Emails have been a big part of our society and it’s going stronger than ever. Emails are more convenient and not to mention faster than its predecessor—the snail mail. Just a few clicks away and the mail is instantly inside the inbox of the person you intend the letter to be. Even greeting cards are sent over emails! What’s more, you can send a single letter to multiple recipients just by one click of a button. For marketing experts, emails are considered as an important factor of ecommerce but it tends to be tricky at times.
Emails, when manipulated right can convert into tremendous sales. You keep your long-standing clients interested by updating them with your new products and services; although too many updates and your emails will end up in the spambox.
It is important to note as well, that your clients, just like you, browse through their mails. In fact, they seldom read all the texts in there. If you happen to catch their attention, they are most likely to click a link or two but if not, they will just click next and forward they go—some even delete unimportant mails to clean up the clutter. It is essential that you get their attention during the first few glances.
Keep your emails short by offering relevant information only. When you are making an email or a newsletter or maybe a followup, you must keep your primary goals in mind and stay within its parameters. There will be a right time and place for everything else; create a separate email for other things, if you must, although it is not advisable to bombard your client’s inbox with your email campaigns.
Applying the right tone in an email is also imperative for your campaign. You don’t have to be pushy but you need to be affirmative and truthful with everything you write. This way, your client will see you as a person first before anything else.
Online marketing can be tricky for many but when you finally get the hang of it, you’ll soon notice that it is not that hard to do albeit time consuming. In reality, the only thing that should make you wonder before trying your hand at online marketing is the fact that it constantly evolves and you should be able to keep up with it otherwise, you’ll be left behind. Fierce competition is to be expected but there’s a lot of space to go around for everybody. Aside from that, it takes insurmountable amount of time scouring the internet for latest online marketing trends and let me tell you, it can get dirty down there!
Despite all these, online marketing is fun and very rewarding too. Best of all, it can be done by virtually everyone, young and old, rich and poor. In fact, many have given up on their 9-5 jobs after seeing the huge opportunities that await them online. It has also paved the way for moms who spend their days at home to earn some cash without breaking their everyday routine. Although new techniques are developed by the minute, two of the most effective ways in reaching your market are through emails and of course, through social networking sites. Social network marketing being the fastest growing online marketing tool because of it’s powerful effects in reach a mass number of people in a short amount of time. If you are thinking of power boosting your online marketing strategy, go for brand improvement that will make your market solicit advice from you rather than you shoving them your brand. This way, they will take time to know your brand and eventually see why they need to support it.
Janice Hunter
Image & Marketing Consultant
Nowadays, building a business from scratch is a gamble. It’s either you lose some and win big or lose big and win some. Nonetheless, it will still take some money from your side. Money taken, on the other hand, should be considered as an investment.
There are many people who claim they know online marketing well enough that you need not spend a dime to get rich. Truth be told, there’s no such thing. In fact, even marketing gurus spend hundreds of dollars in accumulation just to get their campaigns up and running. The difference however, lies in knowing where to put their investments and not waste anything in the process.
The simple logic behind return of investment or ROI should give you an idea if a certain investment is worth the loss. In layman’s term, the expected income should exceed the investment value. One good example is getting an internet connection for an online business that will yield double—even triple– the connection’s monthly fee. But how would you generate more dollars if you have money issues at the moment?
· Focus your attention to your market more. Product branding is crucial but it requires people to pay while getting down and dirty with your market will bring you closer to what they really want and need. Start from your clients and study their behavior towards your product.
· Dare to be different. Explore other venues like videos and website overhauls. Make the service easier for your clients, both potential and existing ones.
· Targeted marketing. We need not be vague because the longer we keep on playing the game of hit and miss, the lesser our chances of landing a sale. Keeping the communication lines on a personal level will make your clients come back for more.
Let’s take a little break from online advertising, shall we? We all know how powerful online marketing can be and how far it can reach—not to mention how fast! Proof has it, when you spend 24 hours of your life doing nothing but solely advertising online, the fire of your efforts can still be felt, let say, for the next three days. In reality, the life of online marketing is indeed short but after the fire has died down, there will still be embers left that it can still give you leads and sales even after your retirement! That’s how effective it can be and must be the reason why most marketers prefer to go this route instead of gambling on other ways and means.
Trouble is, these busy bees have completely forgotten about the old, traditional ways which are still effective in this day and age. Old school marketing or what’s now known as offline marketing is an area that most modern marketers failed to appreciate. The best news however is that, since these big time marketers have already made the switch long time ago, the competition in this area is a little low giving you a little more space to move around. For those of you who are not too familiar with the “old school” marketing techniques, here are some to refresh your memory:
· Print marketing—Critics aside, print marketing is still an effective way to advertise especially to those who have no access to the worldwide web. Brochures, flyers, leaflets, newspapers, and magazines—even your granny can read them!
· Events—What better way to make your product known than making it an unforgettable event? Don’t forget to stamp your brand all over the place since it’s your event!
· Mailing lists—Targeted mailing lists, that is. You can also do this via email although most mailing servers do block unsolicited emails. Personally, I recommend mailing lists for updates and follow-ups only and never for product launchings.
The Internet is a wonderful world. Anybody can be anything in his own little space in the web. It is a place for reinvention, uniqueness and expression. It’s no wonder that the Internet became one of the most important inventions during the last century. Banking, shopping and info gathering has become easier. It has made communication, research and everything else definitely easier.
As of 2008, there are approximately 182 million websites in the Internet. The top three most visited sites are Google, Yahoo and YouTube. But ten, twelve years ago, these names were not so well known. So you might want to ask yourself how these websites became some of the most recognized names in the World Wide Web.
One of the more tried and tested ways of gaining attention in cyberspace is to make your website unique. When putting up together a website, ask yourself who your target market is. Put yourself in your demographics’ shoes and give them what they want to keep them coming back for more. Stand out head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd and put up eye catching graphics and designs. Nothing is more off putting than a drab layout, lame or outdated information and sites that look messy and unkempt.
Customizing and designing does not take all that much effort. If you do not have knowledge in website design and is totally clueless with languages like CSS or HTML, then there are professionals out there who can do this easily and quickly. A unique, updated and user friendly website can easily race up the charts and become one of the most visited websites in the internet.
