With the economy in recession, coupons could become popular again with marketers and consumers. ActiveAccess clients, and their advertisers, are in position to benefit from users who are continually seeking bargains during this holiday season, and beyond.

And if an article from the New York Times is right, shoppers looking for bargains should have plenty of opportunities with the resurgence of coupons from retailer trying to woo customers with deep discounts.

The article says that “coupons that offer cents off — or percents off — the price of things like groceries, clothing and restaurant meals are particularly popular when consumers need to stretch their dollars.”

Frivolous spending is so last century. These days, people are thinking low-key purchases and looking for or waiting on sales at their local retailers.

If that is the case, then our ActiveAccess clients should be jumping for joy, or at least to their closest local retailer, because their desktop application provides them with the opportunity to create and dispense coupons.

So now, not only does their desktop app provide news and information to its audiences, it can now provide a source of savings for those users who are determined to spend less on food, clothes, and services.

The coupons would be sent via the Alert Box that slides out the left side of the application, where the weather alerts usually appear. Plus, these coupons can be:

The flipside of using coupons in ActiveAccess is that they can be a great source of new revenue for both our client and their sponsor/advertiser. The client receives revenue for allowing the sponsor to advertise his business in the desktop  application, and the advertiser receives traffic into his business. Plus, he can physically count how any coupons he redeemed and calculate the ROI on this activity.

It’s a WIN (Client) WIN (Advertiser) WIN (Desktop App Users) for all involved.

Posted by Terence Thomas
Interactive Marketing Manager, ActiveAccess

For the past year or so, I have found RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to be a really simple and helpful way for me to stay on top of news and information that takes place throughout the day.

I thought a few of my clients, who are Marketing professionals and Web Developers from a forward thinking university, would be familiar with this technology as me (it’s been around for 2-3 years)…but I was wrong. As I started to explain the RSS technology to them, I was instantly met with blank faces and stares until finally someone had the courage to ask me: “What’s RSS?” I was shocked by not only the fact that I had assumed they would know what I was talking about, but that I had to start at Square #1 and explain what RSS stood for!

I wish I read the recent BtoB Magazine article entitled “Success metrics evolve with RSS” for if I did, I would have known that there are many other people in business who have still yet to embrace the RSS phenomena like I have.

Here are 3 ways that I am encouraging my ActiveAccess clients to embrace RSS technology:

Encourage them to USE RSS technology

What better way to learn about something than to just do it? ActiveAccess clients and users have access to the RSS Reader in their desktop application.I’ve already pre-populated their readers with their own company’s and blog site RSS feeds. By asking them to use their RSS Reader for a week or two, they will get more familiar with how it works they are with the technology, the more willing they’ll

RSS Is Better Than Email Announcements and Drives Traffic to Websites

RSS will never supplant e-mail as the quintessential online communication tool, however, RSS can ease the amount of e-mail is sent by converting their communications to RSS.

I try to get clients to imagine using RSS to communicate to their audience, instead of using e-newsletters. RSS will cut through the inbox clutter while driving more traffic to the websites where the full RSS Stories reside. More traffic means more eyeballs. More eyeballs means more advertising dollars.

Promote their company’s RSS Feed to their Audience

This is probably one of the most difficult tasks for ActiveAccess clients to execute, particularly the clients who have had the application for a while. Almost all ActiveAccess clients have RSS feeds on their websites, or they have blogs that use RSS technology. But these clients say it’s difficult to find the time to to highlight the benefits of RSS and then help shepherd their audience through the transition. Our newer clients do not have this trouble because as they roll out the ActiveAccess technology to their audience they highlight the RSS features and encourage users to explore.