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Posts Tagged ‘e-mail marketing’
Saturday, August 27th, 2011
When it comes to small business online marketing tactics, what is more effective – blogs, social media, or e-mail?
It’s a loaded question. What do you mean by “more effective?”
E-mail marketing has been a mainstay of Internet marketing since the very beginning days of the World Wide Web. And before that even. And it hasn’t let up any. In fact, it’s still just as effective today as it ever was. And there doesn’t seem to be any end in site. When you consider that 90% of your prospects have an e-mail address, why would you ignore e-mail marketing?
Blogs are also very effective – as SEO tools, as branding tools, and as social media marketing tools. They are perhaps the most versatile online marketing tools available, which is what makes them so powerful.
If you are a small business owner doing any online marketing, then you should have a blog.
Social media marketing is something that can’t be done in a vacuum. It’s not really a marketing tactic all its own. Rather, it’s better used to promote your content and Web properties rather than act as a stand-alone marketing tactic that you use for itself. Still, when combined with e-mail marketing and blog marketing, social media marketing can be very powerful.
Instead of asking which is most effective, try incorporating all three marketing tactics into your arsenal of small business weapons.
Tags: blog marketing, e-mail marketing, online marketing, social media marketing
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 13 Comments »
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
Successful Internet marketers know you can’t stick to one tactic online and hope to succeed. You’ve got to try different things. But when you find something that works, don’t stop there. Add it to other tactics that work.
Today’s post is a highlight on three online marketing tactics that have been proven to work over and over again for most marketers who try them. Those tactics are:
- E-mail marketing
- Blogging
- Social media
Let’s tackle these one by one.
- E-mail marketing – One of the first online marketing strategies to grow into a powerhouse. The key is to capture e-mail addresses for your list, then to use that list to send traffic to important landing pages and close your audience on the sale.
- Blog marketing - Nothing enhances a website’s SEO more than a well-written blog. Content, content, content. Draw them in with a blog, then snag their e-mail address to use for your e-mail marketing.
- Social media marketing – Social media is good for one thing – driving traffic. Build that relationship then send your fans to your blog and website where you’ll capture their e-mail address.
These three online marketing strategies are a powerful combination. They work if you use them correctly. The trick is to get your prospects “into the loop.” Capture their attention with social media, drive them to your blog, get their e-mail address, then sell them something. Keep them happy and they’ll keep buying.
Tags: blog marketing, blogging, e-mail marketing, online marketing, social media marketing
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 20 Comments »
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
E-mail marketing, after twenty years and counting, is still one of the most powerful and effective means of marketing a small business online. Here are 5 reasons you should be using e-mail for marketing in 2011 and 2012.
- Everyone is using e-mail – Just about everyone has an e-mail address today. Even people who may not be using e-mail have considered it. But if you started sending out frequent e-mail blasts, you’d hit at least 90% of your target market right where they spend the majority of their reading time.
- It is cost effective – There is no form of marketing that is more cost effective than e-mail marketing. You can send out an e-mail blast to 100,000 readers for the same price that you can send one out to 1,000 readers.
- High click-through rates – E-mail still has the highest response rate in town. It’s less expensive than pay-per-click advertising and you are reaching warm leads who gave you permission to contact them.
- You have their permission - And that brings me to my next point. Since you have permission to contact your list, you will get fewer complaints and you’ll find that your reputation is more intact. Use a double opt-in process and your marketing will be ten times more effective.
- You control delivery – With snail mail, you are at the mercy of the post office. With e-mail, you have more control over delivery options. And it’s cheaper.
Start your e-mail marketing today. It’s the most effective online marketing available.
Tags: e-mail marketing, online marketing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 7 Comments »
Friday, July 29th, 2011
One thing that is inevitable is change. Especially online. And especially when it comes to online marketing. What’s important today may not be important tomorrow.
Case in point: Remember those old web rings? Who joins those any more? Certainly not anyone who is serious about online marketing.
At one time, you could read online debates about which method of advertising was going to win in the end – PPC or banner ads. I guess we know how that turned out.
When Flash first hit the scene everyone tried it. But the consensus was, “No, not now.” It slowed down connections and pages loaded so slow that you couldn’t enjoy them. Now, Flash is almost as commonplace as links, though people are using it differently. And online video looks to be a future force not to be reckoned with – in whatever format it takes.
What’s next?
Will Google+ take over Facebook? Will social replace search as the preferred method of marketing online? Will VOIP become as commonplace as e-mail? Will VOIP and e-mail integrate to make both more powerful tools? Will mobile marketing outpacing video marketing?
We are moving forward and there’s no stopping it. If you are just now starting to market your business online, then you have some catching up to do. It’s time to prepare for change, and that itself requires change on your part. What are you doing about that?
Tags: e-mail marketing, Flash, online marketing, PPC, SEO, Social Media, VOIP
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »
Monday, July 25th, 2011
For years we’ve been listening to online marketing experts talk about how e-mail marketing is the most effective marketing online. Is it really?
Yes, I’ll have to agree.
For one thing, postage rates are going up. That means the cost of direct mail marketing is getting to be out of reach for a lot of businesses. But you can often get great results – in many cases, better results – from e-mail marketing than you can from direct mail marketing. And at a lesser expense.
If you are a company still tied to the old newsletter model of business, then I encourage you to update your practices. You might be reluctant to do that, but I think there are some real practical reasons to do so. These include:
- E-mail marketing is less expensive
- Most companies who switch realize an equal or greater response than their direct mail response rate
- E-mail is more convenient for most people
- E-mail is at least opt-in and best practices is double opt-in so you’ll get fewer complaints and better responses
- Since it is less expensive, you don’t need the same response rate to realize an ROI
- Tracking results is easier and more accurate
There are lots of reasons to switch from direct mail marketing to e-mail marketing. I highly recommend that you consider doing that now.
Tags: direct mail marketing, e-mail marketing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 7 Comments »
Monday, June 6th, 2011
It may seem odd to call any Internet marketing strategy an “old-fashioned” or “traditional” strategy, but we are now over 20 years since the invention of the World Wide Web and commercial Internet marketing. It’s interesting to note, however, that what worked in 1992 still can work in 2011. Hare are 4 old-fashioned Internet marketing strategies that still have the power to work some magic.
- E-mail Marketing – E-mail marketing has been around for so long that it hardly seems just to say it’s new. It IS new, however, compared to old icons like television and radio advertising. But compared to new Internet marketing strategies like social media and video marketing, it’s as old as the hills. Still, it can be very effective.
- Article Marketing – Internet marketers were marketing with articles as early as 1991. Now, in 2011, article marketing is still a powerhouse despite the Panda update.
- Forum Marketing – OK, I’m being a little bit misleading here. Today’s forums are 1991s bulletin boards. Still, those old bulletin boards were a lot like forums. People signed on, read the threads, and posted their rebuttals. They also got some business from that effort. Today’s forums are a bit more sophisticated and have rules in place to control spam, but they are still effective marketing venues.
- Websites – This one is so simple it’s a no-brainer. From the very first website ever built to the most modern-looking Web 2.0 communities, a website is still the perfect online marketing tool. This is such a basic truth that it’s hard to believe that online marketers attempt to run a business using other tools without a website. I see Internet marketers using social media, forums, articles, videos, Squidoo Lenses and HubPages, and all sorts of other online channels without first having built their own hub – the company website. Build your website first, then do all the rest.
If you are serious about marketing your business online, start with the basics. Build yourself a website, then market it with articles and join a couple of forums. Start an e-mail newsletter. After that, branch out into the newer, more modern online marketing channels.
Tags: article marketing, e-mail marketing, forums, internet marketing, online marketing, website
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Props to David Jackson for his article “10 Biggest Internet Marketing Myths Exposed.” These 5 Internet marketing myths come from his list, but I could just as well have created them from scratch. These are myths you’ve probably heard over and over again (and may have even bought into yourself). I’ll tell you why they’re myths.
- Anyone can succeed at Internet marketing. Just like anyone can succeed at rocket science. Every profession has a set of skills that are necessary to become successful in that career. If you don’t possess those skills, and in some cases you need specialized knowledge, then you won’t succeed. Internet marketing is a skill. If you don’t have it, hire someone who does.
- You can get rich quick on the Internet. I’ve never met anyone who has gotten rich quick at anything. Ignore the hype. The reality is, online marketing is hard work.
- All traffic is good traffic. This one is a doozy. Try paying for traffic from a traffic exchange and see if you come away with the same idea. Targeted traffic is good. Slush traffic is not.
- E-mail marketing is dead. Really? I’ve had some of my best sales through e-mail marketing. It’s not dead. It’s still very effective and if you do it right, then you’ll get a lot of good business from it.
- Article marketing is not as effective as it used to be. Yes it is. You might have to change how you do it a little bit, but article marketing is still effective.
These 5 Internet marketing myths are often repeated, especially within the context of small business marketing. They’re not true because many small business marketers use these tactics every day – to great effect. You can too.
Tags: article marketing, e-mail marketing, internet marketing, small business, Small Business Internet Marketing, traffic
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
After 20 years (give or take), e-mail marketing is still one of the most efficient and effective ways to promote a business or brand. Since online marketing first took of in the mid-1990s, e-mail marketing has been the No. 1 way that serious Internet marketers made their cash. It still is.
Why does e-mail marketing work?
I think there are a number of reasons why e-mail marketing still works. First, it’s a trusted medium. Just take a look at all those e-mails your friends share with you – I’m talking about the urban legends that keep circulating. How many of your friends will not hesitate to copy you on an e-mail that is obviously a fake news story without even bothering to check into its validity at Snopes.com or a similar truth-telling website?
More people use e-mail every day than any other digital tool. Most people who use e-mail have more than one e-mail address and use e-mail as their primary communication tool. They use it multiple times throughout a normal business day.
E-mail marketing prospects are very responsive. If you were to send out a direct marketing piece by snail mail, you could hope to get a 2% response, which would be awesome. But your margins would be lower with a similar response by e-mail since you’d have to pay for printing costs and postage. With e-mail, a much lower response means a higher profit margin. However, successful e-mail campaigns generally produce a higher response rate. Why?
The reason e-mail marketing is so effective is because you have to get permission from people before you send them an e-mail. They have to sign up for your list, which isn’t necessary for snail mail direct marketing.
Once you have a person’s permission, you can send them any number of e-mails you want. They’ll either respond or they won’t. But if you send out quality information by e-mail, then you will get a response. The reason e-mail marketing is so effective is because your clients have asked you to send them information. It’s a warm list.
Tags: direct mail marketing, direct marketing, e-mail, e-mail marketing, snail mail
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
What can a grocer possibly know about e-mail marketing? Everyone needs groceries. It’s not like you have to sell the benefits of eating, right?
While it’s technically true that groceries are something that everyone has to buy, it’s also true that they have plenty of choices in where to get their groceries. They don’t have to get them from one place over another. And that’s why marketing is important. It’s about positioning your company above the competition. E-mail marketing is one strategy for making that happen.
One grocer is using e-mail marketing and getting a 55% open rate on its e-mails. That’s phenomenal!
One particularly telling comment in the Constant Contact interview is the answer to the very last question. I love this answer:
Don’t use it just to sell; use it to inform. Use it to build a relationship. Once you start down the road of a hard sell, that’s when you start losing folks because it’s not information that they want — they want information they can use that will make their lives easier.
That’s clearly the answer of someone who understands e-mail marketing. It’s not about selling you product. It’s about building a relationship with your customers. Give them rock solid information they can use and they will open your e-mails, read them, and call you when they have a need for your services.
Tags: e-mail marketing, marketing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 6 Comments »
Monday, February 7th, 2011
The Yellow Pages now have an opt-out website. Really. And that’s a good thing, right?
Not if you listen to Frank Reed.
I guess there’s good reason to be skeptical, but I have a different take on the subject than Frank does. I agree with his five talking points, of course, but I’m not so sure about his cynical conclusion. From the article:
Unfortunately, we live in a society where this kind of thing can be passed off as real action and the result is the ability of the Yellow Page industry to say “Look we are doing our part!” when they know full well that most people won’t even know the option exists.
Welcome to online America, home of the shallow. Where people can look like they are concerned and give any appearance they need to get by.
OK, I suppose it’s possible that the Yellow Pages are using the opt-out website as a smoke and mirrors illusion-creating ruse to make people think they care about the environment. Then what? It won’t change the fact that people are using the Yellow Pages less and less. I don’t see people saying, “Oh, look, the Yellow Pages are going green. Please deliver them to me so I can make fewer online searches this year.” Do you?
Rather, I think it’s probably likely that the folks at the Yellow Pages have seen the writing on the wall. They’re going to lose to online search. Period. You can’t stop the train. So, what better way to collect your e-mail address than to give you a way to opt out of print delivery? Then, they can redirect you to the Online Yellow Pages using the most effective Internet marketing available – e-mail marketing.
That, to me, seems like a much more likely strategy. What do you think?
Tags: e-mail marketing, internet yellow pages, online marketing, yellow pages
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 2 Comments »
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