Buying Email Marketing Lists Yes Or No

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Now that you’ve decided to embark on an email campaign, your next task is to build an email marketing list, but where do you get it from? Many people succumb to the pitfall of buying email marketing lists. Don’t make the same mistake. canspam

You’ve very likely seen the ads that offer you millions of email addresses for a relatively low cost, well if you fall for one of these ads, you will end up labeled as a “spammer” almost as quickly as you send the email. Likely, the vast majority of the messages you send will end up in “junk” boxes, and you’ll get zero benefit from your efforts.  In fact, there will most likely be a negative impact to your brand as people will think of you as a spammer and therefore decrease the credibility of your brand. A good 70% of the addresses you attempt to purchase are bogus or have been duplicated and the remaining 30% have not requested to receive your message.Not a good way to start.

Some people elect to “rent” lists from varying submission services, but this can end up costing anywhere from 20 to 30 cents per email. What do you do? Use these next 5 ideas to get the ideas flowing and build your own targeted list. Remember, your primary goal should be to send emails to people who actually want to hear from you.

The big question, “where do you find these people?” Your best bet is to start with diverse marketing methods and pay attention to your web traffic. Below you will find a list, contributed by an existing email marketing company, of things that will ensure your email marketing list is successful.

1. Your Webpage should request individuals sign up for your guest book, your online electronic magazine, your newsletter, your offer for a free report or book, and any contest that you have to offer. Be sure and put this opportunity on every page of your web site.

2. Try Direct-Mail Marketing — mail out flyers or postcards to all potential customers.When you design your postcards, be sure to request that people visit your site and sign up to get valued information and relevant messages.

3. Consider Telemarketers — consider using a telemarketing service or telemarketing agent to make contact with your potential clients. Request that your telemarketers require e-mail addresses (it’s a good idea to offer incentives for having clients give out their e-mail address [contest, free trials, etc.]).  Student interns make great telemarketers, by the way.

4. Consider Hosting an Online Contest — open contests are extremely effective way to obtain e-mail addresses. On contest entry forms request e-mail addresses as method of approval for contest entry.

5. Get Physical — if you operate a physical store, be sure and request the customers provide you with their e-mail address at checkout. You may also want to consider sending out surveys via the mail and running additional contests to gain access to consumer contact information.

As you can see there is more than one way to ‘skin a cat’ when you need names for your email marketing campaign. You don’t have to resort too buying email marketing lists.

Ride The Wave – Create A Social Media Marketing Strategy

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One of the things that media considers when they are deciding what to promote or talk about is what effect that subject will have on various social groups. The media does whatever it can to have some kind of impact on whatever market they are chasing after. The smart marketer will use that commotion to their advantage. They will ride the wave.
wave
One of the hardest thing for any marketer to do, whether on-line or off, is to create a stir around what they are trying to offer..this is what is currently being referred to a “buzz”. You have to have some level of excitement surrounding your product or service for it to see any success at all. It can seem like you are beating your head against a wall many times as you try to get anyone to notice you and to get them to even care. I am sure that you think that you have something that is very important to offer people. Unless you can educate and convince them that it is important, they just won’t get it and you won’t get their business.

There is a way that you can get by without having to do all the work of trying to generate excitement and educate the people about your offering. That way is to let the larger media outlets do all the work. Create a marketing strategy that uses that work that the media does. Sometimes you will luck out and find that there is a big commotion related to something you are offering already and it will only take a little bit to get the social groups interested in what you have.

This was my strategy when I launched 42Rules for Working Moms. This was during the run-up to the Presidential elections. Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin were both “working moms” and all over the media. You couldn’t be awake and not know who these women were. Anyway, we connected the book to that story and landed a full feature placement on Oprah & Friends radio – The Peter Walsh Show. See how it works? Connecting to something that is already buzzing is a much more effective approach than to try and create buzz all by yourself.

Sometimes you will have to use your imagination and find a relationship between something big that is going on in the media that has a huge impact on social groups of one kind or another. Once you find that relationship, though, you can find a marketing strategy that can make that connection obvious. You will have to educate yourself and look at what is hot on television or on the Internet. Look for what are popular topics on the regular news media, what trends are hot in the world of finance, or what gossip is going on in social circles. What are the things that is popular? More than likely you are going to find something that your product or service can relate to.

On your own you will be trying hard to make waves about what you are trying to market but what you will end up making is a tiny ripple. A smart marketer will notice the tsunami’s being made by the larger media outlet and will use a marketing strategy that capitalizes on the huge splash they make on the bigger social groups laying on the beach.

Book Excerpt: Social Media for Small Business

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The following is an excerpt from42 Rules of Social Media for Small Business by Jennifer L. Jacobson.  To get your copy, visit:  http://42Rules.com/jenniferjacobson

Rule 20:  Know Your Social Media Platforms
You don’t have to know all of them, just the right ones.

While it is not necessary to memorize and keep track of every new social media platform available, it is essential that you have a fundamental
understanding of the types of social media platforms you can use for your business.


Social Networking
Audiences of the social networking sites vary from quilters, pet owners, teens, and tweens, to die-hard musicians, writers, and physicists. The MySpaces of the world where all the cool kids hang out, have evolved into sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Today there are many hybrids where grownups can blog, connect with their colleagues, see pictures of what their friends had for lunch, and buy their buddies a “virtual beer.”

The features and interactivity of these social networks change weekly. Your job is to establish yourself on a site that meets your needs while learning what that social network does well. Some sites have great community forums where people of a certain interest talk about their experiences and share what they know.


Blogging and Web Publishing Services
Use a blogging platform that makes it easy for your customers to find you. Some sites, like Facebook, require anyone viewing your site to have their own Facebook account, and nothing turns a customer off more than having to give Web companies their personal information to view a page. Find a service that you can easily use. Read the company’s about us page. Make sure they are not one of the “fly by night” dotcoms that may be gone tomorrow, taking your
hard-earned blog with them.


In-House and Independent Forums
Chances are you already have a company website and, if this is the
case, your in-house Web guru should be able to add a “blog” section
to your existing web page. If they are really good, they will be able to
have a section where your customers can discuss their thoughts in an
open forum. If you do not have an in-house forum, there are plenty of
online forums already in existence that should be appropriate to your
business’s area of interest. Depending on the type of company you
have, and your closeness with your customers, a forum can be a
wonderful thing. Many of your die-hard-loyal customers may be thrilled
to spend lots of time on your forum, answering questions for you and
raving about your products and services. These types of fans are worth
their weight in gold because they’re writing for the “love of the sport”
not because they are a paid viral marketer (but we’ll get to that later).


Photo Sharing
Depending on they type of business you run, this may be a great option
for you. Artists and comic book writers love this option because it gives
their fans a place to rant and rave about their work, and it establishes
them as a force to be reckoned with in their field. While a photo sharing
service may not be suitable for businesses selling accounting services,
they work well for businesses that sell specific, one-of-a-kind products.


Audio and Video Sharing
If your company has commercials that have aired on television, it might
be worth it to digitize the tape and upload the footage to YouTube. You
can then embed your YouTube video into your website for your
customers to watch. Be sure to customize your video or audio sharing
account with descriptions about your business, pictures, and other
videos, when appropriate. YouTube has a good variety of community
features, including the ability to subscribe to other people’s video
channels. Remember—only upload music and videos that you have
the rights to.

The mechanics of branding

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A well designed brand is like a well designed car – lovely to look at, lots of power, and can really take you places. The power of a brand is based on how well it can convince people to buy your stuff. There are countless definitions of what a brand is, and regardless of your definition, if the brand doesn’t help you sell more stuff, then, it isn’t doing its job.




All brands are built with three essential elements: Personality, Message and Identity.




Brand Personality: Defining the underlying personality of a brand is sometimes difficult, but is always necessary if the rest of the brand elements are to come together. The personality reflects what the organization wants its brand to be known for. Think about specific personality traits you want prospects, clients, employees, and partners to use to describe your brand. You should have 4-6 traits (5 is ideal), each being a single term, usually an adjective.



Authentic, Creative, Innovative, Approachable
Trustworthy, Trendy, Cool, Desirable, Reliable
Relevant, Honest, Flexible, Unique, Relevant





How you define the personality determines the tone and voice of your brand, and therefore all your communications. A brand that is “hip, cool, trendy” sounds decidedly different from one that is “honest, trustworthy, reliable”.




Brand Message: What do you customers need from you? Why should they choose your brand of product or service over another one? What can your brand deliver that no one else can? The answers to these questions form the foundation of your messages. I have found it useful to create three core messages based on these customer needs. Each of these messages needs to be supported by “proof points” which are specific, measurable and relevant to the audience. For example, think of Brand X as a car.



Brand X is BETTER: safety record, flexible seating arrangements, trade-in options
Brand X is CHEAPER: gas mileage, insurance premiums, maintenance costs
Brand X is FASTER: redesigned engine, chassis, performance measurements





Which of these messages best reflects the brand is based on the brand personality and the needs of our customers. It is not based on what we think sounds good, what is easy for us to prove, or what our boss thinks. At least it shouldn’t be anyway…




Brand Identity: Ask ten graphic designers their opinion of a company logo and you’ll get ten different answers. Brand design is the aesthetic that communicates the underlying message and personality of the brand. There are five core elements to any brand identity:



Logo
Tagline
Typography
Photography
Color








How these elements work together are explained in “Brand Guidelines”. These help anyone working with the brand know what to do and not to do with the brand. Combined with templates (Presentations, documents or web pages for example) and standardized collateral (business cards, signage and such) your brand begins to take form. From here on, it is all about execution.







What’s a Tweet?

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The most common question I get about Twitter is “What is it?”  Here’s the scoop…my definition of Twitter is “Blogging for people twitterwith ADD”.  Seriously, twitter is great for people with short attention spans. It is a fast and easy way to push a message to tons of people all at once.  Twitter let’s you send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are posts of up to 140 characters that appear on your profile – known as your “tweet feed”.  Twitter has a language all its own…posts are tweets, the action of posting is called “tweeting”, people who tweet are called “tweeps” (not Twits) and it goes on and on.  Language aside…Twitter has grown like crazy and provides an interesting opportunity for businesses.

Because of its growth, Twitter is a great place to network, build your brand and go prospecting for new clients.  You can actually have a very intelligent conversation in 140 characters or less…plus, people find you and check out your profile, decide to follow-you and you don’t even know it.  They just think you’re interesting, or are interested in the same stuff they are, so they follow you.  The question is how to make yourself stand out from the zillions of other businesses pushing their message.

The thing is, in order for Twitter to work, to get yourself to stand out, it is a significant investment of time.  When you’re first starting out, it takes a while to build a following, to follow the right people yourself, and to make yourself known in the right groups.  Now some of you wanted to know how to do this social media stuff without adding more things to your to do list.  The short answer is that you can’t.  It is another thing to do.  However, if you know that it is going to attract customers and generate revenue then maybe you can trade off some of the other things you’re doing that aren’t helping you reach new customers, or generate revenue.  It is a trade-off, and that is why knowing your objectives and understanding your audience up front is so important.

Anyway, here is how to get started:

When you setup your profile – think carefully about your username, especially if you are struggling with the “My name or my Company name” thing.  If you’re an independent professional then you might want to use your name.  Use your company name if you want to build your brand and you have others representing you.  Your profile on Twitter is completely search engine indexed, which means that all the words you use are very important.  Think of each word as a keyword and make sure it matters to the audience you’re targeting.

My favorite feature of Twitter is definitely the Chats.  Now Chats are not a traditional “feature” but they are the most beneficial aspect of the platform for most business owners and entrepreneurs. This is how you make yourself stand out – get yourself known by your target audience. The way to prospect and network is to go where your prospects hang out…remember?  There are chats on Twitter about every topic you can think of.  They are usually hosted by someone who is an acknowledged expert on the topic on Twitter, they are usually at a scheduled time.  To find the different chats – a great list has been created.  I’ll include the link in the follow-up email.  Chatters track their conversations using hashtags (#) followed by the name of the chat, for example #smallbizchat.

At a specific time, folks start tweeting using the # and then you can follow the discussion by searching on the #word.  These discussions are a great place to build yor credibility, and to make an impression with your target audience.  Anpther warning…on Twitter you have to be part of the conversation or it won’t work.  You have to post tweets that are interesting.  You need to respond to other peoples tweets by either replying or retweeting.  The difference between a reply and a retweet is that when you reply to someone’s tweet – their followers see it along with yours – a great way to get added visibility.  If you retweet – you’re giving that person visibility to your followers – it is a compliment to be retweeted.  You should Reply and Retweet frequently so that you are part of the conversation.

Please remember, not everyone needs to be on Twitter.  If you know that a large group of your target audience is active on Twitter, jump on and start tweeting.  If you target a group that is not active on Twitter, then why on earth would you spend time even thinking about it, unless you’re trying to expand your audience – which brings us back to your business objective once again.