Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:06:10 +0700WeeblyTue, 09 Feb 2010 09:48:47 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2010/02/text-vs-video-which-one-is-better.htmlBoth is the answer. Incorporating both is key to getting someone to click. Lately (since youtube) this has become a very controversial subject for 2 reasons. 1) People have a greater tendency - nearly twice as often- to click on a video. 2) without a bit of description text, the video is worthless.

At then end of the day... literally after a long days work of looking at text on a computer screen, the general public does't want to spend the energy reading. It's far easier to watch a video.

Videos are worthless without value. Here are ways to gain value in a video:
1)Interesting content. Meaningful, and entertaining across different demographics and markets.
2) A Clear image. High quality is especially important these days since the majority of the public sees things in HD. It's unpleasing to the eye to watch a blurry pixleated image.
3)Target the right audience. If no one watches your video its worthless and a waste of time. Know your target when creating or using a video, and cater very specifically to that adience
4) Spread the word. Use social media, affiliates, online business groups, anything you can to spread the video. If no one sees your video, it has no perceived value.
]]>Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:29:12 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/12/marketing-have-you-done-your-research.html Business, and life in general, moves so fast so its easy to not look back at the basics.
Here are the bare basics of marketing research; take a moment and do a mental checklist to make sure you have covered them all. Remember it is crucial to gather the information you need to link the consumer, the customer, the public, and the company together. If these missing links aren't gathered your end user/customer will have no desire for the product/service.

Your research should do the following:
A. Analyze customers, their location and their needs.
B. Identify and define marketing opportunities.
C.Monitor the environment and competitors.
D. Evaluate whether the marketing process is meeting the needs of customers and objectives.
E. Make sales forecasts for developing a budget.

Your ideal customer, objectives and forecasts will more than likely always be changing so its best to revisit these basics once a year anyhow. 2010 here we come!]]>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:12:24 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/12/quick-tips-to-networking-smarter-not-harder.html
Number of Meetings ≠ Customers
How to Rock a Networking Event:

1.Change it up. Its very easy to get into the rut of XYZ networking event the first Friday of the month, however if you are not getting any business from attending that group, don't be scared to attend a new networking event. After all, your current group has heard your pitch about your business and you have likely connected with a couple good contacts, now move on to potentially greener pastures. The worst case scenario here is that you attend a new event and 10-100 new people hear about your business. 2. Get noticed.  Set yourself apart from the group by becoming a leader. No this does not always have to cost you a fee. You can volunteer to be on the board, committee, or new member helper. When people look up to you, you are getting more recognitions from potential customers and you will become more memorable. 3. Sell Value. Remind people what value your business can bring to them opposed to a traditional elevator pitch. People everywhere are always listening for the "what's in it for me" factor. Make the value plain as day and give it to them in a straightforward manner.   4.  Follow Up. This is the most important part of networking events. If you don't follow up and make a sale or develop a relationship for a future sale, attending the networking event was a waste of time. Your time= Money, value your own time by biting the bullet and actually following up.   **For specific details of efficient follow up methods, "Converting Acquaintances to Customers; Develop Revenue Not Friendships" will be available by down-loadable webinar shorty.  ]]>Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:54:57 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/11/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit.htmlQuick & Helpful Tidbits!  

Where to get Free High Quality Photos
I am asked this question very frequently, so here are a couple great websites where you can become a subscriber for free, and download images for free. They all contain some vector files, high quality jpg files and sometimes even psd files.

Morguefile.com
Vecteezy.com
Devianttart.com    ]]>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:39:27 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/10/-creating-a-mission-led-marketing-strategy.htmlThis article is a true winner, a great starting point for entrepreneurs looking to set the foundation for a new business, or re-define the goals and objectives of their company.

Many times a new client will call me and say, “Jennie, I need a brochure” or “Jennie, I need a marketing plan.” And I always say great- let’s talk. I start these meetings with two simple questions: "Who are you?" and “Why do you do what you do?” Now these might seem like deep questions to be asking someone I’ve never met before, but the truth is, I believe that if a client can’t answer these fundamental questions, a brochure or a marketing plan may not be what they actually need. In order for a marketing plan or strategy to be executed powerfully, it must be based on something deeper than what it is you are selling or what service you are providing. It must be based on who you are and why you do what you do.

So for example, there are tons of graphic designers in Portland. Why would they choose you? Well, assuming that you are as competent if not more so then your competition, then what your potential client is looking for is whether they like you, whether you “get” their company, how you will work with them, why you’re different from your competitor, etc.  A clear mission and message puts you light years ahead of many and allows you to quickly build relationships with future clients.  

The foundation of any marketing strategy is your mission.  You must start here. Now I’m not talking about how much money you want to make, or a lengthy list of platitudes that may or may not resonate with your employees or clients. I’m talking about the core, bone deep reason your company exists: Your company’s reason to be on this planet. I’ll give you a few examples –

    * We nourish and delight everyone we serve." (Darden Restaurants)
    * We unlock the potential of nature to improve the quality of life. (ADM)
    * We help all people live healthy lives (Bristol Myers Squib)
    * We are the easiest pharmacy retailer for customers to use. (CVS)
    * Serve with Love (Burgerville)

A few tips on creating a great mission statement:

   1. Keep it short! You want people inside AND outside of your organization to be able to tell who you are and what you’re about.
          * Long Statement: Our mission is to operate the best specialty retail business in America, regardless of the product we sell. Because the product we sell is books, our aspirations  must be consistent with the promise and the ideals of the volumes which line our shelves. To say that our mission exists independent of the product we sell is to demean the importance and the distinction of being booksellers. As booksellers we are determined to be the very best in our business, regardless of the size, pedigree or inclinations of our competitors. We will continue to bring our industry nuances of style and approaches to bookselling which are consistent with our evolving aspirations. Above all, we expect to be a credit to the communities we serve, a valuable resource to our customers, and a place where our dedicated booksellers can grow and prosper. Toward this end we will not only listen to our customers and booksellers but embrace the idea that the Company is at their service. (Barnes & Noble)
          * Short Succinct Statement: Mental Health Mission Statement: We transform lives.
   2. Be sure that EVERYONE in your organization knows what your mission is and can articulate it powerfully on the company’s behalf.
   3. Remember that a mission statement is about who you are and what your customers can count on you for. A mission is not your vision, not your goals or objectives and it isn’t something that you’re working towards. It is who you are on the day you open your doors.

Once you’ve got your mission clearly defined and your employees enrolled – NOW is time to look at what strategies you need to employ to share who you are with the world. Some might say, that the process I just outlined is time consuming or not necessary. Here’s the bottom-line. If you are clear about who you are and why you’re in business- you are going to save boatloads of money and even more sanity when it comes to creating and executing your marketing plan.  

I’m going to finish up by giving you a few ideas about how to ensure that your marketing plans are an authentic representation of who you are:
 

    * Always tell the truth.
    * In order to avoid green washing keep the following in mind:
          o Understand and be able to explain all of the environmental impacts of your business/product across its entire lifecycle.  
          o  Share your journey- both the opportunities and the challenges with your customers. Encourage them to join you on that journey. It will create relationship with them and build trust knowing that you face the same challenges that they may be facing.  
          o  If and where possible seek out third party eco-labeling and certification programs, such as EcoLogoCM and Green Seal to legitimize your marketing claims.  
          o Avoid using vague or ambiguous language. Words like “all-natural” or “environmentally friendly” are misused by many and could create distrust with your clients.
          o Look for ways to partner in your community. School events, picnics, conferences are a great way to get your name out there, for little to no cost. Most of us are inundated with requests from non-profits and schools seeking our time, energy or resources. Look at this as a creative way to market your business. Choose events that fit the type of customers that you want to know you. I think my partners on this panel will talk a bit more about that.  
          o And finally, create strategies that are fun for you to execute. If it feels like a drag to you, that’s how it’ll land for your customers.


http://missionfirstmarketing.com/blog-marketing/79-creating-a-mission-led-marketing-strategy]]>Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:18:01 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/10/tricks-to-choosing-great-keywords.html Keywords are the words you want to rank well for [ and a vital part of SEO]. "Keywords" is somewhat of a misnomer, since when we say keywords we're actually talking about multi-word phrases. You may want to put some thought into the keywords you want to target. Yes, I've said ad nausea that you should just focus on building a good website and not worry about the SEO. That's true, but you can cross that line just a little bit by thinking about what phrases you hope your page will match for when creating that page.

Long tail -- search queries that individually aren't searched that often, but all of which together account for most of your search traffic. A common misconception is that most of your traffic will come from a handful of 2- to 3-word "money phrases". But on a good information-rich site, you'll get traffic from all many of searches that you never thought of, many of them 4+ words in length.Yesterday the top 5 searches into my site comprised only 14% of my total search traffic. The top ten comprised only 20%. Does this concern me? Not at all. If the only traffic I could depend on were the few money terms I optimized for then I wouldn't get much traffic. I love the fact that I get Traffic -- the visitors who come to your website. tons of traffic for phrases I didn't specifically target. This is known as getting the long tail. Jakob Nielsen demonstrates this in graphical form by showing how most sites could easily enjoy more traffic simply by adding content. Even though a good site will get most if its traffic from the long tail, it doesn't hurt to eek out better performance by targeting some specific keyword phrases, and that's what the rest of this page is about. But as you read, bear in mind that the keywords you're targeting are not the be-all and end-all of how you expect visitors to find your site. Keywords in general

The best keywords are 2- to 4-word phrases that accurately describe what you offer using everyday language that searchers are likely to type in, and which aren't so competitive that you have no chance of getting on the front page. If your keywords are too general then they'll likely be too competitive, and even if you rank well on them your traffic might not convert well, since searchers are usually looking for something specific. But if your keywords are too specific then few people will search for your terms and you'll get few potential visitors. Note that since the engines rank pages, not sites, you will target different keywords on different pages.

You might go for a more general term on your home page, and more specific terms on your inside pages. Common mistakes in selection of search terms include targeting: * Single-word terms * Terms that are way too broad, and not focused to what you offer * Terms that are too specialized, which nobody searches for * Terms which are unpopular * Highly-competitive terms which you can't hope to rank well for. -http://websitehelpers.com/seo/choosing-good-keywords.html

Want more? Go to http://freecommerce.weebly.com ]]>Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:12:09 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/10/want-your-website-to-get-notice-seo-is-the-answer.htmlWhat is SEO? It is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. What exactly does SEO do? It is the method of analyzing and constructing individual web pages, as well as entire sites, so that they can be discovered, analyzed, and then indexed by various search engines.

SEO can make the content of your web pages more relevant, more attractive, and more easily read by search engines and their crawling and indexing software.

Why would this be of great importance to you? Would it be important to you if customers were unable to find your telephone number or find the address of your business? I do not think that many businesses could survive for very long in this situation.

This situation could apply to a web site. Can potential customers locate your current web site easily? Traffic to your web site could be extremely low. Potential customers might not even know that your site exists.

"Wait a minute!" you say. "We have a beautiful web site, and we include the web site address in all advertising campaigns. Why would people be unable to find our site?"

Of course, your current customers and persons already acquainted with your business would be likely to find your web site without difficulty. Wouldn’t they?

Are you absolutely sure that your advertising has reached enough potential customers? Did you consider that some people simply do not read the newspapers? How about people who didn’t get the issue of the magazine where you placed an expensive ad?

Did these people hear the WABC radio broadcast when your commercial aired? Were they watching channel 44 during the news hour? Were they on the direct mail list for which you paid thousands of dollars?

So how about those search engines that everyone uses? Potential customers will type a word or two into the box, hit ’Enter’, and immediately find a listing for your company’s web site. One more click and you have another visitor. Search engines sure are great, aren’t they?

Yes, they certainly are great, and the ’type-and-click’ scenario above does happen. More often than not, however, it doesn’t happen without a little work. Search Engine Optimization is that work.

Reference: http://www.seoworkers.com/seo-articles-tutorials/search-engine-optimization.html


Comming in the November FREE & EASY SEO Basics! Workshop.]]>Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:39:13 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/09/the-6-most-overlooked-customer-touch-points-the-basics.html Think the only impressions your company makes are through branding, sales calls, and customer service? Think again. Mishandling interactions like reference management and billing can cause customer defection as quickly as a poor contact center experience.

 
Good relationships depend on the little things, but it takes more than just first-call resolution or prompt follow-up from a sales rep to fulfill CRM's promise. Even businesses with sophisticated CRM strategies lose valuable customers to the mismanaging of basic touch points--one too many reference requests, a botched service visit, a sloppy sales quote, shoddy billing practices.

In fact, organizations of all sizes and levels of CRM sophistication often overlook six primary customer touch points: reference management, field service intelligence, workflow management, sales quoting, customer segmen- tation, and billing. What happens to relationships when those crucial touch points are mismanaged? The relationships end.

What follow are strategies companies use to ensure that they properly handle these touch points to keep their customers happy--and to keep them coming back.

Touch Point 1: Reference management
Last year Steve Silver worried that his company's reference program was wearing thin on his top customers.
"We were frequently returning to the same subset of customers and asking for references," says Silver, vice president, sales operations, U.S./Canada, for data storage firm StorageTek. "The last thing you want to do is to turn happy customers into frustrated customers as a result of too many reference requests."

Finding a better way to manage references was also important because Silver and his team were planning to involve references earlier in the company's lengthy sales cycle to confirm StorageTek's leadership credentials. (The company has been offering data-storage products and services for more than 30 years, and positions itself as "The Storage Experts.")

GA_googleFillSlot("dCRM-TextAds"); The solution came from a company that offered something Silver could relate to: a system that stores references.
Point of Reference recorded detailed interviews with StorageTek's customers, and then stored the interviews in an audio file on the password-protected Web site Point of Reference hosts for its customers. The recordings are organized into familiar topics, usually centered on common business challenges, such as the way in which a company uses StorageTek to help balance the cost of storing and managing data with its changing value over time.
StorageTek prospects enter a password and listen to customers discuss the company's storage expertise.

"Our salespeople were highly skeptical at first," Silver says. "But once they listened to the recordings, heard the passion in our customers' voices, and saw how easy it was to jump from topic to topic, they were sold."

Point of Reference provides StorageTek with reports detailing each prospect's visit to the reference site--which topics were accessed and for how long. "Our salespeople find that to be highly actionable data," Silver says. The primary benefit of the new tool so far, he notes, is that salespeople "are more willing to bring their customers forward to serve as references."

StorageTek plans to integrate data generated from Point of Reference with its Siebel and SAP CRM capabilities, Silver says, to develop a "single, holistic view" of the customer.

Touch Point 2: Field service intelligence
Managing the service operation using internal intelligence can improve the process to the point of both productivity and sales gains. For instance, the use of scheduling automation is widespread, but basic automation may no longer suffice. Some organizations boast scheduling capabilities that rival the sophistication of complex financial analysis.

Take, for example, the field service portion of Siemens Westinghouse Power's Customers First initiative. Siemens Westinghouse Power, a division of Siemens' power generation organization, provides onsite maintenance and repair services to power-plant customers throughout the Western hemisphere. Each year roughly 600 internal engineers and technicians from 50 district offices conduct maintenance during customers' 1,300-plus scheduled power outages. Stephen Darling, field service operations resource coordinator, can also call on more than 1,000 part-timers from his Orlando, FL, office.

Darling's calls are the result of computations far more intricate than matching skills to locations. Although the division's new approach has proved highly cost-effective, Darling stresses that internal efficiencies always come second to meeting customers' needs.

In January 2003 the power division replaced a legacy scheduling application with ClickSoftware's ClickSchedule, which integrates with an SAP system that contains a high-level view of customer outage schedules. ClickSoftware helps the division to track more than 400 skills and proficiency ratings on all 1,600 engineers and technicians, all customer needs, outage start and end dates, the location of each service technician, their vacation and sick time, up-to-date training histories, language proficiencies, and passport and visa status.

"We need to monitor daily utilization and graph available resources-to-needs to make sure we can meet demands," Darling says, adding that outages can cost customers as much as $100,000 a day.

The Customers First initiative has benefited Siemens Westinghouse as much as it has its customers. Since Siemens Westinghouse began using ClickSoftware, the division has posted record sales and profit, while reducing its field service force by 10 percent.

Touch Point 3: Workflow management
Workflow management describes the processes and cross-functional handoffs that occur in response to a specific customer request within an organization. Bailiwick Data Systems has drastically increased the workflow IQ of its IT field service capabilities, many of which are delivered through an extensive network of partners.

Two years ago much of the systems integration and IT professional services firm's workflow management consisted of swelling manila folders, opened in response to work requests, and passed through ordering, vendor management, invoicing, billing, etc. A Bailiwick employee would print a customer's email request, slide it into the folder, look up the closest qualified contractor, and fax that contractor a work order, which the contractor would sign and return. Subsequent communications also were stuffed into the folder, which was then handed off to a manager who oversaw contractor relationships and addressed issues that arose during the work.

Once the work was completed a third Bailiwick employee, responsible for collecting vendor invoices, would take possession of the manila folder. When all of the vendor invoices were submitted, an order would be entered into the accounting system and the documents in the manila folder would be scanned and stored on a general server.

Thanks to Microsoft CRM and Outlook, Bailiwick Data Systems' internal workflow is now highly automated, quicker, and more accurate. An emailed work request enters a service module as a case and automatically alerts a vendor manager that a specific type of vendor in a specific location is needed. The manager selects a vendor from the database--a custom application integrates Microsoft MapPoint's location functionality with the CRM system--and then clicks a "task complete" box, which alerts the person in charge of managing cases on a daily basis.

All the information is also available to the sales force, and if the Bailiwick employee who handles ordering, vendor management, or invoicing happens to be out of the office on a given day, the process of fulfilling the work order no longer comes to a halt. Other managers can use the system to push the order through its appropriate workflow.
Accounts receivable also finds value in the CRM system. "When you're dealing with large corporations it is important to communicate quickly if something isn't paid, because usually it is a bureaucratic error somewhere," says Missy Carbonneau, IT administrator. "If you have a good communications trail you can usually resolve the issue quickly."

Touch Point 4: Consistent quoting
Patrick Harris, Sealing Devices' IT director, used to cringe when his salespeople "misquoted" each other while dispensing different price estimates on the same item to the same customer. Before the manufacturing company implemented Oracle Sales and Quoting in 2003, the inside and outside sales teams were doing just that. A clunky, legacy-quoting application frequently short-circuited consistent communications between internal and external sales forces, and drove salespeople to workaround mode. "Some would email word-processing documents, because it was easier than dealing with the old quoting system," Harris says. "Some would handwrite the quote and then fax it."

Now when a customer calls, an inside salesperson creates an opportunity and then, when the customer gives the nod, converts the opportunity to a detailed quote with a click. That single point-of-entry also replaces the previous need to manually enter the same data separately into the quoting system, order management system, and the ERP system.

Price breaks associated with quantity discounts are automatically listed; they were not in the old system. The new system also creates a quote in PDF format and emails that document to customers. "In my mind quoting is at the heart of the sale process," Harris says. "The way in which we now present ourselves gives us a lot of credibility with customers."

Touch Point 5: Customer segmentation
According to Saffron Rouge CEO Jeff Binder, there is a difference between meeting customers' needs and meeting one customer's needs--especially online.

When it comes to tailoring sales and marketing efforts to the individual needs of online customers, Binder believes many CRM tools fall short, because "everything on an analytical level is essentially performed on an aggregate basis, as far as Web sites are concerned." Binder's organic beauty-products company operates two Web sites, an Amazon.com store, and a retail shop at its headquarters in Guelph, Ontario.

Lump-sum analyses of online customer activity may help identify top-selling products, but they frequently neglect to factor in other crucial questions that can improve marketing effectiveness: How much has each individual customer spent in the past year? When did the customer last make a purchase? What product categories and subcategories does the customer spend the most time reviewing? What organic face-care products are favored by customers who spend the most money in the body and bath product section?

Few companies with e-commerce and CRM capabilities use answers to these types of questions to fuel more focused marketing campaigns. "The campaigns generally equate to, 'You bought X, now here is a product or service that is related to X that we would recommend,'" Binder says. "Still, there are very few systems that do that very well."

Binder uses one of them, NetSuite, to segment customers and create marketing campaigns in a more complex fashion. A customer who has spent more than $500 in her lifetime, but who has not made a purchase in nine months, receives a different marketing pitch than a customer who has spent a total of $50 and has not bought an item in six months. NetSuite also generates reports that show Binder which categories and subcategories on the Web site generate the most revenue.

Saffron Rouge also uses NetSuite as its point-of-sale system in the retail shop, which equips clerks with customer information as well. "Now we can analyze customer data on much more of an individual basis," says Binder, who anticipates that more personal analyses-- and the marketing campaigns they generate--will boost the amount of products that customers purchase and the frequency with which they shop.

Touch Point 6: Billing
Companies routinely neglect the way in which an innovative new process or a snappy upgrade affects their customers' actual experience. Karen Smith, Microsoft's global CRM product manager, mentions a telecommunications company that converted to unified billing: customers received one bill for all their lines and the company cut costs.

One of those customers requested a slightly modified version of unified billing, one that would meet his specific needs. When he asked to have his two business (a LAN and a cell phone) and two personal (a different LAN and cell phone) lines on two separate bills for expense-submission purposes, service representatives responded, "Sorry, sir, we can't do that. We use unified billing."

The frustrated customer devised a workaround by moving his two business lines to another provider. His original phone company responded with a rate increase--he no longer qualified for a volume discount. So the customer moved all of his business to provider number two.

The lesson? Billing matters, Smith says, and companies with CRM strategies that acknowledge the importance of billing tend to experience fewer customer defections. "We may think that something will be great to do for customers, but before we take action we need to really step into their shoes. Companies often focus on CRM functionality and integration, but they forget about some of the most basic touch points."

Executives who walk a mile in customers' shoes before racing to "improve" relationships with big ideas tend to be more sensitive to crucial touch points. That sensitivity can lead to more fulfilling long-term relationships.

Based in Austin, TX, journalist Eric Krell covers CRM strategies and trends
By Eric Krell Posted Dec 13, 2004
-http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/The-6-Most-Overlooked-Customer-Touch-Points-43348.aspx]]>Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:52:26 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/09/ring-central-an-easy-way-to-inexpensive-voip-and-phone-services.htmlRingCentral Likes:

Unlimited Minutes on RingCentral Office Plans: RingCentral converted their top to plans to what they are calling "RingCentral Office". With these top two plans you get a fully functional, feature rich small office system that includes unlimited minutes for those customers that heavy calling needs. This now creates a true small business phone system that is affordable for even the small business or home office!

Feature Rich: RingCentral offers an extensive and comprehensive list of features.

No Charge to Transfer 800 or Local Numbers: RingCentral doesn't charge a fee to tranfer your existing 800 or local number, where other vendors charge a one time fee per phone number to transter.

Integrated Real-Time Call Controller: This feature allows you to turn your PC into a call center command center. You can easily answer or screen incoming calls, send them to voice mail, transfer to another extension, disconnect or even monitor voice messages as they are being left and pick up only the ones you want to talk to. You can even prompt the caller to speak their name and it will be played via your PC speakers.

Click to Call/Ring Me Web buttons: RingCentral and Phone.com are the only two vendors that offer this functionality. You can add a button to your website to easily allow your visitors to call you directly from their PC.

RingCentral Bottom Line:
 If you are looking for a stable, market leading partner that offers a very wide range of desireable features at good price points, then RingCentral is a great option. Just be aware that some customers have reported issues with customer service.

In addition, if you have heavy calling needs, and are looking for a plan that includes business class IP phones, then you will definitely want to check out the RingCentral Office plans with Unlimited Minutes and IP phones standard on both plans

Click Here to Start for Free:
http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-3611241-10465503]]>Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:07:31 +0700http://freecommerce.weebly.com/1/post/2009/09/i-contact-a-top-ten.htmliContact's goal is to offer simple and easy-to-use, yet powerful email marketing software for modern growing busienss online solution from iContact manages to exceed their goal and is the best email marketing service available.

Achieving our highest honor, the “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award,” iContact blows the competition out of the water with intuitive and elegant campaign creation, strong reporting functions and some impressive extras, including an online community.

iContact will help you completely manage an email campaign in three easy steps. Some unique features include the option to create surveys and an autoresponder, so your customers will never feel neglected. Overall, iContact is the best in the business; however, we would like to see them take their reporting features further by including conversion tracking and integration with Google Analytics.

iContact Standout Features:

• Increase deliverability with whitelisting
• Decrease lost messages with SpamCheck
• Blogging and RSS feed tools
• Surveys

Feature Set:   There are quite a few features that help make iContact so effective. One impressive feature is your email’s subject line and complete content to determine the likelihood your messages will end up in your clients' junk boxes. This SpamCheck technology helps you proactively avoid wasting precious resources and having your hard work end up unnoticed.

iContact also allows you to establish aliases and send emails based on established demographics or filters. For example, if you just want to send an email to those on your list between the ages of 25 and 35 you can separate these people from your list and send a personalized campaign to them (without establishing an additional list for 25 to 35-year-olds). You can manage and filter your list of message receivers on all sorts of criteria, including 13 standard fields, and any other custom fields you wish to segment by.

Ease of Use:   Setting up this service is a cinch, and the interface is simple to navigate. All tabs are located clearly at the top of the screen. Just select your section and iContact’s small setup wizards will efficiently direct you through each step of the process.

The entire process is straightforward and logical. iContact is great for beginners, but has enough cutting edge features to accommodate advanced users as well.

Email Campaign Creation:   Creating an email campaign is simple with iContact's step-by-step process. First, select the "Create" tab. Then choose how you want to create your email or survey. You can use a web page, HTML type, plain text or utilize one of the pre-made templates. The whole process is user-friendly and you can preview your message after it is completed, and even save a draft to complete later.

Additionally, iContact included the largest list and best selection of templates we reviewed. With more than 300 template options you are guaranteed to have a professional looking email message even if you are completely unfamiliar with HTML code.

iContact will also let you create an email from an existing website on any server. You can customize the page by inserting images, hyperlinks, tables, lines and other basic formatting features.

Although iContact included one of the best email creation sections we reviewed they only included .5 MB (500 KB) of image hosting. This should be sufficient for a few logos and stock photographs, but .5 MB of space is used very quickly.

Campaign Reporting:   All the reporting features in iContact are conveniently located under the “Tracking” tab and the summary of your emails is on the “welcome” button for quick access. iContact will report actual click-throughs, as well as messages sent, forwarded, bounced, delivered and unsubscribed emails.

The tracking and reporting features in iContact are thorough and certainly useful. You will be able to effectively monitor and report all sorts of statistics, complete with easy to read tables and charts. The data can easily be exported into other forms, and will help you track the effectiveness of your work and the success of your campaign.

Help/Support:   iContact has some of the best and most comprehensive help options from the services we reviewed. Apart from the general knowledgebase, iContact includes video tutorials, live webinars and an extensive selection of articles and additional resources like a company blog and newsletter. Live support is available over the phone, through email, and even over live chat.

iContact also features an impressive community. This unique features allows you get your content out to even more people. You can publish your blog posts or newletters within the iContact community, and increase your potential viewers and subscribers.

Summary:   Overall, iContact is an excellent email marketing service. If you're interested in creating a simple and effective email campaign with surveys, autoresponders and more this is the service for you. In addition, there are tons of additional help features to get you campaign off to a great start. With a complete lineup of tools, easy to use interface, and several innovative features, iContact is the best email marketing service we’ve seen.

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