xMarketing Newsletter – 09/30/08
xMarketing Tip
Last week we talked about drip marketing and how to go about setting up your campaign. That is all good, except now that you have a campaign, you need an email list to target.
The first thing you need to do is have an automated system of capturing emails. If you use one of the many email marketing services (ConstantContact, iContact, etc.), it is very easy. They all provide a little piece of website code you can paste on your website. This code will put up a form, and when a website visitor fills out the form, their name and email are automatically inserted into the email marketing database. That way, you don’t have to manually grab someone’s email and type it in the database. If you do it the old fashioned way, then a web form can just email you the new subscribers, and you can type them into your email software.
Make sure the form has as few fields as necessary. For an email drip marketing, only ask for name and email. The more data you ask for, the less often visitors will fill it out.
To get people to sign up, you need an offer. Something like “Get my advice on XYZ delivered to your email weekly….Free!” or “Homeowners, before you buy a house, fill out this form to receive a free white paper on the top 10 ways people lose money when buying.” You can experiment with different offers, but make sure you have one. Visitors will NOT respond to “Contact Us Form” or “Subscribe to our newsletter.”. Tell them what is in it for THEM if they give you their email address.
In the perfect world, all of your drip marketing customers come from your website. However, that can take awhile, depending on your website traffic and the power of your offer. I suggest seeding your list with your existing customers. Most of them should be your allies, and they won’t mind getting some information from you. Depending on your existing customer list, that could be a large set of people. Some of your customers will forward emails they especially like to others, and you are off and running.
Next, I add prospects to the list. Most of us get prospects from sources outside of the internet as well; referrals, advertising, sales calls, etc. While they are deciding about using your services, put them on the list. You might as well drip market your active prospects as well as your passive ones.
Sometimes, that still isn’t enough…you want to grow fast. Should you go out and buy a list of emails to email market to? No. If you do that, you may be in violation of the CAN SPAM act. In addition, the response from users on unsolicited emails is extremely poor, and you risk getting put on a SPAM black list. However, you can partner with a complimentary business to leverage their email address list. For example, a marketing company is a good partner to NeoNexus web design. NeoNexus can ask a marketing company to let us do a one time email blast to their customer list. Ideally, they would send out the email under their name, with an offer NeoNexus provides that routes them to our website and sign up form, but it can work if NeoNexus sends the email ourselves and references the partner prominently. Why should the marketing company consider doing this?
- we can exchange email lists and allow them to do the same thing with NeoNexus customers
- if they trust NeoNexus as a partner, by recommending NeoNexus and having us deliver superior services to their customers, they are becoming a trusted advisor to their customers. This strengthens relationships very fast and increases referrals
- we can offer them a commission on any work we receive
Building your email list is one of THE most important marketing goals you have in the 21st century.
Green IT Solutions can bring Small Business Cost Savings.
REDMOND, Wash.- Sept. 29, 2008 – Small businesses increasingly rely on technology to help the environment and save money, according to results of a survey released today. Findings show that 60 percent of small-business decision-makers save money by using sustainable technologies.
The telephone survey – conducted on behalf of Microsoft Corp. by KRC Research – of 250 small-business IT decision-makers nationwide discovered a growing focus on environmental concerns. Thirty-eight percent of respondents reported that their companies are more focused on being environmentally friendly than they were one year ago.
An overwhelming majority (69 percent) of respondents reported that environmentally friendly practices are important for their business. When it comes to methods for greening their business, 94 percent of those surveyed also believe technology is an important tool to help accomplish that goal.
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Cool Internet Tool of the Week
Tired of remembering all your different passwords for your banks, insurance, blogs, and all your other on-line options? Download Password Agent from Moon software
www.moonsoftware.com
It runs on your computer in your quick launch bar at the bottom. Whenever you need a password for a website, you open it up and find it. The passwords are encrypted, and if you lose the master password, there is NO going back. The software is free for up to 25 passwords, and then upgrading for $20 gets you unlimited storage.
Tech Tip
What is that Fn key for on my keyboard?
Check out your laptop keyboard and you will find a key, usually with blue print, labeled Fn. This is a FuNction Key used to get more features or functions from you keyboard. Some desktop keyboards also have this key. Anything on your keyboard with the same color, usually blue, is activated by the Fn key. The most common use is to move your computer display to an external monitor or projection device or to lock your PC when you walk away. (look for the picture of the screen or lock on one of the other F1- F12 keys) You can also use the Fn key to create a number keyboard with the letters J, K, L etc. Though you may not have a lot of need for the Fn key – you should be aware of its features in case you accidently invoke it. Fn + Right arrow, on some systems, shifts your screen 90 degrees! Caps. Lock + Fn on some keyboards locks the Fn which then locks the number pad making it impossible to type the letters J, K & L without getting the numbers 1, 2, 3 instead.