How To Build A List Of Hungry Subscribers

April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
opt-in newsletter subscribers

Most online businesses provides great service to generate satisfaction among their customers. As each and every customer receives satisfaction from the products or the services they get, there is a great chance that they will become a repeat customer and are hungry for more of your great information. Better yet, they will most likely recommend you to other people that could generate more business for you and your site.

website trafficAs more traffic is driven to your site, you can entice many of them to subscribe to your mailing list or opt-in list. An Opt-in list is a list where website visitors agree to be sent promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and such that could keep them updated about your site or the niche of your site and in return for them sharing their email with you, you offer them something great that you have developed.   Many successful online marketers give-away their best, or at least a taste of their best work as a reward to opt-in to their list.

When using e-mail as the media of your marketing and advertisements, you eliminate the need for high costs. Email is very low cost marketing and sometimes it can even be free!  With an opt-in subscribers list, you are more confident that what you are sending out is received, viewed and read by the subscribers and not simply being deleted. They have signed up for service and have consented in receiving it.

This means that there are constant reminders to your subscribers about all your products, new products and services as well as any promotions and special deals you are having. There is also the chance that they can be forwarded to other potential customers as they tell their friends and families about you and your site.opt-in newsletter subscribers

Of course, there will be many subscribers who may unsubscribe if they feel that they are not getting what they want or expected. So be sure that they are satisfied with you the information you share with them and keep them excited to receive your newsletters and catalogs.  Try some of these tips to help you build a list of eager and hungry subscribers.

  • Make your promotional materials interesting and fun.  Use a little creativity but don’t over-do it. Build around what your product or service is about. For example; if you are selling motorcycle parts, put some pictures of what is new in the cycle parts world.
  • Do your research of what people are looking for, this way you stay one step ahead of them all the time and you will be their go-to person for all things new. They will be eager to receive what you are sending them because they know you always have fresh and new things to share with them.
  • Write good content that can is informational but light at the same time. If your subscribers enjoy your articles, they will go to your site by clicking the links that you will be putting on your newsletter to read some more. You can provide articles that can connect to many people. Be diverse in your articles. Put something humorous, then put something informational, then put something that has both.
  • Do you procrastinate because you don’t like writing? No problem, there are many professional and experienced article writers that  can do the job for you for minimal fees. They know what they are doing and can provide great content for your newsletters.  The money that you pay for your articles will be well-worth it by the many sign-ups and the potential profit from the sales that you will get.
  • Create and send an E-book to your customers about anything that is related to your business or site. Use your knowledge and expertise in the field you have chosen to help other people who are similarly interested. Offer this e-book for free. You can write about anything informational and helpful to your subscribers. For example; you can do manuals and guides in so many things. This e-book could be used as a reference for many people.  Another great idea is to make a Kindle book, with so many iPads, tablets and Kindles out there now.
  • Share this e-book with everyone, even other sites; just make sure that they don’t change the links in the e-book that will lead people to your site. If you want, you can even get someone to write it for you just like your articles. Your investment once again will be covered by the great marketing this will generate.
  • Add e-coupons in your newsletters for special discounts on an upcoming product or service.  Put a control number in your e-coupon so that they can only be used once. When people get discounts that can be found in your newsletters, they will be hungry to receive your newsletter each month/week to see what you are offering.

If your subscribers can get benefits from your newsletters, they will be very eager and waiting to receive them.  Just be careful not to flood your mailing list with emails so that you don’t annoy your subscribers.

Who Are You Selling To? Finding Your Target Market

March 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

You’ve got your brilliant idea for a start up, you’ve got a product that you’re certain people will be falling over each other to buy, and now you just have to get out there and sell the thing. So, you just need to find yourself some of those “customers” you’ve read so much about. How do you do that then?

Working out your target audience is one of the toughest marketing jobs there is. If you know who you’re selling to, it’s fairly straight forward to work out how to market to them, but actually finding that market is a challenge. Fortunately, we’re here to get you started.

Make It A Niche Market, No, A Really Niche Market

If you ask your average start-up who they want to sell their products to, the first answer that will pop into their heads is probably “Everyone”. This… isn’t much help. You can’t please all the people all the time. Instead, try and please one person all the time. Or at least, one very narrow demographic all the time. The more specific your target audience is, the easier it will be to aim your marketing at them.

Find a narrow group of people, and work out what they need and how your product meets that need. Everything else you do to market your company is an extension of this.

Work Out Why Anyone Would Buy Your Product

This is called an Initial Value Hypothesis. Decide what it is that’s special about your product and why customers in your narrowly selected target market would want to buy from you rather than any of your competitors. A common mistake many start-ups make is to stick religiously to their business plans. Don’t- none of your customers care about your business plan. All that matters is you work out what people want, and how you can sell it to them.

Put Your Ideas To The Test

Established companies are learning more and more about their customers every day. The big companies use everything from loyalty cards to iPhone apps to work out how their customers behave and what they prefer. Sometimes this gets to the point where it’s actively creepy, such as recently when Target’s marketing department figured out a teenage girl was pregnant before her dad did.

Now, as a start-up, you don’t really have access to all that Orwellian machinery, so you’re going to have to test out your ideas in much smaller arenas. Some of the ways to do this include surveys and polls.

A particularly useful one is to arrange a one on one meeting with someone in your target market, and simply talk to them. The trick to making this work is not to lead your interviewee. Ask them about problems in the area of your product. Ask what they would be looking for in a product to solve that problem. The results might surprise you.

Offering free samples to see how people respond to them

Equally, a good option is to collaborate with other businesses in your industry. It’s easy to get paranoid and insular with your “industry secrets” but sharing knowledge can actually help everyone involved.

Draw a Portrait of Your Perfect Customer

By now you should be fairly well along in your market research. You’ll have found a narrow demographic you want to sell to, worked out why they would want to buy your product, and talked to members of that demographic to get a better idea of how they think and what they’re looking for in a product. At this point you can start thinking about customer relationship management, or CRM, by creating a custom profile of your target customer, using all the information you have gathered..

Apply What You’ve Learned

Now it’s time to put what you’ve learned into action. Has what you’ve learned changed your business plan? Is there anything that needs to change about the way you present your products, how you sell them, or even the products themselves?

If you’ve gone through this whole process and not discovered anything that needs changing, then it’s possible you’ve not been doing it properly.

Barry Magennis is an SEO executive working with Haymarket Business Media. In his spare time, he writes about numerous subjects, including jobs in media. 

Online Greeting Cards and Gifts

March 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
online greeting cards

Looking for a great way to stay in touch with family, friends and business contacts? Want to show appreciation easily and quick? Send Out Cards is what I use!

online greeting cards

The retail packages are:

  • $9.80 Retail Subscription for 20 points which is about 10 greeting cards. This option gets you a greeting card for about a $1.
  • The second option is a $31/month preferred customer option. It gets you a standard two-panel greeting for $.62 per card (which is wholesale cost). As a preferred customer you end up getting 20-30 cards and 4 or 5 gifts a month for $31. Postage is not included in these packages, this is just for access to the system and to design and send your own custom greeting cards and gifts. The gifts are great for realtors, mortgage lenders, car dealerships, etc. to send a Thank you card and attach a basket, or box of brownies or cookies.

Take a look at the system and give it try for a month or two and let me know if it makes you a better card sender.  You can stop at any time. 

 

Maximizing Your Facebook Timeline

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
facebook

Several of my clients had questions about the new Facebook Timeline.  They were worried about “getting it right.”  Well, there is no right or wrong, but there are several things you can do to maximize your Timeline to work for you in building more friends on Facebook and to even build more business connections.

I recently hosted a webinar where I shared my personal Timeline and went over the essentials to max-out your own Timeline.  It’s free and you can watch the webinar here – Timeline is coming…Are You Ready?  I do ask for your name and email, which will add you to my newsletter mailing.  But you can opt-out at anytime.  OK?  :)

Go watch the video recording of my webinar and let me know what you learned on my Facebook Page.

How to Restrict Posts and Comments on Facebook Timeline

February 9, 2012 By 6 Comments

I have gotten several people who ask me how to restrict or block people from posting or commenting on status updates on the new Facebook Timeline.  I have done a short video to show you who you can accomplish this. 

Take a look and leave a comment if you found it helpful.

 

Staying Engaged with Social Media

February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
social media engagement

social media engagementIt’s funny how certain words have taken on new meanings in our new social media world.  If someone told me they were engaged,  I would ask – When is the Wedding? :)   With the emergence of social media the word engage has become something totally different.

To engage on sites like Facebook and Twitter is to connect, talk and share.  I hear people say they need more engagement on their Fan Pages, so here are just a few ways to increase your engagement on these platforms.

  1. Post Pictures – If you are making a presentation or speaking to a group, always take photos with the attendees and post them on your Facebook and Twitter.  You can even “tag” them within Facebook and the photo will show up on the other person’s Timeline.  If you are not able to take the pictures yourself, ask your host or bring along someone to snap those pictures for you.  You will be amazed at what this one simple act will do for your engagement.
  2. Ask Questions – Ask relevant questions on your social media sites.  If you are involved in Groups, whether it be Facebook or LinkedIn groups, pose questions to them that will create interactivity and ask them to share other questions on your Facebook Page.
  3. Do a Video – This is a biggie!  Because video is so huge for driving traffic and for search engine optimization, it’s a great idea to get into a habit of posting at least 1 video each week.  It can be as simple as a few PowerPoint slides that you set to music or screen capture of a new tool that you found to help with your business, or you can get real fancy and have them professionally done.  Either way – do them (and I’m preaching to the choir here…I need to do more!) :) .

Social Media engagement is becoming more important as the algorithms of these sites change.  They determine for us what comes through our News Feed and how relevant the information is to us.  (I would like to make my own decisions, but unfortunately, we can’t at this point)  However, we can look for creative ways to connect with our online friends, clients and prospects.  By doing a few strategic things with your social media sites, you will see the engagement begin to increase. 

These are just a few examples, I would love to hear what you have done to increase your social media engagement.   Please post them below.

6 Reasons Search Your World Changes SEO Strategy

January 31, 2012 By 2 Comments

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has gone through a lot of changes over the years.  Search Engines are like little toddlers, they need to be taught what is relevant and quality for searches.  The goal of search engines is to provide the most relevant and best quality result to your search query.  The task of SEO is to provide search engines with all the necessary triggers of relevancy and quality to teach them what to display in search results.

The basics of SEO consists both of on-site factors, like header tags and title tags, and off-site factors, like back-links and social triggers.  Over the years the way we try to reach our goals with organic search has changed.  And with the introduction of Google’s “Search Plus Your World,” there has been a shift in search results based on the Google+ social graph.

If you do not have a Google+ social media plan in place, now is the time to adapt one.

6 Reasons Search is Changing

Google+ information is being heavily displayed in search results.  When you are logged into your Google account and perform a search, not only are you going to see the regular paid ads and the top ten search results, you are going to see Google+ results all over the page.

Google Search Plush Your World for SEO

You will see the people that are in your circle along the top of the results page.  You will see content from your circle’s feed showing in prime locations in search.  Google+ is being displayed prominently and it will affect your traffic and potential conversion.

Google+ is in Search Results

Second, Google has made an aggressive change to the way search results are displayed.  They have introduced a new results box called “People and Pages on Google+.”  This is prominent and will grow in use.  This will only display when logged into your account, but the power is obvious.

People and Pages on Google Plus

Facebook, at the time of this writing has about 800 million active users.  Google has billions of users performing billions of searches each day.  The amount of data available to Google is significantly greater than even Facebook.

Google is essentially personalizing your search results based on your social connections and the things that you have indicated are your interests.  They are trying to learn what is most relevant to you and deliver the results that they believe you would want to view and your social connections help determine both relevancy and quality.

Google+ Adoption is Growing

Facebook has spent a great deal of energy and effort becoming the center of the social graph.  They have built an enormous amount of equity in “owning” the social space.  Google is making an effort to dislodge Facebook from that position because of the power of search.  Google+ is still a young social media platform.  At the time of this writing, it has about 60 million users.  It will reach 100 million by the end of 2012 and begin to grow at steady rate.

I don’t know about you, but when people perform a search using one of my primary keywords, showing up in organic search is good, but showing up in “People and Pages on Google+” would be great!  It is in a better position for clicks and gives me an opportunity to connect better with potential customers or users.

Enriching Result Snippets

The rich snippets that are being included in the markup will have impact in click through rates and impressions.  You now have images, icons of people in your circle, brands that you follow being displayed in the search result under a listing.  It is adding an element of social proof that search results have missed.

We will be more likely to click on links that people we know and follow have +1ed or shared on their stream than a link with no social proof.  Google is counting on these triggers.  These are the things that help provide them with better information that leads to better search results for its customers, you and me!

Social Triggers and Proof Matter

The current trend in search is to be biased toward social triggers and social proof.  The search algorithm is designed to deliver the most important content to its users.  The problem is that these mathematical formulas are missing a key ingredient, human behavior.  They are not able to understand and predict human behavior in a reliable, systematic way.  By incorporating the social element from Google+, they are able to utilize this data to help filter irrelevant and low quality results and deliver high quality relevant results specific to the user.

Your search results will differ from my search results because our social graph is different.  These triggers will impact the way Google delivers results.  Search becomes more personal.

SEO is Changing with Social

The impact of Google’s “Search Plus Your World” is yet to be completely understood.  It has already proven that is an important tool for online marketing and social marketing and it is now influencing SEO strategy.  If you have not began to look at how Google+ can improve your web traffic, jump in while there is still room to learn, grow and master.  Then you can become the authority that is showing for your keyword in the “People and Pages on Google+” results.

Here’s A Quick Way To Convert Audio To Text

January 24, 2012 By 4 Comments
Audio conversion

Audio conversionAs an Internet Marketer, I have developed audio recordings of business tips, and many training videos.  So I began to think about another way to re-purpose that content.  Such as turning them into transcripts and re-purposing them as an ebook, a seven-step series on “how to” do whatever I was discussing, or a free tips sheet for my opt-in box.

I had used a virtual assistant in the past to to listen to the audio and transcribe it for me. Which took several hours to complete and was very costly.  I needed something quick and easy (and free would be great too!).  After some research, I found VoiceBase.  This free web-based program allows you to upload files manually into VoiceBase or automatically through their API.  They support many different file types and accept files up to 750MB.  You can also record audio or video directly from your computer using your microphone and webcam and upload it to VoiceBase.

VoiceBase has a unique feature in that you can “search” your uploaded files by typing in your keywords.  Also, there is a public search feature where you can find public radio and podcasters who have content on VoiceBase.

The free version allows you to store your files for one year.  Any time during that one year period you can choose to permanently store your files for around $1 per hour of audio.  Also available for an additional cost is human transcribing, which takes approximately three days to complete.

I uploaded a couple of webinars that I had previously done.  They were 45 minutes to 1 hour in length.  Both files uploaded quickly and in less than two hours, the transcripts were complete.  I didn’t see an easy way to save a file, so I just copied and pasted it into a Word document.  The transcribed content is not usable and will have to be reviewed extensively in order for it to be re-purposed.  However, they did state that the clearer your audio is, the better the transcript will be.  So I’m not giving up on this program as a great resource.  Keeping in mind that I should speak clearly and slower, I believe the next audio that I upload will produce a much better transcript.

VoiceBase also has a free iPhone App so that you can record from your phone.  Overall, I like it and will continue to use it for now.  What program are you currently using for audio to text conversions?

How Backlinks Are Significant?

January 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

link building, back linksAccording to a definition, a back link of a website is a link anywhere on the web that directs towards the particular website. Any website on the web is incomplete without back links. Even with the most relevant content, a website’s credibility is still under question without quality back links. Search engines especially Google calculates the relevance of a site on the web according to the number of quality back links. So if you own a website, it is most important for you to understand the value of back links and apply while optimizing your website.

 Almost every website that expects regular visitors rely on what we call Search Engine Optimization abbreviated as SEO. A search engine optimizationsearch engine expects a website to build quality back links with time, which is a long process. In a search query, the content of the website is considered more relevant which has the maximum number of back links from relevant sources. For example if you own a website based on gadgets, quality back links will be the ones which come from other gadget websites. Search engines will depend upon the source website’s content to determine the quality of your website’s back link. So you should not just blindly aim on having the maximum number of back links from any website but look for relevance. Natural back links can be slowly built with time and maturity of your website on the web. This way it is a long process and this is why we need effective SEO for back links. But to manipulate search engines for back links is not fairly easy.

Back links hold a high value in search engine algorithms. Hence a lot of people try to influence search engines by manipulating the use of back links. But these tips and tricks lose their influence with time and the algorithms just get tougher. Among the most common techniques are link farms and back link bombing. Sometimes when you click somewhere on a webpage, it automatically opens a different webpage. You might wonder if you have mistakenly clicked on an advertisement. This is instead a hidden link which is actually a back link to a website. These are known as link farms. Back link bombing is actually a deliberate attempt to fake the credibility of a website. Suppose if someone has 5 different websites under the same IP and he/she interlinks them together to sneak in a few extra back links. All the websites may or may not have similar content but under the same IP they are usually caught. This is called back link bombing.

A search engine considers both inbound and outbound links of a website to calculate its credibility. You should always keep a check on all the websites that link back to yours to make the links effective. A tool that can help you with that is the Domain Stats Tool. You should also consider the Backlink Builder tool that can help you find websites which has a content theme similar to your website. Another tool that can help you build more effective hyperlinks is the Backlink Anchor Text Analysis Tool. Apply these tools for optimization and follow a fair and square method to enhance the quality and increase the visitors on your prestigious website.

 

About the author: Bethany is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. She recently read an article about Green building and liked it a lot. Beside this she loves cars and dreams of owning one of the BMW cars.

Social Media Birthdays

December 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
birthday gift

My birthday is the 23rd of December.  It’s always been a very hectic time, just before Christmas (not to mention my Mother’s birthday is Christmas Eve!) and my birthday has sort of been lumped into the Christmas holiday.

Presents were wrapped in Christmas paper and I even had a Christmas Cake one year! (What’s up with that!)  :)   birthday gift

But since social media has blasted into my life, my birthday’s are made so special by the hundreds of people who wish me Happy Birthday on my different sites.  I had more than 225 birthday wishes this year on Facebook alone!  Boy, does that make a girl feel special.

If you are not taking advantage of the birthday feature on Facebook, I highly recommend that you do.  And if you are not wishing others a Happy Birthday on their special day, make that a goal for 2012.  You might be pleasantly surprised with the friendships that can come out of a simple birthday wish.

I know it sure made mine special!  Thanks everyone.  ;)