Content, The Driving Force Behind Your Small Business Marketing Strategy Posted on August 11, 2015August 25, 2022 by Jessica Lunk Earlier this year Gartner reported that by the end of 2015, digital marketing budgets will be up about eight percent. Yet despite that, nearly 40 percent of small businesses don’t use core digital marketing tools—like a blog, an email newsletter, or a website. But as they dive into digital marketing, small businesses have to figure out the most cost-effective way to market themselves online. Digital marketing–essentially any kind of advertising or marketing effort done online–is different from traditional marketing in that it involves one or more forms of electronic media and incorporates tools (for example, Google Analytics) that enable an organization to analyze the effectiveness of their advertising. That said, digital marketing is also a little like the Wild West: a lot of new things are being tried and those tactics are constantly evolving. Small businesses with limited budgets often rely on social media, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram, to spread the word about their products and services in an organic way. (You tell two friends and they tell two friends and so on.) Outside of that, one of the least expensive ways to capitalize on both social media and the power of search is content marketing. Not all content, however, is the same and none is effective if you don’t build an audience for it. So how do you do that? Use multiple channels. Lots of companies have corporate blogs and although they are important, they aren’t the only way to use content to build an audience. You should include a variety of channels and media, like social media, newsletters, product information, and visual content. But before you start the content train down the track, it’s important to have a solid content marketing plan in place first. That means you’ve defined an objective: Do you want to drive sales? Email signups for your newsletter? Retweets and reposts? These established objectives help you to determine which content you will need to create. Offer valuable information. Your business’ posts should offer information that is valuable to prospective and current clients. Experts generally advise that created content not be promotional, instead be created to solve your audience’s greatest challenges. Just don’t hit people over the head with a hard sell. They will only come back and trust your site and your company if they are gaining something useful from what they read. Create content for specific purposes. Some of what you write, post and disseminate should appeal to potential customers, who are just starting to explore their options. Other content should target those that are ready to buy, already searching the web for a specific product or service. In that case, your content can tout the value of your product or service, but shouldn’t read like a sales pitch. Create content that is search engine optimized. Not only does content have to be valuable, it has to be written in such a way that a search engine will find it. Think about the ways people might search for the information you’re providing, and make sure whatever is posted online—whether that’s a blog post, a column in a business magazine or the copy on your corporate website—includes terms a search engine will use to find it. Maybe advertise. If you are creating content in a highly competitive industry, you’ll probably have to advertise to make people aware of it (for example, using Google AdWords, Facebook ads or Twitter ads). Creating content can be cost effective, but it can also be challenging because good storytelling isn’t as easy as it looks. Keep in mind that whatever form your content takes, it should not be overtly selling something. What you’re really doing is moving prospects through a process that converts the curious to customers. Sales will happen, but they will be a byproduct of the relationship and trust you’re building with those prospects, not the result of a sales pitch.
Is Your Social Media Strategy Consistent? Posted on July 24, 2015August 31, 2020 by Jessica Lunk Creating a social media strategy can get complicated quickly. Or worse, there isn’t a strategy at all. With so many channels and tactics, something simple can get overwhelming. A simple, daily process will provide a consistent strategy to meet your goals and deliver a higher social media ROI. Follow these 5 tips to develop a social media strategy for your small business. Know your audience. Figuring out your ideal audience and where they are having conversations on social media is a critical first step in developing a healthy social media strategy. Profiling your ideal customer will help tailor all your marketing messages to attract them at the right place and time. By knowing more about your ideal customer, you can determine which social media channels to focus your time and resources on. Each channel should have a clear purpose; whether it’s strengthening brand awareness, building your online community, or delivering great customer support. If you’re scratching your head on whether Facebook,Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, or Linkedin is right for your audience, here is a great resource from Wix that can help. Social can also be an effective platform for selling to your ideal customers, just remember to put down the bullhorn and don’t push too hard or else you’ll end up with low engagement and a lot of unlikes. Get SMART. Once you know which channels to focus on and their purpose, you can set goals for each. Setting SMART social media goals can be tricky. With so much data, it’s easy to fall into traps like counting followers or likes. It’s exciting to get thousands of followers but with the declining trend in organic reach, that number doesn’t tell the whole story when you are trying to measure success on your social media efforts.. Goals will be dependent on each channel and it’s purpose… Think percentage increases because these are specific enough to measure progress but have the longevity a single number doesn’t. You can measure the impact that social has on your website by looking at Google analytics and measuring increases in traffic and conversions linked to social channels. For simple tips on how to track social media in Google check out this great resource from Social Media Examiner. Use can also use simple tools to measure your brand recognition and influence online, across multiple social media platforms. Take it day by day. Your process should be small steps each day that get you closer to your SMART goals. Whether it’s daily posts, retweets, or shares-keep it simple. Stay focussed on getting people engaged by having a one-on-one conversation with them. . Search your top keywords in the social media platform to find people who are already talking about things you’re interested in. Ask open ended questions and provide genuine feedback to spark conversations. Keep in mind, your process should be proactive- the list of activities you do on social media to increase engagement. For instance, each day you should follow the same amount of new people, comment and share other people’s posts, etc. This will help you get your name out there without relying on the unyielding broadcast approach. Put it to the test. Social media moves fast so you’ll want to look at your analytics at least once a week. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to pull up your stats and notice the trends as each platform provides a wide range of metrics. Having a documented process will make way for easier A|B testing. Your process will serve as the foundation for you to pull different levers to see what impacts awareness, traffic or conversions the most. . Once you know your sweet spot for posts and engagement, you’ll reach your goals easier and faster. Keep at it! The tough part about managing social media is accountability. There are so many other things that pop up running a small business, pushing social media to the back burner… and that’s okay. Just like missing a day at the gym. They key is to shake it off and and get focused on the next day. If the process ends up being too much, pare it down to something you can manage or delegate tasks to other team members. Make it fun! Any time you can document your strategy and process, you will become more consistent and have a better chance for success… Managing expectations and delegating tasks become easier with a documented and tested social media process.
Tap Into the Power of Your Customer’s Voice Posted on July 10, 2015July 3, 2024 by Erin Posey One of the most potent ways to promote your small business is through your customers. You’ve got a reason to promote your product or service-more sales. But your customers don’t and that makes them influential, credible evangelists for your business. That’s important, because today we all rely on platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Angie’s List–or tap our connections on Facebook–to guide our purchasing decisions. Here are some ways small businesses can tap into and leverage the power of customer voice: Encourage customers to post reviews online. Few marketing strategies are more effective than authentic, positive customer reviews. Not only do they drive customers to your business they also boost its search rank and reputation. (For more detailed information on how that works, and how to craft a “review acquisition strategy” see this primer from Shopify.) Most of us look at reviews before we decide to buy, so wherever your customers make their purchase–be it an online shopping cart, at a physical register or by invoice–encourage them to post a review. Have links to review sites at your online checkout and place a sign about those sites at the cash register. If you invoice customers, add a few lines asking them to post a review on your Facebook page, Yelp, Google Reviews or other appropriate sites. You can also encourage customers to “check in” on Foursquare—a social media app that allows people to share their location—and leave a rating or “tip” (Foursquare lingo for a review). Ask your customers what they think. Last year SurveyMonkey asked more than 300 small business owners if—and how—they measured customer satisfaction. They found that 83% of businesses who described themselves as successful measured customer satisfaction. Surveys are a great way to gain feedback, but you can also use a “contact us” form on your website, surveys on social networks like Facebook, or a customer service team that calls or emails to ask about satisfaction. Research from professors at New York University and Rice University actually shows that just asking for customer feedback is enough to make customers feel satisfied. It’s also likely to increase awareness of a business’ products or service and appeals to the desire most of us had to be heard–and indulged. Build community around your business. If you’re clear on your business’ value proposition and are trusted and respected by customers, you are in the perfect position to create a community around that business. Leverage social media—using Facebook and Twitter to talk about new products, services, the business and its customers. A blog is another great way to involve your customers in an ongoing conversation. Participate in local activities like charity fundraisers or races, and host workshops and events for customers. A neighborhood yoga studio, for example, might offer a free workshop on “Therapeutic Yoga for Back Care”. A local market could host tastings of new products. Promoting those events on social media allows you to build community both offline and online. Champion your customer. Perhaps most importantly, tell stories about your customers, making sure they are the heroes—not your product, service or brand. A café, for instance, might choose a “customer of the week” and feature their photo and information about them on a wall of the café and on its Facebook page. Celebrate your customers and share their stories and they, in turn, will share the story of your business with many others. The key is to let your customer’s voice be heard in your small business. By surveying your customers, having meaningful conversations with them and encouraging them to share their experiences with their community, you will quickly build a fleet of raving fans and a solid growth plan for your business.
Small Business Marketing On A Budget: 5 Low Cost-High Impact Strategies Posted on July 7, 2015March 26, 2024 by Jonathan Herrick For many small businesses with limited resources, marketing is often an afterthought. Even for those that do have a marketing plan, the budget that supports it is generally a pretty meager one. About 70 percent of small businesses spend less than $500 on marketing each month; 83 percent spend less than $1,000 per month, according to BrightLocal’s annual small businesses marketing survey. Yet it doesn’t take a ton of cash to market your small business effectively and grow sales. Here are five low-cost, high-impact small business marketing strategies to consider: Optimize and Mobilize. Search engine optimization (SEO) may sound like a cliché now but it’s the cornerstone of any strategy for increasing visitors to your website, and one that’s far lower cost than advertising channels like pay-per-click (PPC). If you want to boost your chances of getting found online, optimize the content on your site for search engines. Make the content relevant to your ideal buyer and align it to the keywords they are searching for. For a simple explanation and SEO checklist, check out: https://moz.com/blog/the-beginners-checklist-for-small-business-seo. In today’s digital world it’s not enough just to have a website and optimize it, you also need to mobilize it. In fact, Moz has found that 61% of mobile users who land on a non-mobile-friendly site will leave and go to a competitor’s site. The experience of your online visitors is key to converting more lookers into to buyers. Design your website so it loads quickly and can be read and navigated easily on smartphones and tablets. Get local. Research from Google shows that 50 percent of mobile users are most likely to visit a business after conducting a local search; one in three searches occur right before someone visits a business. Take advantage of those local searches by promoting your business on local search apps like Yik Yak or Foursquare. Another way to take advantage of your local customer base is through last-minute sales and promotions. According to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), those short-term deals—where a coupon or sales alert is sent by text or email for purchases that can be made that day—can quickly drum up business and boost sales. Use social media marketing. Social media is one of the most cost-effective outlets for small business marketing and advertising. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr can all be used to market your company socially, at little or no cost. Social media turns your customers into advocates; enabling them to post photos and positive comments about your product or service which are viewed by their connections (and connections of connections). And ads on social networks like Facebook—which has 900 million visitors a day–can be very affordable, as low as $5 or $10. Be careful not to spread yourself too thin; focus your efforts where your target customers are hanging out on social media. If you’re stuck and you need a little help getting the most out of your social media budget, check out this great article from Kabbage.com. Create marketing events. Free events are another way to spread the word about your business. If you’re a bicycle shop, for instance, you could sponsor a free bike-tune-up event or offer a free class that teaches how to fix a flat tire. If you’re a service provider, like a small accounting firm, you could offer a free tax prep seminar or a networking happy hour for local businesses. You can also organize events around the release of a new product or service, whether that’s the latest iteration of your app or a new flavor of ice cream. One recommendation from the NFIB is to design square-shaped, digital event “flyers” which can be easily posted to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and inserted into emails without having to be reformatted. Use email. Email isn’t new but it’s still considered the single most effective way to achieve your marketing goals, including brand awareness as well as customer acquisition, conversion and retention. In fact, according to the DMA, email delivers the highest ROI of all marketing channels, $40 for every $1 invested. Email is also a great way to build your contact list. A healthy opt-in strategy to build your list is to simply provide valuable and relevant content with your newsletter in exchange for your visitor’s email address. Email marketing automation tools have become easier to use and more affordable than ever for small businesses – helping you make the most of your marketing budget. Automatically capture visitors from your website and send the right message to them at just the right time with next generation tools like Hatchbuck. You don’t need a large budget to get in front of your ideal audience. Optimization and mobile, local, social media, events, and email are all tried-and-true small business marketing strategies that have great impact with smaller budgets. By investing in a few smart strategies and tools, you can pump up your profits while strengthening your brand.
Need A Vacation? Here’s How To Get One As A Small Business Owner Posted on June 23, 2015 by Don Breckenridge Small business owners are notorious for not taking vacations. Instead, they calculate how much it will cost, how much money they may lose and then list all the things that could go wrong while they’re gone. Yet there’s an argument to be made that your business isn’t really successful if you can’t take vacation without everything falling apart. According to the latest Office Depot Small Business Index, 66 percent of small business owners find it difficult, at least sometimes, to take time off from work during the summer; 76 percent will stay connected to their business in some way even if they do take time off. Vacations are actually a very important part of your success as a business owner. Long periods of work without one leads to reduced productivity, diminished creativity and strained relationships–none of which is good for you or your business. For certain kinds of small ventures–for instance, a bicycle repair shop or a bakery–it sometimes makes the most sense to just close up shop and have your staff plan to take their vacations at the same time you do. But if that’s not possible, here are five strategies that will help you to disengage and enjoy a vacation this summer (and any other time you need one). Delegate. Small business owners often find it hard to cede control but the only way you’ll be able to take a vacation is to delegate–not just dumping tasks on people but giving them the authority to do what’s needed while you’re gone. Choose one or a few people to run things while you’re away and clearly outline their areas of responsibility. Communication is key; let them know what is expected of them in their role as manager of that area. Make a list of important procedures and information they need to know to keep the business operating well while you are away. Keep in mind that allowing your management team to think for themselves–and yes, possibly make some mistakes–is good for them. It shows you trust them and gives them a chance to develop leadership skills. Define what is really an emergency. Discuss and write down under what circumstances you want your second-in-commands to contact you while you’re on vacation. Perhaps you want to be contacted if a particular client calls or it could be that unless there’s a natural disaster like a fire, flood or earthquake, you don’t want to know about it. Give it a trial run. It’s a good idea to practice having your managers run the show without you there, at least a few times, before you leave for vacation. The next day do a quick debrief–giving your staff time to ask questions or raise any concerns. Decide how connected you’ll be. You’ll probably be able to enjoy your vacation more if you are at least somewhat connected to the office, but you want to confine those times so you feel you’re getting a break from work and actually on vacation. Pick a set time — perhaps at the beginning and end of the day–to do a quick email check and, if you must, a daily, ten-minute check-in call with your lieutenants to reassure yourself the ship is indeed still sailing. Be very clear with staff what the protocol for problem solving is while you’re away, including the chain of command they should access–with you being the last resort. Let go. Don’t try to micromanage from afar, that just undermines your staff, and if you can’t trust your employees to run things in your absence you probably have the wrong employees. Micromanagement also undermines your ability to truly enjoy the vacation–you won’t come back feeling refreshed or reenergized if you spent your vacation mostly managing your business from afar.
Be A Dad Every Day: A Letter For Father’s Day Posted on June 19, 2015June 16, 2016 by Jonathan Herrick Dear DAD’s, As a fellow DAD, I understand what comes with the role of fatherhood. Long days, late nights, financial pressures; but there are an abundance of joys that cannot be matched by any other part of being a father. I wake up every day and head off to the office looking at the blessings I have – my kids. Father’s Day is not about us. It’s a reminder to work on building a relationship with our kids by encouraging their dreams, spending time with them, and showing them love. They grow up faster than we think. Encourage their Dreams In the book, The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon who is dying of cancer, delivers his last lecture – a father’s lifetime of advice into one talk. He talks about how his parents always supported his dreams growing up. In fact, they let him paint whatever he wanted on the walls of his room to nurture his creativity. He even painted an elevator in his bedroom and he said looking back he wished he wouldn’t have only made it go to the 3rd floor. How can we support our kids’ dreams and goals? Their lives are bigger than starting on a sports team or fitting in at school. Our goal should be to help them achieve their goals and leave their legacy. It starts with acceptance and encouragement, no matter what grand idea they have in their head. Spend Time With Them There is no substitute for being there as a DAD. In fact, Don, my partner in the business, is great about taking time out of his busy day to be present at his son’s events. It speaks volumes to his kids who love to have their dad by their side but it also sends the right message to our company. Family is important. Your kids are watching you just like your employees are. You have great influence with them so make your actions and your time count. The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. ― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture Show them Love I talk to so many of us fellow DAD’s and for some reason showing love to our kids is hard. It shouldn’t be. The key is getting to understand how each of our kids receives love. There is a great resource called The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. If you are as serious about sharpening your dad skills as growing your business, then you need to check it out. It’s a game changer for fatherhood. There are a number of ways to show your son or daughter that you care: Quality time, Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch, and Acts of Service. For example, my daughter is reminded she is loved when I give her words of encouragement or leave a note for her before school. My son knows I love him when I spend quality time with him and (believe it or not) he still loves to be tucked in every night. Learning to speak your kid’s love language will go along way in showing them you care and let them know that they are important. My mom once said: “Becoming a DAD is the easy part, being one…well, that’s the tough part.” She was right. There are days where being a DAD isn’t easy. But would we have it any other way? I wouldn’t. Being a father is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. We get the joy of helping these little people turn into inspiring adults before our very eyes, reaching for their dreams and leaving a legacy fueled by our leadership. How amazing is that?
3 Types of Mobile Payments Explained Posted on June 3, 2015March 8, 2023 by Travis Arnold By Kristen Gramigna, Chief Marketing Officer at BluePay Can accepting mobile payments give your business an edge with consumers? Mobile payments give both customers and business owners more flexibility in how transactions are handled. According to data from ChangeWave Research, consumer interest in mobile payments has increased over the last six months. In it, a quarter of respondents said that they are “very” or “somewhat” likely to give mobile payments a try within the next 90 days. According to experts at Accenture, one try may be it all it takes to convert curious customers into mobile payment devotees. Though “mobile payments” has become a buzzword of sorts, many consumers and businesses do not realize that the industry remains fragmented. In fact, there are three types of payment technologies with unique features and benefits, despite that they are often described under the generic term “mobile payments.” Can mobile payments work for your business? Here’s a look at how the three types of mobile payments work, and the conveniences they can offer both small businesses and their customers: Mobile payments with a credit card. Mobile payments that involve swiping or inputting credit card information into a mobile device (like a smartphone or tablet) or small card reader (called a dongle) that plugs into the headphone jack of a mobile device are particularly cost-efficient options for small-business owners. Not only might the business owner already own the mobile device required to process credit or debit card transactions (once he/she has established a merchant account with a payment provider), fees tend to be nominal, and flexible based on the business’s transaction frequency. The technology is simple to use, and doesn’t require an investment in point of sale terminals, or that a business have a sophisticated infrastructure. Businesses that choose a mobile payment processor that guarantees payment card industry (PCI) compliance can manage the risk associated with handling sensitive customer data to ensure it is appropriately encrypted during transaction processing. This form of mobile payment options also gives customers the added convenience of paying with a credit card at a business’s physical storefront, or at remote events like trade shows, festivals, or even, at the client’s home or place of business. Despite the point of sale conveniences, the customer must still carry a wallet or card in order to pay. Mobile wallets. Mobile wallets, by contrast, empower customers to leave their physical wallets and cards at home. Once the customer has established a mobile wallet and uploaded the forms of payment he/she wants to keep securely stored in it, the customer can access the mobile wallet’s app to pay at the point of sale, using a mobile device. While the merchants who are now equipped with the near-field communications (NFC) readers at point of sale terminal required to use the technology are on the rise (thanks in part to the recent launch of mobile wallet technologies like ApplePay), mobile wallet acceptance is still inconsistent. If a merchant isn’t equipped with a NFC terminal, consumers may not be able to use their mobile wallet to pay. Digital wallets. Similar to mobile wallets, digital wallets securely store a registered user’s financial and credit card information, negating the need to enter card information or present a physical card to a merchant. (PayPal was one of the first versions of digital wallet technology). Digital wallet technology could be considered the “forefather” of the mobile payments movement, however they are not inherently designed for use on mobile devices. However, some are now accessible on a mobile device, if the customer has downloaded the provider’s mobile app. Unlike a mobile payment transaction that involves the merchant entering the customer’s card information into a reader, both digital and mobile wallet transactions empower customers. Customers (not the merchant) initiate the transaction, and choose the payment processor. Subsequently, digital and mobile wallets lower the risk merchants absorb when customers use credit or debit cards to pay: Merchants do not handle any aspect of processing, handling or storing customer’s sensitive financial data when a mobile or digital wallet is used to pay. Though mobile payment technology can provide value to businesses and customers, there are subtle differences to the technology’s purpose and capabilities that can have significant impact on ease of use and benefits. By identifying the type of mobile payment that will best suit your business model and your customers, you can determine which type or types of mobile payment technology stand to deliver optimal results. About the Author Kristen Gramigna is Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay, a credit card processing firm. She has more than 20 years experience in the bankcard industry in direct sales, sales management and marketing. Check Kristen out on Twitter at @BluePay_CMO.
6 Sticky Lead Magnets to Create for Your Website Posted on May 26, 2015February 25, 2022 by Jessica Lunk Want to attract more leads for your business? Solving a problem for your ideal customer makes your business irresistible to new leads. What is a Lead Magnet? A lead magnet is an enticing incentive for a prospective customer to leave you with their information. A good lead magnet attracts not just anyone in your market, but your ideal customer. It does this by addressing a specific problem that your ideal customer commonly needs to address. Why Include a Lead Magnet on Your Website? Whether we’re making a small decision like choosing a spot for happy hour, or making a major purchase like buying a car, we all do a hefty amount of research online before we’re ready to make a purchase. The same is true of your audience. A great fit for your product or service may visit your website to do preliminary research. But, they may not be ready to buy. Offering up a resource they can use now, without making a commitment to buy, is a great way to capture their contact info. For example, Less Accounting is accounting software for business owners. One of their lead magnets is to sign up to receive a weekly article about becoming a less stressed business owner. So, while Less Accounting’s ideal customer – a business owner – may not be interested in buying accounting software right now, they can always use tips on reducing the stress that comes with running a business. With this lead magnet, Less Accounting can capture potential prospect information and stay in touch with them until they’re ready to take a closer look at accounting software. Hooking a new prospect early in the buying journey gives you advantages like: Follow-up Opportunity. A lead magnet allows you to capture the name and email address of the contact, so you can send a follow-up email and stay top-of-mind until they’re ready to buy. Trust. If you can deliver value early in the sales process, you’ve indicated that you’ll be just as helpful after the sale. Prospect’s Interest. The type of resource your prospect downloads indicates their area of interest and helps you send more targeted messaging to them in the future. So, if you’re an insurance agent and a prospect downloads a guide on choosing the right auto coverage, you know to follow-up with more information on auto insurance – not homeowners or life insurance. 6 Lead Magnets to Try Ready to create a lead magnet for your site to start hooking more great prospects? Try one of these: Email Opt-In: Entice visitors to your website to subscribe to your email list. Offer an example of your latest email newsletter so that subscribers know what they’re signing up for. Checklist: Help your ideal buyer stay organized and tackle a problem with a helpful checklist. This can work well whether your business is B2B or B2C and both for top of funnel awareness and bottom of the funnel conversion. White paper: A white paper explores a major pain-point for your ideal customer. A good white paper should explain the challenge, and provide a solution. Guide: A guide is a step-by-step, in depth how-to for your ideal buyer. A good guide should give actionable steps that your ideal customer can complete to reach a specific goal. Video: It always makes a greater impact to show rather than tell. Do a video series of thought leaders in your industry, a video how-to course, a video testimonial from one of your best customers, or an animated “explainer” video of your product or service. Podcast: Not everyone is interested in reading a lengthy white paper or guide. Interview a thought leader in your industry for a podcast your audience can download or subscribe to and listen to on the go. There are a lot of distractions online, and just because the perfect prospect hits your website now doesn’t mean that he’ll be back when he’s ready to buy. Don’t let potential customers hit your website just to bounce. Even just one great resource on your website can help you attract and hook new leads, helping your list to grow.
10 Fool-Proof Emails to Send to Your Audience Posted on May 14, 2015September 21, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Email marketing reportedly has an ROI of $40 for every $1 spent. But your traditional monthly newsletter isn’t getting the engagement it used to. What should you send to increase engagement with your audience and create new and repeat customers? With an organized email list, you can pull contacts by their relationship to you (customer, prospect, vendor, lost deal, etc.) and their interests (puppies or kittens? red wine or white wine? homeowners or life insurance?). Then, you can send targeted emails that increase opens and click-throughs, driving sales for your business. Here are 10 ideas to fuel your email marketing efforts: 1. I thought you might like this article Perfect For: A new contact you’re building a relationship with. Not everyone on your email list is ready to buy right now. But that doesn’t mean they should be dismissed. Stay in touch with new contacts by sending a relevant industry article their way. Say you’re in the insurance industry and met a new contact, Joe, at a networking event. You find out that he’s thinking about buying a house for the first time. He’s not quite ready to think about homeowners insurance, but it’s definitely a concern that will need to be addressed in the next 6 months or so. Sending an informative, helpful article on homeowners insurance is a great way to stay top-of-mind with Joe and earn his trust. He’ll be happy to turn to you when he’s ready to buy. 2. Quick question…are you still interested? Perfect For: Those cold, pending opportunities in your pipeline Sometimes a contact will be eager to make a deal with you one minute, and disappear the next. You’ll never know why they didn’t convert, or if they may still convert – unless you ask. Maybe the timing wasn’t right. Maybe they went with another solution. No matter what the scenario, following-up is a great way to get insights into how you can better serve your customers, and potentially win back some of those opportunities you thought were lost. 3. If you liked x, you’ll love y Perfect For: Your customer base Are your customers familiar with everything you bring to the table? Repeat customers are a valuable asset to your business. In fact, according to SumAll, returning customers spend 20% more than first time buyers. If they bought the top-of-the-line fishing rod, they might be interested in some high-tech tackle. Likewise, if they’ve bought into an entry level consulting package and are happy with your service, an upgrade to the next tier might be a great move for them. Tapping into your customers’ interests can help you upsell and cross-sell products and services for a revenue win. 4. A new post from our blog Perfect For: Anyone in your audience whose interests align with the post. Need an excuse to say hello? Use your blog content to keep prospects, customers, lost deals, partners and more up to date on industry topics that they find important. Build a stronger relationship with your audience by sharing thought leadership and helpful how-tos that are in line with their interests. They key to increasing blog engagement is not to simply blast the same post to everyone on your list, but to identify the contacts on your list who are actually interested in the topic at hand. They’ll be more likely to read, and more importantly, share your content, boosting brand awareness and reach. 5. Check out this helpful guide Perfect For: Those prospects with whom you’re trying to build trust Your prospects have a problem you can help solve. Owned content (think whitepapers, guides, ebooks, infographics and videos) that gives actionable advice builds trust with prospects. Help them address an issue today, and tomorrow they’ll be hitting you up for the sale. 6. A compelling sales call-to-action Perfect For: Hot opportunities who are close to making a buying decision. You wouldn’t introduce yourself to someone for the first time and lead with your sales pitch – that can be a turn-off. The same is true with email marketing. It’s important to add value to prospects that are just looking until they’re ready to buy. But that doesn’t mean that you should never ask for the sale. Send a compelling, relevant call-to-action to prospects who have been introduced to your business and who know value you bring to the table. Ask for the sale to convert. 7. Checking in Perfect For: A follow-up to a sales conversation Have you had a productive sales conversation, followed by silence? Send a check-in email to stay top of mind and achieve next steps. 8. Thank you Perfect For: Your amazing customers! We have our first-time, our repeat, and our loyal customers to thank for our success. Without them, we might not be able to come to work every day and pursue what we love. The problem is, finding new customers is hard work. Once the deal is won, it’s easy to move on to the next opportunity. Reaching out to your customer base from time to time is well worth it. Saying thanks with a discount, a customer perk, or just a friendly note will create advocates who will go to bat for you when you need a reference or referral. 9. Check out this video Perfect For: Staying in touch Need a reason to reach out to your prospects or customers? No time to create new content? Share a great video with your audience. In fact, according to a report published by Forrester, including video in an email leads to a whopping 200-300% increase in click-through rate – just make sure you send all of that extra traffic to a relevant landing page. 10. See what our customers are saying Perfect For: Prospects at the bottom of the funnel who need a push to take the next step in your sales process Case studies and testimonials are powerful tools that help convert hot prospects into customers. While you may have these assets on your website, getting them into the right hands with email can boost conversions. With a well-organized email list, you can send personal, targeted messages to your audience. As you earn their trust with relevant, authentic emails, you’ll convert more people on your list into first-time and repeat customers.