Ezines - An Essential Business Tool

 

Remember the old marketing research about a person having to see your message at least seven times before they buy from you? Well today it is more like twelve times.

An Ezine (email newsletter) gives you an easy way to keep in touch with current, past and potential clients (creating Top of Mind awareness), share valuable information, special promotions and establish yourself as an expert in your field. An ezine will allow you to reach thousands or millions of customers locally and globally.

Anatomy of a good ezine -

1. Provider - Use a reputable service provider like Constant Contact, IContact or MailChimp. Make sure your provider has backend reporting so you can track your open rates and click throughs.  
2. Database - Make sure your list has "opted in"  
3. Layout - Pick a template that meets your needs and then have it customized with your business colors and graphics 
4. Name of ezine - Pick a catchy name so it is memorable and it stands out from the crowd in your recipients inboxes 
5. Keep it brief (one or two "pages"), most people "scan" through their emails, and you want yours to be read, make sure your content is worth reading.  
6. Send your ezine at least once a month but no more than once a week depending on your business and your readers.  
7. Consider Archiving your ezines and having a link to the archive on your website so potential subscribers can see if it's for them. Archives are also great for the press/media to learn more about your business. 
8. What to include -
   
   
   
   • Personal note from you, people do business with people they know, like & trust
   • Educational information, resources and links
   • A promotion about your product or service
   • Pictures with each article
   • Your social media and website links
   • An easy way for readers to forward your ezine to others
   • A simple way to unsubscribe
   • Your Company name, mailing address and phone number
     

How do you get more subscribers? Promote, promote, promote!! On your website, blog, social media, at business networking events... Having a sign-up box for your ezine in the upper right corner of your website will capture some of your one-time visitors. You can also have an ezine sign-up form on your Facebook business page and on your Blog.

 

  

What results can you expect? Depending on how your mailing list was collected, who's on it and how old the list is.. You can expect an "open" rate somewhere between 18% and 75%. About 50% of the people who are going to read it will open it within the first 48 hours. People will forward it to others and it will continue to be seen for several weeks/months after you send it. Converting readers to clients will depend on your business, your offers and timing. But over time it will definitely increase your business revenue.

Along with your website, blog, social media marketing and traditional marketing, an ezine is an important business tool in today's marketplace!

Contact us for an evaluation of how your business could benefit from adding an Ezine to your marketing system, or how you can improve what you may currently be doing in this area.

Questions? Email us

How Do You Stay Connected To Your Clients?

As the demographics of business continue to evolve around us, our marketing must evolve also. You've probably noticed that what you used to do is no longer working as well as it used to. So now what do you do?

People are craving connection and access to information. Are you making it easy for them to connect with you?

Let's start with the basics... The vast majority of businesses are now using enewsletters, blogs and social media in their marketing. Why? Because it works!

1. Enewsletters - Are an inexpensive way to keep in touch with your clients and potential clients. You can inform, showcase your knowledge, services and products. There are many different enewsletter service providers like Constant Contact, IContact, AWeber etc. Some are easier to use than others.

2. Blogs - Rank high in search engine results with their frequently changing content, links to/from your website, keywords, tags etc. From free to thousands of dollars to set up, blogs are a great place to showcase your knowledge and services, and are a great way to expand the reach of your website, newsletter and social media marketing.

3. Social Media - Is either an extremely effective way to connect with your clients and potential clients, or done poorly it is a complete waste of time. Did you know that the 85% of the USA population spends 55 minutes or more on Facebook every day? Roughly one hundred million people use Twitter. Small businesses and major corporations are using social media to interact with their customers every day because it works!

In conjunction with your website, these three marketing tools can dramatically improve your results! We will be going into more depth on each of these in future newsletters.

                              

Please feel free to contact us for an evaluation of how your business could benefit from adding these to your marketing system, or how you can improve whatever you may currently be doing in these areas.

Within Your Reach...

Can Someone Else Do It?

Most entrepreneurs have some level of ADD and not enough clarity, focus, systems and effectiveness. Getting things off your plate that should be done by someone else will free you up to be more successful in your business. How much of your day do you spend on each of these activities?

• Fulfillment, taking care of the business you already have
• Activities that are making you money NOW
• Future seeds, seeding activity for 6 months down the road (writing books, creating products etc)
• Admin tasks, don't need to be done by YOU
• Time wasters, distractions
  

Start with understanding what you have, what you need done, what you need to accomplish. What needs to get done that you can't currently get done? Understand what is in the "gap". And what, if you got it done, would move you forward quickly? Do the things that are going to grow your business the fastest!

If somebody else can do it better, faster or cheaper than you, it is your fiscal responsibility to hire someone to get it done!

Also, if you outsource at the low end of the pay scale, you will need to be more involved; there will be more training and more oversight that needs to be done. At the other end of the scale are the experts who can take the ball and run with it, and can even tell you what and how to get things done. (Cheap overseas outsourcing can be very frustrating and very expensive in the long run. Good quality VA's will be between $25/hr to $75/hr depending on skill and experience.)

Remember, getting the things off your plate will shift things so you can make more money.

Help! I'm overwhelmed - How do I get it all done?

Is this not every entrepreneur and business owner's theme song?

Here are a few tips on breaking through the overwhelm and stepping onto a path of more peace, prosperity, and a smaller to-do list.

First - realize you cannot possibly do it all on your own. You should get help before you need it, meaning hire a virtual assistant, find an intern, or delegate some tasks to your teenagers. Don't think you've got to do and BE everything. (Accountant, marketer, web-designer, email-checker, etc.). If you've got any income coming in - it's time to hire some stuff out. This gives you time to work on income producing tasks. It's a catch 22. You either do it all and limit your growth, or you hire someone and grow, grow, grow!!

Second - come to the conclusion that everything doesn't need to get done. See what you can let go of, maybe for a day, a week, or better yet - forever.

Next - eliminate distractions.

Stop multi-tasking. Focus on one thing at a time and then complete it all the way before moving on to the next thing. Multi-tasking distracts you from giving something your full attention, making it take TWICE as long to finish your tasks. I promise, changing this can change your day!

Lastly - create systems. Run your business like a business, create systems for everything, and then follow them. This will help you find things faster, complete what you start, and ensure that everything is done correctly.

Getting out of overwhelm isn't always easy, but just breathe. You'll be fine, a conscious decision to mentally slow down will help you get through it and you'll enjoy your day more too.

Reducing Email Overload...

To Reduce Email Overload -

1. unsubscribe from mailing lists that you delete their emails without reading them.

2. Next delete any junk emails.

3. Then create a pending folder & move emails you want to read "later" to that folder (Periodically go through this folder & read, file or delete)

4. What's left are the emails that really matter, & that is probably about 25% of what originally came into your inbox.

8 Signs It's Time To Hire Someone

I used to clean my house myself. Only problem?

Even though I was happy once it was done, it didn’t make me any money!

Then I learned about success and the value of my time and I began seeing my time differently. I realized that focusing on what I do best could pay me WAY more than the money I saved by cleaning my own house.

As you learn new ways of valuing your time, you will expand into more success in your life and you will end up realizing the ROI (Return On Investment) of hiring help!

Here are 8 signs that it might be time for you to hire some help…

1 - You have more 'to do's' than time.

If you can do it ALL by yourself, you're probably not doing much!

To increase your success, build a team to support your life and your business.

What are you good at? What do you want to be good at? How much time do you actually spend doing that thing?

2 - You aren’t making as much money as you’d like.

What high value things do you do that make you the most money? How much time do you actually spend doing those things? How much time do you spend doing things that someone else could be doing for you?

If you're running around getting menial tasks done - and you have no time to pursue your passion, or engage in your high-pay-off, high-delight activities - then ask yourself why.

3 - You resent people who don't struggle.

This is a big one.

If you hold resentment for people who live life with joy and ease, this could be a sign that you are waiting for rescue. That just leads to more struggle.

Only YOU are in charge of whether or not you struggle. Rescue yourself and learn what true empowerment feels like.

4 - You're worried about the economy.

Waiting for the economy to get better before you'll hire someone?

Did you know that prior to the great depression Coca-Cola, Pepsi and RC Cola all held equal shares of the market? During the depression Pepsi and RC Cola pulled back on their marketing, while Coca-Cola increased their marketing. At the end of the depression Coca-Cola had over 70% of the market and they still hold that same lead today!

While everyone else is pulling back, you can actually pull ahead!

5 - No one can do it as good as you.

If you just shouted "Amen Sister!" - then please step away from your computer. Go to the bathroom mirror. Look into your eyes and say the following aloud:

"I have a bit of a control issue."

The belief that no one can do it better than you serves only to keep you in the role of the Martyr. There are many people who can (and will) do it as good as you.

6 - You're playing not to lose.

When you play to not lose, all you're doing is surviving, relying on yourself and hoping no one notices you.

When you play to win - you take risks, you keep your mental attitude strong, you rely on the team, you look for the goal. Decide that you want to play to win.

7 - You've used this phrase at least once in the past month: "By the time I show someone how to do it, I could just do it myself."

This is the mantra of someone who refuses to succeed. It's the mantra of the struggle-addict.

Learning how to delegate is empowering. When you show them how to do it once, they can keep doing it so you don't have to!

8 - You dread certain things so much that they don't get done.
It's okay to not enjoy aspects of your work or your life. (Most musicians don't like doing their own newsletter, for instance.) This is the exact thing you can hire someone to do.

What items do you dread? No matter what they are, when you get them off your plate, you'll experience more energy just knowing they're getting done – and you don't have to worry about them anymore!