Epsilon

Theft of Company Email Lists Causes Controversy
April 8, 2011

An outraged consumer-advocacy group is calling it “the Fukushima of the email industry.” Comparing mere data theft to Japan’s nuclear nightmare is perhaps a bit over the top. But the theft of data from Epsilon, a marketing-services company, has nonetheless caused widespread concern.

Ways to Plant Social Media Seeds
April 7, 2011

Social media is all about growing your brand's outreach and engaging your audience, Sundeep Kapur, author and digital evangelist at NCR Corporation, explained at the Publishing Business Conference & Expo in New York City this week. While social media is a powerful marketing tool, there are more seeds that need to be sown. 

Best Buy, TiVo, Walgreens Latest to be Hacked
April 4, 2011

Best Buy, TiVo and Walgreens are the latest in a string of companies hacked over the weekend. Fraudsters gained access to customers’ files, including email addresses. Epsilon, the communications provider of the companies, issued a brief statement saying “a full investigation was under way” of the breach of some customer client data was discovered.

2011 Resource Guide
December 1, 2010

Welcome to Retail Online Integration's annual Resource Guide. This special section offers all the crucial details, company information, contact numbers and addresses of product and service providers to the cross-channel retail industry.

Target Influencers for Profitable Word-of-Mouth Marketing
April 20, 2010

Tasked with generating higher revenues on smaller budgets in more crowded marketplaces, today's marketers must take advantage of every tool at their disposal. One such resource is the power of word-of-mouth, an approach that uses the innate behavior of a unique group of consumers, known as influencers, to extend the reach of your efforts via “talkability.” A recent whitepaper from ICOM, a division of Epsilon Targeting, examines how to best tap into this rich resource.

Based on the latest findings from ICOM, previous profiles of influencers have to be adjusted. Consider the following:

  • consumers are influencers strictly within product categories, not across them all;
  • few commonalities exist within influencer demographics, as they cross gender, age, income levels and channels; and
  • influencers do their talking in person — at the kitchen table, on the phone, etc. — but opportunities exist to take their messages to new realms, such as social media.
One trait proves universal to influencers, however: They talk more than the average person, and do so in a way that connects people. But that doesn't mean they're willing to talk up any product/service. They're category specific. A young mother, for example, could speak passionately about diapers, but have no interest in tires, the whitepaper notes. Influencers are united by a passion or a particular life stage or lifestyle — a new baby, car, house or affinity for cars — that causes them to be interested in a particular product segment, according to ICOM's research.

Influencers also have a higher propensity for connecting with friends and family than random consumers, the whitepaper finds. Therefore, their comments carry more credibility, regardless of the size of their networks, because they tend to be more active within social communities. Because they've established themselves as authorities, influencers are more likely to be sought after for their opinions, the whitepaper says. That's why it's so valuable for an influencer to tout your specific brand or product.

Once you've identified influencers, track their behaviors. Influencers' audiences include not just the assumed demographic, but also unexpected sets of consumers, according to the research. People who are influencers recommend in three categories or fewer, the whitepaper finds. And these recommendations are typically made in personal settings. Regardless of how influencers receive product information — via email, first-hand experience or in-store promotion — about 90 percent of word-of-mouth communication occurs face-to-face or via phone, reports ICOM.

6 Keys to B-to-B Database Growth for 2009-10
October 27, 2009

An Abacus/Epsilon webinar I took part in on Oct. 1 addressed the challenge all marketers face today: how to maintain or grow our active customer databases despite increased costs and declining sizes of lists that used to be available for prospecting. Where do we turn for help to meet this challenge? To our customer databases, our largest assets.

Tailored Deals Bank Sales
September 1, 2009

With company-record net income of $58.4 million and sales gains of 15.2 percent (including comparable store sales rising 8.9 percent) for its fiscal year that ended Jan. 31, JoS. A. Bank was a rare 2008 success story.

E-Mail Proves a Positive Influencer on Offline Purchase Decisions
March 10, 2009

With the appeal of e-mail already well-established among multichannel marketers — in large part because of its relatively low cost — here's another reason to become a fan of the channel: It positively influences consumers’ offline purchasing decisions, enhances companies’ reputations and generates loyalty to their brands.