How much Email Marketing ROI Good Enough for Business

How much Email Marketing ROI Good Enough for Business

   July 07, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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How much Email Marketing ROI Good Enough for Business

Look no further than email marketing to find the answer to what will generate a 4000%+ ROI (Return on Investment). Hands down, email marketing is the most cost effective and efficient marketing channel at your disposal. So you ask yourself, “Why aren’t I making a 4000% ROI on my email campaigns”? The answer is simple, mobile. That’s right mobile – a smartphone is killing your chances of garnering the huge ROI numbers you should. Let’s look at what you’re doing wrong or not doing at all.

Consider these statistics; 58% of all US adults own a smartphone. Here’s the breakdown by age groups:

• 18-29     83%
• 30-49     74%
• 50-64     49%
• 65+         19%

Now consider that 66% of emails are opened on mobile devices and of that, 38% are opened on an iPhone. More people open their email on an iPhone versus a PC as a whole, which is 34%. Personal and business lives are melding together into one device and everyone, including your competitors, are competing for attention.Optimizing your emails for mobile devices is a sure way to get ahead of the curve with studies showing that only 11% of emails are optimized for mobile. 

Lack of mobile optimization is stopping you from converting readers into leads and leads into sales.While 69% of smartphone users will quickly delete an email that is not optimized for mobile, 61% of smartphone users will immediately leave a website that is not mobile friendly. An email marketing campaign is only as successful as the revenue it generates.The 5 most relevant and important steps to take moving forward are:Design for mobile users. Ensure you design your email creatives to be responsive.

The majority of mobile email clients, including the iPhone’s native mail application, have images enabled by default. Can a user go into their settings and turn them off? Sure, but most people don’t take the time or extra step to do so.Make sure your call to action is clear and in their face. Make it a bold, obvious statement. This is an important step and not just for mobile email campaigns.Make sure your unsubscribe link is not to close to your call to action. Making this critical error can cause your loyal customer to opt-out.Ensure the email addresses in your list are valid and deliverable. 

Sending to dead or undelivered email addresses is nothing more than a waste of time and can irreparably damage your IP reputation. Be sure to clean and validate your email list at least twice per year.The best advice I can give is test your email creatives to your own smartphone. Be sure it is appearing correctly and displaying properly on both iPhone and Android devices. After you have tested your responsive email design and you are sure it looks right and displays properly, then and only then you can deploy it to your newsletter or customer list. If you have followed these basic steps, you should see a big jump in your open and click rate as well as conversions and ROI.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

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Apple Buy Rising Music Brand for $3.2 Billion talk to source

Apple Buy Rising Music Brand for $3.2 Billion talk to source

   May 09, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Rising Music Brand for $3.2 Billion - NY  - BEN SISARIO, BRIAN X. CHEN and DAVID GELLES

Apple is in discussions to buy Beats Electronics, the company behind the popular Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, for $3.2 billion, according to people briefed on the talks, in what would be the biggest acquisition in Apple’s history.

The deal would also include the new Beats Music streaming service, which was introduced in January as a competitor to Spotify and Pandora, and could signal an effort by Apple to transform its approach to music more than a decade after it opened the iTunes download store.

A deal has not been consummated, and the negotiations could still fall apart, according to these people, who declined to be identified speaking about it publicly. But if it is completed, the sale could be announced as early as next week, the people said. Apple and Beats declined to comment.

For Apple, whose revenue growth has slowed sharply in the last few years, the deal could point to a headlong move into the frontier of streaming music. The company, which only last year released its streaming product, iTunes Radio, has been slow to enter the streaming world.

A purchase of Beats would also give Apple a hot product and an even hotter brand, founded by the rapper Dr. Dre and the music executive Jimmy Iovine. After its enormous successes with the iPhone and iPad, Apple has been under intense pressure from investors to unveil new products, but none have yet been released.

At over $3 billion, the Beats acquisition would be a major departure for Apple, which under Steven P. Jobs, its co-founder, favored smaller deals. However, Timothy D. Cook, who took over as chief executive of the company shortly before Jobs died in 2011, has been vocal about the company’s acquisitions and the strategy behind them. In its most recent earnings call, Mr. Cook said that Apple had acquired 24 companies in the last 18 months.

“We are expanding Apple’s products and services into new categories, and we are not going to underinvest in this business,” Mr. Cook said in the earnings call.

Beats began to sell its sleek, bass-heavy headphones in 2008 as an alternative to the lightweight earbuds that Apple included free with its iPod players. And even at prices of up to $450 apiece, they quickly became fashion statements. The company’s headphones have fat profit margins. Headphone designers estimate the cost of making a fancy headset is as low as $14.

Annual sales of Beats products, which also include speakers and other audio items, have been estimated at more than $1.5 billion. Last year the private equity firm Carlyle Group invested $500 million in Beats, valuing the company at more than $1 billion.

Silicon Valley has lately been rife with multibillion-dollar acquisitions that have caused some investors to worry about excessive valuations and an inflating technology-industry bubble. In January, Google paid $3.2 billion for Nest Labs, which makes Internet-connected home devices, and in February, Facebook bought the messaging service WhatsApp for more than $16 billion.

For Apple, which has a $159 billion cash hoard, a $3 billion deal would have little effect on its purse.

Ben Bajarin, a consumer technology analyst for Creative Strategies, said that a purchase of Beats would not be a big departure from Apple’s strategy of buying companies for their technology and talent to help develop future products. In other words, it is unlikely Apple would just ship Beats headphones with an Apple logo on them.

“This would have to fit into a much longer, more innovative strategy around perhaps the hardware and the service,” Mr. Bajarin said.

Apple has recently struggled in developing new products. It has been working hard to develop a smartwatch, but problems like poor battery life have plagued that project, according to multiple people briefed on the company’s plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity. And for years, rumors have abounded that the company has been working on a smarter, Internet-connected television set to become a stronger player in the living room. But that product has not been released either.

The Beats deal, which was earlier reported by The Financial Times, also suggests that Apple may want to shake up its approach to digital music. Through the iPod, which first went on sale in 2001, and the iTunes store, which opened in 2003, Apple transformed the music business, making downloads a viable, large-scale business that has sustained the music world as sales of CDs have plunged.

Apple is still the largest seller of downloads, and its store operates in more than 100 countries around the world. But its market share has been slowly eroded by Amazon and other sellers, and the download market itself is beginning to cool as consumers shift their listening behavior to online streaming. Last year some 28 million people around the world paid for a subscription music service, bringing in $1.1 billion, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a trade group.

Beats Music arrived in January as a competitor to streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, Rhapsody, Deezer and Rdio, which have begun to spread rapidly around the world. Like the others, the Beats service makes millions of songs available for streaming over the Internet. It trumpets its expertise in creating playlists, highlighting the involvement of prominent music figures like Dr. Dre, Mr. Iovine and the Nine Inch Nails’ leader, Trent Reznor.

Apple’s iTunes Radio competes with some aspects of Spotify but is seen as a more direct rival to Pandora, which has become the dominant Internet radio service, with more than 75 million regular users every month.

Beats’ music service and audio products division are organized as separate companies with overlapping management but different investors. Beats Electronics, the headphone company, is said to have accounted for most of Apple’s proposed $3.2 billion purchase price.

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Tim Cook Answer For Why iPad Sales Appear To Be Stalling

Tim Cook Answer For Why iPad Sales Appear To Be Stalling

   April 24, 2014       prabhakardalvi

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Apple's iPad sales for last quarter fell far below expectations. It sold 16.35 million of them, but analysts were expecting about 19 million.

On the surface, 16 million sounds like a lot of iPads, but growth in Apple's iPad business has flatlined. In fact, growth was negative for last quarter.

So, what the heck happened?

On a call with analysts this afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook did his best to explain.

For last quarter in particular, he said the company reduced its iPad channel inventory compared to the same quarter last year, so sales were actually in line with the high end of Apple's internal expectations.

Speaking on the iPad business as a whole, Cook made some really interesting points to remain bullish. First, he said the iPad is Apple's fastest-growing product in the company's history. Apple has sold 210 million of them so far, which is almost twice as many iPhones Apple sold in the same period of time.

Cook also made a strong case for the iPad in the enterprise market. He cited one study that said 91% of tablets activated in the enterprise are iPads. Meanwhile, nearly all Fortune 500 companies use iPads. He also said it was a smart move of Microsoft to finally release Office on the iPad, which should help with enterprise adoption since many businesses rely so heavily on the software. In fact, Cook said Microsoft should've released Office for iPad earlier than it did.

In education, Cook said the iPad has a 95% market share, but the challenge now is to get more schools to buy them and gain penetration.

Finally, Cook still believes tablet computing is the future.

"I believe the tablet market will surpass the PC market," he said on the call.

source : Why iPad Sales Appear To Be Stalling

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Several Reasons Why Getting An IPhone Is In Your Best Interest

Several Reasons Why Getting An IPhone Is In Your Best Interest

   June 07, 2013       Unknown

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Take advantage of the weather function on the iPhone to get a grasp of the forecast for the next week. This function allows you to select the specific town that you live in along with other areas that can help you get a better idea of weather in a particular area.

Switching your phone to airplane mode when you are traveling, or in an area where you can’t receive calls or texts will help to save your battery life. Having to find and remain in contact with the nearest towers uses up a ton of battery. Switch to airplane mode in the setting’s section of your phone and keep your batter for when you actually need it.

If you type extensively on your iPhone, consider investing in an external keyboard. There are many wireless models available. They make typing documents, emails and other similar things easier. Some keyboards can even serve a dual purpose, as you can use them with your iPad as well as your iPhone.

You can edit the pictures you take on your iPhone. Go to the picture you want to edit. Once you find the picture, click the Edit button in the top right corner. This will allow you to fix red eye, crop, rotate or auto enhance. After you make your fix, click Save in the top right corner.

If you’re a business person, it can be extremely beneficial for you to have an iPhone for work. Not only will you be able to call and text your colleagues from anywhere, but you can also send emails, visit work sites, and access important data from anywhere at any time.

Websites that you visit frequently can easily be turned into an app. All you have to do is visit the website. Then tap the “Go” button. This then gives you the option for adding this site to the home screen. When you see it on the home page, you are able to rename it. Then, you have an app!

Use your phone horizontally when you are inputting data. It is easy to forget, but the keys are much larger when the phone is horizontal, so it is so much easier to accurately input text. If you do not already have that capability on your phone, you can get the application from Safari.

Even if you do not plan to use your iPhone for a while, you should store it with a dead battery. Allow your phone to fully charge each time it is put on the charger instead of letting it run down. Otherwise, you run the risk of adversely affecting the chemical composition of the battery, possibly damaging the phone.

Are there websites you visit a lot from your phone? Do you ever wish you had a little icon for them on the home screen? Well, if you have, open the webpage in Safari and click on the Go To icon at the top of the screen. You can then select to add it to your home screen.

When typing in a web address to visit a page, sometimes you may not know the domain name ending. Even if you do, there is a way to get it in the address bar faster. In the iphone world, this is very helpful. All you do is hold down the .com button in order to see different domain name endings. You can then choose from the list.

There is little room for debate about the impressive capacity of the iPhone to streamline the lives of its users. However, in order to maximize the experience of being an iPhone owner, a bit of education is critical. By closely reading the piece above, you have taken the first step to becoming a wise iPhone aficionado.

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First look: BlackBerry Q10 smartphone

First look: BlackBerry Q10 smartphone

   April 28, 2013       Unknown

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The BlackBerry has finally caught up to the world of touch-screen smartphones. It took time - six years, from the launch of the firstiPhone - and it may be too late to save the company that makes it. But the BlackBerry deserves to be taken seriously again.

Why? Because the new BlackBerry Q10 is a successful marriage of the modern touchscreen smartphone and the iconic BlackBerry keyboard.

Though it can be hard to remember, the keyboard used to be a standard feature on smartphones, before the iPhone wiped our minds with its vision of touch-screen Utopia.

Since then, keyboards have been disappearing from smartphones. Physical keyboards just didn't fit into the design mold set by the iPhone. Palm Inc. created a credible, innovative smartphone with a physical keyboard, but it was a slide-out version, which made the keyboard seem like a burden and an afterthought. There have also been Android phones with physical keyboards, but they haven't been very good, and they've mostly disappeared.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry has continued to make well-designed phones with physical keyboards. But until now, it hasn't gotten the software running them quite right. Even with physical keyboards, modern phones need touch screens to control movies, games and other tasks beyond the BlackBerry's roots in messaging. The company has experimented with touch screens, but has been partly hamstrung by the pre-touch foundations of its operating system.

After numerous delays, the company finally came out with a modern operating system this year, the BlackBerry 10. The company considers it crucial to its future, as the BlackBerry seeks to recapture relevance lost to the iPhone and Android devices.

BlackBerry's first phone with the new software, the Z10, is a touch-only device. With the Q10, we really get to see how it works with a keyboard.

On BlackBerrys, the keyboard has always been about more than filling in text fields, and the new operating system takes that further. If you want to send a tweet about what you're eating for lunch, just pick up the phone, unlock it and type "tweet Turkey sandwich again today." Hit Enter, and now the world knows about your boring fare before you've even had a bite.

Just as you can on some older BlackBerrys, you can also launch applications by typing. If you want to play "Angry Birds," instead of flicking through screens to look for the icon, you can just start typing "Ang" and the game icon pops up. Again, that's fast.

The keyboard is handy for music, too. If you're in the apps screen, just start typing the name of the song or artist you're looking for, and up it comes.

I haven't used a keyboard-equipped phone in years, but the Q10 makes it very tempting. There's no getting around it: it's a faster, more accurate way to type, even compared with innovations such as Swype, which lets you "type" by swiping your finger from letter to letter.

The keyboard eats up space that could be devoted to a bigger screen, of course. But BlackBerry has saved some space by eliminating the big buttons that resided between the screen and the keyboard on older BlackBerrys. This results in a larger, square screen. It's very sharp and colorful, too. To some extent, the 3.1-inch screen compensates for its small size with a high resolution, which allows it to present a lot of information, as long as you're willing to hold it close and read small type.

US phone companies haven't yet said when they'll sell the Q10, but expect it by the end of May for about $250 with a two-year contract. It's coming to country's home country of Canada on May 1.

The BlackBerry 10 software made its debut a few months ago on the touch-only Z10. The new operating system is a welcome change, not just for BlackBerry users. It's very quick to get around the phone, and it seldom leaves me baffled the way many incarnations of Android do. It's laser-focused on giving you access to email, texts and other means of communication, as opposed to music, movies and games.

One of the coolest features is the "peek." From any application, you can swipe your thumb up from the bottom of the screen, then right, to slide the application slightly off the screen. That reveals the messaging "Hub," which gathers your communications. At a glance, you can see which accounts have new messages. If you want, you can slide the app farther to the right, getting you into the Hub to read and write. Swipe left, and you're back to where you were.

The interface takes time to get used to, and it doesn't have the simple immediacy of the iPhone. But once you learn it, you can positively zip between tasks.

The downside to the new operating system is its relative dearth of third-party software. There are applications for Facebook, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. A Skype app out will be out soon. But there isn't any app for Netflix, Amazon or eBay. There are no Google apps, either. The selection of games is particularly poor. There's only one incarnation of "Angry Birds," and that's "Star Wars."

I also encountered one glitch while using the Q10 for a few days: I was unable to type my response to one email. Leaving it and going back into it did not help until the next day. That's the kind of problem that's going to frustrate BlackBerry users, so I hope it's a rare one, and one the company fixes soon with a software update.

That aside, the Q10 is likely to be attractive to the BlackBerry faithful. It deserves to lure some people over from Androids and iPhones as well. The keyboard makes the Q10 a good complement to a tablet. Use the bigger screen for entertainment, surfing and gaming, and the BlackBerry for messaging.

When I reviewed the Z10 model in January, I found I couldn't point to anything about it that would make me say: "Forget those other phones: you have to buy this one." I can for the Q10. If you value a keyboard, this is the one to get.

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Camera megapixels: Why more isn't always better (Smartphones Unlocked)

Camera megapixels: Why more isn't always better (Smartphones Unlocked)

   October 10, 2012       Unknown

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It's time to forget megapixels as the measure of smartphone camera performance and pick a new yardstick.

Just days ago, Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy S III, the global, quad-core, Android Ice Cream Sandwich successor to its best-selling smartphone ever, the Galaxy S II.

CNET readers' reactions were mixed, with several comments that the 8-megapixel camera didn't seem too hot.

Rumors of a 12-megapixel camera leading up to the announcement were partly to blame. It's no wonder that some felt that a perfectly good 8-megapixel spec was taking a step back, especially with the 16-megapixel shooter on the HTC Titan II out in the wild, and Nokia's 41-megapixel 808 PureView, a Mobile World Congress stunner.

Despite the fact that 8 megapixels is pretty standard for a high-end smartphone camera these days, one CNET reader described the Samsung Galaxy S III's camera as "so last year." Never mind that at least one high-end phone, like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, still touts a 5-megapixel camera.

It isn't that 5-megapixel cameras can't be good, even better than phones with an 8-megapixel count lens; or that we're due for another bump along the megapixel scale. It's that to many shoppers, 5 megapixels just doesn't sound as good as 8, even if the camera produces terrific, knock-your-socks-off shots. And well, if 8 is good, then 12 is better.

The dirty secret lurking behind today's 8-megapixel yard stick for high-end status (and what any photography nut will tell you) is that the megapixel number alone is a poor way to predict photographic performance.

For instance, the original Samsung Focus took some lovely shots on its 5-megapixel camera, while the Motorola Droid Razr's 8-megapixel lens creates disappointing pictures. And the 5-megapixel camera on Apple's iPhone 4 beat out some 8-megapixel cameras on the market and delivered good low-light results.

Of course, that's not to say that bigger can't also be sometimes better. For instance, HTC's One X high-performance 8-megapixel smartphone camera boasts rapid shot-to-shot action, and its Titan II takes 16-megapixel shots of solid quality.

So what's the formula for fantastic photos? It involves an entire camera module that includes not just the size and material of the main camera lens, but also the light sensor behind it, the image processor, and the software that ties it all together.

Camera megapixels: Why more isn't always better (Smartphones Unlocked)

Internet Giant Social Media

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Star Walk - ipad calls interactive astronomy

Star Walk - ipad calls interactive astronomy

   May 07, 2012       Unknown

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Internet Giant Social Media

A new ipad calls for a brand new batch of apps that show off the gadget’s new powers –a  screen that allows ebooks to be sharper than the printed word. To show off that high-density Ratina display and a fancy new A5X processor, these are the apps you need on your new iPad .......

[[[ Category: Education
Updated: 20 April 2012
Version: 5.7.2
Size: 151 MB
Languages: English, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish
Developer: Vito Technology Inc.]]]
Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 3.2 or later

Star Walk  for  $4.99

The astronomy app Star Walk is not a new app but when used on the new iPad it is nothing short of stunning. Star Walk can identify up to 300,000 stars on the iPad’s screen and is ideal for youngsters and adults alike. By simply holding your iPad into the sky, the app labels out the constellations, the solar system, stars, and satellites.

The app also includes a celestial calendar that informs how to plan star gazing by listing events such as full moons, meteor showers and upcoming partial eclipses.

The most interesting feature of the app is the Augmented Reality technique where it overlays data from the app on top of the image (of the sky) as captured by the iPad camera. Using this, user can align the image of the sky with that of the sky in the app.

This helps in pinpointing the position of satellites, finding stars or constellations.

You get the social bragging rights to show off your iPad and how a photo of your current location is overlaid with the app-generated sky, giving you real time results of what is right above you. There are some stunning pictures of the day (sun, etc) that makes for a super high resolution view of a celestial scene.

note :

Winner of Apple Design Award 2010, featured by Apple as Best Apps of 2009, 2010 and in iPad TV commercials***

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