Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
The Mobile Invasion
Posted by 
on Friday, August 6, 2010 
at 2:53 PM 
in During the upcoming weekend, I’d like you to look around a bit. Perhaps it’s while you grab a coffee, travel on public transportation, or attend a sports event or concert. As you watch what others are doing, I am quite sure that you will come to this conclusion: more and more people are carrying and using smart phones.
Mobile Marketing Watch published the results of a study by Nielsen that confirms this. In fact, the title of the post is “Android, Smartphones Invading U.S. With A Vengeance“.
Here is the chart that pretty much sums up what we all know, or will know, after this weekend 
There is no need for anyone to believe that the growth of smart phones will slow down anytime soon. Thus, if we are a printer, mailer, fulfillment house, or some other sort of marketing services provider, we must do everything we can to ensure that we ride this same path upwards.
- It might be with QR Codes: 2-D barcodes that help make print interactive and provide measurement.
- Perhaps it’s finding ways to incorporate calls-to-action on printed materials that require SMS/Text-Messaging.
- It may also mean finding ways to communicate with our prospects and customers via text.
Sure, this type of change will affect our business in various ways. If we are driving people to the web on their mobile phones, it would be wise to point them to mobile-optimized landing pages. If we are communicating via SMS, we may need to invest in new technology or a service.
But as the Nielsen study helps us to see, people are investing in smart phones. If we make the necessary investments to keep up with them, we may reap the benefits quickly.
Tags New Enhancements to ilinkONE Version 8.5
Over the past few weeks, we have greatly increased our intake of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and snacks.
Why? Well, they sure are delicious.
But also, we have been working hard to put the final touches on the latest release to our ilinkONE Version 8 software. Through the extra hours and shots of espresso in our coffee, we have emerged with a new software release that should greatly benefit our customers.
Here are just a few of the enhancements that we are pretty excited about:
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Email Template Editor We have plugged in a new WYSIWYG editor into our Email Template feature. This will make it a lot easier for you to create and deliver professional email campaigns. The new editor works with all of your existing email templates, the ones from our Template Library, or any new HTML emails that you may upload to the system. |
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Email and Landing Page Templates We have more than 30 new templates that can be used for your email marketing efforts. Customers will be able to browse through the template library at any time. Simply select the template that you’d like, and upload it to your site. We have also provided new Landing Page Templates as well. |
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Twitter/Social Media Integration We have enhanced the integration between our CRM system and the popular social media channel Twitter. Users can now associate their contacts (customers, prospects, etc) to a Twitter ID. They can then view the person’s recent Twitter activity directly from the contact record in our system. Users can also post collateral from the sales library directly onto Twitter from our system, simply by clicking the Tweet This link during order placement. |
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SMS/Text Messaging We have made it easier than ever for users to send out SMS/Text messages to their contacts. Mobile marketing continues to emerge as a channel that must be considered for use in a multi-channel marketing campaign. You can do it easily and successfully with ilinkONE Version 8. |
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Easy Steps to Personalization The benefits of delivering one-to-one communications have certainly been documented in many marketing case studies. It is now easier for users to identify areas for variable data on their landing pages, emails, and other marketing messages. |
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Styling of Questions and Answers Users now have greater control over the design and layout of questions and answers. There are new options to help you style your surveys and response forms, as well as new Question Types to help you create a survey that meets your design needs. |
