5 Dos for Targeted Email Marketing

I'm tired of Spam. I, like millions of you, get spammed the hell out off and if it weren't for the awesomeness of spam filters I would not use emails. So keeping on the topic of Spamming I decided to write this to inform companies, organization or person who want to communicate to the rest of the world about their products, services, blogs or websites.

Here are my 5 Do’s for Targeted Email Marketing.

Here's a scenario. John is an Educationalist and very often visits an online books store, for ease sake we'll call it Onlinebooks (no ref to the already existing webpage), to view the latest newest books that have released under his Category of interest “Education”.


1) Ask permission: It is very very important to have users permission to talk to them or update them on any new news, products or services that you may have. This can be done either:

1. At the time of Sign up. Where users have the option to choose if they want to be communicated too or not.
2. At the time of Purchase. This is when users proceeds to checkout ask them if they would like to contacted the next time a new product release is available. In the case of the above scenario, Onlinebooks would ask John if he would like to receive alerts when a new book is added to the education category or a new book has released from the same author whose book he purchased.

This will ensure that Onlinebooks has John's permission to talk to him. In addition, always ensure that users have the ability to stop receiving communication from you cause if they start flagging you as spam then your email addresses get blacklisted which could be bad.

2) Collect information of interest from your customer: Here it’s important to understand what product or service, you offer, interests you customer.

1. At the time of registration ask your users for their interest.

2. During the checkout process ensure track all purchases. This information can then be used to understand customer’s interest. In this case the website may need store cookies on the user’s machine. Ensure that this is disclosed to the user.

With this step Onlinebooks will ensure that John constantly receives only relevant information.


3) Analyze time return purchases of customer: This means track to see how often your customers comes back to purchase from you again. Example John, on an average, takes a month to complete a book.
This would ensure that on at the every month relevant communication is sent to John on the topics you've identified that may interest him.

4) Profile you customers: "Nice to put a face to a name" is commonly is used when meeting some after having many non-personal meetings. In the online world the chances of that happening are slim. Hence you would need to profile your users. This is why many companies today have a profile section for users to fill and update.
Applying the above scenario this would be very important information for Onlinebooks because John's wife's just delivered a baby boy. Now John's a father and would obviously like to read up on fatherhood. Onlinebook can then use this information to start selling baby books to John in addition to his regular education books. Hence creating another stream of revenue. Off course you may need to keep reminding your customers to update their profile.

5) Constant periodic communication: Don't bombard your customer with information every day and at the same time don’t not communicate with your customer for a long time. Ensure there is a period when communication is sent like once every 15days, once a month etc. Going a step ahead and letting your customers choose the time frame for communication will be a huge positive. However don't forget to include all the new releases or updates in this communication between the last communication and new one.

I hope this has been helpful. Please feel free to speak your mind on the comments section.

5 points to consider before buying a Car

I know alot of you really know what you want when buying a car or some kind of transportation. However, there are alot of people, inspite of knowing what they want and considering it good judgment, have buyer’s remorse in the second month. Listed below, in no particular order, are five points that I would consider you should think about.

1) Purpose: What is the purpose of buying your vehicle? Is it to move your Family of 5 to church every Sunday, is it meant for those nice long drives to the country side for just the 2 of you, Do you want to go off-roading with it? These are some questions that you would really need to consider. The purpose is very very important. If it’s a city car for 2 people then consider a smaller hatchback that is fuel efficient since parking would be easier and filling up would cheaper.

2) Budget: Again a very important question that must be answered before you start looking. What’s my budget? Here’s why. When you set a budget before going out and looking for a car then you can shortlist all the cars that fit in your budget. However if you don’t have a budget then there is nothing that confines you and that is when you overspend.
Another point to remember here is that if you are planning to take an auto loan to finance your purchase then you would need to research various banks auto loan packages to find the most comfortable one for you.

3) Aftersales: Automotive companies business plans are not based on New sales i.e. the real revenue maker for automotive companies are not in the sales of new cars. The revenue is in the aftersales. Hence these companies make 70% of their revenue selling you car parts; car dealers make money selling you Service contracts etc.
You need to consider the cost of ownership of the car and not the cost of buying a car. The cost of ownership includes

• Cost of regular service checkups. Some dealers sell yearly service contracts that cover these costs.
• Cost of spares: if something breaks is it in your budget / financial capability to replace it.
• Insurance: for premium cars such as Maybach, BMW etc the premium on these is high as compared to a Toyota or Honda or a Fusion. Again consider what you can afford.
• Cost of Gas: Now a year ago when a barrel of Oil was at 146$ there was a sudden trend shift towards Hybrids. When buying a car take into to consideration what it the price of gas were to be remain at 146$ for a year could afford a Hummer H2 then?

4) Safety: If you live in a place where there is no traffic sense and no speed limit restrictions then safety maybe something that you would need to consider. Sitting in a Volvo is definitely safer than sitting a Toyota Corolla.

5) Re-sale: Re-sale value is an important way to figure out, approximately, how much money you could make if you plan to sell your car sometime in the future. It’s good to leave the re-sale research till when you have selected atleast 3 makes of cars that you would consider. Good ways to research, check local classified listings to see if the same makes are being sold and the asking price, Head down to the local used car dealership and research online too.

Hope these help you in your search for the ideal and most suitable car. If there are other points that you would like to add please feel to comment.

5 Queue Dont's

Well I was standing in a Queue at a local bank yesterday. After a number of annoying incidents while in Queue I decided to list 5 Basic Queue Etiquette.

1) Don't stand too close to the person in Front of you. To many of us this may be a given however there are people who don't have proximity issues. No buddy I don't want to feel your breath on my neck and yes I appreciate you trying to kill the boredom but stop singing that Celine Dion song.

2) Cough or Sneeze in a Napkin: Again not to sound all British but when you roll your fist to cover your mouth for when u cough / sneeze there is a chance that you fist would have an opening which is used to cover your mouth and exit. If you cough or sneeze with force thru your cylindrical shaped fist cover, there is good chance that you will spray the person in front of with your inner bodily fluids. Disgusting!

3) Letting one rip: Now when I was in the Queue some did let it rip. Now in a situation like this you can't really tell who it is, to openly make fun and embarrass them, but it just gets uncomfortable for everyone standing there. So don't do it.

4) Avoid kicking the person in front of you when moving forward. This is Fucking Annoying.

5) Don't get your kids to stand in Queue along with you. Kids get frustrated rather quickly. When that happens they start getting Whiny and Cranky. This tends to make standing in a Queue all the more frustrating for you and other people too. If it is your Kids then you have no reason to get frustrated cause that is the commitment you made when you decided to have kids.

These are some of main Etiquette I consider important for people to practice when queuing. Let me know if you have any more suggestions in the comments sections

5 Elevator Dont's

An elevator ride is not really something that you would give second thoughts too, unless when the door opened and you saw an annoying colleague, a neighbor that smells or a fling that didn't work. Below I have listed 5 Elevator dont's to avoid being avoided.

Again these are listed in no particular order.

1) Don't pick your nose: Now here is something I have noticed people do. Picking their nose in the elevator. Even worse is when the doors are shutting and they think that no ones going to make it and they start, And you Make it in time to see a person picking their nose with a face that looks like a 100 volts of electricity just passed thru it. Don't Do it. If you manage to get away with being the only person in the elevator and do pick your nose, Please Please don't rub the bugger off on the elevator panels. That’s just disgusting.

2) Don't Fart: Again similar to picking your nose don't do it when there are people in the elevator lest you want to get branded as the Stink Monster or Stinky. This doesn't mean that you could Fart when your alone in the elevator cause no one wants to enter an elevator that taste of rotten egg salad that you may have had the night before.

3) Don't Burp: For the same reasons mentioned above. However if you do, please don't follow it up with the line "Its better to burp and taste it, than to fart and waste it". That just won’t work.

4) Don't sneeze or cough without holding your mouth. Rather than this being just elevator etiquette its more general.

5) If you are going up or down a floor don't take the elevator. You would have wasted 1 Min of the other passengers. Maybe the man in the back of the elevator needs to take a piss and because of that 1 min he pisses himself. How about the pregnant lady who’s about to pop maybe her water would break in the elevator or how about you because of you being lazy to use the stairs you get a heart attack and die at 55 instead of 60.

Well these are my 5 Elevator dont's. If you have anything that you think could be added post your comments. Would be great to know what you think

Top 5 - Things to do to beat the Redundancy blues

So you've been made redundant. I hate to mention this but I have more experience being made redundant than being employed. I have learnt alot on how to cope with the stress of being made redundant.

Here are 5 things I think will help beat the Redundancy blues. These aren't in any particular order.

1. Invest in yourself: Join courses, classes, groups or attend seminars on topics that you've always wanted to learn about.

2. Volunteer at your local Charity: Maybe your situation is bad but there is always someone else who is in a worse off situation that needs help. Volunteering always carriers a sense of satisfaction along with it.

3. Cultivate a hobby / brush-up on old talents: This probably the best stress buster. See how you can use your talents to generate a small income. Example if you play the piano, start a piano class for people in your community for a small fee. This will ensure that you are busy as well as generate some income.

4. Provide services: Use the skills and knowledge, acquired when employed, to consult companies / individuals that would require your expertise. Again you a can charge a nominal fee. This will ensure that you don’t lose touch of current market trends, as well as, adds to your resume.

5. If none of the above interest you then apply to as many job portals e.g Monster.com, Modusconnect.com, Naukri.com or Bayt.com as possible.

If there are suggestions that you think will beat the Redundancy blues please contribute by adding them in the comments.