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Posts Tagged ‘e-mail marketing’
Friday, February 22nd, 2013
Smartphones have changed mobile marketing for the better. Well, they’ve changed marketing period. For the better.
Constant Contact has two free apps to help you grow your list to smartphone users. Text-to-Join allows you to acquire e-mail addresses through texting whilst Scan-to-Join allows you to acquire new list members with QR codes.
The great thing about the Text-to-Join app is you can set it up today and then forget about it. It works its charm. It’s also free.
You can use Text-to-Join to grow your mailing list, promote your events, or take surveys online. If your customers have a mobile phone, they can sign up on the spot in just a few seconds.
With Scan-to-Join, customers with smartphones just scan your QR code and they’re on your list. Easy as pie. You can publish your QR code anywhere you have print collateral – flyers, brochures, table placeholders, store window stickers, and anywhere else. This is where you can get creative. It works for retail stores, restaurants, service businesses, any type of business.
Smartphones have made life easy for everyone – consumers and marketers. Now is a great time to get on board with mobile marketing. Work out your mobile marketing strategy using Constant Contact’s list growing apps. You can start today.
Tags: Constant Contact, e-mail marketing, list building, mobile marketing, smartphones
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Monday, February 18th, 2013
E-mail marketing is still one of the most effective forms of e-mail marketing available. But you have to constantly test and measure the results you get from your efforts. What exactly should you be testing and measuring?
Here are 5 elements to your e-mail marketing campaigns that you should test and continue measuring if you want your marketing to succeed:
- Headlines, or Subject Lines – Headlines determine your e-mail open rates. Test your headlines to see what is most effective. If prospects don’t open their e-mails, they won’t read them, and your sales will suffer.
- Calls to action – A good call to action will make or break you. Whether you want to sell more widgets, send people to your landing page, or get survey participants, test your calls to action and keep the strongest ones.
- Content – Believe it or not, how you word your content matters. Is it readable? It is easy to follow? Does it spark an interest? Use elements that allow your readers to scan – like bullet points and subheads. Test their placement and effectiveness within your content.
- Images – Images can make stale content come alive or add an additional appeal to otherwise great content. Test their size, placement within the content, etc. Measure what works and what doesn’t and keep improving.
- Media – Media can be videos, podcasts, presentations, or infographics. Not every e-mail needs to have media, but if your audience responds well to various types of media, then use what works. Do lots of testing.
E-mail marketing is effective if you know what works, but you can’t know what works if you aren’t testing.
Tags: e-mail marketing, metrics, testing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
Building an e-mail list is one of the most challenging tasks for businesses as they make their first attempt at marketing online. But it can be done. And it can be done using off line, or traditional, marketing methods. Here are three off line ways to build your e-mail marketing list.
- Hold a Raffle – Give something away to your retail customers. All you have to do is require them to join your e-mail list to enter the raffle. You can have a sign up form on your counter or give them a flyer when they purchase something. Be sure to put signage in your store for the customers who aren’t making a purchase right away.
- Offer a Tips Newsletter – You can offer tips related to your specialty and take subscriptions at the point of sale. For instance, if you run a bait & tackle shop, you can offer fishing and hunting tips by e-mail. Get your customers’ e-mail addresses when you ring them up and check them out.
- Attend a Networking Event – If you are a member of your local chamber of commerce, attend the mixers. Pass out your business cards. Or join a business networking group in your community. Get face to face with people and let them know about your e-mail list.
Not all online marketing has to start, or end, online. You can build an e-mail list using traditional marketing techniques.
Tags: e-mail list, e-mail marketing, e-mail newsletter, list building
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Thursday, December 27th, 2012
More and more, online marketers are integrating social media with e-mail marketing, but the integration may not necessarily be what you think. There’s more than one way to make it happen. Here are three ways you can incorporate social media with your e-mail marketing and two of them are probably something you haven’t thought about.
- Add social icons to your newsletter articles – This is a no-brainer. It’s likely something you’ve considered. If you haven’t done it yet, make it easier for your e-mail newsletter subscribers to share what they read with their friends on their social networks.
- Repurpose e-newsletter articles for social media – Take one article from your e-mail newsletter and share it on your Facebook page and your LinkedIn account. (Be sure to tweet them as well). Drive traffic back to your newsletter subscribe page to increase your subscriptions. If the article includes a call to action, give readers the shortest route possible to take the action you want them to take. Either include the Buy Now button on Facebook or link to the conversion page.
- Turn your newsletter into a series of videos – Or, maybe just one video newsletter. Keep it short. Turn your articles into little video articles that might even include a multimedia presentation.
These are just a few ideas. There are other ways you can integrate your e-mail marketing and social media accounts. Use your creativity and make it happen.
Tags: e-mail marketing, e-mail newsletter, newsletter, Social Media
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
Online marketing can be made more effective if you use a persona. A persona is the voice that is unique to you or a character you create for marketing purposes. One of the most original and most well known personas on the Internet is Jeeves. Remember Ask Jeeves? It was the search engine that later became Ask, but when Jeeves was first introduced to the online world, everyone loved him. Now he’s retired.
Your persona can be your natural voice or it can be a character you create, but it must be unique. It should be a voice that people can relate to. It should also be a voice that people will listen to.
When you create a persona for marketing purposes, if it is effective, then you’ll see your traffic and your conversions go up. Here are 6 ways you can use personas in your marketing:
- Your online content. Someone has to write your website. Create a persona for your online website content and keep it consistent.
- Your e-mail newsletter. Your newsletter and e-mail marketing is the perfect place for your persona to shine. Your audience is opt-in and ready to listen.
- Video marketing. Make a big impression with your videos by using a persona.
- Articles. Write articles and distribute them around the Internet. Don’t overdo the persona thing on your off-site content. Make it light to draw in new fans, then drive them back to your website.
- Guest blogs. The same thing applies as with articles.
- Social media. Social media is the perfect place for your persona. If you attract an audience with your persona, you can drive that traffic back to your landing pages on your own site and close the sale.
When it comes to online marketing, you can be very effective with a unique, original persona.
Tags: content, e-mail marketing, online marketing, persona, Social Media, Video Marketing, website traffic
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, August 15th, 2012
E-mail marketing is still one of the most effective marketing strategies online. It is even more effective if you marry your e-mail marketing with your social media marketing and drive new traffic to your newsletter landing page. Today I will share 5 ways you can make your e-mail marketing more effective using social media, and vice-versa.
- Drive traffic to your newsletter opt-in page with your social media accounts. You can do this a number of ways. One very effective way is to offer a free download or other perk for opting in to your subscriber list. Promote that offer on all your social networks with a link.
- Invite your newsletter readers to share your newsletter content on their social networks by providing social media share buttons in your newsletter.
- Post a link on your social networks to notify your social subscribers when you have published a new issue of your newsletter.
- Build a Facebook page and a Google+ brand page for your newsletter and include opt-in forms on those pages.
- Post snippets of your newsletter content on your social media streams and link back to your newsletter page.
There are many more ways to make your e-mail marketing more effective using social media. These are just a few. But you can also make your social media marketing more effective through your e-mail newsletter and other e-mail marketing efforts.
Tags: e-mail marketing, newsletter, social media marketing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 6 Comments »
Thursday, August 2nd, 2012
Writing e-mail subject lines is a lot like writing headlines for newspapers and titles for web pages. The idea is to get your readers’ attention and lead them to read your e-mail. But how do you do that? Here are 4 tips to help you write a better subject line for your e-mail marketing campaigns.
- Make it a call to action – People won’t take action unless you tell them to. Give your reader a reason to open your e-mail and read it. If you promise a benefit and deliver on that promise, you’ll keep people reading.
- Don’t be misleading - If you make a promise, you’d better keep it. Don’t write an attention-getting headline that promises to offer an answer to a question if your e-mail doesn’t answer the question. Be honest in your writing or you’ll lose your audience.
- Promise a benefit - All of that said, you DO want to promise your readers a benefit. Tell them you will answer a question they have or give them the specific piece of knowledge they’ve been panting for. You don’t have to reach every reader with every e-mail, but you must reach specific types of readers with each e-mail.
- Tease them a little – If you tease your readers into reading and they like what they read, they will keep reading your e-mails. Be enticing.
Make your e-mail subject lines shine with these 4 tips. If your readers are intrigued by your subject lines, they’ll read your e-mails.
Tags: e-mail, e-mail marketing, writing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Saturday, December 31st, 2011
For small businesses, making more sales is what keeps your doors open. We have talked about a lot of ways to boost your business and get your name out there. It’s been mentioned a couple of times, but mailing lists are one of the most important marketing tools you will have.
It’s important to keep mailing lists up to date with current postal addresses and email addresses. You may only use this list to send out newsletters or flyers every once in a while.
Think about ramping up your mailing list by adding new customers to the list and using it for more than a newsletter. You could make several templates of how-to tips, products, or did-you-know facts. Whatever your business is, use that business for all kinds of ideas you can use in a mailing list.
Most regular customers will expect your mailings as they are used to getting them, but new customers like the feeling of a welcome letter maybe coupled with a discount coupon in appreciation of their business. It makes them feel like you value them, which you do. You just need to do something to reinforce that feeling.
The single most important thing you can do in building a business is to build customer confidence in you and they will come back. Customer loyalty goes a long way in making a business a success. Mailing lists help you do that. You may not see a regular customer but once every month or so. Let them know about special sales that they might be missing in between their visits.
Think about your mailing list. Clean up any discrepancies and ramp it up for the coming year and you will be surprised at how much it will help you and your business.
For ideas or help with setting up mailing lists, visit a small business consultant who can get you on the right track.
Tags: advertising, business, e-mail marketing, internet marketing, small business
Posted in Tools for Small Business | 6 Comments »
Monday, December 26th, 2011
The year 2012 is going to be a good year! A positive outlook goes a long way in making your small business grow. The coming year will be new; it’s time for a new look and a new way of doing things.
The first thing to consider is employees. If you have employees and you are growing, think about if and how many new employees you need. Figure out a new budget which includes employees and any upgrades or repairs that need to be done.
It’s also an excellent time to make a new marketing plan, some fine tuning to your website and possibly new business cards. Consider how you want to advertise your business such as online, radio, television, newspapers and the simple newsletters or e-letters.
New technological advances need to be considered as well. Implement a plan for texting, email campaigns, phone apps or video chat. There are now so many ways to stay in contact with clients, suppliers or employees. These new ideas are just the ticket to jump start your small business right into 2012.
Since you are now thinking of all kinds of things you can do or start in the coming year, be sure to organize your files and get tax information ready. That dreaded time of the year is not far off. At the same time, clean up all the old email addresses you keep telling yourself you need to update. Even if it is winter, get the mind set for spring cleaning.
And don’t forget to add social media to your new marketing plan. It’s such a simple and free way to get your business noticed and out to the public, using social media. Word of mouth goes a long, long way in bringing in business.
Tags: advertising, business, e-mail marketing, facebook, internet marketing, small business
Posted in Tools for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Although the holidays are fast approaching, now is the best time to pull last minute customers in the door. Even if it’s after Christmas sales, small business owners will want to pull out all the stops for the end of the year. That means now is a perfect time to blitz all the social media sites you use and to use email campaigns.
End the year on a positive note by using social media sites to list all the last minute sales you may have. Even the clearance items you may have for the after Christmas sales. Most shoppers will still spend quite a bit just to get the big clearance sales after Christmas.
Now is also a great time to do an email campaign. Send everyone on your customer list along with new ones an end of the year sale. Email campaigns and social media sites are two of the easiest ways a small business owner can get customers in the door. Word of mouth on the social media sites along with the emails can drive traffic to your business so that your end of the year stats will be much better than expected.
Just because the holidays are so close does not mean that shoppers are not watching for every sale and bargain they can find. And, that includes watching emails and reading the ads on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Even the small statuses that you can post will help as one friend will tell another friend about the great deals at your store.
Give it a try this season. You will be surprised at how easy it is and you will start using this type of marketing more often.
Tags: business, e-mail marketing, facebook, internet marketing, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 2 Comments »
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