Matrix Group International

Tag: Marketing

  • Retailers: When Soliciting Feedback from your Customers, Be Ready for It!

    Retailers: When Soliciting Feedback from your Customers, Be Ready for It!

    Gingerbread TrainThe holidays are all about traditions and last Saturday, my son and I engaged in one of my favorites: we created a gingerbread train.  I’ve been making gingerbread houses for years, first by myself, then with my niece and nephew. and now with my son.  This year, we updated the tradition to decorate a gingerbread train because CJ is obsessed with trains.

    I picked up the gingerbread train kit from Target, the manufacturer is Create a Treat, Ltd.  The cute box says: We want to hear from you, send a photo to myhouse@createatreat.com.

    Now, I’m not one to send photos of my kid to various contests.  But I thought it would be fun to send a photo of our finished gingerbread train. So I sent a nice message with a nice story to myhouse@createatreat.com.  So what happened?  You guessed it: the message bounced back with this message:

    The message you sent to createatreat.com/myhouse was rejected because it would exceed the quota for the mailbox. (more…)

  • Matrix Group’s Favorite Tech Gifts This Holiday Season

    Matrix Group’s Favorite Tech Gifts This Holiday Season

    Okay, so it’s December 5. I feel like I have tons of time before I celebrate Christmas with my family, but I know that I need to get on the ball with my holiday shopping.  So I asked my staff for their favorite gadget gifts; this is what I got back.  Some items are oldies but goodies, some are outrageous, all are loved by at least one Matrix Group staffer.

    • Japanese toilet – I’ve asked Santa for a Japanese toilet this year.  Japanese toilets have heated seats, front and back sprays (heated, too), blow dryers, and even music.  I cannot understand why they are not more popular here in the US!
    • XO laptop – The OLPC (one laptop per child) movement works like this:  $400 pays for one laptop for you and one for a child in a developing country.  The laptop has a nice screen, terrific software for kids, and it’s virtually kid-proof (love the sealed keyboard).
    • Nerf Vulcan Automatic Heavy Blaster – This is the biggest, baddest, Nerf gun ever.
    • Yoda Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber – Harout got one and it looks, sounds and feels like the real thing; love the lightsaber hum!
    • If you’re on the Dark side of the Force, you’ll love the Darth Maul double-sided lightsaber.

      • (more…)

  • Surviving in this Hellish Economy

    Surviving in this Hellish Economy

    Okay, it’s official. The economy is in a recession, but what are you doing about it? What is your company or organization doing to weather the storm or even thrive in it?

    I was recently interviewed by Jill Foster for the Network Solution blog on a variety of topics, including using social media for recruiting and what we’re doing here at Matrix Group to survive this hellish economy.

    When our fiscal year ends next June, I want to be able to say that we were counter-trend and that our company grew, despite the recession.  Here are my top strategies for surviving this economic bloodbath. (more…)

  • Says Anne: So Long and Thanks for the Case Studies

    Earlier this week, Anne Holland, founder of MarketingSherpa.com posted her last blog entry on the Sherpablog.  November 10 was her last day as a formal company employee and she used the occasion to recount how MarketingSherpa began.

    If you don’t know MarketingSherpa, you should.  MarketingSherpa is my favorite source for news, information, case studies, how-to guides — everything about online marketing.  MarketingSherpa e-mails are the few e-newsletters that I read in their entirety.  I pass the articles along to my staff and clients.  The knowledge in MarketingSherpa case studies is amazing, the writing is terrific, and the know-how is real.

    I remember meeting Anne at an iBreakfast, a pitchfest hosted by Alan Brody back in 1999.  Anne had an idea to pitch, a marketing plan, no money, but a lot of passion and knowledge about online marketing and research.  MarketingSherpa became one of Matrix Group’s first dot com clients.  At first, we helped her develop her technical platform and prototypes so that she could show investors more than a business plan. (more…)

  • Start Wearing Purple

    Start Wearing Purple

    It seems purple is the color of the season and I’m not complaining. If you know me, have been to my office, or spent any time on the Matrix Group Web site (or this blog for that matter), you know that purple is an integral part of the Matrix Group experience.

    I was pleased to see that Yahoo! has launched a Start Wearing Purple campaign. Even though the logo on the Yahoo Web site is red, it seems that purple has long been the company’s official color. Why purple? Yahoo says purple is associated with innovation and imagination.

    Hmmm…. I always thought purple was associated with royalty and girl power, but hey, I’ll buy the innovation and imagination connection. Jerry Yang, Yahoo CEO, says he “bleeds purple.” Hmmm…. even I’m not crazy enough to say stuff like that. (more…)

  • What’s Your E-Mail Address Worth?

    What’s Your E-Mail Address Worth?

    Last weekend at the mall, while purchasing a pair of shoes, the saleswoman gave me a tantalizing offer: give us your e-mail address and we’ll give you 10% off the price of the shoes.

    I had a lot of time to think about the offer because everyone in front me willingly gave up their e-mail address and contact information. Me, it took about 30 seconds to realize that saving less than $5 on a pair of shoes worth $49.95 was NOT worth getting spam from a store I don’t visit often (even though the shoes were really cute).

    My shopping experience went from bad to worse. At a kids’ clothing store, I waited in line as each mom was asked, “would you like to give us your e-mail address and get $250 worth of coupons, would you like to subscribe to this magazine for the discounted price of $20, yada, yada.” And I was amazed at how many people provided their phone number AND e-mail simply when asked! When it was my turn, I paid cash and said no thanks when asked for my phone number, address and e-mail.

    So I got to thinking. What is my e-mail address worth and when am I willing to share it with a site or vendor? (more…)

  • I Registered for This Fact Sheet? Why I’m Mad At WebTrends

    While preparing for a Matrix Group seminar on usage reports, I decided to get the latest news about Google Analytics and WebTrends on Demand.  I found all the information about Google Analytics on the Google site with no problems.  The WebTrends site advertised a Fact Sheet that promised more technical details about features and implementation, but I had to register.

    Okay, I figure, I’m already a customer of the server software, why not register to get the Fact Sheet?  The registration process was two screens, then I was directed to the PDF of the Fact Sheet.  Guess what?  The fact sheet was nothing but a page and half of marketing fluff that was absolutely NOT worth me registering for it.  The Fact Sheet had no technical specs, no descriptions of the reports, and no pricing information.  It was totally useless.

    (more…)

  • Selling the Invisible

    Selling the Invisible

    My bible on selling services, customer service and marketing.