Tag Archive for Email Marketing

How to Keep Your Email List Happy

2013/05/16 eMarketing, eNewsletters, Entrepreneurship, Growing Your Business, Marketing, Online Marketing No comments
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Email ListThe money is in the list.

If you publish an email newsletter or do any other kind of email marketing, you know how precious your list is – and you’ve probably heard me talk about this before.

Today I wanted to share with you a way to be sure your list remains eager to hear from you and engages with you in a meaningful way – and, in fact, makes it easier for you to provide just the information they’re looking for!

I’m going to assume that, like my own, your list was built on IRL (in real life) relationships and voluntary opt-ins. I’m going to further assume that you’ve never purchased an email list, “scraped” email addresses from websites, or obtained email addresses in any other [ahem] less-than-desirable way.

If so, you’ve set a high standard for yourself, and I applaud you.

Along with impeccable ethics, I’m betting you’ve also set a high bar for yourself when it comes to meeting and even exceeding your readers’ expectations. You realize that you really have to strive for quality information, a reasonable publishing schedule, and content that engages in every single communication. You know that the last thing you want to do is alienate an audience that’s CHOSEN to spend time with you! They’re counting on you to deliver on the promises you made when they signed up.

So, I have a revolutionary idea to propose, and it’s something almost no one else is doing, so you’ll really stand out if you follow through with this: Read more

Email Marketing: What Do They Know That You Don’t Know?

2013/04/03 eMarketing, eNewsletters, Marketing, Marketing Budgets, Online Marketing, Social Media No comments
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Email Marketing2A new study of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) reveals that these firms are spending the largest portion of their marketing budgets on email marketing, and far less on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Over 600 email marketing decision makers at companies with annual revenues between $1-50 million and less than 1,000 employees were surveyed. It was discovered that 15 percent of the marketing budget of these businesses is spent on email marketing, ahead of events and trade shows (14 percent), person-to-person contact (13 percent) and print ads (11 percent).

The most interesting aspect of this study for me was that just 8 percent of their budgets were spent on social media, tying for sixth place overall with search engine optimization (SEO). My email marketing clients benefit from integration with social media, which contributes to their search engine rankings, so our Best Practices actually incorporate both these items at almost no additional cost to our clients. Win-win!

Here’s a breakdown of spending on marketing, as revealed by the survey: Read more

Building Your Network – and Your List – with LinkedIn

2013/03/14 Networking, Social Media No comments
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LinkedIn-LogoMost business people I know are aware of LinkedIn. They know it’s a business networking platform within the larger catch-all known as “social media.” Many know LinkedIn is not only a great place to connect (or reconnect) with other professionals in their field, but also to engage with past, current and prospective clients and even find potential new hires.

It’s also a great place to form or join groups of like-minded individuals who can become or refer clients. And a lot of worthwhile information is posted there that can prove helpful in your everyday work life.

And since LinkedIn is 277% more effective than other social networks in generating leads, you’d be crazy not to be making the most of it, right?

What too many don’t seem to understand, however, is the best way to make meaningful and mutually beneficial connections with people on LinkedIn. I have observed the following (in my opinion) misguided ways in which people seek to connect on LinkedIn:

  • Sending invitations out of the blue to people they don’t know, using the pre-packaged invitation copy provided by LinkedIn (“I’d like to add you to my network.” Really? Why? Who are you? How do we know one another, or whom / what do we have in common?)
  • Indiscriminately joining every group that has a word within its name relating to their business (for instance, “marketing,” “law,” “construction,” “restaurant,” etc) and then failing to interact, interacting too infrequently, or contributing only negative or “know-it-all” type comments within the groups they’ve joined.
  • Endorsing others’ skills and expertise when they don’t have sufficient knowledge to do so.

Here are my best tips for making the most of LinkedIn’s unique opportunities: Read more

Introducing Our New Referral Rewards Program

2013/03/07 eMarketing, eNewsletters, Entrepreneurship, Financial, Growing Your Business, Marketing, Marketing Budgets, Online Marketing, Running Your Business, Sales, Social Media One comment
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Budget-CuttingAs part of my 2013 marketing plan, I decided to devise a plan to reward those who help us grow our business by making it easier for them to grow theirs. So, I analyzed others’ programs, tossed around a few different ideas, and finally …

I’m pleased to announce our brand new Referral Rewards program!

Now, this program is not exclusively for new clients, as I found many such programs to be. Why would I choose to reward new clients and not those who are already contributing to my business success? That made no sense to me. So, instead, I designed it so that Referral Rewards can be included in our initial contract with new clients or as a contract addendum with our existing clients.

I also didn’t want to make the program overly complicated, and I didn’t necessarily see any point in putting an expiration date on it, since there is no limit to my gratitude for those who refer business to me :)

As a result, Referral Rewards is literally as simple as 1-2-3! Here’s how it works:

  1. Sign on with us for any of our email marketing services: Email Newsletters, Online Event Promotion, Online Surveys, Social Campaigns (these are customized “landing pages” for new visitors to your Facebook Page – like the one on my own Facebook Page right now), or SaveLocal deals (a unique – and uniquely affordable! – program for brick-and-mortar businesses like retail, restaurants, etc)
  2. Refer any of our email marketing services to your clients, colleagues – even businesses you patronize (such as restaurants, dry cleaners, home improvement contractors – you name it!)
  3. Earn 10% off your monthly invoice with us for every referral who signs on with us for any of those services – up to a maximum of 50% savings off your monthly invoice!

Referral Rewards will be credited to the referrer’s monthly invoice for every month during which both referrer and referred remain our client. Referral Rewards are based on email marketing-related services only (i.e., Email Newsletters, Online Surveys, Online Event Promotion, Social Campaigns, and SaveLocal deal program).

ONCE YOU’RE IN THE PROGRAM, THERE’S NO EXPIRATION DATE ON YOUR SAVINGS, as long as both you and the referred party/parties remain our client.

The sooner you sign up to participate, the sooner you’ll be earning Referral Rewards that will help grow your business while saving money on your marketing!

Call me today at (609) 631-5997 or (207) 659-1211 and let’s get started!

Online Reputation Management

2013/02/28 Blogging, eMarketing, eNewsletters, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Websites No comments
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Online Reputation ManagementOne of my favorite quotes about online reputation management is by Tyler Tervooren: “Even if you opt out of participating in the digital world, your online identity still exists in parallel; you’re just not in charge of it.” Basically, it comes down to this: Refusing to acknowledge that people are talking about you does not make that talk go away. And if that talk is negative or inaccurate or untruthful, you have, essentially, decided to allow others to decide who you are and what your brand represents.

Whether due to time constraints, or not knowing enough about how online marketing differs from traditional media, or an inability to keep up with the ever-changing world of online marketing – monitoring online channels is not something the average business professional can reliably do on their own. Many try, only to find sooner rather than later that neither they nor their staff have the time and expertise necessary to develop the know-like-trust factor that leads fans, followers and other online connections to be converted into buyers.

Understanding those challenges is what led me to transform my own business from a general sales and marketing consulting firm to one focused exclusively on branding through social media, online and email marketing.

Managing Your Online Reputation

There are two equally bad responses to negative online feedback: Read more

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