Posted by Biz Central USA Marketing Team on August 11, 2010 under Small Biz and Entrepreneurship,Small Biz Marketing,Small Biz News,Small Biz Webinars | Be the First to Comment

A Free Small Business Webinar on Starting your Business off on the Right Foot with Email Marketing!

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, says e-mail remains the number-one online activity of Americans and can deliver a higher return on investment than methods such as direct mail and advertising.  So as a small business, it’s important to capitalize on this trend! By adopting the right strategies and practices now, you can maximize the inbox to capitalize on acquiring new customers and retaining current ones.

We invite you to spend some valuable time with BizCentral USA and learn step-by-step effective strategies for implementing successful email marketing campaigns.

Topics of Interest:
• Email Marketing Fundamentals
• Design and Layout Best Practices
• What you Don’t see That can Make or Break your Campaign
• Building your Email Lists
• Complying with Regulations & Getting your Emails Delivered

Join us August 17th, 2010 from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (EST) and Learn how to maximize the inbox and start reaching thousands with one click!

Posted by Jennifer Nelson on November 4, 2009 under Small Biz Marketing | Be the First to Comment

Last time, I discussed the importance of capitalizing on e-mail to reach customers. The next logical question I’m sure most of you asked is, “How do I write e-mails that people will read?” The following nine steps are some important guidelines to remember when constructing your company e-mails.

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9 Guidelines to get your E-mails Opened!

• Include your logo in the same location. This subtle gesture will help your customers identify who sent the e-mail. It will also create a company-branding image that makes your e-mail look more legitimate and less like spam. People will have a sense of familiarity that makes them more likely to read the content, as they trust the source of the information.
• Keep the preview pane in mind. A recent study by Marketing Sherpa found that 70 percent of recipients that have the capability to read e-mail through a preview pane do. Before your e-mail has a chance to be clicked, most individuals will have already made a value judgment of the e-mail. Keeping this content fresh with exciting titles, consistent logo placement, and appropriate white space will make all the difference in getting that all-important click.
• Use color for emphasis. While it is tempting to use lots of color in constructing e-mails, it often ends up creating distractions rather than emphasis. Usually, I recommend starting with your company’s colors as this is important to solidify branding. All of your e-mails should represent your visual brand, and a key component of that is using your colors consistently. Colors outside your brand should be saved for emphasis.
• Limit the number of fonts you use. Too many fonts equal too much distraction. You want to keep your readers focused on the content of the message, not the stark changes in font. A good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to two fonts whenever possible. Make sure your fonts are universal so people can read the e-mail as you intended and not have them substituted by the e-mail provider.
• Make your point clearly and quickly. The top of your e-mail needs to have the most important information. Most individuals will aren’t going to scroll more than once to read the contents of an e-mail. With every moment, a reader is determining if he or she will keep reading or abandon your e-mail.
• Pick photos that support your message. Since a picture is “worth a thousand words,” it’s important that those thousand words be consistent with your content. Having a photo to simply fill up space isn’t a good reason to include one. High quality images are a must when selecting photographs for e-mails because it makes them look professional.
• Don’t embed your text in an image. Many of the programs people use to receive and read e-mail have images turned off by default. So, if your e-mails are pure images the reader will have to select to view contents. To ensure that people with this default setting get your message, include text in your e-mail that is not embedded in an image. Additionally, you can add title tags to the images within your e-mail that you choose to use.  This will be a short discription of what the image is, so now the reader will be more likely to view the content because they have more trust in what they are opening.

Posted by Jennifer Nelson on October 7, 2009 under Small Biz and Entrepreneurship,Small Biz Marketing | Be the First to Comment

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, says e-mail remains the number-one online activity of Americans. So as a small business, it’s important to capitalize on this trend. E-mail marketing can still deliver a higher return on investment (ROI) than methods such as direct mail and newspaper and radio advertising. Not only do people access thier e-mails on computers, now a growing number of people are able to receive e-mail on their cell phones and PDAs. E-mails have many advantages, but here are the three most popular:

Cheap E-mails are free or extremely cheap to send and receive. Unlike sending out mass correspondence through the post office, e-mails don’t cost much money. The only cost to you is the time you spend constructing them and if you choose to use an email client to assist you with design creation and list management .

Fast E-mails can be sent out instantaneously to thousands of recipients. The recipients can be previous customers or interested parties who submitted their email through your website.

Measurable Software can track e-mails opened, clicked on, and purchases made. Many of these e-mail tracking softwares are inexpensive and easy to install or already come with an e-mail client. They can help you see which e-mails are translating into sales and which e-mails aren’t performing.

Often times users flag irrelevant e-mails as spam, so it’s important to make e-mails relevant and segmented to grab your reader’s attention. A 2006 report by MarketingSherpa found that e-mail marketers using segmentation saw click-through rates that are 72% higher than e-mail marketers who aren’t segmenting their opt-in lists. Some of the most popular ways to segment your company emails include:

• Purchased items
• Location
• Brands
• Age

Your segmenting options are limitless! Experiment with different categories and see which ones offer your business the greatest success. Don’t forget to stay on top of your “subscribe” and “unsubscribe” requests. Not being thourough can cause you trouble with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and Anti-Spam Laws. Always review your subscribe and unsubscribe requests right before you send out an e-mail blast or use a e-mail client to have them automatically managed for you. Following these simple rules is a great cheap way to have e-mails add to your bottom line without breaking your wallet.