easy marketing strategies

Build your Media List

A Media List is your Rolodex of names and contact information, that you have built over time, to refer to when you want to share news with the public about your business.  Your list may include the local paper, television station or journalist who covers stories that relate to your industry. Remember to include article directories and (free) press release distribution sites, in your Media List.

 

Update your Media List once a year. This way, when the times comes to share an announcement, you'll have accurate contact information at your finger tips. Keep your list in one secure file with media type, contact name, current email, phone numbers, blogs names and website links included. A spreadsheet keeps the information organized for quick referencing. As a tip, note each contact entry with, "Last Update as Of", and enter the date.

 

If appropriate, keep in touch with the folks on your Media List. Check out their social media profiles and see if your business could be a contributor to their current projects.

 

 

 

Is your sales letter all about 'me'?

Here is a quick marketing tip to consider when you are writing your next sales letter for your website.

"Make your sales letter more about your target market and less about you!"

When preparing copy for your website, utilize the 'top-fold' (the top page that can be viewed from a computer screen without having to scroll down), as the area to capture the attention of your reader. Write conversationally and craft your copy to speak directly to your reader's needs (pains) and wants.

Further down the sales letter (below the fold), insert the value and benefits of your service, then tell them your story and credentials. Later add the features of your offering, payment plans and methods.

It is not uncommon to read a website sales page that starts out describing (in great detail) the author's expertise and story. Luckily, this common mistake can be corrected with just a few edits.

When you find a clear, simple writing style to speak directly to your prospect's needs, they are more likely to scroll down your sales page to learn about your offering.

 

"Create Free (or almost free) Out-of-the-Box PR for your business"

Learn five easy and fun ways to attract good publicity for yourself and your business.   These tactics won't break your budget. They are simple to implement and will help you to strike an interest with your target market (audience).

This post is Part One of a series.

"Online Press Releases"

Using the internet to find free publicity. This may sound like a tip from ‘inside the box’ but I assure you it’s valuable and underutilized with small business owners. 

1.   An Online Press Release is a 300 word, informative piece of writing that consumers or journalists can read on the internet.  An online press release informs the reader and asks them to take an action.

2.   There are plenty of free press release submission sites to use. One benefit of using these free sites is to have relative topics and information about you,  pop up when a potential client, "Googles" you.

3.    Research strong Key Words to be included in your Online Press Release. Key Words are the words your market typically enters into a search engine to search for information. A free suggestion for researching your key words is : http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/.

"Ideas for writing an Online Press Release"

• You attended a workshop and you learned a new concept that will benefit your target market.
• You have research results that is relative and important to your target market.
• You have a new offering for a specific market.
• You are in collaboration with another professional in your field.
• You are launching a new program with a special package at a discounted price.
• You'll be speaking at an upcoming event.
• You spoke at a recent event!

Stay Tuned for Part Two of "How to Create Free (or almost free) Out-of-the-Box PR for your business continues.

 

 

 

 

Educate Yourself and SHINE!

Clients are hiring you because they want fresh ideas coming 24/7. It's quite a challenge to always be on top of your game, unless you frequently take the time to plug into a network, association or seminar that will inspire you to think bigger about how you can support your clients.

If you are a woman entrepreneur, looking for a way to connect with diverse, business minded women, feed your creative mind, AND receive valuable business coaching, visit this link SHINE, and learn how three days away from the office can broaden your thinking. Consider making the investment for yourself, your business (and your clients).

It's the power of knowledge that will keep you ahead.

Educate yourself and SHINE!

Do you have a 'Post-Event Marketing Strategy'?

A Post Event Marketing Strategy is what you do after you had a live event and you want to continue building the relationship with your event attendees.

Here are four easy ways to keep the conversation going after your event.

**Note** Most email marketing software will allow you to prepare mailings prior to the event.  This way while you're relaxing and restoring, work is automatically being done for you!

1. During the Event: Announce to the the participants that they can take advantage of a special offer  or discount because they took the time to be at your event.  (Give an expiration date of the special offer that goes two weeks after the event.)
2. 24hrs post-event: Send an email, thanking the participants for their time...(always say thank you!) and remind them of their special offer and include the link to the website to learn more and make a purchase.
3. Two weeks post-event: Schedule a free tele-seminar, taking one or two of your topics a bit further into detail and promote the special offer again and how it will support your customer's needs.
4. Monthly: Keep in touch through a regular scheduled newsletter sharing valuable information and updates on specials and product offerings.

Single Column Newsletters - Tested and Proven

Single column newsletters are getting higher results from readers.

Why? Our list is made up of very busy individuals, inundated with emails and offers each day. They want to receive clear, linear, scannable pieces of information.

Our readership is mobile. Most individuals are grabbing their email from a hand held device. Be sure that your mailing is readable from a Blackberry as well as a laptop.

Bold the important words or phrases. If your list likes what you have to say on a topic, they will go back and read the finer details.

Test a single column template for your email newsletters for three months and see your statistics improve.

As always, know your list's needs. Deliver information that is helpful with compelling offers.

Improving your website traffic.

There are two objectives of a website, 1) get visitors to give you their contact information or 2) get visitors to purchase something.

If you would like someone to give you their email, then you have to offer them a gift or information in exchange. (Make a compelling offer to get an email on your list). If you want them to purchase a service or product, then make sure they understand you can solve their problem.

If your visitors are not completing one of these two actions, then the strategy of your website needs to changed.

There is plenty of material on the web to walk you through optimizing your website for the search engines and traffic, but to simplify the quest, ask yourself one question. Is your website clear? 

Track the statistic reports for your newsletter, blog and website. Understand the activty that is happening (or not happening). If you don't understand your statistics, give me a call, I can help you.

Ask yourself, is your website clear? Would someone who visits your website, understand what you do and which ACTION you want them to take?

Is Facebook a waste of your time?

Struggling with the amount of time it takes to build relationships in the online social networks? Prepared to send 800 tweets before you can encourage one follower to visit your website and sign up for your newsletter? Tired of the deluge of useless status updates making them ready to un-follow many on their list?

Is it all worth it?

With the millions of people searching LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, for information, why shouldn’t your business be present in these online networks? And in most cases, your out-of-pocket-expense is zero.

The challenge is to know what to talk about in the networks.

Here’s some quick tips to avoid the feeling that you are wasting your time with your status updates: 

1. Develop a social networking style that supports your personality and aligns well with your business brand and service offerings. Know which networks are best for finding your ideal clients. Where are your clients hanging out? Spend more time building relationships in those networks.

2. Know what to share to improve the quality of your exchanges. 

3. Here is a helpful guideline to know what to share and how much:

        • 30 %: Tips that help make people's lives better
        • 10 %: Information that keeps them informed
        • 30 %: Anything that makes people laugh
(according to the source: http://www.Fark.com is a great site for humorous content)
        • 25%: Compliments and praise
        • 5 %: What you're doing

Source: Perry Belcher

Got a boring newslettter?

 

 

If putting your newsletter together has become your least enjoyable marketing task ...then rest assured your readers are having difficulty too.

How to freshen your copy? I picked up an easy tip from Constant Contact, the fast growing email marketing service, who offers the 2-2-2 Principle.

The summary is, your reader takes 2 seconds to decide if they want to read an email. The first two words in your subject line, are the most important . Ask yourself, of all the information you are sharing, which matters today?

The article offered clear examples and reminds us to see the newsletter from your reader's perspectives. Also note, that you don't need to make ALL your email messages urgent. Be wary of the 'Spam Filter No- No's',  such as using all caps in the subject line or excessive punctuation.

If you aren't using an email service, be alert to how your business emails are appearing.Will your subject line encourage someone to read NOW or hold for later? ('later' usually results in a direct swoosh, into the recycling bin.)

Read the full article  here.

ROI

The rate in which we will receive a return on an investment, is an obvious concern these days. Market conditions beg us to consider every campaign effort and spending decision. At new levels, consumers are pressured to cut back and slow spending. Most times, ROI's are not recognizable dollars.

To allow room for hope in an unusual, unfamiliar economic condition, look at your return to be a way to leverage growth, increase efficiency or maintain customer trust.

How can this be done easily?

Look to establish relationships with businesses outside your industry but who share the same market.

One Case Study: A travel agency builds upon an existing relationship with a local flower farm. Together they design special programs that will be attractive to their markets. They will explore co-marketing each other's services to circumvent having to take on the load of a new campaign alone. This relationship offers each business a chance to explore markets not yet established.

Together they make it easy for their customers to travel to unique locations to explore innovative garden designs that they can bring back to their homes.

ROI: Maintaining customer trust, growth and efficiency.