Welcome to BrightWave Marketing - Email Marketing & Customer Relationship Services. Keep Your Customers! BrightWave Marketing is an Atlanta, Georgia based specialized internet marketing firm focused on retaining and monetizing your most valuable asset: your customers. We offer customized solutions leveraging the flexibility and economy of email marketing. We also manage search engine optimization and search engine keyword buys on the Google and Overture networks, customer relationship marketing, CRM marketing, acquisition, retention and loyalty marketing programs and services. We also manage the creative, strategy, and email deployments for clients that utilize opt-in email blast and targeted mailings. List management and hygiene in addition to privacy policy creation and consulting are key parts of the offerings. The firm is headed by Simms Jenkins, who previously was head of CRM at Cox Interactive Media, which included sites AccessAtlanta.com and Austin360.com.

Q1 2005

Dear ,

Is your Email Marketing leaving your sales flat and customer and prospect relationships lacking meaning? Be sure to talk with BrightWave Marketing to see how we can help. We use a methodology that puts your Email to work.

BrightWave Marketing is hiring a Manger of Client Services – Click Here for the job description and Tell a Friend who may be interested.

+ TRUSTED MARKETERS' HOLIDAY E-MAILS WERE WELL READ
Consumer Survey Underscores Online Power of Known Brands

+ DoubleClick's 2004 Consumer Trend Report
Permission profligacy?

+ Forrester's Nail: Current E-Mail Practices Hitting Plateau

+ Quick Wrap-Up Notes: Bigfoot Interactive Email Summit Attendees Reveal 5 Frustrations – Marketing Sherpa tells us the 5 Top Frustrations that big email marketers face

Frustration #1. Frequency wars
Frustration #2. Database hell
Frustration #3. Name quantity versus quality education
Frustration #4. Content resources
Frustration #5. Respect

The article stated one person surveyed "My CEO just doesn't respect email.” That happens quite a bit. BrightWave Marketing can help make the case for more Email marketing or a first time launch. Talk to us.

+ Clients seek agencies with specialized services – If that Specialized Service is Email Marketing, BrightWave is your solution.
To build e-mail response rates, keep subject lines short but include a large number of links within the message text. The length of the message itself was less important.

+ EMAIL SOLICITATIONS STILL EVOLVING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Only half of higher education institutions are using email as a fundraising tool, and there is a wide disparity in how the technology is being employed, according to a new survey by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Denison University uses BrightWave Marketing for this type of progressive fund raising. Click Here for a view of the integrated rich media Email Marketing campaign created for their Annual Fund.

+ Alarming Research Results: Average Email Open Time is Just 15-20 Seconds -- Recommendations for Emailers
SUMMARY: Exclusive data for you this week -- this fall tens of millions of emails from permission mailers were tested for a brand new metric: actual read time.

Turns out 15-20 seconds was the average. Consider the last email campaign or newsletter you sent. Could a typical reader skim the entire thing, digest the graphics, and decide to click on the best item for them in just 15-20 seconds?

Probably not.

Here's more info on the data and some practical recommendations for you. (Open access until Jan 23rd)

+ Email Marketing: The First 48 Hours Are Critical
Not exactly breaking news but nice to be substantiated.

+ Bye Bye Email?
Speakers at a recent Blog Business Summit believe blogs are replacing email as an effective two-way dialog tool. We don’t think so and find mainstream business folks and consumers far from likely to hit a blog from their favorite retailer to get the latest promotions as opposed to one way and easier opt in email. But you gotta give the blog community credit for trying (and hyping).

+ Digital Rx: Take Two Aspirins and E-Mail Me in the Morning
Great use of Email for Doctor/Patient Relationship – and fattens the bottom line while serving needs of customers.

+ Google loses French appeal
A French court has upheld an earlier verdict of "trademark counterfeiting" brought against Google by two French travel companies, who claimed the Internet search firm redirected Google users away from their travel sites and to rival sponsored links. Google must pay $100,300 in damages and costs to the two companies

+ Strangest use of Google
Immortality Through Google

+ FTC Postpones 'Primary-Purpose' E-Mail Rule
The Internet has quickly developed into a ubiquitous presence in commerce, and the public's perception of online marketing and merchants continues to evolve. Consumers are becoming more comfortable with buying online, but remain wary of sharing vital information such as credit card numbers with merchants they don't trust. Building and retaining trust with consumers is therefore critical for online merchants to succeed, and the survey found that trust is significantly correlated to improving the relevance of communication with consumers:
· 84 percent of consumers stated that they want control over the types and frequency of Internet ads sent from a specific merchant.
· 64 percent of consumers would trust a marketer more if they had control over the types of online communication that were sent to them.
· 89 percent of consumers would let a trusted marketer share their personal interests with a third party without permission, in order to increase the quality of services and products produced.
· Merchants using adware or spyware to advertise online should take note, however, that only 20 percent (the lowest response) would let the marketer share information to track their buying behavior to influence future purchasing decisions.
· 56 percent of consumers feel that the online merchant respects them when it demonstrates understanding of their interests and is better able to market to them.
· 82 percent of consumers responded to wanting to be notified by an online merchant if they are provided with an incentive (i.e. discount or free offer), and 92 percent asked to be notified if a product or promotion would be of great value to them based on past purchasing habits.

+ FTC Issues Guidance on Joint Permission E-Mail Marketing
The Direct Marketing Association released a clarification yesterday from the Federal Trade Commission to help e-mail marketers in determining who is the "sender" for certain e-mail messages.

+ Georgia Governor Pitches Tough Anti-Spam Bill
People in Georgia sending spam could face up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine if the governor gets his way. Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed stiff penalties last week against spammers sending more than 10,000 false or misleading messages a day. The Georgia Slam Spam E-Mail Act also would hit spammers with felony charges if they generate large amounts of money through spam or use minors to help them send the e-mails. The bill also calls for misdemeanor penalties of up to a year in prison and $1,000 in fines for minor violations.

+ ClickZ's Pamela Parker wrote that one FTC official said the FTC is "likely" to start prosecuting legitimate companies who aren't in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. Can You Afford Not To Be Fully Compliant with CAN SPAM? Contact BWM