Altaf Shaikh is the founder and CEO of ListEngage.com - a full-service interactive marketing firm that helps organizations harness the power of email & social media to acquire, engage and convert prospects faster — and to retain existing customers better using data-driven marketing concepts.

Under Altaf’s leadership ListEngage assists clients on almost every aspect of e-marketing including but not limited to best practices; effective email designs; increasing email deliverability; triggered email campaigns; drip marketing automations; attracting and engaging visitors using social media channels like Twitter, Linkedin & Facebook.

ListEngage’s clients include companies like Parametric Technologies, Alpha Software, Fidelity Investor, Brandsmart, Liberty Mutual, IDC, Nova Chemicals, Demandware, Classy-Kid, Jessica London, J.Jill, Response Insurance, Green Giant, Chadwick’s and more.

Altaf is passionate about digital marketing and has more than a decade of experience purely in this field. Previously he was the CEO of hitechlcub.com and prior to that held senior engineering and consulting positions at Bell Labs, PictureTel, and the European Commission Brussels. Altaf graduated with a degree in Computer Science which gives him a unique vantage point to also view marketing challenges from a technological and analytical perspective.
 

One of my favorite quotes is Albert Einstein stating that the definition of Insanity is “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  However, looking at my email inbox, it occurs to me that by this definition many email marketers are guilty of this email marketing insanity. To deploy an email repeatedly without analyzing who is receiving the email, who is opening the email, and who is reacting to the email exposes that insanity. 

What Kind of Email Marketer Are You?

You can be one of only two genres of emailers:

1. When it comes to your email execution strategy – you spray and pray, you are a carpet bomber, you have a list with “thousands” of names and you pay little or nothing per email so why not just blast and...

At ListEngage we often get queried by our customers as to what should be their marketing strategy regarding social media.  We have a standard answer, and I would like to share it with you here:

Social Listening as a Marketing Strategy

Picture an infinitely large room, filled with every person in the world, all having conversations with each other.  Now imagine, you could pull out those conversations that involve your market segment and your (and your competitors) product families.  I am certain that every person reading this posting would consider this insight into what is being said to be precious.  This is where Social Listening plays a pivotal role. To us, advertising on social media is like yelling on top of your lungs in this tremendous...

Marketing management of major companies find it imperative to invest heavily in digital marketing.  However, more times than not, those same departments are missing building a strong foundation (a great email list) and that is subsequently negatively impacting their success.  We all have lists sitting around, be it the sales prospect list, the web visitor list, the customer list, the ship-to list, the bill-to list, the newsletter list, etc.  Most departments are making the IT investments to try and consolidate those lists, and fill in as much information as possible on every member of those lists.

However these lists are filled with many wrong names, they are loaded with loading docks, accounts payable, purchasing, people who have changed...

In an article “Customers Don't Want Ads, They Want A Conversation” by Brandon Evans, the point is made that marketing strategy should focus on becoming a dialog between buyers and sellers. This dialog is built around the social network imperative that the best way to create real value for companies is through deep collaboration with consumers. 88% of CEOs said “getting closer to customers” was the top priority for their business and that is based on the simple fact that the winners are those who are closest to those who buy, use, and advocate for their products. 

Social Media Technology

It is hard to argue with any of Evan’s points; however conversations, dialogs, listening and discussing are foreign to traditional marketing, branding, and...

There is no shopkeeper in the world that is not intimately aware of which items are being looked at, when and by which customers. This inevitably leads to conversations relevant to the customer’s interests and needs. Those who have read some other of my other posts know well that I am impressed with the clerks in every Nordstrom’s ability to keep track of their customers preferences and give them a heads up via 1 to 1 email marketing, when new stock arrives or items are reduced in price.

Marketing Automation To The Rescue

Then why doesn’t this scenario play out more often, that is - a relevant visit (or set of visits) to a website (the modern equivalent of the person browsing in the shop) result in an immediate email describing the principle...

I was speaking to a friend recently who had been interviewing (and testing) students graduating with an MBA, and he was mentioning how every one of them was excellent with PowerPoint, each able to create compelling presentations.  He then when on to quiz them on creating advertising copy and again each and every one of them did a superb job.  Finally, he asked them to create and describe an email campaign for his product and every one of them failed miserably.

I am not in a position to tell universities what to teach; however with over fifteen years of experience developing, measuring, and improving email campaigns, I am a decent judge for what works and what does not.  99 out of 100 emails I receive have major flaws in their design and/or...

Once in a while, I see a quote which is so phenomenal that I put it in a special file to use often.  My only regret for each quote in the file is that I was not smart enough to originate it myself.  One of the items in that file says that we are all pursuing an unfair advantage versus our competitors.  Another says that any marketing professional who thinks that marketing can stay consistent in a world where technology is accelerating by Moore’s law better change their mind.  The best quote I have seen in a long time is the following:

I was reading an excellent blog post “Punt, Pass, & Kick: Email, Mobile, & Social Misses at Super Bowl XLVII” By Jeffrey Rohrs in which he does an analysis of the Super Bowl Commercials (which I loved), and points out the lack of calls-to-action.  I understand why all of these professional marketing/advertising people and companies involved would decide to forego a call-to-action; I never have even an (i)Pad to write on while watching the tube.

Smartphone apps from companies tend to leave me lukewarm.  Many too many times, they are shortcuts to the company’s mobile website, not taking advantage of the Smartphone or of what it knows.  Long ago, I reached the point where I am no longer downloading apps from companies unless I can find a reason why it is to my benefit to install it.

I love flying on JetBlue, but I love their app even more.  When I click on it, instead of jumping right to a menu, the app tries to figure out what I want to know and helps me get the relevant data.  It has long ago memorized my login to the Jet Blue site, and it quickly asks to be approved to access location information.  What happens, if I am anywhere near my departure city, and have a flight coming up,...

A recent statistic said that 28% of all emails are initially opened on a Smartphone, and then never viewed again.  To be honest, judging from my own habits and my observations, I think that is an understatement.  I have previously written in this Blog suggesting that you proof your emails on Smartphones, making sure they render well, show the important information up top in a pre-header and not just  - “Having trouble viewing this e-mail? Click here.” as your summary that appears on the mailbox screen on the Smartphone.

Now I have a different and much more pressing suggestion.  That is to put a good, active, relevant, fast response phone number on that email.  I think we have all seen timely, important, desirable offerings in emails and if...

It feels like we are finally pulling out of this prolonged recession, as long as we don’t fall off the cliff.  If your company is going to be positioned to win during and after the recovery, you will have to catch up on best marketing practices that may have gotten delayed.  Therefore, this is the appropriate time for my annual message on the most important things to do in marketing in 2013.  Whatever happens over the next year, these are pieces of the marketing puzzle that have to be ready.

1. THE LIST – I don’t care what the buyers/developers/soothsayers say, your company’s crown jewel is the list of customers and prospects.  Since broadcast advertising has now taken the back seat to 1:1 messaging it is time to make a major investment in your...

Okay, I admit it, I looked it up and I had no idea what a portmanteau was.  But at ListEngage we know everything else about Blogs, and we wanted to introduce you to our new Blog format @ http://blog.listengage.com

1. Simple and clean design
2. Easy to find the right content (for readers and search engines)
3. Enticing to read

Would you take a walk in the woods without leaving breadcrumbs to find your way back?  Would you mail a letter without a return address?  Would you go on an enjoyable date and say “goodnight” without contact information from the other person?  Would you leave a phone message without leaving your name and number?  Would you find a superb website without bookmarking it?

This is an article that does a great job of summarizing where most companies are regarding social media and why they are performing below expectations.  As it says in the article “Social media will be bigger than websites, call centers, and channel partners, and become the number-two way to engage customers (the number one way is still sales reps).” and “Social media has grown faster than industry knowledge on how to use it”.  At ListEngage, we are prepared to help our clients not only create a following on social media, but also to leverage it as part of your overall 1:1 digital marketing strategy, as an invaluable source of prospects and a way to build your relationship with prospects.  These are realistic expectations for social media,...

Perhaps you like horror movies for the thrill of being frightened.  Not me, I am a chicken at heart; I don’t even like roller coasters.  I recently read a blog posting that initiated my “horror movie fright”.  The posting is titled “Reading Your Shoppers´ Minds (Literally)” which frightened me because it reeks of “Big Brother” watching me.  At ListEngage we do not read minds, we do not even read your eyes, however we gather and harness information from the web and social media to allow your messages (email, social and mobile) to evolve from “batch and blast” to being effectively targeted and modified for each particular reader (1:1).

First, our prayers and best wishes go out to everyone affected by Super-storm Sandy. We hope everyone gets back to normal as soon as possible.