A key to the success of your website is to view it as a lead generating machine, and a big contributor to it’s success is the presence of an effective call to action.   Every website and Facebook page should  be designed to ensure you are gathering information from your visitors, be it filling in a contact form, signup for a newsletter, requesting a free download or simply “liking” your page.  Here are several ways to ensure your call to action WORKS for you:

1. Convince the users

Why should users do what you want them to do? Before a user is willing to complete a call to action they have to recognize the need. Take infomercials for example. Before they ask people to respond, they first identify a problem and present a product that solves that problem.

Communicate the benefits of your call to action. What will the user get out of completing the call to action?

2. Offer something extra

Sometimes you may have to sweeten the deal to encourage users to complete a call to action.
Incentives could include discounts, entry into a competition or a free gift.

Everybody loves freebies.

3. Use active language!

A call to action should be crystal clear and tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as:

• Like
• Buy
• Register
• Subscribe
• Donate
• Download
• Fill out
• Call now

All of these words encourage users to take an action. Also you may want to create a sense of urgency and a need to act now, these words can be used alongside phrases such as:

• Offer expires January 31st
• For a limited time only
• Order now and receive a free gift

4. Be in the Right Place

Another important factor is the position of your call to action on the page. Ideally it should be placed high on the page and in the central column so people see it right away without scrolling.

5. Make Your Offer Pop

To make your call to action even more prominent, don’t just rely on positioning. Use also the space around it – White space. The more space around a call to action the more attention is drawn to it. If you clutter up your call to action with surrounding content it will be lost in the page.

6. Use Colours that Stand Out

Colour is an effective way of drawing attention to elements, especially if you use alternative colours. For example, if your website uses blues and grey, your call to action will work very well in highlighted orange. This extreme contrast leaves your users in no doubt as to the next thing they should do.

7. Size matters

Make your call to action big. We have already established that position, colour and white space are equally important.However the size does play a large part. The bigger your call to action, the more chance it will be noticed.

8. Have a call to action on every page

A call to action should not just be limited to the homepage or landing page. Every page of your site should have some form of call to action that leads the user on. If the user reaches a dead-end they will leave without responding to your call.

But your call to action does not need to be the same for each page. Instead you can use smaller actions that lead the user towards your ultimate goal.

9. Bring it home

So you have created an awesomely clear call to action and the user clicks on it, now what? The rest of the process needs to be as carefully thought through as the call to action itself.
So consider what happens when a user does respond to your call to action. The process should be as simple as possible. Don’t ask any information from the user that you don’t actually need.

1. Akismet – Akismet is a spam filter for your comments. It does a great job and blocks nearly 100% of the spam comments here at Taylormade Ideas.

2. WP Database Back-up – I recommend that everyone back-up their blog’s at least once a month. With this plug-in it couldn’t be easier to do this. If you get hacked, have server issues, or just botch something when you are trying to customize, all of your data is easily recovered.

3. Permalink Redirect – Did you start your blog with bad permalink structure? If so, just use this plug-in so that you can change your permalink structure without having to lose the search engine rankings of the old posts.

4. Popularity Conest – This plugin will help you see which of your posts are most popular. Views, comments, etc. are tracked and you can configure the settings in any way you desire to show which of your posts are most popular.

5. Wp-Contact Form – This plugin gives you the ability to post a contact form anywhere you’d like on your wordpress blog with one simple snippet of code. This is handy so that people can contact you without you actually having to post your email address for spammers to harvest.

6. Subscribe to Comments – Ever post a comment on someone’s blog and you were curious to see if anyone replied? Ever forgot which blog you posted the comment on? This plugin allows you to subscribe to comments for that particular thread. It will send you any responses to your comment via email.

7. Related Posts – This allows you to posts links at the end of your articles to archived posts that may be relevant. It decides what is relevant by tagging your posts or choosing to just pull from a relevant archive category.

8. Time Zone – Have you ever noticed that even though you’ve selected the right time zone, WordPress is still an hour off? That’s because WordPress doesn’t recognize DST (daylight savings time). This plugin fixes that.

9. Gravatars – This plugin allows commenters to upload a picture to the Gravatars website, and this picture will appear next to their name when they post a comment on blogs that allow gravatars. Great plugin… I’m getting ready to try this one out!

10. Ultimate Tag Warrior – Allows you to tag your posts so that sites like Technorati have an easier time indexing them. Could potentially bring a lot of visitors!

11. Adsense-Deluxe – AdSense-Deluxe is a WordPress plugin offering advanced options for managing the automatic insertion of Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ads to your WordPress posts.

12. Pod Press – Are you a podcaster? Pod Press makes it really easy to post your podcasts, and even includes an in-line media player.

13. WP-Notable – This plugin includes links and pictures to major social bookmarking sits such as del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Newsvine, and Digg. It includes these links at the bottom of every post, making it easy to submit your articles.

14. Get Recent Comments -This plugin allows  you to show your most recent comments in a widget so that others can check it out.

15. WP-Cache – Stores a cache file of your WordPress blog so that it loads faster.

16. Super Archive – Implements a dynamic archive of your old posts. Tough to explain, but a pretty awesome plugin.

17. flickrRSS – Integrates photo’s from a flickr RSS feed so that you can show flickr photo’s on your website.

18. Update Manager – Checks for updates for all of your existing WordPress Plugins.

19. WYSIWYG Plugin – Makes your write/edit screen an advanced WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Makes for easy formatting of posts. Great plugin.

20. Bankroll – Allows advertisers to buy ads on your site directly from you. This plugin allows you to bypass services like Text Link Ads that take a cut of your profits.

21. Buy Me A Beer Plugin – This plugin allows people to buy you a virtual beer by sending money to you electronically.

22. Paypal Donate – Similar to the Buy Me A Beer Plugin, only without the beer.

23. One Year Ago – Shows posts that were written one year ago.

24. Comment Relish – Sends a thank you email to first time commenters.

25. Show Top Commenters – Adds a widget to your sidebar to show who leaves the most comments on your blog. You can set it to clear daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

26. Threaded Comments – Allows users to respond to each others comments directly under the comment they are referring to. Sort of like a forum thread in the comment section.

27. Math Problem Spam Protection – This plugin makes users answer a simple math problem to prove they are human and not computerized spammers.

28. Link Love Plugin – This plugin removes the rel=”nofollow” tag from comments after a user has commented on your blog 10 times. You can adjust this to as many times as needed. Great for those who follow do-follow bloglists just for the links.

29. Trackbackers – This plugin is like the “top commenters” plugin only it shows the “top trackbackers”. Basically the more times people link to you, the higher they are on your list. Completely customizable.

30. Batch Image Uploader – Allows you to upload multiple images at once.

31. WP-User Online – Shows how many users are on your blog at any given time. Similar to what you might see on a forum.

32. WP-Polls – Allows you to seamlessly integrate polls into the sidebar of your WordPress blog.

33. In Series Plugin – This plugin allows you to link posts together to form a series of related articles.

34. Landing Sites – This plugin detects search engine traffic and directs it to other posts that might be on topic for whatever they are searching for.

35. All-in-One SEO Pack – A must have plugin for any moneyblogger. SEO pack allows you to add keywords and a description to your post so that it fares better with search engines. The description is useful so that you can describe your posts rather than the search engines just using the first couple of sentences from your post.

36. Feed Footer – Allows you to customize your RSS feed by adding a copyright notice, rotating banner ads, and enables you to show HTML in your RSS footers.

37. Robots.TXT – Allows you to easily add a robots.txt file to your template for easy searching from search engine spiders.

38. Feedburner Feedsmith – Forwards all WordPress feed entry clicks to your feedburner feed.

39. Ultimate Google Analytics – This plugin allows you to easily integrate Google Analytics without dealing with the source code.

40. Live WordPress – Allows you to check out your visitors every move while they are on your site.

41. WP-Ultimate Gamers Pack – Allows gamers with wi-fi access to view your site from their PSP, Nintendo DS, or Nintendo Wii.

42. Feedburner Standard Stats – Installs the Feed Flare script on your WordPress blog so that Feedburner can track your statistics.

43. Image Manager Plugin – Allows you to upload, crop, rotate, and re-size images from your WordPress Admin panel.

44. Got Banners – Allows you to rotate your banner advertisements so that your readers don’t get “ad blind”.

45. Homepage Excerpts – Allows you to post excerpts of your posts rather than full text on all pages except for the homepage. Makes for easy archiving of old posts.

46. Instant Upgrade Plugin – This plugin allows for a one click update to the newest version of WordPress.

47. Add Related Posts to Feed – Adds related posts to your RSS feed. Similar to the Related Posts plugin, only for your RSS feed.

48. Author Adsense Plugin – For blogs with multiple authors – this plugin allows you to post adsense ads that are from different adsense accounts. For example, if author “A” posts he gets the adsense profit and uses adsense ads from his account… the same for author “B” and so on.

49. Countdown Timer – Plugin that allows you to create your very own countdown timers. Easily configurable, and works in your sidebar.

50. Do-Follow – Removes the re=”nofollow” tags from comments. This allows links left within a comment to be counted as an incoming link by search engines and Technorati.

51. Super Edit – This plugin allows you to push a button on the “write” screen to use a full screen version of the text box. Writing in full-screen mode is much nicer.

52. Full Text Feed – A plugin that allows your RSS feed to show up as full text even if you use the <!–more–> tag in your posts.

53. No WWW – This plugin won’t allow users to visit the WWW version of your site. Instead it redirects them to the non-www version, which eliminates the chances of being double indexed.

54. Subscribe Remind – Inserts text and a link at the bottom of every post reminding readers to subscribe to your RSS feed.

55. About Me Widget – This plugin allows you to create an easy “about me” section in your sidebar.

56. Yahoo Messenger Online Status – Allows your viewers to see if you are online.

57. Category Excluder – Allows you to make some categories private so that readers can’t see them.

58. Webcam Comments – Allows users to create audio and video comments.

59. Blogroll Auto Linker – Creates a link in your posts anytime you use a name from your blogroll.

60. Front Page Excluded Categories – Allows you to exclude certain categories from your homepage.

61. Post Notification – Sends an email alerting everyone in your database about new posts.

62. On This Day – Links to post which share the same calender date.

63. NAVT – A WordPress navigation tool that allows you to customize your WordPress navigation links.

64. Simple Graph – Allows you to create graphs for your sidebar or posts.

65. Word Tube – A media center plugin for WordPress blogs. Allows you to display media files.

66. DMS Guestbook – Creates a guestbook for your blog.

67. Semi-Secure Login – Increases the security of your WordPress blog by using a better encryption.

68. New Posts Pop-up – A plugin that displays a pop-up window above the fold to show recent posts and comments.

69. De-link Comment Author – Allows you to remove the link from a comment authors name without removing the entire comment.

70. Shashin – A plugin that allows you to display Picassa images anywhere in your posts.

71. Upload Plus – Allows you to upload photo’s inside of the admin panel and customize their display names.

73. Thumbnails Manager – Allows you to manage your thumbnailed images inside the admin panel.

74. Mini-Slides – Allows you to create a minimalistic slideshow from your uploaded images.

75. SPS Suite – Organizes and manages your “static” pages.

76. Find Us – A plugin that integrates Google Maps into your WordPress Blog.

77. DBD Footprints – Allows you to track visitors from the admin panel of your blog. Easily customizable.

78. Adman – Lets you insert Adsense code before or in the middle of your posts.

79. Ad Wrap – Uses section targeting to try and get relevant ads from Adsense.

80. Book Cover – Uses ISBN to show the actual cover of whatever book you are writing about. A pretty nifty plugin.

81. Disclosure Policy Plugin – Allows you to disclose your policies as a blogger. For example, I won’t write a sponsored review without telling my readers that it’s a paid post. This plugin makes it easy to create and display your blog’s policies.

82. WP Footnotes – Easily create footnotes at the bottom of your posts.

83. Sexy Comments – Uses forum like styling for your comment section. A great way to liven up the comment field.

84. WP Table – Easily create and insert tables for your blog posts.

85. Members Only – Only makes your posts viewable to members that are logged in. Everyone else is denied.

86. Order Posts – Allows you to put your posts in any order you’d like. Great for those who don’t want their posts appearing chronologically.

87. AWSOM – This plugin displays an announcement or featured post above all of your other posts. It’s easily editable and stays on top for as long as you’d like.

88. Random Posts – This widget displays links to random posts in your archives. There is no method, just randomness.

89. KB Linker – Links to phrases that you specify. For example, everytime you mention McDonalds it would link to McDonalds.Com.

90. Flickr Tips – Shows a pop-up thumbnail image everytime you mouseover a link to a flickr image.

91. FeedStats – Simple statistics for RSS.

92. Bot Tracker – Allows you to track search engine bots and spiders when the crawl your page.

93. Post Teaser – Creates a snipper or “teaser” of your post before prompting users to click a link to read more.

94. Running Time – Shows how long your blog has been live. Displays days, weeks, months, and years.

95. Workout Log – A workout log plugin for your blog. Tracks your workouts and allows you to share them with friends. I’m too embarrassed to show mine!

96. Google Pagerank Plugin – Displays your Google PageRank.

97. Alexa Ranking – Displays your Alexa ranking in your sidebar.

98. Add To Any Bookmark Button – A plugin that allows users to bookmark your posts using the most popular bookmarking sites.

99. Cricket Moods – Shows your blog readers what kind of mood you are in by using a smiley.

100. WP Definitions – By including the [[definition]] tag in your post, it will allow you to define the term at the bottom. All definitions that you use will only have to be defined once, and then they are stored in a database for future use.

101. Author Complete Post List – For blogs with multiple authors, this plugin allows you to show a complete list of posts written by a specific author.

As tempting as it may be…DON’T recycle traditional direct mail copy. Even if it was successful.

Understand that the Internet is a completely new medium. The copy that pulled high response rates in the world of direct postal marketing doesn’t get read on the Net. Especially not as email.

Here are the rules to effective email marketing. Use these copy writing tips to increase the response rate that you receive when sending out your email message:

The subject is the headline:
Write a succinct subject ‘headline’ – 3 to 5 words. Your subject determines whether your email gets read – or not. Tricky headlines (not related to your message) don’t work. Internet users are smart and they know exactly what they want. They resent being tricked. It’s a tough way to start a relationship.

Make it personal:
And compelling. People on the Internet want personal notes. Write for an audience of one. Use common conversation, and avoid formal speech.

Get to the point:
Keep it short and simple. Don’t drone on and on for several paragraphs … or pages. People on the Internet want information quickly and clearly. Paragraphs should be no more than 4 – 6 lines. Keep total length under 300 words.

Give them an incentive to act:
Provide a reason to buy or act NOW. People on the Internet tend to have short attention spans. They’re in a hurry. Give them a compelling reason to visit your site or buy NOW (limited-time offer, free trial, free shipping, contest, discount, etc.).

Include a call to action:
Tell people what you want them to do. Don’t leave them wondering what to do next. Point them to your ‘most desired action’. Otherwise they may just surf around and forget what they’re trying to accomplish. Then they bail.
Use your website:
Drive people to your Web site. Don’t try to close the sale in the email. You want people to have (and ask) more questions. Questions require interaction, and interaction promotes relationships.

Build relationships:
Few (if any) customers worth having are interested in a ‘one night stand’. Have a long-term relationship objective in mind. Listen to your customers. Treat them like you’d like to be treated (so long as you’re not a masochist…).

Follow through:
Do what you say. Put your hands and feet where your mouth is. Deliver on your offer, because it’s an ever-increasingly small world AND…people remember disappointment more than anything!

If you keep an outside blog, you can import it to your Facebook account using an RSS feed. By importing an RSS feed, you can easily add notes to your profile without repeating your posts on several Web sites.

Now that you have your website, you need to ensure you get noticed.  Here are some easy, straight-forward ways to help potential customers find you:

1. Create a press release on a new product or offering and send it to some free press release distribution sites. Follow their guidelines for submission so you don’t waste your time editing and re-doing work.

• 24-7PressRelease.com
• PRLog.org
• 1888PressRelease.com

2. Send the press release to your local media outlets, or any niche media outlets that may be interested in what you do.

3. Update your Google Maps Listing, make sure the information is accurate, and then have them verify your ownership via mail or SMS message.

4. Find a social media site that pertains to your niche, sign up, make a profile and participate. Don’t start off trying to sell your product – you’ll be tarred and feathered. Be a helpful part of the community first, mix in brand messages later.

5. Join a forum and contribute to your online community. Use indirect messages for sales such as a forum signature or your forum user name.

6. Talk to the locals or others in your business – this is a great opportunity to request and share some link love.

7. Comment on blogs that are relevant to your Web site’s topic and be sure to leave your URL. Even if a “no follow” tag is attached, you could gain a bit of traffic.

8. Submit your site to DMOZ.

9. Check out your niche on Wikipedia, WikiTravel, and other wiki sites, and see if you can get a link. Don’t be “salesy” or try to game the system; the editors will just delete the information. Instead, provide appropriate information and follow the rules for linking on the site.

10. Write a “how-to” article that addresses your niche for Work.com. This is kind of fun and a good resource for getting mentions and links. Looking at your product or service in a step-by-step manner is often enlightening in several ways. It can help you better explain your products and services on your own Web site.

11. Write unique HTML page titles for all of your pages.

12. Share your photos at Flickr – get a profile, write descriptions, and link to your Web site. Don’t share photos you don’t own or have permission to use.

13. Start a blog. Search engines love blogs.  You can easily start blogging away by using a free service from Blogger or WordPress.

14. Set up and verify a Webmaster Central Account at Google.

15. Make sure your Yahoo Local city listing is up to date.

16. Update and optimize your description and URL at Yellowpages.com. They’ll try to get you to spend money on an upgraded listing or some other search marketing options. Don’t bother with that, but make sure the information is accurate and fresh.

17. Submit a product (or 20) to GoogleBase.

18. Make a slideshow of your products into a video and upload to Youtube or MetaCafe, making sure to optimize your title and descriptions. Once it’s uploaded, write a new page and embed the video on your own Web site.

19. Use a  free keyword tool for researching Web site optimization, then see #20.

20. Add a page to your site focused on a top keyword phrase you found in #19.

21. Build a Facebook Business Page and start a community focused on your niche.

22. Install Web analytics on your site, if you don’t already have them. Google Analytics is pretty good and it’s free. Something is better than nothing.

23. Start Twittering – it’s a great way to network with like-minded individuals.

24. Set up a MyBlogLog account for your new blog (see #13).

25. Set up a feed reader and add good marketing blogs, then skim headlines and read applicable items when you have time. Gaining and maintaining knowledge is a great way to invest in the future of your Web site.

26. Try a new way to write an ad for a struggling PPC (define) ad group or campaign.

27. Set up a CrazyEgg heat mapping test for your most important pages, then analyze where the user’s eye finds and clicks on information on your Web site. Consider moving things around accordingly.

28. Set up a map for your storefront or area at CommunityWalk.com and then embed it on your “how to get here” or “about us” page.

29. Find out who’s linking to your competitors and e-mail them asking for a similar opportunity. Be careful not to act like you’re “entitled.” Look for opportunities for a mutually beneficial partnership, and suggest some things you can do for their business in exchange for their help with yours.

So there you go, it’s a good action-item list, so get to work! If you have any ideas for other free things you can do, please contact me and I’ll include them in a follow-up article in a few weeks!

(Special thanks to Carrie Hill )

How To Build A Mailing List With Targeted Website Visitors

All the guru marketers will tell you “If you want to be successful online, you need to start building your own mailing list”. This article will give you the basic steps on how to drive lots of traffic to your website by building your own mailing list.

It does matter who you are or what level of marketing experience you have, building a mailing list is simple if you apply the right techniques. Below are the basic steps on how to build a mailing list:

1) First you will need an autoresponder. This is the workhorse and the backbone of building your list. An autoresponder is a program that automatically sends an email response to anyone that sends an email to your autoresponder email address. The autoresponder will allow you to put your business on 100% auto pilot.

To find the best autoresponders, go to any search engine and do a search on “Autoresponder Services”. You can compare different autoresponder companies and select the one you like the best. The majority of the companies charge $17.99 per month. This is a small amount to pay considering the money you will make by building you own list.

2) Lead Capture Form: This is the form that you will place on your website and this is where people will enter their name and email address in order to join your list. NOTE: When you join an autoresponder service, your account will already have your lead capture form set up. All you have to do is copy and paste the form on your website.

But before you place the form on your website, you will need to target your website visitors. In other words, what group of people will be interested in what you have to offer. For example, let’s say you were promoting a business opportunity. The type of traffic you should be driving to your site are people who are interested in business opportunities, working from home, making money online, home based business…etc.

So in order to attract these people, you might want to put the following heading on your lead capture form: “Subscribe to my mailing list and receive FREE Business Opportunity and Marketing Tips”. People like free stuff, so you will have no problem getting people to join your list. Once you have decided what verbiage you want on your lead capture form, do not place the form on your website just yet. You will need to do one more step.

3) You will now need to set up your messages within the autoresponder. When setting up your messages, your first message should be the confirmation message. The purpose of the confirmation message is to have the subscriber confirm that he wants to join your list. The confirmation process will also protect you from spam complaints. NOTE: Most autoresponder companies will have the confirmation email message already set up for you. So you will not have to worrying about what to say in that message.

4) You will now need to set up the additional messages in the autoresponder starting with message# 1. Message# 1 will be sent to the subscriber as soon as he confirms his subscription to your list. Message# 1 should be the information the subscriber has requested. When setting up the additional messages, you can choose how many days the autoresponder system should wait before it sends the next message. I recommend you have your messages go out every 7 days. If you send your subscribers 2 or 3 messages a week, your subscribers might find this annoying.

NOTE: Your messages should not try to sell your subscribers anything. In our example of targeting business opportunity seekers, your messages should be filled with business opportunities and marketing tips. Step# 5 below will show you how to make money with your mailing list.

5) Making Money With Your List: People don’t buy from strangers on the Internet. So as you build your list, you need to establish a trusting relationship with your subscribers by given them relevant and useful information. Industry standards suggest a subscriber will need to see your product at least 7 times before he feels he can trust you and buy from you. So build a trusting relationship with your subscriber first.

Once you have the subscriber’s trust, you can now start to recommend products and services to your subscribers. If you are part of an affiliate program, you can send an email to all of your subscribers recommending one of your affiliate products. When they click on your affiliate link and make a purchase, you will then earn a commission and this is how you should make money with your list.

NOTE: Before recommending a product to your subscribers, make sure that you try and test the product yourself. Otherwise, you will lose credibility with your subscribers if you recommend a product that does not work as advertised.

email2friend

]]> http://traffikmarketing.com/2010/06/how-to-build-an-e-mailing-list-from-your-website/feed/ 0 http://traffikmarketing.com/2010/03/best-practices-for-online-meetings/ http://traffikmarketing.com/2010/03/best-practices-for-online-meetings/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:38:31 +0000 Jennifer Taylor http://traffikmarketing.com/?p=103 [...]]]> Tweet

With Taylormade Ideas being based in the Okanagan Valley and some of my clients located in Vancouver and Toronto, I find that online web meetings with my clients not only slash company travel costs, they also boost my productivity, enabling me to spend less time traveling and more time concentrating on my clients’ business.  Although inexpensive and convenient, virtual meetings can sometimes be dry and may cause meeting attendees to tune out, surf the web, text, or check email! They can also be burdened with technical glitches. Here are a few tips to keep attendees engaged and interested during your next virtual meeting:

• Visually stimulate meeting participants with photos, colorful charts, and other relevant graphics to build interest and reinforce your subject. Save time by gathering all presentation materials or slides in advance.  There are several companies that offer online conferencing solutions that make this easy to handle, even for techniphobes.  I have been using Skype successfully for several years but Webex, although a costlier option, allows for all participants to share information with a simple click to their desktop files.
• Consider including a photo of the meeting presenter on the cover slide. If attendees aren’t familiar with others in the meeting, consider providing team photos of those attending, plus a brief one-two liner.
• Provide a meeting agenda and comprehensive log in instructions a day in advance so attendees know what information will be covered during the meeting and are given the opportunity to discuss or add other topics at the end. This also helps with ensuring attendance!
• Introduce yourself before speaking so listeners can reference you or your comments later if needed.
• Ensure your audience can hear you and ask them to please let you know if there is too much background noise, such as shuffling papers or colleagues talking.
• Encourage participants to use the “public chat” during meetings. This shows attendees that their opinions matter and allows them to provide feedback and insight without interrupting the speaker.
• Respect time limits. If your meeting is scheduled for one hour, be sure to allow time for questions at the end before wrapping up within the hour.

By helping employees or clients prepare for and drive successful virtual meetings, they will feel empowered to participate more meaningfully.

Busy day yesterday out at meetings here in the Okanagan and I missed blogging.  My apologies

Okay…back to components to include in your e-newsletter or e-zine for your Penticton or Okanagan business:

Is there an interesting person/place of business in your industry? Try and secure an interview! Most people love talking about themselves, especially if being in your newsletter might help them promote their business.  It’s pretty easy to track people down nowadays (err…there is this really cool thing called Google).  Send an email and tell the prospective “interviewee” what you are up to and ask if they would mind asking a few questions.  Most likely you will deal with their publicist, so keep it professional, courteous and succinct.

Readers love statistics and information pertinent to their industry.  Magazines, newspapers, and of course online, are filled with interesting factoids that you should consider taking some time to sift through and present to your readers.  If you can, try and provide some analysis, which will further underscore your leadership position.

Invite a colleague or expert to contribute to your e-newsletter.  He/she should be able to talk about something new and/or different than what you are writing about or be able to provide a fresh perspective.  Give your guest credit and a link to their website.  See if you can advertise your newsletter on their website! (that’s cross marketing…more on that in another blog!)

Are there links that you have found that particularly helpful to you and your business?  Or in your non-work life?  Add them! But make sure they open up in a new window so that you don’t lose your reader to another site!

Looks like you have enough content ideas to keep you rolling for a while.  Start keeping a list of ideas under each of the components/sections we’ve suggested.  That way, you aren’t starting off “cold” each month or week (we’ll be discussing frequency shortly).

Next time we’ll cover off planning and how to theme your newsletter.  Until then, happy brainstorming!

It’s Monday morning, the sun is shining here in Penticton and I’m in “bullet point” mode, so here is a list of things you need to consider for your small business e-newsletter now that I’ve convinced you to start one:

• Create a catchy title that clearly identifies what your customer is going to get and make it relevant to your industry.  For example, a client of ours is a Dog Care Service so we’ve developed a newsletter called “Pads” – it’s cute (like dogs!) and conjures up an image of “from the street”.
• Make sure your company name, logo and contact information is provided somewhere on the newsletter…after all you aren’t going to all the trouble to create a newsletter just for the sake of it!
• Give it a personality.  Depending on the nature of your business, there is no reason why you cannot infuse a little “you” into your newsletter – it will make your message more authentic, thus generating trust from your customer.
• Create a reason for customers to want to keep coming back to you.  In other words, you must offer information/tips/tricks etc. that directly benefits your readers. Information that hopefully they cannot get anywhere else.  This will clearly position you and/ore your as an authority in your field.
• Have at least 1 or 2 350-500 word “meaty articles” and make sure you have catchy titles for them.  Consumers are immediately attracted to titles that have some kind of “number of benefits” to them or “how to”.  For example “5 new healthy cookie recipes for your pooch”  or…”how to stop your dog from barking” (I need that article!)
• Have a section that showcases popular clients. As awful as this may sound, people LOVE reading about themselves!  We are showcasing some of our client’s doggie clients in her newsletter with adorable pics and a few fun facts about them.  By profiling clients, your newsletter immediately becomes viral as our egos propel us to forward the newsletter to friends, family or clients so they too can see the article.
• Include a Q&A section.  Ask the experts style questions always engage the reader to get involved with your newsletter and further underscores your position as an expert in your field.  When first starting out, plant a question or two, to get the ball rolling.
• If your industry has books frequently written about it, you may want to consider highlighting some with a brief book review.  You might even want to do a cross promotion with online book sellers like Chapters, or even a local bookstore (in fact…go local…there are lots of great bookstores in the Okanagan that could use our support!)

Well, this wasn’t exactly bullet point was it?! I’m going to make another latte now.  Stay tuned for Part II of e-newsletter components tomorrow.