by Shannon Suetos
E-mail marketing isn’t anything new. Since the 90’s e-mail has evolved into our daily lives. There are RSS feeds we set up, and coupons from our favorite store and everything in between. With that said, a new study has shown that on average, more people are using their phones to check e-mail.
Nielsen is reporting that, “if all time spent on the mobile web was condensed into a single hour, US internet users would have spent 25 minutes in June checking email.” For online marketers that is hard to ignore. So what can you do to make sure your e-mail blasts are user friendly?
Smaller Screen Size
The space available on a computer versus a mobile phone is obviously much different. Mobile phones are smaller and that needs to be taken into consideration when sending out e-mail blasts. Large images and lots of text are not as user friendly when being viewed from a mobile phone. Instead of filling your e-mail blast with a bunch of fluff, make sure you are giving the facts you need only.
Constant Contact suggests, “include short blurbs, and link back to your website. That said, don’t substitute photos for text. If your readers have images turned off, you still want them to know what’s in your email. Be sure to include clear text descriptions for your photos.”
Test Different Platforms
View your analytics and see what devices your clients are opening their emails with. BlackBerry? iPhone? Android based? Knowing what the majority of your customers are using can again help you with formatting the perfect e-mail. Not everyone has a smartphone, so you also need to take that into consideration. Test your emails on different phones.
Call to Action
In most e-mail blasts there is a call to action for the reader. This could be going to a specific landing page on your site for a promotion, or a new blog post. Mobile should also have call to actions such as click to call and a mobile friendly website if a desired landing page is necessary. There is nothing worse than having your customer do the call to action and then getting frustrated because your website is taking too long to load.
Mobile is becoming more and more predominate for web browsing. Online marketing tactics are going to shift towards mobile friendly websites and e-mail blasts. If you haven’t thought about mobile, it may be time to start reading up on some useful tactics to help you get the exposure you need and rightfully deserve.
Shannon Suetos is an expert writer on payroll services based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as small business payroll services at Resource Nation.
Showing posts with label small business marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label small business marketing. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
"Women Entrepreneurs - The Secrets of Success" for Wednesday, June 16th
Michele DeKinder-Smith is a seasoned researcher having specialized in marketing, consumer and business research for over 20 years. She has interviewed thousands of business owners and is an entrepreneur herself, who’s taken her business over the million-dollar mark! She understands the needs of large corporations, government agencies and the female entrepreneur. Through her research, publications, consulting and training Michele helps each of these audiences achieve their goals.Michele is married to Rob and proud mom to RJ, who currently attends DePaul University in Chicago. In addition to Jane Out of the Box, Michele owns Linkage Research & Consulting, founded in 1998 and Rob has recently started his own business, Beautiful Day Yacht Charters.
12:00 pm EDT
Listen to the live or archived show at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/CoachDeb
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Free Teleseminar: Brand Prescription 101
Date: April 29th
Time: 8:00 pm EDT
Location: Your Telephone
Register here: http://www.imagebrandcompany.com/brandprescription
Are You Asking These Questions?
* You are not sure where you should start to gain more visibility.
* You ask "How do I make my service unique and stand out from the crowd?
* Should I Brand my Name or my Business Name?
* Should I use Social Media To Brand My Business?
* How Do I Develop A Powerful Brand On A Shoe String Budget?
* Should I have a regular website or a BLOG?
* What type of Logo should I use?
( Hint: There are at least 4 logo formats you should use)
This event is about having a major breakthrough that can actually DOUBLE your income over the next 12 months.
I'll be joining several experts who will share their best kept strategies and Brand Strategist, Nikki Curry will be teaching some of her NEWEST and never seen before content.
Get ready for an amazing 6 weeks!
Register here: http://www.imagebrandcompany.com/brandprescription
Time: 8:00 pm EDT
Location: Your Telephone
Register here: http://www.imagebrandcompany.com/brandprescription
Are You Asking These Questions?
* You are not sure where you should start to gain more visibility.
* You ask "How do I make my service unique and stand out from the crowd?
* Should I Brand my Name or my Business Name?
* Should I use Social Media To Brand My Business?
* How Do I Develop A Powerful Brand On A Shoe String Budget?
* Should I have a regular website or a BLOG?
* What type of Logo should I use?
( Hint: There are at least 4 logo formats you should use)
This event is about having a major breakthrough that can actually DOUBLE your income over the next 12 months.
I'll be joining several experts who will share their best kept strategies and Brand Strategist, Nikki Curry will be teaching some of her NEWEST and never seen before content.
Get ready for an amazing 6 weeks!
Register here: http://www.imagebrandcompany.com/brandprescription
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
How Public Speaking Can Help You Dramatically Increase Your Business
by Donna Gunter, The Internet Marketing Automation Coach (TM)
There's an often-quoted statistic that the fear of public speaking is right up there with the fear of death as the two events people most fear in their lives. However, as a business owner, I can guarantee you that public speaking is a phenomenal way to grow your business, so if it's an activity that scares you, you need to take the bull by the horns and start working past that fear. As an introvert, public speaking isn't something that comes naturally to me, although I'm told I'm good at it. It's been quite a learning process, and I've had as many failures as successes. My best learning experiences have come through the process of finding the courage to just do it and learn along the way.
If you're a self-employed service professional, you work in a time-based economy. You have only so many hours in the day to work directly with your clients. Speaking to groups gives you the opportunity to reach out and touch and impact others who might otherwise never cross your path and for you to get them into your marketing funnel so that they can begin to get to know, like and respect you. Once they're in your marketing funnel, and if you provide a solution that solves a problem that they have, they'll ultimately hire you.
Here are ten steps I recommend to get you into action to use public speaking to fill your professional practice:
Pick 3 topics on which you can present a 20 minute - 60 minute speech. These should be topics on which you love to speak and will readily showcase your expertise to your audience. The topics also need to be ones that speak to your target market's pain and provides a solution for a problem that they're having.
For each presentation, write a 2 - 3 sentence description of that provides a brief overview of your content. To add some meat to the description, create a benefits statement for each presentation and what they'll learn or get out of your talk. Remember, your audience will always be asking the same question, "WIIFM", or "What's In It For Me?", so make your description so compelling that they think, "Hey, I've got to hear that!"
Have a professional photo made, and create a 3-6 sentence introductory bio of yourself. Many bios sound the same and are pretty boring, so on my website, I decided to tell something of a story about myself to make my bio a bit different. Let your personality shine in your bio.
With your topics, bio, and photo in hand, you can now put together in MS Word a simple speaker one-sheet that tells a prospective association program chair everything s/he would need to know about you. If you have a list of audiences to whom you've spoken previously, you will want to list some of those under the heading "Satisfied Clients", and spread 2 - 3 testimonials from other speaking gigs throughout the sheet. In order to get ideas for layouts of the one sheet, visit the National Speakers Association, www.nsapseaker.org, and view the speaker one sheets of other speakers to jumpstart your creativity.
Create a speaking link on your website and have the presentations you've outlined available on your site, as well as your speaker one sheet, and a separate link with your photo and bio. Many association program chairs will want to "check you out" online, even though you're offering to speak to them free of charge, so give them the opportunity to read all about your speaking topics on your website.
Now you need to find audiences filled with your target market. To start locally, approach the program chairs of professional associations to which you already belong and see if you can get on their speaking schedule. Your local library or Chamber of Commerce may have a current list of professional associations in your area which you can also approach. Other sources for finding speaking gigs include the American Society of Association Executives. On the website, click Directories on the left hand links column, and then Associations, and then select Gateway to Associations. Once you're in the Gateway, you can look up associations by keyword or by location. A second place to locate associations is Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations. This multi-volume encyclopedia is present in the reference section of all major libraries.
You (or your Virtual Assistant) will then need to call these associations and get the name and contact info of the program chair. Some program chairs will want to talk to you right away regarding your speaking topics, so be prepared to have that conversation on the fly. Being able to send them to your website to read more about the topics is also helpful. Others will want you to send information, so you'll need to draft an introductory letter that you can snail mail or email along with your speaker one-sheet.
Once you've got a speaking engagement, ask the program chair some questions about the audience so that you can better tailor the speech to fit their needs. I learn best through hearing stories, so as I'm asking questions about the audience, I'm going through my own list of illustrative stories I've told to see which ones might best match my audience's needs. Remember that your audience wants a full experience of you as well as the information that you're providing, so be sure and inject alot of your personality and wit and humor into your speech.
Before your speech, determine how you want to get audience members into your marketing funnel. Do you want them to sign up for a complimentary consultation on the spot? If so, bring your calendar or a sign-up sheet. Do you want to get them on your mailing list? Give away something at the end of your presentation that is compelling enough for them to part with a business card or to write down their contact info to enter the drawing. If your goal is to get them on your email newsletter list, be sure and get their email address. If you use direct mail, you'll want to get their physical mailing address.
The day of your presentation, just relax and have fun! This may be the hardest of any of the steps outlined here, but being authentic and being yourself will get you in the good graces of most of your audience, despite what you might say (or forget to say!). Think of your presentation as the beginning of a great relationship that you're establishing, and leave your audience feeling good about themselves and about you.
Try and book 2-3 speaking engagements per month, and soon you'll become the "go-to" expert in your industry!
Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com
There's an often-quoted statistic that the fear of public speaking is right up there with the fear of death as the two events people most fear in their lives. However, as a business owner, I can guarantee you that public speaking is a phenomenal way to grow your business, so if it's an activity that scares you, you need to take the bull by the horns and start working past that fear. As an introvert, public speaking isn't something that comes naturally to me, although I'm told I'm good at it. It's been quite a learning process, and I've had as many failures as successes. My best learning experiences have come through the process of finding the courage to just do it and learn along the way.
If you're a self-employed service professional, you work in a time-based economy. You have only so many hours in the day to work directly with your clients. Speaking to groups gives you the opportunity to reach out and touch and impact others who might otherwise never cross your path and for you to get them into your marketing funnel so that they can begin to get to know, like and respect you. Once they're in your marketing funnel, and if you provide a solution that solves a problem that they have, they'll ultimately hire you.
Here are ten steps I recommend to get you into action to use public speaking to fill your professional practice:
Pick 3 topics on which you can present a 20 minute - 60 minute speech. These should be topics on which you love to speak and will readily showcase your expertise to your audience. The topics also need to be ones that speak to your target market's pain and provides a solution for a problem that they're having.
For each presentation, write a 2 - 3 sentence description of that provides a brief overview of your content. To add some meat to the description, create a benefits statement for each presentation and what they'll learn or get out of your talk. Remember, your audience will always be asking the same question, "WIIFM", or "What's In It For Me?", so make your description so compelling that they think, "Hey, I've got to hear that!"
Have a professional photo made, and create a 3-6 sentence introductory bio of yourself. Many bios sound the same and are pretty boring, so on my website, I decided to tell something of a story about myself to make my bio a bit different. Let your personality shine in your bio.
With your topics, bio, and photo in hand, you can now put together in MS Word a simple speaker one-sheet that tells a prospective association program chair everything s/he would need to know about you. If you have a list of audiences to whom you've spoken previously, you will want to list some of those under the heading "Satisfied Clients", and spread 2 - 3 testimonials from other speaking gigs throughout the sheet. In order to get ideas for layouts of the one sheet, visit the National Speakers Association, www.nsapseaker.org, and view the speaker one sheets of other speakers to jumpstart your creativity.
Create a speaking link on your website and have the presentations you've outlined available on your site, as well as your speaker one sheet, and a separate link with your photo and bio. Many association program chairs will want to "check you out" online, even though you're offering to speak to them free of charge, so give them the opportunity to read all about your speaking topics on your website.
Now you need to find audiences filled with your target market. To start locally, approach the program chairs of professional associations to which you already belong and see if you can get on their speaking schedule. Your local library or Chamber of Commerce may have a current list of professional associations in your area which you can also approach. Other sources for finding speaking gigs include the American Society of Association Executives. On the website, click Directories on the left hand links column, and then Associations, and then select Gateway to Associations. Once you're in the Gateway, you can look up associations by keyword or by location. A second place to locate associations is Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations. This multi-volume encyclopedia is present in the reference section of all major libraries.
You (or your Virtual Assistant) will then need to call these associations and get the name and contact info of the program chair. Some program chairs will want to talk to you right away regarding your speaking topics, so be prepared to have that conversation on the fly. Being able to send them to your website to read more about the topics is also helpful. Others will want you to send information, so you'll need to draft an introductory letter that you can snail mail or email along with your speaker one-sheet.
Once you've got a speaking engagement, ask the program chair some questions about the audience so that you can better tailor the speech to fit their needs. I learn best through hearing stories, so as I'm asking questions about the audience, I'm going through my own list of illustrative stories I've told to see which ones might best match my audience's needs. Remember that your audience wants a full experience of you as well as the information that you're providing, so be sure and inject alot of your personality and wit and humor into your speech.
Before your speech, determine how you want to get audience members into your marketing funnel. Do you want them to sign up for a complimentary consultation on the spot? If so, bring your calendar or a sign-up sheet. Do you want to get them on your mailing list? Give away something at the end of your presentation that is compelling enough for them to part with a business card or to write down their contact info to enter the drawing. If your goal is to get them on your email newsletter list, be sure and get their email address. If you use direct mail, you'll want to get their physical mailing address.
The day of your presentation, just relax and have fun! This may be the hardest of any of the steps outlined here, but being authentic and being yourself will get you in the good graces of most of your audience, despite what you might say (or forget to say!). Think of your presentation as the beginning of a great relationship that you're establishing, and leave your audience feeling good about themselves and about you.
Try and book 2-3 speaking engagements per month, and soon you'll become the "go-to" expert in your industry!
Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com
Monday, 5 April 2010
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Search Engine Marketing Plan
by Kristin Marquet
Who wants to double or triple their website traffic almost immediately?
Are you getting the most out of your online marketing?
So many people pose to be marketing experts, when in fact, some may actually be, but in my experience, I’ve come to find that most are full of hot air. They claim you will get thousands of visitors and increase your conversion rates by 100% if you purchase their program and follow their directions. Nevertheless, the problem is many small businesses, both startups and established lack the funds to spend on marketing and they don’t know whom to trust.
To make your marketing road a little easier, here is a blueprint for you to follow. Here are the elements you need to include in your marketing plan.
Please sure to include the following list in your marketing plan:
Analytics - use analytics programs such as Google Analytics for tracking. You should know the exact amount of visitors that come, where they come from, and how long they stay on your website. Many programs also tell you where visitors click off.
Blogging – Blogs are often used in conjunction with or as substitutes for company websites because they are more user-friendly, cost-efficient, and personal than traditional websites. In fact, most blogs are free, while customized websites can cost thousands of dollars
Building a Brand – Microblogging and social media are two of the greatest ways to build online brands. Mircoblogging, using an application such as Twitter, helps position you as an expert in your field (additionally, there are a few ways to monetize the Twitter application). Moreover, using social media applications such as Facebook and Squidoo enable you to interact with prospective as well as existing customers.
Keywords – Keywords are used when people are searching for certain product, service, or information on search engines. Using the right keywords/keyword phrases for your site and integrating them into the title, tags, and headlines improve search engine rankings and your search engine positioning
Link Building – Link building is a great way to get better search engine rankings. Search engines use links as tools for determining how valuable and relevant the site’s content is to a search.
Online Public Relations – It doesn’t matter the size of your company, PR should always be used. If a few angry customers have tainted your online brand, it could damage your business, thus online monitoring is imperative. Nonetheless, online PR could also be very effective – distributing online press releases, doing interviews (explore blogtalkradio.com) and writing bylined articles help increase a brand’s visibility.
Pay Per Click Advertising – Pay per Click advertising is when certain keywords are purchased on major search engines such Google or Yahoo. It is paid placement, usually on the top or right side of the search engine results. Keywords are targeted toward certain markets. It could be very expensive but also very effective if planning effectively.
Contact Kristin at km@marquet-communications.com.
Kristin Marquet is a regular contributor to the Secrets of Success blog.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Give Your Elevator Speech a Lift!
By Lorraine Howell, Media Skills TrainingYou only have one chance to make a good first impression. This is especially true in today’s tumultuous business climate.
When someone asks the introductory “What do you do?” keep in mind that 15-20 seconds -- or the length of an elevator trip – is all you have to start a meaningful conversation.
To get to the essence of a great elevator speech, answer these questions:
Who is your target audience?
Is there an ideal industry, business type, group, socio-economic status, location, hobby, or other common characteristic that describes your best customers? If your target audience is a business, what is the company’s profile? Where is the business in its growth cycle? What processes are involved in the business?
When you identify your ideal customer and target your message accordingly, listeners will see the value and be eager to talk about it. And, if the people you meet are not a fit for your skills and services, a memorable elevator speech can encourage quality referrals.
What do they care about?
Most business owners care about making a profit and outperforming their competition. Yet within each business there are unique concerns and problems. Do they have supply chain issues? What’s their employee retention history? Is their industry expanding or contracting? What issues keep the business owners up at night?
The more you understand the situation from their perspective, the more likely you will be to hit a nerve with your elevator speech. Ask your best customers what is important to them and listen carefully. Within their comments are the jewels that can help you stand out.
What results/benefits do you provide?
Don’t launch into a long explanation about how you do what you do. This confuses the process with the results. Rather, define what problems you solve for your customers. Here are two examples to help frame your storytelling:
•“I help level the playing field for vendors who are negotiating contracts with large multi-national corporations.”
•“I help business and community leaders prepare for the spotlight through public speaking coaching and media interview preparation.
What spins your jets about what you do?
People like to work with professionals who demonstrate passion and enthusiasm for their work, so share zest and energy when you deliver your elevator speech. Make it clear that you enjoy your work and the results you bring about for customers.
Put the pieces together…
As the answers to these questions unfold, your elevator speech will take shape. Use the language of your target audience to state your value and benefits. Shortcut the process and get right to the results in an enthusiastic and compelling way.
With practice, your elevator speech will flow naturally, become part of your personal brand, and help you make the most of every opportunity to make a good first impression.
Lorraine Howell, Author, Give Your Elevator Speech a Lift!
Media Skills Training
www.mediaskillstraining.com
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