Shailendra Dubey

There is a quote by “Thomas Prendergast”
“The Big guys know database and if you don’t your lost!”

Database Marketing is a powerful and competitive weapon – especially on the Internet. The growth of database marketing is rooted in the small business philosophy of staying close to the customers, under-standing and meeting their needs and treating them well after the sale.

Corporate marketing is tied to BIG, general marketing or advertising campaigns with a single untargeted message. This message may be based on the companies Unique Selling Proposition (USP). However, customers have different needs and a single USP spelt out to the whole market is no longer enough.

Messages must be tailored to specific segments of the market and ultimately to the market segment of one, the individual customer. Computerizing the customer database makes it possible to address messages more specifically and market additional products to each customer.

The characteristics of fully fledged database marketing are ….

1. Each customer and prospect is identified as a record on the marketing database; markets and market segments are groups of individual customers.
2. Each customer and prospect record contains not only identification and access information but also a range of marketing information. It also includes information about past transactions and about campaign communications.
3. This information is accessible before, during and after the process of each interaction with the customer/prospect, to enable “you” to decide how to respond to the customer/prospect’s needs.
4. The database is used to record customer/prospects responses to campaigns.
5. The information is available to marketing policy makers to enable them to decide such things as which target markets/segments are appropriate for each product/service etc.
6. Selling many products to each customer, the database is used to ensure that the approach to the customer is co-ordinated; and a consistent approach developed.
7. The database eventually replaces market research. Marketing campaigns are devised such that the response of customers to the campaign provides information, which the company is looking for.
8. Marketing Management automation is developed to handle the vast amount of information generated by DBM. This identifies opportunities and threats more or less automatically! This is fully fledged marketing automation. Very few companies have succeeded in doing this; but many have it as their goal.

DBM presents many challenges to management. It requires careful maintenance of great volumes of detailed customer data. Accessing the data, interpreting it, and using it to drive or support the marketing function requires a long-term marketing systems development policy.
It also requires computing and marketing people to work together, often educating each other. And, it may well require most people in the company to forget their traditional way of doing business.

DBM will only work if dealing with customers is viewed as an on-going process (Customer Contact Process).

The ladder of loyalty is a key concept in DBM.
1) No awareness of business or product/service.
2) Awareness of business
3) Awareness of product/service
4) Positive perception
5) Reognition of personal benefit
6) Enquiry
7) Objections overcome
Sale of product or service
9) Entry into continued relationship.

DBM is used to move customers up the ladder.

The essence of database marketing is communicating directly with the customers and asking them to respond in a tangible way. It provides the means for the customer or prospect to respond and is set up to measure and fulfill the response.

It sets up or reinforces a relationship with the customer, which is “fulfilled” when we follow up a customer’s response to our communication. Fulfillment may be in many ways; a personalized email, a telephone conversation, sending literature (pdf), a sales visit, attendance at a web seminar, exhibition or store, or sending products to the customer.

So DBM is a broad discipline, not a separate marketing communications medium, but a way of using any medium to elicit the desired response.

Source :- Veretekk

Popularity: 1% [?]

We’re nearly halfway through the year, and Google Health has launched nearly on schedule. The highly anticipated health tool is now live and accessible to all Google users. There are four basic categories to utilize: Your personal Health profile, Importing of medical records, Exploring online health services, and Doctor search.

Google explains that, yes, this is another “personal health record,” a way for patients to store and manage their medical information in one place. But Google seems to be trying to address one of the big problems with PHRs: maintaining them is a big pain.

The information you provide under your health records is used for your own personal purposes, and can be printed and taken with you to a doctor’s appointment. If an office is integrated with Google health, then the information is already accessible to them In terms of the extended health services provided through Google’s health portal, registering for any of these, and linking it to your Google health profile provides you with automated updates to that third party service.

The biggest hurdle of all may be that only 14% of medical practices keep records electronically, the WSJ noted earlier this year. The real moment for these services isn’t likely to come until larger numbers of docs finally shift to electronic records that can easily be transferred to personal health records.

As there are only a handful of services that can be connected to your Google Health profile, including ePillBox and Walgreen’s Pharmacy, the potential for increased user base and added value of integration with Google Health makes it a potentially covted place for which third-party services are accessed.

Still, some worrywarts have pointed out that Google and Microsoft, which offers something called HealthVault, won’t be subject to the strictures of the federal health privacy law known as HIPAA.

Popularity: unranked [?]

By Search Engine Newz

For last couple of years, Yahoo! has been the preferred destination for Internet users all over United States. However, according to Search Engine Journal Google now reigns supreme not only as the country’s most trafficked website, but also as the most popular search engine in the entire United States.

In a recent comScore ranking, since April 2008 Google for the first time has been able to surpass Yahoo’s figures of monthly visitors and have claimed the throne of ‘The King’. However, now all eyes are turned towards May 2008 results, as it is being speculated that Yahoo! might make a dash for a comeback in top position. The loss of the top spot might be a bit hard to digest for Yahoo! at this time, as it is reeling from the pressure of take over bids and trying to resurrect whatever is left of the company after the Microsoft-Yahoo! fiasco.

According to the ranking results, Google’s audience in April was 141.1 million, depicting an increase of 18% from the same time last year. Yahoo! also had an increase of 7%, which brought its traffic statistics to 140.6 million. However, inspite of several new launches and updates, Microsoft still ended at the third place with $121 million.

But, Yahoo! still beats Google in respect to page views with quite a big margin. For April 2008, Yahoo! recorded 33.6 billion page views and Google was quite far behind with just 28.7 billion.

We just have to wait and see the results for May 2008 ranking results. It is going to be close race.

Popularity: unranked [?]

As you all knows Google is so SMART, no body can stay hide from Google Eyes.

Content is food to Google, Google always love content. So to achieve good ranking, you have good content. Also if the content is new & fresh then it added an advantage to you.

But if you copy the content from any where, then……. if Google finds that the content is copied you will penalized.

Below is the pictorial representation of how Google find the duplicate content

Popularity: unranked [?]

Google Maps is grooming itself some more. The service now lets users browse and explore different places on Google Maps. With this feature, users can now explore an area through photos, videos, user-created maps, and suggested local queries.

Once a user gets the location he/she has searched for, they would also be able to see what the place is known for from photos and popular searches. On further clicking “Explore this area”, they would be able to find even more content which updates automatically with every pan and zoom. Users can thus keep dragging and zooming to newer places that catch their fancy.

This week, Google Maps has also added real estate listings to their service. So, when users click on “Show search options” under “Real Estate”, Google Maps will now display properties that are up for sale. Seems Google Maps is aiming to be more than just that — a mapping service!

Internet Marketing By Gatesix

Popularity: unranked [?]

By GENE GHIOTTO
The Press-Enterprise

Trim those bushes and water those lawns: Your home could be on the Internet for all the world to see.

Internet search engine Google has almost finished mapping western Riverside and San Bernardino counties for its street view feature, which gives users a 360-degree look at neighborhoods.

With the click of a mouse, the curious or people plotting a visit can navigate along most Inland streets and look at the front of your house or your neighbors’ houses as if they were driving down the street.

At some homes, cars sit in driveways and garage doors are open. Others have real estate signs planted in the front yard. The view can include the front door of a house. But leaves on low-hanging branches or overgrown shrubs can obscure that view. And residents can be seen, some sitting on the porch or walking down the street. More

Popularity: unranked [?]