Can Online Advertising be a Good Strategy for My Business?

James: I own a small retail business and have been using direct mail for five years to market my products and services. I am thinking of trying other ways to promote my business and would want to try online advertising. Can it be a good strategy for my business?

Heather: Online advertising offers a unique way of promoting your product and reaching to your target market. It provides many benefits such as cost-effectiveness; scalability; target marketing; detailed tracking and measurement. The online community consist of desirable demographics – more affluent, younger and more willing to spend money. Moreover, the size of the online audience is growing rapidly; thus, giving you a wider and flexible reach.

James: What are ways to advertise online? The most common I’ve heard of is banner advertising.

Heather: There are a number of methods to advertise in the Internet. We can name a few: Direct Email Marketing, Newsletter sponsorships, online discussion groups, Web pages, and Banner Advertising. And yes, banner advertising is the most common of all. It combines the benefits of broadcast, print, and direct email advertising. It is a great tool for branding and driving transactions.

If you want to launch an online advertising campaign, discuss your options with Bigfoot Advertising and we can help you get started. Our advertising services include Banner Advertising, List Rental, Newsletter Insertion and Advertising via SMS. Click here to learn more and contact an Advertising representative.


Source: www.pluss.net/marketing/tips/web-advertising.htm; www.bmcommunications.com/int_ad.htm

Virus, spam and phishing – no one can deny its increasing danger and annoying emails. Despite efforts from both government and technology institutions, they are still able find clever ways to escape or disguise from firewalls, anti-spam and anti-virus software.

How do these spammers manage to get away from the law and technology? One way they do it is they disguise their products with fake or even stolen email addresses that can mistake them as legitimate emails. Phishing emails, which trick users to giving up personal information, depend on this method. Email villains can also use viruses to turn a user’s PC into “zombies” that are then used to send spam or virus-infected emails to other PCs.

Several companies are still developing ways to combat this threat. Here’s a list of some of the technologies being tested right now:

1. Microsoft’s Sender ID – It checks the sender’s name, which appears in the “From” field of the email against the IP address of the mail server that sent the message, which is not easily spoofed. A recipient’s mail server can be programmed to throw out any mail that appears spoofed.

2. Yahoo Inc.’s Domain Keys – It works like the other proposals except that instead of using the mail server’s IP address it will require each participating mail server to attach its own numeric key to the mail it sends.

For these plans to work, mail server owners must publish their mail servers’ Internet protocol addresses so receiving servers can check the addresses on incoming emails against the addresses of legitimate servers. This is done by placing the information in Domain Name System records to find the numeric IP address for a website.

These methods though will work better against phishing with minimal effect on spam. Most analysts agree that other spam defenses will work better if spammers cannot disguise themselves.

Bigfoot Anti-Spam Solution is committed to help eliminate or curtail the rise of spam, phishing and viruses. It continues to search ways to develop its anti-spam technology. Bigfoot Anti-Spam Solution follows 3 highly sophisticated approaches to detect and deflect spam: checking the origin of the email against white list & blacklists; validating email against a set of predetermined spam signatures; and scanning email content for spam indicators using automated statistical techniques.

Bigfoot also publishes a monthly anti-spam newsletter to its subscribers, helping them become more aware on the latest news about spam and giving them latest developments in anti-spam technology.

To learn more about Bigfoot Anti-Spam Solution, click here.

Source: www.globeandmail.com, September 16, 2004

Bigfoot Announces the Public Launch of Bigfoot Call Manager 3.0

Bigfoot Communications Ltd., a leading provider of IT services and internet-enabled communications, has launched publicly its new version of the Bigfoot Call Manager. The new version sports a new look and an improved user interface, which allows users to use Bigfoot’s conference call services more efficiently.

Bigfoot Call Manager 3.0 is a meeting tool that subscribers use to make conference calls straight from their desktop. Unlike traditional conference calling, users are able to initiate dial-out calls without the need of a web browser.

The new Bigfoot Call Manager comes with these powerful features:

• ViewMyScreen to show desktop presentations to participants.
• Quick Call buttons for speed dialing.
• Quick Conference buttons to simultaneously dial-up to participants.
• Two-way and multi-party calls anytime, anywhere.
• Options such as Mute, Unmute, and Drop Lines to manage calls.

To know more about Bigfoot Call Manager, go to http://conferencing.bigfoot.com/callmanager.jsp.

For inquiries about Bigfoot Conference Call and Bigfoot Call Manager, interested parties may contact Yuen Chau, Bigfoot Communications Head of Sales, at +1 917 216 9829; or call toll-free 1-866-300-7155.

SMS Manager Gets a Facelift with its New Version

Bigfoot is ushering in a new experience in SMS (short messaging service) or text messaging with the launch of its Bigfoot SMS Manager Version 3.

Bigfoot SMS Manager is a downloadable Windows tray application installed on the PC. This allows sending of SMS or text messages from the PC to any mobile phone worldwide using a Bigfoot SMS account, and without having to open a web browser.

Along with a new look, the new SMS Manager now comes with smarter and updated features that will surely meet all of its users’ business and personal communications requirements.

Message management becomes easier and more efficient with these new power-packed features:

• Auto Reload/Recharge
• Flash and Private Message Types
• Phonebook Synchronization
• Message Scheduler
• Multi-user Profile
• Delivery Receipt

• 2-Way SMS – to send and receive messages to and from any phonearound the world
• Speed Send – to send SMS or text message in a fraction of a second.
• SMS Blast – to send a single message to up to 30,000 recipients in just one click.
• Message Log – to view all the text messages sent.
• Import External Contact List – to create and import contact list from external files.

New Business and Personal Messaging Sites Launched

The Bigfoot Messaging Team has unveiled its spanking-new websites for its messaging services. The new Bigfoot Messaging websites sport a sleek and professional design with better and user-friendly navigation facilities.

The Business SMS site carries a suite of services designed primarily for corporate users or businesses. Business SMS meets the needs of companies for their marketing/advertising and corporate communications.

The Personal SMS site hosts personal messaging services and products targeted at individual consumers.

According to Daisy Vargas, marketing officer at Bigfoot Messaging, the new websites are created not exactly to separate business from personal, but to make things easier for clients to find what they need.

“It's mainly for the benefit of the users that the websites were made this way-- for easier navigation,” Ms. Vargas concludes.

In its aims to provide advertisers with different avenues and channels to meet their online advertising needs, Bigfoot has expanded its advertising services. Apart from banner ads and email list rentals, Bigfoot Advertising is now offering newsletter insertions (advertorials) and text message-broadcasting service using SMS Blast.

“Bigfoot has created a separate site for its online advertising services to give advertisers a clear and bigger picture of what Bigfoot has to offer,” says Inaki Martinez, Bigfoot Advertising Product Manager. “By providing them with the information they need and the means to contact us, advertisers will find it easier to work with Bigfoot in terms of making their campaigns reach their target audiences.”

Bigfoot provides the following online advertising services:

Banner Ads – With Bigfoot’s millions of users across the world, clients get the right exposure they need for online visibility.

List Rental – Bigfoot maintains a subscriber base of over 3 million spread across several continents. This makes its opt-in email lists helpful in making the most of advertisers’ marketing efforts and demographic targeting.

Newsletter Insertions -- In-Step, the official Bigfoot newsletter, is a bi-monthly publication that supplies its growing readership base with a stream of information about Bigfoot products and the latest news on information technology and telecommunications. Because of its wide reach, Bigfoot is giving advertisers the opportunity for their company to create a good impression on Bigfoot readers through an advertorial feature in the newsletter.

Advertise via SMS -- Bigfoot offers advertisers the opportunity to send their marketing campaigns directly to Bigfoot’s growing mobile base through one-click SMS or text messaging using Bigfoot’s very own SMS Blast technology. To learn more about Bigfoot’s SMS Blast service, go to http://sms.bigfoot.com/business/business_download.jsp.

To learn more about Bigfoot Advertising, go to http://advertising.bigfoot.net.

Bigfoot’s Email Tools Team is proud to announce that a new portal for its host of email tools products and services is currently on the drawing board. The portal will carry the same Bigfoot branding design and with easy-to-use navigation facilities.

“This portal will lump together Bigfoot’s four email tools products and services, namely, Email Forwarding, Anti-spam Solution, WebMail, and SMS Alerts, and will lead to their individual sites,” says Email Tools product manager, Iris Cabibil.

“Moreover, the portal is designed with utmost care and intelligence in such a way that Bigfoot’s Email Tools users or subscriber are equipped with the ability to manage their account on just one site,” Ms. Cabibil continues. “This way they can view the status of their different email tools accounts on just one page, without having to go through the hassles of going from one site to another.”

The official public launch date of the new Email Tools portal will be announced soon.