'Net Features : automation

Automate Social Media Posting with StreamSend Share 2.0

Michael Garrity — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:30:00 GMT

On Monday, email marketing service provider StreamSend officially launched v2.0 of its social media marketing tool suite, StreamSend Share, which comes with a sweet new feature that allows for automated posting on a variety of social networks, including Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn.

This addition is meant to help marketers maximize “exposure, relevance and efficiency” and increase engagement by allowing users to time posts to appear when a brand’s customer base is most alert and interested.

“There is no doubt that automated, scheduled postings can help businesses increase customer engagement,” said StreamSend’s President of Email Marketing, Dan Forootan. “Starting with content that is relevant and valuable to channel and board users, we can then control the timing of these postings to match even further to users’ preferences and schedules. It’s a better way to control the temp and flow of the conversation, while learning exactly what time produce optimal results.”

For example, social media marketers can now easily publish new content in the mornings, when users are statistically more likely to check their social network profiles firs thing in the morning. Likewise, research also shows that a lot of social media activity spikes on the weekends, when marketers aren’t in the office. With StreamSend Share 2.0, they can still publish posts to go up on Saturdays and Sundays to engage users without having to be present to do it.

Automated posting also gives companies greater control over their messages and allows them to refine their posts and optimize their delivery. They can also now separate their content-creation schedules from their posting schedules, so they can then batch social media posts into blocks to increase their available time, resources and return-on-investment.

In addition, StreamSend Share 2.0 will also feature topical share boards that will automatically create and attract subscribers so that marketers can continue to push their message toward their intended audiences.

Fight, Fight Against Cart Abandonment

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:23:00 GMT

Shopping cart software 3DCart announced a partnership with email marketing service Listrak to provide its merchants with Listrak's automated Shopping Cart Abandonment Solution.

Cart abandonment is estimated to cost Internet retailers roughly $18 billion dollars each year, according to Forrester. As it stands today, 7 out of 10 carts are stranded. Merchants would obviously be wise to start developing a strategy to recoup some of those lost earnings.

Listrak's offering will help 3DCart merchants recapture abandoners via automated email marketing campaigns. The solution incorporates dynamic merchandising to remind abandoners of the items left in the cart and prompt them to complete the transaction. To help recover those lost sales, Listrak’s solution also provides the opportunity for retailers to do a series of messages, test offer and non-offer messages, and incorporate product reviews.

“Our partnership with 3DCart enables us to provide merchants with an automated solution that is easily integrated with the platform and provides immediate impact to the merchants’ bottom line by recouping lost revenue from abandoned carts,” said Ross Kramer, Listrak CEO. “Our focus is on revenue and ROI, and this partnership enables us to provide that for 3DCart clients more easily,” added Kramer.

Hostway launches NetDBAs

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:57:00 GMT

Hostway announced today that it has partnered with IT automation provider Stratavia to launch NetDBAs, an enterprise-class database automation solution that aims to simplify the management of corporate databases.

The NetDBAs database automation tool automates routine tasks such as installing new databases, administering users, applying patches, and managing backups through a web-interface. The initial release will manage editions of Microsoft SQL Server database and future versions will add support for databases from other manufacturers.

“We are excited to launch this value added solution that will automate and simplify the most time consuming and repetitive tasks typically performed by database administrators,” says Todd Benjamin, vice president of Enterprise Hosting, Hostway.” With assistance from Stratavia we have harnessed high-end enterprise-class automation technology, simplified it, and deployed it in the cloud to be cost effective and versatile, solving a prevailing challenge for today’s efficiency minded corporations.”

Marketo Aims for the Enterprise

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:45:00 GMT

Marketing automation provider Marketo's spring release is focusing on security and scalability. The company initially focused on small and mid-size companies with an "ease-of-use" marketing message but seems to be focusing on larger, more global enterprises with this most recent release.

The new enterprise architecture offers advanced user roles and access permissions, workspace and lead partitions, identity management, integration capabilities and according to the official announcement, a 12x improvement in performance. The new service also provides customers with "one-click" access to create a fully replicated, highly scalable on-demand replica of their Marketo environment for customization, integration, testing, development and training purposes.

“With the release of our new Enterprise Architecture, we are now in an even better position to offer our enterprise clients the ease of use and flexibility they expect with Marketo, but with even more advanced security, scalability and integration capabilities,” noted Phil Fernandez, President and CEO of Marketo. “Marketo Lead Management Enterprise Edition is the ideal solution for global organizations that require the utmost in scalability and security, without sacrificing usability and time to value.”