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Thursday, December 11, 2014

Catch all the email marketing buzz from around the world

Email Marketing India is bringing all the buzz from the industry around the world. Initially the paper is weekly.

Have a look at the first online print.

https://paper.li/aghreni/1418302788#

Any comments and feedback to twitter handle @aghreni.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Inbox by Gmail: 6 implicit facts for Marketers



Inbox by Gmail

“It’s a better way to get back to what matters… ” (Official Blog, Google)
An Explicitly correct statement that reflects what Inbox by Gmail is intended to impart to the users. But, what are the implicit rationales for marketers?
“The Inbox that works for you” essentially points towards the horizon where Email marketing is heading to. After the recent introduction of Grid view of Gmail promotion tab, this new development re-emphasizes the need of redevising the strategy that facilitates the way your brands talk to customers.
A snapshot of the new features:
Bundle of Emails: That’s how it sounds, it’s more about “Segmentation” of the huge number of Emails on the basis of certain selected criteria such as promos, Purchases, Trips etc. So, this is more about segmenting the emails based on actionable points (promos), undergoing actions (Purchases/delivery status) and custom actions-as labelled by users.
Important Highlights: It highlights important “Updates” from Emails such as delivery status, flight status etc. without having to open the mail. It is the Real-time feature of the Email.
Reminder: You will be able set your priorities by having a reminder in your inbox so as to avoid missing them out in the stipulated time. It will also provide required information for the same. For example, if you plan to have your dinner in a nearby restaurant, you can keep it as reminder in Inbox. It will also tell you whether it is open at any point of time. Once you book your seat online, you will also see a locational map of the restaurant in your confirmation mail.
Snooze your messages and reminders: This will facilitate in setting up your priorities to a later time or location. It will highlight your message as reminder at the stop in the assigned time.
And here are 6 Implicit Facts:
1)      Contextual: All emails are not equally important, so Gmail intends to help users in automated ways. Contextual marketing is becoming more and more important for a successful Email Marketing program.
2)      Urgency: In a fast moving world, marketers have to address the time factor associated with any live promotion/campaign. Catch the attention of your consumers before time expires.
3)      Priority: Amidst hundreds of tasks, actions awaiting user’s attention the inbox, Emails will now get prioritised as per the user. Thriving to get maximum priority through well-strategized email marketing effort will be the trigger to success.
4)      Real-time MarketingThis one is interesting and perhaps, the most significant aspect of Inbox. Live information feed from external resources such as external websites, data-base etc. implies arrival of live, fresh and dynamic features in Email marketing. Future marketing communications will happen on the fly.
5)      Perfect Content: Email automation is becoming more and more important. In fact, these new features of Inbox will ask for new Email Content Mechanism. Google is yet to reveal any specifications (if there is, at all) to remain contextual with well-developed HTML content.
6)      Success Matrix: If the inbox itself reveals much of the information about the Email through Subject Lines/thumbnails, what will define the success rate? For example, if an E-commerce company runs a time bound campaign, subscribers will be able to see it on priority, or can snooze it for later. In that case, what will be the success matrix? One thing is for sure, open rate will be affected and would require additional information to assess the performance. After all, the inbox itself will reveal most of the important information for contextual mails.
Connect with us and explore in-depth about how Email Innovations are delivering excellence through real-time Email Marketing and Contextual Marketing.
- See more at: http://kenscio.com/blog/2014/10/27/inbox-by-gmail-6-implicit-facts-for-marketers/#sthash.vorkRunK.dpuf

Infographic on Real time personalization in email campaigns

Monday, September 8, 2014

Infographic - The Essence of Responsive Email

What happens when you deploy a standard email HTML campaign, without bothering whether it appears fine on mobile devices and tablets?

Are you aware where most of your customers are opening your mails from? Do you bother if they see your email correctly?

If you are really concerned, check the infographic at http://responsivemailers.com/blog/the-essence-of-responsive-email/


Friday, June 27, 2014

Ecommerce Companies are using Twitter more frequently to keep customers interested and engaged!

A recent report in Economic Times of India dated 24th June carried an interesting trend article on how Indian e-commerce companies are leveraging the social networks like twitter to keep their ever growing twitter base interested and engaged with their brand directly on twitter.
e-commerce companies like Myntra, Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon are working on creating their brand on twitter and have a dedicated team to social media. The number of followers on twitter for brands like Myntra, Snapdeal and Flipkart and by influence with customer pales in comparison to major offline and online brands. The top 20 brands in the world on twitter ranked by the influence with customers are Whole Foods, Starbucks, Samsung, Jet Blue, Toms and etc. You can view the entire list and why they have been ranked by Business Insider.

Make your marketing email content more dynamic and contextual

Every one of us are receiving lots of promotional mailers each day. Have you ever wondered if these could be much more live with the content that is as fresh from an oven or with an event that just happened or with the offer that has not expired or with a point balance that is just as on my loyalty card or what my friends are speaking about on an offer!
All of the email marketing tools that are available in the market today can assist marketers with content assembly that is as stale when the data cut was made from the CRM system and dispatched through the email tool. It has no clue when the mail was read by the recipient. Several days have elapsed between the data and content that was assembled into the email and when read.
Do Recipients like these kind of stale and irrelevant content in the email? or you sent an email with the offer that expired when the recipient saw it and actioned on it? Do you see an unhappy customer?
or Do you want positively surprise your customers by keeping your email content that is live, fresh, social and contextual?

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

India Digital Marketing Annual Report for year 2014

With the successful completion of digital marketing survey “Kenscio Motto 2014” conducted earlier in this year, Kenscio has released an insightful, strategically analysed full length report based on the participant marketers’ responses. Titled “Futuristic Digital Marketing in India”, this report attempts to provide a comprehensive compilation of thought-provoking and action oriented insights for digital marketers.

The survey was based on a set of market-centric inputs derived from Kenscio’s vast experience of serving the digital direct marketing industry in India. After compiling and analysing the responses gathered from more than 250 marketing professionals, many surprising findings popped up out showing significant consistencies and patterns in strategic level of thoughts across industries.


Friday, April 11, 2014

Real time, Contextual, Agile email marketing with live content in email campaigns

There is a lot of news today about email marketing campaigns which can deliver content live from websites and social media based on the recipient behaviour at the time of opening the email, location and device. Delivering such live content in real time and context provides exciting and engaging opportunities for marketers to connect with the recipients and drive them towards further actions.
With such engaging campaigns with live contextual real-time content in email, marketers are seeing higher CTR (click through rate is a measure of clicks generated over the impressions served). As the ROI is a direct measure of CTR, higher CTR will result in higher clicks for the same number of impressions.
From a simple count down or count up timer to drive urgency in recipients, to much more engaging real time or dynamic offers based on recipient behaviour, the email marketing is becoming is much agile in nature rather than static personalisation at the time of sending email.
Recommendations of the products based on location, weather, or offer on the site coupled with recipient behaviour is a much higher value proposition for marketers based on history of all aspects of the recipient data.  Earlier this was possible directly on the web, instead on email owing to complications in serving dynamic content in email.  Several companies are able to deliver this now, including Kenscio.
- See more at: http://kenscio.com/blog/2014/02/27/real-time-contextual-agile-email-marketing-with-live-content-in-campaigns/#sthash.koCyybCb.dpuf

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Mobile email marketing Optimization Best Practices


Mobile devices have been increasingly becoming popular for both email and web consumption. In India, Mobile devices represent 62% of web consumption this month; an increase of 15% since the beginning of this year (Source: StatCounter).
Mobile Vs Desktop - Content Consumption 2013 graph
In one of our own recent studies, we explored the market share for various devices when it comes to checking emails. Based on sample data, we discovered mobile devices to contribute to 43% of email opens in India.
Hence, it’s a no brainer to optimize (or start optimizing) email for mobile devices. While the task may seem daunting to some, we assure you that the rewards in form of better customer engagement will make it worth your efforts.
- See more at: http://kenscio.com/blog/tag/best-practices/#sthash.QH5H5Ix1.dpuf

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Real time, Contextual, Agile email marketing with live content in campaigns


There is a lot of news today about email marketing campaigns which can deliver content live from websites and social media based on the recipient behaviour at the time of opening the email, location and device. Delivering such live content in real time and context provides exciting and engaging opportunities for marketers to connect with the recipients and drive them towards further actions.
With such engaging campaigns with live contextual real-time content in email, marketers are seeing higher CTR (click through rate is a measure of clicks generated over the impressions served). As the ROI is a direct measure of CTR, higher CTR will result in higher clicks for the same number of impressions.
- See more at: http://kenscio.com/blog/2014/02/27/real-time-contextual-agile-email-marketing-with-live-content-in-campaigns/#sthash.I3V5nQ2Z.dpuf

Monday, April 7, 2014

The all new Pinterest inspired Gmail’s Promotion Tab

Yes, you read that right! Gmail is reportedly making changes under the hood to transform the traditional looking rows of emails, with a sweet looking grid of images. This change only comes for the Promotions Tab, and this is what Gmail has posted in it’s official blog:
“Promotional mail has a lot of images, from pictures of snazzy new shoes to photos of that rock-climbing gym you’ve been wanting to try. But right now, those images are buried inside your messages—and with only subject lines to go on, it can be a challenge to quickly pick out the deals and offers that interest you most. To help you find what you’re looking for faster, you can now sign up for a new field trial for Gmail that lets you view the Promotions tab in a more visual way.”
- See more at: http://kenscio.com/blog/2014/03/26/the-all-new-pintrest-inspired-gmails-promotion-tab/#sthash.RBcX6rsu.dpuf

Cricket Fever with Kenscio’s Thermometer!

Zillions of crazy Indian cricket fans were winding up their work in a Jiffy to cheer up their heroes, while we @ Kenscio were busy in developing a count-down timer in an e-mail communication to be sent by Star Sports (We call it Intimate Communication) which gives them a goose-bump with a ticking clock asking them to go home early.

With this they did not require their wife, husband, friends & families to give them a reminder. Along with Star Sports, Kenscio have done this task for them like one of their close acquaintances. We understand the urgency and we make it fine-tuned too.

See more at: http://kenscio.com/blog/2014/04/04/personalised-emails-for-cricket-fans/#sthash.5wHDFa7s.dpuf

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Kenscio is looking for Senior Software (Java) Developers


Kenscio is looking for a core Java Developer with 3 to 5 years experience in SaaS product development & from premier engineering institutes like NIT/IITs.This candidate will be joining a team of highly efficient developers & responsible for development of Cloud Based products. The products revolve around Mobile, Social Media, Digital Marketing, Web Analytics, Big-Data Analytics, and etc., using cloud based technology. He/She will be working of all latest technologies, should bring innovative and analytical thinking to the table.

Job Location: Bangalore

More details on desired skills and application process at 

http://www.kenscio.com/careers.php#java

Friday, February 28, 2014

Real time, Contextual, Agile marketing with live content in email campaigns

There is a lot of news today about email marketing campaigns which can deliver content live from websites and social media based on the recipient behaviour at the time of opening the email, location and device. Delivering such live content in real time and context provides exciting and engaging opportunities for marketers to connect with the recipients and drive them towards further actions.

With such engaging campaigns with live contextual real-time content in email, marketers are seeing higher CTR (click through rate is a measure of clicks generated over the impressions served). As the ROI is a direct measure of CTR, higher CTR will result in higher clicks for the same number of impressions.

From a simple count down or count up timer to drive urgency in recipients, to much more engaging real time or dynamic offers based on recipient behaviour, the email marketing is becoming is much agile in nature rather than static personalisation at the time of sending email.


Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Google gmail image caching, why google didn't do it right

Both the gmail users and the marketers are seeing many things going wrong with Google gmail image caching through its proxy servers. The intentions were not mentioned by google and not convincing enough, why its users needed that change.  Is it simply a better user experience by serving image faster?  or preventing images from compromising the security of the user's computer? If so google has better techniques to cache those images on its servers without fetching them from their destination location as other streaming companies do! It doesn't require a google's proxy link.

Second, the implementation is so bad that google doesn't know whether the image is static or dynamic. As the content on web is going dynamic and personalised, how can google serve some stale content which it fetched when one gmail user opened it at some time and keep serving the old stuff again and again when the user opens.

Now from the past couple of days, their image proxy servers are failing to serve even static images. Here are some mailers from retailers, that have some images missing on gmail.

It looks like google tried to get control over email marketing landscape and failed to understand the eco system and goofed up in the process.  

It is better for google to restore the broken things first before attempting to do something funny.





More articles on the subject
1. Gmail Images Broken in our Marketing Emails
2. Gmail blows up e-mail marketing by caching all images on Google servers
3. Thanks, Google: Cashing In On Gmail Caching
4. Gmail is back up, but strange problem persists


PS: The comments and remarks are of the blogger and not as a representative of any company.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014