Orange E-Business Advocate

FEC Sponsors Top 3 OC Vocalist Event

Family Empowerment, in conjunction with Bodles Opera House is putting on a set of a capella concerts to determine the Top 3 Orange County Vocalists of the Year. Check out both sites for dates, details, etc.

This is a great event that will hopefully not only get Family Empowerment's name out, but also be fun and rewarding for the participants involved. Have you thought about sponsoring a promotional event for your business? Post a comment to share your ideas, what worked, what didn't work, etc.

It is important for the businesses of Orange County to support one another and combine their strengths to put on successful events in the community. Not sure how your business can participate? Contact us at OCEA.

Smart Email Marketing

ECommerce Guide published an article today about improving your email effectiveness. In these days, where more than two-thirds of all email is spam, businesses have to a do a better job of marketing to their customers, and prevent themselves from being labeled as spammers.

Here are the highlights from today's article on how you can improve your email campaigns to be a more responsible marketer, and generate more business as well:

• Segment your list - do a better job of sending targeted messages to different demographics within your customer base. More personalized emails look less like spam, and will likely be more meaningful to the individual customer.
• Choose your words carefully - certain words are good indicators that an email is spam. Certainly avoid using "Viagra" in your emails! But also words like "free", "sale", "click here" etc.
• Be upfront with your customers - when they sign up to receive your emails, give them a true indication of how often you will be emailing them. Remember the old saying, "less is more!"
• Have a difficult opt-in and an easy opt-out process for customers receiving your emails. A difficult opt-in process (one extreme: via phone or writing) gives you more reliable emails and customers that are really interested in receiving promotions from you. An easy opt-out process (one-click unsubscribe, for example) puts customers at ease, knowing if they get emailed too frequently, they can simply opt out.

More resources:

ECommerce Guide Article

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

Popular Spam Phrases (This list isn't fantastic, but it was the best I could find quickly)

Jiva launches new website

Jiva Massage & Fitness, an on-site multidisciplinary wellness company (and client of OCEA), has launched their website this week.

As with all of OCEA's clients, it has been a pleasure working with the folks at Jiva, and I'm excited to see their website and business grow in the coming months. Besides providing some useful and interesting information about the various types of massage, Jiva's website gives pricing details (including discounts!) and will soon feature an online catalog of massage and wellness products.

If you are interested in signing up for personal massage sessions, or want to plan a corporate massage session as a great activity for your company, check out Jiva's brand new website. I think you'll find their professionalism and thoughtful approach very refreshing.

jivawellness.com