Business and Marketing

It rules that the increase suggested by USPS is in line with price cap regulations. New prices will take effect on April 26.

The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) yesterday approved the Postal Service's request for an average 2% increase on market dominant products, ruling that the numbers were in line with price cap regulations.

Forever stamp prices will remain the same, at 49 cents, but pre-sorted letters and postcards will go up 2.4% when the new rates take effect on April 26.

The price of single-piece, machinable, metered letters will increase half a cent to 48.5 cents. In addition, USPS will raise the single-piece additional ounce price for letters from 21 to 22 cents and the single-piece postcard price from 34 to 35 cents. The first ounce price for single-piece flats remains at 98 cents.

The PRC also approved a workshare discount increase—from 18.3 to 19.2 cents—on automated five-digit flats, as well as continuation of discounts for upcoming promotional programs for business mailers.

A three-cent rebate on Business Reply Mail and Courtesy Reply Mail will be returned to mailers who participated in the Earned Value Reply program in 2014; newcomers will get a two-cent rebate. A promo encouraging use of innovative methods will provide a 2% discount on mail including such technologies as near field communication (NFC) or augmented reality (AR), and a 2% discount will be given to mailers using dynamic or variable color in marketing messages.

USPS declined to take its annual price cap adjustment in January, awaiting the outcome of its appeal to keep the 4.3% exigent price increase on a permanent basis. That decision, however, is still forthcoming from the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Business Breaking News: 10 Things Katy Perry Can Teach You About Social Media

Katy Perry is more than just a pop princess — with nearly 64 million followers, the “Firework” singer is the reigning queen of Twitter.

Perry is now officially the most followed user on Twitter, making her even more popular than the President of the United States is on the social network. And keeping up with her Twitter timeline is no easy feat, given the star’s busy schedule. Even though Perry is busy traveling all over the globe for her Prismatic World Tour and performing at the Super Bowl and the Grammys, she still makes time to tweet, much to the delight of her ever-expanding fan base (also known as “KatyCats”).

So how does Perry maintain her status as social networking royalty? Her strategy is simple: be yourself, have fun, and market smart. Step up your social marketing game with these 10 tips, straight from Katy Perry’s Twitter:

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The House Oversight Committee cancels hearing on net neutrality rules after the FCC chief declines to testify.

Chaffetz wants the FCC chief to do some explaining on net neutrality rules.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had a hearing scheduled today on whether pressure from the White House improperly influenced Federal Communications Chairman Tom Wheeler to offer up net neutrality rules that, like President Obama's, come fairly close to European thinking on the matter. The hearing was postponed, however, when Wheeler made a last-minute decision not to testify.

New Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), out to prove he's the measure of previous chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) when it comes to issuing press releases, issued a joint statement with Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) questioning Wheeler's motives.

“As Chairman Wheeler pushes forward with plans to regulate the Internet, he still refuses to directly answer growing concerns about how the rules were developed, how they are structured, and how they will stand up to judicial scrutiny,” said the statement. “The last time a rule of this magnitude was voted on by the FCC, then-Senator Obama was motivated to call for transparency at the commission. We continue that call today.”

In an op-ed piece on Wired.com February 4, Wheeler announced plans for net neutrality regulations that would ban paid prioritization and provide incentives for broadband users to build competitive networks. A story published that same day in the Wall Street Journal reported that senior White House Officials had held dozens of secret meetings with online activists and “traditional telecommunications companies” to build a case for net neutrality.

That fueled Chaffetz's suspicions that Wheeler, a former telecom industry lobbyist, might have been involved. He and Senate Homeland Security chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) subsequently sent letters to Wheeler requesting visitor logs and emails.

Those were to be furnished this week, but they, like Wheeler, never materialized.

Business Breaking News: Lighten Up: Negativity at Work is Bad for Your Career

Even though you may be helping your employer by regularly pointing out problems in the workplace, you are hurting your own performance by doing so, new research shows.

Employees who focus on the negative aspects of work are more likely to become mentally fatigued and defensive, and experience a drop-off in production, according to a Michigan State University study.

"The moral of this story is not that we want people to stop raising concerns within the company, because that can be extremely beneficial," Russell Johnson, a Michigan State management professor who co-authored the study, said in a statement. "But constantly focusing on the negative can have a detrimental effect on the individual."

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The move puts pressure on Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy, all of which now have higher minimums.

Target announced that it would immediately begin offering free shipping on all online orders of $25 or more, halving its previous minimum of $50. It's the latest move in an ongoing, multilevel chess game that has free-shipping pieces occupying spaces all across the board: Amazon is at $35 for non-Prime members, Walmart occupies Target's former $50 space, and Kohl's threshold is $75.

“We saw an enthusiastic response to our free shipping offer over the holidays. Now, whether guests are stocking up or doing fill-in shopping, we've enhanced our year-round shipping offer to be one of the best in all of retail,” said Jason Goldberger, president of Target.com and Target mobile operations in a release announcing the move.

But apparently there was more behind Target's holiday offer of free shipping on all orders than just being nice to its guests. “They probably ingested a tremendous amount of data from that promotion about conversion rates related to shipping costs,” said Tom Caporaso, CEO of FreeShipping.com. “Retailers do as much as 40% of their volume during the holidays. Target might have said, ‘Lets remove the threshold, open the floodgates, digest the outcome, and make a decision on where the threshold does the most good.'”

Web business is becoming ever more important to the retailer, and free shipping plays a huge role in pricing strategies online. Target.com set sales records last Thanksgiving and CyberMonday, and mobile accounted for 60% of the website's traffic. The retailer also started shipping some orders from select stores to improve delivery times and has announced plans to open two new online fulfillment centers in Memphis and York, PA.

With today's announcement, Target also sent notice to its chief competitors. “This puts a lot of pressure on them,” Caporaso said. “Typically, free shipping thresholds are set to be a little higher than the retailer's average order values to stimulate incremental sales. Kohl's average order is in the $60 range, which explains why theirs is so high.”

Free shipping thresholds may also be competitively set. Best Buy's is $35, even though its average order value is above that, most likely to stay competitive with Walmart and Target. But all the old free-shipping strategies are undoubtedly being reconsidered in retail headquarters following Target's move.

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.

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.

Pinterest is a platform that allows users to share and save content to virtual collections called pinboards (also referred to as simply "boards"). The social network has both a website and a mobile app, and was launched in 2010 by co-founders Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra. Initially, the website was available only in a closed beta model, and users could join only by invitation until August 2012, when Pinterest opened to the public.

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He beat a record for a direct mail subscription piece that stood for 30 years at the Wall Street Journal.

Malcolm Decker

Renowned direct mail copywriter and company founder Malcolm B. Decker, who topped a campaign that reigned for 30 years at the Wall Street Journal, died on February 16 at his home in Greenwich, CT. He was 87.

After working for McCann Erickson and Walt Disney Productions, he opened Malcolm Decker & Associates in 1972. A 1975 direct mail package Decker created for the National Trust of Historic Preservation that offered benefactors limited edition porcelain boxes with gold hinges raised twice the goal of the organization and was chronicled in Richard Hodgson's book, The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of All Time.

But Decker's crowning achievement came late in his career, in 2003, when he bested the “Two Young Men” subscription piece the Journal had used since the mid-70s. The paper had commissioned numerous direct mail packages over the years, but none beat the return on the original until Decker modified it with color graphics and a longer letter.

He was a U.S. Navy veteran who attended Dartmouth College on the G.I. Bill, and was an avid outdoorsman who, in his 70s, reached the 17,000-foot level before failing to summit Mt. Kiliminjaro.

Decker favored a straight-talk approach to direct mail copy. “Develop a clear profile of your prospect as the available research offers and then match that profile up with someone you know,” Decker wrote. "Put him or her in a chair across from you, and write to that person, conversationally!”

Business Breaking News: Rejecting a Job Offer? How to Do It Right

You aced the interview, and the hiring manager said they'd be in touch. Sure enough, you receive the good news — you got the job!

Normally, this is exactly what a job seeker wants to hear. But in some cases, getting a job offer can mean too much of a good thing. Perhaps you've been on several interviews and received two offers at once, or your current company gave you an unexpected raise or promotion that changed your mind about leaving. Either way, you're stuck in the awkward situation of having to reject the company that has just agreed to bring you on board.

While being able to turn down a job offer is a good position to be in, it's also a difficult one. Saying no to a company that chose you over its other candidates may mean forcing the hiring manager to start the search over again. It's in your best interest to handle the situation delicately so as not to burn any bridges.

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Though most B2B marketers say they should control customer experience, eight in 10 admit to having a peripheral role, according to a survey of CMOs, directors, and managers at midsize companies.

Marketers at midsize B2B companies get no respect—or at least not the level of respect they feel could help them lift their companies to new levels of performance. A Gleanster survey of 750 senior marketers at businesses ranging from 50 to 1,000 employees had 85% of them admitting that sales and sales support departments were in control of customer experience. Meanwhile, a majority of marketers surveyed, 62%, thought they should be the ones holding the reins.

“In dealing with our customers, we came across this situation a lot anecdotally, so we decided to undertake a study to see how widespread it truly was,” said Atri Chatterjee, CMO of Act-On Software, which sponsored the survey. “What we found had us asking whether we need to rethink the way we do marketing. Marketers were telling us they felt that they were the only ones in their organizations who had a view into all the different parts of the selling cycle.”

Gleanster broke out results of top performers in the sample to illustrate how different results could be if companies gave marketers greater control over CX. The breakout group—just 2% of the sample—considered themselves effective at managing the end-to-end customer lifecycle, had exceeded their 2013 revenue plans, and claimed that 90% of their customers were happy. Marketing processes at their companies appeared markedly different from the rest of the survey.

While marketers at “average firms” spent two thirds of their time on top-of-the-funnel efforts, elite practitioners spread their efforts evenly across customer awareness, acquisition, retention, and expansion. Top performers, clinging more closely to the “bird in hand” philosophy, spent more than half their budgets coaxing more business out of current customers.

“I've been in marketing over 20 years now, and I know it's temping to focus on the quick hit and filling up the pipeline, not realizing that over time that it's cheaper to increase revenue with existing customers,” said Chatterjee, who, like most of the founders of Act-On, previously worked for Responsys. “In some cases top performers were twice as likely to be incented on the behavior of existing customers than were other marketers in the survey.”

According to the study, average firms spent 54% of their budgets on acquiring new customers, compared to 46% of high-results companies. In addition, top performers spent 41% more time on customer communication, used personalization techniques 75% more than the average, and were 30% more likely to use segmentation and behavioral marketing in communicating with customers.

All in all, top performers were bigger sticklers for excellence than the norm—hardly a surprising development. Nine out of 10 of them thought attracting top talent was a challenge, versus only half of the rest of the pool. And while the majority of run-of-the-mill marketers threw their hands up and allowed that no one in their organizations had accountability for process improvement, only about a quarter of high achievers felt that was the case. As a result, only 30% of top performers said process improvement was lacking at their companies, versus 70% of average marketers.

“They have to be re-engineering the processes. They need to be questioning what different players should be involved in it and what kinds of activities they should be involved in to be front-runners in this space,” Chatterjee said. “You don't have to get the CEO involved. In our experience, if just the marketing and sales organizations can come into alignment, it can be a huge step forward.”

Business Breaking News: Rejecting a Job Offer? How to Do It Right

You aced the interview, and the hiring manager said they'd be in touch. Sure enough, you receive the good news — you got the job!

Normally, this is exactly what a job seeker wants to hear. But in some cases, getting a job offer can mean too much of a good thing. Perhaps you've been on several interviews and received two offers at once, or your current company gave you an unexpected raise or promotion that changed your mind about leaving. Either way, you're stuck in the awkward situation of having to reject the company that has just agreed to bring you on board.

While being able to turn down a job offer is a good position to be in, it's also a difficult one. Saying no to a company that chose you over its other candidates may mean forcing the hiring manager to start the search over again. It's in your best interest to handle the situation delicately so as not to burn any bridges.

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Business Breaking News: Writing a Great Job Description Results in Better Hires

If you want to make better hiring decisions, you may need to change the way your job postings are written, new research finds.

A few minor changes in the wording of a job advertisement can increase the size and quality of an applicant pool, which can result in better employee-company matches, according to a study set to appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Business and Psychology.

While typical job postings focus on what the employer wants from the applicant, such as academic degrees, specific skills and a strong work ethic, more-effective ads focus on what employers can provide job seekers, the study's authors said. That can include work autonomy, career advancement and inclusion in major decisions.

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Business Breaking News: IBM to Employers: You Need a 'Millennial Mindset'

NEW YORK — Millennials. Depending on whom you ask, this now-ubiquitous generational term might evoke disdain, optimism and in the case of some business leaders, absolute panic. The presence of Generation Y continues to grow in the workforce — they'll make up 50 percent by 2020 — and employers are putting a top priority on optimizing their culture for younger employees.

But what if companies are approaching millennials all wrong? What if staying relevant isn't so much about catering to millennials themselves, but instead creating a "millennial mindset" that will help catapult a business into the future? According to a new IBM study, that's exactly what employers need to do — and the first step is to stop believing in widely held, but incorrect stereotypes about millennials.

On Feb. 18 at the IBM Watson headquarters in New York City, the company revealed new research by IBM's Institute for Business Value (IBV) about the multigenerational workforce and how employees of all ages view themselves. The global study, which surveyed 1,784 employed, college-educated workers in three age groups, 21 to 34 (Gen Y); 35 to 49 (Gen X) and 50 to 60 (baby boomers), found that people of each generation are more alike than one might think. [Are Millennials Getting Special Treatment in the Workplace?]

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Upgrade allows users to immediately claim 20-cent-per-piece savings on Priority Mail.

USPS To Reduce Priority Mail Rates for Businesses

Mailing software company BCC announced today it was one of the first providers to offer an automated feature allowing users to claim immediate discounts on their Priority Mail. The new wrinkle added to its BCC Mail Manager software delivers immediate discounts of 20 cents per piece.

“The Postal Service continues to see significant growth in package volume, and that includes their Priority Mail Service,” says BCC President Chris Lien. “With such an immediate and considerable discount available, we're encouraging all of our customers to look into this rapidly growing class of mail.”

Priority Mail volumes have gone up in excess of 15% in the past five years.

Lien added that one of the biggest benefits of using Priority Mail is the ability of mail preparers to accept the growing volumes due to the discounts. He says that staffers can use the same interfaces and automation tools they're currently using and take advantage of the savings, receiving additional training or manual intervention.

Business Breaking News: Facebook Updates For Sale Groups, Simplifies Selling Online

Social marketing is one thing, but what if you could make a sale directly through Facebook? A new update to the platform's For Sale Groups feature makes it all possible.

Not familiar with For Sale Groups? Unlike Facebook pages, where you focus on marketing your business, building your brand and connecting with viewers and customers, For Sale Groups are Facebook communities where people can buy, sell and trade items. Some of these groups have become incredibly popular over the years — many have tens of thousands of active members.

Facebook users can join these communities, post about their items, view and comment on others' posts and ask questions or seek advice relevant to their industry. These groups are excellent resources for local artisans just getting started in the business world, and can even be a great way to drive visits to users' Etsy stores. [Facebook for Business: Everything You Need to Know ]

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It's music to marketers' ears: 60% of people want promotional emails once a week and 28% want them even more frequently.

Nearly three quarters of Americans, fully 72% of the population, say that email is their favored conduit of communication with companies they do business with. What's more, 61% say they like to receive promotional emails on a weekly basis, and some said they'd welcome even greater frequency.

Direct mail was the second favorite link with brands among 2,057 adults surveyed last month by MarketingSherpa. Almost half (46%) listed mailbox matter as desired, followed by TV ads (34%) and print ads (31%). Fewer than 20% indicated a preference for text, social media, or personal conversations.

It's not surprising that email has been called the workhorse of marketing, because it's a horse consumers are comfortable riding. Nine in 10 people surveyed told MarketingSherpa they enjoyed getting emails from favored brands, so much so that 15% would be open to receiving them on a daily basis.

More than three quarters of consumers said they've made purchases influenced by emails, and half of them said they find abandoned cart emails to be helpful. Indeed, conversion rates for such reminders are high. Six percent say they always complete the purchase when email comes and 7% say they always convert if a discount is included.

Almost half of those surveyed had suggestions on how to make inbox appeals even more appealing. Three out of 10 said they'd like to see shorter, more personalized emails. And while a total of 28% related a desire to get more promotional emails, 20% want fewer.

“It's not surprising that consumers continue to be receptive to email,” said Flint McGlaughlin, CEO of MarketingSherpa's parent company, MECLABS. “Email can transcend monologue with dialogue. It enables marketers to build genuine relationships. Ultimately, people don't buy from companies, people buy from people.”

MarketingSherpa is hosting The Email Summit in Las Vegas from February 23 to 26.

Business Breaking News: High School Seniors Not Confident About Job Prospects

Even though they have yet to begin searching for work, most high school students aren't confident they'll find a job they're excited about when they do start, new research finds.

Just 48 percent of high school seniors think they'll be able to find a "good job" after they graduate, according to a Gallup study.

Students don't start out so cynical about their future job prospects, however. The research discovered that the percentage of students who think they'll be able to find a good job when they start their careers declines over time.

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The email infrastructure provider of choice for many large enterprises seeks to widen its client base with the acquisition.

Message Systems CEO Phillip Merrick

Message Systems, a leading provider of email software, announced today it has acquired Port25 Solutions in a stock and cash deal. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

As a provider of email infrastructure software, Port25 is in essentially the same business as Message Systems. Its Power MTA email server caters more to medium-sized businesses, however, and so widens the customer scope of Message Systems, whose products are used by enterprise-level businesses such as Epsilon, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

“This acquisition positions Message Systems to serve the email infrastructure needs of companies of all sizes—from developers at start-ups through to the world's largest senders with both cloud and on-premise solutions,” said Phillip Merrick, CEO of Message Systems, in a press release announcing the acquisition.

Message Systems expressed that adding Port25 will position it as a worthy email software provider for companies of all types and sizes. “Previously, companies were forced to choose between low-cost and easy-to-use solutions and rich email infrastructure feature sets with performance and scalability,” said the release.

Business Breaking News: Time to Quit Your Job? 5 Questions to Ask Yourself First

"That's it; I quit!"

If you've ever fantasized about storming into your boss's office and uttering those words after a bad day at work, you're not alone. You may even be going through a rough patch where every day seems worse than the last. But is it really time to turn in your resignation?

"It's normal to feel lukewarm about your job sometimes," said Mary Ellen Slayter, a career expert for Monster.com. "Often, that feeling passes. Other times, the signs are clear that it's time to move on."

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Its mission to expand the reach of tweet-based advertising begins on Flipboard and Yahoo Japan.

Looking to capitalize on its influence beyond the 284 million users who log into its network, Twitter will begin to sell promoted tweets via other publishers and social networks. The social network announced that the first ad deals have been signed with Yahoo Japan and the news-reading app Flipboard.

Twitter's syndicated ads will be seen by users within Twitter content sections on third-party properties, as well as within some content areas. The company reports that, during the third quarter of 2014, tweets received 185 billion off-Twitter impressions.

“For the thousands of brands already advertising on Twitter, these new partnerships open a significant opportunity to extend the reach of their message to a larger audience,” wrote Twitter's Senior Director of Product Ameet Ranadive in a blog announcing the move this morning.

Websites and mobile apps have had the ability to syndicate Tweets via services such as Fabric and Twitter for Websites for some time. “Combine that with the flexibility and control of a promoted tweet and we think marketers will have an almost infinite capacity to create large-scale, rich, and well-targeted campaigns across a variety of platforms,” Ranadive wrote.

Business Breaking News: 10 Best Jobs for Veterans in 2015

With more and more veterans transitioning to jobs outside the military, finding a position that best fits their skills can be a difficult task.

While they may have driven heavy equipment, supervised construction, worked as a medic or programmed computers, many veterans aren't sure how to apply those skills to the private sector, according to a new report from online jobs site CareerCast.

"It’s important for veterans to know where their experience can be applied best, and when they must obtain additional credentials," Tony Lee, CareerCast.com publisher, said in a statement. "Many of the top careers are attainable with higher education, although many of the best jobs for veterans don't require a college degree."

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Business Breaking News: Is Employee Commitment on the Rise?

There is a good chance most of your employees are not fully devoted to either you or their job, new research shows.

Only 31.5 percent of U.S. workers were committed and enthusiastic about their employers and their jobs in 2014, according to a Gallup study. In total, 51 percent of workers report they were not engaged in their jobs last year, with 17 percent saying they were "actively disengaged."

Despite the low engagement levels, the numbers are on the rise. The average percentage of engaged workers is up nearly 2 percentage points from 2013 and is at the highest number since 2000, when Gallup first began tracking engagement levels among U.S. employees.

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Programmatic buys edge closer to direct publisher placements, registering a viewability percentage of 43% in Q4.

Display ads purchased programmatically exhibited a six-point rise in viewability in a single quarter due to pressures from advertisers. With top dollar being paid for ads that are actually seen, networks and exchanges adopted measurement technologies and lifted viewability from 36.7% in Q3 2014 to 42.6% in Q4, according to an analysis of billions of impressions by Integral Ad Science.

With some 85% of advertisers engaging in programmatic buying, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, standards of network buys are slowly rising to the level of inventory purchased directly from premium publishers, which registered viewability of 53.4% in Q4.

“Viewability is slowly becoming the currency,” says Kiril Tsemekhman, Integral's chief data officer. “Advertisers are only paying for in-view ads, and they're paying a higher CPM.”

Video viewability rose nine points quarter-over-quarter to 39%, and completion rates jumped six points to 26%. “There's a lot of room for improvement in video,” Tsemekhman says. “The more brands measure it, the more improvement we'll see.”

Business Breaking News: 10 Best Jobs for Veterans in 2015

With more and more veterans transitioning to jobs outside the military, finding a position that best fits their skills can be a difficult task.

While they may have driven heavy equipment, supervised construction, worked as a medic or programmed computers, many veterans aren't sure how to apply those skills to the private sector, according to a new report from online jobs site CareerCast.

"It’s important for veterans to know where their experience can be applied best, and when they must obtain additional credentials," Tony Lee, CareerCast.com publisher, said in a statement. "Many of the top careers are attainable with higher education, although many of the best jobs for veterans don't require a college degree."

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Business Breaking News: Official Outlook App Now Available for iOS

Viewing emails on mobile devices is easy and straightforward. Managing them, however, is another story. Now, Outlook users have a better way to access, view and manage emails on the go.

Microsoft unveiled this week the official Outlook app for iOS, bringing the familiar desktop Outlook experience to iPhone and iPad users.

While business users can always use the default Mail app for iOS or their preferred email client, Outlook for iOS delivers faster and easier ways to manage large volumes of work and personal emails on mobile devices. It also integrates Calendar and cloud storage services for better collaboration. [7 Email Apps for iOS]

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Small- to medium-sized businesses will be early adopters of the email service, but there's no telling where the e-commerce giant will take it next.

WorkMail demands a cursory investigation.

Last week's introduction of Amazon WorkMail, a cloud-based email and calendaring solution, should merit lots of attention from small- to medium-sized enterprises looking for a cheap workplace solution. Its emergence as a commerce conduit for Internet retailers, however, could be years off .

As the number one player in the public cloud computing market, Amazon is able to offer users of WorkMail powerful capabilities for secure storage of customer and distribution lists, as well as providing them with solid workplace features like calendaring and out-of-office messaging. The new service is not likely, however, to gain a large following of individual users—or, in turn, email marketers—at the outset.

“It doesn't require the purchase of any software, but then you're on your own for technology and security updates,” says Quinn Jalli, SVP of Epsilon's Strategic Initiatives Group. “It could find a lot of traction among smaller companies that have long delayed updating their email systems. There are some companies out there still using Lotus Mail, believe it or not.”

As a marketing channel, it's not likely to be attractive even for engagement with B2B accounts. Jalli says Epsilon's experience shows that 85-90% of recipients on typical B2B email lists prefer to get marketing mail sent to their personal addresses. “That's because of the strict filtering rules set down by most companies,” Jalli says.

But new capabilities are likely to blossom as WorkMail sets down roots. Jalli is convinced Amazon will eventually ratchet up WorkMail's game, and he's not alone. Denise Chan, content marketing manager at Mailjet, feels that WorkMail faces impediments in challenging Gmail, but that it may have things to offer marketers the Google service can't.

“Amazon has a few key strengths they can play on, one of their advantages being the e-commerce space. They already have the framework built and an existing network of sellers that sell through their site,” Chan observes. “They can leverage this competitive edge by integrating customer support, inventory management, or other internal communication tools beneficial to sellers.”

Those who'd like an up-close look at WorkMail can check out a demo in a blog on Amazon Web Services or take advantage of a 30-day free trial being offered by the company.

Business Breaking News: Lenovo Edge 15: Top 3 Business Features

Lenovo's Edge 15 is a reasonably priced business notebook that bends into a handy presentation mode. The laptop's flexible hinge lets you bend it back 300 degrees, getting the keyboard out of the way for a better view of the 15-inch touch screen. It also delivers a handsome, minimalist design; a comfortable keyboard; and an HD webcam that's great for videoconferencing. It does have a few clear shortcomings — particularly, its lackluster battery life. But the Edge 15 is still an extremely solid midrange pick for business users, and it starts at just $569. While you wait for our full review, read on for three features that make it good for work.

Good keyboard

It's hard to overstate the importance of a good keyboard in a business laptop, and that's what the Edge 15 delivers. It has well-spaced, sculpted keys that make touch typing very comfortable. It also includes a full 10-key number pad that makes crunching numbers a breeze, as well as full-size arrow keys for navigating around documents. The keyboard's main weak point is that it's a bit shallow and thus doesn't offer quite as much feedback as more premium notebooks do.

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Business Breaking News: Baby Boomers Flock to Entrepreneurship

Even though they're nearing retirement age, a large number of baby boomers are looking for an "encore" career as entrepreneurs.

Adults over the age of 50 comprise one of the fastest-growing groups of entrepreneurs in the United States, according to a new Gallup study. Among those people who don't currently own a business, baby boomers are twice as likely as millennials to say they plan to start a business in the next year.

The majority of those prospective entrepreneurs cite a desire for lifestyle changes as the reason behind their desire to launch a new venture in the later stages of their careers. Specifically, 32 percent of the baby boomers surveyed said they are choosing to start businesses primarily because doing so will allow them to be independent, while 27 percent say it will give them a chance to pursue their interests and passions.

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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

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Business Breaking News: 10 Things Katy Perry Can Teach You About Twitter Marketing

Katy Perry is more than just a pop princess — with nearly 64 million followers, the “Firework” singer is the reigning queen of Twitter.

Perry is now officially the most followed user on Twitter, making her even more popular than the President of the United States is on the social network. And keeping up with her Twitter timeline is no easy feat, given the star’s busy schedule. Perry is currently on the road performing for her Prismatic World Tour and gearing up for the Super Bowl — she’s this year’s halftime show performer, after all — but she still makes time to tweet, much to the delight of her ever-expanding fan base (also known as “KatyCats”).

So how does Perry maintain her status as social networking royalty? Her strategy is simple: be yourself, have fun, and market smart. Step up your social marketing game with these 10 tips, straight from Katy Perry’s Twitter:

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