David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
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August 2013

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The Power of SIP

August 27, 2013

This week the ANPI marketing and sales team is attending and exhibiting at IT Expo in Las Vegas. It is one of the two shows that we will use to launch our retail offering of Hosted Unified Communications (UC). Over the next four days there will be opportunities for us to speak, learn and discuss the latest in IP communications. As such, I do regret accepting a slot to discuss SIP Trunking, since I no longer believe it is the latest thing in IP Communications.

Disruptive, Disruption, Disturb, The New Norm

August 23, 2013

Disruptive technologies do not always lead to disruption that can disturb a social norm. However, through the combination of digital technology, IP communications and devices that support mobility, we are experiencing the permanent changing of several social norms. Long held practices or appropriate behaviors are being dispensed with and the voices of those in opposition to the changes are no longer relevant. My observations of these changing norms are as follows:

  • Conversation no longer needs to be private.

When Donuts Rule

August 20, 2013

Just over a year ago I joined ANPI as their CMO and one of the first things I noted was our domain name, “anpisolutions.com”. Why? A squatter had the domain and was waiting for a payday. We were fortunate that the squatter had seen little interest in “anpi.com” and was quite willing to negotiate for a sum much less than the initial offer.

Improving Email Open Rates

August 16, 2013

Email blasts are an everyday occurrence and a bane on work productivity. However, as a CMO, I have to acknowledge that emails are the one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to communicate with a large number of people concisely and quickly. Consequently, it is often misused and, therefore, fails in meeting a key objective; getting opened and read.

Earlier this year I pointed out that email marketing had an ROI of $38 for every dollar spent so it is very cost effective.

Knowing a SMB when You See One

August 12, 2013

Last week I heard a comment regarding the size of a small business being around ten employees. That is not a definition either I use or any credible source. However, it pointed out a need to define what we mean when we use the terms “SMB” and “enterprise”.

The Small Business Administration has a very complicated definition of what characteristics a small business should have.

Mobility is Influencing Email and U.S. Broadband Ranking Falls

August 9, 2013


As a marketing executive, I will not dismiss the effort marketers are putting into improving marketing automation utilizing targeted email, however, recent research shows that people are opening emails at increasingly significant rates. In just over the last 12-15 months, people are opening marketing emails 35% more. In 1Q2011 the open rate was 23.3% rising to 31.1% in 1Q2013. This is a significant change over a very short period of time.


The Value of the Cloud Hits New Highs

August 1, 2013

As an industry, we have focused our discussion of trending data along the lines of customer adoption of various cloud services and applications. However, a complete view of the value of the cloud also includes understanding the growing value of companies that provide cloud platforms, applications and services.

According to the Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) the market value of the top players in cloud computing has crossed $100 billion. BVP released the following quote, “With 30 large public companies collectively representing more than $100 billion in market capitalization and $12.5 billion in estimated 2013 revenue, the cloud computing industry has officially come of age.” In reaction to the growth, the venture group has released the “BVP Cloud Computing Index.

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