Skip Marketing 101 and Read This Instead

 As a small business owner, you understand how complicated running a business is. You’re the chief operating officer, bookkeeper, recruiter, trainer, top salesperson, office manager, and head of marketing — which is why you don’t have time to sit through a Marketing 101 class.

You know marketing is a critical component of your business success, and you need easy, fast tactics that will bring quick, impressive results. Instead of attending a seminar or reading a 500-page book, here are the top eight things you should know about marketing your small business:

1. Not marketing is not an option.

No matter how great your product or service is, it won’t sell itself. You’re going to need some advertising, promotions, publicity, email, or social media, and most likely a combination of all those things. Not sure where to start? A good rule of thumb is to look at what your competitors are doing and where they’re doing it. Is your chief competition advertising in the local newspaper? Are they all over Facebook? Have they totally missed opportunities on Twitter? Are they under-utilizing their website? Identify channels where you’ll need to go head-to-head, and look for opportunities your competition may be missing.

2. Online display advertising can have a big impact for little cost.

Your budget is probably as tight as your schedule, so it’s important to get the most impact for each dollar you spend. Online advertising is a great option for small businesses because it can achieve widespread distribution for less money than you might spend on traditional ad channels like radio, TV, and print. Check out our blog on choosing the right display advertising network to learn more about online advertising.

3. Play on people’s love of events.

Buzzwords like “experiential marketing” may make it seem like this is something new, but marketing with events like in-store promotions has been around for as long as there have been brick-and-mortar businesses. That’s because promotions and events reward the people who are already coming into your store, and draw in new customers who may be shopping with you for the first time. Events like ribbon-cuttings, fundraisers, and customer appreciation days help build awareness and brand visibility. Plus, events play on one of your core strengths as a small business — the face-to-face interactions that your customers just can’t get from a mega-business. Read our blog on ways to promote your small business event.

4. Make the most of your website.

It goes without saying (or it should) that you have a company website. But if it’s only a glorified business listing, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful, cost-effective tools for marketing your small business. An engaging website not only gives current and potential customers important information about your business — such as your location, hours of operations, products, and services — it can be a vibrant sales portal and a channel for gathering customer data. Your website is far too important to have an amateur look or feel, so have your website designed by a professional.

5. Email marketing is the new direct mail.

In the old days, a small business would either pay big bucks to purchase a mailing list and have a direct mail piece professionally designed, or spend countless hours to generate the list and piece themselves. Either route could prove fruitless if the piece was poorly designed and the list was inaccurate or irrelevant. Email is far more cost-effective than the old ways of doing things. Free email tools like VerticalResponse makes it easy to design professional, effective, and mobile-responsive emails, compile and manipulate mailing lists, sign up new email subscribers through your website, and track results.

6. Social media is the new word of mouth.

Social media has made it easier than ever for customers to praise or criticize your small business. What’s more, social media has created communities of like-minded consumers where shareability amplifies the value of your marketing messages. Even better — you don’t have to pay to reach your customers via their favorite social media platforms. Yet it’s also important to strategize your social media campaigns so that you’re reaching your target audience with relevant information through their preferred channels. Check out our blog for useful tips on how to expand your social media presence.

7. Win with loyalty rewards.

Nearly every company seems to have a loyalty rewards program these days, so it’s easy to forget that the concept originated with small businesses. When the local baker slipped an extra cupcake in your mom’s order, or the florist threw in a pretty vase because your dad always bought flowers there — that was loyalty marketing! As a small business owner, you’re uniquely positioned to maximize the value of a loyalty program, because you’re already building loyalty in face-to-face interactions with your customers. Starting a rewards program can be as simple as offering a punch card that rewards shoppers with merchandise after they fill the card. The key is to give customers relevant rewards and make it easy for them to earn those rewards, so they’ll always have a reason to come back.

8. Build a network of relationships.

When you’re wearing your sales hat, you’re probably thinking “always be closing.” When you’re acting as chief financial officer, you’re thinking about minimizing costs and maximizing profits. Whatever hat you wear at any time of day, you should always be building a network of relationships with your customers, other businesses, and other business owners. Joining and participating in local networking organizations is a great way to build professional relationships with other businesses, such as by offering a discount to workers at nearby shops. Or send a stack of coupons to the HR department of the area’s biggest employers and suggest the coupons be used as performance rewards for their employees.

You could spend a lifetime educating yourself on how to market your small business — and maybe down the road you’ll even have time to take that Marketing 101 class! For now, however, these eight strategies will help you create a solid base for your small business marketing efforts.

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List with a Twist: 50 Creative Tips for Gathering Customer Emails

If you don’t have a strong email list for your customer base, you’re missing out on a great marketing tool that’s both reliable and free.

Compiled correctly, your list should represent a significant captive audience that’s already interested in your offerings.

 “It gives you the opportunity to contact your prospects at any point in the future with any kind of messaging you want — and you’re not bound by search engine rankings or social media algorithms,” notes Jayson DeMers in Forbes.

Building up your list can seem difficult and time-consuming, but it’s worthwhile to include only those who have chosen to engage. Buying lists from another vendor is a bad idea, since emailing anonymous contacts can come across as invasive and often results in complaints, bounced addresses and unsubscribes. Your list will be most effective if you gain trust by not sharing subscribers’ info with other firms and creating emails with useful or exclusive information and valuable offers — not just sales pitches.

“Your content needs to be amazing if you want people to stay subscribed and forward your emails to their friends, family and colleagues (not) already on your email list,” notes Andy Pitre on HubSpot.

Consider the following list of email list-generating ideas.

1)      Add an email signup offer to the back of your business cards.

2)      Include opt-in forms as well as forwarding options on every page of your website, blog and social media networks. Don’t forget “about you” sections.

3)      Include a link to your sign-up form in every personal email signature.

4)      Add your sign-up form link to all your printed receipts. Better yet, consider offering emailed receipts (vendors include Transaction Tree and yReceipts).

5)      Bring a sign-up book to tradeshows, Chamber of Commerce events and “lunch and learn” type gatherings in your local business community.

6)      Offer a birthday or anniversary club with a premium for those who sign up.

7)      Pay employees commission for valid addresses from willing subscribers.

8)      Gather addresses via a discount offer with Groupon or similar daily deal site.

9)      Solicit addresses when your business appears at fundraisers, festivals and artisan markets.

10)  Ask customers for new subscribers’ names in exchange for a discount.

11)  Retrieve bounced-back emails, sending postcards asking contacts to sign up again.

12)  Place your opt-in link in another business’ newsletter, doing the same for them.

13)  Optimize your website for your keywords, striving for the top of the organic search results for those seeking your products (see Google Adwords).

14)  Use your list of snail-mail addresses to request email opt-ins.

15)  Stage pop-up requests for those leaving your website or blog.

16)  Include forward-to-a-friend links in all emails to make them easier to share.

17)  Archive newsletters on your website so subscribers know what they’ll get.

18)  Consider a platform like BuddyPress for WordPress (and add opt-ins), creating a community that fosters interaction among customers.

19)  Ask every caller to your business if you can add them to your list.

20)  Invite customers to enter business cards into a counter fishbowl for a weekly prize drawing, logging their addresses and announcing winners in your email newsletter.

21)  At trade shows, collect business cards and (with permission) scan them for addresses.

22)  At retail locations, set out a sandwich board asking for emails.

23)  Ask for emails on the credit card receipts signed by customers.

24)  Stage a contest asking customers to produce one-minute videos about why they like your product. Others can vote for the winner on your social media pages, accessing opt-in invitations.

25)  Use your smartphone to add addresses on the go.

26)  Place opt-in invitations in product shipments.

27)  Add similar invitations to customers’ shopping bags.

28)  Nonprofits: Include an email-address line on donation envelopes/forms.

29)  Retailers: Ask customers for addresses during in-store promotional events.

30)  Solicit personal friends and business colleagues as subscribers.

31)  Send requests to other Chamber of Commerce members.

32)  Offer a free e-book or informational guide for signing up.

33)  When speaking at an event, offer listeners a free consultation with newsletter subscription.

34)  Conducting a survey? Include email sign-up info.

35)  Include an opt-in form on invoices.

36)  Place an opt-in on your WordPress site or blog.

37)  Give discounts when a customer buys from you and then mentions it on Foursquare via their mobile device. Get the address for the “mayor” and give them a big discount each month.

38)  Offer insightful comments on blogs or forums your prospects or customers would visit, adding links to your opt-in form.

39)  Make sure your website’s sign-up landing page is appealing, easy to use and outlines the value of signing up. Note that requesting too much information too soon discourages sign ups.

40)  Create a video about your business, adding a URL to your opt-in form and posting it on YouTube. You can also add note boxes and speech bubbles using YouTube’s “Annotations” function, and/or link your video to another video, playlist, YouTube channel, or Google+ profile involving your business.

41)  Make sure even transactional emails (i.e. order information or shipping updates) include a link to your email sign-up.

42)  Survey current email subscribers about likes and dislikes, using the data to create more effective email content and up-front value propositions.

43)  Online tool Rafflecopter runs Facebook giveaways that automatically glean email addresses from participants, starting at $13/month.

44)  Online tool Justuno automatically provides customers a coupon code for your products or services if they provide their email; price is up to $40/month for small businesses.

45)  Online tool Binkd gathers email addresses from participants who tweet a message about your brand, then you randomly select a prize winner. Price: Up to $2 per day.

46)  Online tool Woobox sets up Facebook quizzes participants can share on their timelines, then you gather emails and draw prize winners. Small businesses spend about $49 to $99 each month.

47)  On Pinterest, pin coupon codes, e-books, guides, video series, online training seminars, checklists and webinars, and include calls to action for your email list.

48)  While it may seem counterintuitive, weed out the disinterested parties by sending contacts a new opt-in promising to remove their name if they don’t respond.

49)  Publish links to your opt-in page on your LinkedIn company page and/or in relevant discussions on LinkedIn.

50)  Co-host a project like an e-book or webinar with an appropriate business partner, then cross-market it with both businesses to solicit emails.

Finally, understand that maintaining a viable email list is bound to be more a marathon than a sprint.
“Your email marketing database degrades by about 22.5 percent every year,” notes Pitre. “Your contacts’ email addresses change as they move from one company to another, opt-out of your email communication, or abandon that old AOL address they only use to fill out forms on websites. As a marketer, it’s your job to make sure you’re constantly adding fresh contacts to your email marketing campaigns so you can keep your numbers moving up and to the right.”


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4 Effective Ways to Increase Email Subscribers [GUIDE]

Your email list plays a paramount role in your marketing. In 2012, 3.3 billion people had an email account. That number is expected to crest 4.3 billion by the end of 2016, according to a report by tech market research firm, The Radicati Group.

With numbers like that, it makes a lot of sense to continuously increase the number of email contacts that you have. A growing email list can attract new customers, generate buzz about your business, build relationships and increase your bottom line.

To help you substantially build your email list, we’ve put together a list of four effective ways to increase your subscribers. Each of the four methods below has detailed instructions so you can improve your list without a huge learning curve. You’ll save time and inject your list with new names at the same time.

1. Consider adding an overlay to your homepage
If you want to capture more emails, an overlay is a simple way to not only grab a visitor’s attention, but to also encourage him or her to give you an email address.

You might not be familiar with the term overlay, but you’ve seen them. You know those boxes that appear after you’ve surfed a website for a few a seconds? They look like this:



The background goes dark, the message appears on the screen and the reader can close the window or enter information. They’re similar to popups that were popular a few years back, and some people use the terms overlay and popup interchangeably.

How well do they work? According to E-consultancy, an overlay brings in 400% more email addresses compared to other online opt in forms.

How do you add an overlay to your homepage? Adding an overlay sounds technical, but any small business can do it. You don’t need a website designer to do this, and you don’t need to know a single line of code either. You can get an overlay on your site by using one of these online tools:

PopUp Domination
Pippity
PadiAct

We should point out that these tools aren’t free. The three options above have various pricing plans, but range between $25-$49 per year. When you think about it, that’s a small price to pay to grow your email list with engaged subscribers who want to hear from you.

We picked the three sites above because of their ease of use. Once you’ve signed up you can use premade templates to design an overlay, you can adjust the colors to match your branding, add your own images and control when the overlay pops up on your page. With A/B testing, you can also test several different overlays to see which one your visitors prefer. Your membership includes analytics, so you can see how well your overlays are doing too.

Overlay tips:

Change the colors of the templates to match your logo or brand. You want the overlay to complement the look of your website.
Have the box pop up 15 seconds after a visitor hits your site. E-consultancy tested the best time for the box to appear and 15 seconds was the winner.
Keep the text brief.
Use A/B testing. Take a few extra minutes to test your design. It will only improve your success.
When creating the text, focus on your audience. Tell them what they get by signing up. For example, say “Sign Up For Our Newsletter and Save,” or “Join Our List For Weekly Budget Tips.” Tell visitors what the benefit of signing up is like in the example below.



2. Run a contest or giveaway on social media
A great way to get more email addresses from folks who want to hear from you is through a contest on social media. You have a lot of options when it comes to contests, but the main idea here is to get participants to enter their email address to get something.

You can run a contest on any social media channel, but since so many small business owners have a Facebook page, we suggest you start there.

Shreyans Parekh, owner of Koyal Wholesale, a special event supplies company, says social media contests are of the most effective ways he collects email address.

“We set up a contest and ask entrants to give us their email address to participate,” he says. “It’s a particularly useful tool at obtaining email addresses from very valuable leads.”

Facebook has updated its Page Terms so you can run a contest on your business page, but we still suggest that you use a third party app to make life easier. Here are two tools that can help you capture emails via a Facebook contest:

Heyo. You can try it for free, but plans start at $25 a month. We found several promising case studies that support Heyo. Lilly Pulitzer used Heyo to run a contest. They gave away 50 diaries, which the company sells. The campaign resulted in 9,000 emails captured, 2,000 of those were captured from a mobile device.
Woobox. Users say it’s easy to navigate. You can try it for free, but plans start at $15 a month. This program works with other social media channels as well, so you’ll be able to launch contests on several platforms. Here’s an example of a contest created from Woobox.

Contest ideas:

Photo contest. Collect an email address and ask your audience to submit a photo of them using your product. Here’s an example.
Video competition. Collect an email address and ask your audience to submit a short video. A hotel-booking site, for example, could ask its audience to submit the best moment of their vacation that was caught on video.
A simple giveaway. Ask people to enter their email address to be entered into a free giveaway. The winner is selected at random. It’s simple, yet effective.

Tips to run a successful contest:

Keep it simple. The contest or giveaway shouldn’t be complicated to understand. You should be able to spell it out in a few words.
Offer a related prize. The prize you giveaway should have something to do with your company. Giving away a free iPad is cool, but if your business sells seeds, an iPad doesn’t make sense.
Read the rules. Facebook does have rules when it comes to contests and giveaways, so read through them before getting started.
Promote your contest. Turn to other social and digital channels to spread the word about your contest. Don’t forget, you can email you current contact list about the contest too. You can include the contest details in your next newsletter as well.
Send a follow up email. Once the contest is over, reach out to all of the participants and thank them. You might offer them a small coupon or discount code to engage them.

3. Use Twitter Lead Generation Cards
A Twitter Lead Generation Card is a way to collect contact information from a promoted tweet. You create a card, which is like a souped-up tweet that offers some sort of incentive. Here’s an example:



Once a consumer clicks on the call to action, the person’s name, Twitter handle and email address is pre-filled into a small card. All the consumer has to do is hit submit. In return, you get a bunch of new contacts for your email list.

According to Twitter, one client compiled 1700 new email addresses in a week by using this tool.
Ready to give it a try? We’ll walk you through the process:

Set up

1. You need a Twitter Ads account. If you don’t have one, you can sign up here.

2. You have to decide how you’ll collect the data from your cards. You can download a spreadsheet from Twitter, or you can have the data delivered through an automation system like Salesforce.

Creating a card

1. Log into your Twitter account.

2. Go to the sprocket in the right hand corner and click Twitter Ads from the dropdown menu.

3. Click on the Creatives tab in the navigation bar at the top and click Cards.

4. Click Create Your First Lead Generation Card.

5. Fill in the form. We’ll walk you through the boxes, but the form should look like this:




Add an image. The dimensions are unique. The picture should be 600×150 pixels with a 4:1 aspect ratio. You can use the preview button to make sure the picture looks right.
Write a short description. You should promote a sale or an offer. An incentive is the best way to entice people to submit their email address. Space is limited to about 80 characters.
Link to a privacy policy. You have to have a privacy policy on your website that you can link to.
Additional link. Provide an additional link so your audience can learn more about you.
Select a call to action. This is the button your audience will click on before submitting their information.

6. Save your card.

Launching your card
1. Now you need to attach the card to a tweet. To do so, click the Tweet button in the upper right hand corner.

2. Create a tweet in the box.

3. Before you send it out, click on the card icon in the box and attach the card.

4. You can attach a card to a promoted tweet, which means you’ll pay for the card to be exposed to people outside of your followers. You can set the budget within you Twitter Ads account.

Get your contacts
You can log into your Twitter Ads account, click on the lead generation card and hit the download icon. A CSV file will download to your computer. Here’s what you’re looking for:



4. Collect names at events
We’ve gone over some fairly modern, digital ways to collect email addresses, but there’s a simple, low-tech way to snag more contacts too. Break out your clipboard and ask people to sign up for your email list in person. Yes, in person.

“It’s okay to go old school to manage a contact list,” says Drew Price, head of email marketing for online correction site Grammarly. “There’s a reason many of the largest retailers train their employees to do this and have added the functionality to their computer systems.”

You can simply use Microsoft word and create a two-column table that asks for a person’s name and email address. You can even download and print a simple form online.

Here are several times you can break out the email sign up form:

Trade shows. When you set up at a trade show, have your form sitting right on the table. When you interact with someone, ask if they’d like to sign up.
Business events. Hosting an event? Pass the clipboard around to collect email addresses while people mingle, or ask people to sign up as they check in.
At the register. If you have a brick-and-mortar shop, leave the clipboard at your register. Have the cashier ask customers to sign up after they have paid for their purchase.

Final thoughts
While this list offers four specific ways to increase your email list, there are many ways to do so.

Considering the value of your email list, you want to continually make efforts to add to it. And of course, we’ve written extensively about using email sign up forms to collect email addresses and why they are a no-brainer for your business.

What’s the most successful way that your business has found to collect email addresses? Share your experience in the comment section below.


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10 Easy Ways to Draw an Email Marketing Crowd

Watching a juicy, engrossing, scary or action-packed movie with your BFF, tub of buttered popcorn in hand, is a first-rate way to spend a Saturday. And it’s every email marketer’s dream to create emails that are also just as engaging, keeping their readers eyes glued to the screen. While turning an email into a blockbuster might be a stretch, drawing an engaged audience is not. Here are 10 easy tips for growing your email list and maintaining loyal subscribers:

1.    Have Accessible Opt-In Forms
Offer easy-to-find opt-ins form on your website, blog, and social media sites. The more places there are to sign up, the more hits you’ll get. And keep in mind that the shorter you keep your form, (say, to just an email and first name) the more likely people will be to sign-up. You can always collect additional info later.

2.    Offer a Guide, Webinar or eBook
Want more opt-ins? Offer something free like an eBook or a webinar. Weekly or monthly tips shared from your blog are also valuable pieces of knowledge to share. On your opt-in form page, let your readers know how often you’ll mail and what to expect in the email.


3.    Offer Referral Incentives
Just like a good movie, a good email is worth telling your friends about. To get people talking and sharing, offer a discount, a refer-a-friend program, and/or something for free when they refer your products or services to their friends. For example, if you’re an ice skating rink, you might give a free lesson to anyone whose friend signs up for a one-month skating class. Any deal that would encourage the email to be forwarded on is to your advantage. ModCloth, the trendy online retailer, does and excellent job with their refer-a-friend program.


4.    Partner up
A collaborative way to reach more people is by partnering up and swapping email space with other businesses. If you have a similar customer base, but your products or services don’t compete, use this as a perfect opportunity to get your business in front of a new audience. Ask them to include a link to your opt-in in their newsletter, or to include some of your own content, in exchange for the same.

5.    Email-Only Specials
Sure, news and updates make fine email content, but nothing beats a good deal! When your customers are offered unique deals just for being on your email list, they have more reason to stay subscribed and to forward your email to friends. Offer something in your email that can’t be found on your website, on social or in-store, so your subscribers feel extra special – Make sure to promote it though!

6.    Host a Contest
Hosting a contest works best when you offer something of value to your audience, but also related to your business (such as a product you sell). Create a special webpage, or a social media tab on Facebook that details the contest and provides a place for email list sign-ups.

7.    Blog – Offer useful information
By maintaining a helpful and informative blog on topics that are of interest to your customers, you have fab content to share in your email and in turn, an easy way to attract more followers to your blog.  For more email list sign-ups, place an opt-in form near the top of your blog.

8.    Utilize Social Media
Social media and email marketing go hand-in-hand. Most email service providers supply a link that you can share on your social sites for followers to view your email. Also include social sharing buttons inside your email so that readers can share your email on their social network pages with one click.

9.    Subscribe Via Check-out
Do you have a checkout counter? Then you have a place to ask for opt-ins! Online, ask for an email address on your checkout page. In-store, have your employees at the cash register ask if the customer would like to be included in your weekly or monthly newsletter. Be sure to tell them what they can expect – like special offers, rewards, and the like!

10.    Participate in Events
Having a booth at an industry event or trade show is a fun and productive way to grow your customer base. Just be sure to do a little research on what kind of foot traffic you can expect, and whether or not the exhibitors will be provided with scanning devices to easily obtain contact information from participants at the event. If not, be diligent about collecting business cards and following up.

Start with these easy steps and you’ll be on your way to drawing the eye-popping audience you eagerly seek.


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