Sales and Marketing Process Outsourcing – Sales Pitch

Sales and Marketing Process Outsourcing (SMPO)

Top Reasons, why companies outside India and companies in India should outsource their Marketing, Communication, Lead generation and Demand Automation programs to India.

In today’s fast-changing, technology driven, digital media marketing landscape, the management of marketing function in organizations has become global. Now most of the marketing is done through new online, on-demand tools which can be used from anywhere across the world. Software as a Service model is steadily growing into organizations worldwide enhancing the online execution capacity of organizations. Also, these collaboration tools allow today’s marketers to sit in any part of world and deliver the same metrics which there counterparts in US or UK would be doing.

So why pay more? – May be language and cultural tone can pose barriers for companies outside India, however, this is a myth, as many of the organizations outside India have a good 20% staff which is Indian. Indians deliver far more superior quality of work than their US counterparts.

Companies outside India - Business Case for Marketing Outsourcing

Pay less and get more - An average email marketer in US or UK costs around USD 40 - 60K / Euro 25K - 40K annually. However in India you can get the same for 15-20K Euros. This person would be not just an email marketer but more than that. You would notice a higher level or business acumen and strong fundamentals in business.

Risk Mitigation – Considering you have low cost resources available, you can have more resources at the same time with lower cost and you will deliver much better results. Also, in case of attrition, you can still work efficiently as you had built redundancy.

Strong Talent Pool – A very strong talent pool is available in India. Not just that Indians are quick learners but also they ramp up their skills very fast. And due to a large population and stress given on education its always easy to get the right person who fits the bill.

Companies in India

From my experience in India. Most of the marketing departments anyways outsource there marketing activities partially to the agencies. However, due to lack of agencies which can provide integrated marketing which can cover Traditional and Digital marketing both, its very hard to retain one vendor.

Also, many small and medium enterprises hire people at low cost and the end product is shabby. In today's time if one individual was to know everything in the marketing domain with deep understanding of various media, buying behaviour and negotiations, agencies wouldn't have existed at all. However, this is not true. Hence, you need an agency which can deliver exactly what you need.

With a brilliant planning, media buying, creativity you also need a strong execution backbone and one think tank which looks ahead and keeps a track of market, competitors and more.

Mostly agencies do that and if they are not doing it yet, they should dedicate their resources in doing that.

With a setup like this, I see that the agencies can provide a detailed end to end branding and marketing setup to organizations. Also, the agencies need to come up with low cost marketing techniques to help the SME segment.

Today online media provides Low Cost Marketing solutions and that is what the Agencies need to look at. Coming up with market segmentation and offerings for low budget and high budget customers.

At last, I would say its always beneficial to outsource a majority of execution to an agency and spend more time in analysis and planning in house. A complete SMPO or Sales and Marketing Process Outsourcing company can come handy in India.

Online Media - Solution to Crude Oil Price Rise and Real Estate Market in India?

You must be hearing that the crude oil prices worldwide have been rising and it has led to inflation in a lot of economies. Can “Internet” and “Online Media” become a small stepping stone solution to abate the rising Crude Oil and Real Estate prices?

The continuous rise in Crude oil prices worldwide is posing inflationary effects in emerging as well as developed economies. We all understand that Crude oil is a resource which will diminish one day. So the environmentalist, the energy honchos, corporate and governments worldwide are trying to find out solutions to reduce crude oil usage and trying to develop parallel sources of energy like: Bio-Fuel, Nuclear Energy, Water, Wind etc. I am hereby explaining the affect on Real Estate industry in India and how they can recuperate from the same.

What’s the Present Real Estate Industry’s situation in India?
The recent bloodbath in the real estate sector has started taking a toll. Almost all large developers are now facing a severe cash crunch and finding it difficult to complete their ongoing projects. In fact, the situation is so bad that most of them have reported a 50-70% cash shortfall. Industry sources say that the liquidity crunch has forced many developers to pick up cash from the unorganized market at interest rates as high as 35% to 50% annually. The lending rate of banks is between 18% and 20%. The grade A developers which are facing crash crunch include DLF, MGF Emaar, Shobha Developers, Unitech, Omaxe, Parsvnath Developers, Hiranandani Group, Ansal API, BPTP Developers and TDI Group. As a result of the crash crunch many developers have started going slow or even stopped construction of projects which are either in their initial stages of development or which would not affect their bottom line in the near future.

Why it happened?
There are multiple factors (explained in my previous entry) which have led to this situation which can be like:
-Rising Crude Oil Prices
-Inflated Cement and Steel prices
-Recession in US
-Increasing inflation
-Over-hyped prices of properties (for higher gross margins)
-Overspending on Marketing by these developers (tradeshows, marketing collaterals, TV ads, billboards, hoardings etc).

All these reasons put together led to the increasing real estate prices and here we are with cash crunch amongst real estate developers.

What’s the Solution?
Obviously, if people start buying more houses, the real estate developers get more cash. If people start using lesser oil, the consumption will go down and subside the demand and help in reduction of prices. However, with the inflation mounting the cash in hand is reducing for the common man and impacting the purchase cycles of the buyers and sellers. I can’t suggest what can be “ONE” solution to this country wide problem. However, here is one solution which I can think of, and can be helpful from a perspective of a “techno-marketing” professional.

Presently in India the consumption of fuel follows a pattern like this:

· Transport (Petrol, Diesel, CNG, Aviation Fuel) : 51%
· Industry (Petrol, Diesel, Fuel Oil, Naphtha, Natural Gas): 14%
· Commercial & Others : 13%
· Domestic (LPG & Kerosene): 18%
· Agriculture (Diesel): 4%

These numbers clearly show that Automotive Industry is definitely a majority fuel consumer. So if we can help reduce a small amount of automotive fuel consumption, we are surely headed to ease the pressure.

Solution: Leverage the Online Media.

Benefits of using Online Media in solving various issues:
Lower energy requirements.
-Work from home.
-Instead of people traveling for so many meetings all across the city, you can have web conferences and reduce your travel time and cost of traveling. You are saving time, money, oil and gas. Eg: www.webex.com
-You will be more productive while you are meeting people online and you would be able to do more in lesser time.
-Set-up Web cams in your construction sites to show the present construction status.
-Give maps of everything online to help people see the location of your site and many more similar things.
-Less print promotions, lesser expenditures and more ROI
-Lesser marketing expenditures.
-You can do online exhibitions and tradefairs eg: www.unisfair.com
-Spend less on marketing by doing away with billboard, TV and other sort of ridiculous expenses.

Spend money in promoting your websites and driving people to go Online and save money. Lesser use of energy sources which will get depleted one day. More usage of technology which can drive businesses and reduce dependency on oil based energy.

Though I am proposing something which is far fetched, however, things like these take a definite time span to get implemented and early adopters reap the benefits of Brand leadership and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Also, this is just one small solution which can go a long way in helping to reduce energy requirements and may help the inflationary pressures, public discretion can never be discounted for!

Podcasting Myth - You Need an iPod to listen to podcasts!

There are a lot of myths regarding Podcasting...people think they need iPods to listen to podcasts. Is it the rhyming names "POD"cast and i"POD" creating the myth?

Anyways...here is a video or I should say a public announcement which shatters the myths:
A podcasting "public service announcement" by Toronto band Uncle Seth http://musicface.com/uncleseth/ Co-written by John C. Havens of the About.com Guide To Podcasting http://podcasting.about.com/

naseba Launch Party - The biggest launch party of 2008

Global Business Information and Strategic Events company, naseba, headquartered in Monaco is hosting 2008's biggest launch party in Bangalore. Official Radio Partner Radio Indigo!

Date: 14th June 2008
Time: 8 PM Onwards
Venue: Chancery Pavilion, Residency Road, Ballroom

Featuring: DJ TUHIN / DJ NASH/ MC DHIVIK

The Ballroom at the Chancery Pavilion (Residency Road) is all set to explode again this Saturday Night with 2 huge forces coming together under one roof for the 1st time... Dj Tuhin & Dj Nash!

Mr. Brute Force (DJ Tuhin) headlining the night with a signature set of wall-bouncing energi-tech... Need I say more??

Our own DJ Nash, is gonna set the mood for a killer Saturday Night, with red hot Bouncy, Clubby house tracks set to turn the dance floors crazy!!

MC Dhivik is there to keep the energy levels high as usual.

The full ballroom is going to be opened for the first time - with mind blowing sound, lights & huge lasers beaming across!

ONE PARTY U CANT AFFORD TO MISS!!!

Event managed by Rapsody Inc. For guest list and details, contact 9886514452 or 9342566874.

naseba Corporate Video!

Naseba Announces the Winners of the Indian CIO of the Year Awards

Naseba Announces the Winners of the Indian CIO of the Year Awards

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Thursday, June 12, 2008 -- (Business Wire India)
naseba, a leading international business information company listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, held the Indian CIO of the year awards ceremony in conjunction with the 2nd Annual CIO Strategies India forum. The ceremony took place on June 9th, 2008, at 7.30 pm at Grand Hyatt in Mumbai.

The Indian CIO of the year awards recognize the leading Indian CIOs. The winners were selected by a jury consisting of Ashwini K Sharma, Former CIO, SBI and Markus Bell, CIO Analyst. This year, there were four categories with five CIOs competing in each category. The winners are:

1.Nirvan Biswas, CTO, Midday Multimedia - New Comer Award

Nirvan was selected based on his ability to implement new technologies integrated in web 2.0 to achieve massive cost savings for the overall company. These approaches are reflected in a new layout to SOA integration, communication products integration with the possibility of waste and lifetime data transmission. He also established himself as a leading business management personality, setting out new benchmarking systems and integrating all business units in the IT Architecture.

2.Navin Chadha, CIO, TATA Teleservices - Innovation Award

Navin has over 18 years experience in the telecommunications sector and in storage solutions and is a member of the advisory council for Sun Microsystems and CME Technology Advisory Group. Navin is very innovative in his approaches in the sector. He implemented Microsystems Configuration Manager 2007 to improve customer services and increase dataflow on an extensive configuration and collection of components to integrate business requirements and the management of IT Infrastructure. He is a pioneer, as this is one of the largest projects that has been carried out and reformed to the needs of business, this will revolutionise customer handling, business integration and IT architecture management over the coming years.

3.Anita Pai, Executive Vice President, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Ltd - Leadership Award

Anita was chosen for her outstanding approach in risk management leadership in implementing new technology in the telecom space and integrating all over team and unit in the process. While leading ICICI Prudential IT, Anita established a vast IT communications system, which guarantees security, compatibility to the system requirements and remote access in a highly secure data sector. Besides the integration of the technology, she established herself not only as an IT manager but also as a CIO, managing training cost calculations and the overall information flow throughout the company.

4.K Radhakrishnan, Head IT, Henkel India Ltd - Lifetime Achievement Award

The choice for this candidate was not only based on his work at Henkel, but also on his innovative approach in production, sales, data management and e-trade alignment integration of customer handling on a national and international scale. By using tools, integrating the business units and achieving an outstanding example of how to manage outsourcing and ERP systems over time, he laid out a perfect example of lean IT. In addition, he integrated training and business information in communication and data management for companies of various industries. Mr Radakrishnan has set an example on how to successfully outsource international companies on the Indian market and advanced the Indian economy by developing production and communication to a new level, giving India a competitive edge over other competing economies.

“I have always kept my focus on “Leveraging on Information Technology to Enable the Enablers”. Having held various offices with top MNC’s in India for over two decades now, I have realized that success starts only when business and IT alignment is well orchestrated, and I just converted the opportunity entrusted to me which has been well realized in all terms, to get to this milestone. With this award, while I have a sense of recognition of the achievement, I do understand the expectation being set of doing more of IT for the time to come. Thanks to the Jury, Naseba and the other partners to the event!,” explained K Radhakrishnan.

“We are proud to have organized and hosted the first edition of Indian CIO of the year Awards during our CIO Strategies India forum this year. The Indian CIO of the year awards ceremony provided awarded CIOs the chance to inform their peers about the technology innovations they used in their projects to achieve greater success for their organization,” concluded Shannon Mackrill, the event producer, naseba.

Please click on the link given below to download the list of nominees.
http://image.exct.net/lib/fefd1271766107/d/1/nominees%20page.pdf

About the CIO Strategies India forum

Working in strategic partnership with Business Wire India, Exchange4media.com, NDTV Profit, Outsourcing 2 India and Smart Techie, the second annual CIO Strategies India forum, organized by naseba, gave the opportunity for up to 100 CIOs from Indian companies to learn about the latest trends in the IT industry, to source customized solutions from leading solution providers as well as to network with their peers.

For more information, please visit www.ciostrategiesin.com

naseba

Established in 2002, naseba produces business platforms focused on re-education, networking and most importantly increasing deal-making opportunities for executive clients. With offices strategically located in five cities around the world, naseba employs over 250 executives from more than 30 nationalities. naseba group went public on the Paris Stock Exchange on October 5th, 2006.

For more information, please visit www.naseba.com

CATCH 22 – Rising CRUDE Prices – Inflation in Indian Economy & Real Estate Prices

There is a strange CATCH 22 situation which is developing in India for the Real Estate Market. Due to the increase in the CRUDE Oil prices there is an overall increase in the input cost of production of Cement and Steel. With the increase in Cement and Steel prices, the cost of real estate development is increasing. Due to the increasing prices the cost of real estate is rising, however, due to the increasing inflation rate in India, the money in a common man’s hand is depleting, so they can not afford to buy costlier real estate. This means on one side the increase in real estate prices is becoming inevitable, and on the other hand the decreasing liquidity is making people unable to buy real estate at the increasing costs.

Rising CRUDE Oil Prices
There are difficult days ahead in 2008 for worldwide markets. With the continuous rise in CRUDE oil prices, the worldwide economy is being affected. The recent price hike in Fuel prices across India is the LIVE example where there will be an additional burden on common man:
Petrol prices increased by Rs. 5 / Liter
Diesel prices increased by Rs. 3 / Liter
LPG prices increased by Rs. 50 / Liter

This price hike was inevitable as the Oil marketing companies were facing the liquidity crunch because of global Crude oil price increase taking the price to $125/barrel.

So what does this mean for us now? More Inflation in Indian Economy?
For starters, it means prices for daily use commodities going up, prices for daily commutation going up, prices for raw material for manufacturing going up. In brief, inflation going up and as predicted reaching approx 9.5%. It means everything is going to get more expensive for a common man. So FMCG, Electronics, Automobiles, Aviation etc would be seeing cost hikes and then price hikes.

Real Estate Prices
The real estate prices saw a boom in 2007. However, the steady rise in inflation and probably recessionary trends in US led the Indian economy to see escalating prices of two essential commodities - Steel and Cement. Unfortunately we have not been able to find any substitute for the same. For some mysterious reasons, the government didn’t do much about increasing cement and Steel prices and the Real Estate developers had to bear the brunt of the same.

The increased input costs led to increase in real estate prices coupled with Investors investing in real estate to create a fake increase in prices.

However, now considering the inflation will lead to depletion of household income on a regular basis, the demand for real estate would go down and the only option left with the real estate developers would be to take a hit on the prices of the properties. However, if the real estate developers choose to hold on to the properties, it would affect the new project completions. Also, the developers are holding onto the properties for a future price rise which may or may not happen in the immediate future. A marginal price rise in the apartment price in one years time will have the same NPV as the price today, with the additional impact of affecting present cash-flows.

Therefore, unless a price rise is indicated by strong economic indicators, I believe the prices are being sustained at the current levels purely by the developers holding power (the larger the developer, the longer he can sustain in a falling market) and are soon to be southward bound if the economic conditions persist.

PR 2.0 – PR + Hiring - naseba Hired LIVE on Radio Indigo jobs@naseba.com

I hear a lot about PR2.0 and how conversations are making things happen and then social media and blogs are driving the new sales and marketing strategies, here is something that I would like to call the PR2.0 LIVE Experience, a PR 2.0 strategy!

naseba, a French MNC, did a big PR campaign with Radio Indigo 91.9 FM where they initiated and accomplished a hiring campaign for the first time in India to hire their sales executives LIVE ON AIR.

I wrote earlier about the stress interview which Scott Ragsdale, CEO of naseba is going to take LIVE ON AIR and that’s exactly what happened this Friday, 30th May 2008 when the history was made by recruiting LIVE ON AIR on a radio channel first time in India.

This can turn out to be a successful PR strategy for any organization to enhance their presence and support their recruitment drives. naseba started a recruitment campaign with promoting a LIVE stress interview on Radio Indigo, where Scott Ragsdale the CEO of naseba hires live on air.

2 weeks of teaser and live campaigns on AIR just added the appropriate Indian spice in the whole recruitment drive and candidates resumes started flowing in and Global Chief Marketing and CRM Director of naseba, Liam Findlay introduced the company and culture to the listeners and finally the team short listed few candidates. Dhruva and Nagarjuna the final short listed candidates were interviewed LIVE on air and they went through the stress interview and both of them emerged as the winning candidates!

While companies and individuals worldwide are talking about what they are going to do, naseba is just making it happen!

Which blogs do Journalists read?

Found an interesting article on BNET regarding which blogs do Journalists read...

Wondering which blogs journalists themselves find most valuable? Brodeur Strategies and Marketwire did an online survey. “We did the study because we wanted to help clients better understand the interplay between online news activity and journalism. We know who the traditional reporters are that cover our clients’ industries and beats but we need to better understand where they’re getting their information online.” (Jerry Johnson, executive vice president, Brodeur Strategies)
Here are the results:
Lifestyle journalists:
TMZ
Perez Hilton
MSN Lifestyle
AOL Living
Political journalists:
Huffington Post
Real Clear Politics
Talking Points Memo
Daily Kos
Tech journalists:
Engadget
Gizmodo
Boing Boing
Arstechnica
GigaOm
Travel journalists:
Tripadvisor
Frommers
Forbes Traveler
Travel Channel
Yahoo! Travel
Healthcare journalists:
NIH
WebMD
Mayo Clinic
MSN Health

jobs@naseba.com naseba is hiring LIVE ON AIR on Radio Indigo 91.9 FM

Monaco based Multinational, naseba, is hiring LIVE ON AIR for the first time in the history of Indian Radio. Today morning Mr. Liam Findlay, Global Chief Marketing Director was in interview with Morning RJ Ayesha Dsouza and introduced naseba in Bangalore, LIVE ON AIR on Radio Indigo 91.9 FM and talked about the culture of the company and what naseba does. Also, he gave some tips on how to handle stress interviews and how Scott Ragsdale, CEO of naseba will fly down from Monaco to Bangalore to hire sales people LIVE on Radio Indigo in a stress interview.

To learn more about jobs at naseba visit http://www.naseba.com/index.html?pagecode=careers to get some tips on how to handle stress interview visit this previous entry of mine. To apply for jobs at naseba send your resumes to jobs@naseba.com.

What Does naseba do?
naseba is a business information company. naseba produces, promotes and hosts strategic business platforms using a conference, congress, expo or forum format - depending on the market - with the ultimate focus on knowledge expansion, networking but most importantly maximizing deal-making opportunities for all our executive clients.

naseba is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.

naseba now has 10 streams of international products:
- CXO Strategies
- Healthcare
- Human Services
- Infrastructure
- Transport & Logistics
- Energy & Environment
- Travel & Tourism
- Investment
- FIS
- Telecoms & IT

Some more TIPS to handle the interview and what are we looking for:
-We are looking for Sharp people who are aggressive and have a “Make It Happen Attitude”
-They should dress sharply … here are some sharp business dressing tips on to what to do and how to dress in a professional atmosphere.
-They shouldn’t take NO as an answer.
-They should be very confident and should be able to talk to the CEO level audience over the phone.
-Should be quick thinkers on their feet and should be crisp, clear and to the point.

I will be updating this section with more tips and points soon…keep posting your comments!

Radio Indigo 91.9 FM + naseba (French MNC) hiring LIVE on AIR – in a Stress Interview

First Time ever in history of Indian Radio, Radio Indigo 91.9 FM and naseba, a French MNC would be hiring its sales consultants LIVE On-Air. To accomplish this task, the CEO of the company Scott Ragsdale is flying down from Monaco to hire the person LIVE through a stress interview ON-AIR on Radio Indigo 91.9 FM, the colour of music.

My team member Subhashree, who initiated this idea, is making it happen. She comes from a diverse background of advertising and production in radio. This special recruitment drive will not just be a job opportunity for candidates but this is a brilliant opportunity for all the listeners of the channel to learn how to handle a stress interview and how to communicate with the CEO of a company in an interview.

In a stress interview generally the interviewers are trying to assess how quickly you can think of your feet? Can you handle situations which you didn’t expect can happen? They want to see your attitude and analytical skills even in a time of shock or stress. Here are TOP 5 tips on how to manage a stress interview.
1) Leave your fear @ home – People who are fearless are the most confident people. If you are confident, you can handle awkward situations as you would be able to take out quick 2 secs to think and then respond to the situation. If you are fearless, it doesn’t matter who is interviewing you, the hiring manager or the CEO. Know your basics well and you would sail well.

2) The interviewer wants to hire you – As much as it’s your prerogative to get the job, interviewer also wants to hire the best candidate. So your confidence, your ability to think creatively and your response would only help the interviewer to decide on hiring you or not. Keeping the calm in your head and answering questions to the best of knowledge would be helpful.

3) Aggression – Sometimes companies are looking for aggression through a stress interview as this might be for a sales position. You need to be aggressive though aggression shouldn’t let you loose your cool. As tomorrow, when you are at a customer’s office, you need to aggressively push your product/service but you can’t misbehave with them.

4) Ask counter questions – If you think you are being trapped in a “Situational case” or a “Ridiculous Puzzle”, ask questions. You can start analyzing the situation in your mind and at any roadblock ask questions. This was you will be very clear on what you have to answer also you will get time to think about the same.

5) Mannerism – Sometimes strange mannerisms are shown by the interviewer, its just to push you in a corner or distract you from thinking. You can simply ignore such mannerisms and continue to focus. Don’t get bogged down by loud voce, shouting or dirty stares etc. Remember the tip 1 – Leave your fear @ home, that’s it!

Post your experiences earlier with stress interviews or your ideas or comments on this innovative recruitment drive LIVE ON-AIR on Radio...

Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) Route Map and Guide

After all the drama and to and fro amongst the people, governement and BIAL authoritites, Bangalore International Airport BIAL will be operational from today onwards. yet there is no final decision on the HAL airport.
How to reach the new BIAL airport? What all facilities are available at the new bangalore airport? How far is the new airport from the city’s centre? Here is your guide to the BIAL airport.
Download the Passenger Information document here.
Download the Easy access guide here.
Download the shuttle schedule here.
Download the route map here.
Download the Bangalore International Airport Layout.
Let’s see how the things turn out now. Obviously you would notice that there are a lot of services added in the BIAL airport lounges etc, but how much is an average traveler willing to shell out, remains the question?

Scott Ragsdale's - Black Gucci Loafer - Selling the Benefits and Brand Power

I was reading Scott Ragsdale’s blog, CEO of naseba, the entry on Black Gucci Loafer, on how to sell people on the benefits and make them buy a service or product at a premium. I am very impressed by the way he gives his sales pitch to motivate the sales team to sell more. Here is a small story from my experience to re-enforce the fact on what Scott has written.

In my previous job at one of the largest India IT MNCs, I was the marketing manager and I was responsible for launching a new Software Product in the SME market in India. India is a very price sensitive market and people are not ready to pay big amounts. However, if sold well on the concept and brand, people do buy it.

So after launching the product and doing marketing activities, I launched a special offer of 50% off on the initial price. Obviously, the price was marked up according to competitor’s price and there was an actual profit margin kept. In the first 2 weeks none of the sales guys sold it. They all thought it’s an expensive product and won’t sell.

I got pissed off and I asked my manager, that I am going to prove them wrong and sell it at a higher margin + I am going to get an annual maintenance contract (25% of the actual cost of product) also signed in a month’s time.

Within 1 week of scanning the market I found 2 potential opportunities and I went and pitched and showed the product demo and closed the deal much higher than the actual price and also sold the AMC for 25% of the product cost.

My simple pitch was that it is exclusive as the service provided is unmatchable and the convenience that the hospital (buying it) is much higher than any of the cheap competitor’s product. The brand name and the over all packaging along with the smooth sales pitch highlighting the benefits made me sell and I won the “Operation Market Storm – BDM of the Month”.

This is the power of branding, sales and individual’s ability all put together to build a strong sales organization.

Google's Hogwash: How auctions set ad prices

Google's recent blog entry on how Google sets the ad prices for their Ad-words program is a sheer hogwash.

Hal Varian, their chief economist, explains the entire bidding process and how the highest bid price and quality score determines the final prices of the bids that the advertisers have to pay.

I respect google's ad-words program creator and conceptualizer for bringing the Online Ads to reality and making it a Star performer for Google with over a Billion dollar in revenue. However, now it's just become a clear machine for google to hogwash advertisers by their complex statistical algorithms gimmick.

For Eg: If I have set-up a budget for lets say $10/day the cost of the adwords is low. However, if I increase my daily budget to $100 the cost of the same keyword will go high even when there is no other bidder for the same keyword. I have tested this multiple times.

Also, lets say the quality score determined by google is low. However, I might have a strategic benefit behind choosing a certain keyword for a limited time period. The automated process can not identify that and Google changes the cost of the keyword exorbitantly just as a "curbing tactic".

Also interestingly google's content network gets a very high clickthru rate than the search network. So, isin't it obvious that Google should somehow provide that information on the campaign report that who are the people clicking in the content network.

When google complains about click frauds...it makes me wonder...what if its a 2 way fraud?
Why does google has to increase the bid price even when no one else is bidding?

Also, I am just wondering why the people who were chief architects and key contributors in a lot of google's products have left google ? Here are they now and how facebook is stealing people from google.

Digital Rape of Democracy in India

Digital Rape of Democracy in India

The recent elections in Karnataka, Bangalore proved to be another election where the Election Commision’s guidelines were not followed. This time around our political leaders got innovative with the digital media. They used Mobile Marketing or marketing through sending SMS to the prospective voters.

According to Election Commision’s guidelines the promotions should stop 2 days before the election dates. Till the last day of the elections there were SMSes floating on the purchased databases from Telecom providers. They kept promoting the candidatures till the last moment.

Isn’t it the “Digital Rape of Democracy”?

CIO Strategies India : Whitepaper on Data-Leakage and Security

CIO Strategies for Emails and Electronically Stored data Do Data-Leakage and Security concern you as the IT Decision maker of your organization? 80% of key IT decision makers have this specific concern. naseba brings you an exclusive 35 page research report by Enterprise Strategy Group on Data-Leakage Prevention.
Key questions addressed in the report:
• How much confidential data do organizations have today? Where is it located? Do organizations classify and track the movement of this data?
• Have organizations experienced data breaches? If so, were these breaches the result of internal or external attacks? Were they malicious in nature?
• What were the business ramifications of these breaches? Did they have any direct financial impact such as a loss of revenue or employee productivity?
• How do organizations detect these breaches? Can they detect malicious activities that may be early warning signs of an impending breach?
Also you can register for CIO Strategies Forum India online here and you can also download the nomination form for CIO India Awards 2008 here.

CIO Strategies for Emails and Electronically Stored data

Here is a special whitepaper download from ZDNET on CIO Strategies for retention of Emails and Electronically stored data.
Over the past two years, major changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the increase in state and federal compliance regulations have created new challenges for companies as they struggle to manage email retention and deletion policies. To successfully maintain compliance and protect business in the event of litigation, companies must understand these changes. Implementing new strategies for email will enable organizations to effectively set and manage email retention and deletion policies, as well as provide robust search and e-discovery capabilities to respond rapidly to litigation. Check out this TechRepublic Webcast, now available on demand, to learn about critical changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and what those changes mean "in plain English" for your business. You'll learn CIO strategies for:
-Determining appropriate retention and discovery requirements for email and electronically stored information.
-Involving stakeholders across your organization to respond to this challenge.
-Ensuring that email is always available and data is never lost. Providing search, discovery and recovery of electronic information.
-Avoiding pitfalls in managing a records retention and data discovery effort.

Email Marketing: Top 10 List of Reasons Why Your Last Email Campaign Stunk

A direct rip from Email Labs article by Loren McDonald, this is hillarious: Top 10 List of Reasons Why Your Last Email Campaign Stunk. Drum roll please...
10. Addressed Each Recipient as "Dear Sucker"
Personalization is a must. Recipients expect it and the more you personalize an email the more successful it is in generating a response.

9. Earl in Shipping Wrote the CopyPeople do read email copy.
A common mistake emarketers make is in not using a professional direct response copywriter. Secondly, they assume the less copy the better, but end up with weak copy that also does not provide enough information to motivate a response.

8. Hired Neighbor's Son, Who Is Taking An HTML Course at the Local JC, to Design the Email. While almost anyone can learn to program HTML, email design is a very unique skill. In fact in our experience, many otherwise strong designers often struggle to create great emails.

7. Your Subject Line Was - "We Have What You Want...Really!"Good subject lines are critical to high open rates - which in turn drives your click-through and conversion rates. Always test a few subject lines before mailing in bulk.

6. Used "Joey Buttafuco" as the From Line
From lines can have a huge affect on open rates. Whether to house or rented lists, don't overlook the importance of from lines, and always test first if possible.

5. Landing Page Sign-Up Form Asked For GPA From Grammar School
A common mistake companies make is to ask people for too much information, too early in the "relationship." If you've mailed to a targeted list, recipients should already be "pre-qualified." Don't scare them away by trying to obtain your demographics wish list.

4. Thought "Live People Who Own Computers" Was a Targeted List
While the perfect list (or lists) rarely exists, conducting thorough list research and analysis will reap huge dividends. Segment your house list as appropriate and choose as many selects as are available when renting opt-in lists.

3. Your Offer Was - "FREE Copy of Our New Brochure"
Email offers must be compelling. Whether it is value proposition oriented or an incentive, an offer must be personally relevant and strong enough to motivate recipients to take action.

2. Thought "Testing" Was Only for Students and Olympic Athletes
Testing is integral to the success of email campaigns. Test the most important variables in your email, and apply the learning to your bulk campaign.
and the number one reason....

1. Rented List From "Bob's Email List Discount Warehouse"
Perhaps one of the most common and biggest mistakes companies make is in renting inexpensive lists. While poor creative can produce weak campaign results, great creative will rarely generate a good response from a cheap list. For some reason, many emarketers believe that old adage "you get what you pay for" doesn't apply to email lists.

Propable 10 mistakes you would not want to repeat in email marketing!

Mobile Marketing: India Crosses US in telephony subscribers

According to latest release by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory authority of India), the total wireless subscribers base stood at 261.09 million at the end of March 2008, compared to 255 million subscribers in U.S. A total of 10.16 million wireless subscribers have been added in the month of March2008 as against 8.53 million wireless subscribers added in the month of February 2008.
Another landmark that march saw was reaching a total telephone connections to 300 million (wireline+wireless). The overall tele-density is pegged at 26.22% at the end of March 2008 as against 25.31% in February 2008.

Total of 96 million subscribers were added since March last year.

Comparatively, broadband connections have performed dismally with addition of only 1.56 million broadband subscribers since March 2007. The total broadband subscriber base stands at 3.90 million, far from 10 million subscribers that government had predicted by end of 2008.

Some time back I blogged about Why Mobile marketing will work in India. Here are more reasons now why Mobile Marketing will work in India. However, the sad part is the slow broadband growth. I think prices and lack of education are primary reasons for the same. Do share your opinion regarding the same.

World's worst sales letter? - Direct Marketing

Geoffery James author of over 7 books has recently blogged on BNet, sharing one of the Worst Sales Letter he has seen. Here is the letter which he got:

The bracketed numbers refer to comments below:
"Dear Mr. and Mrs. James
During the past few months, I have completed an intensive training program for real estate professionals through the Century 21 learning system. [1] With this recent training and my experience as a full service agent, I feel quite confident in my ability to help buyers and sellers with their real estate needs. [2]
Century 21 is one of the best real estate firms in the area due to the many educational programs promoting current market strategies[3], as well as many years of experience within the real estate community.[4] In addition, we provide:
- Outstanding service to all clients.[5]
- Market data that is always changing.[6]
- Weekly updates for clients listing there homes.[7]
- A wide variety of buying and selling tools.[8]
It is great working with a company that has so much to offer their clients.[9] If you or someone you know is considering buying or selling [10] property feel free to give out my name or business card [11] and I will do everything I can to meet their real estate needs.[12]
Sincerely,"
His comments:
[1] OK, you’re fresh out of school. So why would I want to work with you?
[2] That’s nice. Unfortunately, you’ve said absolutely nothing to make me feel confident in you.
[3] Why do I get the impression that some marketing guy wrote this as boilerplate?
[4] Experience doing what? Sending out awkward direct mail pieces? And compared to whom?
[5] Outstanding in what way? Outstandingly bad? And by how much? And where’s the proof?
[6] Huh? Does this mean that the data is getting more accurate or less accurate or what?
[7] And that’s important because…? And what’s with the typo?
[8] Sounds like a hardware store. Why would I care? What do the tools do?
[9] Glad you like it. Why should I care? What’s with the grammatical error?
[10] Trying to address two different markets weakens the entire pitch.
[11] At this point it starts sounding positively desperate.
[12] Why would I risk my friendships for somebody I don’t know?
What’s really wretched is that the letter was sent first class mail to individual families, on heavy stock paper. This means that each piece cost somebody — hopefully not the obviously hapless agent — at least half a buck per letter. I’d be surprised if the guy gets so much as a nibble. Pitiful. Truly pitiful.

60% of Wives in US Crave for more Sex

TITLE or Subject Lines can make or break it!

Apology for using that subject line on a marketing, communication and technology blog, I just couldn't resist it to make my point! Get a Title that baffles people!

For obvious reasons if you are reading this, you were not interested in any book or Email Marketing, but, to know more about the decreasing libido in US men. I do not blame you, it's the title that can make or break the thing sometimes.

1) A recent example: "37 Mating Techniques" , one of my ol' friend bought this book. Obviously she was trying to lay her hands on something new which she can try out. And just out of embarrasment, she didn't bother to open the book to read what's inside. When she reached home, jump-opened the book, just to find out it was a book on chess!

2) Help for Sex starved Wives, I was reading this report on TIME.com with the Title "Help for SEX starved wives" by Michele Weiner Davis shattering the myth of men not getting enough sex. According to her survey with redbook where 1000 wives in US responded with 60% of them reported that they wanted at least as much, if not more, sex than their husbands. The Sex-Starved Wife: What to Do When He's Lost Desire (Simon & Schuster) was the new book that she is trying to promote!

3) More Sex please we are French, while on the other hand TIME reported in France the sexuality has increased in France. According to the new 600-page "Study of Sexuality in France," commissioned by France's National Research Agency on AIDS, both the number of partners and diversity of sexual activity has significantly increased in France in the last decade. Only 3.5% of women aged 18-35 years now say they are sexually abstinent. The title is just another example of how to promote your report with a Title that rocks!