While some have raised spam-related concerns about the product, as far as we can tell, it basically operates like other third-party email marketing products. Customers won’t be getting surprise spam from TripAdvisor.com. They’ll be getting emails from hotels they’ve stayed at, which they’ve agreed to get emails about (even if it’s TripAdvisor doing the actual sending behind the scenes). The emails just come with encouragement for guests to leave reviews on TripAdvisor.

The video shows the basic process:

Review Express lets businesses add their own logos and personalized messages, and includes the ability to bulk upload up to 1,000 email addresses. It also processes send requests within 24 hours, and provides automatic notification of successful and unsuccessful sends. It can send messages in 21 languages.

“With Review Express, TripAdvisor aims to extend the relationship between businesses and their guests to encourage them to write reviews. This is a time-saver for owners, providing them with a powerful system to manage multiple emails and requests at no cost to the business,” said Severine Philardeau, vice president of global partnerships, TripAdvisor. “Review Express has been developed and enhanced based on extensive user testing and is an invaluable service for hospitality business owners looking to build their online reputation. When used in conjunction with our free display offerings for owners, Review Express provides a great online marketing package for small and independent hospitality business owners to capture the value of user reviews for their property.”

Businesses will want to follow the best practices TripAdvisor has laid out.

The format consists of flexible-sized tile strips, which Microsoft says gives advertisers a “valuable surface area” to deliver relevant content in scenarios where people expect commercial content. Here’s a look:

There are three customizable templates that advertisers can use: Online Retailer, Media Showcase and Catalogue.

Online Retailer, Microsoft says, “Allows the advertiser to capture consumers’ attention, and showcase a product or a service, and then connect the consumer to the advertiser’s online distributors. From a consumer standpoint, this template enables them to locate brick and mortar retail outlets in their area, alongside viewing and discovering product or service details within the tile experience.”

The company adds that Media Showcase “Gives a unique ad experience to get a brand’s message conveyed by using a combination of video, image galleries and text. The template is applicable to multiple verticals aiming at building awareness and consumer engagement.”

Catalogues simply lets you feature multiple products. The first tile shows the theme, and the others show different products.

In addition to three templates, the versaTiles format also consists of three states: Default, Hover and Click. The default state is what consumers see when they log in to Outlook.com, the hover state shows more in-depth info and/or additional images and info when they hover over the ad, and the click state has the ad expand when clicked, showing different creative elements or brand messaging (which varies by template).

What has been more successful for you in your marketing efforts? Email or social media? Let us know in the comments.

This week, ReadWriteWeb interviewed “father of email,” Ray Tomlinson, who implemented an email system in 1971 on the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). The piece cites some stats from the Radicati Group, saying that 144.8 billion emails are sent per day, and the number projected to hit 192.2 billion in 2016. Another stat from the same source: there are currently 3.4 billion email accounts worldwide, and somewhere around 75% of them are actually individual people.

That works out to be over 2.5 billion accounts of individual users. Facebook recently announced that it had hit the 955 million active user milestone, with just 552 million of them accessing it daily.

In the interview, Tomlinson is quoted as saying, “Email has the time difference – that is, you send it now, you read it later – you don’t have to have someone sitting there and ready to respond like you do with instant messaging to make it work and make it effective. You can use instant messaging that way, but if they’re not there, nothing happens, and you gotta remember that there may be a message coming back to you and go back to the IM client and look for the response.”

He also said he expects email to be around for “a good long time,” adding that “We may find that these other forms of communication may be merged with email.”

We are indeed still seeing the merge of other online communication channels with email. For example, earlier this summer, Facebook started listing Facebook email addresses as the default email address for users, as even the world’s largest social network recognizes email’s importance to the communication landscape. Google+ and Twitter have both recently made moves indicating that they are relying more on email for user engagement.

Email is even making its way to Google searches. Last month, Google introduced a new way for you to search your Gmail account right from the Google search box, perhaps enabling users to access old emails when they’re at their most relevant. It’s only in limited trial mode right now, but this could become an important Google feature sometime soon.

In this article, I talked about why this could make email marketing even better for conversions. The point I was trying to make is that it can make marketing messages available perhaps when they’re more relevant to the audience, when they’re actually searching for something that you’re selling. Basically, it adds some search marketing advantage to your email marketing efforts, though perhaps not in a way that’s as visible as straight paid search. But hey, it’s free.

ExactTarget’s Jeff Rohrs said in a piece about email’s 30th anniversary, “In fact, an overwhelming 77 percent of all consumers surveyed prefer to receive promotional messages from companies via email compared to five percent who prefer text messages and four percent who prefer Facebook. Email is also one of the most utilized apps on every smartphone — right up there with the phone, text messaging and the browser itself.”

Emphasis is mine, because those numbers are quite interesting, given how much we see about Facebook marketing these days.

According to a recent study from Experian, email volume rose 10% in the second quarter, compared to the second quarter of last year. This is only a continuation in a trend the firm says it has seen each quarter for the past three years. Open rates were similar to those in Q2 2011. While click rates declined from last year, the pace of that decline slowed. Revenue per email fro multi-channel retailers increased from $0.13 to $0.14.

According to that study, the average click rate rose for business products and services in Q2.

42% of brands, the firm says, enjoyed a “statistically significant” increase.

Is email as effective as it used to be? More? Less? Let us know what you think.

Here are some that are currently making the rounds.

This one about email viewing habits comes from litmus:

AOL Jobs points to this one based on Harris Interactive Poll data about watching video at work:

 

This one from WorkSimple analyzes the “work from home” phenomenon:

This one looks at how people share things using Bump:

This one from Marketo looks at how marketers are embracing the mobile web:

This is more a chart than an infographic, but still interesting (from Silicon Alley Insider):

 

Search Engine Journal posted this SEO Audit Checklist:

And then there’s the fear:

 Yesterday, Facebook announced their own "modern messaging system" that combines email, text messaging, and instant messages into a single stream that founder Mark Zuckerberg says goes well "beyond email".  The new service, which will debut Monday with an iPhone app and roll out over the next few months, mimics the behavior of teens who are already abandoning conventional email to converse across multiple platforms in short bursts. But Facebook Messaging could also make social music marketing more difficult. Here’s why:

Messages May Be Filtered Out – While a Facebook.com email address is offered, it’s not required. Whatever the source of email, Facebook promises to use "Friends", "Likes" and other clues to filter email. So a fan who signed up for a band’s email updates, could find their emails automatically shuttled into an "other" folder if they have not also friended the artist on Facebook.

Facebook says that their system will get smarter over time, so that people that aren’t friends on Facebook but communicate often will show up in the stream. How repeated one way communications like email newsletters will be filtered or allowed to pass into the users main stream is unclear

Too Much Of The Same – A major selling point of the Facebook’s system is that it unifies email, SMS, IM and Facebook messaging into a single stream somewhat like Google’s failed Wave.  But that means that artist and marketers who automatically post the same updates to multiple channels risk overloading users of Facebook Messaging.

Is There A Solution? – It’s important not to judge a system that no one has used, and its likely that some of Facebook’s new features will actually enhance the artist/fan relationship.  But a first look at Facebook Messages should encourage artists and music marketers to step up their friending efforts now to avoid flitering later and to closely monitor future developments.

Comments

Have you had more success with social media or email marketing? Comment here.

WebProNews recently had a chat with Chris Brogan at the Inbound Marketing Summit, and while most of the discussion centered around online video, email marketing came up, and some pretty good points were raised.

As our own Michael McDonald noted, “Social’s great, but not everybody goes to Twitter everyday, and maybe I have Twitter and Facebook, but not LinkedIn…but all of these people have email, and they check that every day.”

“I’ve got a stat like that for consumer brands,” said Brogan. “93% of people have a daily opt-in relationship with at least one consumer brand. 15% on Facebook. 4% on Twitter.”

“93% of people say, ‘I would like to get mail from this company every day…15% Facebook. 4% Twitter,” Brogan reiterated. “…and there’s no age skew in that. It starts at age 13, I think, in the study. And it’s young people just the same…maybe don’t want to be friends with Coke, but they do necessarily want the deals…”

“Send me an email, and tell me, you know, if I can get a deal on Mello Yello this week…” Mike agreed.

Watch the entire conversation below.

More WebProNews Videos

You might be amazed at how many email marketing companies there are out there. Just walking around the exhibit hall at ad:tech NY last week, there were seemingly countless booths for such companies. If you have any doubts about the health of email marketing, that should tell you something right there.

Despite the claims that pop up from time to time, email is far from dead, and many consumers would rather engage with brands through this channel than through their social networks.

If anything, smartphones have made email marketing as attractive as ever. My phone alerts me every time I get an email. That’s pretty powerful.

Do you think social media marketing will become as effective as email marketing? Tell us what you think.

Are you content with your ability to measure social media effectiveness? Let us know.

ShareThis, which reaches 400 million people a month through social media share buttons across content all over the web, has released some new metrics for measuring social media effectiveness.

One of the metrics is its Audience Index, which lets publishers understand and compare their social audiences against 850,000 other sites (and soon against categories), find out what types of influencers your site attracts, and find out how well you connect with influencers, listeners, and engaged customers.

The other metric might be even more useful. That would be "Social Reach".

"We recently surveyed publishers (ours and others) and found that over 60% wanted (and were missing) social referral analytics," ShareThis explains on the company blog. "Social Reach measures the true value of shared media across the web by looking at outbound sharing and inbound social traffic and, in the process, gives proper credit to the listener/responder of a share as much as the original influencer/sharer. Publishers can now get a more accurate measurement of how a piece of content circulates around the Web after it’s been shared across any service, rather than just the simple number of shares counted by a single service like Facebook."

"Social Reach is built in to all of ShareThis’ new share buttons that we introduced a couple of weeks ago, and the Social Reach score of each piece of content can be displayed on any page where our buttons are installed," the company says.

ShareThis shared some interesting stats regarding Social Reach with TechCrunch. For example, according to the company, Facebook accounts for 45 percent of all shared content across its network, followed by email with 34 percent, and Twitter with 12 percent.

While Facebook may get more shares from ShareThis, email appears to be more effective, as people are more likely to click on an emailed link (31 percent out of the 34 percent, compared with 36 percent out of FB’s 44 percent).

Either way, the metrics could prove to be very useful for publishers looking at optimizing their social media marketing strategies.

What tools do you use to measure social media effectiveness? Share with other WebProNews readers.

Is email marketing more effective than social media for you? Let us know.

The report is based on a survey of over 1,400 U.S. consumers, which the firm calls "nationally representative."

While Facebook may think email is "probably going away," marketers are still having a great deal of success with it. And just as increased mobile adoption continues to fuel social media use, it’s not exactly hurting email.

The report suggests that the rise of mobile will continue fuel email’s success. It notes that each generation of chipsets moves mobile devices closer to the personal computer. "Advanced behaviors today (accessing the Internet or checking email from a mobile device) will clearly soon be commonplace, at least for people in their working years. Nearly two-thirds of people under 24 have checked email on a mobile device," Econsultancy says.

"Online product research contributes a far larger percentage of total retail than the 8% directly attributed to e-commerce, while the evolving nature of digital interaction and customer service is changing the fundamental relationship between companies and consumers," says Econsultancy’s US Research Director, Stefan Tornquist. "The winners will be those who use digital communications most effectively, to influence and enable both online and offline purchases."

"Although a variety of media are competing for consumer attention, email continues to be the desired channel for many types of commercial communication," adds Tornquist. "Social networking and its effect on the nature of brand is the hottest topic in digital marketing, and deservedly so. It’s still worthwhile for marketers to remember that social network adoption is far from maturity."

The entire report can be found here.

Of couse, it’s not really a competition between social media and email. Both should be part of your marketing arsenal, and are effectively used together all the time. For example, another recent study from ExactTarget found that nearly 40% of consumers visit Facebook and Twitter to supplement the news, information or deals they receive via email marketing.

In what ways do you incorporate social media into your email strategy? Share with other WebProNews readers.

The IAB considers this part of its ongoing efforts to establish a "solid foundation" of guidance and tools for the email marketplace. It provides publishers, agencies and marketers with recommendations and best practices for the successful execution of email marketing campaigns.

The document covers:

- The use of email newsletters to reach valuable audiences
 
- Stand-alone email advertising to drive sales and site registration

- Revenue opportunities and pricing models for email newsletters and stand-alone email advertising
 
- Descriptions of emerging trends such as video in email campaigns

"The email channel offers a unique opportunity to reach consumers with relevant, differentiated and personalized content and messaging," said Sherrill Mane, SVP, Industry Services, IAB. "Email Monetization Strategies provides an in-depth assessment and guide to maximizing the success of email marketing."

"Email is one of the most effective direct and brand marketing mediums," said Sean O’Neal, Chief Revenue Officer, Datran Media, and co-chair of the IAB’s Email Committee. "These best practices provide the latest information and strategies to marketers and publishers so that they can maximize their email communications with their customers."

In case you think email is on the way out due to spam or social media, read the reasons why we don’t believe that is the case here and here.

Related Articles:

> Marketing Best Practices for Long Form Video

> 7 Behavioral Targeting Privacy Principles

> IAB Announces Guidelines for In-Game Ad Standards

> IAB Releases Social Advertising Best Practices

> IAB Rolls Out Click Measurement Guidelines

> IAB Releases Definitions for Social Media Ad Metrics

> IAB Releases Video Ad Guidelines

When asked to rank their preferred ways of receiving marketing messages, the majority of respondents (62%) said email was their preferred channel of communication, followed by direct mail (23%), and social media (13%). The least popular way to be contacted was telemarketing, with 80 percent putting it at the bottom of their lists.

The survey also found that email communications frequently lead to purchases, with three-quarters (75%) of respondents reporting that they had bought products or services as a direct result of receiving an email.

The most common items purchased as a result of direct email marketing were clothing (82%), followed by purchases from restaurants and coffee shops by almost half (49%) of respondents. Other popular items bought include grocery items (40%) and personal electronics (38%).

When it comes to social media, 40 percent of respondents said they receive communication from vendors on the social networking sites they use, such as Facebook and Twitter. Nearly one in five people (17%) have opted in or requested that companies actively contact them via social media sites.

"This survey reflects what we are seeing in the marketplace: e-mail is popular. It’s non-intrusive, can be highly tailored and is a compelling and actionable marketing communication," said Curt Bloom, President of smartFOCUS International.
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"Although some of the indications of the uptake and interest in social media may seem low, this is a new communication channel that businesses are tackling. In our survey, quite predictably, the age ranges that said they preferred contact via social media platforms were the 18 to 25 year-olds. With platforms such as Facebook reaching 300 million active users, we continue to see that businesses and retailers who ignore the potential of social media do so at their own peril."

Related Articles:

>10 Reasons Social Media isn’t Replacing Email

>Making Money With Social Media Marketing

> Social Media Will Not Replace Search