M & A Rainmaker

I recently watched the Twylah video referred to in Jim Connolly’s Marketing Blog here:

http://jimsmarketingblog.com/2011/05/30/get-everybody-talking-about-you-with-this-1-simple-idea/

( See also the video at the end of this blog for more about Twylah )

and aside from what Jim had said and the fact that I agreed with him that Twylah had a great story there were a couple of things that resonated with me:

Internet Monetisation

I noted that Eric Kim, the co-founder of Twylah had been involved in Internet Monetisation ( that’s like ” Show me the money ” in amongst all this Internet stuff ! ) for around 11 years and that he had founded Twylah because there was no obvious monetisation strategy emerging for Twitter. I also noted that he carried around in his head an ” Internet Monetisation Hierarchy ” ( I was going to call it a Pyramid but Pyramids have such bad press in recent years ! ) which went something like – an email address has the highest monetary value ( he actually put a value on a 1000 email addresses being emailed as ranging between $5 and $100 ) and then said that email has a higher value than e.g. a Facebook ” like ” which in turn has a higher value than a Twitter ” follow “.

He said that ” email is STILL the number one mechanism for communicating. People check their email first ( typically ) before checking social media “. A point which I will come back to.

I am sure that Eric has a whole load more ” valuations ” in his head and they range from the obvious like ” the number of visitors to your website ”  and ” the number of transactions through your website and the value of those transactions ” to the less obvious like ” the number of favourites and retweets  on Twitter “.  Everything has a ( micro ? ) value.

Recently I have been using HubSpot’s ( Internet ) Marketing Grader to see how well some companies Internet Marketing ” System ” is working. Since HubSpot is basically trying to see how easily you get found on the Internet, how well you convert visitors into ” leads ” ( which might mean getting their email address and permission to email ) and how well the being found and converting process works it is broadly speaking helping to measure the ” value ” of your Internet Marketing system.

It looks at your website, your blogs and your social networks and how one element provides support to the other elements.

Included within the HubSpot Marketing Grade is your Klout Score  ( arguably, a valuation of your Internet presence ) and offers you incentives based on your Klout score e.g. a £50 credit to AirBnB .

Twylah is another piece of the Internet Marketing ecosystem jigsaw – automatically converting your Tweets to what looks something like a blog page ( Mine is here ) and also analysing the effectiveness of your Tweets in achieving micro-value via follows, favourites, retweets etc etc.

2 of HubSpot’s favourite elements are ( or can be )  included within a Twylah page – an email sign up and/or another ” Call to Action ” ( e.g. Click here and buy and download  Lady GaGa’s latest single ).

The Importance of email

As Eric says ( and many people agree with him ) email is still very important.

This blog

Email Marketing is down but not out !

is spot-on. There are challenges with email marketing but it is probably the highest value item that you can attain and therefore it is your OBJECTIVE to get it !!

Platforms

I am constantly reminded of the value of ” platform websites ” . This blog is on WordPress which is becoming hugely powerful. ( It has an Alexa ranking of 18th in the world ).  N.B. HubSpot’s Alexa ranking is 691 and Twylah’s 14,504.

Ecademy.com ( Alexa 9,377 ) was one of the first sites where I noticed the effect of ” Platform Power ” some 10 years ago.

Content posted on these websites becomes very visible to search engines like Google and ranks highly. ( I highly recommend WordPress and HubSpot based websites !! ) Over time Twylah will also become very powerful ( it’s Alexa ranking grew 35% over the last 3 months ).

So, in summary keep in mind platforms and the Monetisation Hierarchy and keep trying to get those email addresses and use them !!

Another great video about Twylah  below

http://foundville.com/2012/01/09/twylah-interview/

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I don’t really consider myself to be an expert at email marketing ( but I know people who are very experienced ) but I have a couple of views in relation to email in association with social networks ( Facebook, Twitter, Ecademy, LinkedIn etc ) and information sites ( Digg, StumbleUpon,Delicious etc ).

The main thing that I want to see is a weblink for the email, ideally with a relevant url and /or a share facility so that the email can be posted on the Social Networks and Information sites.

This is the weblink for The Glan Christmas email that we have just done. 

http://www.glanyrafoninn.co.uk/Mailshot/Glan-xmas09.html

http://www.cloudhosts.co.uk/cloudhosts-email.htm

for a number of reasons: It was in an area of interest to me ( cloud computing ) and it had a relevant weblink ( the one above ) and it had a share facility included. While I was looking around at the email I accidentally clicked on the ” Chat with an expert online ” button and that led to this conversation with Chloe:

Hello. welcome to CloudHosts. How can I help you today?

You are now chatting with Chloe

Chloe: Good afternoon

Chloe: Welcome to Cloudhosts, may I take your name please?

you: Hi Chloe

you: Chris Windley

Chloe: Hi there Chris! How can I help you today?

you: Hi Chloe, Got to be honest and say that I was looking at the emailer I just got and pressed the chat button by mistake !! I could lie but you know ..

Chloe: I appreciate your honesty! Is there anything I can help you with at all Chris? What did you think of the information in the email?

you: It is an area of interest and I was quite impressed with the email system ( and now the chat system !! ) !! You at FBT Media or UK Hosts ??

Chloe: I work for UKFast, which is a sister company of cloudhosts. We work closely with fresh business thinking to try and accelerate the business of our clients and new clients. I’m glad the chat system impresses!!! 🙂

you: Yep – I am impressed all around in fact I am blogging about this as we speak !! So I don’t waste your time let me review the email itself in more detail and come back to you. You obviously have my email and you can Google me for more info 🙂 Have a great day, Regards, Chris.

Chloe: Thanks Chris – please do not hesitate to get back to me my email address is chloe.green@ukfast.co.uk and my number is 0800 458 4545

you: cool Chloe very cool 😉

Chloe: 🙂 I look forward to hearing from you Chris

you: Thank you.

Now, Chloe is a really nice girl and it’s clear that email marketing is not only connecting into the Social Media space but also leading you into direct discussion with people like Chloe.

Of course email-shots can also tell you when someone opened the email, if they re-open it, if they follow any links, if they forward it etc etc

So, although email-shots can be described as ” Push marketing ” they also bridge into ” Pull marketing “.