Email Marketing in 2015
User Center
- Subscribe
- Jobs
- About us
- Sitemap
Ad Choices
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form without prior authorization.
Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of Haymarket Media's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.
Business Breaking News: Social Media Success: A Guide for Job Seekers
Job seekers know that recruiters are searching for them on social media. Nearly every professional understands the importance of having a LinkedIn profile that lists his or her work experience, and many of these professionals realize that Twitter and Facebook profiles can help employers confirm their identity and expertise. But standing out in today's job market goes beyond simply having social accounts — you need to use those accounts to your advantage and have a strong personal brand on display when — not if — a hiring manager finds you.
"It is important for candidates to utilize social media," said Rebecca White, area director at staffing firm Kavaliro. "Not only does this show that they are current on the latest technologies, but it also provides them [with a way] to stay in touch with their colleagues, expand their professional network and open themselves up to other career opportunities."
Each social network has its own unique characteristics and best practices. Like a marketer, you're ultimately selling a product, and it's in your best interest to tailor your strategy based on the site you're using. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your job searching activity on four of the social channels most commonly used by recruiters. [Why Your Social Media Profile Is the New Résumé]
Commodity Online News: Ref Soya Oil witness down at 609.1 trading range 603 619
In Search, Think Mobile Sundays and Desktop Mondays
Mobile searches reach to heavenly heights on the Lord's Day. Meanwhile, marketers find CTRs sacred in Q4, according to Adobe.
Sunday, mobile Sunday
Product and service searches made via mobile devices peaked on Sundays during the fourth quarter, when the channel's share of total searches jumped 17% over its average. Mobile searches subsided on Monday, when desktop text ads' share of clicks rose 9%. Those were the findings of Adobe Digital Index's (ADI) Q4 Digital Advertising Benchmark report, which based its metrics on hundreds of billions of post and ad impressions made during 2013 and 2014.
“We added the mobile cut this year and the results were very interesting,” said ADI Senior Analyst Joe Martin. “We thought perhaps Friday might be mobile's big day, but, for marketers, it's Mobile Search Sundays and Desktop Search Mondays.”
Google Shopping Ads, formally known as product listing ads, showed a steady presence across all days of the week. ADI reported that marketers increased their Shopping Ad spends by 47% while decreasing spending on text ads by 6%. Text ads still dominate the search landscape, however. Only 20% of clicks overall were for Shopping Ads; 66% were for Google; and 14% for Yahoo/Bing text ads.
Google ads, ADI found, continue to be more efficiently optimized by marketers, with growth of click-through rate ads outpacing cost-per-click ads by two times. Advertisers continue to be bully on Yahoo/Bing, whose CPC growth rate rose in line with Google's. A 2013 ADI study found that Bing delivered marketers more than a $3 return per visit versus about $2.50 for Google and less than $1.50 for Facebook.
Bing's CTR growth fell far below Google's, however. “Tools are more focused on Google for the moment, so marketers are more fully optimized there,” Martin said. “That will change, and we see a continued move to Bing in the future.”
Facebook's strategy to move marketers to paid impressions proceeded apace in Q4, when paid impressions by retailers increased 13% over the previous year and 53% over the previous quarter. That didn't mean that retail marketers abandoned attempts at free engagement with potential customers on the social network. Their organic posts rose 64% YOY.
“They're increasing the breadth of posts. Facebook found that posts with links and images are opened with greater frequency, so the number of posts with links increased 68%,” Martin said.
The craft of marketing on Facebook is becoming decidedly more refined. An August algorithm change by Facebook was responded to almost immediately by the marketing community.
“A colleague of mine recently pointed out that it used to take marketers six to eight months to respond to a Facebook algorithm change,” observed ADI principal analyst Tamara Gaffney. “Now marketers adjust their strategies much quicker to capitalize on how the algorithm adjustment is going to favor them in the news feed.”
Business Breaking News: ZTE Grand X Max Plus: Top 3 Business Features
ZTE's Grand X Max Plus is a solid business phablet at an affordable price. The mammoth, 6-inch (15 centimeters) smartphone offers a bright, colorful display, long battery life and good performance for just $199 off-contract, via lesser-known carrier Cricket Wireless. If that sounds like a lot to pay for a budget phone, consider that buying a smartphone outright — instead of opting for a subsidized phone with a pricey two-year contract attached — can save you a lot of money in the long run. That's because Cricket Wireless offers cheaper monthly data plans than carriers like Verizon or AT&T.
So what do you get for your money? Here are three features that help make the ZTE Grand X Max Plus good for work.
Big display
Commodity Online News: LME Inventory data: Nickel stocks gained by 678 tons
Video Marketing Is More Than Pretty Pictures
A chief video marketer shares how to build a robust—and effective—video marketing strategy.
Brightcove's Paul Casinelli
“Video is the most powerful way to drive marketing strategies.”
That unequivocal statement came from Paul Casinelli, director of product marketing at online video platform provider Brightcove. Casinelli spoke to the crowd at this year's Marketing&Tech Innovation Summit in New York. He says that video is an integral tool that helps drive the customer journey; it leads consumers through channels, content, and eventually to a purchase.
“Video has the ability to make a serious impact on driving results,” Casinelli explained. “It helps increase ranking in search engines, increases time on sites, and increases conversions.” In fact, he says that video boosts organic traffic by about 157% from search engines, prompts a 105% increase in time spent on a site, and leads to about 2X the number of conversions as to a site with no video.
Casinelli stressed that today's customers are completely different than those of yesteryear. “The world is changing,” he explained. “Today consumers are viewing video on many different devices. So as a marketer, make sure to meet those expectations of great video on different devices; provide great experiences everywhere.”
To provide those great experiences, Casinelli said that marketers need more than video clips; they need an entire strategy that includes branded video hubs and portals infused with a social media element. “[For the viewer], a video portal should be a place to discover new things to engage with. Then push those video clips to social.” He says that video's synergy with social promotes video sharing: “You'll get more mileage out of your content.” Casinelli just warns marketers to make sure that the video portal speaks to the voice and mission of a brand, which he says will encourage and edify potential customers about a company's products.
But if creating an entire video strategy and portal bolstered by social media seems overwhelming, Casinelli had this to say: “Your videos don't have to be overproduced. Broadcasting videos are held to a higher standard. Just start devising your video strategy. Provide clean, professional videos that tell your brand's story. Those lower-cost videos will still have a great effect on your brand perception and ROI.”
Casinelli does say, however, that marketers must make relevant videos and then track their performance. Once that data is in, he says to rev up what works and simply cut out what doesn't. “Know the macro-level analytics: performance metrics, traffic sources, popular days for content. But also know your micro-level measurements: Know what's engaging and what's not. Understand your audience.”
He says that, bottom line, video works.
“It'll increase your engagement and conversion rates,” Casinelli said. In his final words to an audience of about 150 industry professionals, he had this advice: “Just make sure to always track performance. Always push to a social channel. People are excited to consume content, and then share.”
Business Breaking News: Social Media Success: A Guide for Job Seekers
Job seekers know that recruiters are searching for them on social media. Nearly every professional understands the importance of having a LinkedIn profile that lists his or her work experience, and many of these professionals realize that Twitter and Facebook profiles can help employers confirm their identity and expertise. But standing out in today's job market goes beyond simply having social accounts — you need to use those accounts to your advantage and have a strong personal brand on display when — not if — a hiring manager finds you.
"It is important for candidates to utilize social media," said Rebecca White, area director at staffing firm Kavaliro. "Not only does this show that they are current on the latest technologies, but it also provides them [with a way] to stay in touch with their colleagues, expand their professional network and open themselves up to other career opportunities."
Each social network has its own unique characteristics and best practices. Like a marketer, you're ultimately selling a product, and it's in your best interest to tailor your strategy based on the site you're using. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your job searching activity on four of the social channels most commonly used by recruiters. [Why Your Social Media Profile Is the New Résumé]
Commodity Online News: Ref Soya Oil witness down at 609.1 trading range 603 619
Three Things to Think About Before Buying a DMP Platform
Shop hard, advises one provider at the Marketing&Tech Summit. Make no assumptions and take it for a rigorous test drive.
IgnitionOne CRO Jonathon Baron
Personalization can be summed up in five simple words, Ignition One CRO Jonathon Baron told attendees at Direct Marketing News's Marketing&Tech Innovation Summit yesterday: “Show me you know me.”
Baron's long experience in merging data management with marketing efforts for clients such as General Motors, AIG, and Intercontinental Hotels taught him that, if you get it right, the customer will listen. Then he told how a shoe company recently didn't get it right with him when—while searching for snow boots on a PC he shares with his wife—he was retargeted with an ad for high heels.
“I kept getting retargeted with that ad for days and why? Because the ecosystem is still based on cookies,” he said. “With real-time buying, an ad buy is placed in 9 milliseconds. You have to get the right data to vendors quick enough to have an impact.”
Baron gave attendees at the New York conference some tips in shopping for data management platforms (DMPs):
- When you think about managing your data, don't thing about data for video, data for display, and data for email. “Think about how all your data is going to work together in less than 100 milliseconds,” he counseled.
- Take your time investigating and make no assumptions about what providers promise. Make sure they can deliver what you need because “like your database in the Nineties, a good DMP is going to stay with you for 10 to 15 years."
- Be like Ronald Reagan when he made the arms limitation deal with the Soviet Union: Trust, but verify. “You want integrated products, not integration projects,” Baron advised.
Business Breaking News: ZTE Grand X Max Plus: Top 3 Business Features
ZTE's Grand X Max Plus is a solid business phablet at an affordable price. The mammoth, 6-inch (15 centimeters) smartphone offers a bright, colorful display, long battery life and good performance for just $199 off-contract, via lesser-known carrier Cricket Wireless. If that sounds like a lot to pay for a budget phone, consider that buying a smartphone outright — instead of opting for a subsidized phone with a pricey two-year contract attached — can save you a lot of money in the long run. That's because Cricket Wireless offers cheaper monthly data plans than carriers like Verizon or AT&T.
So what do you get for your money? Here are three features that help make the ZTE Grand X Max Plus good for work.
Big display
Commodity Online News: LME Inventory data: Nickel stocks gained by 678 tons
Connect With Your Audience Through Content Marketing
Dell's managing editor, Stephanie Losee, explains how to build audience trust with content.
Stephanie Losee, Dell
For marketers today, a solid content strategy is mandatory. Content that reverberates among consumers and across channels can no doubt bolster a company's image, introduce the brand to potential shoppers, and hopefully establish an emotional and psychological connection between the brand and its customers.
“What is more direct than publishing?” asked Stephanie Losee, managing editor at Dell, which shares content with readers through Tech Page One, the company's community content hub. During the 2015 Marketing&Tech Innovation Summit in New York, Losee said content is the key to unlock more meaningful relationships with consumers, “Produce content with your customers in mind. Then you can have a fuller conversation. You can go deeper.”
She said that too often marketers focus on company goals and not customer wants as they craft content strategies. “We have to consider what customers are looking for versus what you want to tell them,” Losee explained. “Look at what [consumers] are searching for. Then, as a brand publisher, commission that information. Then readers will share your answers.”
Indeed, consumers do want to hear from their favorite brands, Losee said: they want behind-the-scenes looks, new ideas, and sophisticated insights from industry leaders. And she said that content marketers at Dell recognize that demand for company insight and are meeting it with unique, edifying content.
“Whatever content you create will find its way to sophisticated audiences,” Losee continued. “Respect the customer's needs, even if it's content that you might not have expected the audience to want.” She cites Dell as an example of listening to readers and providing long-form, niche content that focuses on tech and innovation and is more sophisticated than the most kitschy blog posts: “You can even combine the story strategies; publish a shorter blog post that links to something more robust, like a whitepaper or a study.”
Losee does warn, however, that content marketing doesn't mean free marketing. “It's not realistic to have all owned and earned content,” she said. Losee insists that content marketers need to create media that they're willing to share through their own platforms and promote on external platforms. In other words, content marketers need to devise a paid search strategy for their content. “We have the capability to publish content. But we then need to amplify it with paid media. It's an extremely successful tactic,” Losee said.
Content marketing, Losee insists, does not only help brands connect with customers, but enables internal departments to communicate with each other. “Use content to break down silos,” she said. “[As the managing editor at Dell] I was actually hired to stitch together the different teams.” She said her role pushed her to work across different departments, ranging from those who might finance the projects to teammates who would provide the technology and designs. “We went on the hunt across different departments just to find the answers [for our content marketing strategy].”
In her final words, Losee said that brands should lead their marketing efforts with editorial content. “Brand storytelling helps customers understand more and know more,” she says. “It's a great way to earn your audience's trust.”
Business Breaking News: Facebook Expands Conversion Lift Measurement Capabilities
Measuring the success of your social media ads can be tricky, but Facebook is working on ways to help advertisers better understand the impact of their campaigns.
Facebook recently announced that the company is expanding its conversion lift measurement capabilities as a way to help advertisers determine exactly how ads on the social network impact their bottom line. This expansion will build on Facebook's existing measurement offerings.
Not familiar with conversion lift? It's a measurement that "accurately captures the impact that Facebook ads have in driving business for marketers," the company wrote on its business blog. It works in four steps:
Commodity Online News: LME Inventory data: Copper stocks gained by 2775 tons
Big Data Is a Big Divide for Some Companies
A difference in opinion regarding Big Data's importance can hinder success.
Big Data is a big problem for some marketing companies, according to a new report. CEOs and lower-level managers don't see eye-to-eye about its importance—with the report accusing the former of “wearing rose-colored glasses” when it comes to discussing the subject. Such a disconnect, says the report, hinders success and can lead to the deterioration of any competitive advantage the company may have hoped to achieve.
The report, sponsored by analytics and marketing applications company Teradata, states that data-driven companies are more likely to outperform their competitors with regards to profitability. However, just one in four companies offers financial rewards to employees who embrace the use of data.
“The survey is clear that organizations succeed when the data-driven vision and leadership are shared, and the benefits of data initiatives are consistently tracked, promoted, and most importantly, linked to corporate goals and business results,” says Chris Twogood, VP of products and services marketing for Teradata.
In addition, the report stated:
- About half (47%) of CEOs believe that all employees have access to necessary data, while only 27% of other respondents agree.
- Forty-three percent of CEOs think relevant data is captured and made available in real time, compared to 29% of all respondents.
- Fifty-three percent of CEOs think data utilization has made decision-making less hierarchical and further empowers employees, compared to 36% of all respondents.
- Fifty-one percent of CEOs believe data availability has improved employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention, while only 35% of the other respondents agree.
Business Breaking News: Choosing the Right E-Commerce Software for Your Needs
Looking for e-commerce software? Here's everything you need to know about how to choose one. If you're in a hurry, just scroll down to see our best picks and read our staff reviews of the ones we would choose if we were you. You can also see a full list of e-commerce software vendors and a breakdown of how we chose our best picks here.
So you'd like to start an online business. Whether you need a website or have an existing one, launching and running online store is easier than ever. E-commerce and shopping cart software take the legwork out of selling your products and services online, so you can get started in no time.
Read on to find out what to look for in e-commerce software and how to choose the right one for your business.
Commodity Online News: Jeera trading range 14125 15475 down at 14725
Magzter Launches Netflix-Style Model
The digital newsstand seeks to expand adoption with an "all-you-can-read" plan for $9.99 a month.
Magzter CEO Girish Ramdas
Saying that paying for and managing multiple digital magazine subscriptions has stalled true adoption of the delivery medium, Magzter CEO Girish Ramdas announced the launch of a Netflix-inspired service called Magzter Gold that gives subscribers access to more than 2,000 publications for $9.99 a month.
“It's still early days for digital magazine reading,” Ramdas said.
In conjunction with the launch, Magzter introduced an interface that uses content discovery to increase reader engagement. The new algorithm offers suggested reading to users based on their interests and behavior and allows them to download several titles at a time.
In addition, Magzter's user intelligence told its executives that a significant portion of customers read the same handful of magazines. For this segment, the company introduced Magzter Gold Lite, which gives them access to five titles for $4.99 a month.
Magzter expects 60% of its 2015 revenue to come from subscriptions and 30% from advertisements, according to an interview Ramdas gave to The Hindu in September. Previously, the company made its money by taking 35% of the digital subscription prices of publishers. Ramdas added that he expects advertising to eventually compose Magzter's primary revenue stream.
Business Breaking News: Want Your Dream Job? Be Good at This
Job seekers with attitudes focused on learning have more success finding their dream jobs, according to a joint study from the University of Missouri and Lehigh University.
"In our study, we found that job seekers who have a 'learning goal orientation' or a natural disposition to learn from every situation in life, tend to be more successful in achieving their career goals," Daniel Turban, one of the study's authors and a University of Missouri professor of management, said in a statement.
Researchers surveyed approximately 120 college seniors at different points during the job search process. They discovered that job seekers who had a strong desire to learn from the situation put more intensity in the search process, compared with those who weren't as focused on learning. [10 Job Search Websites You Don't Know About ]
Commodity Online News: Sell Crude Oil futures on pullbacks: Karvy
You Can Drag This Ad in Zero Seconds
PK4 media introduces a "Drag Ad" alternative to "Skip Ad."
Paying later for the play
PK4 Media has given pre-roll video marketers another shot at prospective customers by allowing them to substitute the “Skip Ad” option with “Drag Ad.”
The company's solution presents viewers with the option to click and drag the branded message to another spot on their player for viewing after their selected content is played. Current options require viewers to watch an ad for 15 seconds before seeing their content or skipping the ad altogether.
“Online video ads are skipped more than half of the Time according to a study by Adroit Digital. By using this interactive method, brand advertisers are able to engage consumers prone to skipping,” says PK4 CEO Tom Alexander. “We find that this method increases brand favorability by 57%.”
The engagement technology is customizable to the brand's messaging and the completion of the click and drag interaction verify human presence.
Business Breaking News: What Your Boss Thinks of Your Messy Desk ... And How to Clean It Up
How tidy you keep your desk can say a lot about what kind of worker you are, new research shows.
While nearly one-third of employers say an employee's messy desk causes them to question his or her organizational skills and effectiveness, others say it's not such a bad thing, according to a study from the staffing firm OfficeTeam.
The study revealed that 59 percent of human resources managers don't think negatively of employees who have messy desks, and 9 percent said having a cluttered desk is a sign of a creative person.
Commodity Online News: Crude Palm Oil down by 1.64% at 438.4 trading range 430.5 449.7
70 Percent of Consumers Buy CPG Products After Seeing Mobile Ads
Digital targeting becomes a must for mass marketers. More than 50% of consumers make shopping lists and download coupons to their mobile devices.
Classic mass marketers at consumer packaged goods companies who have heretofore dabbled in digital targeting methods are discovering there's mass in mobile. A study released today by mobile analytics company NinthDecimal reports that 70% of consumers in 2014's third quarter bought new packaged goods products after being served mobile ads.
“Mobile has finally become a sophisticated platform for CPG companies,” says NinthDecimal President David Staas. “They now have sufficient richness of data in the mobile platform. They can create audiences based on so many signals, including purchase behavior.”
NinthDecimal's study, which called upon audience data from a billion mobile devices reached through its platform, as well as a survey of 1,202 mobile users, found that mobile ads had a profound effect on building store traffic in grocery, drug, and mass channels. Consumers exposed to mobile ads for CPG products showed a 75% increase in store visits over a control group of similar segments, and a 96% lift over the general population. That mobile ad effect truly took wing over the past year. A similar comparison done by NinthDecimal in 2013 showed a mere 29% rise in traffic from mobile ad watchers.
Albertsons, which had dropped its customer loyalty program, is now showing signs of resurrecting it, and perhaps for good reason. Mobile connections with supermarket shoppers take place largely via their loyalty club apps. Some 57% of consumers charted by NinthDecimal in Q3 2014 had store apps on their devices, compared to 30% with CPG brand apps and 26% with digital coupon apps. The study uncovered a 16% increase in downloads of store apps in the quarter versus the previous year.
CPG marketers have plenty of room for improvement in their digital outreach. NinthDecimal's consumer survey found that more than half of them displeased with having to scan mobile devices at checkout to redeem offers. Yet more than a third of them expressed willingness to connect in-store, saying they'd like to be recognized and receive offers upon entering.
“You're going to be more successful with any new technology if the technology adapts to consumers,” Staas observes. “If you make them scan at checkout, for instance, you're removing a lot of the benefit.”
It comes down to an old mass marketing saw: Give the people what they want. “You can change shoppers' behaviors in-store with digital methods if it makes things simpler for them,” Staas says. “QR codes never got a lot of adoption in stores, because it was too complicated to read them. But what if you used beacons to let people know what the average wait time was at checkout?”
The gross numbers on mobile connectivity at retail are becoming “mass” enough for lots of CPG stalwarts to take notice. Sixty-nine percent of consumers saved coupons to their devices during last year's third quarter and 59% used them to make their shopping lists. Mondelez, Pepsi, Quaker and other leading packaged goods companies are steadily increasing their profiles in the mobile channel.
“CPG is one of the fastest growing segments of mobile advertising,” Staas says. “The value proposition has changed for them with mobile.”
Business Breaking News: Windows 10 for Smartphones: Top Features for Business
Microsoft is refreshing its smartphone operating system with a slew of new, productivity-boosting features. It's dubbed simply Windows 10 – just like its desktop counterpart -- and it will replace the current Windows Phone 8.1 operating system later this year on compatible devices. It shares much of its predecessor's DNA, while introducing a revamped interface, updated apps and new ways to integrate with Windows 10 PCs and tablets.
Sure, Windows Phone devices are pretty rare in a market dominated by iOS and Android, but the platform is actually pretty solid, with some good exclusive features for business users. And Windows 10 for phones refines the formula, so it's certainly worth a look.
At this point, details on the release date for the OS update haven't yet been announced. While we wait, read on for seven features that make could make it better for work.
Commodity Online News: Crude Palm Oil down by 1.64% at 438.4 trading range 430.5 449.7
The Good News: There’s $1.6 Trillion in Business up for Grabs
The bad news is that you'll be the one to lose it if you can't address customer complaints on the first pass.
According to Accenture's annual “Global Consumer Pulse” study, 64% of consumers said they switched providers of services such as cable TV, Internet, and insurance last year. Less than a third described themselves as “very loyal” to any particular brand and six out of 10 professed they were more likely to abandon companies than they were 10 years ago. By Accenture's reckoning, that makes forking for a $1.6 trillion “Switching Economy” that's up for grabs in the United States.
Sounds enticing, but the fact of the matter is that few enterprises are up to the challenge. They keep failing the severest test of direct marketing: addressing valued customer's complaints. More than 80% of switchers told Accenture (which surveyed 23,665 people worldwide) that they would have stayed with their old providers if they had just resolved their problems when they'd first aired them.
“It's a decade-old problem,” says Robert Wollan, global managing director of strategy for sales and customer service at Accenture, which has conducted the “Pulse” study in each of the past 10 years. “Not solving an issue during the first interaction was the chief complaint of 86% of people in 2014 and 84% of people in 2009. Customer expectations continue to rise and companies are not keeping pace.”
As consumers acquire and adapt to new technologies and buying habits, they become more open to trying new products, brands, and providers. Two fifths of consumers globally said they find themselves evaluating or considering other providers more often than they did just two years ago, and half said they relied more on recommendations from other people in evaluating providers than they did in the Accenture study's first iteration 10 years ago. “They've trained themselves to believe they're going to continue to switch,” Wollan observes.
Additionally, more than half of people said they have become more impatient with the buying decision process and want it to be quick and painless. “Customers are taking experiences from one industry and transferring it to all industries,” says Wollan, who noted that survey participants were quizzed about their dealings in 10 different verticals. “They'll say, I can walk into Starbucks and get my coffee 20 different ways, or I can track my pizza delivery on my phone. Why can't I find out exactly when I can get in to see a doctor or what day my mortgage is going to be approved? The expectation of transparency is quickly migrating across all industries.”
Aside from the ongoing challenge of making better use of technology to address consumer issues, Wollan advises companies to seek help from partners. “There's a wireless company in Europe that's been very successful in retaining customers by offering free access to services such as payment systems from outside providers,” Wollan says. “They use partnership to add value.”
Among its conclusions, the Accenture study points to one of the most vexing problems facing marketers today: Digital's rise has given them untold options for interacting with consumers, but they've been too slow to recognize the interaction preferences of different segments of customers.
Business Breaking News: 30 Ways to Define Leadership
What does leadership mean to you? Every business owner and CEO wants to be a good leader, but how can you be a good leader if you don't know what leadership really is?
Unfortunately, leadership doesn't have a one-size-fits-all definition. We all have our own ideas about what it means to be a good leader. For example, some people think leadership means guiding others to complete a particular task, while others believe it means motivating the members of your team to be their best selves. But while the definitions may vary, the general sentiments remain the same: leaders are people who know how to achieve goals and inspire people along the way.
Business News Daily asked 30 business owners and experts to define what leadership means to them. Their ideas may just lead you to create your own definition of leadership. Here's what they had to say:
Commodity Online News: Sell Crude Oil futures on pullbacks: Karvy
Machine Learning for Middle-Market Marketers
AgilOne founder Omer Artun claims his company's latest release will democratize the power of predictive analytics.
The digital transformation of business is surely a work in progress, SVP of Oracle Cloud Shawn Price told several hundred IT professionals gathered New York City auditorium last week as he ticked down all the silos that had to be integrated to make the cloud hum. “The infrastructure of the past in no way allows us to connect with customers of the present or future,” Price said.
The acknowledgment of that same challenge, made by Best Buy's senior director of B2B marketing in 2005, has led to today's introduction by AgilOne of what it claims to be the world's first integrative predictive marketing cloud. That B2B marketing exec was AgilOne founder Omer Artun (above).
“When I was at Best Buy, we'd see poeple browse our website, but it was so hard to take that data and realize what those people were trying to achieve,” Artun says. “A business buyer could come in looking for routers for a firewall, but the next day he'd get the Microsoft Word update for $69 email that everybody got. Meanwhile, he was looking at a $15,000 system. I started the company with the idea that marketers had so much intelligence, but that the correct data could only be extracted with predictive analytics.”
Predictive analytics, also referred to as machine learning, is a term that crops up regularly in releases from marketing software providers. Artun stakes a credible claim to knowing more than a little about it. He holds a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience and physics from Brown University, where he studied under Nobel Prize laureate Leon Cooper, and later consulted tech companies for McKinsey. He says that today's introduction of AgilOne 5 Predictive Marketing Cloud is a watershed event for the company he started in 2006 in that it will offer middle-market companies the opportunity to reap the benefits of predictive analytics minus hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees or several months of start-up preparations.
“There's this thing called the marketing cloud, and there are three big pieces to it,” Artun says. “There's the data management that brings together the data and cleans it. There's analytics and intelligence, and there's the execution piece. In its initial life, the marketing cloud couldn't provide marketers with the execution piece, the creative response. That's why you have big providers like Salesforce buying ExactTarget and IBM buying Silverpop. What we've now done is add series of creative templates that companies can put into play immediately.”
AgilOne 5, which is touted as a turnkey, out of the box system, consists of three key features:
Campaign orchestration: An intuitive drag-and-drop builder that marketers can use independently to design highly targeted audiences and campaigns based on predictive analytics and keying on customer attributes such as likelihood to buy or lifetime value.
Integrated email: Campaign and content templates that help power lifecycle marketing initiatives such as abandoned browse or customer reactivation.
Personalized Web experiences: Personalized recommendation modules for brand websites that control the look and feel of their Web recommendations to achieve optimum results from individual customers.
Predictive analytics is futuristic technology that enables old-fashioned, personalized customer service, according to Artun. “Think of the corner butcher shop 50 years ago. The butcher knew your name and how thick you liked your chops cut. There was human understanding involved,” he says. “Then along came the supermarket. It was product- and channel-centric. In essence, machine learning uses algorithms to allow marketers to bring human sensibilities to millions of customers.”
Business Breaking News: Windows 10: 10 New Features for Business
Windows 10: 10 New Features for Business
A revamped interface, redesigned apps and new ways to switch among your computer, tablet and smartphone. That's what Microsoft has in store with Windows 10, the company's next major operating system release, due out later this year. This week, Microsoft spent some time showing how Windows 10 can make you and your business more mobile, more secure and more productive.
A preview version of Windows 10 is available for download now, but most users will want to wait for the final release, coming sometime in the second half of 2015. In the meantime, read on for 10 features that will make Windows 10 better for business.
Commodity Online News: Lead Aluminium likely to trade range bound: Karvy
Exigency’s Exit Is Scripted by the PRC
With its revenue collection limit quickly approaching, USPS is presented with a to-do list for removing the unpopular 4.3% rate surcharge.
The Postal Regulatory Commission this week issued an order for the removal of the exigent surcharge, setting down procedures for the U.S. Postal Service to follow in complying with the PRC's original mandate. In approving the 4.3% emergency rate hike on Christmas Eve 2013 to recapture revenues lost due to the Great Recession, the regulatory body stipulated that that it be pulled back once the Postal Service collected $2.8 billion in “contribution,” or an estimated $3.2 billion in revenue.
The U.S. Postal Service filed a petition to amend that decision with the D.C. Court of Appeals in June, arguing that the recession set in motion “ongoing negative impacts on mail volume” and that, as a result, the exigent increase should be kept in place as part of the base postal rate. The court has yet to release its decision. Meanwhile, the Postal Service rapidly closes in on its exigent contribution limit.
USPS reported that it had collected $1.35 billion in surcharge revenue during the final three quarters of its 2014 fiscal year, ended on September 30. Another quarter has since passed—one including the high-volume holiday season—so additional revenue due to exigency should be approaching or surpassing the $2 billion mark.
The PRC's plan for the exigent rate's rollback consists of four orders. The Postal Service must give 45-day notice of the removal of the surcharge. During the quarter in which it anticipates that it will be phased out, the Postal Service must provide biweekly estimates of its accumulation of surcharge revenue. Discounts applied to workshare arrangements must only address the base rate, not the exigent rate as it is removed. Finally, the Postal Service must adjust the exigent surcharge amount to account for anomalies created by the Forever Stamp.
The Postal Service has argued that it should be credited for Forever Stamps purchased before exigency went into effect last January 28, but used afterwards. But mailers counter that the back-end should be considered as well, when stamps purchased at the increased rate are mailed after it's removed. The final order from the PRC essentially says that both arguments are valid and should be considered in the final reckoning.
Mailers are adamant that they put not one penny more into USPS coffers than the estimated $3.2 billion set down by the original exigency order. By asking USPS for biweekly financial statements as exigency approaches phase-out, the PRC hopes to bring accounts as even as possible when (or if) the actual day arrives that the surcharge is lifted.
In anticipation of the Court of Appeals decision, the Postal Service did not ask for a CPI rate increase this year, but it most assuredly will do so if the court rules against its petition and the 4.3% surcharge is removed. The Postal Service has floated the notion of using its available rate adjustment authority to simultaneously file for a CPI increase at the time it files a notice to remove the surcharge. The Greeting Card Association (GCA), in comments filed with the PRC, stated that there should be a complete separation of the exigent surcharge removal and any accompanying inflation-based increase. The PRC document issued this week orders that the Postal Service may file a CPI rate adjustment request in concert with removal of the surcharge, but that each request must be docketed separately.
Mailers had hoped for a 90-day notice to give them time to plan mailings at the new rate, but the PRC decided that 45 days is consistent with notice requirements for inflation-based adjustments. It added, however, that it encourages the Postal Service to provide as much notice as possible. Historically, the Postal Service has done so.
Fully aware that exigency's exit could end up as mere fantasy at the whim of appeals court judges, the spirits of mailers nonetheless were buoyed by the PRC's introduction of a mechanism for its dismantling. “Although we do not agree with every point of the PRC's order, DMA and its members are pleased that a procedure has been established for the Postal Service to eliminate the exigent postal surcharge,” Direct Marketing Association SVP of Government Affairs Peggy Hudson said in a prepared statement. “We particularly applaud the biweekly reporting requirement on revenues as the time for elimination of the surcharge approaches.”
Hamilton Davison, president and executive director of the American Catalog Mailers Association, said his members are hopeful that exigency's removal comes to fruition. “They've never recovered from the rate increases of 2007. Catalog circulation was 20 billion in 2006 and it's 13 billion now,” he remarked. “Let's hope that in 2015 the Postal Service and catalogers agree on a reasonable way to address this. Catalogers want to mail as much as they can, but it's an affordability issue."
Your move, D.C. Court of Appeals.
Business Breaking News: The Corporate Values That Attract Millennial Employees
Millennials want to work for organizations that are focused on their people and purpose, not just what they're selling and how much money is being made, according to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's (Deloitte Global) fourth annual Millennial Survey.
The vast majority of younger workers believe today's companies aren't placing enough focus on what can be done to help others. The research revealed that 75 percent of millennials think businesses are more focused on their own agenda, rather than helping to improve society.
That contradicts what most younger workers want from an employer. For 6 in 10 millennials, a "sense of purpose" is part of the reason they chose to work for their current employers. This is especially true among those who are relatively high users of social networking tools. Nearly 80 percent of "super-connected millennials" said their company's purpose was part of the reason they chose to work there, compared with just 46 percent of those who are the "least connected."
Commodity Online News: Chana market rises on short covering gains at 3410
Microsoft Vet Joins DocuSign as CMO
Brad Brooks ran the Windows consumer business during a nine-year stint with the company.
Brad Brooks
DocuSign has announced that Brad Brooks, who spent nearly a decade at Microsoft, has joined the company as CMO. The 25-year technology marketing veteran is charged with accelerating international expansion of DocuSign's core business and widening the footprint of its online transaction management business.
“Brad is an outstanding marketer who brings rich leadership experience in building global brands and customer networks in both enterprise and consumer tech,” said DocuSign COO Gordon Payne.
Brooks was corporate VP of the Windows consumer business when he left Microsoft in 2011 to take over as corporate VP of marketing and business strategy at Juniper Networks. He previously held marketing positions at Enron Broadband Services and Lucent Technologies.
DocuSign's best known product is its eSignature system for safely endorsing important documents online.
Business Breaking News: Google Domains Now Available for Businesses
Starting a website? Google's new domain registry service can help.
Previously launched last summer as an invite-only service, Google Domains is now available to all Web users in the United States. The service lets users purchase domains, create email addresses and build a website using the Google platform.
Here's what Google Domains has to offer and how it can help your business. [Google for Business: A Small Business Guide]
Commodity Online News: Crude Oil may continue to trade in range tracking mixed global clues
Pitney Bowes Posts a New Image
The 95-year-old stalwart in mailing systems unveils a new brand strategy and a logo to go with it.
New logo for re-imagined company
Pitney Bowes, best known for postage meters and, more recently, targeting systems based on its database of recipient information, today introduces a new brand strategy and corporate identity.
“We are not the same company we were several years ago,” said Marc Lautenbach, president and CEO, Pitney Bowes, in a press release announcing the change. “We have expanded our business into high growth markets, including digital commerce and software, while at the same time continuing to innovate in our core mailing and shipping businesses. “
The company's new mission statement makes no mention of the mails, instead identifying itself as a “global technology company that powers billions of physical and digital transactions” in a “connected and borderless” marketplace.
Its new logo, Pitney Bowes's third such redesign and first since 1971, features the lowercase initials of the company surrounded by concentric circles suggesting wireless communications.
“The new brand strategy will clarify our role in the changing world of commerce, emphasizing the interplay between physical and digital communications and also spotlighting emerging technology areas such as location intelligence, customer information management, and cross-border commerce,” said EVP and CMO Abby Kohnstamm.
Business Breaking News: 20 Challenges CEOs Will Face in 2015
A new year means new opportunities — and, of course, new challenges — especially for business. So what does 2015 have in store for business leaders?
From adapting to technological advances and economic changes, to retaining customers and recruiting top talent, business owners and CEOs will have a lot of issues to handle. How business leaders face these challenges might just make or break their businesses.
Business News Daily asked the experts what they thought the biggest challenges for CEOs will be this year. Ready to take on 2015? Brace yourself for these hurdles.
Commodity Online News: Natural Gas market under long liquidation open interest drops 13.27%
KBS Names Hayward CEO
The cofounder of 180 and former CEO of JWT UK is tapped to lead the agency's global expansion.
Guy Hayward
The integrated marketing agency KBS (Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Parnters) has named Guy Hayward its global CEO. He will be responsible for guiding all disciplines across offices in London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Shanghai, and Toronto.
Hayward arrives at KBS from BETC Worldwide, where he was the global development director and directed work for clients including Bacardi, Diet Coke Europe, and Mondelez International. During the '90s Hayward worked on the Nike and Microsoft accounts in Wieden + Kennedy's Amsterdam office. Along with colleagues from that agency, he helped found 180, an agency that handled Adidas globally. In 2009, he left to become CEO of JWT UK.
“Last year was the year we truly became a global company, adding significant talent in Europe and Asia through startups like KBS China and acquisitions like Albion London,” says Lori Senecal, global executive chairman of KBS. “Guy is the ideal internationalist to leverage this growing footprint and help all of our offices bring strong global perspective and world class creativity and invention to our clients.”
The client roster of KBS, which is part of MDC Partners, includes American Express, BMW, HomeGoods, Simmons Bedding, and Boar's Head.
Business Breaking News: Best Ultrabooks for Business 2015 (and Why We Love Them)
A great business laptop doesn't have to be bulky. Ultrabooks — usually defined as notebooks with slim frames and long battery life — provide plenty of computing power without weighing you down on your daily commute.
The term “Ultrabook” was actually coined by Intel for a new generation of slim, fast PCs. Today, it’s used to refer to notebooks that are similar in design to Apple’s MacBook Air, most of which are lightweight and come with fast SSD storage drives. The best Ultrabooks can be pretty pricey, but they might be worth the cost for a laptop that's as portable as it is powerful. Here are our favorite slim work machines for 2015.
HP's new EliteBook Folio 1020 packs a ton of goodies for business users into a supersleek package. In fact, at just 0.62 inches thick and 2.68 lbs., it's thinner and lighter than both Dell's XPS 13 and Apple's MacBook Air. People who want to work on the Folio 1020 will appreciate its fingerprint reader, which ensures that only you will be able to access your business files. It also comes with a sharp 12.5-inch quad-HD display and a docking port, so you can easily use a bigger monitor, as well as accessories like a mouse and external hard drive, when you arrive at the office. We also like the inclusion of the Synaptics ForcePad, a touchpad that uses pressure to register clicks more reliably. Here are some of the features we like:
Commodity Online News: Maize weakness market under long liquidation: Kedia
USPS Wants 2% Rate Hike for Market Dominant Products
The Postal Service seeks its inflationary rate adjustment and looks to set up a separate pricing structure for FSS Standard Mail.
The U.S. Postal Service today filed a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) for a 1.966% rate adjustment based on the Consumer Price Index. This increase applies only to market-dominant products, such as Standard Mail, that is the primary postage class of direct mailers.
USPS has asked that the increase take effect on April 26 and estimates that it will generate an additional $900 million in “contribution”—or net income—on an annualized basis. Should the PRC agree to meet the Postal Service's timeline, contribution for USPS's fiscal year 2015, which concludes at the end of September, will be around $400 million.
The CPI case includes a separate pricing structure for Standard Mail run through the Flats Sequencing System. Under the proposal, FSS pricing will no longer exist for carrier route, high density, or high density plus categories. In their place a five-digit carrier route pallet price will be created. Rates for Standard Flats will increase by 2.465%
Prices of Forever stamps will remain at 49 cents in the new rate base. International letters will increase by a nickel to $1.20 and postcards will go up a penny to 35 cents.
Earlier this week, the PRC issued an order for the removal of the exigent surcharge put in place in December 2013, laying out a plan to phase out the 4.3% emergency increase as the Postal Service nears receipt of the $3.2 billion in additional revenue it was meant to provide. The Postal Service had delayed asking for its annual inflationary adjustment pending the outcome its petition to the D.C. Court of Appeals to make the exigent increase permanent. The court's decision is still forthcoming.
Business Breaking News: Best Ultrabooks for Business 2015 (and Why We Love Them)
A great business laptop doesn't have to be bulky. Ultrabooks — usually defined as notebooks with slim frames and long battery life — provide plenty of computing power without weighing you down on your daily commute.
The term “Ultrabook” was actually coined by Intel for a new generation of slim, fast PCs. Today, it’s used to refer to notebooks that are similar in design to Apple’s MacBook Air, most of which are lightweight and come with fast SSD storage drives. The best Ultrabooks can be pretty pricey, but they might be worth the cost for a laptop that's as portable as it is powerful. Here are our favorite slim work machines for 2015.
HP's new EliteBook Folio 1020 packs a ton of goodies for business users into a supersleek package. In fact, at just 0.62 inches thick and 2.68 lbs., it's thinner and lighter than both Dell's XPS 13 and Apple's MacBook Air. People who want to work on the Folio 1020 will appreciate its fingerprint reader, which ensures that only you will be able to access your business files. It also comes with a sharp 12.5-inch quad-HD display and a docking port, so you can easily use a bigger monitor, as well as accessories like a mouse and external hard drive, when you arrive at the office. We also like the inclusion of the Synaptics ForcePad, a touchpad that uses pressure to register clicks more reliably. Here are some of the features we like:
Commodity Online News: Base Metal may see high volatility US data in focus
Goldway Slams Cuts in First Class Mail Service
The PRC commissioner argues that the virtual elimination of overnight delivery tramples the concept of universal service.
Reductions in service standards activated by the Postal Service last week that will eliminate one-day delivery for single-piece First Class Mail have come under criticism by former Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway (above).
In an editorial published today in The Hill, Goldway, still a PRC commissioner, wrote that this latest round of operational cuts by the Postal Service “threatens the very integrity and concept of Universal Service -- the Postal Service's primary obligation under the law.”
The universal service obligation requires the Postal Service to provide the same service to all American citizens, no matter where they live. But Goldway declared that the new service reductions will result in a “two-tier patchwork network” in which big city customers will get their mail faster than people in small cities and urban areas.
In going ahead with these service changes, Goldway said, USPS ignored three cautionary reports issued by the PRC and the Office of the Inspector General of the Postal Service. One of them an Advisory Opinion issued by the PRC in 2012, argued that, by basing facility closures and processing rearrangements on measurable efficiency gains, the Postal Service could save more money and maintain higher service standards.
“Unfortunately, the Postal Service has not taken those important steps,” Goldway wrote. “First, the Service has not publicly identified the impact on revenue and profit from the proposed changes. Second, the Postal Service has not disclosed a robust, reliable figure for savings obtained from the first set of consolidations. Third, the Service has not identified projected savings from the second phase of consolidations.”
Goldway implied that USPS is selling everyday customers short in its pursuit of higher profit businesses. “At a time when the Postal Service is proudly promoting its Sunday delivery and same day package delivery offerings in major cities, it should not be impairing service in other parts of the country,” she wrote.
Robert Taub succeeded Goldway as chairman of the PRC in December.
Business Breaking News: Instagram for Business: Everything You Need to Know
When you think of social media marketing, you likely think of Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, but do you think of Instagram, too? The app may seem like a place where people share photos of their travel endeavors, pets and fancy meals, but Instagram can be a great social marketing tool as well.
Instagram is a great place to make a name for your brand, and while certain types of businesses (like the fashion and food industries) may find it a lot easier to gain a following than others, it's definitely not a social network you should rule out.
Before you take on the visual world of Instagram, take the time to learn about the social network, what it does and how to make it work for your brand.
Commodity Online News: Crude Oil sinks below $46 bbl on supply glut
New Direction Set for Postal Oversight Committee in the House
Incoming Oversight & Government Reform committee chairman Jason Chaffetz cleans house and seeks a bipartisan approach.
New House Oversight & Government Reform committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (above) cleaned house as the 114th Congress opens shop this week. More than half of members on the committee will be new, and nine of the 24 Republicans on the panel will be freshmen reps, according to a report in Roll Call. Though new members of the committee were sworn in yesterday, their names will not be officially released for some days, according to a committee spokesperson.
Subcomittee heads have been identified, however, and Mark Meadows (R-NC) will serve as chairman of a newly conceived government operations group that will oversee postal issues, as well as commerce, treasury, Freedom of Information Act, education, and labor and civil service. Meadows was one of a number of Republican congressmen who voted for Tea Party favorite Dan Webster (R-FL) to replace John Boehner as Speaker of the House this week. He is also an opponent of Obamacare, who warned retirees over the holidays that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services might give them a “Christmas Surprise” and automatically pick their new plan for them with no knowledge of their medical histories.
In a press conference this week, Chaffetz told reporters that turnover was good. “Sometimes you just want a different approach,” he said, adding that he was hoping to institute a more collaborative approach with committee Democrats.
As concerns postal issues, former committee chairman Darrell Issa had an openly contentious relationship with Democrat members, especially Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch, an ex- president of the Iron Workers Union who sympathized with concerns of postal worker. In a hearing on postal innovation last May, Issa noted that “Mr. Lynch is never going to be my partner in anything that's going to make the Post Office more efficient, because that will reduce labor.”
Postal service overhaul is one of the chief issues on which Chaffetz hopes to bring his more positive approach to bear, he said, along with Obamacare oversight and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Business Breaking News: Choosing a Background Check Service: A Buying Guide for Businesses
Looking for a background check service? Here's everything you need to know about how to choose one. If you're in a hurry, just scroll down to see our best picks and read our staff reviews of the ones we would choose if we were you. You can also see a full list of background check service vendors and a breakdown of how we chose our best picks here.
It's better to be safe than sorry when hiring new employees: You probably have a lot riding on the success of your business, so bringing in the wrong person can have some pretty grave consequences. Although most organizations may be able to tolerate the consequences of hiring an underqualified candidate or someone who is a bad cultural fit, they might not be able to survive the ramifications of welcoming in an employee who is dangerous or dishonest.
To help ensure new hires don't have any skeletons in their closets that could negatively affect an employer, many businesses use background check services as part of the hiring process. In fact, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, nearly 70 percent of employers conduct criminal background checks on all of their job candidates, and 47 percent conduct credit checks.
Commodity Online News: Aluminium market rises on short covering gains at 113.85
RetailNext Attempts Real-Time Targeting in Malls
Partnership with on-site mobile platform will deliver offers based on in-store shopper behavior.
RetailNext, a technology platform that delivers data analytics to stores, will introduce a system that serves real-time offers to shoppers via mobile apps at the National Retail Federation Show next week.
In a partnership with mobile solution provider StepsAway, RetailNext touts the ability of the system to provide shoppers with timely and relevant offers from retailers or third parties based on their in-store shopping behavior or changes in environmental factors. Consumers access StepsAway's app by signing onto a retailer's or mall's Wi-Fi network.
“Mobile plays a pivotal role in all stages of purchase decisions,” says StepsAway CEO Allan Haims. “This partnership extends the ability of retailers to influence shoppers when they are closest to the point of sale."
RetailNext measures the behavior of more than one billion shoppers per year by collecting data from tens of thousands of sensors in retail stores and analyzing trillions of data points annually. The company's clients include American Apparel, Bloomingdales, Procter & Gamble, and Verizon Wireless.
Business Breaking News: Pinterest for Business: Everything You Need to Know
While social networks like Facebook and Twitter are great for sharing content, some businesses can benefit from showing off their more visual sides, and Pinterest is the perfect platform for doing just that.
Pinterest is still fairly new to the social networking scene, so many people and businesses are still learning the best ways to navigate it. However, the platform can be incredibly valuable to marketers when used correctly. And Pinterest seems a lot trickier than it really is — it's mostly about sharing the right content in the most visually appealing and searchable way.
Ready to take on one of the most pin-teresting social networks out there? Here's everything you need to know before you start pinning.
Commodity Online News: Base Metals may witness volatility US jobs data in focus
Issa Vows to Dog Patent Trolls
The new head of Congress's Intellectual Property subcommittee says he will seek a bipartisan bill to curb legal harassment of technological innovators.
California Rep. Darrell Issa
His tenure as chairman of the House Oversight & Government Reform committee at an end, Rep. Darrell Issa (D-CA) will continue to be mired in marketing matters, being named the chair of the House Judiciary's Intellectual Property subcommittee. One of his chief missions will be dogging the “patent trolls” who stockpile process patents and threaten lawsuits against clients of many marketing services companies.
“My priorities include advancing a strong bipartisan bill to address abusive patent practices by patent trolls [who] harm our economy's real innovators and continuing needed oversight of the Patent & Trademark Office to ensure it is best prepared to address challenges for the 21st century,” Issa said in a press release.
Cameron Bellamy, president of GrayHair, a mail software provider that settled a suit with a so-called non-practicing entity last year, said Issa has his work cut out for him. “I welcome Congressman Issa's attention to the matter,” Bellamy said. “Though I consider GrayHair victorious over our patent troll, the threat still exists and leaves the mailing industry vulnerable unless stronger legislative protection is created.”
Before joining Congress, Issa was CEO of Directed Electronics and served as chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association, host of the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week.
Business Breaking News: ASUS Transformer Book Chi T300 Hands-On: Is it Good for Business?
Asus’s Transformer Book Chi T300 is an impressively slim hybrid laptop, but the lack of even a single full-size USB port makes it a questionable replacement for your current business notebook. The Chi T300, the largest of three new convertible devices in Asus’ Chi lineup, is a 12.5 inch Windows 8.1 tablet with a thin, fanless design, a slick aluminum build and a magnetic, snap-on keyboard. We went hands-on with it this week.
Asus is billing the T300 as a MacBook Air killer, and it’s certainly true that the device is thinner and lighter than Apple’s Ultrabook, and with a higher resolution display to boot. But there’s more to a great business notebook than specs.
My first impression is that the Chi T300, while solid, lacks the premium feel of the MacBook Air. The chassis is made of metal, however, and the overall design of the tablet feels sturdy and solid. The keyboard dock is plastic, and attaches to the display via a series of magnets. The components link together with a satisfying click, and the connection is strong enough that I was able to grab the top of the display and lift the device off the table with the keyboard attached.
Commodity Online News: Crude Oil to witness higher volatility go short on pullbacks: Karvy
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
