26 Social Media Marketing Tips from the Pros

Are you looking for actionable tips to improve your social media marketing?

Are you wondering what the common themes of social media experts are these days?

This April, 1,100 passionate marketers from every corner of the world traveled to San Diego for Social Media Marketing World (#SMMW13), to find out.

The number of conference takeaways and buzz was immense.

For this article, I’ve focused on 26 takeaways from SMMW13, including notable quotes by presenters and their session titles.


CATEGORY: Calls to Action

#1: Get More Leads With Calls to Action

Throughout the conference, the topic of calls to action (CTAs) came up in numerous sessions. What is a CTA?

A social media call to action is an integral and often overlooked element of an effective social media strategy. Social media gets prospects, customers and the public primed to want to find out more about your offering or to engage with you further, but you must lead them to the next step in your sales or other conversion process.

Regardless of the platform—blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.—posts will receive better success rates if they contain calls to action, compared to ones without them. So, all the more reason to use them!


From the post, "Theft: 9 Ways to Protect Yourself From Losing Your Data" by Michael Stelzner.


#2: Optimize Your Facebook Posts With Calls to Action

“On Facebook, posts that include the call to action “share” receive more shares, comments and likes.”
—Mari Smith, 10 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Reach

Sometimes just the act of inviting someone to share your post will be the encouragement a fan needs to take your suggestion. Once they share the post, it will travel on further to their colleagues, friends and family, thus expanding your reach. Truly one of greatest benefits of social media!



This post was shared by 42 people, in addition to 59 likes.


#3: Grab Readers’ Attention With CTAs

Examples of calls to action include: click here, sign up today, get your ticket, join us at, RSVP here, buy now, enroll here, check this out, click, and comment.
—Rich Brooks, Beyond Likes: How to Turn Fans Into Customers; Amy Porterfield, Facebook Strategies to Launch a New Product; Pat Flynn, Podcasting for More Exposure, More Leads and More Money

When a reader is on your page and you have the privilege of having their attention for even the shortest span of time, make your CTAs an integral part of your marketing plan. Something you had front of mind—not an afterthought. Then you’ll have some influence on where readers navigate next and what steps you want to encourage them to take.

Calls to action grab attention.


#4: Get the Most Bang for Your CTA Buck

Make your CTAs crystal-clear and stick to one CTA per post. Avoid excessive calls to action.

—Cliff Ravenscraft, 15 Tips for Creating a Podcast People Can’t Live Without

When you present clear and direct CTAs, you reduce the risk of overwhelming readers with too many choices. They came to your post to learn something and the last thing you want to do is to make them feel they have to give you everything if they decide to become a follower of your content.


Decide what action you want users to take.


#5: Experiment With Different CTA Touch Points

On Twitter, if you want to target people who aren’t following you, try using a call to action to engage.

—Kyle Lacy, 5 Social and Digital Trends Impacting Consumer Behaviors

Twitter is a fast-moving stream of content. Updates can quickly flow by readers. While they’re deciding on whether to read your full update, a call to action can help seize the moment. If they like what they see, they’ll be more inclined to follow you, retweet your message and visit your website.

Reach out and touch someone!


#6: Take the Guesswork Out of CTAs

Effective calls to action can result in completed lead generation forms, phone calls and email signups.

—Rich Brooks, Beyond Likes: How to Turn Fans Into Customers

When you put a call to action out there, you’ll know which ones have been effective. For example, if no one is signing up for your free website consultation, ask yourself if the call to action is buried too far down on the page, could the wording be more enticing, are readers worried that once they do that they’ll be hounded by salespeople?

What can your call to action do better to be more effective? Knowing the answer will enhance your marketing efforts.

Gather information with forms.


CATEGORY: Content Strategy

#7: Give Content the Priority It Deserves

It may not be much of a surprise that the topic of content received “royal” treatment at SMMW13. Whether the focus of a workshop was on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc., many focused on the importance of fresh, frequent, quality content.

“Content is King but engagement is Queen, and she rules the house.”

—Mari Smith, 10 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Reach

Content is kind of a catch-22. The best content in the world won’t receive traffic unless people engage with it—sharing, commenting, liking, etc. Give your content the royal treatment—dot the i’s, cross the t’s, and most importantly, make it engagement-friendly. Then you’ll be able to see great results!

15,000+ tweets and pics sure sounds like good engagement!


#8: Be Generous With Your Content

Useful content that people continue to remember long after the post was read becomes “sticky.” The content keeps you in the person’s mind. They may be willing to check out your products and services. By giving generously and gaining a reader’s trust, you earn a reputation of being a reliable resource. With all the competition out there, useful content will help differentiate you in the marketplace.

Content is fire, social media is gasoline. Content should be so useful that it’s seen as a “YOUtility”; in other words, content marketing that is so useful, people will want to keep you close and even be willing to pay for it.

—Jay Baer, How to Create Customers for Life by Informing More and Promoting Less


Switch from a "me" to a "you" mentality


#9: Keep the Content Flowing

We’ve all been there. Landed on a blog that hasn’t been updated in months. Or on a Twitter account that has an egghead avatar and was abandoned in 2010 after the user wrote: “Hello world.” What’s wrong with these pictures? Lack of content.

[Only] 36% of people surveyed believe their content marketing is effective. Biggest challenges they’ve faced are producing enough content and the kind that engages.

—Joe Pulizzi, 10 Content Marketing Secrets That Will Propel You Beyond the Competition

Content requires a strategy, a production schedule with designated authors and engaging topics that encourage readers to return. Find ways to cover your content bases with an effective content plan.

Verbal and visual content that delivers on a frequent and regular basis will increase your chances to catch up to your competitors and join the ranks of those with effective content marketing strategies.

How will you create more content?


#10: Offer Subscriptions to Your Content

Content can easily be missed on Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds. One way to help ensure that your content is seen is through subscriptions.

Focus on subscriptions to your content; for example, “Join over 40,000 of your peers. Get daily articles and news delivered to your email inbox and get CMI’s exclusive ebook…free.”

—Joe Pulizzi, 10 Content Marketing Secrets That Will Propel You Beyond the Competition

Delivering daily articles and news to a subscriber’s email inbox is highly effective for busy businesspeople. Even if their inbox is overflowing, when they chip away at reading their emails, they’ll find your content pointing and linking to your articles.

Users may miss your tweets but will be more likely to receive your email.


#11: Give Credence to Analytics and Post Data

Social media data is the keeper of all kinds of useful information such as location of readers, topics and keywords that attract and time and day an update is more likely to be seen by your audience.

Amazing content yields great leads. Don’t get attached just to shares—find out which posts are getting leads.

—Brian Carter, Turning Social Advertising Into Leads and Sales

Set aside time each week to review your analytics and what you can learn from them. Content may not magically convert a lead to a customer, but you’ll be more likely to increase your funnel of leads when you provide great content.

Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut around the sales cycle. Print placement ads, radio and TV commercials never promised that either. With social media marketing, you still have to work a lead!


Could it be any clearer?


#12: Give Your Posts More Pizazz

Some posts read like they’re just giving the facts, something that you’d find in an old-time Yellow Pages ad.  Nowadays, we have to go the extra couple of miles.

Posts that are shareable give advice, warn, amuse, inspire and amaze… don’t be boring.

—Cliff Ravenscraft, 15 Tips for Creating a Podcast People Can’t Live Without

“Don’t be boring” might be one of the harshest tough-love pieces of advice that you’ll receive. But it’s true. How many times are you more willing to read an article with catchy titles and cool images or watch a video with great camerawork and music or listen to a podcast that presents a dynamic interview or industry report? If you build amazing content, they will come!


What? We need to be interesting, too?!


#13: Meet Social Media Followers Where They Are

How many times have you felt that a company isn’t letting you in? That they’re not telling you more about the business culture or values that are important to them? One of the true assets of social marketing is the ease with which we can converse with our followers.

One kind of content that has been effective for TaylorMade is real-time, ‘inside-the-ropes’ information to consumers.

—Liz Phillips of TaylorMade, Twitter Marketing: Success Tips From Brands

Real time is the real thing. Inside-the-ropes information makes followers feel a part of an online community—and connected.

Consumers like to be in-the-know.


#14: Tune Into What’s Being Talked About

Time passes quickly and topics do, too. It’s become increasingly important for social media marketers to know what readers are most interested in today, this week, this month—and as projected into next year.

Content is the greatest sales and trust-building tool in the world.  Find the most common phrases and their keyword rank in monthly searches.

—Marcus Sheridan, How to Build a Business Blog That Grows Your Brand, Generates Leads and Makes Sales

With free and paid keyword tools at our disposal (e.g., Google Keyword Tool, Long Tail Pro), you have a tremendous opportunity to tap into the content that is resonating the most with your audience. This will cut down on useless projects and make each and every post an important spoke in your marketing hub.

Using higher-ranked keywords will make a difference.


#15: Look for the Best Ways to Promote Your Content

Content promotion is an important part of content marketing strategy. With the ease of ebook creation, many businesses have found that putting together new or repurposed content into an ebook format may be one of the most advantageous ways to get their content out there.

Ebooks are best used to promote content. Businesses should focus on the value that users will receive from your content.

—Rebecca Corliss, How to Generate Leads With Social Media

Ebooks offer the ability to create cost-effective, well-designed pieces that don’t require the expense of printing.

HubSpot displays their ebooks on a Pinterest board.


#16: Know Thy Customer

By keeping your customer in mind during your content strategizing, you’ll be more likely to engage the people you’re looking to attract.

Use the social data you have about your customer to improve content strategy.

—Kyle Lacy, 5 Social and Digital Trends Impacting Consumer Behaviors

Buyer personas and knowing how topics rank among their interests will be helpful ways to improve content strategy.

Knowing who you're talking to is a big part of the content equation.


#17: Write Great Blog Posts

In an earlier 26 Tips piece, we discussed Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts. Writing great content involves many aspects beyond the ideas you set down on the page. It includes factors such as layout and design, formatting, whether the content is original or curated and more. Producing quality content requires proactivity.

Take an active approach to content development. Create content all the time.

—Amy Porterfield, Facebook Strategies to Launch a New Product or Program

Even when you’re not in the middle of a new post, jot down ideas as they come to you and see whether you can work them into a post.

Keep the content rolling.


#18: Think Beyond the Written Word

Content assets include images, videos, printed word and audio. When you have an idea for what you want to communicate, you may find that one format will serve your audience better than another. At SMMW13, there was a lot of buzz about podcasts and the impact that mobile phones and working on-the-go have on our ability to reach people, even when they don’t have time to sit down and read an article.

Podcasts cannot live without content.

—Cliff Ravenscraft, 15 Tips for Creating a Podcast People Can’t Live Without

What information could be communicated to your audience via a podcast?

Offer a variety of topics.


#19: Deliver Targeted Content

If the demographics of your target customer are diverse, then targeted topics or specific platforms may suit one audience better than another.

Slice and dice content to make it highly targeted… be consistent, authentic and relevant.

—Michael Bepko of Whole Foods, Twitter Marketing: Success Tips From Brands

Maybe you have one blog that speaks to a younger audience and another that addresses issues of more concern to middle-aged people. Messaging isn’t one-stop shopping.



Whole Foods takes "slicing and dicing" very seriously (and literally).


#20: Motivate Customers
Don’t just communicate. Motivate. Find the niche area that makes readers stop, listen and watch.

Who are your customers, what do they want to hear about, what do they talk about to friends and family, what are their obstacles, what are their worries, how can you inspire them, how can you coach, mentor and motivate?

—Brian Carter, Turning Social Advertising Into Leads and Sales

Make your content motivating and inspiring.


#21: Use Keywords Strategically

Keywords should stay front and center. Don’t think of them on a piece-by-piece basis. Instead, what are the topics that will cover the range of topics of most interest to your audience?

Develop 5 key topic areas and at least 20 unique pieces of content for each of 100+ keywords per year.

—Joe Pulizzi, 10 Content Marketing Secrets That Will Propel You Beyond the Competition

Being prepared with topics and keywords will make it easier to create unique content.

Knowing keywords and topics you will be writing about will help keep you focused. Readers will learn what they can expect.


#22: Alter Your Ways of Looking at Content Development and Delivery

Your content strategy will make a lot more sense to your authors and your audience if you think about people and where they are in the sales cycle. The information will be helpful in making a decision about whether to write a blog post, conduct a webinar or engage in a LinkedIn group forum.

Map content to customers’ journeys through the sales cycle—awareness, interest, consideration, purchase, retention and advocacy.

—Lee Odden, How to Integrate Blogging With Content Marketing That Inspires


Targeting content to the sales cycle can be highly effective.


CATEGORY: Email and Social Integration

#23: Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing

Consider this: “Email has had a long history, beginning in 1971 when U.S. programmer Raymond Tomlinson allegedly sent “QWERTYUIOP” as the first network email, and he was the first to connect his computer to his mailbox by using an ‘@’ symbol… Email has become a major part of our lives, consuming 28% of our workday.”

With the maturity of media, preceding ones will become displaced. Email, which has been a key player for 20 years, hurt postal delivery. Today, many are using Facebook messages instead of email.

—Mike Stelzner, Social Media Marketing in 2013: New Research and Its Implications

Facebook messages improve the odds of having direct contact.


#24: Interact With Your Audience Via Opt-In Emails

With the subscriber opts into your emails, your business can get in front of your audience’s eyes on a daily and weekly basis.

The inbox is the best social network in the world.

—Chris Brogan, Are We Getting Better or Just Busier?

Social Media Examiner not only sends email updates, but also tells you the number of subscribers.


#25: Vary Your Email and Social Integration Strategies

Below are a number of great suggestions from presenters at SMMW13:

• Advertise on Facebook to your email list.—Brian Carter, Turning Social Advertising Into Leads and Sales
• Subscribers who follow brands on Twitter are three times more likely to open an email than a subscriber who’s not on Twitter.—Kyle Lacy, 5 Social and Digital Trends Impacting Consumer Behaviors
• During the promote phase of a Facebook campaign, build your launch email list with a signature promotional giveaway. When launching, your email list can be your most powerful profit-generating resource. Use an autoresponder as part of your email campaign.—Amy Porterfield, Facebook Strategies to Launch a New Product (autoresponder)
• The third time you email someone, just pick up the damn phone.—Jay Baer, How to Create Customers for Life by Informing More and Promoting Less

Set up any number of email messages to be sent either immediately after a new user subscribes to your mailing list, or after any period of time has passed.

#26: Set Personal and Business Goals for Social Media

• Personal: Self-expression, exercise writing, be a useful resource, connect with bloggers, contribute to the community
• Business: Brand awareness, elevate publicity, support customers, recruit, attract new business referrals, create an editorial calendar

—Lee Odden, How to Integrate Blogging With Content Marketing that Inspire

Google Analytics to create and track goals via a goal funnel, a series of pages leading up to the goal destination—for example, a contact page.

—Rich Brooks, Beyond Likes: How to Turn Fans Into Customers

Be sure to create and track your business goals.

Concluding Thoughts

Perhaps the most telling number about the significance of social media marketing was reported in the April 8, 2013 PeekAnalytics report for the hashtag #SMMW13 that states:

The content [at SMMW13] was shared by consumers who have a combined total of 4.8 million social connections across their social graphs.

The speed-of-light communication that social media provides with its far-reaching capabilities is unprecedented and undoubtedly will continue to change the way businesses engage with customers, prospects and leads. What will we be talking about at SMMW14? Stay tuned!

What do you think? How do calls to action, content strategy, email/social integration and goals play a part in your social media efforts? What is working well? What goals will help you make improvements? Leave your comments in the space below.

author:Debbie Hemley

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-social-media-marketing-tips-from-the-pros/

How to Generate Leads With Video Marketing

Do you want to attract high-quality leads with social media?

Many business owners see a drop-off in new leads because they stop thinking strategically about conversions.

One way to enhance your social media marketing is to create a short, shareable social video—and implement a strategic “mini-campaign” around it to drive opt-ins.

In this article I’ll show 3 ways to supercharge your social media marketing with video.

#1: Create a Short Social Video

Converting social media fans into actual customers starts with getting fans off your social platforms and onto your email list.

First, you must move your fans from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest onto your landing page.

Use a short social video. Videos are quick, they’re visual, they’re personal, they work like gangbusters across multiple platforms and they’re very share-worthy!

To get the most out of your lead generation video, stick to a short script—2 minutes or less. Try this simple formula:

·         Get real. Start with a greeting that’s true to your personality and your brand. Be brief, but be real. And engage viewers quickly with a fun question or a thought-provoking statement.

·         Get their attention with your content giveaway. Think premium—ebooks, cheat sheets, book chapters, etc. Use storytelling techniques like sharing a personal anecdote or client story to KEEP their attention.

·         Get specific. What are 3-5 reasons that your fan simply cannot miss out on this giveaway? Lay them out, step by step. Always ask: “What’s in it for them?”

·         End on a clear call to action. Just one! And take care not to make your CTA platform-specific. You’ll use this on multiple social media channels.

Hint: Outline your script in advance so you’re comfortable ad-libbing on production day.

#2: Plan a Social Media “Mini-Campaign”

A mini-campaign on social media is exactly what it sounds like: a planned marketing effort across several different social media channels for a short period of time.

A few pointers on laying out yours for the best, most consistent results:

o   Use a theme to unite ALL of your content. For example, HGTV focuses oneye-catching photos and valuable blog posts showing off architectural touches to support their “Dream Home” giveaway.

o   Create a theme around your promotion by using blog posts, images and videos as value-added content.

o   Prepare your irresistible offer (ebook, 3-part video series, teleclass, etc.) that solves one of your fans’ biggest pain points.

o   Create a professional landing page outlining benefits—the same benefits you highlighted in your video. Here’s an example of one I used:

 

For each of my webinars, I always spotlight the benefits so my followers know what’s in it for them.

Next, you’ll want to plan an editorial calendar with two types of supporting content:

1. Indirect Content (a.k.a. value-added, “barrier-free” content)

Indirect content is all about building trust, so that when you do ask for a name and an email on your opt-in page, fans have already had a good experience with your free content—and eagerly want more!

Examples: This is the kind of content you’re already creating weekly: blog posts, short teaching videos, images for Facebook and Pinterest, etc. During your mini-campaign,craft content that keeps your theme top of mind.

For example, HGTV uses this strategy by posting helpful content that easily ties to their “Dream Home” giveaway:

 

HGTV uses valuable “how-to” posts on their social media sites that do not directly highlight their “Dream Home” contest (to avoid over-promotion), but the posts always complement the “Dream Home” promotional posts.

2. Premium or Direct Content

Here’s where your lead generating video comes into play. Regularly post direct opportunities for your fans to sign up for your offer, using your video as the teaser.

Examples: Images, status updates and tweets work best when thematically tied together and implemented over a short time period. Fourteen days works great!

#3: Leverage Your Video Across Multiple Social Channels

With your video—and plan—in hand, it’s time to identify how you’re going to maximize its shareability and drive traffic to your landing page.

Here are a few specific ways to promote your video on the big four platforms:

YouTube

First things first: upload your video to YouTube and optimize it with a URL (in the description), a great title and a clear call to action. Also, consider adding a video overlay that links to your landing page for extra traction. These are basically clickable banner ads.

 

Make sure to include a call to action and link in the description box.

Facebook

Share your video in a status update with a clear call to action. Then you can push additional traffic to it using Promoted Posts (set these up right on your post) and Page Post Ads (which also appear in the right-hand column and can be targeted to non-fans too).

Hint: With 60% of Facebook users now accessing Facebook from a mobile device, learn how to set up mobile-only ads in the Power Editor as well.

Twitter

Twitter is a platform we don’t associate strongly with video yet. So tweet your YouTube link (along with a link to your opt-in page) and stand out from the crowd!

Bonus: YouTube videos display right on Twitter.com; no click-through is needed.

 

To stand out from all of the noise, take advantage of the video capabilities on Twitter.

Pinterest

Adding YouTube videos to Pinterest is a great way to spark shares. Whenever someone comes across your pinned video, the PLAY button is featured over the image, so it stands apart from all of the static images around it.

Remember: Fill in your pin’s description with a URL and call to action.

 

Many people don’t know that you can pin your videos and that they play inside the Pinterest platform. Yet another place to spread the word!

Making Your Mini-Campaign a Success

Armed with a quarterly strategic plan and premium content (your video, your giveaway, plus all the indirect content that supports both), you can convert fans into quality leads and eventually, loyal customers.

And you can continue to do so all year by focusing on new campaigns, themes and content, giving structure (and measurability) to your editorial calendar.

Now it’s your turn. What’s one list-building tip that should be part of every “mini-campaign”? Share your experience in the comment box below.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-generate-leads-with-video-marketing/

Author:Amy Porterfield

What Is The Future Of Email Marketing?

Does email marketing even have a future? With every new social media phenomenon opening up new marketing channels, the doubters say no, email marketing is on its way out.

Only it isn’t. If anything, it’s on the rise! Despite all the popular new kids on the marketing block, email continues to more than hold its own.

Why? Because it works, that’s why. It’s more cost-effective, that’s another why. And there is a number of other whys that point to a positive future for email marketing.

Customers Prefer Email Marketing

Perhaps the strongest case for email marketing, however, is that it is far and away the consumer’s preferred method for receiving marketing messages. According to the 2012 Channel Preference Survey, 77% of online consumers would rather get permission-based marketing messages via email over any other marketing channel. How did they feel about Facebook? Only 4% of respondents would prefer to receive marketing messages there. Twitter? 1%.

So while people are happy to like and follow brands through the social media networks, right now that’s not how or where they want to be marketed to.

Email Is BIG!!!

As big as Facebook and Twitter are getting, email is still bigger. A lot bigger. Worldwide, there are three times as many email accounts as all of the Facebook and Twitter accounts combined.

It’s also predicted that email accounts will continue to grow in the coming years, as will email traffic. So, more people on email, sending more emails – it doesn’t exactly sound like a death knell for email marketing, does it?

Email Marketing Is Getting BIGGER!!!

The increase of social media and mobile usage has seen email marketing grow at a phenomenal rate in recent years. The years to come will see even bigger growth as more businesses take up online marketing.

The use of email marketing is growing because it works. It can be far more cost-effective than other marketing channels, and deliver a very impressive, measurable return on investment that social media is still unable to accurately demonstrate. That’s why 63% of marketers plan on increasing their spending on email marketing in the coming year.

Facing The Future

Of course, this isn’t to say that email marketing is a guaranteed success and you can just reap the rewards of its growth without changing the way you use it. Because to get the best from email marketing in the future – the very near future – you will need to ensure you’re moving with the times:

Optimise Your Email Campaigns For Mobile Users

More and more people are reading emails on their smartphones and other mobile devices. That means it’s vitally important that your emails can be easily opened on these platforms, and that they still look good too. Luckily, there is already a move in email marketing software towards innovative solutions for mobile optimisation.

Integrate Your Email Marketing With Social Media Marketing

You no longer have to depend on just your website and email marketing to get your news out, so why would you? Social media can extend the reach of your messages, quickly and easily. Utilize social media marketing by adding share buttons, forward to a friend or any other direct to social icon to your emails – it enables the people that like your content to be able to share it with their networks. It’s ideal for list building too.

Don’t Forget The Kids

If you’re aiming at the youth market, bear in mind that their natural marketing habitat is more social media and mobile than email. They’re more willing to be marketed to through these channels than their older counterparts.

The doubters can doubt, but the figures and consumer mindset point to a very bright future for email marketing.

What’s your views?  Do you think email marketing has a future?  Let us know by leaving a comment below!

http://onlineincometeacher.com/traffic/the-future-of-email-marketing/
Author: Shannon Forbush

Maximizing Your Small Business Potential Through Email Marketing

A lot of businesses have been using email marketing for a while, and it has become so common that you might not even think about it as “marketing.” Nevertheless, every time you open an email newsletter, promotional offer or even a “thank you” for buying a product, you are on the receiving end of an email marketing campaign. So let’s get right down to the basics of what email marketing is and whether or not it’s right for you and your small business.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing, in the most general sense, is exactly what it sounds like. It refers to marketing campaigns driven by email. But what does that mean? Think about this: every time you’ve ever received a promotional pamphlet on the street, or been handed a coupon for spending X amount of dollars at a retailer, or even simply read a magazine, you’ve been participating in “paper marketing.” Now imagine that instead of being handed a pamphlet, a coupon or a magazine, you receive in your email inbox a promotional message, a printable 10% off coupon, and a company newsletter from a small business. That would be an example of how email marketing works.

Why Email Marketing?


People use email marketing because it works, and it works extremely well, if done correctly. Email marketing allows for a secondary outlet of direct sales, data-driven results, and fosters the relationship between you and your customer. You may have to spend a little bit on email marketing software applications or services, but the amount of money that you save by not using paper and stamps, as well as the proven efficacy of the approach, makes it more of an appealing venture for most businesses. In fact, many small businesses use email marketing in conjunction with social media campaigns as well as; Quick Response (QR) code campaigns and experience great success with this multilateral approach. To top it all off, all of these campaign ideas are environmentally friendly.

Are There Any Downsides to Email Marketing?

There are a couple of downsides if you do not engage in email marketing correctly. A lot of users might label marketed emails as spam, which is something that you do not want. In fact, there are certain situations in which you might be unconsciously breaking the law by not adhering to specific anti-spam guidelines while email marketing!

For example, you cannot send emails to people that have not already agreed to receive them by other means. Fortunately, there are ways to drive reputable email marketing campaigns that adhere to all of the guidelines and do not get you or your small business blacklisted as spam. Unfortunately, without that know-how, you are looking at either studying up or hiring a third party. And to top it all off, you have to make sure that the emails that you are sending are relevant, effective, and aesthetically pleasing. This means design, layout, editing, etc.  Without these skills you may be hiring out-of-the-office help, and that can get to be a bit expensive.

Is It For You?

I would definitely suggest looking into it. The numbers don’t lie (you can see them here), and plenty of small businesses profit from the switch rather than suffer from it, as long as they do it correctly. As mentioned before, email marketing utilized in conjunction with social media sites can be a great way to enhance and stimulate your base of loyal followers by sending out printable coupons and exclusive promotional information. However, you may find that the cost outweighs the benefit for you and your company when it comes to email marketing.

There are free trial versions of email marketing software out there as well as more professional programs to use.  My suggestion is to try out one or two of these, explore it a little bit, and use that to make your decision.  There are pros and cons to this marketing approach, so make sure that you take both into consideration and weigh them out when deciding the future of your small business.

Do you use email marketing for your business?  If so, which email marketing provider do you use?  If you don’t use any email marketing, do you have any questions you would like answering?  Let us know by leaving your comments below!

http://onlineincometeacher.com/business-tips/maximizing-potential-through-email-marketing/
author:Miles Hall

3 Reasons Why Facebook “Likes” is More Effective Than the Email List Today?

In the past, email list building is considered as one of the most important things to do for the marketer. However, it has beginning to lose its effectiveness with the advent of the effects of “Facebook Likes” marketing.

Here are the 3 reasons why a Facebook Like is More Effective than a Email Lead?

#1 Automation Equals No Interaction

Getting tons of email messages on an automated system into your inbox each day, can be quite frustrating especially if you have participated to be opted in many subscribers’ listings. For the first few emails, it may seem ok for you. However, you may start to feel that the emails are getting so “spammy” that you might as well delete them the moment you see them.

Facebook “Likes” are different. This is because the prospect will actually see more of your brand and it will make your brand look more credible to the prospect. He or she will receive your latest updates, links, pictures and videos on their walls. The prospects can interacts with you  by asking you questions and such. The prospect will feel that your brand is a real person, not a robot, who is there to solve their problems or simply dialogue with them.

#2 Facebook Likes Are More Viral

When you subscribed to a email list, you will normally receive e-newsletters, promotions and such every now and then. Whenever I see it, I would just skim it through, press the ‘delete’ button and that’s it. No need to bother to email to my friends because firstly it is so troublesome to paste every single email addresses of the people I think they may like the article. And if I keep on sending these newsletter, will my friends think that I am trying to sell them something?

Hence, the viral effect for email listing is slow and not effective as the level of trust between the prospect and the company is very low.

When you press the “Like”  or “Share” button on a particular article or brand on Facebook, naturally all of your friends in your network will notice it when they visited your Wall. If they “Like” it, they will do the same thing as you. And by doing so, instantly, all the friends on their network will also know. This will go on and on with the potential to spread the word among the 500 million Facebook users around the world. Sharing of your Likes and stuffs on Facebook is more effective and looks more trustworthy compare to forwarding stuffs to email listings.

#3 Real Time vs Scheduled Time

Speed is everything today. Getting email updates on a regular scheduled updates is considered slower than getting real-time updates on your Facebook. With the advent of internet phones, it provides much more convenience to mobile users to check their Facebook notifications, at any time in any part of the world.

The marketing manager of today should embrace speedy real time updates as their top priority.

Here’s a memorable quote from renowned news guru, Rupert Murdoch,

“The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.“

As technology improves and many things are growing at “Road Runners” speed, especially on the internet, the marketers must adapt to it faster in order to be ahead of their competition. By accepting the fact that getting Facebook Likes is more popular and effective than getting a list of email subscribers now, the marketers should divert their attentions more towards Facebook and social media marketing strategies instead.

So remember to “Like” my articles on your Facebook!

Source:

author: Jacky Tan

http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing

Email Marketing - 5 Reasons Your Online Business Needs It

If you have not ventured into email marketing with your online business yet, you definitely should. There are many reasons why you owe this to your online business, listed below are five great reasons why you absolutely must be doing it.

Reason 1

Obviously first and foremost would be money. The simplicity to send out a single email to the whole lot of your list makes money making a lot less stressful. As you would know companies like Aweber or get response are very popular programs that enable you to do everything you need to have a successful list. Here you can store emails, send out email blasts, create email capture forms etc.

Reason 2

The ability to set up an auto responder series. This basically means you can set an email to send whenever you want. What you do is create your email, or several and set them to be sent at a time convenient to you. This is extremely powerful as you can set up promotional emails to be sent, while you are sleeping, holidaying, enjoying luxury time, etc. Another great use for this is your welcome message. Set this up so when a person subscribes to your list, they get a personal welcome and thank you message from you. People love that.

Reason 3

Easy Communication. If you need to send out a quick email to let your customers know something, then this is perfect. Simply create your email, then click send once and it goes to every single member on your list. Extremely time saving.

Reason 4

The ability to rent your list to other marketers. Basically known as a solo ad. This is an excellent income stream in itself. What happens is you advertise your list available for solo ads in various places and then interested marketers contact and pay you to send an email promoting their product to your list. This is extremely beneficial for both parties. You make money for the use of your list. They make money by sending a promotional email to your list. Win - win.

Reason 5

It is an excellent way to build a relationship with your customers. If your readers like what you have to say, they are more likely to buy your products when you promote one.

So there you have it, 5 great reasons why you need to get into email marketing right now. With those 5 benefits alone you should be seeing a lot more income to your business, you will also save yourself a lot of time.

Article Source:
EzineArticles.com
Author: Victoria Barrett