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.

Yesterday on The Mike Hackmer Show, I had the opportunity to talk a little bit about social media and widgets with Terence Thomas. During the interview, Terence and I talked about where widget technology is a bit lacking, and what some of the companies Terence interacts with are looking for in widgets or desktop applications. The interview was part of a larger discussion that occurred that day on social media.

CLICK TO HEAR A PODCAST OF THIS INTERVIEW

The Mike Hackmer Show is on WEBR, Fairfax, VA. The show airs every Sunday at 12:00 pm Eastern time, and is dedicated to talking about traditional media, new or social media, and the world of marketing. Listeners can listen online at: http://www.fcac.org/webr

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.

ActiveAccess has partnered with Gas Buddy to provide our users with real-time local gas prices for their area based upon zip code. GasBuddy.com is an online service providing a fuel price forum that consumers can use to find the lowest gas prices in their neighborhood based on their city, state or zip code.

GasBuddy.com can be an add-on to what content you already have listed on your desktop application. Gas price information can be displayed as a menu link or a portal tab; this can also be contained in a branded window so that you can give your advertising more exposure. The gas price information that comes up will stay local because it is designed to correspond with the zip code an end user originally types in when they initially download your application.

Click here to see the 2 minute instructional video on how to add GasBuddy to your ActiveAccess desktop application.

Please contact either Terence Thomas or Tommy Buono and let us know if you would like to add this content to your application or if you have any questions about this service.

Thanks-

TNT Client Services

This post serves a simple reminder that we have started adding the new features to your desktop application. You and your users will be able to download and access these features by Friday morning

You remember the new features right? RSS Reader, YouTube Videos, Interactive National Weather Map, new ad sizes, etc.? If you don’t remember, click HERE to refresh your memory. Here a few more things you should know about the Features Rollout:

1. We added your RSS Feeds for you
To make the process easier for you and your users, if your website had RSS feeds, we’ve pre-populated them into the RSS Reader for you. When your users open the RSS Reader for the first time, they will see a list of your RSS feeds and will have the opportunity to subscribe to any of them.

We did our best to list all of your RSS Feeds, but if you want to add other feeds, just e-mail your feeds to me, Terence Thomas at tthomas@bia.com.

2. Look for the Get Latest Version in Bold Text
We’ve made getting these new features easy. Simply follow this process:
1. Click the Menu button on their application.

2. Click the bolded Get Latest Version link.

3. The lastest version will begin to download.

4. Once finished, the old version will be uninstalled and the new version installed.

5. That’s it! The latest version is 2.0 Build 032. Click the Menu button, then About to view.

3. Click the Red Button to see the New National Weather Map
You can find this red button on the lower left corner of your desktop application. See….

4. TELL YOUR USERS about the new features and how they can access them
You need to inform your users about these new features. There are manye way to spread the word to your users. I recommend using all of your communication channels, such as:

1. Sending crawls and alerts via your desktop application.

2. Sending an e-mail to all of your users.

3. Adding a banner to your homepage that links to a webpage that explains the features in detail.

4. Highlighting the new features in the promotions of your desktop application.