what is social media doing to us

See the complete graphic @Business2Community

email innovation

Three neat technology companies doing stuff with email

1. Mailbox
2. Alto
3. Inky

Scoop @MIT's Technology Review

why mobile is key for 2013

"The nature of mobile makes it uniquely attractive to marketers: Commerce has always struggled with two basic challenges - increasing consumer traffic and influencing shopping decisions just as the consumer's about to buy.  With location targeting, shoppers can be enticed into stores for items they're in the market for. With in-store mobile marketing, an indecisive consumer can be nudged toward a specific brand or product."

Business Insider also supports this with:

• Mobile commerce is growing: 29% of U.S. mobile users already have used their smartphones to make a purchase.
• Mobile transactions help drive this growth
• Tablet usage (which counts in mobile transactions) is exploding.

      read the whole article

more tips

Worthwhile article titled 3 Common Email Mistakes by Caroline Nye. 
         I particularly like:

Underestimating Email's Overall Impact

Within hours of sending an email, you know how many people opened, clicked, and purchased or converted. What is hard to measure, however, is all the other ways in which an email will actually affect your bottom line.

After years of sending email and analyzing results, I’ve consistently seen a huge percentage of recipients coming back, within three days, to purchase via another channel. I have also seen large percentages of consumers use an email-only offer code while calling to place an order, or consumers calling in not to use a promotion code but mentioning they received an email. In short, measuring the effectiveness of an email through initial clicks captures only a portion of the actual impact. Similar to television or radio, email contributes to the bottom line in a way that will never be completely quantifiable.

Spend time with more advanced analysis. Look at all the sales since a specific campaign, and track which people had opened or clicked on the email. The true impact of a single campaign will likely emerge. Email is an effective branding tool, helping consumers remember a company, even when they don’t open an email.

visible and invisible lines of customers

Key customer service note for all of us:

"The memory of the event is more important than the experience: Leaving a positive impression is important because that’s how a person will remember the event."

read the whole Business2Community article by Scott Anderson

social commerce best practices

We feel like social sign-on is everywhere, but data shows this is still a huge opportunity for many e-commerce sites.

Great infographic on Patricio Robles' 12/12 eConsultancy blog

yep.

well done boden.  i know exactly what you're after.

check out some others here.