Category Archives for "Small Business Tips and Tricks"

0 How Small Businesses Can Find Their Hottest Prospects With Mailchimp Email

Hopefully you’ve read my previous post ‘Dickiebird Hot Tip: A Quick Email Follow Up Technique That Could Land Your Next Big Client’ – otherwise you might find this piece a little too practical.

Here are the practical steps about how to dig into your Mailchimp email list and find your hottest prospects.

Step One

Send your email via Mailchimp – make sure it’s a good one that’s useful and interesting and one that prospects will open. If you haven’t got time to put together a decent email, get in touch and we’ll put you in touch with people who do a great job.

Step Two

You’ll need to check Mailchimp every day after you sent the email to see who’s opening and clicking on your emails. Chances are, it will be a prospect you haven’t heard from for some time.

Action > Check Mailchimp every day

Step Three

By default, Mailchimp opens to your dashboard and looks like the image below.

Action > Click on the blue subscriber number

 
 
Step Four

The screen below will come up. By default it shows you the readers who opened your email the least amount of times.

Action > Click twice on the ‘Opens’ tab at the top of the list

Step Five

Now you have a list of prospective customers who have opened your email the most. You can see the person at the top has opened the email 42 times! The others have opened it at least 10 times.

Step Six

Create an individual follow-up email to your hot prospects in your regular email provider (not Mailchimp and not a group email). This may well open the door to new business. I wouldn’t suggest you start your follow-up with “I see that you opened our email 42 times, clicked three links and forwarded it to 2 people”.

In your follow-up, try something more subtle, such as an email to say “Hi Joan, it looks like you got our latest email about swimming pool fitness. As we haven’t been in touch for a while, have you got any questions about your pool or landscaping project”? We’re only an email away, so please call or email if we can help in any way”. Make sure you have your phone contact details at the bottom of your email.

Action > Send individual email to your people with the most opens

The Fortune Is In The Follow-Up

If your product or service is high value eg. over $2,000 per customer per year, that simple follow-up might net your business $5,000 plus.

In my experience, it’s something worth trying, and at worst, you’re providing customers with more personalised communication – it’s a simple courtesy that most businesses overlook.  

The manual email follow-up method might not be cost effective for everyone – for example, if your product or service is only worth $50 per year. In this case, if you have Marketing Automation in place, you can create a simple rule that follows up with an email like the one above.

You can read more about Marketing Automation in my previous post. Otherwise, get in touch with any questions about setting up professional Marketing Automation for your professional service or software business.

I’d love to know if you’ve tried follow-up email or automation. Let me know about your experiences, successful or otherwise.

0 A Quick Email Follow-Up Tactic That Could Land Your Next Big Client

Most businesses don’t do email marketing like the list above.

What’s wrong with this approach? There is zero follow-up (and we all know the sale is in the follow-up, right)?!

If you’re in the business of business development, you need to check Mailchimp (or your email provider) every day for the first 4-5 days after you send an email to your list. This will allow you to see who’s opening and clicking on your emails. Chances are, it will be a prospect you haven’t heard from for some time.

Want to know more about how to check your email opening in Mailchimp? See our detailed how-to post ‘How Small Businesses Can Find Their Hottest Prospects With Mailchimp Email’ (I’ll update this link within the week).

A follow-up email or phone call will likely open the door to new business. However, I wouldn’t suggest you start the follow-up with “I see that you opened our email 42 times, clicked three links and forwarded it to 2 people” – that’s a sure fire way to sound creepy.

In your follow-up, try something more helpful, such as an email that says:

“Hi Joan, it looks like you got our latest email about swimming pool fitness. As we haven’t been in touch for a while, have you got any questions about your pool or landscaping project”? We’re only an email away, so please call or email if we can help”.

Make sure your follow-up email contains your phone contact details at the bottom of your email, as phone calls generally convert sales better than email.

This manual email follow-up method might not work for everyone – for example, if your product or service is only worth $50 / year. In this case, if you have Marketing Automation in place, you can create a simple rule that follows up as above. Read more about Marketing Automation in my previous post.

If your product or service is high value eg. Greater than $2,000 per customer per year, that simple follow-up might net your business $2,000 plus per year. Email follow-up is definitely something worth trying, and something most businesses overlook.

If you’ve already got email marketing in place with Mailchimp, read our other post on ‘How Small Businesses Can Find Their Hottest Prospects With Mailchimp Email’ (link will be updated).

If you’re looking to get professional email marketing or more advanced Marketing Automation in place, get in touch.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your experiences with email marketing and automation. Have you tried this method? I don’t know of anyone else, at least in New Zealand, that uses this powerful tactic…

0 5 Apps to Boost Your Online Marketing Productivity

Marketing your business on social is not only an effort that requires time, but mobility as well. Mobile usage in general has risen year after year – heck, at the end of 2014 526 million of the 1.3…

Read the full article at: www.business2community.com

Here’s a short list of useful tools for your business. I case you haven’t seen these already.

My Top 5 Online Marketing Tools:

1. Dropbox / Google Drive: A great way of storing your images or files online. You can access with your phone as well as iPad/tablet.
2. Canva: The easiest free graphic design tool you thought you’d never need. Great for editing social media posts.
3. Google Analytics: From big business, right down to small businesses, you need to know who’s visiting your website and what they’re interested in.
4. Scoop.it: Scopp.it not only helps me find content, but it helps me share content on the web as well.
5. Google Calendar: Book appointments and send them to people via email. Hint: The app connects with Google Maps.

Each of these tools makes a difference in my working life. What tools work for you?

0 How SEO Can Change Your Life (online at least) | Dickiebird

Want to understand the essentials of SEO fast? SEO simplified explains what you need to know to optimize your pages and rank higher in search.

Read the full article at: feldmancreative.com

Many of you heard the joke:

Q. ‘Where’s the best place to hide a dead body?’

A: Page 2 of Google.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation is hardly a 5-minute party trick topic. However, it is fundamental to successful marketing online.

I’m assuming you know how vital SEO is, so I’m going to cut to the point and share some hot tips on SEO that stood out from this wonderful article by Barry Feldman:

1. An alternative to Keywords: ‘Long tail search terms’

When planning and preparing page content for your website, you normally need to carefully pick your main keywords. For example, if I sell swimming pools, my main keyword might be ‘swimming pools’. However, there are likely to be thousands of businesses around the world using terms such as ‘swimming pool’.

A better strategy is to use long tail keyword search terms, for example, ‘How much does a swimming pool cost?’

2. Popularity of your links

The popularity of your website is still linked with the number of websites that share your link. Trusted websites link to trusted websites.

Getting good links to your website should be an integral part of your link building strategy. Blogging and responding to posts on relevant online forums is a good way to do this.

Getting links from industry authorities is another way – for example, if you are own a building company, getting a link from the national building association can be seen as an endorsement and will help your site’s SEO.

Remember: SEO is a slow moving beast – it takes time and regular effort to build your ranking. If you need quick results, consider Google Adwords alongside SEO.

3. Three vital tools for SEO

1. Google Adwords Keyword Planner: Vital for working out which keywords are in demand. Tip: If you see high demand and low competition for a keyword, this is a great, but unusual combination.

2. Raven Tools: Raven incorporates measurement of your online marketing, and it also allows you to plan your keyword content.

3. Google Analytics is vital for measuring the success or otherwise of your SEO efforts.

There are many, many articles written on SEO, and I suggest you do further research before diving into a campaign. Also, do have a look at the link to Barry Feldman’s brilliant article above this one.

0 Lesson from Neuroscience To Get Better Results On Your Website – Dickiebird

So, how can you harness this knowledge to your advantage? Let’s look at some of the most notable studies on the subject and how you can apply that directly to your blog.

Read the full article at: blog.kissmetrics.com

Wow, who doesn’t love science for helping us make better decisions about our business website? 

What can we learn from this article about applying Neuroscience to web design:

1. Make Me Stay

You’ve got 5 seconds to make an impression on me. Your website better look nice and easy to navigate. 

2. Headline

A good, clear headline is vital. Ask ‘Is it useful to my audience’? 16-18 words is an ideal number.

3. Be Clear from the Start

Ensure the first few sentences convey exactly why readers should keep reading.

3. Mix it Up

Use a mixture of visual devices:

• Bulleted lists
• Images
• Block-quoted text
• Video

4. White Space

Use space between paragraphs. It helps people retain information and makes a blog post more enjoyable to read.

5. Typography

Don’t use any font under 10 points as this makes it hard to read and people give up.

Summary

Most of this is common sense, but given the number of not so nice blogs and websites I come across, we’ve obviously still got a lot to learn.

Have you seen any great results from making changes like these to your website or blog?

0 8 LinkedIn Profile Photo Mistakes That Make You Look Unprofessional [Infographic]

In the age of selfies, bad photography runs rampant. Duck lips, bathroom pictures, too close close ups — the list of photography faux pas is seemingly endless.

A poorly angled selfie or two (or 100) might not be so bad on Facebook. But put those same pictures on LinkedIn, and watch your connection accept rate take a nosedive.  

The following infographic from Sales For Life visually depicts the top eight LinkedIn profile picture no-nos, from using an out of date photo to posting a snapshot of your cat. (Note: Photos of your cat are acceptable on all other places on the internet.)

While it’s important to have a picture — your profile is 11 times more likely to be viewed if you have a photo — it’s just as important that it’s not one of these.

Read the full article at: blog.hubspot.com

In this day and age of selfies – bad photography is rife! To be clear, it’s the number one thing that can make or break your LinkedIn profile. Your profile is 11 times more likely to be viewed if you have a profile photo!

Like many professionals, I don’t connect with people that don’t have a LinkedIn profile. To me it says they aren’t serious about using the platform. 

This infographic says it all, in a humorous light.

0 7 Habits of Highly Effective Content Marketers

Want to be a better content marketers? Adopt these 15 habits.

Read the full article at: blog.hubspot.com

These tips could apply to business in general. The original post featured 15 posts, which I have cut down to the 7 best.

Here’s my summary:

1. Always Network: Networking builds your connections and grows the number of people that know about your business.

2. Actively listen to your audience: Read comments, emails and respond to people.

3. Constantly research: See who’s doing what and put aside insights to use as content for your own posts / blogs. Use a notepad or an electronic storage system such as Evernote.

4. Obsess over quality: Ensure what your produce is of good quality.

5. Constantly ask: ‘Does this provide value’? Good content teaches, enlightens, entertains. Is your content doing that for your audience?

6. Live in ‘Idea Mode’: Always ask questions, think of new angles and dare to dream. Don’t run with an idea right away – give it time to develop. Try sharing your idea with friends and colleagures to refine.

7. Always ask questions: Your job is to create a dialogues. If this isn’t happening, consider whether your content is hitting the right spot (it could also be that your content isn’t getting in front of your audience).

In the marketing world, we need to constantly question whether what we’re doing is working. If it isn’t, it’s worth adapting.

If you want a great book about habits, have a look for the book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. It’s a great read.

Have you adapted any of the above?

0 How to Write Content That Engages Mobile Readers – NZ Tourism Operators Take Note

Google’s new emphasis on mobile-friendly search results doesn’t require just good mobile design, it requires great mobile copywriting–Content Marketing Institute.

Read the full article at: contentmarketinginstitute.com

At least 25% of most websites are viewed on a mobile device, and especially so for tourism operators. If you don’t make content mobile friendly, you’re losing possible customers.

How do we write better content for mobile devices?

Here’s a quick summary for you:

– Look at how content looks on an average mobile phone: Keep your most important content to the top left triangle of the screen.

– Use images: People look at images more than text, they capture attention.

– Get rid of unnecessary words or phrases. Blair Pascal, The French Mathematician once wrote: “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.”

– Create short, strong headlines. Long headlines get lost on a mobile screen.

–  Make your first couple of sentences count: You need readers to want more of your content. Don’t start out boring!

– Use short paragraphs: Reading long paragraphs requires concentration. It might look easy on a desktop, but it becomes too much on a mobile device.

– Tourism Operators take heed – a greater proportion of your visits will be on mobile devices.

Conclusion: Less is more! Write well and write less length. I would love to hear if you’ve experimented with writing for mobile devices?

0 9 Ways for Small New Zealand Businesses to Beat Big Corporations on Social Media

It’s time to find out how to use social as a marketing equalizer: here are 9 techniques SMBs can use to beat big corporations on social media.

Read the full article at: blog.scoop.it

Who doesn’t love seeing the underdog win?! One of the reasons I’m passionate about online marketing, is it’s ability to level the playing field: it allows smaller businesses to participate in a world of media that was once a domain for big business only (think TV advertising).

What have small businesses got over big busineses? These were the nuggets from this article?

1. Be yourself: Dare to be different and stand out from the big companies. 
2. Use original images – don’t use generic images.
3. Care about customers and clients: Sadly many big businesses don’t do this well, or at all.
4. Don’t try to please everyone: Find your audience and delight them!
5. Limit your social media channels to 1 or two: Make your presence be known in those channels. Facebook is essential for most businesses (1.8 Million New Zealanders check Facebook every day).
6. Appeal to people who love the underdog: Many people like to support the newcomer – but you have to offer value as well.
7. Curate Content: You don’t have to produce 100% of your content. Find what your audience is interested in and provide them with it (hint: it may not be what you think it is. For example, Mortgage customers may be interested in household DIY tips).
8. Be enthusiastic: Don’t adopt a boring corporate tone in your communication.

Don’t be intimidated by big companies, be swift, be nimble, and Be Remarkable! I’d love to hear what you’ve done to get ahead of big business.

0 Email Marketing vs Social Media – Campaign Monitor

In this article we take a look at both email marketing campaigns and social media campaigns to determine which provides the best return on investment.

Read the full article at: www.campaignmonitor.com

Are you investing in the wrong area? Take a look at this side by side comparison: It’s not email marketing vs. social media – they both most certainly have their place and BOTH are vital to the success of 90% of online business strategies.

If your business is generating leads online, I suggest you start your conversations on email, but always lead prospects back to your website. Websites are where most ‘conversions’ take place. Conversions are where your prospective customers buy your product / service or sign up to your email list.

Again, it’s not one vs. the other, what the article stresses, is the importance of ensuring we invest time and energy in building our email list, and not spending a dis-proportionate amount of time on social media.