Youve heard of email marketing, but it isnt what it used to be. With todays abundance of spam and even opt-in email solicitations, your messages are competing against hundreds of incoming messages daily. How are you ever supposed to stand out?
If the solution is so simple, why arent more websites using desktop alerts? Until now, the only way to send desktop alerts was to hire a team of software developers to develop the alerting application for you which is quite expensive, not to mention time consuming.
Entertainment and news companies started using desktop application for branding, communication and advertising. Take ESPN.com for example. On their website, users can download an application which gives them daily sports highlights and video commentary, with embedded commercials. So far, more then 1.6 million people have installed it and about half use it daily.
So how do you get started? Well, if you have content your site visitors or clients are interested in, you simply offer them this content in the form of a useful downloadable application. Instead of developing the application yourself, you just customize one of the existing desktop applications with all your promotional materials (such as your own logo, custom icons, banner ads and menu entries). Users will download the application because of its informative and/or entertaining content, special savings, or features like daily alarms, calendar reminders, or task lists. Now that the user has voluntarily invited you into their personal space, you can create a strong, long-lasting impression and deliver desktop alerts just as you would email messages. With desktop alerts, there are no other incoming messages to compete against, and you wont have to worry about being accused of spam.
Promo Clock has combined all the benefits of interactive promotional products and new era advertising tools, developing a cost-effective application for reaching customers with timely information and updates. Ready-made models as well as custom models based on animated images or Flash presentations are available.
Google bring Deskbar search to Windows desktop. Now any website can take advantage of this search technology.
by Michael Ginzburg
Monday, November 17, 2003
Googles premier of desktop search proves that the desktop is an extremely valuable marketing real estate. Google, which holds about 75% of the Internet search market, just introduced "Deskbar" a small desktop application that allows users to search Google directly from their desktops. Google currently rules the Internet, but positioning themselves on the desktop gives them the power to rule not only the Internet, but also the entire personal computer.
Unlike other interactive marketing avenues, such as website and email, the desktop is virtually free of advertisements and promotional materials. The desktop is competitor free and just waiting to be claimed.
The advantages of desktop search are not limited to Google and their major search engine competitors though. Any website with search technology can take advantage of this new marketing channel including e-commerce and shopping websites, reference sites, online magazines and news sites, and more.
So, if you have content on your site that visitors or clients are interested in searching through on a regular basis, what better way to keep them coming back for more than offering them a desktop search tool? If you could offer them a useful downloadable desktop search application, you could ensure that they will remember you and search your site before your competitors.
Developing a desktop search tool yourself would be quite costly.Luckily, there is a ready-made desktop search tool that can be customized to work with any websites search.
PromoClock has developed a new desktop search technology that turns your one-time visitors into steady traffic by allowing them to search your site directly from their desktops. To search your site, users simply type their search terms in the desktop search box and click on the "search" button. Users keep the search box running in the background at all times giving them constant reminders and opportunities to search and patronize your site.
PromoClocks desktop search box is not just a simple search tool. It is a full marketing application that brands and promotes your website directly on desktops. Each Search Box can be custom designed based on your logo, website images or even Flash presentations. Further enhance your desktop search box with custom menu entries, banner ads and even your own desktop icons. You may also send time-sensitive alerts for added usefulness and advertising exposure. Alerts can include site related tips, product coupons, company news, event notifications and more. For sites looking to entice users with more than just a desktop search, PromoClock is also a useful desktop alarm clock that tells time and activates personal alarms.
So has Google claimed the desktop search? Maybe for now, but with PromoClocks easy and inexpensive desktop search box, other sites will be soon to follow.
PromoClock Premieres Desktop Branding App
By Larry Dobrow (mediapost.com)
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Hoping to help marketers find their way onto consumers desktops in a manner that is both appealing and unobtrusive, PromoClock.com is planning further rollout of its core desktop application, the PromoClock.
Granted, clocks arent exactly the most revolutionary idea for the desktop every Windows and Apple operating system comes equipped with one that is more than adequate but the company believes that branded and customized versions of the PromoClock application can do wonders for online marketing and branding efforts.
«It certainly beats putting out a banner ad,» quips Yakova Kupinsky, PromoClock.coms marketing manager. «This is your own promotional product, your own branding tool. It accomplishes the same goals as a traditional promotional product, but its geared towards generating web traffic and other online marketing goals.»
PromoClock is similar to desktop applications such as WeatherBug, Weather.com and AccuWeather. It is resident on the computer users hard drive, with all graphics, sounds and promotional content stored within. «Everything is pre-loaded,» Kupinsky stresses. «There is no spyware component to PromoClock.»
Heres how it works: clients contract with PromoClock to create a customized version of the application, which can include anything from the basic animated desktop alarm clock to a countdown clock, a desktop coupon dispenser for on- and offline sales, and a search component. «Theres quite a lot we can do with even a $5,000 budget,» Kupinsky says. Once the application is created, PromoClock creates a CD-ROM complete with pop-up ads and other promotional material, which is then handed back to the client for distribution and installation onto individual computers.
Its easy to see how nearly any company might use a branded PromoClock as an easy, cheap component in a web marketing push. A Hollywood studio, for example, might have a PromoClock designed to include a countdown to the release of a new film, as well as an embedded link to purchase tickets. «Its not limited to one particular category or market,» Kupinsky notes.
Its obvious that the company sees substantial opportunity in marketing and branding programs driven through desktop applications. Given that some experts have predicted that access to the Internet via desktop application will soon outpace access to the Internet via other means, the company may well be onto something.
«Every marketer wants the chance to advertise in a unique and user-friendly way,» Kupinsky says. «We think PromoClock does this and more.»