Posts tagged: email marketing

Learning to utilize Email and Social Media Marketing to reach out and keep your customers

Posted on October 11, 2011

by Stephanie Goodman

Social Media and Email marketing are two categories that I’ve found most popular among blogs, webinars and topics of discussion. Common questions from those less social media/email marketing savvy are: Is Twitter/Facebook right for my business? Will I really reach my customers the right way by using an email newsletter? Isn’t this “new” type of marketing a fad? One of the most important things to remember is that social media and email marketing is not a fad, and although I’ve said it many times before, if you are not moving your business’ marketing efforts at the same pace as the rest of the companies in your industry (and the dozens of other industries) you and your brand will be left in the dust. 

Last week I sat in on a webinar hosted by Constant Contact about “Email and Social Marketing” run by Josh Mendelsohn. I took away a few interesting facts from Josh about B2B businesses, social media marketing, email marketing and what those of us in marketing need to remember when targeting our current and future customers.

Watch what you say and do. According to a study presented by Josh, 82% of small businesses have said word of mouth is the most successful form of marketing. Word of mouth may not be taking place on social media but what a company says or does on social media will be talked about. Interact with your customers on Twitter or Facebook, listen to their concerns or their praise and acknowledge that there is a company behind an account. If a customer complains to you on Twitter and you ignore their concern, the likelihood that they will suggest your services at the next cocktail party they’re at or coffee meeting is highly unlikely.

Don’t be a 5 minute tweeter.  By this I mean, don’t spend 5 minutes increments on Twitter throughout the day and only send out tweets during those times. Your followers will notice that you’re not engaging with your audience and instead using Twitter to pump out information at them like an advertisement. Schedule your tweets, using platforms like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, to ensure that you’re consistently sharing information throughout the day.

Find out what your audience wants and respond to it. At VA Partners we use Constant Contact for Email Marketing and have found their “Reports” tool very useful in understanding what are readers are reading and what sparks the most interest. If we see multiple hits for a particular sales blog, we use those analytics to perhaps write a follow up on that blog rather than ignoring useful marketing statistics. Use the analytics from an email newsletter to continue to provide your audience with the information and educational material they’re interested in. Constant Contact also provides an Email Survey tool that can be used in conjunction with the Email Marketing tool.

If you’d like to see what VA Partners is doing with our e-mail marketing, sign up for our newsletter. The newsletter is sent out on the first Tuesday of every month and showcases our featured blogs, recommended events to attend, recommended reading list, connection of the month and links to our social media platforms.

 

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Finding content for your Social Media efforts

Posted on August 25, 2011

by Stephanie Goodman

As a Part-Time Social Media Specialist for our company and a few clients, a big part of my job and daily routine entails researching the web for relevant and “tweet-worthy” information. It is essential that Social Media Specialists know and understand the goals of the company they are working for in order to represent the company effectively.

Working in a small company, where many tasks and roles are being interchanged, I champion organization. The following is a list of websites I have organized together in order to find information on the web.

Great 3rd Party Sources: It is useful to have a few reliable sources you visit every day for content. These types of sources produce information relevant to your industry. Here are a few examples of my trusted 3rd party sources:

  • The Globe and Mail, The Small Business and Technology sections: I visit The Globe and Mail as my first source of news. The Globe has endless articles detailing sales, marketing, social media and technology news.
  • Inc Magazine: Working with small businesses, it is always good to keep on top of the industry news. I visit Inc Magazine in order to see what topics are generating buzz.
  • Mashable: Mashable consolidates many of the top stories on social media, digital culture and technology.

Partners and Associations: Before we begin with a client, we outline their Partners and Associations (including websites, Twitter handles and Facebook Pages). Visiting these sites for tweet-able or posting information is a great way to endorse one’s supporters and keep the relationship strong.

Prospects: We also outline what type of prospects our clients are looking for. If they are specific companies/people, these outlets are great for RT-ing – supporting a prospect is a great way for them to get to know you.

Google Alerts: Every day Google sends me articles and blogs based on my keyword searches. For instance, I’ve used the keywords “start-ups” and “Toronto” and last week I received information about a start-up in Toronto who raised $8M in funding.

Twilert: This is a tool I recently started using and so far it has been successful at keeping me up-to-date with Twitter, without me having to keep two eyes on my home feed. Similar to Google Alerts, you choose which keywords you would like to flag and Twilert sends information with these keywords directly to your inbox on a daily basis.

Linkedin: The home page of my Linkedin account has been a great source of information regarding who is reading what, who wrote what article and which article are the “top” stories of the day. By taking a 30 second look at what content has shown up on my home feed, I never leave Linkedin empty handed of information. Using keywords to search “updates” in Linkedin will also generate the top posts, articles and/or questions relevant to your keywords.

In order to stay on top of emerging trends and new outlets of information, continue to explore new ways of finding information. Start with this exercise: Read an article, look up the author on Twitter, see who they are following, start following some of the same people, see what these new people are tweeting about. The chain of information is endless.

For reading suggested, sign up for our monthly newsletter which includes articles, books and blogs we’ve found useful at VA Partners. For more information visit our Part-Time Social Media services web page  or connect with us.

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Using email marketing to help with sales and marketing efforts

Posted on May 10, 2011

By Stephanie Goodman

On April 28th I attended an event hosted by CAWEE (Canadian Association of Women Executives and Entrepreneurs) at the Hot House Cafe in Toronto. The event featured Lisa Kember, Regional Development Director for Constant Contact. Lisa focused on the advantages of using email marketing for any size business, and outlined tips on how to be successful and what to avoid doing.

As Lisa put it, acquiring customers takes “Time..Money…Energy..Effort,” however, with some help, businesses can reduce all these elements and promote their brand and business in a more effective way. According to Lisa, 94% of internet users between 18-64 years of age send or read an email. With Constant Contact, businesses can put out a newsletter with information that can supplement their sales and marketing efforts. There are some Best Practices, however, and the following are some important ones to pay attention to before setting up your first newsletter.

1. Email Marketing is NOT spam. No great sales or marketing person would believe that spam is the way to attract prospects. Sending out newsletters through email marketing is meant to inform people about what your company is doing, what your thoughts are on the latest trends in the industry and how and why your solutions are beneficial to your potential customers and current ones.

2. The Basics:

  • Set expectations: What content will you send out? When you will send it out? How long do you want your email to be? If you’re sending out information to top executives, the reality is, they are not going to read something that takes them longer than 5 minutes on a Monday morning. Make sure your newsletter suites your target audience in regards to length and the day/time you send it.
  • Deliver on your promises. If you include a promotion in your newsletter, make sure you follow through, regardless of how many people take advantage of it. This sustains your credibility.
  • Abiding legislation. Many are unaware that using someone’s email address without their permission is illegal. Beginning in September 2011, companies can face fines from $10,000 and up if they use someone’s email address without their permission. Someone has to of either given you explicit permission, or has recently requested information from you (implicit permission).
  • Integrate social media. Although people still rely on receiving emails for information, social media is still equally important. Add in the social media bar to the top of your email, allowing people to share your information to others.

3. Manage your lists. Ensure that you’re adding new people you meet at an event or cross paths with (after you gain their permission of course). Delete those whose email has bounced and follow up to make sure you have inputted their accurate address.

Sales representatives tend to focus on acquiring new prospects rather than managing the relationships they already have. It is 6-7 times more expensive to gain a customer than to retain a customer, according to research presented by Constant Contact. Repeat customers also spend 67% more than new customers and also act as a business’s referral engine. While searching for new prospects with email marketing is an excellent practice, ensure that you are also building on current relationships with the information you send out.

To see how Venture Accelerator Partners utilizes Constant Contact, sign up for our monthly newsletter. If you have more questions about Constant Contact, feel free to contact us.

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