Kristen Gaminga says, “Email marketing allows you to reach a highly targeted audience at a low cost. In fact, experts at Campaign Monitor, an email marketing company, estimate that an effective email marketing message has the potential to result in $38 in revenue, for just $1 of marketing investment. Here are some email marketing conversion tips all small businesses can use: 1. Include descriptive tags with your images. Online publication MarketingCharts cites data revealing that the average person receives more than 400 commercial emails a month. Emails that include images can help your... [...]

Ajay Paghdal says, “Every business needs a good marketing plan. One that will help your business, and your products and services get in front of the right people. Of course, advertising and social media work, but I’m talking about something that will get you tons of traffic and exposure from the right people. It will also help build up your SEO, so your chances of getting found organically increases too. What am I talking about? Blogger outreach. Wait. Blogger outreach? For businesses? That’s right! Let’s take a closer look at what exactly blogger outreach is and why it... [...]

Danny Mola says, “As new technology is introduced, the way people market their businesses continually changes. Part of cultivating a thriving small business is learning which marketing channels to utilize and which customers to target. While businesses often focus their efforts on trying to attract new customers, statistics show that it is more financially beneficial to focus marketing efforts on customer retention. Statistics provided by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company show that businesses who increase customer retention rates by just five percent will usually see an increase... [...]

Aja Frost says, “Customization and personalization aren’t the same thing. Technically, any email can be personalized by adding basic details about your prospect like their name and company. Personalization is better than a truly generic email, but it’s not enough. Buyers can tell the difference between a canned template and an email that’s specifically written for them — and they’re far more receptive to the latter. Crafting a unique email shows your prospects they’re worth your time and energy, and increases its relevance to their needs. As a result, they feel more valued... [...]

Emma Brudner says, “Much thought leadership is dedicated to the art of selling: pitching, presenting, closing, building trust, developing a relationship, and a myriad of other skills. But showing off these talents depends on getting on prospects’ calendars in the first place. That’s when active selling skills get put on ice, and reps have to flex their follow-up email or phone call muscles instead. Following up is an art in its own right. While persistence is a key component, messaging is perhaps even more critical. Prospects are bombarded with emails and other tasks competing for their... [...]

Sonia Simone says, “A common newbie marketing mistake is trying to talk to everyone. There are all kinds of buzzwords around speaking to a specific audience — segmentation, demographics, psychographics, generational marketing. Today Sonia talks about a few pitfalls and best practices. Last week the New York Times ran a funny little piece about the Baby Boomers being The Next Hot Market to sell to. It sparked some thoughts on how (and why) we divide our markets into segments, the perils of trying to speak to everyone with the same message, and some of the dangerous curves on the road to... [...]

Leslie Ye says, “Emails are easy to whip up and send off without a second thought. The fact that we send and receive so many of them makes it seem like each individual email isn’t that important. But it’s time to ditch the mindset that an email is “just” an email. You don’t need to treat each one like your own personal Magna Carta, but you do need to put time and attention into crafting a concise, direct message that’ll get your prospect to take action. From your subject line to your signoff, every word matters. From your intention to your execution, you must be deliberate about... [...]

Liz Willits says, “Imagine this scenario for a moment: You just finished creating the perfect email sign up form. You’ve written compelling copy, offer a valuable lead magnet and display it on every page of your blog. But as you sit at your computer waiting for the email subscribers to flow in, little happens. Your conversion rates are low, and you begin to wonder, “Where did I go wrong?” Unfortunately in this scenario, there’s one item that was missing from the quality checklist: effective design. Good design draws the eye of your website visitors, keeps them engaged and plays... [...]

Aja Frost says, “Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead.” Getting your point across in as few words as possible takes time and effort. But it’ll pay off: According to an analysis of more than 40 million emails, the most effective were between 50 and 125 words. Wondering how you can cut your messages down to this length? Here are the most common ways you may be wasting space. 1) Being Too Wordy Make your sentences as short as possible. If your prospect struggles to get your point, they’ll probably stop reading”. 8... [...]

Jason Moore says, “What does YouTube have to do helping you grow your email list? Well, a lot actually. By creating video content, you give yourself another place for people to discover you and your business. And the more people see your content and learn about your business, the more people will have the opportunity to sign up to your email list. So how can you get started? In this post, I’m going to go over two of the main steps to growing your email list on this popular social channel. The first will be about setting up your YouTube channel so that you can add a link to your sign... [...]