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Holiday Alert! Build Customer Loyalty with Email Marketing




Constant Contact(R)The holidays are approaching fast, and now is the time to begin preparing your online marketing plans for the holiday rush. Part of that marketing plan should include Email Marketing, and if you have not treated yourself to an email marketing program this is a great time to start!

Email Marketing by Constant Contact® is the easy, effective, and highly affordable way to get your message out to your customers, clients, or members. You'll create high-impact, professional-looking emails—quickly and with no technical expertise. And, most importantly, you'll build strong connections with your audience that lead to referrals, repeat business and loyalty.

With Email Marketing by Constant Contact, you can:
  • Choose from more than 400 easily customized email templates—or create your own from scratch.
  • Create highly visual, professional-looking email newsletters and promotions in just minutes.
  • Drive more traffic to your website with focused, targeted email communications.
  • Build and manage your email list: import existing customer lists, add names individually, or capture contact information from website visitors.
  • Measure your email campaign results instantly-check click-through rates, review new subscribers, and see who opened and clicked on each link so you can tailor your follow-up communications.
  • Send automated communications to new sign-ups via our Autoresponder tool.
  • Communicate with your audience with confidence, knowing that Constant Contact will take care of getting your email delivered and keep you CAN-SPAM compliant.

Discover how the power of Email Marketing by Constant Contact can help you better connect with your customers, strengthen your relationships with them, and grow your organization.

Sign up for a FREE 60-Day Trial of Email Marketing today.
No risk. No obligation. No credit card.


Get Your FREE 60-Day Trial

Widget Workshop




Printwear Magazine, October 2011.

In the latest Internet Strategies column we explore Widgets and the many ways they can benefit your web site from the display of products and services to viral actions on social netowrking websites. Dive into the Widget Wilderness!

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Internet Marketing Calendar




Last year in my Internet Strategies Column I suggested a Holiday Internet Marketing Calendar for keeping the holiday marketing efforts rolling out in a timely manner. This year I've decided to create a Google Calendar to share which will cover the entire calendar year. I will add events to it as they unfold should any new marketing opportunities come to my attention, so it will stay current throughout each year. Feel free to subscribe to this calendar or use it to modify and create your own!

And don't forget to utilize the great features Google Calendar has to offer such as sharing, email and text alerts and more to keep your scheduling on track!

Review: Google+




Printwear Magazine, September 2011.

By now you've no doubt become aware of Google+, and may have even jumped in to test the waters. In the September issue of Printwear Magazine we discuss the possibilities of using Google+ in online marketing efforts and how Google+ may be shaping the social networking landscape.

Join me on Google+ here, and feel free to comment below!

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HootSuite: Social Media Management for Business

Do you have social media sharing buttons on your web site or blog?

Providing your visitors with social media sharing buttons provides them one click access for sharing your content. I can add social media sharing functionality with buttons that compliment your site for just $35.00!

Add this important feature to your site today!

Design and Install Social Sharing Functionality to One Web Site or Blog

Only $35.00!

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Keyword Management




Printwear Magazine, August 2011.

Having strong keywords is clearly an important element in maintaining good search engine placement, but how can you manage those keywords to make the best use of them? How can you research what keywords are more effective than others? Read up on some tips and tricks to refine and tune your keywords in the August issue of Printwear Magazine.

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Your Customers Tell The Story: Online Testimonials




Printwear Magazine, July 2011.

Of the many elements that can be effective without distracting from your goal of generating contacts or sales, customer testimonials can be a great asset for your site visitors to discover. You can devote an entire sub page to testimonials, or simply sprinkle them throughout your product pages as an added incentive for new visitors to establish trust in you. Have a look at the July Internet Strategies column and consider collecting testimonials for your web pages.

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Facebook: Disabling Facial Recognition




Facebook recently added a facial recognition feature that has some people worried about their privacy and settings. In short, the feature will attempt to recognize faces in pictures when they are uploaded, then suggest that face be tagged should it recognize a face from that users friends list.

While it seems relatively harmless, some might decide to opt out of that feature. Heres how:

Disabling Facial Recognition

  • Log into Facebook.

  • In the top-right corner click on Account and go to Privacy Settings.

  • Click "customize settings" (toward the bottom-middle of your screen).

  • Look for the section titled "Things others share." The permission you accidentally gave Facebook to use facial recognition suggestions is located in the "Suggest photos of me to friends" option. Click on "Edit Settings" to change that.

  • Choose "Disabled" and then push "OK."


Do you have social media sharing buttons on your web site or blog?

Providing your visitors with social media sharing buttons provides them one click access for sharing your content. I can add social media sharing functionality with buttons that compliment your site for just $35.00!

Add this important feature to your site today!

Design and Install Social Sharing Functionality to One Web Site or Blog

Only $35.00!

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Marketing Mobility




Printwear Magazine, June 2011.

Throughout our daily lives it has become easy to ignore the growth of the mobile market. Aside from tuning in our own mobile devices and cell phones the subject seems to be so common that perhaps we're ignoring some opportunities to market our businesses to the millions of mobile users who spend a significant amount of time online. In this Internet Strategies column we take a peek into Location Based Services such as Foursquare, and how you could be getting traffic through your shop doors through these online channels.

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Choose a Distinctive Domain




Printwear Magazine, May 2011.

What's your dot com? One of the most common questions I get from those just entering the online world is "What are your suggestions for a domain name?", followed by the added follow up questions regarding .com, .net and more. This months Internet Strategies column addresses many of those questions as well as addressing issues that existing domain name owners should be aware of.

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Case Studies In Facebook Marketing




Printwear Magazine, March 2011.

In the March issue of Printwear Magazine my Internet Strategies column brings Facebook once again back to the forefront of online marketing efforts. If you haven't explored the benefits Facebook has to offer you're no doubt falling behind the competition. Case studies include comments and experiences from ColDesi (previously SWF East) and Bonnie Landsberger, Moonlight Design Embroidery Digitizing.

In the April issue we will dive into specific marketing strategies from a Facebook perspective.

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After the read, you might enjoy the convenience of the following Facebook links:

Moonlight Design Embroidery Digitizing
ColDesi
Rags To Stitches Productions
Printwear Magazine
HootSuite: Social Media Management for Business

Do you have social media sharing buttons on your web site or blog?

Providing your visitors with social media sharing buttons provides them one click access for sharing your content. I can add social media sharing functionality with buttons that compliment your site for just $35.00!

Add this important feature to your site today!

Design and Install Social Sharing Functionality to One Web Site or Blog

Only $35.00!

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Faster Browsing: Back To Basic Google Image Search




You must have noticed by now, Google has updated Google Image Search. Everyone will have their own opinions and preferences, and mine in particular are that the previous Google Image Search was much faster, easier to use and much less of a resource hog on my browser.

That being said, I thought I'd share a tip for those of you who agree with me.

1) To swith Google Image Search back to the basic version, conduct any image search and scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you will find a link that will switch you back to the basic version:



2) Rather than having to do that every time you are using Google Image Search, bookmark the page. You will then have quick access to a mush faster Google Image Search without loading all of the new scripts, bells and whistles.



Happy searching!
Do you have social media sharing buttons on your web site or blog?

Providing your visitors with social media sharing buttons provides them one click access for sharing your content. I can add social media sharing functionality with buttons that compliment your site for just $35.00!

Add this important feature to your site today!

Design and Install Social Sharing Functionality to One Web Site or Blog

Only $35.00!

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Optimize Google Product Search




Printwear Magazine, February 2011.

Google Product Search is a great tool for online merchants to take advantage of, and in my February Internet Strategies column I thought I'd share some tips on how to get started, create and submit your data feed along with tips on how to optimize that feed in order to get the best results.

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After the read, you might enjoy the convenience of the following links:

Sample Feed
Submit Your Feed
Data Feeds Overview
Success Stories
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Tricks to Get Emails Opened




In the February 2011 issue of Printwear Magazine, Vince DiCecco shares some great advice on how to create effective emails that have a greater chance of being opened by your recipients. In past issues we've explored Email Marketing Services, and I've blogged about Tools For Email Marketing but I have yet to have touched base on email marketing strategies.

I highly recommend reading DiCecco's article as the tips and tricks he shares are what really makes email marketing effective.

Two thumbs up Vince!

Avoiding Scams: Be Smart On Facebook




Recently I've had to drop a few friends on Facebook, despite the fact that we do know each other and connect from time to time. The main reason for this is their lack of practicing safe actions on Facebook.

For example, today two of my friends were tagged in someones photo. The comment on the photo was "o...k im really booorreed, come checkout my vids. - let me know what you think" with a shortened URL to click on. This is not the first time I've seen that exact phrase on others being tagged by phony Facebook accounts.

Out of curiosity (and to make myself feel better about being do skeptical about the issue) I copied the shortened link and plugged it into True URL to see what web site it really went to. Sure enough it pointed to a website called Fling.com:

"FLING.COM - World's Best Adult Personals for adult dating, search millions of adult personals from singles, couples, and swingers looking for fun, browse sexy photos, personals and more."


Clearly a few of my friends aren't looking into the users who send them friend requests, and as a result the scammers and phony account holders are allowed the use of my friends activity streams in order to pass their links through Facebook in a viral manner. Who knows what kind of possible malware, trojans or other possible attacks that web site may introduce to those clicking on the link?

For anyone reading this that have missed previous posts or articles on the subject, click here to review a few warnings I've shared in the past.

Play it safe and be smart!
Do you have social media sharing buttons on your web site or blog?

Providing your visitors with social media sharing buttons provides them one click access for sharing your content. I can add social media sharing functionality with buttons that compliment your site for just $35.00!

Add this important feature to your site today!

Design and Install Social Sharing Functionality to One Web Site or Blog

Only $35.00!

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New Web Site for Garrett Computer Services




Garrett Computer Services is a customer oriented business with 18 years of professional experience in computer repair and data network design, implementation and management servicing the Texoma area of North Texas.

Garrett - clearly being fully capable of all things technical when it comes to computers - was in need of a strong web site to handle his online marketing with. When it comes to having a basic, informational web site rather than a full blown e-commerce enabled project I've been recommending WordPress enabled sites to clients looking for an affordable solution to going online as well as having a finished product they can maintain on their own. And that suited Garrett Computer Services perfectly.

The new web site features a welcoming home page that immediately tells visitors they've found the right place, and all the other web pages feature a contact form on the right hand side of each page to function as a call to action that requires no extra clicks of the mouse or searching to locate. Thus serving the purpose of turning visitors into contacts and leads no matter what services they may be exploring.

Using the WordPress Dashboard, Garrett can easily maintain and update his web pages through the simple text editing functions, as well as use the post feature to keep his clients updated with computer tips on a regular basis.

I'm happy to have helped Garrett Computer Services get their business online and hand them the keys to driving their new web site towards a successful online presence. Feel free to contact me if you're in need of the same!

New Website for TLK Marketing




Recently TLK Marketing Inc., Wheeling, IL contacted me after reading Turning Leads into Sales Through an Organized Website in my Internet Strategies column.

TLK provides everything from custom embroidery and chenille to screen printing, uniforms and ad specialty items and had been receiving plenty of inquiries asking "Where is your web site?"

When it comes to having a basic, informational web site rather than a full blown e-commerce enabled project I've been recommending WordPress enabled sites to clients looking for an affordable solution to going online as well as having a finished product they can maintain on their own.

Using the WordPress Dashboard TLK Marketing can assign user accounts to staff members who can be given simple tasks to keep the web site current, and with the simple text editing interface literally anyone can manage the web site content, images and updates.

I'm happy to have helped TLK Marketing get their business online and hand them the keys to driving their new web site towards a successful online presence. Feel free to contact me if you're in need of the same!

Email Marketing Services




Printwear Magazine, January 2011.

Although social networking and the good ole fashioned search engine strategies have been the norm these days, e-mail marketing still has a place in todays online promotional tools. In the January issue of Printwear we re-visit the subject and suggest one of the many e-mail marketing services that benefit any business in communicating and marketing online.

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EMail Marketing Made Easy

If you use email on a regular basis, you're probably already receiving E-Newsletters from some of the companies you do business with. And while there's a tremendous amount of variation out there regarding what constitutes an E-Newsletter (or "electronic newsletter" or "E-zine" or "email newsletter;" they're all the same thing), they do have certain elements in common.

First and foremost, E-Newsletters arrive in your inbox as email messages. The sending company writes the newsletter, drops it into a predetermined email format, and sends it to a list of people who receive it on the other end. There's a fair amount of technology that runs in the background to do this efficiently and effectively, but when you boil it all down, it's just an email sent to many people at once.

To dig a bit deeper, think of an E-Newsletter like an electronic magazine, with three principal pieces:

1. Content. The words themselves - what you write and how you write it.

2. Formatting and Layout. Like a magazine, an E-Newsletter has a consistent look from month to month for organizing and laying out the content. Fonts, graphics, sections, headings, links, etc., all come together to create the design and layout.

3. Delivery and List Management. Once the newsletter is assembled (content + layout), there needs to be a "machine" for sending it out to a predetermined list of people (your subscribers). The machine takes care of the logistics behind delivery. In addition to sending the newsletter out, that includes things like adding/removing names; managing bounced emails; sending automated messages to readers as they come on the list or make changes to their personal information; and collecting and reporting on data regarding reader behavior and preferences.

Taken together, these three elements make up an E-Newsletter.

Why publish an E-Newsletter?

"The cost of acquiring a new customer can be as much as 5 times the cost of keeping an old one." (source: Peppers and Rogers).

"A 5% increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent" (source: Bain and Co.)

"Permission e-mail campaigns are ten times more effective than direct mail campaigns." (source: IMT Strategies)

The results of this research and dozens of other studies add up to a simple conclusion: It's a lot more cost effective and profitable to grow your business by increasing revenue and referrals from existing customers, than it is to keep chasing strangers. If you've got a "house list" of business relationships, you've got an extremely valuable asset. An asset that a quality E-Newsletter is perfectly suited to take advantage of.

Specifically...

An E-Newsletter Increases Lead Generation And Cross Selling. As your newsletter arrives month after month, it keeps you top of mind with customers, prospects, partners and others, and provides an ongoing, low-key mechanism for highlighting your full range of products and services.

An E-Newsletter Increases Customer Lifetime Value. Competitors can buy their way into your market by matching your pricing, matching your products and even matching the look and feel of your company. What they can't buy are your relationships. Every newsletter that you send serves to solidify the connection between your company and your customers.

An E-Newsletter Provides A Low Cost, Instantaneous Channel For Sending Messages. Your database of email addresses gives you instant access to your customers and prospects. Once the machine is set up, in addition to sending an E-Newsletter, you can send alerts, advisories and messages as frequently as you wish.

An E-Newsletter Opens Up A Two-Way Dialogue With Customers And Prospects. E-Newsletters allow recipients to easily and immediately interact with you. Comments are made, information is requested, an exchange of ideas between you and your customers flows easily in both directions.

An E-Newsletter Hypercharges Your Existing Marketing Efforts. Your E-Newsletter doesn't compete with your web site, print newsletter or existing marketing materials. It leverages them. It creates a steady pulse and focus that ties your other marketing efforts together.

An E-Newsletter Provides Instant, Measurable Results. Advertising, sponsorships, and many other traditional marketing tactics offer few options for measuring the return on your investment. E-based tactics on the other hand, are instantly trackable. With each E-Newsletter you send, you'll know how many people opened it; how many links were clicked on; who clicked on which links; and more. Fact-based, real time metrics.

If you already send printed materials out to your contact list - whether as a print newsletter or in some other fashion - the most immediate and measurable benefit of switching to an electronic format is a savings in time, printing and mailing costs. With a variable cost per newsletter of nearly zero, you will never again have to weigh the benefits of printing more materials or agonize over whether or not person X is "worthy" of the cost of sending information.

What About SPAM and Privacy Concerns?

The hottest topic in email marketing today is SPAM. As corporations and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) work to control the amount of unsolicited email entering their systems, they may inadvertently filter out legitimate emails, including some E-Newsletters. In industry lingo, this type of error is known as a "false positive," and the result is that some emails sent to people who have requested them don't ever reach their destination.

But, let's put that into perspective. Even with SPAM's impact, a good E-Newsletter sent to your house list will still be opened by over 40% of the people it's sent to. Given typical response rates to traditional marketing tactics, that's as much as 40 times better than the percentage of people who read your newspaper ads; respond to your direct mail; or return your unsolicited phone calls.

The fact is, for the small business owner, an E-Newsletter represents the first time in history that we've ever been able to cost effectively communicate with our entire customer and prospect base over and over and over again. Not only that, but thanks to the inherently democratic nature of email (i.e. the big boys don't get any more space in the email inbox than the rest of us), an E-Newsletter gives us the opportunity to not just compete with, but outperform our much larger competitors for the attention of readers.

And so, while SPAM has certainly reduced some of the effectiveness of E-Newsletters in recent months, this remarkable tool is by no means past its prime.


How Much Time And Money Does It Require?

I hope that by now you're convinced of the value of an E-Newsletter for your business. The next logical question, of course, is how much does it cost in time and dollars?

The answer depends on a few things.

1. First of all, there's the content. The more you write by yourself from scratch - as opposed to compiling from other sources, or farming out to other writers - the more time it will take. Although it's less expensive to write original content, you'll want to assess whether you've got the resources in-house to put it all together each month.

2. Next, you'll want to consider design. For maximum effectiveness, your E-Newsletter should reflect your unique brand and style. While you can customize a standard template, your best results will be obtained by creating a look and feel that's just for you (i.e. using a professional designer).

3. Finally, there's monthly production: formatting the content and getting it out the door on a regular basis. Here too, you'll want to weigh the benefits of doing it yourself (less expensive) vs. hiring a firm such as mine to manage the details for you (less worry and error).

As a rule of thumb, if you do the work yourself, you should figure on two full days of work per newsletter - one day to develop the content; one day to manage the layout and delivery logistics. You should also count on the first newsletter taking an additional two or three days to develop the format and style.

Conclusion

Pound for pound, an E-Newsletter offers the small business owner an opportunity to reach out to customers and prospects in ways that were simply not possible just a few short years ago. Whether you do it yourself, farm out the entire process, or strike a balance in-between, this new tool is well worth adding to your repertoire.

Please check out Constant Contact to see how it can help you get started with an E-Newsletter. I have been using it and recommending it to anyone and everyone with an email marketing campaign.