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Effective Email Marketing For Small Businesses

by Melinda Emerson on December 16, 2010 in Q & A Interviews, SmallBizChat

Each week as @Smallbizlady, I conduct interviews with small business experts on my weekly Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This is excerpted from my #SmallBizChat interview with James Tayo @eblogr (on Twitter). James is a software developer who provides software for bloggers and Internet entrepreneurs. He helps entrepreneurs achieve a maximum effectiveness by developing software that automates the work they should not be doing. He blogs at Entrepreneur Blog’r, http://entrepreneurblogr.com/

Smallbizlady: Why is email marketing important? How does it help a business generate revenue?

James Tayo: Email marketing is the most cost-effective way to keep in touch with your clients and prospects. Most people coming in contact with your brand will not make a purchase immediately. Email marketing gives you that unique ability to create a relationship with your prospects, making them understand you are there to help.

Smallbizlady: What advice would you give a small business owner that is just starting on the Internet?

James Tayo: Take action. A lot of people including me always like to consume information and courses. The first version of your product should not aim to be the greatest. The problem is nothing will happen if you don’t actually take action to actualize your dreams. Do not over analyze.

Your product should only serve to add value with the minimal amount of features or information. The rest will be decided by your market. Improving on your product with the feedback of your market will ensure you don’t offer something nobody cares about.

Smallbizlady: How should small business owners gather email addresses from clients and what services do you recommend for sending out email?

James Tayo: I would recommend you use a third-party service provider and not to try and use a free tool. This is because your email marketing effort, if done right, will become the core of your business helping to bring in revenue and you do not want to trust this to a free service that has no support. Your email deliver-ability with the service providers should also be top-notch. I use an email service provider called Aweber. Another service provider you can take a look at is MailChimp.

Smallbizlady: How can small business owners get the best results from email marketing?

James Tayo: To get the most results, you need to nurture engaged subscribers. By engaging subscribers to click on your links, respond to your questions you will in turn get them to buy your products or hire you.

To do this you will need to train your subscribers to always expect to receive valuable stuff from you. If, every time they open your emails, your subscribers receive a great tip, or a blog post with information that helps or improves their bottom line, they will naturally come to trust you. Whenever you offer something for sale, it will be deemed to be valuable and you will not get as much objections as you normally would.

Smallbizlady: How often should your email list hear from you?

James Tayo: It depends on your audience. The goal you want to achieve is to stay in recent memory. You want to communicate frequently enough not to be deemed a spammer or overwhelm your list. But not infrequent enough for them to forget who you are. As a rule of thumb, it should be at least once a month and at most once a week for your regular schedule.

Smallbizlady: Should a small business have a branded e-newsletter template or is a text only email enough to engage subscribers?

James Tayo: A branded e-Newsletter comes across more professional and in some markets like insurance, it may be necessary to have that professional image. The issue you will have with branded newsletters is, you will need to test each email you have in a lot of email software.

Your readers will be reading your emails in multiple software clients like Outlook, Gmail or even on their mobile phones. All these clients display HTML newsletters in different ways. You can use a service like Litmus (http://litmus.com/) to test this. But at $49/month, you may want to start off with plain text emails. These will look mostly the same on most email software.

Smallbizlady: Do you need content strategy before starting an email marketing campaign?

James Tayo: You need to be in touch with your subscribers often. The emails you send them need to be strategic. It should be positioned to educate your subscribers about a topic they want to know about and in the same time selling your services.

This is what is known as content marketing. Education is one of the best ways to sell without really selling. The content (or most of it) will need to be written before you start your campaign If you use a service like Aweber or MailChimp, you can queue all the emails to be sent on your required schedule. Anytime, a subscriber joins your list, he/she gets the first email and the relationship between you and the subscriber starts. Very effective and low-cost.

Smallbizlady: How can you increase the number of people that sign up to hear from you?

James Tayo: On the Internet, the main currency is value. People only take action when they know it will be of benefit to them. You will need to offer something valuable to your subscribers. It doesn’t end there, you will have to communicate that value to people that haven’t signed up. Offer to give something in return for signing up. Whatever you offer, make sure it is of good quality. This is the first contact they will be having with you so you need to make a good impression. Don’t just slap a couple of words together and call it an eBook.

Smallbizlady: What other ways can I use to grow my subscriber numbers?

James Tayo: One strategy that people do not use is asking for referrals. As a small business you should always encourage your clients to refer you to their friends. Why not get your subscribers to refer you to their friends as well? If you use WordPress, I have developed a plugin that automates this process. Offering your subscribers something in return if they get their friend to sign up for your email newsletter. You can check it out here http://memerson.virallist.hop.clickbank.net/

Smallbizlady: People get a lot of emails. How do I make sure mine gets opened?

James Tayo: An interesting subject line will go a long way in making sure your email gets opened. Try to create a subject that promises something on the other end. You can always try to arouse curiosity by asking a question. You have to make sure you deliver on the promise though. Do not trick your readers into opening your emails.

Smallbizlady: What other advice would you give entrepreneurs looking to use email marketing?

James Tayo: Invest as much as you can in your business. A lot of people try to do it all. Content creation, marketing, web design, product development. This is the fastest way to burn out. A business is meant to be fun most of the time. Yes, you will have to do the grunt work sometime but outsource what you are not good at to someone that will do it faster and better than you ever can. Your business will grow faster this way.

Smallbizlady: What metrics can I track so I know what to improve on? What tracking devices do you use?

James Tayo: You should track your open rates and click rates at the minimum. You should track your open rates and click rates at the minimum. Great email subjects will make your open rates better. You will want to optimize your subject to achieve higher open-rates. As noted earlier, you can arouse curiosity with your email subject line to achieve that goal.

Most of the email service providers give you access to reports for daily, weekly or monthly statistics. To increase your click rates, you will need great content. To get people clicking on the links in your email, entice them with a juicy offer or useful information on the other side of the click

Another good metric to track is to see which of your opt-in forms get the most sign-ups. The location of these forms on your website will affect the number of people that sign up. If you tag each form with an identifier, you can track them over a couple of months to determine
the optimum position for the form.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.
For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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How to Become a Successful Woman Entrepreneur

by Melinda Emerson on July 22, 2010 in SmallBizChat, Women in Business

Each week as @Smallbizlady, I conduct interviews with small business experts on my weekly Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This is excerpted from my #SmallBizChat interview with Adrianna Gardella @AdrianaGardella who is a blogger for the NewYorkTimes on women & entrepreneurship: She Owns It. Adriana is also is a BNET.com editor. She has been a senior editor for Fortune Small Business, a contributing editor for Success magazine, and a columnist covering management and career issues for CBS Interactive. She began her career as a lawyer, and has provided news and legal commentary on CNN and MSNBC. Read more about her column here: http://nyti.ms/d6DS46.

Smallbizlady: What are some of the challenges women face as small business owners?

Adriana Gardella: They face all of the same challenges as men who own businesses, plus some additional ones, including challenges related to getting their businesses funded and finding mentors and role models. As a journalist on women’s entrepreneurship, I have often heard from female business owners, “I didn’t know there were women out there just like me.”

Smallbizlady: What are some myths about women business owners?

Adriana Gardella: I think one of the biggest is that women aren’t interested in growing their businesses. That is definitely not what I’ve found in my conversations with women business owners across industries. They are very interested in building businesses that have an impact on the world, and to do that they know they need to grow. And the belief that women don’t have the educational and professional backgrounds to found and run tech companies, which may have been true back in the 70s, but isn’t the case now in 2010. I think it’s a major myth that women don’t help each other in business.

Smallbizlady: What are some of the ways women sabotage themselves as business owners?

Adriana Gardella: Not sure how to answer this since I don’t know that there are gender-specific ways that women (or men) sabotage themselves. I do know that many entrepreneurs (male and female) have to struggle to overcome the urge to do everything themselves.

Smallbizlady: Why are Venture Capitalists (VCs) less likely to fund women?

Adriana Gardella: I agree with something said by one of my interview subjects, Cindy Padnos of Illuminate Ventures. She said, “It’s not about a bunch of evil-minded men.” Rather, a lot of it has to do the tendency of people who are similar – whether it’s in terms of race, sex, schools attended, etc. — to feel more comfortable with others like them. It also has to do with “pattern recognition,” which essentially relates to the mental shortcuts investors take to determine whether a venture will succeed. If the last 10 successful companies were founded by nerdy white guys who went to Stanford, that’s what investors will be looking for when assessing a company’s chances of success.

Smallbizlady: What challenges face women venture capitals who would like to fund women?

Adriana Gardella: Until women reach critical mass in Venture Capital firms, they are going to be understandably reluctant go out on a limb to continually recommend that their firms fund women. They may (justifiably) fear appearing biased if they do so, which says a lot about what we consider “normal.” After all, no one would ever say, “We can’t fund this guy because we just funded 3 white guys just like him.” And yet, you can envision people protesting that they had just funded a woman, and had therefore somehow met their “quota.”

Smallbizlady: Many women do not support other women in business, what are the ways this can be combated?

Adriana Gardella: This is something you often hear, but I’ve never seen real evidence of it, either in my life or in the lives of the women I write about. I think this is the kind of thinking some people in the media like to promote, which is what prompted me to write my She Owns It post, “Women Don’t Help Each Other?” [http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/women-dont-help-each-other/] [short link: http://nyti.ms/cBv3Wv] In my blog, I have covered woman after woman who has made it a priority to help other women.

Smallbizlady: Is it a good idea to niche a business targeting women customers?

Adriana Gardella: The answer depends on the business. The most crucial thing is to know your customers VERY well. If they’re women, by all means target them.

Smallbizlady: So many women juggle kids, hubby and their business, do you have some tips on doing this well?

Adriana Gardella: I think it’s about doing work you absolutely love. When you love your work, you find time for it no matter what. You don’t typically hear people who are passionate about their work complaining that they have no time. I recommend the book 168 Hours: You have more time than you think (http://www.my168hours.com/blog/). Among the people the author writes about is Teresa Daytner, a mother of six who founded and runs a $3.5 million construction company. She knows what’s important and doesn’t waste time on what isn’t. I also think that women who find themselves bearing a disproportionate share of childcare and household duties need to ask themselves why they continue to do that, and why they don’t expect more of their partner (if they have one).

Smallbizlady: Often women are accused of making emotional decisions and not business decisions? What are your thoughts?

Adriana Gardella: Well, that kind of general accusation seems pretty silly. I guess one’s response would have to depend on who’s making the accusation and what you want or need from them as a business owner. On a related subject, I think that women are increasingly being recognized for their leadership skills. I read a recent study on the qualities of women as leaders. The study found: women leaders are more persuasive than their male counterparts; When feeling the sting of rejection, women leaders learn from adversity and carry on with an “I’ll show you” attitude; women leaders demonstrate an inclusive, team-building leadership style of problem solving and decision making, and women leaders are more likely to ignore rules and take risks. Link: http://bit.ly/a9NfiV.

Smallbizlady: Can you give any advice for women working with their spouses in business?

Adriana Gardella: That’s a tough one—and also a subject I plan to cover in an upcoming post! So, I’d love to get back to you on this one. I think as with any business partner, having a clear division of labor is important, and a crystal clear agreement as to what happens to the business if you wind up being one of the many couples to divorce. As I start to research this topic, I am learning that VCs don’t like to fund couples partly because of that risk. In fact, they even prefer to fund women!

Smallbizlady: How should women pursue mentors in business?

Adriana Gardella: There are so many wonderful organizations where you can meet like-minded peers and mentors. I’ll list just a few here. But the important thing is to get out there and go to conferences and events held by different groups. If you don’t like the events that one organization holds, keep trying others. I’d also strongly advise every small business owner to form an advisory board to help guide them because running your own business can be very isolating. In addition to alumni organizations and industry specific ones, there are groups like: Count Me In http://www.makemineamillion.org, which helps women grow their businesses; The Business Women’s Circle http://www.thebwc.org, a membership organization for women seeking to grow their businesses to $1 million or more in annual revenue; The Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership Entrepreneurial Development http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/onlinewbc/index.html, which establishes and oversees a network of Women’s Business Centers throughout the United States.

Smallbizlady: What kinds of things should women business owners be reading to stay sharp in business?

Adriana Gardella: That answer will be industry-specific. I don’t think there’s anything unique to women that they should read. The important thing is to be up on all trends and developments in your field, subscribing to relevant industry/trade publications online and off to keep current.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

For more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog at www.succeedasyourow nboss.com

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and Black Enterprise Magazine. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs and publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010).