Month: July 2013

Categories
How-To Guides

How To Create A High Quality Subscriber List

Talking about the NEWS

If you publish your ezine/newsletter through one of the emailing list services then you will also be provided with tracking stats for each issue.  Are you happy with the open rate, or does it seem exceptionally low for each issue?  Not only is it important that you publish your newsletter regularly, but equally important is that your subscribers receive it.

In addition to publishing regularly, you also need to be aware of how many people open each issue (your open rate) and the quality of your list i.e. would you rather have a list of 500 highly responsive subscribers; or a list of 5,000 blah subscribers? In terms of building your business, the smaller list of 500 highly responsive subscribers would be the better option.

Although there are several things you can do to ensure that 1) no only is your ezine getting delivered to your subscribers’ inbox; and 2) that once it’s delivered to their inbox they are opening it and taking action, today we are just going to focus on two specific areas:

  1. Is your list a double opt-in list?
  2. Do you send both a Text and HTML version of your newsletter?

If you have answered NO to one or both of these questions you could be sabotaging your own newsletter efforts!

1. Why do I need a double opt-in list?

Double opt-in is the process whereby when someone signs up to receive your newsletter via your website they receive an email from your email list provider, which asks them to confirm their subscription by clicking on a link in the email.  Once they have clicked on this link they are then confirmed as a subscriber to your list.

This process is known as double opt-in as:

::  they opt-in once via your newsletter sign up form on your website; and
::  they opt-in again by clicking the link on the email that they receive from your email list provider.

It is very important that you have this process in place as it avoids a subscriber being signed up to your newsletter by a third party, and therefore reduces the number of spam reports that you are likely to get.  Your subscriber has had to confirm for a second time that they want to be on your mailing list.

The downside to this is that your subscriber may not confirm their subscription, in which case you would lose the subscriber.  But if they really do want to receive information from you they will be on the lookout for your confirmation email.  And isn’t it better to have 100 subscribers who really do want to receive your information rather than 1,000 subscribers who aren’t that interested?

Just recently I had a conversation with support at my email list provider and asked them about their double opt-in process.  They told me that those lists that are set up as double opt-in lists are sent via a secure server that has been approved by the ISPs thereby resulting in a higher deliverability of your ezine.  Lists that are not set as double opt-in get sent out on a different server and could result in your ezine being blocked by the ISP.

So even if your subscriber has you on their white list (or friends list) if your list is not a double opt-in list they may not even receive your ezine!

Check with your emailing list service as to their policies on double opt-in.

2. Why do I need to send both Text and HTML versions of my newsletter?

Again sending both versions of your newsletter ensures that it will get through to your subscriber.  Some subscribers have their email programs set up to only receive text emails, and if you only offer a HTML version of your ezine they are not going to be able to read it.

Also, if you’ve sent your broadcast in both versions there’s a good chance it won’t be viewed as spam/junk email as spammers don’t usually send emails in both formats.

Conclusion:

To fix low newsletter deliverability there are two things you can do right away:

1.       Ensure your list is set to double opt-in.

2.       Send out both Text and HTML versions of your ezine.

Categories
Planning & Management

3 Tips for Successfully Managing Your Day-to-Day Workload

3 Tips for Successfully Managing Your Day-to-Day Workload

If you don’t already know, I am a big fan of spreadsheets! They have so many more uses than just calculating figures. They are also a great tool to help you manage your time effectively.

As a busy soloprofessional you are not only working for your clients, but you have to work ON your business too. Effective time management is crucial for developing and growing your business, as well as income generating activities.

Below are my top 3 tips for effective time management using spreadsheets.

1. Create a Work Schedule

When I started to get busier I realised I needed a system that would allow me to anticipate or schedule in client’s work. I designed a really simple spreadsheet with the weeks along the top and the client’s down the side. I encourage my clients to book work with me in advance so that I can put this in my schedule. For regular clients I can book in so many hours for them each week, and because my spreadsheet totals the number of hours booked each week I can see what my commitments are and what I have left.

I find that it’s really working, not only because my clients can get ‘booked in’, but when I get an enquiry for new work I can look at my schedule to see if I can meet their deadline.

This system works well for me!

If you find yourself having time management issues with your clients, then give my system a go!

2. To Do List

How do you manage your day-to-day tasks? Do you have a notebook for your To Do lists and cross out each one as you go along? Or do you have little yellow post-its stuck all over the place? Is this really the best way of managing your daily tasks?

Spreadsheets are a great way for you to organise your To Do list. Set up headings in the first row and add your tasks below. You can then sort your list by any column that you choose, making it an interactive To Do list. And best of all, your list is contained in one place.

Create a shortcut to your To Do list and place it on your desktop so that you can access it easily, or just keep it open and minimise your screen each time you’re not using it.

Make your To Do list even more interactive by filtering out those tasks that have already been completed. How? Use the AutoFilter built into Excel!

3. Plan Projects and Activities

How do you keep a track of what needs to be done and when?

The answer’s simple — set up a spreadsheet!

Spreadsheets also accept date formats and this makes them a great tool for tracking projects or planning activities. You can easily use AutoFill to create a date timeline too. Use the column headings for your dates, and the rows for your activities.

Use the cell where the date meets the activity to enter notes, To Do, or anything else relating to your project or activity. Once an activity is complete you can use the strikeout feature to cross it off!

As you work along the timeline, you can hide the columns with past dates, showing only those columns for current and future dates. And if you want to be really creative, use different colours for the cells to represent different activities, i.e. blue cells = to be done; red cells = overdue etc.

Follow these 3 time management tips, and you will soon be using more time more wisely!

Categories
Branding

5 Ways Small Business Can Improve Brand Awareness

eotm-brand-awareness

Article Contributed by Lori

Small businesses don’t have the kind of budgets that enterprise businesses have with respect to their marketing activities. But that doesn’t mean they can ignore increasing the brand awareness of their business. In fact, it is doubly important for them to do so, as it’s only if more people are aware about their business, that they will be able to beat their competition especially the bigger players in the niche.

So, let’s take a look at 5 tips that will help them increase their brand awareness by a long way:

1.       Use SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the single most important marketing activity that has given small businesses and startups a level playing field against the big boys in their niche. The increasing reach of the internet and the fact that more and more people using the World Wide Web to look for all kinds of information means, online marketing is crucial for the branding efforts for every small business. SEO makes sure that a small business’s website comes up tops on search engine rankings, which increases its website traffic and improves its sales. The fact that this activity is not very expensive to implement means most small businesses now have an online presence, whose potential they are extensively tapping by optimizing it for search engines.

2.       Leveraging Social Media

Today, you have the chance of taking your business viral with the use of social media. There is no doubt that the popularity of social networks like Facebook and Twitter has grown enormously over the years and a lot of person-to-person interaction is happening online, through these networks. Small businesses can leverage the potential of social media to market their business amongst their target audience. By creating a business profile on these networks you can pick and choose your followers who you want to network with and who you believe have the best chances of converting into your customers. You can create personalized marketing messages for different groups of your target audience and take steps to build brand authority amongst them.

Social media is also used by people to get reviews of products and services. Therefore it not only helps you build brand awareness but brand credibility as well.

3.       ID Cards

There are plenty of small businesses who believe having an ID card for a limited number of employees just doesn’t make any kind of sense. Well, there might be some grain of truth in that, but ID cards also serve a marketing purpose and are not just a means of improving security of a workplace. Think about it for a second. Your employees are asked to compulsorily bring their ID cards to work; they usually hang these ID cards around their necks. Some put them on, when they reach their work, some put them on when the leave their homes. Every ID card that is worn while your employee is commuting to the workplace is like a company advertisement. More people will become aware of the existence of your company, because of your ID card and the logo of your company on it. What’s more, many of the people who see this card might be looking for the products and/or services sold by your company. This is branding at its best.

4.       Cold Calling

This might or might not work, but must be tried nevertheless. First build up a list of prospects who you believe will be interested in trying out your products and services. Then go through the difficult process of creating a script that ensures people don’t hang up on you and actually listen to what you have to say. Cold calling is an art that needs to be perfected over time. But this is as good a branding exercise as any.  This activity is again something helps you directly get in touch with the business’s target customers.

5.       Keep Innovating

Small businesses have smaller footprints which makes them more agile as far as decision making is concerned. What this means is that they can get creative with their marketing strategies. They don’t have to wait for an endless amount of time till the strategy is discussed by various departments, before it’s given the green signal. So, you can develop and implement a marketing strategy in quick time, which can give you the competitive edge against the bigger players in the niche.

Decision making with respect to marketing needs to be at the speed of light. You can’t identify marketing opportunities, yet wait around endlessly to take the decision to implement them.

About the Author

Lori Wagoner is an independent content strategist who gives online marketing advice to small businesses. Lori has blogged at Tweak Your Biz, The Social Media Hat and many other business and tech blogs. You can reach her @LoriDWagoner on Twitter.

Categories
Starting Up

Why Tech-based Startups Should Take a Deep Look At Their Assumptions

Why Tech-based Startups Should Take a Deep Look At Their Assumptions

When it comes to new business startups in tech industry, there are some assumptions that owners tend to make. Technology businesses are delicate ecosystems that should be driven with a focus on the stakeholders. The connection of the product with the target market should be stressed enough in order to stay away from some clichéd assumptions.

One of the assumptions that tech entrepreneurs tend to make is that if I build it, they will come. Any idea that pops into your mind may not necessarily translate into the next best thing in tech business. This can be understood in regards with the app business. The media and web projects make it seem like it’s quite easy for anyone to make money developing an app.

However, the reality is quite different. You may able to come up with a code that translates into an app and expect it to go viral as soon as you place it in the app market. Unfortunately, this isn’t the way it works.

Technology based business require genuine inspiration that can translate from even the most basic of ideas. Integration is also important with regards to product development. You don’t need to invent something, at times improvement itself is an innovation.

One of the simplest examples in this regard can be that of internet conferencing and how it has been used as an integrated model in a number of processes. This can be seen in the case of project management solutions and other tech based services that provide such communication options.

Another assumption that’s made is that people would understand your idea when they see it. Instagram is a good example of how to avoid such a case. There were a number of apps for sharing photos before Instagram, but they couldn’t excel. But how did Instagram? Filters my friend!

Instagram focused on simplification and feature access not present in other apps. What mattered was that Instagram was able to check in the user’s natural instinct and employed to their benefit. So, it’s important that you don’t underestimate the reluctance of people to learn new things.

The concept of functionality is important, but even more important is that of a minimum viable product. An assumption is that adding more features to a product would attract the user’s attention. No, it doesn’t always and it can actually scare them away. You should instead focus on the minimal set of features that are effective. At times, the overabundance of functionality causes confusion in the mind of the user.

Success in technology based businesses relies on how the entrepreneur focuses more on the response of the people instead of their own pride. Many businesses don’t take off or shut down after a few years because the owner’s enthusiasm is overwhelming.

When you’re pitching the idea, instead of focusing on its ‘awesomeness’, rely on the audience’s response more. At times, you would realize that your idea while seeming great to you, isn’t what the general masses need.

To cap it, don’t rely on the assumption that you can make anything go viral. The ecosystem of technology businesses defines the viral nature as more of a chance than a technique. So it’s not a wise strategy to think that your business can succeed because your product would go viral. A number of cat videos go viral, but some other videos with similar ideas didn’t.

Rely on the concept, not on the chance.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Categories
Entrepreneurs

Are You Working Yourself Out of Your Business?

I admit it.

 

I’m a recovering workaholic/perfectionist, not to mention having delusions of superhero syndrome.

 

I know I’ll never be cured. But I can at least work on controlling it.

 

I also know I’m not alone. Plenty of entrepreneurs and small business owners suffer from this same condition. (In fact, it’s so prevalent I’m thinking about starting a recovery group for this.)

 

Do you suffer from workaholic/perfectionism/superhero syndrome? Take this short quiz to find out.

 

1. You think working all the time, including nights and weekends, is a sign of:

A. Success

B. Insanity

C. Just one of the sacrifices you have to make when you own your own business

 

 

2. Your to-do list resembles:

A. War and Peace (actually, War and Peace might be shorter)

B. No more then 5 tasks per day

C. It’s pretty long, but that’s okay. You know if you buckle down and REALLY focus, you can get everything done. (Of course, you never have, but that’s besides the point.)

 

 

3. The last time you took a vacation was:

A. Vacation? Who needs a vacation? Vacations are for wussies.

B. A couple of months ago and it was fabulous.

C. You’re too afraid to be gone for more then a couple of days, especially if you don’t have your laptop and can check in every day. What if something happens? A new client calls? You could lose the business. Or some crisis might come up and there wouldn’t be anyone to take care of it. It’s just too risky to leave, better to stick around.

 

 

4. You believe:

A. People who don’t work very hard yet still are making mon^ey are pretty lucky (and also pretty lazy).

B. Being successful also means having a life (and having time to enjoy it).

C. The only way to be successful is to work longer and harder then anyone else. (After all, when you’re not working you’re not making money. So how can you be successful if you’re not working?)

 

 

5. Taking time for yourself is:

A. A luxury for only rich (or lazy) people.

B. Something you make a priority each and every day.

C. Nice in theory but unrealistic in practice. After all, your clients have to come first. They’re the ones paying the bills.

 

 

Scoring: Well, let’s just say you know who you are.

 

As entrepreneurs and small business owners, I think one of our biggest challenges is balance. How much time to spend on our business? On our families? Ourselves? And how do we fit it all into the only 24 hours we have?

 

For me, this has been one of the most challenging lessons. I grew up in Wisconsin, the heart of workaholic-ism. That Midwest work ethic can put people into the ground faster than anything else out there, I think.

 

I grew up equating hard work with success – if you wanted to be successful, you better be prepared to work your tail off. So when I started my business, I immediately put that ethic into play. If I could get all my work done during the week, there must be something wrong. I must not have enough clients. And I must not be successful enough.

 

But when you combined my workaholic nature with my perfectionism, that’s when things started to get out of control. There was ALWAYS something I should be doing for my business. Therefore, it was difficult to justify taking ANY time off for myself. Worse yet, I had a little voice in the back of my mind that would say things like if I wasn’t working, then I’m being lazy or procrastinating or something.

 

And, since my husband grew up in the same state with the same work ethic, he supported my need to be working all the time. Plus, he worked equally as hard himself.

 

So what was the outcome of all this? I burned out.

 

My burnout took place in 2003. After I recovered, I realized I had to start doing things differently or I would end up right back where I was again (burned out and unable to help anyone, much less myself). And since I still wanted to help people and I was still passionate about marketing and copywriting, I realized I would have to learn how to run my business differently if I was going to stay in business.

 

That was really the catalyst for me to change both myself and my business. I had to change a lot of things, including my mindset. It also has made me realize I have to value taking time off for me. If I don’t value it, it won’t happen.

 

Basically it comes down to this — as entrepreneurs and small business owners, we are our business. Even if we have a team to support us (which I sincerely hope all of you do) how far we can grow and take our business ultimately rests on our shoulders. And if those shoulders are slumped over, exhausted from overwork and poor health and lack of sleep and loss of passion for what we do, then that’s going to ultimately affect how far our businesses will grow.

 

It’s that simple.