As I was catching up on my blog reader today, I did a double take on this revelation: Sam’s Club (or WalMart) offers Internet Marketing services. The company that offers the services is called Innuity. It’s not new but I’ve never heard of it until today. I spoke to them to find out more.

First, Sam’s Club members get a free web site. It will be yourbusinessname.samsbiz.com until you get your own domain. 5 pages, content only (no shopping cart). For $10 a month you can get a CMS template ecommerce site. For $900 they will design the site (you write the content).

If you want to run PPC advertising to your site, for a minimum of $50 per month for 6 months, they will set it up in 4 days. Google only unless you want to spend more ($200+). About 15% of this is administration fees and the rest is for your ad budget.
Otherwise there are SEO services of $500 per month for a minimum of 6 months. That includes an article a week and landing pages for your top keywords. Basically building links.

So does this mean Internet marketing has officially hit the mainstream? And who is doing the work? Are the services any good? Anyone tried it or have any insights?

Next thing you know they will offer business blogging and email marketing
Update: Innuity is quite saavy, despite the connotations of working with Sam’s Club. I got two emails from them the day I wrote this post (without so much as a trackback to alert them). They have 30,000 clients and focus on taking “enterprise” level internet solutions to the small business owner. Like most SEO companies, their target market - small business owners - often don’t know they need or can afford Internet marketing.

They have larger clients that include well-known companies like: Overstock, ADP, and Amazon.

Since I’ve started blogging on Marketing Pilgrim I’m posting less on Newspapergirl. My blog has become a place for more commentary and local news for the time being. I will blog about what I learn if it’s helpful information.

I also appreciate hearing from businesses in the internet marketing space. I like to keep up on what’s going on and so this Thursday I’m going to this workshop by Constant Contact. It’s in Murray, Utah.

Constant Contact is a less sophisticated but very useable email marketing program. I liked Gold Lasso better because they are more secure and have more tracking features (I lost track of you!). But the user interface was much harder to use and has a bigger learning curve for beginners.

Email Marketing with Constant Contact
Thursday, December 6th Email Seminar
9:30am - 12:00pm
Cost: FREE

Workshop Location:
Webster University
5251 S. Green Street Suite 300
Murray, UT 84123

Description:
This workshop will walk you through the Constant Contact Email Marketing System while you learn email marketing best practices, winning strategies and tactics. You’ll learn how to build and manage your contacts, how to create great looking emails, and how to track and maximize results.

The workshop also covers basic email optimization concepts including building a bigger list, getting email opened, and ideas for email content. They won’t have wireless access.

To attend, register online at http://utah.constantcontact.com

(Space is limited to the first 30 registrations.)

UPDATE: The class is full. You can get on the waiting list. I asked them to do another workshop and will keep you posted on if they open up another class.

UPDATE: I got a reply to my email and they say classes often fill up very fast and to subscribe to their RSS feed if you want to attend (the calendar doesn’t work in Firefox so put it in IE and click to see the entire list of events to find the RSS feed. Not very user-friendly on this front.

eComXpo is an internet marketing conference that is entirely online. It covers various aspects of the industry from affiliate marketing to email marketing. It’s well-attended and the speakers are usually excellent. Plus it’s free.

I’ve attended on and off for the past few years. You can listen while you’re at work and it’s free while it’s live. Otherwise you can pay $50 to access all the sessions to listen to later.

The biggest challenge of a virtual conference is not getting distracted. So plan time away from distractions for the speakers you really want to listen to. If you’re at work, go to a conference room. Or, buy the transcripts.

The conference runs October 9-11 - that is a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Here are some highlights. Mat - they ask for speakers. Please apply and talk about Social Media Optimization and how to utilize web 2.0 Strategies on your Site.

* Bryan Eisenberg from Future Now will speak about web site conversion
* Geoff Ramsey from eMarketer will talk about digital strategies
* Anne Holland from Marketingsherpa will deliver great data as she usually does on Search engine marketing, Email marketing and Landing Pages

* Seth Godin on Blogging: How Blogs and Web 2.0 Can Change Your Business Forever - DON’T MISS THIS ONE

* The New Realities of Online Life: Lee Rainie – Pew Internet and American Life Project

Don’t put off registering because if you’re like me you’ll forget. They send you reminders. Seriously, no travel expenses and you can learn from the best minds in the industry.
Click Here To Register Now!

I just read a report by Internet Retailer that the Bombay Company doubled their online sales. They do around of $15.9 million and are expected to double that.

How? A new exec over ecommerce says it’s using email marketing and web analytics to respond to what customers do on the site. I think email marketing is one of the most underutilized Internet marketing techniques. Surprisingly, a lot of companies still don’t use it. Never before has keeping in touch with vast numbers of people around the world been so accessible.

I know email marketing is nothing new. I just think most of us aren’t using it to the full potential. Your email list is gold. Respond immediately when a new person signs up. Establish contact right off because if you wait they may forget who you are and unsubscribe. Of course you always work harder on client’s sites than your own. Affiliate Flash is not a good example here!

Speaking of which, I want to find a site that lists email newsletters I can advertise in along with the readership and cost. I’m launching a new site with a few friends in a week or two (don’t worry I’ll announce it). I want to do some email advertising and I’m also going to experiment with placing affiliate ads in newsletters. Anyone know of a good resource?

MarketingSherpa’s Email Marketing Benchmark Guide a Bestseller

You probably know I’m a huge fan of MarketingSherpa. They consistantly keep the pulse of internet marketing. They tell us what works and what doesn’t using real world application and data.

If there’s one area I want to improve on as an internet marketer it is email marketing. Done right it can be an additional revenue stream. You can put ads in your emails (affiliate or paid sponsors), get co-registrations for complimentary businesses), and build customer loyalty (translates to more sales).

The world of email providers is large and deep and choosing the right provider is vital. The last thing you want is more or less functionality than you need or to be blacklisted because you share server space with a spammer or company passing around spy or adware.

We’re coming on a new year and that means new budgets. In coming weeks, many internet marketers will get a fresh start on their 2007 marketing plans.

MarketingSherpa’s Email Marketing Benchmark Guide Preview:

• 100% re-researched reports – get ideas and inspiration for your 2007 marketing

• 233 charts & tables, 21 images and 8 new eyetracking heatmaps.

• 3,637 internet marketers share actual results and budgeting data, and what tests are worth doing (to save you time)

Download your copy instantly (and get your printed-and-bound copy in the mail).

Email Insider Summit is starting this Sunday, December 3, 2006 in Deer Valley Utah. I just heard about it but it’s sold out. Has anyone been or planning to go? I’d love to get a press pass and write and/or podcast some of the sessions.

First, I see the ad, a compelling headline written to address my desires for conversions. Conversions are my holy grail.

Precisely, I just clicked on to DM News (direct, database, and internet marketing news) and I click on the headline: “Post-Click Marketing dramatically improves conversion rates” white paper link.

It takes me to a beautiful, elegant landing page. I fill out the information (2 short pages) and land on an equally beautiful thank you page. They give me another hook (another white paper, their blog, and a “call me now” option).

I wonder how these landing pages convert. I’m also interested in post-click marketing. I’ll let you know what I learn. In the meantime, dream about churning out beautiful landing pages that convert and make me the web hero…

In researching different email marketing solution providers I’ve begun to think about something I wouldn’t have before I started working at Cymphonix. Spyware.

If you share server space with lots of other businesses (something small businesses often do to cut costs) you risk getting blacklisted because of something someone else did. Essentially your company shares its reputation with a lot of other unknown companies. So if they introduce spyware through a web page they link to and it gets blocked, so do you!
That’s why I’m not going to use a service like Constant Contact, I want to build our email marketing for the long term. If we get blacklisted it will hurt our deliverability for years to come.

Thanks to Eli’s generosity I will try eloop and give feedback (I love asking questions to my blog readers, it makes me smarter and I get to talk with great people). You can buy a dedicated IP address. Or, if you want to keep costs down and share one, they limit the number of accounts on a server to around 10.

When you’re looking for an email marketing solution, be sure to ask about Spyware. If you want to really know, get Sunbelt software, or a complete solution like Cymphonix (an in-line network appliance that combines spyware blocking with a lot of other features, priced for small to medium-sized businesses).

When you’re a small company and you want to start an email newsletter without getting IT involved, be sure to ask about spyware and who you’ll be sharing space with. Zeop is a free solution that claims no spyware. I think what I’m learning will make a good article when I’m done researching it.

I need to get an email program such as Constant Contact to send and track email newsletters. I have used Aweber and they have a great reputation. I just think the usability and user experience is so poor. I don’t like using it, so I don’t send as much email.

For example, when I type an email in Aweber, it’s unclear that when I save it that means it’s going to be sent. They have tutorials and documents but I don’t want to have to spend that much effort to learn it better. I’d much rather go with a seemless solution that is intuitive to use.

Does anyone use an email program to send emails to maybe around 500-1000 subscribers that you recommend and like using? I need to be able to segment lists and see where people click (not just open rates).

Backcountry’s deal web site SteepandCheap.com reports in Internet Retailer that they have doubled their revenue since August. They also have a social networking part so people can discuss the deals. Activity on the forum has tripled in the past month as has traffic.

SteepandCheap has outdoor gear at discounted rates. The deal started at midnight and when it was gone it was gone.

How did they do it?

• Rather than post one deal a day and having nothing when inventory runs out they now always have a deal.
• Social networking builds a community and loyalty and keeps people on the site longer. In general the longer people spend on your site the more they buy (like in offline stores).
• Email marketing, sign up for the deals to be emailed to you (another chance to sell and drive traffic.

Backcountry.com is #150 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites. That’s great news from a Utah business.