Category: Email Marketing

April 28, 2012

What is an Email Autoresponder?

What is an email autoresponder and how does a small business use it?

The email auto responder is online software generally provided by a third party company. This software is what enables you, the small business owner, to capture, communicate and sell to the people on your email list plus have the ability to track and have access to data through detailed reports.

The email auto responder company that you as a business owner choose to use is an extremely important decision and should not be taken lightly. This company is going to be providing you with software and maintaining the database of subscribers that you accumulate. Without the auto responder it would be virtually impossible to develop and grow a list of subscribers online.

When I initially was looking for email software I tested two different products and ended up going with Aweber because of the simplicity and ease of use.

In my opinion their setup and interface was and still is one of the best on the market for email marketing, especially the beginner or those that are less technical when it comes to computers and software.

Auto-responder software provides many different features like the lead capture forms, an email interface, a database and reports for the user to review and analyze data for marketing purposes.

One of the best things about online email software is that if you happen to be involved in a traditional brick and mortar business, you can setup the email auto-responder and market to both prospects and clients with out a complex web site.

This is due in part to the simple web forms that the 3^rd party software company provides. These forms can be posted anywhere and in some cases the company will also host the form for the business.

So for those people that want to keep it really simple, the lead capture web form can be used on social media sites like Facebook and on blog sites just like this one.

No matter which email software you choose for your business, make sure that the company has great support and provides you with an online resource for answering questions.

I’ve trusted Aweber and so far it’s been a great experience.

By the way, if you want more information about email marketing, check out my post about it by clicking here.

To your success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher

April 27, 2012

Online Marketing Training

When I first ventured back online – for the second time, I went in search of people to help me. I had tons of questions because it was like being woken up from a two decade long sleep; kind of like falling asleep in the early 1960’s and waking up in the late 1980’s.

It was a tough road let me tell you. Searching for real people that had real online business building experience and offered online marketing training. You know, experienced people who would answer questions and provide help without the $5k to $10k price tag?

There seemed to be lots of products for sale on how to do this and how to do that, but when it came to actual live help and assistance I was stone walled with support system software, hired employees, outsourced workers, fees that were in the stratosphere, no help here or simply no response at all.

But with every adversity comes an equal or greater benefit and I eventually found legitimate resources and mentorship from seasoned online veterans who also had offline experience.

Now I’ve always been one to seek out people who had experience in an area that I was looking to excel at. When it came to golf, I took lessons; tennis – tennis lessons; guitar and vocals – lessons. I always took lessons and learned from people who had been there and done that.

When it came to the web and online marketing training – this was an entirely different animal and boy was it hard to track down. But persevere I did and mentorship I did find.

That’s why I came up with Rule #3 – Being Available.

What does this have to do with your small business, Internet marketing and list building? Being available to your clients and subscribers is what will separate you from most of your competitors. Online and offline.

Most of the competition is looking to get away from human interaction in any way shape or form. They look at the Internet as a way to eliminate this interaction and create walls.

I challenge you, my subscriber, to break down those walls and create solid connections from the very beginning of the relationship when you make first contact.

Being available is how you develop relationships with your subscribers and clients.
Being available is where you can make a difference in someone else’s life.
Being available is creating a true connection with solid online marketing training versus a string of emails with sales messages.

Build your business – be available, and help those who ask for your help.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

PS – If you are still searching, looking and serious – subscribe here – and I’ll see what I can do to help you in your online journey.

April 25, 2012

Traffic for List Building – Part III

As I dig deeper and deeper into this topic of traffic for list building, please understand that there are so many different ways to drive traffic to your website and squeeze pages. In part three of this three part series I am going to give you some insights about where to find your buyers so you can use targeted traffic to bring them to you.

By the way – if you missed Traffic for List Building Part One and Traffic for List Building Part Two, click on the links and then you’ll have a clearer picture of what I’m writing about in this article.

My main focus in this article is on the buyer. Focus on your buyers.

Focus on your buyers and ask yourself the following questions:

Who is he or she? Where do they hang out? How old are they? What are their interests in your niche or subject? Is there any other information to be had about this person?

You see these are important questions and you need to narrow your focus and do some research in order to find these people. Remember, they are people, just like you and me and they have needs just like you and me.

The example I am going to use here is if you are in the niche that has to do with organic gardening and specifically how to setup and grow an organic garden.

If organic gardening is your specialty, then you are looking for buyers who have an interest in organics not traditional methods. This is where you start, with organics. Then you dig deeper and find out what’s hot in the organic marketplace and how it relates to setting up and growing an organic garden.

Now I can keep going but hopefully you see where this is leading and brings us back to targeting the buyers and bringing them to your website or squeeze page. Once you know who the buyers are, then you can develop and implement a traffic strategy that brings them to you.

Maybe that strategy is based on content and search engine optimization?

Maybe it has to do with pay per click and banner advertising?

Whatever method you choose – research and do some testing before you take the plunge and make sure that your traffic is targeted so you will have subscribers who are really interested in your niche.

For more …..info about how you can supercharge your list building activities, check out the List Building Guide and also receive list building tips, tactics and strategies.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

April 24, 2012

Email Marketing for Small Business

“The Secret Most Small Businesses Need to Know”

As a small business owner or professional have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a rapidly growing email list of subscribers and clients?

Now if you already have a growing list of subscribers and clients, then congratulations and stay the course. But if you are still one of the many offline companies struggling with email marketing, then this post if for you because I am going to share three steps on how offline companies and individuals can better use email marketing in their businesses.

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles and posts, offline businesses for the most part do not understand how to market with email. Some are great at marketing to their existing client lists through direct mail and direct response marketing, but when it comes to utilizing email they simply don’t have a clue.

Why do these businesses continually miss the boat?

Personalization is one the missing components. I see it all the time. Instead of saying Dear Dave or Hey Dave or just simply Dave, what do they do?

They simply bunch us all together with no personalized greeting and then send e-blasts that are so convoluted and crammed with information that you need a backhoe to get through it.

It’s like they need to say everything all at once, instead of communicating with a more targeted approach. The approach that more clearly and concisely states the offer(s) and calls for a response.

On the other hand you have big corps like the airlines – they kind of get it but still don’t personalize enough or find out what we, as consumers really want to receive. They just assume since you fly with them that you’ll be interested in other kinds of offers, some having to do with travel and some not at all.

It’s a mass-market approach versus a targeted approach.

Ok – let’s wind ‘er down…

It really boggles my mind that more companies and marketers don’t survey very often or at all, and use their email platform to do the heavy lifting. Surveying can make the difference and it’s worth doing every so often to see what customers and subscribers are thinking.

Sooo…

If you are involved in a small business that already has an existing list of clients, you can turbo charge your email marketing efforts just by tweaking a few things:

1. Personalize each and every message that you send to your email list.

2. Add & mix in quality content messages that build up to your sales and promotional messages.

3. Survey and Segment all your lists so you can better serve those that have chosen to stay subscribed.

BTW – if you are using email marketing now and haven’t implemented the three steps above; put them into action as soon as possible. If you are not using email marketing and want to learn how, subscribe to the List Building Guide and get started now!

April 20, 2012

Traffic for List Building – Part II

Targeted traffic is today’s message in part two of this three part series about traffic for list building. If you missed part one about traffic for list building, click here so you can follow along.

As a list builder, targeted traffic is really what you need if you desire to build a list of subscribers and monetize it over time.

It’s best to find traffic sources that are targeted towards the niche market you are in versus massive amounts of traffic that may not even be interested in your information, products or services.

Remember we are talking about ROI – return on your investment in the traffic source. So choose your traffic carefully and always test each traffic source to ensure that you know if it works or not.

These first two traffic sources I have listed are ones that you can setup and do yourself and essentially trade hours, if you are on a limited budget. Once your business is profitable you could choose to outsource the work and still utilize these two traffic options.

Article marketing – is where you write and post articles to directories, blogs and sites that pertain to your niche, subjects and topics. This method takes time and effort but can pay off in the long run if you know what you are doing.

Social Media Marketing – uses social media outlets to display and show your content for searchers to preview and then decide if your info is what they are searching for.

This next traffic source is one that you will have to pay for:

Pay Per Click (ppc) is one of the most widely used advertising methods online and there are lots of people who specialize in it, so I’m not going into detail about it in this article. When PPC is mentioned it usually means Google, Yahoo, and even Facebook. The thing with PPC is that it takes money, time and knowledge of how to make it work, if you intend to see ROI.

It’s great for testing headlines and copy but true ROI is another story. If you have high converting sales pages or high-ticket products, then PPC might be worth checking into, but tread carefully. It can suck the cash out of your accounts really fast if you don’t know what you are doing.

Why – because the last thing you want to do as a list builder is to waste time and money on traffic sources that don’t pay off and bring you ROI.

Still not sure about list building or maybe you are uncertain about how to monetize your existing list? For more on list building tips, strategies and tactics, go get your self a copy of the List Building Guide here.

April 12, 2012

Email Marketing – “The Offliner’s Quest”

Email Marketing is one of the most powerful mediums that a small business can use to capture new prospects while better communicating and selling products and services to existing clients. Yet the more I research, the more I see offline and online businesses missing the boat and not using email marketing at all or very minimally. Some offline small businesses I’ve worked with only see email marketing as a way to blast their sale and event info to their existing list of customers.

Their perception of email marketing is simply adding the new customer to their email list and then on a monthly or quarterly basis they send out an e-blast. They yearn for more business and desire to use email, but still they search for the magic bullet that will bring new clients with wallets open.

You see us people don’t just want to know about the next biggest sale event or product launch. We like helpful, useful, quality information, especially when it pertains to a topic or subject that interests us.

Marketing via email is not just about sales, events and promotions. The idea is to connect and build a relationship with the subscriber and client.

In some cases the new client just needs more info and can be warmed up to an upsell with high quality content. So these content messages need to be mixed with sales messages allowing for the small business marketer to build up credibility and not just be a sales promoter.

Which means the better quality the content is, the more likely the subscriber is to open and read your messages.

With high quality content you need to focus on connecting with your subscriber so he or she looks forward to receiving, opening and reading your emails. And if you create the content right, then you can lead right up to your offers with credibility and keep the subscribers attention at the same time.

As an offliner with little or no experience in online marketing, you can market with email and develop a list of new subscribers and clients. Just remember to build value with high quality content and learn how to connect and cultivate the relationship, just like The List Building Guide teaches.

In the end it’s all about conversions and return on investment. If you build the list of subscribers, really connect and then offer products and services that meet their needs, then you should see more conversions and this should equate to $$ in your pocket.

Until next time,

Dave Krygier
Publisher

April 6, 2012

What is Email Marketing?

What is Email Marketing and how do you use it in your small business?

Email marketing by definition is the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product, service & information by utilizing the digital channel of email.

Email marketing finds its roots in the offline world of direct mail where companies build databases of prospects and client names & addresses. These databases, otherwise known as lists are developed over time and in some cases used to be rented by list brokers to the company who was looking to mail to a specific region or demographic.

It’s important to understand how offline direct mail/direct response has impacted email marketing, so if you decide to use this channel you’ll be able to better understand and comprehend how to maximize your efforts.

Email Marketing for the Online Marketer

As one of the most powerful tools for businesses to communicate and connect with their subscribers and clients, email marketing is the medium by which both offline or online businesses can sell products and services in addition to surveying and providing quality information to the end user (subscriber or client).

Email marketing is the one communication channel that allows for different variations of messages, from HTML or text and can also include video and audio(link) to mix things up. With online software called auto responders, email marketing has become even more popular in the last decade, allowing more and more businesses to expand their horizons. Without this valuable software it would be nearly impossible to develop and grow an email list of any size.

There are a number of functions that the email software provides, allowing the marketer to create, develop and manage the list of subscribers and clients.

Four of these Features are:

The Lead capture web form.
The Interface to create, write and store email messages.
The Database which maintains the subscriber’s information.
The Reports that provide the marketer with a variety of useful information.

So email marketing now enables the online and offline marketer/business to develop relationships and have a sales channel that was never possible in the offline channel of direct mail.

Should you decide to take the next step and into the world of email marketing, subscribe here and get your hands on the List Building Guide.

March 26, 2012

Traffic for List Building – Part I

Traffic, Traffic, Traffic. One of the hottest and most debated topics online.

For list building – traffic is key. But traffic for list building has to be the right kind of traffic.

So I felt it best to use offline examples to show you four different kinds of traffic and how they relate to online methods:

City traffic can be massive if you are positioned in the right area.
Freeway traffic can bring massive quantities but only at certain times of the day.
Suburban traffic is much more targeted and can bring very qualified prospects.
Rural traffic is somewhat targeted but you need to be able to capture the prospect.

Each one has it’s own patterns and volumes.

The commonality amongst all the above options is that you need to capture the prospects attention, hence different methods work for the different kinds of traffic.

For years the saying in retail was location, location, location…and depending on your location determined what kind of traffic you received.

The beauty of the web is that you can dial in just about any kind of traffic that you want and along with the right amount.

The question you need to ask is, what kind of traffic do you want? Massive quantities but un-targeted or lessor quantities but more targeted. This all depends on your niche(s) and needs.

Here are four of the many online traffic sources you can use to build your list:

Pay-per-click can be turned on & off – which works great for some marketers.
Banner Ads work great and can bring tons of traffic, if you are positioned well.
Articles work like a charm for targeted traffic, especially if you like to write and already have knowledge about your subject and market.
Videos can bring searchers who are very targeted and have interest in specific niches, products, services and information.

Traffic for list building all comes down to ROI. Is the traffic bringing you ROI or is it just TOE (tons of eyeballs)?

Return on investment is the key. Without ROI, you are spinning your wheels. So make sure you test your traffic sources and work towards ones that produce ROI.

Tired of spinning your list building wheels and want to finally get some traction? This might be just what you need…check it out here: List Building Strategies & Tactics

March 19, 2012

List Building – How to Connect with Subscribers-Part III

In part one and part two of this ‘How to Connect’ series I covered my first two rules when it comes to connecting and building relationships with subscribers and clients.

This article is about Rule #3 – Be available.

Be willing and open to connect with those people that opt-in and subscribe to your email list.

What this really means to be available is that when a subscriber sends you an email, you respond to them. And do so sooner than later.

This is one of the first tests that I do when I subscribe to a marketers list.

I send an email to inquire about something. If the message comes back as undeliverable, no response, with an automated reply, or with a support ticket system, then I know this marketer is not available. Or he or she has chosen to outsource email inquiries.

What this tells me is that the marketer is not really interested in connecting with subscribers and clients.

I did this just recently and the individual never replied. But then the next day his new message showed up to pitch me another product. The funny thing is that the product didn’t have a thing to do with why I subscribed in the first place.

The no reply and then follow up sales message didn’t do much to get me to buy his product. In fact it did the exact opposite and turned me the other direction.

When a subscriber contacts you, it’s usually because the individual is searching for more information or has a question about something pertaining to your product or service.

What you should do is make the personal connection and start the cultivation process. Because after all you are building relationships and if the relationship is strong, the better chance you have of selling your products and services.

Of course there’s the easy way out and you can simply say that … Shortcuts are the way to go. And then you look for ways to automate the replies or setup support ticket software.

I say – take the high road. Be available and Connect with your subscribers and clients until the day comes that you have so much business and are overwhelmed with emails that you have to search, hire and personally train someone to help you. More on this topic in another article.

To summarize our three part series: Be real, add value and be available to the people on your list –online or offline.

And if you still haven’t picked up the List Building Guide, go now and get yourself a copy.

To your continued success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher