Email Marketing: Expand Your Reach

If you plan to get maximum impact from your online marketing efforts, you should seriously consider e-mail marketing.  E-mail is the most used application on the Internet.  It is also an efficient means of distributing your message to large numbers of people at the click of a button.  And as a form of marketing, it gives you measurable results with instant feedback.

The first step in creating an e-mail marketing campaign is building an e-mail distribution list.  This is essentially a list of e-mail subscribers to whom you will e-mail relevant information and promotional materials.

One common and effective way to build a subscriber list is through an opt in form placed strategically on your website.  In your opt in form, you ask current as well as potential customers to register to receive periodic updates about your products and services as well as other information which might be of interest to them.  This provides you with a database of e-mail addresses from customers who have a genuine interest in your products and services and who are interested in learning more about these products and services.

Once you have a list of interested customers or potential customers, you can send e-mails or create an e-newsletter for distribution to the members of your e-mail list.  Whatever format you select, you must include a wealth of valuable information to retain your subscriber base.  If you are perceived as providing valuable information, your subscribers will be much more receptive to your marketing messages.  Gain their respect as a trusted advisor and you’ll have a customer for life.

It is also useful to include links to your website, which may be of interest to your readers or enhance your message.  Your content should also contain a portion which urges the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or at least investigating a product further.

E-mail marketing opens up an often overlooked opportunity to reach new and existing customers almost instantly.  By simply building a list of subscribers interested in your products and services, you can connect with them on an ongoing and regular basis.  If you provide them with valuable information that meets their needs, you’ll soon see a significant impact to your bottom line.

Sound like a strategy that would work in your business?  Contact me to learn more about launching an e-mail marketing campaign to connect with your customers today!

Boost Your Marketing Results

When it comes to connecting with clients, an engaging and content-rich business blog can be your most valuable online marketing tool. Blogs are a user-friendly, customized and flexible medium for disseminating useful information for effective positioning of your products and services in the market. And with over 57 million Americans reading blogs, according to Bloghology, you gain a definite edge over your competitors.

Starting and maintaining a business blog is a great way to let people know that you’re in business and what you can do for them. It allows you to draw in new leads and turn leads into conversions.  These new leads can be further wooed through follow up online newsletters, special offers or any number of tactics. With this almost limitless and relatively inexpensive marketing tool, your profits have an ability to soar.

To be effective, a business blog needs to be well designed. In addition, it needs to be regularly maintained and updated. This means that you must:

• Plan Your Content: It’s important to set some targets in terms of how often you update your business blog. This will help you stay on track with your publishing efforts. You also want to create content that engages your readers, makes them loyal to your blog, and keeps them coming back for more.

• Keep Your Content Fresh: Ensure there is a dedicated resource for the maintenance of your blog, which includes writing blog posts. The worst thing you can do is launch a blog and then allow its content to slip, which will imply all of the wrong things about your business.

• Make Your Content Relevant: Try and make each blog post relevant to your business objectives. This is a great opportunity to show off to potential and existing clients and engage with them through comments and feedback.

You want to avoid:

• Saying the same things as everyone else in your industry
• Writing posts that don’t engage your readers into a conversation
• Talking too much about business and company accomplishments
• Selling to your readers in most of your posts
• Simply posting an ongoing stream of articles

Effective use of a business blog is essential to the growth of your business. Your competition knows this and they probably have a business blog. If they are savvy enough to realize its marketing potential, then they have a competitive edge. But you can make up ground and pass them up with a well designed business blog of your own.

So, are you ready to start blogging? You can easily set up a free blog on hosted services such as Blogger and WordPress to get your feet wet. However, if you’re fully committed to a blogging strategy, the self-hosted version of WordPress is your best bet. Depending on your marketing goals and level of technical knowledge, one of my blog packages can help you get set up quickly and easily. When you are ready, just contact me for a free consultation. Then get prepared to…Blog Away!!!