eMail Marketing

Xobni, a start-up company involved with ‘smarter-email’ has recently managed to bring in $7 million in funding. The new investors are Cisco Systems, who join the existing investors Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, and Atomico. Three of the four existing investors stepped up their proprietorship stake in Xobni. Cisco took charge of the funding round, illuminating the significance and potential of Xobni’s ‘enterprise e-mail’.

The following is a quote by Jeff Bonforte, the CEO:

“The people that use our product are professionals and corporate users (around 70% in North America), so we have always had a corporate focus (it is Outlook after all). We have been fielding a ton of demand to license our software for users in corporate environments…so we have been addressing that demand.

Cisco’s participation recognizes that Xobni is being used heavily by corporate users (and professionals like lawyers, real estate agents, etc). Cisco knows those customers really well, so this is a big bonus for us to have them helping us.

Obviously, building a business around these types of users and usage is a lot more straightforward than an advertising-based web 2.0 company.”

The problem of knowing what people online exactly want or look for is not an easy one to be solved. However, there are exceptions to this. Barneys NY, the leading upscale clothing store chain, claims to have recorded about 10 per cent growth in online revenues by employing data mining software for locating and establishing linkage between certain online behaviour patterns and a greater propensity for purchasing something.

According to Barneys’ vice president of e-commerce, Larry Promisel, 20 per cent more customers would buy once sent the targeted e-mail messages. The firm has saved money by not dispatching e-mails to customers unlikely to purchase. As a result, not only are sales going up, Mr. Promisel pointed out, but with the store now concentrating on customers with items they are more likely to purchase, its clientele thinks that it (the store) understands their tastes and interests, which adds to goodwill.

On the other hand, Netflix has persuaded nearly five million subscribers to provide almost two billion movie ratings to its website. The firm still has trouble working out exactly what somebody will like or not like.

I wish I could tell that our recommendations system was perfect, but it is not so.

Said Netflix’s chief executive, Reed Hastings.

New research has revealed that leading news agencies and publications are increasingly realising the need and benefits of making information available through the web or a mobile phone to audiences. The study has also observed that readers now want to access current affairs through all mediums, going beyond the traditional print medium.

It has also been noticed that people now use Internet as their main resource for seeking the latest information. The Internet is seen as posing a major threat to the print medium. This means that publishers now need to aim at new technologies and media to send their stuff across to the readers. The study has also noted that though usage of the Internet is increasing day-by-day, e-papers have still a long way to go in terms of reach and sustainability. However, the population now subscribing to e-paper services do appreciate the opportunity to read the newspaper whenever and everywhere.

E-papers are also beneficial for publishers as the operational costs are relatively low and they can make profits from additional revenue streams. Last year, a director from one of the leading institutes had observed the number of people wanting in-depth coverage of different and specific sectors online was likely to grow. That indeed seems to be the case.