by Alyssa Seaney | Sep 26, 2016
Your time is valuable. You know that marketing online can help you achieve more sales and maybe you have a plan you’ve already implemented. This video gives a brief overview on why you may want to consider using a digital marketing agency to help you instead of doing it yourself, keeping you from putting time towards other important parts of your...
by Alyssa Seaney | Sep 8, 2016
The freebie is a popular way to entice a new subscriber to offer up their information so that you can put them on your email list. It’s still a great way to get someone to sign up. The important thing about a freebie is that it should be useful, valuable and of the same quality as the things you sell to your audience. If it’s a lesser value, they may not realize it and they will think this is an example of the type of work that you do and not buy your products or services. If you are serious about getting more clients, your freebie needs to be the example of what your audience expects. However, never make your free gift something that you have to produce separately for each person; that would be too difficult and take too long. You want it to ideally only cost you something to produce one time. EBooks This is a great gift to give away, especially if you use one you normally sell so that it has a perceived value to the visitor. If it’s something you normally sell on your website or elsewhere, then the visitor feels a lot of incentive to get the free item. Software If you create any type of downloadable tools, software, plugins, or apps or have permission through private label rights to use them as freebie giveaways and it’s something very useful for your audience, this is another really great free gift to give your subscribers. This works best if the freebie is something your audience can use in conjunction with your products or services....
by Alyssa Seaney | Sep 7, 2016
You’ve finally got some subscribers to your email list, and now you want to start getting some interaction from your subscribers. You want them to read the information and answer your calls to action. But first, you have to get them to open the emails. All that starts with crafting subject lines that encourage opening of your email messages. Pique Their Interest Don’t give everything away in the subject line. Instead use the space to make them want to open the email and know more. Think about what they see when they get the email in their inbox and put the words in the right order to pique interest. Tease Them Email subject lines are a good way to bring humor and a fun personality to your email messages. Keeping your audience in mind, make your email subject lines evoke the emotions that your audience needs to open them. Make Them Curious The email subject line should make the reader curious enough to open it. If you know the audience you’re sending emails to well, and you should, it should not be difficult to craft curiosity-seeking email subject lines for them. Don’t Be Too Clever You don’t want to mislead your audience, so be careful about trying to be too clever with your email message subject lines. If they feel duped when they open the email, no matter how good your offer is, they’ll be unhappy. Put Keywords First Some people search their emails using various keywords; make it easy for them by including those keywords within the first three words of the email...
by Alyssa Seaney | Sep 5, 2016
Your best chance of success with email marketing is to create a plan based on the products that you want to promote. It all starts with your product funnel. In a series of posts, we aim to inform you of everything you need to keep in mind when starting to capture emails and start email marketing campaigns. All email marketing should be focused toward promoting your products and/or services and that requires planning. The following steps will help you increase the results of your email marketing. Craft a Working Product Funnel You probably already have various products and services, but you may not have designed a product funnel yet that helps you understand how everything is interconnected and works together. Understanding this can help you keep your different lists and promotions in order. Design Sales Pages for Each Product Each page should tell your audience the benefits of purchasing the product. Remember, a sales pages focus is on the audience, not on you. Benefits over features, always. Pretend you are the client and answer all the questions and concerns they might have right on the sales page. Start Appropriate Email Lists for Each Product Using your autoresponder, create the lists for each product or service that you will promote. At the minimum you will want a general email list for people who visit the front page of your blog and then two lists for each product you sell. Create one list for people who purchased the product and one list for people who just want more info about the particular product. Name them appropriately so that...
by Alyssa Seaney | Sep 2, 2016
Business cards are a tried-and-true method of marketing your business. It’s marketing and promotional material that almost every business owner has, but often doesn’t use to its fullest potential. The first step to using a business card right is to create one that you’re proud to show to people. Hire a Graphic Designer The best way to create an attention-grabbing business card is to hire a graphic designer who has experience creating business cards. They’re going to give you your best results and something you can be confident in. You can still use any printer you want once the card is designed. If you can’t find one locally, try looking nationally to find a contractor. Use Color Correctly You want to use the colors that are associated with your logo and your brand, but you may need to use them differently to make them readable on a small business card. Try out different arrangements to see what works best. Use Readable Fonts If your font is not readable, then the card is useless. Print a test from a sample on your own computer to find out if it’s readable before getting 100 cards printed. Typically, if you can read it okay that way, then it’ll look even better after being printed professionally. Answer the Right Questions The recipient of the card should be able to tell who, why, where, what, and how to do business with the card owner. If people don’t know what you do by looking at the card, then the card is useless without you being there. You want them to know...
by Alyssa Seaney | Sep 1, 2016
Using business promotion materials is a common way to advertise. It’s been done for a long time because it actually works. In the trade they are called business premiums. Some of the materials you will use within your business, such as envelopes, stationary, jump drives, mugs and even staplers, but others you can give to clients to use so that they don’t forget about you. Branded Envelopes Getting branded envelopes isn’t much more expensive than getting regular envelopes, but when you send out mail, it will make a difference when they see your branding on that envelope to whether they open the mail or not. T-Shirts or Clothing While wearables can be risky due to different styles and sizes, for some businesses this is a perfect way to promote their brand. If you have a food-related or casual business, you may find hats, aprons, oven mitts or something like that useful as a marketing tool. Coffee Mugs Even if people don’t drink coffee, a branded mug is something they generally appreciate because they can use it for a number of things - even as paperclip holder if they want to. It’s a great way to make sure they see your brand frequently, whenever they use they mug. Mouse Pads Almost everybody uses mouse pads, so they make a great way to promote your brand. The people using it will see your logo on a daily basis and think of you. Having your business on the top of their mind, even if subconsciously, is a huge win. USB Sticks If you have a tech business,...
