The Three Golden Rules of Social Networking And Email Marketing

If you are looking to build rewarding relationships with your prospects there are 3 things you must do well in your Social Networking and Email Marketing. It takes some time and energy to build a responsive list and one where you provide value to each other but you will both enjoy the benefits if you remember the 3 Golden Rules:

1. Quality – When growing your list of contacts it’s about quality first and foremost, not quantity. Sure you want to have a good sized list but it is not all about the numbers. More importantly you want to attract the people who want and need the products and services you have to offer. Invite those who you have met at an in-person networking event to connect with you on your online social networks. Make sure it is someone who expressed an interest in what you do, someone who you will be able to provide value to. You’ll notice on Facebook when you are about to send a friend request there is a note that reads “Please only send this request if you know him/her personally.”

2. Consistency – If you plan to use social networking and email marketing as strategies, then you must be consistent. Maintain your online presence on the social networks by making relevant posts that serve to educate your target market. Respond to any questions or comments you receive. If you are using email marketing by way of putting out a regular ezine, then ensure you have a publishing schedule that you follow. People will come to expect to see your newsletter in their inbox on a regular basis. If they don’t hear from you for a couple months or you email them a lot at once and then nothing at all for awhile, your readers will start to wonder what’s going on. Are you still in business? Is everything okay?

3. Permission – Seth Godin who coined the phrase Permission Marketing, also known as Permission Based Marketing says: “Just because you somehow get my email address doesn’t mean you have permission.” A big pet peeve of mine is when you exchange business cards at a networking event and the next thing you know you’re receiving emails from this person. Has this happened to you? No one appreciates your unsolicited messages. More often than not I will end up unsubscribing if I receive something I am not interested in or did not ask for. Remember that permission-based marketing is just that – you are sending your marketing messages to a person based on the fact that you have received their permission to do so. It is best if you have had some sort of interaction with this person, that they know who you are and what your business is all about prior to asking them to join your list. Then invite them to sign up to receive your newsletter or other updates you might send out from time to time. Always give the option to easily unsubscribe.

I found some interesting statistics on open rates based on an actual test of e-mail newsletters sent by Selling Communications Inc. to a permission-based audience versus a targeted list of individuals. (An ‘open rate’ is a measure of how many people on an email list open a particular email.) The statistics speak for themselves:

E-mail Newsletter With Permission 43% viewed

E-mail Newsletter Without Permission 17% viewed

As business owners we’ve all heard about the know, like and trust factor. By following the above rules you can ensure that your market of targeted prospects will get to know you, like you and trust you helping to build long-lasting and profitable business relationships.

How Social Networking And Email Marketing Work Hand In Hand

There are many online marketing strategies that small business owners can utilize. With so many options it can be confusing as to the best investment of your time. Two strategies that are closely tied together and work well together are Social Networking and Email Marketing. These two strategies work hand in hand to grow your list and grow your business. All it takes is 30 to 60 minutes of your time, once a day or every other day to engage with your contacts via Social Networking. If you publish an ezine or online newsletter you can connect this way as often as once a week or as little as once a month via Email Marketing. Either way, consistency is key.

First let’s define these two terms. Social Networking is the use of a website, such as FaceBook to connect with people who share personal or professional interests. Email Marketing is the use of email messages, such as in the form of an ezine, to contact existing and potential customers.

How can you make these strategies work for you? Here are some suggestions you can try using one strategy or a combination of both.

Example 1: You’ve just attended an in person networking event and collected a number of business cards. What to do with all those cards? Connect with those you have had conversations with (you can jot notes on business cards right after an event to help with your follow-up). Was someone interested in your services but not quite ready to work with you? You can request their friendship via social media and keep in touch that way. And/or you can invite those you’ve connected with to sign up for your newsletter.

Example 2: Your upcoming ezine is complete and scheduled to send next week. Post a series of invitations to your social networks to sign up to receive your ezine. Include a teaser of the next issue describing what useful information or special offers they will receive as a subscriber.

Example 3: You have a number of ‘friend requests’ in your social networks. Be selective. Research who is requesting to connect with you. If this person is in your target market then respond with a personal note thanking them for the connection. If it is someone you have connected with previously who is not already on your mailing list and who you feel would benefit from your ezine, then you may also want to invite them to sign up.

With each of these strategies remember, it’s about quality not quantity. Only friend those that you can provide value to. You want to grow your list and connect via social media with people that are in your target market. Be consistent by posting relevant content and educating your mailing list with informative articles via your ezine regularly. And make sure you get permission to connect. With the volume of information we get through social networks and email, no one appreciates your unsolicited messages.

If you are not yet using one or both of these complementary strategies, give them a try. You can attract new and repeat customers, while building loyalty and there are little or no costs associated with either method. (You may incur a small monthly fee for your email marketing, depending on which provider you use.)

Whether you are offering services or products, doing business online is crucial to the success of any business today. Practice these techniques regularly and watch your list of prospects and your business grow.

To Do Lists Are Not For Everyone – Creative Ways To Manage Your Time, Reduce Stress and Get More Done

If you don’t follow a schedule you may start your day by sitting down at your desk wondering what you will do today. You will not be productive and likely not accomplish anything important.

Let’s say you start with checking email and get sidetracked forgetting the world outside of your inbox exists. Then you go on Facebook to get in your social networking for the day and wind up on there for more than an hour. Then, panicked, you remember something important that needs to be done for a client. In the midst of that project another client calls and you’ve become sidetracked. It’s nearing the end of your work day and you do not have time to finish the project. You have personal commitments to attend to now, not to mention you’re starving and haven’t made time to break for lunch.

You can’t figure out how it is that you’ve been busy all day but haven’t gotten anything productive completed. You feel like there’s never enough time in the day.

Well, there will never be enough time if you continue like this. There will only ever be 24 hours. If the number of hours in a day are not going to change then you’re going to have to change your approach.

You may already be following a schedule, but if it’s not working for you then it’s time to re-examine it. Everyone is different and you have to choose the method that works well for you.

These are the main rules for scheduling that should remain consistent no matter which method you choose:

1. You must clear your head of your to do’s. Get this list of things into some type of workable format.

2. Use a ‘master’ so you are not recreating your schedule every time. Assign blocks of time to related tasks and include personal time.

3. Prepare your schedule ahead of time. End your day by creating your list for the next day.

4. Be realistic about the time it takes to do things.

5. Minimize interruptions. Schedule client calls like appointments.

The 3 main scheduling methods to choose from are audio, visual and electronic. You can find a variety of tools at office supply retailers and online to help you with scheduling:

Audio – using a hand held recorder, you can record and manage your to do’s as they come up. Record what needs to be done each day. This works well if you’re not a note taker, do not use day planners and if you are mobile and can carry your recorder with you. You can create categories to organize your lists further and set alarms with more complex devices.

Visual – your schedule can be as simple as a paper based to do list or checklist. For more visual appeal try writing your list on a whiteboard using different colours for categories. If you like calendars you can purchase a desktop calendar, a day planner that is compact and easy to carry or print your own Printable Calendar Templates A stack of 4×6″ lined index cards with your to do’s and details can be filed and sorted in priority order within a recipe card box or photo binder.

Electronic – any of the visual methods can be used electronically with a hand held unit like a PDA or Blackberry with applications to manage your to do lists and synchronizing capabilities with Outlook and Google. Here you can also maintain contact information, manage your calendar and appointments and set reminders. The features and capabilities are numerous and vary with each device. Outlook is a great tool if you’re home office based with features to manage your email of course, calendar, contacts, create tasks, notes and reminders and organize items into categories. When working with others on projects BaseCamp project management software is a great collaboration tool, tracking conversations all in one place, listing to do’s, deadlines, file sharing and time tracking.

Remember to balance your time with play and pick the method that best suits you and will keep it interesting. If you have found an effective way to schedule your time, please send me the scheduling tips that work well for you. Effective time management will keep stress to a minimum.

3 Simple Ways To Add Time To Your Day

As a small business owner there is usually one activity that you find you are spending (or wasting) too much time on. This activity is probably a necessary part of your business, however, it is preventing you from getting to the really important stuff.

What is your top time waster? What is it that you always seem to get stuck on for hours at a time? This is probably an easy question to answer and with a little work can be just as easy to resolve.

Here are 3 simple ways that will help you gain control over your biggest time wasters:

1. Use templates whenever possible. For important but often repetitive tasks like replying to email inquiries or submitting proposals, create and save templates that can be used over and over and modified when needed.

For Email Management: Do you get a number of similar email inquiries often? You can save templates with generic responses to frequently asked questions and modify your reply to suit each inquiry. Templates can be saved in your email ‘Draft’ folder and copied and pasted into a new reply. Or create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website. This may prevent you from receiving alot of the same inquiries in the first place or you can direct the inquiries to this page if the answer to their specific question is contained within the list.

For Proposals: You have probably thought about doing this but perhaps you are always in a rush to get that proposal out and haven’t had time to create templates for this purpose. Take an afternoon and pull up your most recent proposals. Group similar proposals together and create a template for each main category. Next time you need to put together a proposal, grab the related template and you’re off to the races. No more sorting through old emails or Word documents. Just pull up the appropriate template and modify where needed. The time you spent putting your templates together will be gained back many times. Remember to keep your templates up to date with pricing or policy changes.

2. Set a timer for anything you find you get wrapped up in. When you work from home away from outside distractions it is easy to get so involved in an activity that you lose all sense of time. Even knowing that the timer is ticking in the background keeps you more aware.

For Social Networking: You know you need to be ‘out there’ and social networking plays a big role, but it doesn’t have to be all consuming either. Limit yourself to 30 minutes once or twice a day. As an example, when used as a business tool, your daily Facebook activity should include a quick check in of notifications, requests, your inbox, activities of friends and status updates. Add comments to showcase your expertise. Be consistent. It’s too hard to try to catch up if you haven’t signed on for days or more.

For Research: There is so much information out there and when we are conducting research on a topic one thing leads to another and another. So before you even begin, narrow down your topic and focus so you only collect the most relevant information. Have an organized way of collecting and documenting the information and sources so you don’t have to visit a website more than once. Have a goal around how many pieces of information you need and once you’ve reached it, stop.

3. Be realistic, avoid perfectionism. I’ve said this before but it’s a favourite quote of mine and a good reminder – Aim for completion, not perfection.

With projects: Yes, we want to make sure ‘i’s are dotted and ‘t’s are crossed, however, I believe perfectionism is an impossible goal and when we aim for it, then a task can never be complete.

With procrastination: Is perfectionism your excuse to delay the start of a project until the time is ‘just right’ or you have all the information you need? Don’t let unreasonably high standards prevent you from realizing a goal.

Try one or two of the above suggestions and gain back control over your time. Yes, you can have more time in a day!