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Posts Tagged ‘email’
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
Small businesses need every advantage they can get and email marketing is just one of the ways to get ahead. If you have a method of reaching your clients over and over again, you`ll be able to reinforce your sales message and build up your reputation . . . resulting in more sales.
Email marketing is effective.
If you go about it right, you`ll find that email marketing is extremely effective and far more useful than many other methods of marketing your small business.
Email marketing is economical.
Print marketing is simply too costly for many small businesses these days, but email marketing can literally cost you $20 a month if you do your own writing. Add a little extra if you are planning on hiring a ghostwriter to do this work for you.
Email marketing is interactive.
People can respond to email, so it`s worth it to continue sending these out. Make sure you invite people to share their thoughts with you and you`ll end up with people who are far more likely to buy from you, since they fell that you are a real person.
Email marketing can be tracked.
You can have a far more successful email marketing campaign if you track the results and alter your messages to fit. This will help you stick to what works.
If you aren`t already using email marketing to help promote your small business, now is the time to get started!
Tags: email, Email Marketing, small business
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Friday, December 12th, 2008
How you close a letter or email is an important part of business writing and one that should be perfected. Your signature line should convey a sense of your business and include relevant information, particularly if you are writing an email.
When it comes to letters, contact information is usually at the top of the page, but with emails, we tend to save that for last. This is completely acceptable in business writing, but you do need to make sure that your signature line is something that will encourage people to click through to your site.
If you don`t already have a tag line for your business, this is an excellent time to develop one. It can be hyperlinked in your signature line to take the reader directly to your website. Otherwise, you`ll want to include a line or two about your business and link to it.
Do be careful not to run on. There`s nothing more annoying than an email signature line that just goes on for a dozen lines! That`s poor business writing, so be sure to avoid it.
Tags: Business Writing, email, signature line
Posted in Business Writing | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
If you have tried email marketing before and found that it just isn`t working as well as you`d hoped, there is still more you can do. We can always be improving our marketing campaigns, of course, but I`m going to share a little tip that will make your email marketing more effective.
Be more personal.
Do you pay more attention to someone who writes to your in a formal, educational tone or someone who is writing as a friend? We automatically listen to our friends better, so if you can create that feeling in your email marketing, you`ll find that more and more people will start to pay attention and buy from you.
It`s just a matter of relating to your readers. Say hi at the beginning of the email and include codes that will be replaced with the person`s name. Personalized emails seem far friendlier and will be more likely to get a good response.
That`s it. Be friendly and personal in your email marketing. Your business will benefit.
Tags: email, Email Marketing, friendly, personal
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
With email being the preferred method of communication these days, business writing seems to have fallen by the wayside. While email may foster a more casual attitude, it`s important to remember that people are still impressed with a well written letter.
Greetings: Your greeting in an email should be formal. Going with a “Hey there” isn`t going to gain you any popularity points.
Writing: How formal should business writing be? Well, some people are all for going full on formal even in email, I say you can relax a little, but keep it professional.
Signature: Make sure you use a proper signature, something like, “Sincerely, Caroline Melberg” or something similar. You can include your URL below, as well, that is perfectly acceptable.
Business writing is still an important skill, even if you do most of your communication via email. Make sure you know how to put together a good, formal email and you`ll impress your clients.
Tags: Business Writing, email, formal, letter
Posted in Business Writing | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Lately, mobile marketing has been cropping up everywhere. It`s still relatively new, so you`ll find that the competition at this point is still relatively nil. That being said, a lot of small business owners are wondering if mobile marketing really is a good way to go . . . better than, say, email marketing or blog advertising.
While mobile marketing might seem like something out of reach for small businesses, it is actually uniquely suited to them. If you`re a local business, in particular, this could be a great way to go.
Mobile marketing allows you to tightly target your market. You can choose to only advertise to those within your area, for example, so you would end up spending far less money than on a national campaign. It`s certainly worth testing for anyone looking for more publicity in the local area, though you can also expand this to include more generalized areas.
Though mobile marketing may not be ideal for every small business, it is definitely a good way to go for some. If you want to test marketing to a small, very targeted market, then mobile marketing is ideal and could bring you some very impressive results.
Tags: email, mobile marketing, small business
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | 2 Comments »
Sunday, November 16th, 2008
If you`re looking to boost your email opt in list, then you might want to try these three hot methods below. Each one is designed to get you more email subscriber fast and they can be put to use very quickly.
- Contest. A contest that is short and sweet can grow your email list rapidly and all you need is a great prize and require email sign up for entry.
- Giveaway. Online giveaways are a great way to boost your email opt ins overnight. You`ll need an info product, preferably an ebook of some type, but this could be written by a ghostwriter. In order for people to download the freebie (which should have a good price on it), they need to sign up for your email list.
- Freebie. Whether you give away an ebook that would normally sell for $19.99 or a 30 min. conference call, you can offer people something special for free just to sign up to receive emails.
Any one of these could work very well for you, but there`s no reason not to try all three. The more people you have on your list, the better your email marketing will go.
Tags: email, Email Marketing, opt-in
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Email marketing is an excellent way to reach your clients and potential clients, since the message is repeated over and over until it actually gets through. But this is only true if your emails are actually worth reading.
People are jaded these days. Spam is huge. It stuffs our inboxes even after the sophisticated spam filters take out the majority and it`s just a pain in the butt. So your email had better stand out if you want people to respond to it or even open it!
What does a good email need to contain? Here are a few thoughts.
Real info. Don`t just hint at information, give them something they can use.
A solution. Offer a solution to a problem and your readers will stick with you.
Humor. A little bit of humor can make your emails far more exciting than they would be otherwise.
Keep your email marketing interesting and useful and you won`t lose readers.
Tags: email, Email Marketing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
More than a few people have asked why their email marketing campaign isn`t working. While I can`t exactly answer everyone in general terms, since it really does depend on the audience and the topic, there are a few mistakes that are quite common in email marketing.
Common Email Marketing Errors
- Not targeting an audience. Sure you have a wide range of subscribers, but that doesn`t mean you should be sending out a general email. Try to break your list into smaller, more specific groups and write for them.
- Forgetting the call to action. This is a biggie. If you aren`t specifically telling people what they need to be doing within your email newsletter, then you can bet they won`t do it!
- Being too formal. While some email marketing campaigns call for formal language, you`ll notice that the majority of those who are successful in marketing to their lists talk as if they were writing to a friend. It`s a very successful method.
Email marketing has a lot of variables and requires tweaking to get it just right and even then, your solution won`t be precisely the same as everyone else`s. By ensuring that you aren`t making the mistakes above, however, you`ll make sure that your campaign is successful.
Tags: email, Email Marketing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
No one puts up a website with the intention of hiding it from the world, but many small business owners aren`t really sure how to boost their visitor count. Email marketing can help with that and has the added advantage of getting you repeat visitors which are infinitely more valuable than a huge number of new visitors who will never return.
How does email marketing help you draw more visitors?
Freebies. Giving something of high quality away to anyone who signs up for your email list can really help bring in new people, who hear about you from others who have blogged or written about your business in forums.
Giveaways. There are a lot of junky giveaways going around on the internet, but if you find a good one, you can submit your free report or ebook to gain hundreds, if not thousands, of subscribers in a very short period of time. Many of them will click through the links in your emails to get to your site.
Repeated linking. Whenever you offer further information in your email marketing newsletters, you will be linking to your website and this tends to result in readers clicking through, which means you will get more repeat visitors . . . ones who are far more likely to take action.
There is a lot that you can do to boost traffic to your business website, but email marketing is definitely something that works.
Tags: email, Email Marketing, links, visitors
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Email marketing, if you aren´t careful, can be pretty dull. If you find yourself slaving over a few paragraphs to send off to potential clients, or just copying and pasting sales letters . . . it´s probably time to take things up a notch.
You can make your email marketing a lot more interesting, both for you and your readers, if you just make a few adjustments.
- Ask a question. Rather than simply state what´s in the newsletter, try asking a question in the subject line. Humans love to answer questions, so many of them will do so mentally and then open the email.
- Tell a story. Starting your email off with an anecdote, or short story will catch people´s attention and draw them into your writing. Then transition into what you really wanted to say.
- Use humor. Humor is never unwelcome in an email . . . but if you aren´t good at it, consider using a funny quote or joke instead. Making people laugh is a sure way to get them coming back.
Keep email marketing interesting and you´ll be a lot happier yourself. Plus, you´ll end up with a lot more opened emails!
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
Back to the Blog
Tags: email, Email Marketing
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
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