After two years of negative growth and the struggle of many content websites to support themselves with advertising, Internet companies have been hoping -- even praying -- for an online advertising recovery. All indicators support that 2003 was the year online advertising came back.

Today's marketing professionals face a daunting list of challenges. They must reach a society bombarded with sales pitches. They must weed through a growing array of sophisticated marketing technologies that promise much improved results, but often at a significant cost. And they must prove to management that their marketing efforts are producing reasonable financial returns. This White Paper will offer insight to these problems and present case studies of companies that have adopted different solutions to improve their business model.

With such great promise of revolutionary performance increases, many firms have acquired a mish-mash of different Internet-enabled strategies, processes and technologies. Some have worked, many have failed, and most don't work together in a cohesive fashion to drive new business. It's time to take stock of the situation. What have we learned from a few years of trial and error, applying different Internet-inspired technologies for sales and marketing?

Regular, personalized interaction with customers and prospects can be expensive to execute, regardless of the delivery mechanism. The Internet has reduced the cost of maintaining regular, high-quality contact with customers and one of the most effective (but often overlooked) vehicles is the email newsletter.

Email marketing has proven its value, delivering higher customer responses at 1/20th of the cost of traditional direct marketing channels. As a result most major marketers have embraced some type of email marketing, ranging from simple email newsletters to highly sophisticated CRM systems that target messages and promotions to specific users. But the dramatic advantages of email marketing have also created new challenges for companies trying to communicate with customers via email. A shadowy industry of “spammers” has sprung up to attempt to leverage the power of email marketing by sending unsolicited and often offensive messages to massive Internet audiences.

Since pricing remains almost identical for basic services on GSM and GPRS and I-Mode, and possibly UMTS later, overall revenue growth and ARPU growth can only come from « new » and higher « value-added »services : multimedia email, music, downloads, purchases, extended intranet applications…. . Yet, what will drive such growth ? Which customer segment can leverage the viral nature of these services ?

Loyalty programs are everywhere. In virtually every vertical market and in every region of the globe, loyalty marketers have adopted the tactics of recognition and reward to identify, maintain and increase the yield from their best customers. As a result, the loyalty-marketing industry has begun to encounter the telltale characteristics of a mature market. After decades of double-digit growth, the loyalty market has shown signs of fatigue from both consumers and practitioners.

CAN-SPAM now governs e-mail marketing. What do you need to know?

You want to use permission-based e-mail communications to build a trusting relationship with your customers and partners, knowing that people prefer to buy from those with whom they have a perceived relationship. Strong customer relationships lead to increased customer loyalty, which can lead to growth of customer lifetime value. However, customers are raising the bar for companies who wish to develop an effective dialogue.

You want to use permission-based e-mail communications to build a trusting relationship with your customers and partners, knowing that people prefer to buy from those with whom they have a perceived relationship. Strong customer relationships lead to increased customer loyalty, which can lead to growth of customer lifetime value. However, customers are raising the bar for companies who wish to develop an effective dialogue.

Today’s business landscape has dramatically changed. Faced with consumer frustration over spam,competitive e-marketing technologies and recent legislation, companies are struggling to establish the right mix,media and messaging to effectively connect with prospects and customers. For e-mail marketing in particular, new rules signify the end of marketers sitting on the fence, waiting until next quarter or next year to improve e-mail initiatives.

A model is proposed for ISP customers to receive sponsored electronic newsletters in exchange for a discount on the Internet fee. In the model, both online newspapers and ISPs receive fees from the advertisers while the end consumer pays less for the Internet connection. Advertisers gain by sending better-targeted messages through an accepted medium. In addition to collecting part of the advertising fees, the ISPs increase their customer base by offering an incentive as well as value-added services. Adherence to the model appeared to vary with gender, age, and attitude toward e-mail marketing.

With the possibilities to reduce costs, reach larger and new audiences, personalize, interact, and serve customers better marketers are learning how to utilize digital channels, like the Internet, email, mobile phones and digital television. The possibility to use digital channels for building customer relationships and long-term loyalty has recently gained rising attention. In this paper we present a model which shows how brand communication, service, personalization, and interactivity can help marketers boost customer relationships.