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Casual Articles - How Email Marketing Can Transform Your Business
In a virtual call center the organization's representatives are geographically dispersed, rather than situated at workstations in a building. Virtual call center employees may be situated in groups or in a number of smaller centers, or they work from their own homes. This is an attractive arrangement for many employees as the hours are often flexible and there are fewer liabilities.The virtual call center model saves housing and equipment costs and can lead to lower employee turnover rates that tend to be high for physical call centers, but in the end it turns out to beneficial to the organization. In companies whose business is highly seasonal, the virtual model also means that they don't have to maintain large facilities year-round. There is a high demand for virtual call center work and a supply of appropriately skilled labor ready to work in this
Bad Examples:
- Isolated special offer announcements
- Uninvited invitations to join mailing list (spamming)
- "Visit our new web site" announcements
How To Get Email Addresses
This is t
eBay is THE most popular home business in the USA, but it's not without its problems. Many have tried to succeed but have failed due to confusion over what products to sell, giant numbers of competitors, copy and picture theft from other sellers and eBay and Paypal that eat into profits.One way to avoid this swamp, though, is to do a Joint Venture with established eBay sellers. This allows a JV partner to build her own mailing list and sell products off eBay.There are multiple advantages to this way of doing business on eBay:1. The biggest uncertainty for would-be eBay sellers is what products to sell. Sometimes vendors risk large sums of money on untried products, only to lose their investment, become sour and give up. With a Joint Venture there is no risk except for a few hours of time.2. Since there are no auctions listed on eB
Despite all the the Internet developments in the past decade, email still remains the single most important "killer app" online. Almost everybody reads their email (even when they may not look at web sites that often), and you can reach almost every decision maker in your target market within minutes, whenever you like.
It's cheap, too. If you've ever done a traditional direct mail campaign, you'll know that the cost can be between ?1 and ?5 per recipient. Yet email can cost just a few pence per prospect. Plus, an email campaign can be completed in a few hours, while with traditional Direct Mail it can be months before you can see results. With email, early responses can be measured in seconds, and within 3 days you'll have 80% of your orders in and processed! And it's measurable. With the resulting automatically-generated statistics you can work out who read your email and who responded. Live. Try that with traditional mail!
So What's The Catch?
There are two, actually, but both are easily overcome. First, you can't send out promotional emails randomly to people who've never heard of you (that's called spamming!). Second, your campaign MUST be carefully planned, created and executed. You can't just blast out any old "Buy this now" message and expect results. It must be carefully targeted, contain a truly great offer for the target audience, be relevant and interesting and of some value to the recipient, and the copy must be compelling. And just like any other marketing communications activity, it will only be truly successful if it forms part of your overall advertising and communications strategy, and is not just a one-off blast to raise some cash.
Where to Start
The golden rule for email success is to send out regular information that is of value to your audience. So your starting point must always be to think of what your potential market wants to receive from you. If you're lucky enough to have a thriving demand for what you sell, then sending out new product announcements may be OK, but generally, you will need to be more creative that this.
Some good examples are:
- For a Lawyer's or Accountant's web site - a regular newsletter to clients updating them of the latest law, rules & regulation changes.
- For a hobby web site - new product announcements, tips and advice
- Clothing web site - fashion features and tips
- Software web site - Information on updates/upgrades. Case studies and "how-to" guides
- Isolated special offer announcements
- Uninvited invitations to join mailing list (spamming)
- "Visit our new web site" announcements
How To Get Email Addresses
This is th
So you want to create a site, that will take get people to pay online. In order for them to do this they need to pay with Credit Card. So you purchase an account with an online Merchant, and want your site to collect the Credit Card information to collect payment.Now can you do this on your normal page? No, you should not! Why? Because if the page is not secure, then the potential of your customers credit card number getting in the wrong hands is likely! And we don't want such a thing to happen to our customers. So how do we protect the Credit Card Number? A Thing we call SSL Certificates.First things first. What is a SSL Certificate?A SSL Certificate makes your site have a URL with https instead of just http. What does that little s make a difference? It does because with the Certificate, your page is encryped in a Secure fashion, and o
It's cheap, too. If you've ever done a traditional direct mail campaign, you'll know that the cost can be between ?1 and ?5 per recipient. Yet email can cost just a few pence per prospect. Plus, an email campaign can be completed in a few hours, while with traditional Direct Mail it can be months before you can see results. With email, early responses can be measured in seconds, and within 3 days you'll have 80% of your orders in and processed! And it's measurable. With the resulting automatically-generated statistics you can work out who read your email and who responded. Live. Try that with traditional mail!
So What's The Catch?
There are two, actually, but both are easily overcome. First, you can't send out promotional emails randomly to people who've never heard of you (that's called spamming!). Second, your campaign MUST be carefully planned, created and executed. You can't just blast out any old "Buy this now" message and expect results. It must be carefully targeted, contain a truly great offer for the target audience, be relevant and interesting and of some value to the recipient, and the copy must be compelling. And just like any other marketing communications activity, it will only be truly successful if it forms part of your overall advertising and communications strategy, and is not just a one-off blast to raise some cash.
Where to Start
The golden rule for email success is to send out regular information that is of value to your audience. So your starting point must always be to think of what your potential market wants to receive from you. If you're lucky enough to have a thriving demand for what you sell, then sending out new product announcements may be OK, but generally, you will need to be more creative that this.
Some good examples are:
- For a Lawyer's or Accountant's web site - a regular newsletter to clients updating them of the latest law, rules & regulation changes.
- For a hobby web site - new product announcements, tips and advice
- Clothing web site - fashion features and tips
- Software web site - Information on updates/upgrades. Case studies and "how-to" guides
- Isolated special offer announcements
- Uninvited invitations to join mailing list (spamming)
- "Visit our new web site" announcements
How To Get Email Addresses
This is t
As a small business owner or Salesperson you need to remain positive and up beat at all times. You need to be able to remain happy and outgoing. When someone says to you how’s it going or how’s business you need to be able to say great, fantastic, couldn’t be any better.Just like no one wants to pet a sad dog, no one wants to do business with a sad or unenthusiastic business person or salesmen. You need to find something to be positive and upbeat about every day. If that first sales appointment doesn’t work out you need to see if you can learn from it and move on. I actually make the first sale of every day I run appointments. The sales I don’t make were like practice, pre tests or experiments. If I go a whole day without a sale well I had a great day at school because I learn something with every missed opportunity.You need to get the ri
There are two, actually, but both are easily overcome. First, you can't send out promotional emails randomly to people who've never heard of you (that's called spamming!). Second, your campaign MUST be carefully planned, created and executed. You can't just blast out any old "Buy this now" message and expect results. It must be carefully targeted, contain a truly great offer for the target audience, be relevant and interesting and of some value to the recipient, and the copy must be compelling. And just like any other marketing communications activity, it will only be truly successful if it forms part of your overall advertising and communications strategy, and is not just a one-off blast to raise some cash.
Where to Start
The golden rule for email success is to send out regular information that is of value to your audience. So your starting point must always be to think of what your potential market wants to receive from you. If you're lucky enough to have a thriving demand for what you sell, then sending out new product announcements may be OK, but generally, you will need to be more creative that this.
Some good examples are:
- For a Lawyer's or Accountant's web site - a regular newsletter to clients updating them of the latest law, rules & regulation changes.
- For a hobby web site - new product announcements, tips and advice
- Clothing web site - fashion features and tips
- Software web site - Information on updates/upgrades. Case studies and "how-to" guides
- Isolated special offer announcements
- Uninvited invitations to join mailing list (spamming)
- "Visit our new web site" announcements
How To Get Email Addresses
This is t
This article may be reprinted in its entirety with express written permission from Nicki Weiss. The reprint must include the section “About the Author”.Quote of the month: "A leader is the relentless architect of the possibility that others can be." Benjamin Zander, Conductor of the Boston PhilharmonicSales organizations have access to more or less the same resources. They can draw from the same pool of salespeople in their niche or geographic area, and they can all learn the same sales or management tools and techniques.Yet some organizations perform at a high level and other stay at the bottom of the heap. What accounts for these gaps? I believe two words answer the question: effective leadership.Too many sales managers are bosses, technicians or even bullies. They kill team spirit, arouse mediocrity and suck the energ
Where to Start
The golden rule for email success is to send out regular information that is of value to your audience. So your starting point must always be to think of what your potential market wants to receive from you. If you're lucky enough to have a thriving demand for what you sell, then sending out new product announcements may be OK, but generally, you will need to be more creative that this.
Some good examples are:
- For a Lawyer's or Accountant's web site - a regular newsletter to clients updating them of the latest law, rules & regulation changes.
- For a hobby web site - new product announcements, tips and advice
- Clothing web site - fashion features and tips
- Software web site - Information on updates/upgrades. Case studies and "how-to" guides
- Isolated special offer announcements
- Uninvited invitations to join mailing list (spamming)
- "Visit our new web site" announcements
How To Get Email Addresses
This is t
Automation is essential for expanding and accelerating service in many industries. But when individual care or attention is required, customers need contact with real people. When human energy flows and connects, good things (can) get done.Try this experiment:Call the main number of four companies and state, ‘I am calling with a question about your product’. Then ask a few basic questions and rate the quality of service you receive.Now call four different companies and ask for help again. But this time, make a ‘personal connection’ first.Start by saying, ‘Hello, I am calling about one of your products. I am hoping you can help me.’ (Pause and wait for a reply.) ‘You can help? Oh, that’s great. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. My name is (give your full name). Who am I speaking with, please?’Once again, rate the
Bad Examples:
- Isolated special offer announcements
- Uninvited invitations to join mailing list (spamming)
- "Visit our new web site" announcements
How To Get Email Addresses
This is the catch that most companies have difficulty with. But with patience and a little hard work, you can build a good opt-in mailing list that will grow in value over time.
Step 1. Make sure there is a real incentive for people to join your mailing list. If you are offering valuable information (see above) this should be enough. But you can add incentives such as a member's discount scheme on a shopping web site or money-off coupons. You can also run competitions.
Step 2. Install a newsletter sign-up system on your web site. Make sure it is in a prominent position, and most importantly, make sure that the benefit to the user of signing up is clearly displayed. Make sure that the system is automatic, clear, sends a confirmation email to the customer, and comes with clear instructions on how to unsubscribe. And make sure it is very easy to unsubscribe - people get nervous when signing up for newsletters - they all hate spam - so if you make your unsubscribe system easy and clear, they'll feel more in control and be more likely to subscribe (and ironically, much less likely to unsubscribe!)
Step 3. Make sure you promote your newsletter on all stationery and communications with potential and current customers. If selling or communicating on the phone, always ask if they would like to sign-up for the newsletter, again clearly selling the benefit. Also ensure that a link and sales message for your newsletter is included at the bottom of all emails you send out. Create a web page especially for your newsletter sign-up form (as well as the prominent box on the front page). Promote this page on search engines.
Step 4. Consider partnerships with other newsletter publishers that complement your business. For example, a firm of solicitors could approach a firm of accountants and each could promote the other's newsletters to each other's lists. If your partner's list is significantly larger than yours, you may be forced to pay, but it's worth it where there is a good fit.
Step 5. If you are offering free, valuable information in your newsletter, offer articles based on your newsletter with sign-up links for more free-of-charge to web sites your audience frequently visit. For example, if you offer small business services (eg, Accountant, Solicitor etc), offer free advice articles and columns to small business editorial web sites and portals. This also applies to printed trade media and can be integrated into your current PR campaigns.
Step 6. If you're d
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