photo credit: Zunami
If there’s one thing online marketers have been doing right for some time – its building their email database.
But how do you do it like a pro when you’re a small business? Good question!
Here’s some steps to get your walking in the right direction:
1. Find your reason for database building: email newsletter campaign, free promotion coupon, ebook, online article. Whatever your reason (or multiple reasons) make sure you’ve mapped out a plan.
2. Subscribe to, or create a customized, automatic response system that will allow you to easily collect email addresses from your blog and website. The headache of manually entering emails may end up driving you nuts and take you away from other aspects of your business.
3. Your landing pages and every page on your blog/website should have an opt in option. (note to self, must set mine up)
4. Integrate your in person networking and marketing by adding business card information into your subscription pool. Keep in touch often (with ease!).
5. Stay consistent with your offerings. For example, if you send out a promotion with your monthly newsletter – ensure you consistently offer something of value which will keep your database subscribed and happy.
*Your web programmer should be able to do all of these steps for you – if not, connect with the marketing girl and we’ll sort you out.
This morning started with a “Yippie!” I had figured out how to change my background! Accomplishment for me – just another quick fix for anyone on my web team right now.
So, if I have a team to do this, why on earth would I be attempting to build my own blog?
It’s actually a very selfless act. Over the last year I’ve worked with a lot of small businesses. And I’ve noticed that the same challenges come up time and time again – lack of time and lack of knowledge in some areas. Like finding out the bookkeeper hasn’t been on top of your expenses at the end of the year because you didn’t know they weren’t doing their job.
Gaining constant knowledge about the world online is enabling me to educate those who haven’t had the luxury or stamina of learning all of this web stuff while giving me better communication skills to work with my web-ers. Don’t worry – the only blog I’m designing is my own. All of my clients are in good hands with the amazing web team I have working behind the scenes.
So I here I sit, struggling away to figure out my latest challenge - why I can’t seem to get my visual editor to work. I assume I’ll hand this task off to someone else, but at least for the moment, I’m consumed with plugins that don’t quite work and a great feeling that I’m learning a lot from all of these mistakes.
…and I must be learning a lot, because every consult I do, I am able to troubleshoot something new for someone that I wasn’t able to answer last year at this time.
