Tips on B2B email newsletter content
Mark Brownlow at Email Marketing Reports has published some useful tips on creating quality content for B2B email newsletters.
Mark has eight years' experience in writing various newsletters and his article contains 31 tips in total: 10 on managing your content, plus another 21 to give you ideas for your newsletter’s content.
Google refines its recruitment process
Google’s recruitment process is famously difficult, with candidates having to face multiple interviews (we've heard stories of 'double figures') while those with sound work experience have been turned down due to having less than perfect college grades.
As the company continues its rapid expansion, it has been forced to streamline this process, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledging last year that the company's high bar for hiring was holding back its expansion.
Mozilla releases new Firefox 2.0 to compete with IE7
Just a week or so after Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla has released the new version of its open source browser - Firefox 2.0 - prompting some people to suggest that the browser wars of the ninieties are back on.
Features of the new Firefox browser include phishing protection, which reports if a web site may be malicious; session saving, which restores windows or Firefox tabs if the browser crashes; improved access to Web feeds; spell checking; and search suggestions.
Video-sharing website Travelistic launches for travellers
Internet startup Travelistic.com - which aims to be the YouTube for travellers - launched yesterday, headed up by one-time CEO and president of MTVi.
Travelistic combines user-generated video with professionally produced programming, some of which is exclusive. The self-funded company itself plans to move into content creation, with a travel-themed 'video podcast' in the offing.
Diversion Media built the website using Ruby on Rails, harnessing the Google Maps API in the process to make it easy for users to browse videos by location, in a visual way. Users can also search for videos by tags.
All in all it looks pretty good. We spoke to CEO Nicholas Butterworth to find out a bit more...
Apple's iPod is five years old today
It is five years to the day that Apple launched the almighty iPod. The device has undoubtedly transformed the way many of us buy and listen to music. In the last five years, 68 million iPods have been sold, and the company holds a staggering 75% share of the market.
Alongside the iPod's success, its companion service iTunes now holds 88% of the legal music download market and is now more than breaking even, according to Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer.
Amazon launches the Spam Cube in the UK
The Spam Cube is a piece of anti-spam hardware which is being launched through Amazon in the UK, designed to sit between a broadband modem and your PC/laptop, scanning incoming email for unwanted messages.
This hardware will retail at around £100, but the real question is why internet users should have to pay for hardware to deal with this problem. Isn’t this a problem which could be dealt with some other way? You know, ISPs, that sort of thing...?
Branded sites more valuable for advertisers - OPA survey
New research from the Online Publisher’s Association claims that visitors to its member's branded content sites are more sought-after consumers than those who use portal sites, such as Yahoo.
The research, carried out by DJG Marketing using data from Nielson/Net Ratings and MRI indicates that visitors to the OPA sites bought more frequently and spent more money across several major categories including, entertainment, financial services, travel and automotive.
Tips on online video marketing
Robin Good has some interesting tips about the effective use of video to market your products and services online. Video marketing can be excellent method of communicating the benefits of your products or services within a short space of time.
When a visitor is delivered to your site by a search engine or some other link, they will be looking for the information they require instantly. A good video demo can save them having to trawl through the site to find the information or, worse still, deciding to look elsewhere.
The average Briton has spent £600 online so far this year
A survey by the Royal Mail has revealed that consumers in the UK spent an average of £609 online so far this year, with catalogues fuelling this spending increase.
The survey showed a link with catalogues, with 61% of consumers consulting one before making an online purchase, while 83% regularly use catalogues before buying online.
Amazon launches new question and answer site
Amazon is about to enter into competition with the likes of Yahoo! Answers and Microsoft Q&A with the launch of a new site, Askville, which allows users to have their queries answered by other community members.
The site is still at the testing stage at the moment, and participation is currently by invitation only, as well as only being available in the US and Canada.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
