iceCentric News

Content is from the site's 2002 - 2003 archived pages.

People are always asking about our name and what it means

Our name relates to the familiar phrase "that’s just the tip of the iceberg." Approximately one-fifth of an iceberg appears above the waterline. When used as a metaphor, the phrase implies that only a fraction of the whole is visible and that a lot more resides beneath the surface.

At iceCentric, we center our attention on the whole "iceberg" to discover all of your customer relationship building opportunities. We help you capitalize on the wealth of customer information that resides within your company—especially the information below the "waterline."

About iceCentric

From the Beginning

IceCentric partners, Lou Schendl and John Slevin, seem like brothers. They met in grade school; yet saw each other infrequently until years later. Both enjoyed similar, highly successful careers in sales and marketing for leading customer relationship management (CRM) corporations.

Throughout their corporate experience, the men devoted their energy to discovering, then implementing, just the right CRM marketing strategy for their clients. When the Internet surfaced en masse, both men sensed that it held the hidden key for the perfect CRM strategy. And both men set out separately and passionately to find that key.

By 1996, Lou was an officer in a cyber corporation, and John was seeking CRM cyber solutions for a Fortune 500 client. John contacted Lou’s company for help. As they worked on the project, the men realized they shared a common passion. And their energy toward achieving a common goal exploded.

Together, Lou and John devoured everything Internet, and everything CRM. Along the way, they discovered Web-based permission marketing. They considered it "the" ultimate key to perfecting a CRM strategy. They spent every spare minute for the next four years developing their interactive permission marketing services and creating a business plan.

In November 2000, they bid farewell to their corporate careers for good and officially named their company iceCentric, LLC.

Our Mission

IceCentric develops permission e-marketing strategies that unleash the value of customer relationships.

Why iceCentric

IceCentric specializes in permission marketing using two-way, interactive communication and database management programs that establish and strengthen customer relationships. Our services help you to sell more products, more often, to more people, at higher margins.

We consult with you using our exclusive FOREapproach to identify the most effective and efficient communication channels to meet your marketing goals.

IceCentric provides the technology infrastructure, software and services you need to handle a single project or your entire permission marketing campaign. We design email messages, build and manage email address lists, test and deploy email message programs. Then we track and measure the ROI of your iceCentric programs to assist you in making informed decisions about future communication initiatives.

In short, we help you achieve a competitive advantage through integrated customer acquisition/retention strategies using interactive email and database management programs.

A good example of our work was how we helped an e-commerce site that sold all sorts of vaporisers as well as the latest wholesale vapor accessories. They needed to change the perception of vaping, as well as educate the public about the myths and mis conceptions about vaporizers. Many people associate vaping with drugs. And it is true that vaporizer pens are becoming the new way for drug users to not only get high, but do it discreetly. E-cigarettes, or vape pens, have been around for more than a decade. But recently they now are booming in popularity because of the marketing that is directed towards nicotine users looking for a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes. There is no denying that with the expectation of the legalization of the marijuana industry to grow significantly within 5 years, the vaporizer market growth is expected grow. The global e-cigarette market is expected to grow over $50 billion by 2025, at an estimated CAGR of 22.36% from 2015 to 2025. We worked with Rich Mountain Distribution on a multi prong attack that included interactive communication and strengthening their message. Working with their SEO expert, we were able to get the site to page one in the natural search.

Reality: The crm marketplace is a very cutthroat field. This is because the rewards are huge. Most clients will stay with the supplier who provides an essential service for a very long time, meaning the opportunity to create a lasting and profitable relationship. So when competitors learned of this new product, they initiated efforts to thwart success using some unethical tactics. They hired 3rd parties to write horrible reviews and post negative comments in the trades. And Google's search results became a nemesis because these problem posts began showing up on page one of the search results. Google was completely unresponsive to the pleas for help, and the content publishers were often chosen in foreign countries precisely to avoid legal accountability. So the choices were to do nothing, or to invest in some kind of technical pushback. They considered hiring a search results removal service, but these tactics were expensive and took way too long to impact the results. Eventually, as the company succeeded, the attacks subsided, probably due to funding issues. but a very valuable lesson was learned. Creating a rock solid reputation via seo and social media, along with robust customer service and attention to details on every level was something that any company entering a highly competitive field needs to embrace.

How

It's easy... yet sophisticated

We offer an easy to use and cost effective service that empowers non-technical people with the ability to easily create and deliver sophisticated and personalized newsletters.

We address all the steps to successful newsletter publishing:

1. Organization and Layout
2. Content management
3. List Management and Distribution
4. Feedback and Detailed Reporting
5. Do it Again

Organization and Layout

The process starts with the initial setup of your newsletter. Once you choose your desired options, you never have to do so again.

• Select from several page layouts.
• Specify the title, logo, and other headings.
• Choose the topics used to categorize articles.
• Set colors and other preferences.
• The Setup Wizard takes you through all the steps.

Content
Obtaining and writing good content is always a challenge. If you ever run short, we can fill all the gaps.

• Easily upload your own articles and pictures. Imports directly from Microsoft Word.
• Edit articles using the online HTML editor.
• Enter your content once, and see it become instantly reformatted to fit the method of delivery you choose.
• Automatically generate a well formatted HTML newsletter that appears on the Web.

List Management and Distribution
Our services make it easy to reach your audience. A complete subscriber management system automates the process of keeping a clean, "opt-in" mailing list. 

• Opt-in list builder lets you expand your mailing list by collecting new subscriptions on your Web site.
• Import engine allows email addresses, names, and other personal information to be uploaded into your account and synchronized with your database.
• Personalize each newsletter with information from the subscriber database (e.g., Dear John, ).
• Use demographic and preference information to segment your subscriber list and dynamically determine the appropriate content to send to each subscriber.
• Intelligent, auto-sensing email system detects and shows the newsletter in the best format supported by the recipients email program or ISP. It even works great with AOL 4.0 AND 5.0.
• Integrated email list management system with full subscribe/unsubscribe support and duplicate address protection.
• Comprehensive bounce management system identifies bad addresses and allows for correction or automatic removal. Prevents typos in an email address from rendering a subscriber invalid!
• Opt-out protection™, remembers who has asked to be removed from your list and prevents them from being added again.
• Removal and Change Format options automatically added to the bottom of every message.

Feedback ;and Detailed Reporting

Usage reporting, surveys, and reader comments tell you more about your customers. Our service makes this simple because it builds these interactive elements directly into your newsletter. 

• See statistics on how well your newsletter is being read, which articles are most popular, and which subscribers are most active.
• Build new, targeted, subscriber lists based upon subscriber behavior.
• Download report data as an Excel spreadsheet.
• Allow readers to send "letters to the editor" in response to articles.
• Use surveys to enhance interactivity and obtain statistics about your readers' opinions and preferences. Track individual responses back to the subscriber.
• Integrated "Tell a Friend" feature encourages readers to pass newsletters along to their friends and associates.

Do It Again
The least obvious but most important component of a successful newsletter publication lies in its ability to be delivered repeatedly and frequently to its audience.

Our service has been specifically built to make this most important part of the process easy. Once your newsletter is setup, all you need to do is add some new articles each time you publish and press a button.

It is so easy you will never go back to your old methods. And, it gets easier each time you do it.

Everything And Much More
This newsletter service provides a complete and robust set of features and we are adding more all the time:

• Add multimedia such as Flash and streaming audio and video.
• Easily import your mailing lists
• Collaborate with others and "approve" or "reject" articles that are submitted.
• Automatically keep an Issue archive.
• Publish as an email AND a Web page.
• Use a custom domain name (e.g., newsletter.yourcompany.com).
• Plain text or HTML email, auto-sensing or subscriber's choice.
• Split your mailing lists into multiple sub-lists.
• Download and synchronize online list with the list in your database.
• Password protect your newsletters.
• Measure clicks from email.
• Automatically reformats articles to a "Printer Friendly" version.
• Flexible layout editor allows the "look and feel" of your Web page templates to be customized.
• Link the newsletter to your Web site and add a subscribe/unsubscribe box to any Web page. 

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FAQ

Privacy & Security

Are the newsletters private? If I publish my newsletter who can see it? 
Yes, your newsletters are private. Your newsletter account is secured by a username and password. No one else can see your newsletter unless you tell them about it. By sending someone an email, or by providing a Web address, individuals can obtain access. Password protection to limit the readers of your newsletter is also available as well as additional security checks.

Can I password protect my newsletter? 
Yes, password protection is available. You maintain the list of subscribers who can access your newsletter and you can assign each a unique username and password.

How safe is your system and how safe is my data?
We host our servers with a top-tier hosting provider with a state-of-the-art network operation center. This provider takes care of our backend systems with full security, redundancy, backup, and high-speed network connections.

Accounts and Billing

How many newsletters can I create in my account?
Each IceCentric account is designed to hold one type of publication (or newsletter). Each time you publish and send your newsletter, you publish an Issue. You can have as many Issues as you can fit within the space limits of your account and one newsletter per account. For example, a company might have two newsletters: the Employee Bulletin and the Sales Update. The Employee Bulletin is published once a week in Account 1 and the Sales Update is published once a quarter in Account 2. Note: It is possible for multiple accounts to share the same subscriber list.

I create a newsletter once per quarter, but your pricing is done on a monthly basis. How does this work? 
Our monthly pricing is not specifically tied to the frequency of your newsletter publication. It is based on the ongoing services that we provide. Our services include the hosting of your personalized templates that allow you to easily publish regularly, the availability of your newsletter online on an ongoing basis, the automated maintenance of your subscriber list and archives, and live reporting and interactivity. You can publish as frequently or infrequently as you like, and we provide the continuum between each publication. Your readers can bookmark a page in your newsletter to refer back to it and they can pass it along to their friends. New readers can subscribe at any time.

What does 10 Megabytes of disk space mean? How many newsletters can I create with this amount of space?
10 megabytes of disk space can hold hundreds of newsletter pages. Your space usage is more dependent on the number of pictures you have (their size) and the number of subscribers.

Email Distribution

How large can my email list be?
There is no limit. You are charged based on the number of emails delivered each month. IceCentric uses a custom built, high speed email delivery engine that can compose and distribute millions of unique email messages daily over our high bandwidth Internet backbone.

I have a large email list, but I only want to send newsletters to portions of this list. Can I do this?
Yes, you can segment the list into sub-lists. You can then send your newsletter to readers on a particular sub-list.

I already have a list of email addresses. How can I use them? 
You can easily upload an email address list into your account. You need to have your address list arranged so that there is one address per line. IceCentric will then read your list and add only the valid, unique addresses to your account. Duplicate and incorrectly formatted addresses will be automatically discarded.

My company uses a list service. Why is your service better?
A list server is a standard technology that only handles email delivery. It doesn't handle all of the other steps in creating a newsletter, providing interactivity, and measuring the results. IceCentric specializes in mitigating all hassles of newsletter publishing.

Who owns the subscriber list? Is it secure?
You own the subscriber list. Nobody else has access to your list. The list is secure within your IceCentric account and is housed in our highly secure network operation center. See our privacy policy for details.

When a newsletter is sent, can people see who else is receiving it? 
No, recipients cannot see who else is receiving the newsletter. Each email is individually addressed and sent to each recipient. This makes the newsletter appear as though it is one-to-one communication from you to them.

How do you handle subscribers who are using AOL?
Our service is especially savvy about dealing with AOL users. Emails sent to AOL accounts are automatically detected and converted to an AOL compatible format.   

Publishing

How do "archives" work? 
IceCentric will store past issues of your newsletter and allow people to access them online. In this way, your readers can bookmark pages in your newsletter and refer back to them later. In addition, you can link to the archive from your Web site.

Why do I need to post my newsletter to the Web if I am sending it as an email? 
IceCentric is pioneering the concept of interactive newsletters. The idea is to encourage email readers to click to the Web based equivalent of your newsletter where they can find more interactive elements. In addition this allows you to obtain detailed reports about which articles are most popular and to discover which readers are most active. The Web version is also more dynamic and can be easily linked to your Web site.

Can I change the layout of my newsletter? 
Yes, you can change the appearance and positioning of elements. Through the layout editor you can add and remove elements.

Will search engines index pages of my newsletter for me? 
Search engines can index the pages of your newsletter, however, this will not happen automatically. You must submit your newsletter to the search engines. There are multiple services to be found online that can help you.

General Questions

Do you sell software that I can install on my own machine? 

No, we do not sell software. We are an Application Service Provider (ASP). This means that you access our service online through any standard Web browser and Internet provider. You do not need to install software and/or software updates. You always have access to the latest and greatest version of our software and you use our dependable high bandwidth connections to send email and display interactive newsletter pages.