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How to Get Started with Email Marketing

By on January 29, 2013 in 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business, Branding & Marketing, Guest Articles

Guest Post

Nothing else in email marketing is more important than having a strong relationship with your email list subscribers. Do things right and you’ll have a super responsive list of recipients, which is gold in the email marketing game.

Most likely your list is in QuickBooks or a spreadsheet. The most common is a stack of business cards collected over months, maybe even years.

Be Polite: Get an Invite First. You’re taking a huge risk if you email that list of people. Think of an inbox as someone’s home or inner office. Now imagine you’re knocking on their door after only meeting them once at a networking event months or years ago. Most likely they’ll tell you to leave. Where I grew up and some unknown person came to the door, we just wouldn’t answer the door.  The key is to know the people you are emailing and to have them eagerly awaiting your emails.

Confirm Your List. Actually, you can email your entire list of contacts. It’s called a confirmation email and it’s risky. Most email marketing firms only let you send this email once. Whoever doesn’t click on the link is lost and will not receive any of your future emails. Since you only have one shot, make it good. Write an eye-catching headline and be as friendly and engaging as possible; showcase your personality and the character of your business.

What to Say and When to Say It. Once you have a lean and well-developed contact list you have to determine how long you’ll “come over to visit” their inbox. Weekly is actually best. But monthly works too. Anything more and you’re risking being marked as spam because people will forget you. Quarterly is not a strategy!

Here’s what to say when you do come over:

  • “This recently happened in our industry and here’s how you can avoid the consequences.”
  • “Check out this case study of a business/person who is facing the same challenge you are but came out with a great success story.”
  • “Want to overcome this challenge? Here’s your 5-step plan to make it happen.”

When you have content like this, it doesn’t matter which day of the week you send, or even what time of day. It’s about the relevance of the content that truly matters. Your key tidbits of advice are like gold to them – if it solves a nagging problem for them.

Make It Brief, Make it Sweet. You’ve heard the term, “Less is more.” If your emails are too long you’ll begin to be an unwanted guest and the recipients will lose interest. Make sure you remain relevant and on top of the latest trends in your industry. One way to do that is to give your audience just one quick and effective tip to solve a problem they’re facing.

Don’t be considered SPAM. When you contact people without their permission, you could be considered spam. If someone marks your communication as spam it is the equivalent of calling 911. It brings more trouble than it’s worth. It could get your email privileges rescinded.

Key Action Steps For Successful Email Marketing

Create a simple design for your newsletter: One column is the best format. Two and three column emails divide the attention of the recipient. And they don’t know what you want them to do.

  1. Go easy on the graphics: Keep a ratio of 60% text and 40% graphics.
  2. Call to action: Make the majority of the content of your email educational. Give them secrets, tips and key insights that get results for them. Then include a promotional paragraph about your business with a call to action for an offer for your products or services.
  3. Show your personality: When you’re writing show your personality to keep your client interested.

Stick to these rules and you’ll start right out of the gate with high response rates, a bevy of solid leads for business and a stellar reputation for being a good “guest” in the email inbox.

Lisa Sparks 214x300 How to Get Started with Email MarketingAbout the author: Lisa D. Sparks is the CEO of Verity Content, a content marketing strategy firm. Lisa has more than 10 years of experience in small business marketing. Here’s where to find out more: http://www.veritycontent.com 

Image “Hand Pushing Mail Sign” courtesy of Photokanok / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”

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5 Marketing Tips to Keep More Customers in 2013

By on December 31, 2012 in 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business, Branding & Marketing, Guest Articles

guestpost 300x48 5 Marketing Tips to Keep More Customers in 2013I’m a customer relationship management (CRM) guy and have been for the better part of the last ten years. These systems help small businesses automate marketing processes to more efficiently close deals, and do a better job of building customer relationships. With more small businesses turning to CRM apps and services to help with marketing efforts, there are a few things that will help you build relationships with today’s savvy customer. Here are 5 Marketing Tips to Keep More Customers in 2013.

A Marketer’s First Job Is Building Trust.  We all know how important it is to get the word out about your business and build your brand.  And while marketing tools and services have never been easier to use or able to reach more people faster, the challenges associated with marketing are tougher than ever before.  Many SMBs have no idea where to start, tight budgets, no strategy, no time to implement, and are very impatient for results.

Here’s a solution: it’s not just the method of delivering marketing messages that needs to change, it’s the message. Building trust and advocacy should be the goal, not yelling “look at how great my product is.” That is unless you want to continue being viewed alongside the likes of The JBs – John Boehner and Justin Bieber.  And speaking of The Bieber…

Focus on Everyday Advocates – Don’t Leave It To Bieber. Yeah I know I’m being tough on the kid, but really I’m just using him as an example.  Because while many larger companies turn to actors, singers and other high profile individuals to influence regular folks to “buy their stuff”, the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer found regular people – “people like us” – were way more likely to be the ones “we” listen to when it comes to company and product information.  And a study of one thousand people from Crowdtap – an influencer marketing platform provider – backs this up.  Two main points from the study found:

  • 70% said they tried a new product in the last three months because a friend or family member suggested it, or posted about it online
  • 61% did so because a friend or family member suggested it to them in person/by phone

The bottom line here is people listen to people they like, know, the people they feel are in the same boat they are.  But sometimes these very people are overlooked because we don’t see them as being “important”, or influential to our business success. While it’s tempting to try to connect with just “the beautiful ones” in order to have their beauty rub off on you, it makes more sense to concentrate on “the advocate next door” who might be pretty passionate about what you do – and willing to go to bat for you.  I’m betting there are more of them out there than you may think.

Time To Be FAIR.  New business models are being created using social, cloud and mobile services from Amazon, Google and other platform providers that couldn’t have been built a few years ago.  But now they’re not only being built quickly, but also in such a way that they are able to adapt to rapidly changing customer expectations and needs.

This new FAIR (Flexible, Agile, Interactive, Reliable) approach to business models is also increasingly being built to transition from transaction-based relationships to interaction-based relationships.  So instead of selling one-off individual products and services, you’re seeing an emphasis on creating opportunities for ongoing interactions; which hopefully lead to longer, more predictable customer relationships.  2013 should be a significant year in the development of interaction-based business models built on cloud platforms.

More Activity Calls For More Cohesiveness.  Customers are demanding a new style of marketing if you want to stay connected with them.  The number of content formats, distribution methods and device types are providing both opportunities and challenges to finding, catching and keeping good customers today.  This means small businesses will need to have a much better handle on which activities they should execute, which customer segments should be targeted, and how to determine when an individual prospect might need a particular interaction type to move them to the next phase in the sales cycle.

In order to increase the number of meaningful interactions and create customers from them it will call for a more systematic, integrated approach. Companies like InfusionSoft have made it easier to create marketing sequences that are automatically executed based on data and activities.  Zoho recently added the ability to execute email marketing campaigns from their CRM service. And Batchbook has re-architected their service and created an integration layer making it easier for their customers to manage and execute Mailchimp email campaigns from within Batchbook.

These types of integrations are important not just because it makes it easier to execute and keep track of things.  Looplogic, a video distribution platform, lets you send out a video through MailChimp so you can track watching activity down to a named individual.  And LoopLogic founder Scott Mitchell says people on average are more likely to click an attractive thumbnail image to the video when it’s in an email message. But even bigger, you can start pushing people into different groups with different interactions based on who they are and how much they viewed.  And this allows for a more efficient relationship-building process.

Marketing Doesn’t End with Customer Acquisition.  Use content marketing for customer service. If you do general content marketing that educates people about your industry, they need to know how to succeed with your products or services. The relationship does not end just because they gave you some money.  The most valuable customer is the one that pays you again and again and again. Your goal should be to get them to pay you monthly.

The best way to build a brand is to pay attention to the right people (customers, prospects, advocates, influencers) create better interactive experiences based on their needs, and then let them say how great those experiences are.  This should allow you to find, catch and keep more customers in 2013.

5 Marketing Tips to Keep More Customers in 2013About the author:  Brent Leary is a CRM industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. For more information: http://www.businesstechnologyradio.com/

day31 5 Marketing Tips to Keep More Customers in 2013This article is from the SmallBizLady special blog series: 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business in 2013. #Boost2013

Week One Posts of 31 Ways to BOOST Your Small Business in 2013 Week Two Posts of 31 Ways to BOOST Your Small Business in 2013 Week Three Posts of 31 Ways to BOOST Your Small Business in 2013

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How to Make Sure You Take a Vacation From Your Small Business in 2013

By on December 30, 2012 in 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business, Business Inspiration, Guest Articles

guestpost 300x48 How to Make Sure You Take a Vacation From Your Small Business in 2013For most of you who have any kind of entrepreneurial spirit, you are a driven individual. You are driven by your dream, your goals, your heart’s desire, perhaps by proving yourself to yourself or to someone else, and moved by what you will be able to provide for those you care about. As you have worked your way through this series, you have uncovered new tips and tricks of how to boost your small business in 2013.

But I am here to push you in a slightly different, albeit just as important direction. It’s how to make sure you take a vacation in 2013.

Why do you need a vacation?  As you pour all of your heart, soul, spirit and time into your business, you must keep at the forefront of your mind the safeguarding and protection of your most important business asset. You!

You must give yourself some down-time. This can be a short break for a day or two, or a real vacation (at least 5 business days).

The reasons why you need this are pretty simple. You must have down-time to anticipate so that you can:

  • Keep your drive alive, avoiding burnout.
  • Preserve your sanity. You cannot stay “on” and “up” all of the time and continue to succeed.
  • Allow your mind time to renew and refresh. Time to freshen and sharpen ideas, goals, perspective. Time to “stumble” across new ones.
  • Solidify relationships with family and friends. These are the people you are working for. Don’t neglect them. Time is precious, and you can’t get it back.

How do I make sure that I get a vacation? Delegation, Systems, Preparation.  So, you ask, “How?” The approach to getting a vacation is already instilled deep within your entrepreneurial spirit.

How did you get where you are in life and in business? The way that you get your vacations is by delegation, systems and appointment.

As you begin to learn ways to manage your business better and more efficiently, you will begin to delegate duties.

Delegation and systems.  Some of the duties you will delegate because there are people who can do them much better than you. Examples are your tax accountant, lawyer, collections, etc. These professionals will help you set and keep a schedule for when important items are due.

Some duties you will delegate because you don’t really have to or want to continue to do them yourself.

Pay your entrepreneurial children to do your snail-mailing. This is a great way to get them involved and to teach them the value of money (earning and spending), time management, commitment and character.

Some duties you will find are cheaper in terms of money, time and mental energy to hire out to someone else so that you can concentrate all of your efforts on getting clients or more business. A virtual assistant or (VA) can help with emailing, scheduling, tweeting, and many more tasks.

So, get some systems and people in place to use your time efficiently and effectively.

Preparation.  The most important phase of how to get your vacation lies in preparation. Again, how do you get everything else done that needs to get done? You schedule it!

Make an unbreakable appointment with yourself. Put it on all of your calendars and then get to work planning around it.

Yes, you will have to work extra hard right before and right after, but aren’t you worth it? Don’t you deserve, if not require, renewal?

Once you have a firm date, stick to it!

Make a list of the incredible few things that you will break this appointment for. Things like an unexpected invitation to speak at TED or Blogworld, or whatever is comparable in your business.

Start preparing people before. Get their assignments and duties mapped out in advance.

Limit your accessibility! Appoint one person (assistant, partner, VA, etc.) who knows how to reach you with vitally important things that they cannot take care of themselves, and that absolutely cannot wait.

Plan your activities. What are you going to do?

Traveling? Make your flight and hotel arrangements well in advance. This will not only help you lock in the dates, but will probably save you some money.

Reading? Get your book.

Movies? You get the gist…

If you do not take care of your physical and mental health, you will burn out. Then you will become a liability to yourself and your business. You are the most important and valuable asset in your small business. Act like it!

How to Make Sure You Take a Vacation From Your Small Business in 2013About the author:  Martina G. McGowan, MD is a Gynecologist who works a regular workweek, just like many of you. Martina has been teaching, mentoring, supporting and coaching individuals for over thirty years to transform their lives; some physically, many mentally. She is a physician of the mind and body. Martina writes throughout the week at http://martinamcgowan.com and is featured at BasicsMatter.com

day30 How to Make Sure You Take a Vacation From Your Small Business in 2013This article is from the SmallBizLady special blog series: 31 Ways to Boost Your Small Business in 2013. #Boost2013

Week One Posts of 31 Ways to BOOST Your Small Business in 2013 Week Two Posts of 31 Ways to BOOST Your Small Business in 2013 Week Three Posts of 31 Ways to BOOST Your Small Business in 2013

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