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Marketing
How are Email Marketers like Santa?
Santa can reach every person in the world all in one night. Email can do that too… as long as every person has an email account. Santa has a hard and fast deadline. Email marketers have hard and fast deadlines maintaining consistency to keep their … Keep reading…
The Devil is in the Details
Mistakes happen – appointments get missed, deadlines slide by, and that phone call doesn’t get returned. These things happen to everyone sooner or later. Sometimes these are things that can be avoided next time, sometimes they’re unavoidable, and sometimes they’re just plain old stupid mistakes. … Keep reading…
The Outrageously Simple Formula for eNewsletter Success
GOALS + VALUE = SUCCESS Simple, right? As small business owners, our email marketing goals can be quite different and varied. Whatever your GOALS are, you won’t reach them if you don’t seriously consider the other side of the equation: giving VALUE to your subscribers. … Keep reading…
Warm Up those Cold Calls
Many organizations are engaging in email marketing these days – informational newsletters, promotional emails, or both. Some of these organizations have even done a great job of integrating email marketing with their social media efforts as part of a comprehensive online marketing strategy. But few … Keep reading…
It Doesn’t Have to be About You
Let’s face it: some businesses are in a better position to provide valuable information through newsletters (blogs, social media) than others. Take our own newsletter as an example. We could easily publish a newsletter about publishing newsletters. (Stay with me here.) It would have lots of tips … Keep reading…
The Moral of the Story
Aesop’s Fables have a clear moral lesson backed up by a little story. The story makes it more interesting than just passing out advice. It demonstrates the results of heeding or not heeding the advice. Advice delivered as a ‘fable’ appeals to both our emotions … Keep reading…
Un-credible Words
Just because you say it’s so, doesn’t make it true. Take this email disclaimer below as an example. Please, read the small print. The first line sounds pretty good… ethical and all that. And hey, they respect me. I might believe it if I had actually subscribed. … Keep reading…
9 Ways to Personalize Your Newsletter
We tell our new clients that the newsletters we design for them will be completely unique. Part of being unique is making a personal connection with your reader. Here’s our best advice about how to make your newsletter more personal and distinct. 1. Write a … Keep reading…
eNewsletter Design and Formatting Mistakes
Mistakes stand out and they can be fodder for others’ discussions. Aside from obvious spelling, grammatical and hyperlink errors, formatting and design can also be a big turn-off. You can have awesome content that delivers value to your readers – but it’s no good if … Keep reading…
Graphic Solutions
Copyright and graphics are topics that come up in our business all the time. When you are using images on your website, blog or in your newsletter, you need to ensure they are copyright free or you have paid the copyright owner for use. You … Keep reading…
Introducing Your Very First Issue
Update – Find a newer version of this topic here: How to Write the Introduction to Your First Newsletter. When writing the introduction for your first newsletter issue, here are some things you might want to include: Acknowledge that this is your first issue and that you appreciate … Keep reading…
A Different Kind of Feedback
Most of us would agree that feedback is generally a desirable thing and necessary for continuous improvement. Yet there seems to be a whole area of performance that gets ignored due to little or no feedback: internet marketing. If you are ignoring your feedback (in … Keep reading…
Avoiding False Assumptions
I am not my own ideal client. Certainly, I fit within the target market I have so clearly defined. Being a small business owner, I can identify with all of my ideal clients – we share many of the same needs and desires. But there … Keep reading…
3 Keys to Creating a Call-to-Action
We all use calls to action but we often don’t think of them that way. Writing an email to a friend asking for feedback, emailing to arrange a coffee date, sending a follow up note – these all contain calls to action whether obvious or … Keep reading…
Plan to Give Your Best
If what you have to share, show or write about isn’t great, don’t put it out there. That was one takeaway from Scott Stratten. I had a double dose of him a couple of weeks ago – read his book, UnMarketing, and attended his webinar. … Keep reading…
Original Content Makes YOU Unique!
Do you really need any more information than what you’re already getting? Do your readers? How do you compete with ALL that content that’s readily available? You give them something they can’t get anywhere else! A list is easy – here’s one way to think … Keep reading…
Company News is No News
“Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with us.” “Sign up to get company news and other info.” Does that make you want to invite yet another email into your inbox? I think not. what NOT to do I did a search … Keep reading…
So Many Choices
“What is the one best thing that you want a reader to do?” That’s one question I ask new clients. Research has shown that offering too many choices creates indecision. To be effective, a call-to-action must motivate your reader to, well, take action. It’s not as easy … Keep reading…
Get a Head Start
Start thinking about your next newsletter issue as soon as your last one has gone out. Set up a place to gather your content ideas – an ‘idea catcher’. I use a folder on my Windows desktop. If you’re not always sitting at your computer … Keep reading…
Up the Value of Your Redirect Pages
Many of the people connecting with you online are arriving at one of your redirect pages at some point. A redirect page is the ‘thank you for signing up’ page you send them to when they sign up for your newsletter, or the event registration … Keep reading…
Out of Ideas and Still Have a Deadline?
“Write when you’re inspired,” I always suggest. But sometimes deadlines loom, we need content, and inspiration is nowhere to be found. Here is a checklist you can use to come up with quick content when you’re out of bright ideas. Fix a problem. You solve … Keep reading…
What You Might Not Know about Starting an eNewsletter
If you’re considering starting a newsletter, there are a whole lot of little details that will be important to its success. Our clients are often surprised… and glad that they don’t have to figure it all out themselves. Here are just a few of the things … Keep reading…
How to Create Content for Sharing
If you want to reach a wider audience than just your own contacts, you will need to create content that people WANT to share. This is the primary way to grow your audience and make new contacts in the online world. How do you create … Keep reading…
5 Reasons Why EVERY Business Needs a Website
There are many reasons that a business should have a website. Some businesses will have more reasons than others. If I was going for quantity, I’m sure I could come up with hundreds of reasons. But not all of those reasons would apply to every … Keep reading…