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Archive for the ‘Ezine’ Category

Sending automated messages and follow up promotions to you customers will generate extra income for your business without generating a ton of expense and using a ton of time.  When done correctly, a strong autoresponder campaign can generate additional revenues of up to 30% and is a critical system that every business owner should consider.

An autoresponder is a program that automates the sending of email messages in response to an event, a purchase or in a schedule.  They can be set to go out immediately after a purchase thanking your customer for his or her business and providing them additional value or additional products to consider.  Another use is to set messages to go out in intervals with future marketing messages and promotions perhaps surveying your customers on their experience or inviting them to a future event.

Autoresponders are a great marketing tool that can keep you in contact with your customers and prospects on an ongoing basis allowing you to not only build a relationship but also allowing you to bring your offers to them on a regular basis.    Having a follow up system is an important component of the sales and customer service process and an autoresponder allows you to automate this process so you can set it and forget it.    Here are some ideas for autoresponder messages:

1)      Send a confirmation after a purchase

2)      Send a thank you message after a purchase and offer them an additional product

3)      Send out lesson plans for a subscription or membership site

4)      Follow up on a purchase anniversary

5)      Send out a short survey asking for their opinions

6)      Remind customers of upcoming calls, teleclasses or webinars

7)      Send out recommendations for other products with your affiliate link

8)      Send out Happy Birthday messages

9)      Send out Holiday messages

10)   Send tracking information for a recent purchase

11)   Send out notices to new products, events and book tours

12)   Follow up with How to lessons on your product to enhance the value in your offering

Putting automated systems in your business is the number one rule of all successful business owners.  You need to be able to focus on growing your business rather than running your business and using a systematic approach to enhance your sales and marketing efforts like an autoresponder system, is a smart and effective way to leverage your time.  When you communication frequently with your customers, they are more likely to buy from you than to purchase from somewhere new since you have the relationship with them.

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

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As the business world moves more on-line and email marketing becomes the norm in business, understanding your email metrics can be confusing but is also necessary in determining if your email campaigns are effective. Most email service providers (Constant contact, Aweber and Icontact) provide you with statistics that allow you to track the performance of your digital marketing. There are four measurements that allow you to gain a solid understanding of the effectiveness of your campaigns, they are: Read the rest of this entry »

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Guest Author: LisaMarie Dias

E-newsletters are an easy and affordable way to get your message online and into your client’s inbox. They allow you to target your message and stay on your client’s radar. They are environmentally friendly and easily modified and monitored. They are, quite possibly, the best thing since sliced bread! But they do require some planning and a modicum of ongoing maintenance to succeed and this is where most people drop the ball.

This is when online marketing campaigns begin to flag or, worse yet, fail.

Here are three of the most common e-newsletter mistakes I see and some suggestions on how you can avoid them.

Mistake # 1: No Plan People start e-newsletters for all sorts of reasons.

They want to expand their reach, create an online presence, define or redefine their brand. And sometimes they do it because they read somewhere that e-newsletters were the best thing since sliced bread and decided that they too, should start one! This last reason is NOT a good way to begin and will, in most situations, lead to failure.

Solution: Create a Plan Have a clear idea of what you want to say and to whom.

This may change over time but clarity of message, with a specific call to action sent to a targeted audience is key to making sure your clients can respond!

Mistake #2: Set it and Forget it

I often recommend that people create a few issues at once. If you have made the effort to set up a template and have sat down to create content, keep going. While you are on a roll, block out the next issue. Format the next few issues! It will make your life easier and you will be happily surprised when you sit down the following month and have it already started. But some people will take this to the extreme and create an entire six months or a years worth of e-newsletters all at once! They will copy and rename them and voila, they have a full year of issues. One of the many advantages of using an ESP (email service provider) like Constant Contact is that you can set your emails to go off at future dates up to almost a full year in advance. But if you just send out the same, or a very similar message every single month, after the first issue or two your clients will not bother reading it. Even if you do change your message after a few duplicates, you can be pretty sure that they will not be read.

Solution: Send Quality Information Clearly and Attractively Presented Respect your readers.

You only get a few chances, make sure that you are sending quality information that will be helpful and of interest to your readers. Vary the content. Make seasonal and/or personal references. Create an ongoing dialogue, building on discussions from previous issues. You want readers to look forward to hearing from you, not to be able to tell without even opening it, what you have to say. Otherwise you are wasting everyone’s time – your readers’ and your own!

Mistake# 3: Giving up too easily

People send out an issue or two and see low open rates. Or they send out six and don’t see a lot of clicks through to purchases. They see how much time and energy it takes and decide that it just isn’t worth it. They give up. How many times have you seen this happen? You started receiving someone’s e-newsletter – you may have even enjoyed it – only to find that it started coming less and less frequently, or worse yet, just stopped? The purpose of creating an e-newsletter is to solidify your relationship with your existing clients, to establish your expertise in your industry and to create an ongoing relationship with new clients. This is not something that will happen overnight. It will take time.

Solution: Give it a Year

The most difficult part of creating an online campaign is the initial set up. Now that you have a template, your lists and a few issues under your belt, the hardest part is behind you. Follow through and give it a year. If you still aren’t seeing results, maybe an e-newsletter was not the best choice for your business and you can move on. But before you walk away, sit down and examine your original goals, your content, your lists and your original plan. There may be some obvious gaps that, with some minor changes could garner the results you are looking for.

Review the information you gathered. A year worth of metrics (open rates, click throughs, etc) alone will be invaluable. Even if you do decide to take a different campaign route, examining and utilizing this information will ensure your future plan has better results!

LisaMarie Dias Designs (http://www.LisaMarieDiasDesigns.com) can help make your online marketing campaign a success! She offers strategizing sessions to help you come up with a solid plan and can help you get your e-newsletter up and running. If you already have a campaign and/or e-newsletter, she can help you make it more attractive, efficient and effective. If you would like to start an e-newsletter but just don’t know where to begin, she can help you make it happen! Call her at 973.275.9497 or email at LMD@LisaMarieDiasDesigns.com to set up an appointment to get started today!

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In the world of marketing, you have less than 3 seconds to grab the attention of the reader for them to take the next step towards your product.  The same holds true in article marketing.  A great headline can lead to sales success and a poor headline can lead to failure, therefore your headline is a critical. Read the rest of this entry »

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The beauty in publishing newsletters is in the repeat. Be sure to create a consistent compaign and frequency to your newsletter publishing.  Your customers, subscribers and partners will become to rely upon it so BLAST Tip # 3 – Send out your newsletter more than once.  It doesn’t matter if you have a printed newsletter or an online newsletter, providing valuable content to your subscibers will pay off in the long run.  Some additional tips are to be consistent on the day and time your readers will recieve thier newsletter.  Consistency is key in marketing.  If you are not getting the open or response rate you desire, try testing different headlines, sending out on different days and at different times.  Which ever test has the best results.  Use that format and delivery method on-going.  Good Luck!

©Kellie D’Andrea & Associates

Want to use this article in your newsletter or web site?

You can, just include this complete blurb with it: Kellie D’Andrea is the creator of the Build a Better Ezine System and publishes “The Marketing Edge” a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Interesting in starting your own business, sign up for a FREE mini course “The Empowered Entrepreneur” and learn how not to make the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at www.kelliedandrea.com.

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