Email Marketing

October
27 2015

How to be Consistent with Your Email Marketing

How to be Consistent with Your Email Marketing

Email Marketing can be a great marketing strategy to grow your business, and is one of the main online marketing strategies that I promote.  In fact, in my last post I talked about the ONE thing you can do to get awesome email marketing results.

However, your email marketing will never work unless your email marketing efforts are consistent, and this is an area that a lot of independent business owners, coaches and consultants struggle with staying consistent with their email marketing.

In this post, I will be sharing two key ways you can stay consistent with your email marketing.

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  1. Create Autoresponders–  An Autoresponder is a series of emails that are automatically sent over a period of time.  Autoresponders are great because they  help you to automate your email marketing.  The hardest part is mapping out the flow of the email sequence, then creating the initial emails, but once they are created, they will pretty much run on autopilot, so this will help you to stay consistent with your email marketing.  There are two types of Autoresponders-  Time-based Autoresponders and Action-based Autoresponders:
    1. Time-based Autoresponders–  Are a series of emails sent out over a period of time.  A time-based autoresponder series could look like this, someone signs up for an ebook, webinar, checklist, email list, etc.  The person receives an email immediately, then in 3 days, then 7 days, then 10 days, then 20 days etc.  A series of relevant emails are sent over a period of time, hence the name “time-based autoresponders”.
    2. Action-based Autoresponders–  Are a series of emails sent based on actions taken by the subscriber.  An action-based autoresponder series could look like this, person subscribes, downloads, or requests an ebook, webinar, checklist, etc.  Person opens email and clicks link.  The action of clicking the link prompts the next email in the series, the person opens the next email, this prompts another email, etc.  This autoresponder is based on the actions the individual is taking, hence the name “action-based autoresponder”

Whether you choose Time-based Autoresponders or Action-based Autoresponders, or a combination of the two, Autoresponders are a great way to stay consistent with your email marketing.

2. Publish a Company Enewsletter/Ezine–  Autoresponders are great because they run in the background.  However, most of the time the Autoresponder series ends, so you don’t want to rely just on the Autoresponders, you want to make sure that you are also sending out consistent and timely information to your lists, so having consistent frequent emails in the form of a newsletter is a great way to stay consistent with your email marketing.You will have to decide how often you would like to publish your newsletter (i.e. daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.).  Once you decide how often you will be publishing a company newsletter it is important to stick to that schedule. Since the beginning of this year, I have decided to publish my company newsletter the 2nd Wednesday of every month, and I have consistently published it that day every month this year (no exception).  Sticking to a schedule helps keep you accountable to when your information needs to go out, it shows your audience that you are professional, and it helps to keep your company top of mind.

These are just two main ways that you can be consistent with your email marketing.  What other ways have you been consistent with your email marketing?   Be sure to comment below.

Also, don’t forget to download the Marketing Essentials Checklist of 21 Things You Must do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Email Marketing.

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on How to be Consistent with Your Email Marketing  |  in Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants
October
20 2015

This ONE Thing Can Get You AWESOME Email Marketing Results

This One Thing Can Get You AWESOME Email Marketing Results
Email Marketing can be a great strategy for your business if done correctly!  In fact, in my last post I talked about 5 Types of Email Content that Get You Awesome Results.

However, the problem is that many business owners, coaches, and consultants are missing a key element in their email marketing strategy, and this one thing is almost guaranteed to get you better results from your email marketing.

So in this post, I will be sharing the ONE thing you can do to get AWESOME Email Marketing Results.

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The one thing that is proven to get you better results on your email marketing effort is segmentation.  If you are not practicing segmenting your list, you are missing out on a huge potential to get better results.

So why is segmentation important?  When your lists are segmented into key groups then you can create targeted messages designed specifically for that key group of individuals, and you get better results from targeted messages rather than general and generic messages.

So here are some steps to segmenting your email lists:

  1. Create Main Lists (i.e. Customers, Clients, Prospects, Email Subscribers, etc.)
  2. Within your main list, segment the list into smaller groups (i.e. One-Time Customers, Repeat Customers, Loyal Clients, Prospects for Product A, Prospects for Product B, Subscribers from Website, Subscribers from Blog Post, etc.)
  3. You can segment it even smaller if you have other types of information available (i.e. Age, Gender, Location, etc.)
  4. Once you have created a segment, your goal is to create a campaign specifically for that particular segment (i.e. special offer for repeat customers who live in a particular area, invitation to prospects who expressed an interest in service A to trial service A, etc.)
  5. Your results will be much better because the message is tailored and directed to a very specific group, so the message will be more targeted and more than likely will resonate more with that particular audience.

So here is an example of an effective segmentation:

  1. Main List-  Prospects
  2. Segmentation-  Realtors
  3. Additional Segmentation-  Women Realtors
  4. Offer-  Invitation for women Realtors to attend a women’s luncheon in which real estate tips will be shared.

Because the list and the offer are so targeted, you will more likely get better results from this email marketing campaign compared to:

  1. Main List-  Prospects
  2. No segmentation-  sent to the entire prospect list
  3. Offer-  Invitation to a business networking luncheon

You may get a response from this type of email, but you will get a much better response from the first example that is more targeted with a segmented list and a targeted offer specifically for that segment.

So if you’re looking to get better results from your email marketing, try segmenting your list and offering specific promotions for each segment.

Are you segmenting your email list?  If so, do you find that you get better results from a segmented list and a targeted email campaign?  Be sure to comment below.

Also, don’t forget to download the Marketing Essentials Checklist of 21 Things You Must do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Email Marketing.

 

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on This ONE Thing Can Get You AWESOME Email Marketing Results  |  in Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants
October
13 2015

5 Types of Email Content that Get You Awesome Results

5 Types of Email Content that Get You Awesome Results

Email Marketing can be a great way to grow your business, stay top of mind, and nurture your leads, but getting real results from your email marketing can be difficult. 

After sending many emails and working with companies in different industries, I have noticed that there are five types of email content that get you the best results.

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  1. Video

    Video by far always gets the most engagement in email.  When sending emails to prospects or clients,  be sure to include a relevant video that will resonate with your audience.

    The key to a successful video is to Keep It Super Short (KISS).  The most effective videos are less than 5 minutes.  People are busy and don’t necessarily have the time to watch long videos, so it’s better to keep it short and sweet.

    When I placed this short (less than 2-minutes)  video, the 3 C’s of Email Marketing, in my monthly email newsletter, it received the most engagement.  Check it out:

  2. Blog Posts

    Informative blog posts always get high engagement in your email, and email is a great way to remarket your blog posts to your email list.

    Pick your top performing blog posts, and include it in your emails when it is relevant to the theme of the email.

    The key is to peak your audience’s interest by including the first few lines of your blog post in your email, and then linking them to the entire blog post on your website.

    Some people include the entire blog post in the email, but I think a better strategy is to include the first few lines, and then have them click to read more.

    I prefer this method because it allows you to track how many people were interested in reading more, you can measure what topics get the most engagement in your email, and it shortens the length of your email (the longer your email the less likely people will read the entire email).

  3. Images

    Most people are very visual, so including relevant images in your emails can help to increase your engagement.

    Information Graphics (Infographics) are great images to create and include in your emails.

    Most Infographics are very long, so including the beginning of an infographic and encouraging your audience to click to see the entire infographic is a great strategy.

    Even if you don’t create the infographic yourself, if it will resonate with your audience, there is no harm in including it in your email and giving credit to the source and linking to the source of the infographic.

    Linking to the infographics for companies who complement what you do, or even affiliate companies can be very useful for your audience.

  4. Audio

    In addition to the items listed above, audio also receives high engagement in your email, so if you don’t have a video to share with your audience, try including links to audio.

    Not everyone loves to read information, so when you offer information in various formats including audio, you are able to get the attention of individuals who prefer to listen to your content instead of having to read or watch it.

    This is why Podcasts are so popular and are a great medium for coaches and consultants.

  5. Special Offers

    Providing great content in your email like videos, blog posts, images, and audio is always a good idea, but having a compelling offer that resonates with your audience is even better, because that is where you make your sales.

    So be sure to send out emails that include relevant special offers or promotions.  If the offer is something that resonates with your audience you will see engagement with offer, which leads to more business for you.

Are you using any of these types of content in your email?  If so, what content works well with your audience.  Be sure to comment below.

Also, don’t forget to download the the Marketing Essentials Checklist of 21 Things You Must do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Email Marketing.

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on 5 Types of Email Content that Get You Awesome Results  |  in Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Uncategorized
October
06 2015

7 Surefire Ways to Build an Awesome Email List

7 Surefire Ways to Build an Awesome Email List

As an independent business owner, coach or consultant, if you want to build your business online, then email marketing should be a part of your marketing mix.  If you already use email marketing, you know the importance of continuously growing your email list with interested and engaged prospects, but building an email list can be a difficult task.

In this blog post, I will share 7 Surefire Organic Ways to Build an Awesome Email List:

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  1. Send an email invitation to your current database of contacts–  You probably have a database of contacts with e-mail addresses. This is a great starting point to CREATE or GROW your opt-in e-mail list. Send an invitation to your ENTIRE database of email contacts INVITING them to opt-in to receive your e-mails. Be sure to let them know the valuable information you will be providing them so they will WANT to opt-in to receive your emails. One mistake I see a lot of people make is they just add their contacts to their e-mail list, don’t do this! Make sure they have opted in (you don’t want to be a spammer- someone who consistently sends e-mails to individuals who did not request it!)
  2. Offer an AWESOME incentive for joining your email list (i.e. FREE report, e-Book, white paper, checklist, etc.). Everyone likes to get something for FREE, so provide information that will be VALUABLE to your contacts and use that as an incentive for them to opt-in to your e-mail list.  Some people refer to this as your “lead magnet” because the right offer can act as a magnet for leads for your business.
  3. Add a sign-up box on your website and on social media–  A great tool that will help you grow your e-mail list is to have an e-mail sign-up form and place it on your website, blog, social networks, etc. You can use the same offer that you created in #2 as an incentive to sign-up for your e-mail list in these various places!  Most email service providers offer an option and provide support on how to add an email sign-up box to your website, social media and your blog.  Check with your email service provider to learn more about adding this function to your platforms.  My email service provider is Constant Contact, they easily integrate with my website and blog with a simple WordPress plugin, and I’m able to connect my sign-up form with Facebook with a simple Facebook App.
  4. Consistently promote joining your email list on all of your platforms–  You have to promote joining your e-mail list on your social networks, e-mail, website, blog, etc.  Create posts that will encourage individuals to sign-up to join your list. You can’t rely just on your initial list of contacts and the sign-up forms you have online, you have to continuously promote joining your e-mail list.
  5. Promote joining your email list offline–  The promotion of joining your e-mail list is not limited to just online; you can promote joining your e-mail list by including a QR Code (Quick Response Code) that links to your e-mail sign up form.  The QR Code can be placed on your business card, brochures, flyers, etc.  Check out my QR Code below:
    Sign-Up FormScan to join my email list!
    You can also promote joining your list w    hen you host events or have a booth or table at an event, be sure to have an email sign-up form at your table and ask people to join your email list.  You can always use the item you created in #2 as an incentive to get people to join your email list offline too.
  6. Use Text Message Marketing to promote joining your email list–  Another way to promote joining your e-mail list offline is to offer a text to join feature. Make it easy to join your e-mail list by texting a special code to a shortcode, which will then allow them to sign-up via text. Most Email Marketing Service Providers offer this option to their customers.  To see how it works, Text “JOINME” to “42828” to join my email list.
  7. Add a pop-up box to your website–  As annoying as pop-up boxes may be, they do work, so consider adding a pop-up box to your website.  There are many different types of pop-up boxes.  Some appear immediately once you land on someone’s website, others show up when you scroll down the page, and others appear when you are exiting the website.  Whatever option you choose, pop-up boxes really work.  There are several pop-up box tools available, but I use and recommend SumoMe.  SumoMe has a free basic option that works well and has lot of other tools you can use to help to build your email list.

Are you growing your email list?  If so, what methods are you using to grow your email list?  Be sure to let us know by commenting below. 

Need some help with your email marketing?  Be sure to check out the Marketing Essentials Checklist of 21 Things You Must do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Email Marketing.

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  2 Comments  |  in Business, Email Marketing, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants
June
23 2015

How to Create a Simple and Effective Email Marketing Plan

How to Create a Simple and Effective Email Marketing Plan

If you plan to grow or promote your business online, then email marketing should be an essential part of your marketing activity.

One of the best ways to be successful with your email marketing effort is to create an effective email marketing plan.

Your email marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective, in fact, in this post I will walk you through the outline for a simple and effective email marketing plan.

Step 1-  Define the purpose of your email marketing campaigns

[Tweet “[Successful Email Marketing Plan] Step 1- Define the purpose of your email marketing campaigns! #MarketingEssentials #EmailMarketing”]

In this part of your plan, you should:

  • Identify who you are trying to reach (customers, prospects, partners, etc.)
  • Define why you are trying to reach them (to stay top of mind, to provide education, to create brand awareness, to get sales, etc.)
  • What are you trying to achieve from reaching this group of people via email?

Step 2-  Define your email marketing goals

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This part of your plan should cover your email marketing goals:

  • Start by listing your overall goals:  more sales, relationship building, stay top of mind, communicate special promotions, get referrals, etc.
  • Then list the more specific goals you would you like to achieve through email marketing (i.e. get two new clients per month, get three referrals per month, etc.)

Step 3–  Select Your Email Marketing Strategy

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When it comes to email marketing you have several options on types of email marketing campaigns you can create.  Pick the strategies that make sense for your business.

Your strategy could include the following types of email campaigns:

  1. E-Newsletters- An informative e-mail that goes out to your contacts periodically. This could be monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, etc.
  2. Autoresponders– A series of e-mails that automatically go out over a period of time based on someone joining your e-mail list or being added to your email list.
  3. Drip Campaigns– A series of e-mails that automatically go out over a period of time for a specific promotion, or a specific event, etc.

The difference between an autoresponder and a drip campaign is that an autoresponder is a response from an action someone has taken (downloading an eBook, White Paper, Checklist, etc.).  While a drip campaign is a series of promotional campaign emails sent to your list not based on an action they have taken, but solely based on a specific promotional campaign.

The most successful email marketing plans have a combination of types of email marketing strategies.  The e-newsletters work well to stay top of mind because they are consistently going out over a period of time, but the auto responders and drip campaigns work well too because they are usually tied to a specific product, promotion, or services that you would like to generate some business for, so decide what types of campaigns will work well for you business.

Step 4: Create an Email Marketing Calendar

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The next step in your email marketing plan is to create a calendar that maps out all of your emails over an extended period of time.  The time period could be the next 60 days, 90 days, 6 months or even a year.  Your calendar should include the following:

  1. Month/Send Date–  What month and date will this specific email be published to your list?
  2. Email Topic–  What is this specific email about
  3. Type of Email–  Is it a newsletter, or part of a series of emails for an autoresponder or drip campaign.
  4. Email List–  Who will this email be sent to (prospect list, customer list, partner list, combination of lists, etc.)

Taking the time to strategically think through your email marketing effort will help you to create successful email marketing campaigns. 

Are you currently using email marketing in your business?  Do you have an email marketing plan?  If you need assistance creating an successful email marketing plan, contact us to schedule your FREE Email Marketing Success Strategy Session.

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on How to Create a Simple and Effective Email Marketing Plan  |  in Business, Business Development, Email Marketing, Marketing, Small Business, Uncategorized
June
09 2015

The #1 Reason Businesses Struggle to Get Results from Email Marketing

The #1 Reason Businesses Struggle to Get Results from Email Marketing

I recently sent out a survey to my audience, which included the question, “If you are using email marketing in your marketing mix, what do you struggle with the most when it comes to your email marketing?”  The responses varied, but the #1 thing that most business owners, coaches, and consultants said they struggle with was staying consistent.

It’s easy to start sending emails to your list, but it’s hard to stay consistent, and only when you are consistent with your email marketing will you get results, so I decided to put some tips together on how you can stay consistent with your email marketing.

  1. Create an email marketing plan–  in your email marketing plan you will outline your email marketing goals, types of emails you will be sending (e-newsletter, autoresponders, drip campaigns, etc.), how often you will send your emails, when you will send your emails, your email flow, specific topics, etc.When you have a plan, you are better able to execute and to stay on task with getting your emails out.Many business owners, coaches, and consultants, skip the step of creating the email marketing plan, and then they don’t have anything to refer back to and therefore, they become very inconsistent with their efforts.
  2. Select a specific day and time that you would like your emails to go out–  this can be really helpful in staying consistent with sending out your emails.  For example, my monthly e-newsletter goes out the second Wednesday of every month, because I know that it goes out the second Wednesday of every month, I plan my activities around that time frame to make sure that the e-newsletter goes out.In addition, after a couple of years of testing days and times, I figured out that on average I get the best open rates on Wednesdays after 3:00 pm, so now I schedule my e-newsletter to go out the second Wednesday of every month at 3:30 pm.Knowing the time and date my email needs to go out, helps me to stay consistent.
  3. Put it on your calendar–  if you put your publishing dates on your marketing calendar you will be forced to make sure you get your emails out, because you now have a deadline that you have to send out your emails.  If it’s not on your calendar, you will tend to forget to send it out, or because you don’t have a deadline, you will continuously put it off, so place it on your calendar so you can stay consistent.
  4. Plan your topics-  included in your email marketing plan should be what topics you plan to write about and promote in your e-newsletter.  The information you will be sending in the series of emails for your autoresponders, and/or  drip campaigns should also be included in the plan.  When you’ve planned out your topics and information, it makes it much easier to create your emails and to stay consistent.

So, if you create an email marketing plan, set a day and time to publish your emails, put it on your calendar, and plan out your topics in advance, these four things can help you to stay consistent with your email marketing.

Do you have an email marketing plan?  Do you need help with creating your email marketing plan?  We can help, contact us for a FREE email marketing success strategy session.

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on The #1 Reason Businesses Struggle to Get Results from Email Marketing  |  in Business, Business Development, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Uncategorized
February
23 2015

How to use automated emails to grow your business

How to use automated emails to grow your businessAs a small business owner, coach or consultant, email marketing can be a key way to grow your business, but are you using various types of email marketing to grow your business?

Most people think of e-newsletters or e-zines when they think of email marketing, but one of the best ways to grow your business is by strategically using automated emails. Two key types of automated emails are autoresponders and drip campaigns.

Autoresponders

Let’s start with autoresponders.  We’ve probably all seen this type of email in action. Whenever you opt-in to receive a product, service, ebook, white paper, checklist etc.  from a company, we immediately get a response email from the company after the action has taken place.  This is an autoresponder in action.  The email could simply be a “Thank You for Your Business” email or it could even be the delivery of the actual digital product or service via email.  Whatever the case may be, the automatic email that you receive after taking action with that company is an autoresponder.

Autoresponders are great because you can set it in advance and it runs on autopilot.  So if you client signed up for your coaching program or scheduled a consultation you don’t have to manually respond to that client, your autoresponder will take care of the communication for you.  It’s like having a personal assistant who handles your initial communication.  This is not only time saving, but it also makes you more efficient knowing that this part of your business is always taken care of.

Drip Campaigns

In addition to Autoresponders, you may want to automatically send out a series of emails to your clients and/or prospects over a period of time.  Drip campaigns make the process of creating and sending these emails super easy.  You create the emails one time and then when a client is added to the list the emails go out to the client or prospect over a period of time.

All of this happens behind the scenes, so the drip campaigns automatically keep your audience informed without the need for you to actively do the work.   It is super important for you to plan out what drip campaigns you would like to send out.  Make sure that the emails are informative, value-packed, and beneficial to your audience.

For example, many companies like to send out a drip campaign to new customers.  A series of emails welcoming the client and informing them of the various services that you offer and giving valuable and helpful information can really help to start the relationship off in a good way.

Tips:

The key to successful autoresponders and drip campaigns is to keep it relevant and timely. 

By keeping it relevant you are ensuring that the information that you are sending is what your client or prospect needs and can help them in some way.  And by making sure it is timely you want to make sure that you are sending emails at a frequency that is not annoying to the recipient.  Spreading it out over the course of several days is good.  Most people don’t like to receive back to back emails from a company (unless they have signed up for a daily email in which they know they will be receiving frequent emails from the company)

So if you have not done so already, be sure to setup an autoresponder and think about various drip campaigns that you can send out to your clients and prospects.

Are you using automated emails in your business?  If so, are autoresponders and drip campaigns a part of your automatic email mix?  Be sure to share your thoughts below.

 

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on How to use automated emails to grow your business  |  in Business, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized
February
10 2015

Does List Size Really Matter?

E-mail marketing flat illustrationWhen it comes to your email list, does the size of your list really matter? As a business owner, coach or consultant, you probably already know about the importance of having and growing an email list, but did you know that it’s not the size of your email list that is most important, but the quality of the people on your list? As the saying goes, it is better to have an email list of 100 interested prospects, than 1,000 uninterested people.

However, you still want to work on increasing the size of your list because you want to make sure your message is reaching a wider audience each month. Your goal should be to grow your email list with individuals who are interested in what you have to say, and what you have to offer. So the big question is how can you effectively and efficiently grow your email list?

Here are 6 tips to grow your email list:

Offline:

  1. Events– whenever you conduct an event (workshop, seminar, etc.), or if you are presenting at an event, be sure to collect the email addresses of the attendees (or participants who expressed an interest in learning more) . Be sure to disclosure that by signing your list or providing their information they are agreeing to receiving emails from you.
  2. Text Messages– Consider adding a text to join your email list option. Now-a-days people don’t leave home without their smart phones, so making it easy for them to join your email list by simply texting a word to a number and then providing their email address makes it easy to join your email list.
  3. QR Codes- Consider adding QR Codes to your marketing material (business cards, brochures, flyers, etc.) It’s another way to make it easy for people to join your email list. However, I personally don’t really use QR Codes and haven’t gotten a lot of people through this method, but it is still something you could consider.

Online:

  1. Webinars– a great list building strategy is webinars. When you conduct webinars, people have to give their information to sign up for the webinar. Just add a disclosure that signing up for this webinar also gives you permission to add them to your email list.
  2. Lead Pages– Another great online list building strategy is to create a lead magnet (eBook, White Paper, Case Study, Checklist, etc.), and have people enter their information on a specially designed lead page that talks about how great your lead magnet is, and why they need to give you their contact information so they can receive your awesome lead magnet. This technique works really well because you know that you are getting people who are interested in the content that you have to offer
  3. Social Media– Encourage people who follow you on social media to sign-up for your email list so that they can get additional and maybe even exclusive information that you provide only through email. This technique works really well, because if you already have a following on social media, it just makes sense that the next logically step for them is to receive your emails. This also allows the relationship to get stronger when they are not only connected to you via social media, but also receiving your emails.

For more tips, download this Guide Building Your List Can Be a Thing of Beauty by Constant Contact

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  2 Comments  |  in Business, Business Development, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized
September
10 2014

How to Grow Your Business with Relationship Marketing

How to Grow Your Business with Relationship MarketingDictionary.com defines a relationship as a connection, association, or involvement.  It also defines marketing as the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer.  

My definition of Relationship Marketing is the activities involved in building a greater connection with your clients, prospects and partners.  This strong connection often leads to the sale of products or services, and also increases loyalty to your brand or company.

With that said, Relationship Marketing is a key part of your overall marketing strategy, and should occur both online and offline.

In this blog post I will mention a few activities that you should include in your Relationship Marketing:

ONLINE

In order to build a connection online with your clients, prospects, and partners, it is important to have an online presence.  Included in your online presence should be the following activities:

  • A Company Blog–  In addition to having a company website, a company blog can help to build the relationship that you have with your audience, because a blog allows you to show your expertise, knowledge and personality in ways that a website alone does not accomplish.  The key to a successful business blog is:
    1. It should be updated frequently
    2. It should contain valuable content relevant to your audience
    3. It should showcase the personality of your brand
  • A Social Media Presence–  It’s not necessary to be on all the popular social networks out there, but it is beneficially for your company to be on social networks that have a high percentage of your target market, and networks that will showcase your business well.  Social Networks are a great way to strength your connection with your clients, prospects, and partners because it allows you to create a conversation around your company, industry, products, services, values, beliefs, etc.  The key to a successful social media presence is:
    1. Know your audience
    2. Post content that is interesting to your audience
    3. Create conversations
  • An E-Newsletter or EZine–  An email publication that your company produces is a great way to strengthen the connection that you have with customers, prospects and partners.  It is a great way for your audience to get to know you and get to know what your company stands for.  The key to a successful E-Newletter is:
    1. Know your audience
    2. Give valuable information in each ezine
    3. Provide 80% valuable content and only 20% company promotions

OFFLINE

  • Events–  Plan events to show appreciation for your customers and partners.  Taking the time to host these events can build a strong connection with you and your customers and partners.  It also helps to solidify their loyalty to your company.  You can also have events to introduce your prospects to your business or your brand.  Grand Openings, Launch Parties, etc. are all great ways for people to get to know more about you, your company, and your brand.
  • One-on-One Meetings–  When possible, schedule one-on-one meetings with your clients, prospects and partners.  This is a great way to build a strong connection, and for people to get to know, like and trust you.
  • Send Cards–  It is important to send your customers, prospects and partners cards on various occasions.  This could include birthdays, anniversary, Thank You for Your Business, Thank You for Your Time, Happy Holiday cards and more.   Taking the time out to send your customers, prospects and partners cards really helps to create loyalty and build trust.

These are just a few ways you can use Relationship Marketing to GROW your business.  What other ways can you think of in which you can use Relationship Marketing to grow your business?

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  2 Comments  |  in Blog, Business Development, Email Marketing, Event Marketing, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media
January
15 2014

How to pick an Email Marketing Service Provider

Are you using email marketing for your business?
Are you trying to decide what email marketing service provider to use?

Blog Image- How-to-Pick-an-EmailIf you are using email marketing for your business, or you are considering using email marketing, you have probably found out that there are hundreds maybe even thousands of email marketing service providers out there.  So how do you decide which one is right for you? It would be impossible for me to mention them all in this post, so I have narrowed it down to the top three that seem to be at the top of everyone’s list; MailChimp, Constant Contact, and AWeber.  Based on the popularity of these companies, I decided to do a post that compares these companies on customer base, price and product features.

MailChimp

MailChimp has the largest customer base with over 4,000,000 customers according to their website.  I suspect that their large customer base may have to do with the fact that they have a “Forever Free” product that allows small businesses to use their product and several of the main features for free as long as they don’t have more than 2,000 subscribers.  In addition, if someone opted to upgraded to a paid account, MailChimp  has the lowest priced monthly package of the three companies at $10/month.

Another advantage MailChimp has over the other Email Marketing Services providers is that they have several great features like automated list segmentation.  Their system allows you to segment your email list based on several already defined factors that you can select or adjust (i.e. member rating, subscriber activity, location, etc.).  MailChimp is also great if you want to upload an unlimited amount of images to use in your email.  Constant Contact and Aweber have limitations on the amount of images you can upload to their systems or the storage size available for the images you upload.

MailChimp also offers the following features that neither Constant Contact or Aweber offer:

  • Event Triggered Autoresponders–  this allows you to send a follow-up email to someone based on an action they have taken within your email.
  • A/B Testing–  this gives you the option of testing elements of your email campaign to see which one works better via A/B testing.
  • Inbox Preview–  this offers you the ability to preview your email and see how it looks over various email providers like gmail, yahoo, aol, etc.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is in the middle of the three companies with over 500,000 customers according to their website.  They are also in the middle with price.  They offer a 60-day FREE trial option, and their lowest priced package after the trial period is $15/month.  One of the features that stands out with the Constant Contact email marketing product is the fact that they offer you an extensive Contact Management System that allows you to treat your list as not just subscribers, but contacts in which you can add additional information on each contact like the person’s phone number, address, special notes, social networks, etc. making the system more of a type of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) instead of just a list of subscribers.  Constant Contact also offers its customers direct access to quality stock images to use in their email, but there is an additional cost for this feature.

In addition, although email marketing is their main product, Constant Contact offers a suite of solutions for small business owners (at an additional cost).  Allowing you to create a dashboard of online marketing tools that complement your email marketing product.  These tools include:

  • EventSpot-  A tool to help you manage events online
  • Social Campaigns–  A tool to help you grow your fans on social media
  • SaveLocal–  Allows you to create offer deals to send to your customers
  • Online Surveys–  Online Surveys, Polls, & Questions to get your customers feedback
  • And more…

Constant Contact also offers a lot of support.  Depending on where you are located, Constant Contact offers many local FREE workshops and seminars to help educate the community about email marketing.  Another great feature that Constant Contact offers is FREE coaching for its customers and phone-based customer service.

AWeber

AWeber comes in at the lower end as far as amount of customers served with over 120,000 customers according to their website.  AWeber does not offer a free option or free trial, but does offer the first 30 days for $1.  After the first 30 days the lowest priced package is $19/month.  As far as features, an outstanding feature that is include in the AWeber email marketing system is  the ability to convert your blog post into an email newsletter with the click of a button (MailChimp also offers this feature).  AWeber also claims to offer some of the best email delivery rates in the business.

AWeber also offers customer service via phone 7 days a week (Constant Contact also offers phone support).

So the key takeaway from this analysis is you have to figure out what features are most important to you and select the company that has those important features!

Please see the chart below for a full comparison:

MailChimp Constant Contact AWeber
Customers Over 4,000,000 Over 500,000 Over 120,000
FREE Option Forever Free 60-day Trial No (first month for $1)
Lowest Priced Package $10/month $15/month $19/month
Features of Lowest Priced Packages:
Subscribers 0-500 0-500 0-500
Emails per Month Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
List Features:
Contact Management System Limited YES NO
List Segmentation Available YES YES-  Limited YES
Sign-up Forms YES YES YES
Geolocation YES NO YES
Email Features:
Customizable Email Templates YES YES YES
Image Hosting Unlimited Limited
(Up to 5 images)		 Unlimited
(Up to 10 MB)
Access to additional Stock Images YES-  via APP Additional Cost
($5/month)		 NO
Drag & Drop Editing YES YES YES
Mobile Responsive Email Templates Available YES YES YES
Autoresponder Emails YES-  New Subscribers and Event based Limited-  New Subscribers Only Limited-  New Subscribers Only
A/B Testing YES NO NO
Inbox Preview for various Email Providers (i.e. gmail, yahoo, aol, etc.) YES NO NO
Integration Features:
APP & Integration YES YES YES
RSS/Blog Integration YES NO YES
Social Media Features:
Share Email with Your Social Networks YES YES YES
Social Follow Buttons YES YES YES
Social Share Buttons YES YES YES
Reporting/Archive Features:
Campaign Archives YES Additional Cost YES
Reports YES YES YES
Google Analytics Integration YES YES YES
Customer Service:
Phone Customer Service NO-  Text or Chat Only YES YES

All information in this posts is based on information on the email marketing service provider’s website or obtained after talking to a representative from the company.  Features are based on current (January 2014) information.

Disclosure:  I have used both Constant Contact and MailChimp for my clients.  I have not used AWeber.  Although I like to feel that my analysis is not bias, I believe it is important to mention that I am a Solutions Provider for Constant Contact.

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  1 Comment  |  in Blog, Email Marketing, Marketing, Small Business