Monday, 29 August 2011

SiteProNews


SiteProNews

Posted: 26 Aug 2011 02:33 PM PDT
emailmktgEmail Marketing, although thought by some to be old fashioned, boring and ineffective remains one of the most powerful marketing strategy any small business has to increase its profits.
By changing to an email marketing model from selling to site visitors straight “off the page” it is a very easy matter to increase your sales by 10 times, 16 times or even more than that.
But WHY is… email marketing so profitable… and if it IS so profitable why do so many people claim it doesn’t work?
Well, the answer is simple: most people get their email marketing horribly, horribly wrong and make some simple but easily corrected mistakes.
The facts are inescapable: email marketing works… but you have to be careful to do it the right way, assuming you want the best results. Simply sending “an email” is like going into the boxing ring with a world champion with the advice “just hit him” and hoping to win.
So here are 5 simple ways to make more conversions and hence greater profits from your email marketing:
1. Email more often. I know this goes counter to the advice you’ve probably had in the past, but the truth is the more often you email, the more sales you’ll make.
You’ll make far more sales because you’re both giving them more opportunities and incentives to buy from you, and developing a better relationship with them… and your conversion rates will improve tremendously. By how much?
Well, your business may vary, but in my business and my wife’s business, we get conversion rates of between 10% and 16% through email and maybe 1% from sales straight “off the page”. Yes, you’re seeing that right: it’s a massive boost of 10 or 16 times or 1,000% to 1,600%.
2. Stop being ‘professional’. Forget sending stuffy and formal emails — they don’t work. People want to have a relationship with you, not be addressed as if they were in court standing in front of a judge. So write from one person, one human being to another, using the words, “you” and “me”, even if you’re writing to them from a big corporation.

3. Ditch the fancy designs. Newsflash: for all sorts of technical reasons we don’t need to worry about here, fancy HTML emails invariably look a real mess at the other end and very few of your readers will see anything even remotely resembling the gorgeous email you put together…look awful in your reader’s email client. if you have images in your emails they simply don’t show up properly and your “standard” HTML formatting is butchered by non-standard interpretation by your email programme.
Either use plain text, or, if you want the best of both worlds, use simply formatted HTML that looks like plain text but allows you to use underline, italic and bold as well as use anchor text in links.
4. Have a specific call to action in every email. Make it a personal rule that every email you send will have a specific action in it you want the reader to take, whether it’s to visit a page and buy something or to do something else. But make sure you have something in EVERY email because you are subconsciously training your readers to take action when you tell them!
5. Write about anything! This is a biggie: most business owners write excruciatingly tedious and boring emails that are nothing more than tired exhortations for people to buy their stuff. Don’t do that. Include all sorts of personal stuff about your life and anything else that comes to mind, including current events, news, that kind of thing.
Remember: you’re trying to form a relationship with them and the best way to do that is to share personal details of you and your journey through life. I’ve written about all manner of things to my list, from my dog messing in the kitchen, to my son passing his karate belt (he has cerebral palsy, so it was even more of an achievement than usual), and I’ve even written about the operation I had on my toe. And my conversion rate is 10% or more!
The truth is if you do it the right way, email marketing is fast, effective and extremely cheap.
These five tips will give you a real running start.
Jon McCulloch is Ireland’s foremost email marketing expert and helps Irish business owners increase their online conversions and sales by as much as 10 or even 16 times (that’s NOT a typo you’re seeing).To discover more about effective email marketing in Ireland download Jon’s FREE audio training, Email Marketing Kick Start: http://www.emailmarketingireland.ie/email-marketing-tips

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Email Marketing – 5 Secrets To Higher Conversion Rates
Posted: 26 Aug 2011 12:18 PM PDT
appleOne of the things that set Mac computers apart from other computers is the applications. Apps, as it is more commonly known, are the coolest thing to ever be incorporated into a computer. They can also be found in other products such as an iPhone but there certain apps that are just for a Mac. Asides from the other cool features of Macs, this is definitely the crowd pleaser.
Getting an iPhone repair or a Mac repair can just as easily be done through an app. There are a bunch of apps available on the Mac store. Some are free while some are not but you will surely find something that is worth your time. As much apps there are available, not all are essential to a Mac user.
Here are the top 5 essential Mac Applications that are surely worth getting:
1. CopyPaste Pro
This one makes it at the top simply because of how useful it is. We all go through the task of copying then pasting text or an image over and over again. As you copy it, it is then stored to a clipboard which can’t be used again once you copy something else. But, imagine being able to have multiple clips which you can edit and alter anytime.
Add a nice multiple clips viewer and a few clip tools and the result is CopyPaste Pro. This gets your work done faster and more efficiently.
2. iKey
This next app is “time-saving” at its finest. As a Mac user, you probably have a lot of task done on your computer on a daily basis. This involves a lot of clicking, use of programs, typing, and the like. Most of the tasks are also repetitive which means it involves the same process every day. Instead of doing the same thing every day, why not have all your problems solved through a click of a button. This is exactly what iKey does, it stores your whole process into one key and it does the rest. Do less and accomplish more with iKey.

3. MacSpeech
Think of this as your personal transcriptionist. MacSpeech is a voice recognition software made to convert everything you say into text. It has different text formats for your converted content. It also comes in different packages which have different specializations.
4. 1Password
Tired of remembering or keeping a list of all your passwords? 1Password does all of this for you. This app stores all your passwords so that you will never forget them again.
5. FreshBooks
This app is focused on creating a quick and efficient way on tracking and organizing your expenses and invoicing of your clients. This helps you keep track of the time and takes away all your worries. You will be able to focus on the more important things asides from the paperwork.
Jeremy Cohn, an article writer for computers and Apple products relies on mac repair phoenix for updates on Mac computers. For Apple products, iPhone repair phoenix is a useful source. To get the latest updates on Mac visit http://macmasterservice.com.
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Top 5 Essential Mac Applications
Posted: 26 Aug 2011 11:15 AM PDT
facebook-logoHere are a few techniques that you can save money using Facebook advertising:

1. Use the cost per impression setting vs. the cost per click setting
You should pay less in advertising costs when using the cost per impression setting so long as you are getting a very good click through rate.
2. Direct your clicks to your Facebook page
If you direct your clicks to your Facebook page rather than to your external website, your cpc will likely be more cost-effective. The one thing that you still have to do will be to make certain your Facebook page is set up just like your website in that you can have visitors sign up to your list and you are also set up to send them through your sales funnel.
3. Only keep your ads active for a day or two
When you first start your Facebook advertising, you receive most of your clicks on the first or second day. Your audience gets used to seeing your ads over the next few days and they don’t click on them as often. What you need to do would be to modify your ads every other day with new headlines and new images. That way, you should keep the interest of your audience. Produce enough of these variations for up to 1 month or so and after that begin again with the first ad and continue rotating the remaining through in a cycle. You’ll be creating a sequence of ads rather then only one ad. Almost like split-testing. This way, your ads don’t get stale plus your target market will stay interested in what you are advertising.
Keep track of which ads are performing the best and once you have cycled through your series, keep the ones that did the best and run them again. Keep adding to the series with different headlines, different photos and different ad text. You would like to keep your cpc down under $.30 per click.
4. How do you know if you are making or losing money?
To ascertain just how much money you are making or losing using Facebook advertising, it is important for you to track everything. You have to track the cost per click, the click through rate, and what percentage of those clicks are subscribing to your fan page or turning into leads by visiting your website. In addition you have to have an efficient sales funnel created when capturing your leads. You could really have the ideal click through rate and you may be generating leads, but if no one is buying anything, you will be losing money.
Adverting on Facebook can be considerably more rewarding than Google AdWords. The kind of advertising that you do on Facebook, which is basically a soft-sell approach, works very well on Facebook. This type of strategy won’t work well on Google AdWords. And, the cost per click would be much more on Google AdWords than on Facebook.
These are just a few strategies that you can save money when advertising on Facebook versus advertising with Google AdWords. Just remember, when using these strategies, track everything that you are able to to help you determine simply how much money you’re making using Facebook advertising.
If you want to learn more about using Facebook advertising, download my free Facebook Guide here. Visit my web site at http://workonlinesuccess.com
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How To Save Money With Facebook Advertising
Posted: 26 Aug 2011 10:03 AM PDT
business1You’re already practicing the discipline of customer relationship management (CRM) if you run a medium-sized or small business. You build and cultivate customer relationships face-to-face every day. But you won’t be small forever, and as your small business grows, you’ll gather a lot of customer data. And at some point, you’ll require a technology solution to manage it.
Post-it notes and Excel spreadsheets can only take you so far. When you need to share customer data across departmental boundaries and integrate it with other business systems, the time is right for a CRM solution.
With CRM supporting your business, you can:
1. Grow Without Losing Customer Intimacy
You don’t want to lose that one-on-one feeling with customers as your business grows. You want to treat all your customers well–old and new. And you want to know who your best customers are and manage them accordingly.
CRM allows you to identify your customers’ most important traits, match them to a history of interactions with your business, and use that information to craft a personalized approach to loyalty, marketing, and sales over the entire customer lifecycle.
2. Scale Your Workforce More Slowly Than Your Customer Base
As you acquire more customers, it becomes harder to keep track of all the important details that impact your ability to build effective relationships. And that’s especially true for infrequent customers.
But CRM can automate many of the basic tasks of customer data management. So, rather than adding people to your business to maintain face time with customers, you can move some of that customer interaction to online channels.
Plus, CRM can make the employees you have more effective by providing them with rapid access to customer information.
They can start every customer conversation armed with a complete history of that customer’s experience.
3. Market To Customers With The Same Effectiveness As A Large Company
You can’t afford to hire dozens of people to staff marketing–but you don’t need to. CRM allows medium-sized and small businesses to run effective marketing campaigns and precisely analyze their results by automating many activities and organizing the data needed for others. With CRM technology, your small business can market to customers with the same level of sophistication and effectiveness as a large company.
4. Keep Your Business Information From Becoming Siloed
Many companies that adopt CRM at a later stage in their development realize that point solutions adopted to solve specific problems have created information silos: separate collections of data that can’t work together. Moreover, integrating these information silos can be difficult and expensive.
But when your business adopts CRM early on, you can avoid this. By using one system to handle all of your customer data, it becomes much easier to integrate this information with manufacturing, financial, and other back-office systems. And, the same set of data will be accessible across your entire business, making everyone more productive.
Finding The Right CRM Solution For You
To choose the right CRM solution for your business, you need to know two things: your business needs and how those needs map to what the CRM market has to offer. Don’t take shortcuts with this process. If you need help, work with an outside consultant, integrator or reseller. These professionals have had experience with CRM implementations and they can help you select the right CRM product for your needs and your budget, deploy your system, and train the people in your business who use it. Though not inexpensive, these services can help you avoid selecting the wrong CRM product, which in the long run will be more expensive and counter productive for your business.
Chris Bucholtz is a recognized influencer in customer relationship management. He’s Editor in Chief of CRM Outsiders, and a founding editor of both Forecasting Clouds and InsideCRM. To find out more about how to build your business and empower your employees with CRM Software Solutions please visit http://www.sugarcrm.com
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

What Will CRM Do For Your Medium Or Small Business?
Posted: 25 Aug 2011 10:00 PM PDT
spn_exclusiveOne of the unfortunate side effects of social networking is dealing with Internet trolls. These anonymous consumers seem to exist just to spite you. They love stirring up trouble, attacking your brand and lambasting your company on every forum, blog and social network they can find. Maybe they are a former customer with an axe to grind. Maybe they’re just looking to pick a fight. Whatever the reason, almost every company is going to have to handle a troll at some point.
Here are 5 ways to help you better manage the social networking trolls:
1. Establish Ground Rules
You want to make sure that the troll doesn’t make your company end up looking like the bad guy. Before trolls become an issue, establish a set of ground rules for commenting on your social profiles. Let you audience know what kind of behavior will and will not be allowed. If a troll posts something offensive or abusive on your Facebook wall and you decide to delete it, let your network know that it’s because you won’t tolerate that kind of belligerent attitude, not because they don’t like your company. Just make sure you play by your own rules!
2. Don’t Try to “Disappear” Them
If someone leaves a comment on your Facebook wall that you don’t like, you have the ability as the page owner to delete that comment. Seems like the best way of dealing with a troll, right? Not necessarily. Trying to just “delete” your trolls and their comments might come across like you have something to hide or are trying to drown our dissenting opinions. It may cause your real social network to question your integrity. If things get really heated, find a way to take the conversation off of your social profile without just deleting it entirely.
3. Kill Them With Kindness
It almost never pays to get into a spitting match with a social troll. They don’t have anything to risk by getting involved in an online feud; you do. Your brand and online reputation are up for grabs when you start fighting with a troll on a social networking site. You may not like what they have to say, but don’t get angry and use social media to vent. The person who is handling your social media marketing cannot afford to take it personally! The troll isn’t attacking one particular employee; they are going after your brand. As long as you stay polite and courteous, your company will come out on top.
4. Reach Out for Support
If you’ve taken the time to do your social media marketing right, you’ve probably built up a strong and solid network of brand loyalists. If one troll seems intent on picking a fight, have your social network come to your defense. Ask your Friends, Fans and Followers to post/Tweet/blog or share their opinions of your company. Chances are your social network is more than willing to police itself. Users are smart, and they can tell when someone is trying to cause trouble for no reason. Having that much support shows the trolls that they are facing a much bigger fight then they thought.
5. Actually Listen
This might sound a little crazy, but you do have to pay attention to what the trolls are saying. They might not be the only ones who feel so negatively about your brand, even if they are taking it to an extreme level. Let’s say you have 1,000 Facebook fans, but only 200 have commented on your Facebook page. Those 200 comments may or may not represent majority opinion. Sure, you have to take the comments of a social troll with a grain of salt, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something about your audience at large if you dig deeper. Sometimes a troll is nothing more than a very upset customer. You want to make sure there aren’t other customers this upset with your brand. Once you understand the problem, you can address and fix it.
Sooner or later, just about every company will have to deal with a social troll. It isn’t worth the risk of damage to your brand to get involved in a public fight with one of them. Remember to take the high road and your online reputation won’t suffer because of it.
Nick Stamoulis is the President and Founder of Brick Marketing a full-service SEO and social
media marketing company. With over 12 years of experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by posting daily SEO tips to his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal and by publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter. Contact Nick Stamoulis at 781-999-1222 or nick@brickmarketing.com
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

How to Handle Social Media Trolls – A SPN Exclusive Article
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)