OnPoint

CEC Selects Viewpoints as as Finalist for the 2011 Merrick Momentum Award

The Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC) today announced the three finalists for its prestigious Merrick Momentum Award:

 

• GrubHub – an internet startup that connects consumers with restaurants that deliver to their neighborhood.
• Ifbyphone – a voice-based marketing automation platform that helps companies drive sales, reduce collection cycles, measure marketing effectiveness and improve customer experience.
• Viewpoints – an internet startup that operates a hosted technology service for user reviews and social engagement as well as a leading user reviews and advice website.

 

The Merrick Momentum Award recognizes the entrepreneurial stars that have demonstrated momentum since their inception and are poised for continued growth.  The Award is named after Merrick Ventures, LLC, the company that has sponsored it for four straight years.

Viewpoints Moves Into A New Home - Again

It was almost exactly one year ago that we moved into our home at 222 W. Hubbard - a half floor build out - with the idea that we'd have more than enough room to last us "a while." It didn't take long to see that we were going to be busting out of that space MUCH faster than we'd intended. The growth in both the Viewpoints.com and Viewpoints Technology Platform businesses over the past 12 months has been aggressive to say the least! So once again, out came the temporary IKEA desks around the office perimeter as several conference rooms were turned into makeshift multi-person work areas. It was cozy.

But this week we officially moved into our new digs down 1 floor in the building! And this time we've taken the entire second floor and have lots of room to move and groove. Great build out, great functional space and great amenities. No guess on how long it will be before we start busting again, but for now I think everyone agrees that this definitely feels like home! 

 

Viewpoints Network Launches Post-Purchase Emails

This week, we announched the launch of our Post-Purchase Email solution for retailers. The product allows VTP partners to trigger a targeted email to their recent online buyers asking them to write a review of the product they’ve just purchased. With Post-Purchase Emails, retailers now have a simple solution to engage with an active customer group to encourage their participation and drive increased SEO-rich review content for their site. 

Review volume and quality is critical to a successful reviews program. Post-Purchase Emails help increase engagement by driving consumers back to a retailer's e-commerce site while a product is still fresh in their mind. These consumers' reviews are particularly valuable since they come from verified buyers.

Retailers can trigger up to 3 post-purchase emails—including an initial email after the consumer makes a purchase and two additional emails for non-responders—and can configure each to be sent in a specific time period. To better facilitate response, the email creative includes embedded product images and links back to products on the retailer’s e-commerce site.

We manage all aspects of the email, including targeting, creative, and opt-out management. We'll also help you maximize responsiveness and review conversion by developing promotions based on our best practices.

We're excited to add another engagement-driving solution to our suite of products. For more information, check out our press release here.

Retailers can trigger up to 3 post-purchase emails—including an initial email after the consumer makes a purchase and two additional emails for non-responders—and can configure each to be sent in a specific time period. To better facilitate response, the email creative includes embedded product images and links back to products on the retailer’s e-commerce site.

We manage all aspects of the email, including targeting, creative, and opt-out management. We'll also help you maximize responsiveness and review conversion by developing promotions based on our best practices.

We're excited to add another engagement-driving solution to our suite of products. For more information, check out our press release here.

Viewpoints Wins Stevie Award for the Development of the MySears Online Community in the 8th Annual American Business Award

 We're excited to share the news that Viewpoints was honored with a Stevie Award earlier this week for the development of the MySears.com community in the Retail Web Site & Blog category of The 2010 American Business Awards. 

We’re extremely honored to be recognized with this prestigious award. The Stevies are the premiere business awards in the U.S., and we’re thrilled to have VTP acknowledged for its part in helping to make MySears one of the most innovative and successful online communities for a traditional offline retail brand.

The Stevie Awards were created to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and business people worldwide. More than 2,700 entries from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration in more than 40 categories. 200 executives across the country participated in the judging process to determine the Stevie award winners. In winning the Stevie, Viewpoints Network and the MySears community beat out other finalists including Wal-Mart and Office Depot and their supporting agencies. 

Partnering With Charities Helps Viewpoints Grow

This past week we kicked off a new partnership initiative at Viewpoints.com called Reviews for Charity program.  This program is part acquisition, part charitable contribution, and part social media fundraising all designed to be at total win-win for our charity partners and for the Viewpoints.com community.  We will be working with six charities between August and December of this 2010, and providing them the chance to earn up to $5,000 just for engaging their membership in writing reviews on Viewpoints.com.  In an economy that continues to make fundraising difficult for organizations of any size, this is an incredibly easy way for non profits to earn real dollars while Viewpoints gets the chance to introduce our helpful first person consumer reviews to a host of new eyeballs. Here are the details:

1. If chosen, we will work closely with each charity to write copy, design e-mails, and create appropriate ad units for the campaign;
2. When it is that charity's designated month, they will send two separate e-mails out, including at least 50% of their e-mail list each time, to inform and encouraging their constituency to participate in the review writing for dollars program. Additional marketing (via social media, e-newsletters, etc.) will be encouraged but not required;
3. The charity is then eligible to receive $1 per qualifying review up to $5,000 – meaning 5,000 reviews can be written on behalf of that charity during the 30 day time frame. In addition we will also offer a $5,000 prize to the charity that has the most reviews written during their month, that prize will be awarded at the end of 2010.

If you are interested in finding out more about our Reviews for Charity program please click here

Viewpoints Featured in Chicago Tribune

If you picked up a copy of this past Sunday's Chicago Tribune, no doubt you were greeted with a big smile from our very own Matt Moog on the cover of the paper's Business section. Matt had the pleasure of talking with Business reporter Melissa Harris a few weeks ago about the history of Viewpoints Network and the exciting opportunities ahead of us as more and more brands recognize the value of user reviews. 

Read Melissa's article here.

MySears Named Finalist in 2010 American Business Awards

 
 

 

Congratulations to our partner Sears Holdings Corporation for having the MySears community acknowledged by the American Business Awards as a Finalist in their 2010 annual Stevie Awards! The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.'s premier business awards program.

More than 2,700 entries from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration in more than 40 categories. MySears was named a finalist in the "Website or Blog - Retail" category. Winners will be announced on June 21st at an awards gala in New York. 

Fingers will be crossed here at Viewpoints for MySears! With all the great attention the community is generating from Sears' customers, we think it has a good shot at winning and definitely deserves the recognition. Check out all of the finalists from the different categories on The Stevies website. 

The Best of the Best

 At Viewpoints, we are always looking for ways to use our reviewers’ reviews to help people make smart buying decisions. Toward that end, we recently launched our first Top Products program. We set the bar high as the Users’ Choice winners have to have at least 50 reviews with an average score of at least 4.5 out of 5 stars. One of the most impactful aspects of the program is that all of the choices are completely organic – these are truly the people’s choices. In part one of the program, we featured the Top Products in the Home and Garden category. The choices included some classic products like Dawn Dish Soap and Scotts Miracle Gro, some newer brands like Dyson and several manufacturers with more than one winner, including KitchenAid and Moen. We will be rolling out other categories over the weeks to come, so check back to find out our Users’ Choice Top Products for Electronics, Health and Beauty, Baby, Food and Drink and more.

Matt Moog Interviewed on Crain's Blog, Enterprise City

 April 23, 2010

More great coverage of Viewpoints' acquisition of the green product review site, Ecoscene. Today, Matt did a Q&A interview with Steve Hendershot for the Crain's Chicago Business blog, Enterprise City. Steve talked to Matt about the Ecoscene acquisition and a bit about how the company is licensing The Viewpoints Technology Platform to help retailers build their own online reviews communities.

Here's a bit from the article:

>>Crain’s: You also license your technology for retailers to create networks such as mysears.com. Describe the philosophy behind those networks—what are you trying to achieve?

MM: We don’t really believe in creating a social network for a retailer, trying to replicate Facebook or trying to create a community for community’s sake. Our networks are more directed and results-driven. Our concept is that if you pursue an effort like this, you should be able to drive traffic and sales, gain significant insight into what your customers want, and then drive customer advocacy. Word of mouth is the most powerful influencer in almost any business, when people have positive experiences with your product and then tell other people about it. So we’re helping to facilitate and amplify the most powerful driver of business.<<

Read the article

 

Matt Moog interviewed on CBS Chicago Monsters & Money in the Morning

If you missed it - yes, 5:45 a.m. is a bit early for a lot of us - Matt Moog was a guest on CBS Chicago's Monsters & Money in the Morning show last Friday morning. Matt seemed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on the set as he chatted with the morning team about the Chicago technology market, the value of consumer generated reviews and Viewpoints' rapid growth and hiring frenzy. All in all, some nice visibility for us in our local market and a great opportunity to drive some potential candidates for our open positions. Check out the interview.