AutoResponderMax is our very own custom Volusion autoresponder and we’re pretty proud of it. It’s affordable, loaded with features, easy to use and it’s a part of Volusion’s Partner Marketplace. It is, quite honestly, too good to be true.
… but don’t take our word for it. Ask our peppy new commercial. It’ll tell you how wonderful AutoResponderMax is – and if you can’t trust a commercial, who can you trust?
We really don’t know how to explain it any better. AutoRespondermax is simply… well… how about if we let Sergiy from BestPysanky.com tell you:
“We’ve been using AutoResponderMax for 5 months now and the results are great! AutoResponderMax is one of best marketing options for your Volusion store! It took us only 15 minutes to set up. Hundreds of highly targeted emails are sent automatically and sales increased at least 5%.“
That sounds like we wrote it, right? Well, we didn’t. It was a totally unsolicited testimonial from an AutoResponderMax customer, but we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. If we had our way, every single Volusion customer would sign up for the 30-day trial to see how amazingly easy the setup is and to benefit from the FREE month of automated marketing that comes with it. We’re completely confident that everyone who tries it will love it just as much as Sergiy does.
… as long as you love completely automatic revenue increases, which we assume you do.
I received a Beta invite for Mashable Follow yesterday, Mashable’s new social sharing system for their site, and have spent a few hours playing around with it. On the surface, it seems to just add a few things to the existing Mashable site, but when you dig a little deeper, it starts getting more interesting. More after the jump.
In case you’re unaware of it, we recently introduced AutoResponderMax – a collection of customer outreach apps that automatically send emails based on trigger events, like cart abandonment or purchases. Not only is it effective and affordable (cheap, frankly), but it’s getting better every damn day. Today, we’re happy to announce two delightfully simple changes that are sure to make AutoResponderMax an even more effective eCommerce tool for any Volusion Merchant.
First, we’ve made an addition to the abandoned cart app that’s included in the collection. Now, we all know that abandoned carts are a huge problem for eMerchants. No one wants to leave any money on the table if they can avoid it and there are piles of research demonstrating the effectiveness of timely emails sent to customers who have recently walked away without completing their purchase. Our abandoned cart app was already an effective revenue generator and this latest update will surely bring even more potential sales back to your site like a little, automatic conversion machine.
Shortly after abandoning their cart, a registered customer will receive an email. What that email says is totally up to the merchant in question… an offer of help checking out, a discount or just a little reminder of the incomplete purchase. This has always been a great way to retrieve lost sales and now it’s even better. With our latest update, that email will now include a thumbnail image of the item (or items) left in the cart – reminding the customer of what they came close to buying and urging them to return. This simple visual reminder is a fantastic way to cut through the email clutter and bring ‘em back in.
Check out the second exciting update after the jump.
It turns out that many major corporations may not have any conscience whatsoever. We’ll pause here for a moment while you pick your chins up off of the floor.
Yes. Apparently, old-style business ethics have no place in the world of online marketing. As Exhibit Number One, we present this Wall Street Journal article, that (in summary) explains that after seeing Chrysler’s wildly popular “Imported from Detroit” commercial that aired during the Super Bowl (previously featured here), GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick immediately ordered his team to corner the market on the phrase “Imported from Detroit” when used as a Google search term. The article goes on to explain that GM also placed high bids for “Darth Vader” in order to divert some of the traffic that would otherwise have (rightly) gone to Volkswagon as a result of their hugely successful ad featuring a child playing the part of the classic villain.
… funny that they never saw the parallel as they slipped to the dark side.
Google Shopper has been a wildly popular Android app since its introduction last year, but until yesterday iPhone users were left out of the game. All of that changed when the Mac app store started offering Shopper as a free download on Tuesday.
Of course, there are a million ways to find and buy whatever you’re looking for these days, but Google shopper is one more step toward that total ease-of-use that turns browsers into buyers.
With Google Shopper, you don’t even need to know the specific brand of what you’re looking for. If you’re standing in front of it, take a picture. Shopper will do its level best to locate that object and offer you a variety of ways to buy it, both online and nearby in the real world.
But let’s say that you’re not standing in front of the thing you want to buy… you just know that you need a cast iron skillet (as shown in the screen shot). Just say “cast iron skillet” into your iPhone and Shopper will return a variety of choices. You narrow them to the one you want and that’s when the Comparison Shopping Engine kicks in.
…. which was our whole point in the first place. If you’re not using Comparison Shopping as a part of your overall online marketing strategy, you need to be. There are literally millions of sales that are passing you by and you don’t even know it. We can help you get in the game and capture some of that revenue you’re losing as you read this. Give us a call. We’ll set you up.
Including sessions on Affiliate Marketing, Linking, Search Marketing, and SEO (along with Social Media, Analytics and a host of other topics) PubCon is like a one-stop shop for online marketing expertise.
… also, with the conference’s Las Vegas locale, Kevin also managed to learn quite a bit about card counting, $5 lobsters and how to retain his Midwestern values in a city so filled with sin and temptation that it makes Sodom and Gomorrah look like Mayberry.
We’ve just completed a holiday update for The Garden Gates that included a fair bit of homepage redesign, and a truly beautiful print catalog (to be distributed locally in and around New Orleans).
Now generally, we go on and on about the evils of Christmas creep – the act of promoting retail holiday items a little earlier each year – but since there are already Christmas trees at Target and we’re pretty totally sure we saw a real live reindeer yesterday, we just went ahead and did it.
And we’re proud of it… so there.
You should definitely go check out the site and while you’re there, go ahead and download a PDF of the catalog (there’s a button on the homepage). If you don’t walk away humming “Frosty the Snowman,” you’re simply dead inside, my friend.
Dane Downer and Kevin Harman (our vice president and president, respectively) will be attending the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition at McCormick Place West in Chicago next week. They’ll be there for all four days of the conference and would love to meet up with any of our current (or potential) customers who are interested in chatting about eCommerce.
If you’d like to set something up, you can email Dane at dane.downer@brandlabs.us or Kevin at kevin.harman@brandlabs.us, or just look for these happy, smiling faces on the show floor (Dane’s on the left, Kevin on the right). They’re prepared at all times to drop some eCommerce knowledge.
For those who don’t know, there’s an app called Foursquare whose primary function is to allow its users to “check in” at specific locations. Check in more often than all of your peers and you become “Mayor” of that location. Up until now, the only benefit of Mayorship were bragging rights, and possibly a discount of some sort at that particular location. Starbucks has just changed all that.
Until June 28th, Mayors of any Starbucks location will receive discounts at all Starbucks locations. It’s the first national discount utilizing the app, but almost certainly won’t be the last.
Google Shopper has been a wildly popular Android app since its introduction last year, but until yesterday iPhone users were left out of the game. All of that changed when the Mac app store started offering Shopper as a free download on Tuesday.
Our fearless leader, Mr. Kevin Harman, just wrapped up a full week at 
Dane Downer and Kevin Harman (our vice president and president, respectively) will be attending the 
Did Google Kill Business Ethics?
Yes. Apparently, old-style business ethics have no place in the world of online marketing. As Exhibit Number One, we present this Wall Street Journal article, that (in summary) explains that after seeing Chrysler’s wildly popular “Imported from Detroit” commercial that aired during the Super Bowl (previously featured here), GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick immediately ordered his team to corner the market on the phrase “Imported from Detroit” when used as a Google search term. The article goes on to explain that GM also placed high bids for “Darth Vader” in order to divert some of the traffic that would otherwise have (rightly) gone to Volkswagon as a result of their hugely successful ad featuring a child playing the part of the classic villain.
… funny that they never saw the parallel as they slipped to the dark side.
More after the jump…
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