E-mail is a valuable part of your Internet Marketing Strategy, because;
- It is low cost with high results
- It can be started immediately
- You receive Instant, measurable results
- It allows for segmentation of the people on your list
- It allows personalization if desired
It is easy to overcomplicate this, but there are really only two steps to creating an e-mail marketing campaigns:
- Build Your List
- Send Emails
The most important factor in successful email marketing is the list. No matter how good your offer or creative, if you don’t email to the right people and organizations, you just won’t get the response you want.
Depending on the size of your list and some other issues, you could use your Outlook program to send your e-mails, but most likely you are going to want to use a professional service. These types of service providers are able to provide you with list management, open rates and other analytics, auto-responders, and much more. Here are four to look at:
- Aweber – www.aweber.com
- Constant Contact – www.constantcontact.com
- Elist Express – www.elistx.com
- Get Response – www.getresponse.com
- Opt-in / opt-out is simple in principle:
- An “opt in” requires an action or affirmation by an individual for inclusion on the list.
- An “opt out” requires an action or affirmation to be removed from a list.
The can-spam act: a compliance guide for business – The complete can-spam act can be found at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission website at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm.
Social Media – Can It Generate New Business Relationships?
There isn’t much doubt that people are engaging social media in ever increasing numbers across all demographics.
The question is “how can this social media trend benefit your career and business organization?”
My opinion is that there is some confusion surrounding the answer to this which is based on the duality of the media; it can be used socially or it can be used commercially.
What you wind up with, as a result of this duality, is people trying to create a commercial result using a social means.
What also makes this even more challenging is that there is an overload of social media “chatter” making it hard to get your communication noticed.
My recommendation is for most people, it is best to look at social media as a “search” function.
The reason is that the search engines are going to find you (and your organization) on the social media sites. In fact, I believe it is easier in many instances, to get the search engines to list your social media activity than it is to get them to list your commercial enterprises.
This is the understanding I think we should take away from this lesson. Social Media is an extremely effective and cost-efficient way to “Help People Find You When They Are Searching For Solutions That You Provide”.
These are the only 4 social media sites you need to start with. The search engines spider these daily and will find your activity and information on these 4 sites.
- Facebook – www.facebook.com
- LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com
- Twitter – www.twitter.com
- Insurance Campus – www.insurancecampus.org
What To Do After You Create Your Social Media Accounts
- Edit Your Profiles (Website URL’s – Contact Information)
- Join Groups
- Start Groups
- Post Content (Figure Out What Information You Can Provide Your Audience That They Really Want.)
- Engage (Begin To Find People In Your Target And Engage Them In Conversation.)
Why Bother?
- FREE (There is no cost to follow any of the recommendations in this lesson.)
- Back Links (Higher Page Rank) (Better Search Engine Results Position )
- Free Advertising
- Drive Traffic To Website
- Become Known As An Expert
- Be Seen On Blogs, Content Sites, And Journals
Looking at Social Media from a business perspective, it is a worthwhile (business) tool if you don’t become unfocused. It can help you with the two most critical factors in Internet Marketing; A Sufficient Amount Of “Targeted Traffic” and “Conversion.
Does your company have a “Social Media” policy?
Here is a site that links to the social media policies of more than 150 companies. http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php If you have guidelines, or are thinking about developing some for your organizations, I think you will find this a valuable resource.
Disclaimer – If you are a large company with a large budget and dedicated person to manage social media, there is a lot that can done with social media from a branding perspective, but that is not the profile of most of the people that are going to be reading this e-book.
