago in celebration of a new tech epicenter unique among major cities. TechWeek will transform the city into an incubator of ideas, opportunities, partnerships and creative expressions to connect the latest web and mobile technologies with thousands of Chicago business, academic, community and media professionals- all in one week.

Rapleaf is excited to host a HackerLounge, an 80 x 20 lounge area open for participants partaking in TechWeek Projects, where 100s of coders, designers, and entrepreneurs will connect, innovate and work on developing new tech projects and ideas. The lounge will be open the weekend of July 22nd through July 25th and the winning project (with prizes!) will be awarded that Monday during midVenturesLAUNCH early-stage startup day.

TechWeek is the largest technology and innovation conference in the Midwest, organizing representatives from over 500 web, mobile, and tech companies from across the country. TechWeek lets you connect with over 2000 tech entrepreneurs, visionaries, business managers, investors, and community leaders including keynotes and speakers as Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, Aneesh Chopra, CTO of the United States, and Jason Fried, founder of 37Signals. Dozens of independent events will be occurring all around the city of Chicago, giving you an opportunity to mix with the tech, business, and media people who are building the next Google or Groupon.

Planning on attending TechWeek? Let us know!

LiveRamp, a new service platform enabling publishers, data platforms, and offline data providers to better access and manage data in digital format, recently launched to help build a more personalized web.

A division of Rapleaf, LiveRamp creates a new revenue stream for online publishers, allowing them to receive recurring revenue for data “mapping”, see greater audience data overlap within their digital audience management platforms, and increase banner CPMs by better personalizing ad content to viewers. AdExchanger recently sat down with Rapleaf CEO, Auren Hoffman, in an exclusive interview discussing Rapleaf, LiveRamp, and more.

“We plan to be a driver of safe personalization as it unfolds, and to work with all the players to help make it happen in the right way. We expect to see continued growth of our LiveRamp platform as it is already a central resource for publishers, data holders, and display technologies working with data in digital advertising,” says Hoffman.

Interested in hearing more? Contact LiveRamp to learn more about their services can help you today.

The following post was written by Amanda Gagnon, an Education Marketing Associate at AWeber Email Marketing, whose email marketing software services make it easy for you to build your email list and stay in touch with prospects.

Your customers know it’s possible for you to find out where they are – goodness, apps on their phones even know which direction they’re facing. In order to impress them as their expectations rise, you need to provide a brand experience that’s relevant to their location.
And since InstantData provides geographic details for your subscribers, how better to create that experience than by personalizing your email marketing with location? Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar business or an online service, location-sensitive emails can delight your subscribers.

If You Have a Physical Location…

Some of your emails may only be relevant to your local subscribers, such as invitations to shows, workshops, other events, or even certain products. Inviting all your subscribers shows those who are too far to attend that you’re unaware of or unconcerned with how distant they are.

Instead, segment your list geographically and send the invitation only to subscribers within driving distance. (If you have several locations, you’ll probably want to contact the subscribers local to each of them.)

If You’re Both Online and Off…

In this case, you’ll want to take care when it’s time for a sale. Locals can be invited to in-store sales, while those too far away to make the trip could be sent an announcement of a sale and direct them to your site.

Mentioning both sales in each email provides options for locals who can’t make it to the store or distant subscribers who’ve just popped into the neighborhood, but your emphasis should certainly be different.

Whether You’re Web-Based or Not…

Even if your business doesn’t have a physical location, your subscribers do, which can help you personalize the emails they get.

If your message references the weather or contains a seasonal product offer, make sure it’s going to those in the appropriate climates (and watch the seasonal switch between the Northern and Southern hemispheres!)

Similarly, if you acknowledge a national holiday in your email, be careful to send it to those subscribers who are likely to celebrate it.

And make sure you’re cognizant of local culture. If you sell sports memorabilia, send different versions of the same email with the appropriate sports teams included for each area. If you promote indie bands, acknowledge local favorites in the various versions.

If your company has a large enough email program with subscribers in several different nations, you may even want to email in several different languages, segmenting based on geography to send the most appropriate version.

Whichever Way You Geo-Target, You’re Ahead of the Game

Most email marketers aren’t collecting demographic data to personalize with. Many are just “batch & blasting” – sending overgeneralized emails to everyone on their lists (most of whom won’t care). And many don’t realize how easy and simple personalized emailing can be.

Adjust your emails to take location into account, and you’ll really stand out.

Amanda Gagnon teaches businesses how to create more effective, profitable email campaigns. More from Amanda and AWeber via Twitter and Facebook. Want to write a post and have it featured on our blog? Email info@rapleaf.com!

JangoMail’s web-based e-mail broadcast and marketing system offers a unique marketing platform enabling brands to create and monitor advanced, custom newsletters to effectively message your audience base. Rated as a Top-Ten Web Service, JangoMail continually looks to stay ahead of the crowd and introduce new features to improve their email campaign software. We are excited to take part in the latest update to their platform, powered by Rapleaf.

Now with JangoMail, you can use age, gender, and location to segment your email lists even further and send personalized email content based on a customer’s demographic profile. “For example, if your business is a restaurant, you may want to send one offer to those subscribers under 21 years of age, and another for those over 21. If you’re a clothing retailer, you may want to send different content to males versus females, etc.,” says Ajay Goel, CEO of JangoMail. “We are extremely excited about the partnership and the opportunities that it will bring going forward.”

Soon JangoMail will be providing an option to access Premium Data, which includes data points such as household income, profession, and credit rating, and more, but for now, sign up and try JangoMail free today!

For more information about Rapleaf and our partnerships, please email partner@rapleaf.com

Just last week Eloqua CEO Joe Payne announced the “Eloqua AppCloud,” an unprecedented online marketplace for B2B marketing applications. AppCloud serves as a universal hub for an encompassing list of B2B marketing applications that connects directly with Eloqua’s powerful Revenue Performance Management platform. We’re excited partner with Eloqua and offer an app that plugs Rapleaf insight into their existing interface.

Rapleaf’s Cloud Connector solution provides users with demographic and interest data on emails through the Eloqua platform. Eloqua users can connect with the Rapleaf app to increase marketing efficiency and  inherit massive amounts of actionable data, which will help trigger more personalized, relevant communications, generate more qualified leads and improve revenue performance.

Specifically, Rapleaf is able to complement the digital footprint Eloqua already provides for a lead with additional data points like age, gender, income, occupation, education, and more. With more robust and actionable data in the Eloqua platform, existing segmentation and marketing decisions are more efficient and effective, which incrementally increases revenue from each Eloqua customer.

Eloqua is the first company in its category to truly create a marketplace for third-party solutions within the cloud. The connection between Rapleaf and Eloqua will bring tremendous value to users and the linkage of the two services creates a powerful, integrated solution for businesses.

To learn more about the Rapleaf/Eloqua partnership, check out the Appcloud Marketplace and try the connector today!

The following is a guest blog post by Darren Lancaster, Co-Fou