Archive for June, 2011

Social Media isn’t just for updating your friends and sharing your latest photos, it can help you grow your business!

As of May 31, 2011, Facebook was fast approaching its 700-millionth signup. You don’t even have to tweet to enjoy Twitter.  Whether you tweet 100 times a day (please don’t) or never, you still have access to information about what interests you. Many people simply use Twitter as a way to keep up with friends and acquaintances or get the latest information on your interests.

According to a SocialWare survey, 79% of the largest Fortune 500 firms use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or corporate blogs to communicate with customers and others. And 69% of them report that their companies have gained measurable business benefits from social technologies, including more effective marketing, more innovative products and services, better access to knowledge, lower costs of doing business, and higher revenues.

So does that mean Email Marketing isn’t as effective? Absolutely not! Email Marketing is still going strong. According to an Econsultancy survey in early 2011, 72% answered that Return On Investment (ROI) of their email marketing campaigns is excellent. Also, 39.4% of marketing industry executives called Email Marketing “the most powerful advertising channel for their business”, according to Datran Media’s 2010 Annual Marketing and Media Survey.

By using social media avenues you’re able to direct people to your email campaigns. Include occasional posts with your business website or landing page. Have your website link in your social media bio information. Those who are really interested in what you’re offering will sign up (opt-in) to learn more about your information and why they should become customers or join your business. Your email campaign should give them more information about your product or service.  Include a link to your Facebook or Twitter page on your website if possible. In fact, 54% said their marketing efforts were better with both social media and email campaigns.

With social media, be sure to follow the unwritten rules, which include how often to share your marketing message. You need a combination of personal information, valuable topical information, and only 25-30% of your posts about your business. Be purposeful in what you post and you’ll develop a following who know, like and trust you. Using email to boost your social media voice and vice-versa is key to reaching more people and growing your business!

By now virtually everyone has some kind of spam filter on their computer, plus their email programs have spam filters.  Emails go through an amazing number of servers on their way from you to your recipients, and they do it sometimes in seconds.  There are two main gatekeepers (filters) to get through – the primary email server on the recipient end (like gmail or a domain where their email goes to) and the recipients’ email settings on their computers (like Outlook).  So how can your email get through the spam filter maze and be considered "deliverable"?

Here are some tips:

1. Avoid using spam words and phrases
Here are just a handful of words and phrases are flags to the spam filters:  free, legal, act now, limited time offer, call now, click here (and worse yet, click here now).  I’m sure you’ve seen the emails that use "free" with * like F*R*E*E*  but you could also choose other words, like complimentary, bonus, no cost…   When I absolutely need to use the word "free"  I might add the * at the end of it but change the color of the * to match the background, which is usually white.  It keeps the appearance of the email clean, but slides through the filters better.

2.  Avoid using the color red in your copy and headlines.
Red is loud! Email studies show that mixing colors in your fonts, even bright greens or yellows, will hurt not only deliverability but also conversion! If you can’t resist and must use color, use bold, rich colors like navy and maroon, which gives the punch of red without the flag.

3.  Avoid Excessive Punctuation Marks ??!!!
Excessive punctuation is simply not good email etiquette and is a sure red flag for filters.  One ? or ! will do the job. Promise.

4.  Don’t copy and paste from a Word document into your HTML email editor.
Now this is where I really want to use a lot of !!!!!   But this is a blog post, not an email  

MS Word uses a lot of hidden coding that simply doesn’t translate anywhere else.  It messes up web pages and spam filters hate it in email. Not to worry – there’s a way around the ugly coding.

Best practice is to type your content directly into the body of the email editor. If you need to copy text from a Word document,  first paste it into a text editor like Notepad. This usually removes the coding from your Word document. It also strips all formatting, like bold and font sizes or colors.  You must then copy the content that you put into Notepad and paste that into the email editor window (the body of your email).  Then reformat it. Formatting simply means adding the bold, color, size, paragraphs, etc.

5.  Don’t Use ALL CAPS
I understand how we want to put the most emphasis on the words that we think are most important. WHEN YOU USE ALL CAPS, IT COMES ACROSS AS YOU’RE SHOUTING OR ANGRY.  Fight the temptation to shout! There are several other ways to get your point across. Try capitalizing just the first letter of the word and putting it in Bold. Use italics (sparingly).  Or underline a word or sentence to show the reader that "this is the part of my letter I really want you to get!"

6.  Beware of Symbols
The number one spam symbol is the dollar sign. Whether it’s in your subject line or in the body doesn’t matter. Many email users have spam filters that will send anything containing this symbol or others directly to the trash. This doesn’t mean you can’t use the $ sign when appropriate, but be very careful how and where you do this.  It should only be used with an actual dollar amount, never  something like "make $$$$$ now" – I guarantee that email will have a tough time getting to your reader!   Remember the punctuation caution?  Those are symbols too, which compounds the flags. Another way symbols are abused is in trying to be clever such as "L@@k at this"  This might be ok for a single email from you to a friend, but not if you’re trying to send an email to more than a couple people at a time.

So there you have it - definitely not an exhaustive list, but these six tips will help you increase your email delivery rates. You want your emails to not only make it past the initial email server spam filters – you also want them delivered into the inbox.  While you can’t control the recipients’ inbox filters, sticking with good email etiquette will definitely improve your delivery rates!

This week Mike Cowles is taking his friend by the hand to prove he can generate $1,000 or more in one week – and his friend has zero experience online (he lays tile for a living). The training will be showcased next Monday and Tuesday as part of his Emergency Cash Marketing.  For more information check it out at http://tinyurl.com/4×3a2pz (signup ends Sunday 6/12/11 at midnight).  He said it will take some time to set up, and if you can’t invest about 2 hrs a day for a week to do what he teaches, or the program would create a hardship, it’s not for you.

From Mike: 

Cory is one of my best friends of over twenty years and recently had some surgery that caused him to not be able to work on his day job of laying tile. When he was doing tile, he did awesome, but it is taking a toll on his knees, shoulder and soul. Cory asked me for advice since he knew I was doing well…

Cory is a complete and total newbie. He’s never set up a blog or website, he hasn’t bought any IM products, etc.

As a matter of fact, he didn’t even know what a domain was until I told him yesterday! And why should he? He was making good money (in his eyes) doing tile.

I decided the best way to help Cory was to walk him through everything he needed to start generating at least $1,000 a week, and since Cory’s situation is so common and there are so many warriors that would love to have the same help and guidance, I decided to do a workshop and have Cory be my case study.

The workshop will be held this Monday and Tuesday (June 13, 14) at 4pm ET. Both 2 hour sessions will be recorded. He’ll be sharing 3 different methods for creating a "completely original product to generate ongoing cash for months."  Depending on a topic you choose, this may be something to drive traffic to your main business and help you build a list.

He’s priced his two day workshop (it’s really two webinars) at $67, which is less than half what he normally charges for trainings.