CRM- September 2008 - (Page 26) DES CAHILL CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, HABEAS the Mailman Ever been the victim of spam? Better yet, has your company been the victim of email blacklisting for no good reason? The advent of email marketing has opened up myriad opportunities to reach consumers in a whole new way. With that, though, comes unsolicited and offensive emails, bothering customers and causing backlash. A large problem in email marketing lies squarely in educating marketers and companies on how to bring professionalism and reputability back to email marketing. Enter Habeas Chief Executive Officer Des Cahill. He gives the Mountain View, Calif.–based provider of online reputation management services his extensive executive-level experience in marketing, sales, and operations at technology heavyweight companies such as Apple, America Online, and Netscape, as well as in-thetrenches start-up experience with Autonomy, BridgeSpan, and eFax.com. Under his leadership, Habeas has established itself as not only a solution provider, but a thought leader in email marketing. Through partnerships and Habeas Advisory Services—a professional services offering designed to assist organizations in the management of all aspects of online reputation—Cahill has helped spearhead the drive for best practices to optimize email performance, something that impacts every corner of the CRM universe. In the realm of email education, the company’s launch of ReputationWiki.org in December includes reference materials and articles about reputation and deliverability concepts, authentication and accreditation topics, and a glossary of relevant terms— a one-stop shop for email marketing knowledge. Helping to foster this community, Habeas is partnering with industry associations such as the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance and companies including BoxSentry, Campaigner, Concep, Innovyx, LashBack, Sendmail, Summit Projects, and Thin Data. While the end result remains to be seen, Cahill’s efforts to help restore validity and security to the email marketing space have safely delivered him a spot among this year’s Influential Leaders. —Christopher Musico the Big Thinker If any part of your job deals with marketing, you’ve probably heard of Seth Godin—and even if your job’s got nothing to do with marketing, he’s still worth a listen. He made his name with the concept of “permission marketing”—the title of his 1999 book—which is based upon the idea that effective marketing is dependent on obtaining customer consensus. Godin is also credited with introducing other terms that have entered the mainstream marketing vernacular—such as ideaviruses, purple cows, the dip, and sneezers. Godin’s blog (www.sethgodin.typepad.com) was recently recognized as one of the “Top 15 Entrepreneur Blogs Worth Reading” by The Wall Street Journal, specifically for its ability to motivate, inspire, and teach. He also founded the recommendation Web site Squidoo.com, where users can create and disseminate content of a particular topic on a single page, or “lens,” and share it with other Internet users—creating a vast network of usergenerated content. In his latest book, Meatball Sundae, released at the end of 2007, Godin extends his marketing knowledge into the digital world and the undeniable trends that have come about as a result.“New Marketing” technologies infiltrating the scene may be dangerously enticing but marketers must keep in mind that to use them is a privilege, not a right—first comes the strategy, then comes the technology. Godin’s blog and his impressive list of 11 titles, nine of which are internaCUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | SEPTEMBER 2008 MARKETING GURU, AUTHOR, BLOGGER SETH GODIN tional bestsellers, are responsible for the bulk of his impact, but others recognize notable qualities in the thought leader that are often overlooked.“One of the reasons Seth Godin is so influential is that he’s a very, very good writer,” says Richard Pachter, the business-book columnist for the Miami Herald. “Writing with clarity isn’t easy. Expressing big ideas simply is a challenge, but Seth manages to find shortcuts to readers’ synapses that minimize processing time.” —Jessica Tsai www.destinationCRM.com INFLUENTIAL LEADERS 26 http://ReputationWiki.org http://eFax.com http://www.sethgodin.typepad.com http://www.destinationCRM.ctionCRM.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.