Monkey Business

I'm getting my hands dirty with a bit of a training on email marketing, thanks to a few good people back in Ateneo CCE and IMMAP who pooled just the best people in the industry to mentor us. Name drop: Chinie Hidalgo Diaz! Who is she? Oh, just the only certified email marketer in the Philippines who runs this little nook in the interwebs with the name Desktop Diva! I would not want to sound like a fanboy of some sort but... OMG!!!1!!one!!1!! Okay, now that I'm done with that, let's get on with another name drop: Elaine Uy of Yehey!

Anyhoo, as I said, this month's marketing venture is email marketing and one week in on the class and I have to say, in my most nerdy state of mind ever, that I am enjoying it! What's not to like when you've got a superkaduper email marketing campaign builder on your side: Mailchimp! I never knew something of such caliber offers their services (albeit at limited features) for free. It's fairly easy to use, even for the less skilled among us when it comes to coding. I could talk about it all day, if only I don't have a deadline to beat so I'd rather have you visit their features tab to learn more.

But, perhaps more than the features that the site offers, I personally adore their customer service! You see, I've only registered for a "Forever Free" account this afternoon only to find this in my inbox:

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As it were, my account is unable to send emails temporarily due to a random MailChimp Review of my usage. For an email marketing campaign, that would have been totally negligible save for the fact that said campaign depends on sending emails! I had no idea what I was in and I didn't know exactly who to consult! If it were indeed random then there was no use asking my class facilitators for what are the odds that they might have experienced the same, uhm, hassle that I had. Why, of all instances, did it happen a day before my deadline?

Was it because I used an organization's name of which I'm not in? Well, I had to because I was doing a campaign for the organization's brand! Was it because I used a personal account with a Gmail domain and not an email affiliated with the organization I had to promote? I had no choice! What email was I supposed to use?

So, being the obedient consumer that I am, I answered a survey that came with the email, along with a rather lengthy email explaining the predicament that I was in and why I had to be in it in the first place. After a few hours, as promised, I got a response:

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And all I could ever say was "Wow!" (without any hint of sarcasm whatsoever, trust me). Now that's email marketing for you right there - building relationships with consumers through a deep-seated understanding of what the consumers need with a touch of personalization. Just that one little phrase meant all the world to me. I felt important enough to merit a personal response!

Now imagine how this would apply to your consumers. Never mind the long explanation. Forget the statistics. As long as you are engaging them (us!) the way they want to be engaged, then it's all smooth sailing for you!

Great job, Mailchimp! You just made my day.

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A snippet of a forum reply I sent a while back in response to the people who've been having problems with Mailchimp. (And I thought I was the only one!) On the consumer side, I felt the need to laud MailChimp for it's response to my query after having had defended my claim to an account. On the marketer side, establishing good ground with consumers enable, if not empower, them to root for your brand even if everyone around them feels otherwise. I guess I'm one empowered consumer from here on out!

Hey hey!

It seems like everyone has been experiencing the same problem I experienced. But, as Mailchimp promised, I got mine resolved within 24 hours (or 6 hours, to be exact). I'm guessing you have been subject to a "random" review of some sort and, as such, were redirected to a survey which asked all these questions. At the end of the page, you're asked to provide additional information to help speed up the process of assessing if your account should be validated.

Here's what I said:

1. I am a student enrolled in a digital marketing diploma course which touched on email marketing

2. I was tasked to come up with a mock campaign for a certain brand which I am not affiliated with but needs to work on it for the grade

3. I had to email in my campaign to at most two email addresses thus ensuring that no spamming activities will ever be done in behalf of the account I created.

I got a response within 6 hours, and with a personal note at that! (More here because I felt their efforts deserved a place in my little nook in teh interwebs)

Perhaps the moral of the story is that there are people out there who are very much willing to help you out even if all you see are snapshots of a monkey determined enough to take over a postman's job. Just let them know the rut you're in (in the most humane way possible, please?) and everything would be perfectly okay. After all, relationships work best in marketing and I'm guessing that they have a clear grasp of that being an email marketing service that they are. Hope this helps!

Photo Credits:
[.]Leannele.com

Pink is the New Black

Rule has it that blogging about yesterday is as senseless as chopped liver and shampoo, and even more senseless as a failed attempt to make do with a simile that stupidly defies logic. But, what the heck.

I wore pink yesterday to appear intent in making a political statement of some sort about gender issues as one of my top priorities for choosing a presidential candidate this coming May 2010 national elections. Or, simply because I found a reason to do so just because I found my long lost pink baller ID after so many years and it just had to be worn even if the shirt that matches it had one hell of a hole just below my rib. After all, I was going wall climbing and zip lining that day and what I lack for athletic prowess, I could make up with a better fashion sense.

It didn't go well with my friend, though. Her initial reaction was, in all her voice's high-pitched wonder, "You are not wearing red!". And, indeed, she was right being the keen observer that she was. Talk about stating the obvious. But, of course, I knew what she meant. I was not wearing red - the color being my limited choice during the early years of our friendship. Or, if you're into quantifiable sentences, she sees me wearing red 99.9% of the time, with only three times that I wore a different color. Those were the days when I used to pick a primary color (and no, you'd have to Google the definition yourself) and stick with it for five weekdays straight.

That was after I had my rather long stint with baggy shirts and Jordan shoes. And before I arrived to fashion nirvana and looked like this:


Or at least that's how I perceive myself to look like even if I do, in fact, look like a fatter, fairer, more pink-loving version of the guy above. Oh, but I will have those abs and that tan. Give me 5 months (and ten years) to work on it.

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I had a headstart with the tan at La Mesa Ecopark when I got invited by Lai and her Accenture buddies for their company outing. While those lovely liempo slabs and hotdogs got grilling, I (along with everyone else) were roasting under the blasted sun, baking in our own oils. It was terribly hot outside and the invasion of our space by lots of children (three busloads of them!) did not help either. But, all in all, the experience was great fun! The scenery was totally breathtaking, especialy for someone like me who has not seen those green things in a while here in the city. What do you call them again? Trees?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's feeling totally awed by the fact that trees actually exist in this part of the world - in a place two jeepneys, one FX, and one tricycle ride away from my place, no less! Oh, what do they look like? Wow, I do not know where to start! They have this huge cylindrical brown bodies... Ugh, what the heck. It looks just like what's in the poster below:

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After my rendezvous (yes, I just had to use that word) with nature, I retreated to my urban landscape to watch Let's Dooh It by the Ateneo College Glee Club with a friend who told me it was about love and health. Gullible that I am, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Piecing one with another, I figured that the free food were gluten-free, high-fiber, protein-enriched meals. I was even half-expecting Juan Flavier to do a number on stage. Good thing he did not. And good thing that the concert was not about proper diet. I would not want to fuss about the dinner we were about to take after the concert: sizzling pepper steaks from, uhm, Sizzling Pepper Steak and white and chocolate fantasy and green tea cheesecake from Classic Cuisine.

And it was a friday. My soul is slowly broiled in the crockpot of hell. With potatoes.

Photo Credits:
[.] Lo'ihi: Hi-Fashion by spudcheyne