Over the next week, we will be looking at some of the economic policies presented by Barack Obama and John McCain, and how some of those policies might affect your business. Please keep in mind that we cannot explore every facet of each candidate’s stance on the economy, but will be discussing specific elements. Learning about the candidate’s campaigns is important so that you can cast an informed vote. One of the best ways to learn what each candidate believes is to visit their websites. Please also keep in mind that our discussions over the next week are not designed to sway your vote in any direction, only to provide information and analysis for you to consider when you make your choice on November 4, 2008.

For this discussion, we will focus on an element of Barack Obama’s economic plans, and that is to deploy next generation broadband. Let’s first examine what this entails (this information comes from Obama’s campaign website).

· Broadband extended to every community

· Reform the Universal Service Fund

· Better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum

· Promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications

· New tax and loan incentives

Let’s look at how some of these items might affect your business. The most obvious item is the extension of broadband to every community. If every community obtained broadband internet access, more and more prospects would surf the net and use it to find information, as well as products and services. The internet would be available on the go to more prospects as well. Through internet marketing, your business would be able to reach more prospects.

How does that happen? Better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum helps. If you recall our discussion on the switch to digital television in February 2009, we looked at how that switch might influence use of the internet. By switching to digital broadcasting, more networks can take up less space on the limited broadcasting spectrum, thus opening channels for other services, such as internet.

Promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications is another crucial step toward achieving the goal of extending broadband to every community. By investing in technological development, the hope is that the programs and services required to implement and maintain a large scale, nationwide broadband network will be able to support that goal.

Reforming the Universal Service Fund and new tax and loan incentives will further help to achieve that goal in a more efficient manner according to Obama’s campaign. Ultimately, if this plan were to proceed as outlined, your business could look forward to reaching more prospects with more ease. From there, all your business requires is stable and adaptable internet marketing strategies to attract those prospects to your company’s website, and help convert them into loyal customers.

In one week, the nation will flock to local voting centers and cast their vote for the country’s next President, Senate and Congress members. The status of our economy is one of the hottest issues in this election as the choice we all represent in one week might have a large impact on our economical environment for as much as the next decade.

In light of the recent economic hardships, we have the opportunity, as a nation, to strengthen our economy and rise out of the current valley in which we reside. Will this be the last recession? Certainly not. Americans at or around the age of sixty have experienced some ten recessions during the course of their lives thus far, which is a recession every six years.

However, our economic tribulations that caused a good deal of stress this month (and placed the economy at the top list of political hot topics) can act as a springboard for economic growth and strength. By incorporating new strategies and fail-safes, we can attempt to be sure that the sort of economic crisis we currently endure does not repeat.

Notice how our current economic environment spurred the understanding that modifications to our lending systems are needed not only to fix the current situations resulting in not only numerous foreclosures and also general economic decline (the foreclosures are really just symptoms of the deeper issue that is poor lending practices), but to prevent these events from transpiring again in the future, near or distant.

Our decisions, as voters, will affect our economy. Understanding the issues facing economic growth and reestablishment is crucial in making the right decision, but even before an in –depth study, we need to make sure we’re registered to vote. These days, registering to vote is easier than ever. You can register online. Different states have different websites, but simply searching “register to vote” will reveal a number of weblinks where you can register.

Make sure you know where you have to go to vote. If you only have a certain amount of time allotted on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 to vote, you don’t want to spend that time driving to the wrong location, then driving home and looking up where you’re supposed to be, only to find out you ran out of time. Instead, look it up ahead of time. You can do this simply by searching, “where do I vote.”

And what if you don’t have enough time? If you’re registered to vote, then voting is your constitutional right and no one has the right to stop you from casting your ballot. If you feel strapped for time, talk with your employer about the importance of voting and make sure you have the time you need to stop by your district’s voting center.

Know the issues and the stance of each candidate. An uneducated vote is worse than not voting at all—voting for the next President isn’t like standardized tests where it’s better to take even a wild guess than to leave the question blank. Every vote does count, and every vote deserves a informed decision behind it.

Over the next week, keep checking back for information about voting in the 2008 election. Remember—voting is your right. Your vote will affect the economy, which affects your business.

Today’s discussion focuses on the differences between direct mail marketing and email marketing, and how those differences can affect your company.  Direct mail marketing is when you send pieces via post mail to potential prospects.  Maybe these prospects were people who were referred to you by your current customers, or maybe you bought a list of names and addresses.  Typically, mail pieces are post cards.  A good example is the type of post cards everyone receives almost daily this time of an election year, enticing voters to vote for a particular candidate.  Email marketing consists of sending messages via email to prospects.  As with direct mail, email lists can be purchased, or referrals from current customers.  However, email lists can also be compiled by subscribers; prospects who visit your website may sign up to receive a newsletter or coupon email at a regular interval.  Because of this capability, email marketing has three, as opposed to two, sources for obtaining recipients.  Of course, you can invite people to sign up for your direct mailing list when they visit your office or store, but the list is going to be provincial and small.

As shown in an earlier discussion on our blog, email marketing allows you to view reports that show, in real time, how effective a particular email marketing campaign is.  Direct mail marketing does allow generation of data, but essentially that data only exists when a prospect responds to the call of action within your message, whether that is to email you, phone you or stop by your office.  You cannot know how many kept your post card, threw it out, or gave it to a friend.  With email marketing, you can see how many people moved your email into the trash or spam folders.  You can see how many unsubscribed, or who forwarded your email to a friend.  You can see how many people click on specific links within your message.  Reports of this nature allow you to further customize your campaign to increase effectiveness, and decrease cost.

Let’s talk about that for a moment, because often times, decreasing cost can seem such a tall hurdle, that it’s easy to forget that decreasing cost is actually quite simple.  When you increase the effectiveness of a particular message, you get more prospects becoming customers.  When more prospects become customers, you get a greater R.O.I. (Return on Investment).  Because of the nature of calculating R.O.I., actual cost decreases as more revenue comes in.  The more effective your email marketing messages are, the more prospects will become customers.  Of course, effectiveness isn’t the only way to reduce marketing cost.  Other methods, which we will discuss in the future, can help reduce marketing cost.

In recent discussions, we looked at how the evolution of the internet causes it to grow and prosper, and how that growth and evolution can affect your business.  There is a type of evolution that the internet experiences that wasn’t discussed in detail, and that is the growth as a result of economical shifts and changes.  Now, with a week and a half left of October, we can look back on this historical month when the Dow Jones dropped the largest amount in the history of the stock market (largest percentage loss was in October of 1929).

What does this October have to do with the internet?  First let’s examine how it’s affected the economy, the country and the world.  The huge losses that brought the Dow Jones down below 8500 points caught the attention of stockholders, stock traders, politicians and the world.  Stockholders wrestled with the decision to keep or sell their stocks.  Had they sold them, our economy might have been headed to a crash of greater magnitude than in 1929…but it seems we can indeed learn from history.  Many individuals working for investment banks and stock traders lost their jobs, or felt the strain of the possibility of losing their jobs.  Politicians passed the bail out bill in the hopes of rescuing our struggling economy, and our economical situation permeated presidential election debates.  Delegates from around the globe met to discuss the worldwide economy, which isn’t strong either.

So the economy could be doing better.  We’re not in the same tight spot we found ourselves in a couple of weeks ago, but we’re not out of the woods yet.  While October is thought to be a rough month economically speaking, such devastation to the markets and solvency of numerous banks wasn’t anticipated to occur at once.  Of course, September wasn’t the greatest month either.  Experiencing our largest job loss within the last five years set the stage for a fiscally rocky October.  How do these economical situations affect your company?

Maybe you’ve been forced to restructure.  Maybe you had no choice but to cut a few jobs here and there.  Perhaps you’re readjusting your budget, removing or lowering assets devoted to less necessary processes so that you can allocate your resources to those that are crucial, such as marketing.  Cutting funding for marketing is dangerous because marketing is what brings you new customers.

Two elements exist that provide hope.  The first is that, if things are really rough, they can only get better in the future.  The economy, like so many things, is a bit like a roller coaster.  Up one minute, down the next, and an occasional spiral just to make us dizzy before we climb the next hill.  The other element is the internet, which, through evolution, allows companies to market to prospects and customers.  Marketing on the internet doesn’t cost nearly as much as marketing through standard channels, such as television, radio or even newspaper.

When you incorporate internet marketing, several things happen for your company.  First and foremost, you will save money over standard marketing channels.  This cannot be over-emphasized, especially this year, this October.  Marketing over the internet means not having to cut marketing campaigns to fit budgetary adjustments.  Another benefit of internet marketing is that you can reach a global market.  When you market via television, radio or newspaper, you’re restricted to towns, states or regions.  Very few companies can afford to maintain national marketing campaigns on these standard channels, let alone international marketing campaigns.  When you market on the internet, you reach the world.

The third major benefit (there are so many benefits that for now, we’ll focus on these three) is adaptability.  Because you can view reports on your campaigns that show up-to-the-minute information, and because you can change your marketing strategies at the click of a mouse, your internet marketing campaigns are malleable.  When you advertise through standard channels, you may be unable to make changes for months.  If, for example, you choose to spend hundreds of dollars a month on an advertisement in the phone book, you can’t change that advertisement for a year in most cases, and you’re stuck paying that money every month.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking in depth at how, specifically, internet marketing can help your business, and we’ll discuss methods to save your company money and bring in more customers at the same time.  Every major shift that occurs in our world brings about change.  The stock market crash of 1929 brought about the Great Depression, which in turn led to a number of initiatives carried out by F.D.R., such as implementing social security.  Every cloud has a silver lining, and the cloud of this October can lead to your company experiencing prosperity only previously dreamt of.