While there’s no doubt that you almost certainly need some sort of email newsletter to promote a site, blog, product or service online, there’s a great deal of nervousness and hand-wringing as to how it should be done.
The reason is because email newsletters, in the mind of many, border all-too-closely to spam and other unsolicited email. Though email newsletters, if done well, can be a great benefit to the recipient as well as the sender, a poorly-done newsletter can actually damage your reputation and unsell your site or product.
Unfortunately, the difference between a newsletter your subscribers look forward to getting and one they toss in the spam folder is often a minor one. But by simply following these best practices, you can help ensure your newsletter serves as a positive, routine contact for your subscribers and not as a recurring annoyance.
1. Clarity Before Subscription
Far too many newsletter subscription pitches fail to include what is actually in the newsletter. Why should the reader subscribe? What will they be getting? And how often will they be getting it?
Not only are better-informed readers more likely to sign up for your newsletter, but they’re more likely to stay as they know what they are getting into. Compare that to subscribers that are surprised at the volume or content of your newsletter and either unsubscribe immediately or begin to junk your emails.
2. Double Opt-In Only
Every email address on your subscriber list should be obtained through a double opt-in process only. This means that they have requested a subscription on your site (or some other means) and then confirmed that with an email sent to their account.
Email lists that don’t use double opt-in are simply too prone to abuse as anyone can sign up anyone else. This, in turn, puts your newsletters in the hands of those who never really wanted it, turning what should be a legitimate mailing into spam.
Always remember spam is in the eye of the beholder so it’s important to make sure the recipient won’t see it that way.
3. Send at the Best Time
One of the most common ways for your emails to be treated as spam is to have them appear in an inbox filled with other spam letters.
Though there is no single best time to send your newsletters, you typically want to do so when your readers are active on their computer but not too busy.
For example, if you reach out to a business audience, the ideal time might be right after the morning email clean out but before lunch. Likewise, if your audience primarily checks email at home, it might be early evening, shortly after they get home from work.
Understand your audience and learn the best time to send your newsletters to them. You can even further segment this by requesting additional information from your subscribers and then target different readers at different times for maximum benefit.
Making this part of the process is critical to not angering your readers. After all, just because someone is unsubscribing from your newsletter does not mean they won’t purchase your product, read your site or otherwise participate in your community, it just means they no longer want that particular element and and it’s best to not upset them lest they leave completely.
Furthermore, the easier it is to leave, the less likely readers are to mark your newsletters as spam and the less likely they are going to be filtered out for others.
In short, a clear exit helps everyone out.
All in all, there is no reason to be too nervous about newsletter marketing. Though it can be risky if done poorly, if you operate with good faith, make sure people know what they are subscribing to and let them leave when they want, the risk is fairly minor.
While it might mean putting the brakes somewhat on your lists’ growth and being a bit more careful with how you use it, a well-built and well-maintained list is, in the long run, worth far more than one most merely toss into the spam folder.
Best of all, it creates something people look forward to getting and eagerly open, meaning they are a willing audience. That, in turn, is something that almost every advertiser dreams of.
This guest post is written by Lior Levine, a marketing consultant for a web hosting company that provides a list of the top 10 website hosting companies available online. Lior also consults for an international company that provides innovative new cancer treatments.
For some reason there seems to be a misconception out there that content is cheap and that it’s OK to pay $10 for an article to be published online. Are you kidding? Content is the foundation of everything that you do online, particularly of an online marketing strategy. If you think that it’s OK to be a cheapskate when it comes to content, you are very wrong.
Think about it. You don’t need to be a genius to know that the content that you are reading online was thrown together in ten minutes, written by someone that doesn’t speak the language as their first language, or doesn’t have much knowledge of the topic being discussed. Would you take an individual or a business that published this kind of content seriously? Probably not.
Online content should be handled with the same care that offline content is handled. If you were buying a $1000 print ad, would you allow it to be haphazardly thrown together by someone that was paid a minimum rate? Or even worse, by a non-paid intern? Doubt it. So why do businesses think it’s OK when it comes to web content?
Perhaps one explanation is that they simply don’t “get” the medium. They were told once upon a time that in order to build up their search engine visibility they needed to build up their links so they became so focused on quantity over quality and forgot about what truly mattered. They worried so much about keyword density to attract the search engines that they were churning out poor content that didn’t resonate with their target audience.
Another possible explanation is that they got too caught up with the “free” nature of the Internet. It’s “free” to publish a blog post, submit an article, sign up for social media accounts, and upload videos online. So the content should be free (or cheap) too, right? Wrong. While it may be “free” to participate in all of those online branding and link building tactics, it takes time and effort, which usually translates into money.
The bottom line is that online content is an important representation of your brand. Your work should be of good quality at all of your touchpoints. If you want it done right, you need to accept that it costs money. For a good piece of content, you need to be willing to pay $50-$200, and possibly more depending on the nature of the content. It’s worth spending money on a writer that has knowledge or even paying someone to get the knowledge. An in house content writer or contract writer that knows the ins and outs of your business and industry is invaluable.
Businesses that are late to the social media game are realizing that they made a mistake. When marketers started discussing it a few years ago, some business owners simply dismissed it as another fad that wasn’t worth investing time and money in. Now they’re kicking themselves. Knowing that they are late to the game has created a sense of urgency and panic. They want to jump right in without really understanding what it’s all about, figuring that they will learn as they go. Their main focus when first starting out seems to be on getting followers. While followers are certainly important, trying to achieve a quick following isn’t the right strategy. The focus should be on actual engagement. There is no point in having followers that don’t care what you are posting, or even worse, aren’t even real people but dummy accounts that were created just to “Like” things.
When setting social media marketing goals, it’s important to focus on things like:
Traffic
The goal of any internet marketing strategy is to get people to click over and visit your site. While social media pages are great, you don’t have ownership of it. A company website is your hub. If nobody is clicking over to your page from social media, you might want to reevaluate your strategy and include more call to actions in your social media content.
Leads
A social media strategy should result in an increase in website traffic, which should result in more leads. Create different landing and conversion pages so that you know that the lead is coming from social media.
Shares
Pay careful attention to the number of Likes, Re-tweets, +1’s and bookmarks that your content receives. This helps build your link portfolio and can introduce your work to a new audience that might be interested in what you have to say.
Conversations
The number of people that take the time to post on your wall or send you a message on Twitter is an important metric. Whether the message is positive or negative, they are still interacting with your brand. In both cases it gives you an opportunity to respond and thank them for a compliment or respond to a negative comment by apologizing and offering to make good on the situation. Many customer service problems can be handled very quickly in the social media space.
Those are the big things to focus on in social media, but smaller goals along the way are what make the big goals achievable. Make sure to set weekly benchmarks regarding the content that you will be sharing in social media, whether it is sharing an article that you wrote or asking your followers a question and participating in a conversation.
Sometimes it can be difficult trying to get a complex message or theory through to an audience. Although the written word is amazingly powerful, sometimes it can just be easier to use infographics to get your point across. But what is an infographic and how do they work? Here’s an explanation and a few examples of effective infographics.
What Is An Infographic?
Infographics are pictorial representations of information that could also be written in an article. Think along the lines of a graph or pie chart if you will. A pie chart could contain information about what type of food people like to eat on a night out. It could tell you that 40% of people like Indian cuisine, 30% like Chinese cuisine, 20% like American, and 10% like Fish and chips.
While it’s fine to give people that information in writing, a pie chart gives a much better visual representation of the information. Many people take in facts better when they see an actual image instead of words on paper.
So What Types Of Infographics Are There and Which Work Best?
Directional- Directional infographics show people how to get from one point to another. They can be a good way to lead staff members through certain work procedures, and are also very effective in schools, especially used in many science departments.
Often things like arrows, bullet points, balloons, and numbers are used in this kind of infographic to impart the necessary information.
Quantitative- This kind of infographic is used to give statistical information to readers in a quick and effective way. Similar to the pie chart example given earlier you’ll often see pie charts, bar charts, and graphs used to give numerical information in a way that can be easily digested and understood.
Quantitative infographics will also be used in cases where complex information needs to be simplified.
Chronological- These infographics are not unlike their quantitative cousins. They are used to show how things change over a period of time. They’ll normally be used to show things like weight loss/gain, growth of sales and profit, number of crimes, that kind of thing.
These infographics are very effective at showing the relationship between numbers over a certain period of time. They are used very much in business where it’s important to see how a companies strategy is affecting things like profits.
Infographics and Advertising
Infographics are often used in marketing and advertising material as it can help solidify a sales message much more effectively that the written word. The most effective type of infographics will be clean, basic, and concise. The whole point is to simplify a message and not make it harder.
Other factors that become very important in creating a strong infographic are things like color, layout and font. It needs to be easy on the eye, easy to follow, and must grab your readers attention. It’s very important to be very organized in your presentation of information as a reader who ends up confused will probably leave your graphic before they understand the most important points.
As the Internet has grown so has the use of infographics. With so much information out there, and so many other sites competing for eyeballs it has become even more important that ever to stand out, whilst ensuring your readers get the information they need quickly, and in an entertaining way.
With the sudden explosive growth of the Android phones and iPhones, many websites are quickly adapting their information so it’s compatible with customers mobile devices. This means that many infographics are becoming small enough to be used on a mobile phone. Whilst this medium of communicating with clients is proving so effective there’s nothing to suggest the infographic will be going anywhere fast.
This post was sent to us by a blogger named Lior Levin who is a blogger and a marketing consultant to the ma in security and ma in political science programs in the tel aviv university.
First there was direct mail marketing, but as soon as the Internet came into popular use it was only a matter of time before email marketing became a force to be reckoned with in the online world. Despite a rough start where people got so sick of spam that the US Government passed the Can-Spam Act in an effort to curb the growing trend in mass junk mailing. The problem still remains today but ethical email marketing has risen above that and people recognize it for what it is – a method for businesses to communicate with them.
You may think you’re only ever going to be working with a single mailing list but that will quickly change once you really get involved with email marketing in a serious way. The email marketing solution you choose should allow you to handle multiple lists in the simplest possible way.
It should also allow you to create autoresponder sequences and a single broadcast mailing to the same list with just a few clicks – the more intuitive the package is the better. In addition it should allow you to segment your list so you can target just specific groups within your mailing list. We found this very important when we did the marketing for a customized cancer treatment startup I worked for.
Remember you want this to be as automated as possible so there’s very little work for you once you’ve generated the opt-ins to your list.
2. Double Opt-Ins
Because of the splurge of spam that caused the creation of the Can-Spam Act in 2003 you must, must, must have an email management solution that works with the double opt-in process. This basically means that once the person signs up to your list they’re sent a second email asking them to confirm their subscription and at least this way you’re completely minimizing the amount of unwanted opt-ins that you receive.
You’re also staying clear of any legal issues or potential complaints against you. Any solution that doesn’t offer the double opt-in feature should be avoided like the plague.
3. Tracking
Once you’ve created your list you’re going to be emailing your customers and readers and an important aspect of this process is checking what’s called your Open Rate. This tells you of the number of e-mails you sent out how many were actually opened and read. This type of analysis is critical to ensure that you’re writing the most effective and enticing subject lines possible for your email campaigns.
Also if you’re including any links in your emails for products or services you’re recommending or just sharing resources with people then you’ll need to know how often these links are actually being clicked to measure your click through rate. Again this is an important part of analyzing your email promotion efforts – it allows you to fine tune what you’re doing so you can improve your next broadcast to your list.
Then you’re going to have to try either migrating your entire list or worse again asking your customers and clients to opt-in yet again to an entirely new email management system. Neither one of these is fun and the entire process can quickly become a nightmare that involves people simply opting out of receiving any emails from you at all.
Look at what solutions other successful email marketers are using and simply follow their example – they’re using it because it works.
This was a post by Lior Levin who is a marketing consultant for a psd to html company and for few other Internet companies.
When people think of content marketing, they tend to think primarily about text based content. But what about videos? They can be just as valuable a part of your content marketing as blog posts and articles are. After all, they can attract a different kind of audience. Some people would prefer to watch a video rather than read an article while browsing the web. Due to the popularity of video sharing sites like YouTube, individuals and businesses can upload and share a video in a matter of minutes. Some videos take off and go viral and are viewed by millions of people within a week or even a few days. It looks so easy. Create something awesome and your video will be seen by millions of people, right? Not really. In many cases, it’s hard to know what will “hit” or “miss” with a mass audience. And really, should you be catering to the masses anyway?
Spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to make a video that will go viral isn’t worth it because there really is no magic formula. Trying to force a video to go viral almost guarantees that it won’t succeed. Some marketers think that something funny, quirky, or flashy is a sure bet. But what if your brand isn’t funny, quirky, or flashy? It doesn’t make sense. A marketing video should be created for the same purpose that any content is created, and that is to provide value to your target audience. You don’t want to stray away from that concept just to get attention. Not only will it alienate your current customers, but it will also attract the wrong target audience. Even if they think that your video is funny, they probably will never consider buying your products or services.
A marketing video doesn’t need to be entertaining. In many cases, it probably shouldn’t be. It can be just as valuable, and probably more so, if it is educational and informational. It all goes back to the target audience. What would they like to see that will help to persuade them to buy from you? A restaurant owner might provide a video of a tour of the restaurant. Sometimes pictures on the website aren’t enough. A tour of the dining room, the bar, and the kitchen will help a viewer get a better feeling of the size and the environment. A video interviewing staff members and customers provides a personal connection to a company and allows them to put a “face” on the brand name. Sure, it’s nothing flashy and it won’t become a YouTube sensation, but your target audience will appreciate it.
When it comes to making a marketing video, your best bet is to create something that is valuable to your target audience. If it’s worth sharing, it will be shared. Don’t worry so much about the number of views. Instead, check to see if the video has resulted in an increase in website traffic or conversions. Those are the numbers that really matter.
About the Author:
Brick Marketing is a Boston, MA based search engine marketing and SEO company. For more information please visit http://www.brickmarketing.com or call 781-999-1222.
Blogs have multiple purposes. They are a place for bloggers to share their thoughts and opinions in order to be viewed as a thought leader on a certain topic or within a certain industry. They have SEO benefits because the search engines love new content. Since a blog is typically updated regularly, it ensures that the search engines come back to the website to index the page. While not always viewed as such, blogs are also part of the social media world. In fact, blogs were a place for people to share and communicate with each other long before Facebook and Twitter existed. This is because blogs typically allow, and encourage, visitors to make comments. However, it seems like recently more and more blogs are disabling comments from their blog. Is this the right approach? Let’s take a look at some pros and cons to disabling blog comments.
PROS
Saves time
Lots of time needs to be dedicated to a blog in order to get any value out of it. It takes time to brainstorm topics to write about, write the post, edit it, find a picture to go along with it, post it, and promote it. If you allow blog comments on your blog, it takes additional time to monitor them and respond to those that took the time to comment.
Don’t have to deal with comment spam
Unfortunately a lot of blog comments are spam. They contribute nothing to the conversation, are poorly written, and sometimes aren’t even written in English. It’s annoying to have to weed through them, especially when you have more important things to do.
No place for competitors to promote
Some people take advantage of the blog comments section in order to get a link. If your blog is influential and gets lots of traffic, competitors might try to sneak in there and promote their services.
CONS
No discussion
Sometimes the best part of a blog post is the discussion that follows, especially if it’s about a controversial topic. The reader can get additional information by reading the comments. It also has SEO benefits because keywords that the blog post targeted will be used naturally throughout the comment section.
No opportunity to connect
Business networking is important in any industry. People that post comments on a blog can become business contacts and you never know when that connection may come in handy.
Bad rep
Blog visitors will notice that you don’t allow comments and will wonder why. Are you too lazy to monitor and respond to comments? Do you not care what anyone else thinks? Are you afraid of what people will say?
All blogs are different. While it may be OK for some to disable comments, for others it’s probably not a smart idea. In order to decide, take a look at who is actually commenting. If it’s all just competitors looking for links that might be reason to disable, but if it’s actual clients and customers or other industry insiders actually contributing to the conversation it’s probably best to continue to allow comments.
About the Author:
Brick Marketing is a Boston SEO agency. For more information please call 781-999-1222.
The number of people browsing the web and searching for information on a mobile device continues to increase over time. Eventually, the majority of cell phone users will be using smart phones. What are these people searching for? Mostly, they are searching for local products and services, which makes sense if you think about it. Mobile Internet use allows people to find answers immediately. Previously, people spent a lot more time planning an outing before leaving the house. Smart phone use has changed our behavior to searching in the here and now. Instead of planning ahead, they simply take out their phone to find a restaurant nearby when they get hungry or a movie theater nearby when they want to be entertained. This means that it’s even more important for local businesses to have a well optimized search presence. You might be right around the corner, but if you don’t show up on our phone, you might as well not even exist.
Here are a few tips for surviving in the smart phone era:
Think Local, Even If You’re Not
Even if you offer services or sell products to people across the country, a local profile can’t hurt. It establishes that you have a physical location and are an actual company, which goes a long way in alleviating any fears of an online scam. Though it may seem silly today, there are still plenty of people that don’t trust what they see online.
Provide Contact Info
Include your physical address, mailing address, phone number, and names of cities, towns, and neighborhoods that you serve on every page of your website. This information establishes your location and makes it easy for a customer to find you.
Submit to Local Directories
This is an important part of a local SEO link building campaign. Basic listings to the Google, Bing, and Yahoo! local directories are free and well worth the time that it takes to submit them since they rank well. It’s also a good idea to submit your site to other local listing sites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Local.com. There may also be some local niche or industry specific directories for local businesses.
Incorporate Locally Targeted Keywords
When doing keyword research, always think nationally first, and then incorporate local terms. It’s a good idea to use the city and the city and state. For example, if your keyword research tells you that “decorative art gallery” is a good keyword, target “San Francisco decorative art gallery” and “San Francisco CA decorative art gallery”. If you are located just outside of a large city, use your city and the large city to increase traffic.
About the Author:
Brick Marketing is a Boston MA search engine marketing and B2B SEO company. For more information please call 781-999-1222.
Timing is everything in marketing, period. However the difference with online marketing is that all of the power is in our hands. Sure, you can purchase TV ads during a specific program or place radio spots during optimal morning and afternoon/evening drive times when people are most likely to be listening in their car, but you can rarely guarantee placement down to the second when using these strategies. Timing of outgoing marketing messages online including blog posts, social media tweets, re-tweets, @ mentions, wall posts, and email newsletter distribution is all up to the sender. Therefore, it’s important to use this to your advantage. Sharing content whenever you feel like it isn’t the best strategy.
Unlike TV and radio ads, the cost of sharing blog posts, social media posts, and email newsletter content does not change depending on the time. It’s much more expensive to purchase TV air time during weeknight prime time, when the most people are watching, than it is to buy a spot on a silly daytime courtroom show. Sure, writing a blog post takes time, and that can be considered a cost, but that “cost” doesn’t increase or decrease if the post goes live at 9am instead of 9pm.
When sharing content online it’s important to first think about your target audience. What are their online behaviors? Do they use social media, if so, when? When are they more likely to be browsing the web and looking for information? If you are targeting a B2B audience that typically works a Monday to Friday 9-5 office job, it’s likely that people are checking their email and social media accounts in the morning and again at lunch time. So, it would make sense to schedule a blog post to go live at 7:30am and submit a Facebook post at 12:30pm on a Tuesday. A tweet or post shared at 10pm on Tuesday might get read on Wednesday morning, but there’s no guarantee. Sometimes people follow so many users that they rarely look back far enough to see everything. There’s a good chance that the 10pm message will be missed. However, 10pm might be an ideal time to reach a different target audience, like college kids hanging out in their dorm with their laptops open. If you target an international audience it’s necessary to keep the time differences in mind. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at how often this detail can be overlooked. Timing depends on the audience and that is why it’s important to do some research on their online usage behaviors.
Another factor to consider is the seasonality of the product or service that you offer. A company that creates custom Christmas tree ornaments should increase its online marketing presence and messaging in the fall and a pool cleaning service should increase it in the early spring. Some companies expect steady business all year long, but many don’t, and it’s important to keep this important factor in mind when developing an online marketing strategy.
About the Author
Brick Marketing is a Boston SEO and SEM company. For more information please call 781-999-1222 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com.
Marketing can be separated into two categories, inbound and outbound. While these terms might be relatively new, the tactics involved have been around awhile, especially the outbound tactics.
Outbound marketing is essentially traditional push marketing. Outbound marketing tactics include TV, print, and radio advertising, public relations, direct mail, and telemarketing. This type of marketing has also been called “interruption” marketing and has a “hey, look at me!” kind of approach. The target is usually very broad and there isn’t much immediate return on investment. It’s about trying to attract an audience that may never have an interest in your product or service. It’s like throwing a bunch of information, deals, promotions, etc. at the wall and hoping that something sticks. Sometimes it works, but it typically works a very low percentage of the time.
Inbound marketing is a strategy to attract an audience that you know is already interested in what you have to offer. It’s about joining the conversation, rather than starting the conversation. Inbound marketing is opt-in marketing. The target audience chooses to receive the information. Inbound marketing includes tactics such as SEO, PPC, social media, and blogging.
Inbound marketing has become the “cool kid” in marketing, due to the change in customer behavior over the years. Consumers are wary of what’s out there and don’t trust the information that they receive when it’s being marketed “at” them. The days of consumers thinking, “if they say this about their product, then it absolutely must be true” are long gone. If anything, consumers just don’t want to hear it. They find “in your face” advertising to be annoying and have learned to just tune it out.
Inbound marketing is about being there only when the target audience wants you to be. Unlike the billboard on the highway that targets everyone that is driving by (whether they need a new cell phone service provider or not) PPC and SEO is all about targeting specific keywords that relate to specific products and services. The only searchers that will find you are the searchers that are looking for you. You aren’t interrupting them, you are assisting them. It’s very niche and targeted, and therefore much more cost efficient.
This doesn’t mean that you should scrap traditional outbound media entirely and spend all of your dollars on inbound. They are most effective when working together as part of a diverse marketing strategy. Outbound focuses on brand building and increasing recognition. It’s broad and focuses on the early stages of the decision process, which is still an important piece of the puzzle. Inbound marketing focuses on consumers that are in purchase mode that will be more likely to click on an ad or website of a company that they have already heard of via outbound traditional marketing.
About the Author:
Brick Marketing is a Boston SEO company. For more information please call 781-999-1222.
Should You Disable Blog Comments on Your Blog?
Blogs have multiple purposes. They are a place for bloggers to share their thoughts and opinions in order to be viewed as a thought leader on a certain topic or within a certain industry. They have SEO benefits because the search engines love new content. Since a blog is typically updated regularly, it ensures that the search engines come back to the website to index the page. While not always viewed as such, blogs are also part of the social media world. In fact, blogs were a place for people to share and communicate with each other long before Facebook and Twitter existed. This is because blogs typically allow, and encourage, visitors to make comments. However, it seems like recently more and more blogs are disabling comments from their blog. Is this the right approach? Let’s take a look at some pros and cons to disabling blog comments.
PROS
Saves time
Lots of time needs to be dedicated to a blog in order to get any value out of it. It takes time to brainstorm topics to write about, write the post, edit it, find a picture to go along with it, post it, and promote it. If you allow blog comments on your blog, it takes additional time to monitor them and respond to those that took the time to comment.
Don’t have to deal with comment spam
Unfortunately a lot of blog comments are spam. They contribute nothing to the conversation, are poorly written, and sometimes aren’t even written in English. It’s annoying to have to weed through them, especially when you have more important things to do.
No place for competitors to promote
Some people take advantage of the blog comments section in order to get a link. If your blog is influential and gets lots of traffic, competitors might try to sneak in there and promote their services.
CONS
No discussion
Sometimes the best part of a blog post is the discussion that follows, especially if it’s about a controversial topic. The reader can get additional information by reading the comments. It also has SEO benefits because keywords that the blog post targeted will be used naturally throughout the comment section.
No opportunity to connect
Business networking is important in any industry. People that post comments on a blog can become business contacts and you never know when that connection may come in handy.
Bad rep
Blog visitors will notice that you don’t allow comments and will wonder why. Are you too lazy to monitor and respond to comments? Do you not care what anyone else thinks? Are you afraid of what people will say?
All blogs are different. While it may be OK for some to disable comments, for others it’s probably not a smart idea. In order to decide, take a look at who is actually commenting. If it’s all just competitors looking for links that might be reason to disable, but if it’s actual clients and customers or other industry insiders actually contributing to the conversation it’s probably best to continue to allow comments.
About the Author:
Brick Marketing is a Boston SEO agency. For more information please call 781-999-1222.