Effective Email Marketing in Seven Steps

Email marketing is an effective way to keep in touch with your existing customers, prospects, and networking contacts. When partnered with a strong inbound marketing program (including local SEO and social media), it's a great tool to generate new leads and revenue, thereby growing your business.

However, in order to be as powerful as it can be, you'll want to design your email marketing campaign in such a way that it 1) gets through the spam and junk filters of your recipients, 2) is compelling enough to be opened and read, and 3) incites action and qualifies a lead (i.e., a phone call or email reply).

Below are seven easy steps you'll need to follow to make your email marketing campaign a success:

7 Easy Steps for Successful Email Marketing Campaigns

1. Define your campaign objective(s) as clearly as possible.

Business Planning - Do You Make These 5 Marketing Mistakes?

What is the one thing every business wants more of? Money! Are you struggling with how to take your business to the next level? Do you feel like you're stuck in a stagnant place and are unsure of what actions to take to grow? You are not alone! As a business owner, you are busy constantly. There is not enough time in the day for everything. Making mistakes with your marketing efforts can only magnify some of your struggles. Read this to figure out if you are you making these 5 costly marketing mistakes.

Mistake #1: Winging it

Ever hear the expression: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance? This ties right into your marketing strategy. If you want results, you have to put in the proper planning and formulate a strategy, then execute accordingly. This is why it is called a marketing strategy. It takes time, effort, and research to develop the necessary marketing plan. This is crucial to the success of your marketing efforts. Too many businesses "wing it" whether it be for lack of knowing how else to attack it or pure laziness. You worked too hard to get your business up and running. Put some effort and time into developing a formalised Marketing Plan. Figure out who your target customer is and the best way to market directly to that target audience. You may already be wasting effort and money on marketing to the wrong audience! Do your homework. We promise... you will save time AND headaches in the long run.

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Mistake #2: Giving Up Too Easily

How To Use Google+ For Business

An effective use of social media can be a huge boon to marketing for any business owner, but it presents special opportunities entrepreneurs particularly. Google+ is the second largest social network and boasts a user base of over 343 million people.

If you aren't sure how to go about using Google+ to promote your business, or if you just want to make sure that you're using the service to its best advantage, here are some tips on Google+.

• Create a page for your business. First, set up a personal account on Google+'s homepage at plus.Google.com. Once you have a personal account, click on the drop-down menu that says "home" and go to "pages." From there, click the link that says "create a page."

• From here, you have to begin the process of gaining followers. To start out, begin following other businesses in your area, both related and unrelated to real estate. Your business page can only follow other business pages. When other business pages add you to their circles, add them back to strengthen the relationship.

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The Top Three Ways to Split-Test Your Online Marketing

If you want maximum results with your marketing, the best way to stretch your marketing dollars is with “split testing.”

The main reason people do marketing online is to get more website visitors, because it’s usually the best way to increase your sales.

But email marketing is just like any other sales—it’s a numbers game. And for every 100 visitors you get to your sales page, only about three people will actually buy something…

In other words, at least 97% of your marketing dollars are probably being wasted. That’s why you should try split testing, because it gives you a way to test your messages against each other, pick the best, and reap the rewards.

The ultimate goal is to convert more of your visitors into customers. So with that in mind, let me explain the top-three ways to split test with your online marketing…

1. Test Your Headlines

Your headline is one of the most important parts of every sales page, e-mail, and advertisement — because it’s always the very first thing people see.

And you only have about two-seconds before the reader moves on, so it’s very important to regularly test headlines against each other. The difference in results can be HUGE for your bottom line, so keep testing your headlines against other variations, until you finally have a winner.

2. Test Your Leads

The Lead is the first thing people see after your headline. It’s the opening section of the sales letter.

The goal of the lead is to put the prospect in a good mood, make a promise about your product, and then move the reader along towards the offer.

3. Test Your Offers

Your offer has the biggest impact on making you money. Your offer should show the prospect what he’s getting for his money, and why you’re the person he should buy from.

It’s important to test all the different versions of your sales page until you have the winning formula, then the revenue will follow. You must stay consistent, every single day, tracking your marketing results, and writing great offers that sell, and you’ll start making money soon.

And if you want to get more done, filter out distractions, and make more money in less time, there is a good opportunity here…

How to go from an online “Rookie” to making a full-time income, working part-time, from anywhere.

This is the perfect and proven system for beginners, because most of the work is Done-For-You. You don’t have to sell anything or cold-call people, you don’t have to build websites, and you don’t need any marketing experience.

The system was created by Steven Bransfield, a 22-year-old who went from having just $206 when he started — to $1,376,421.03 in online commissions— in just two years. And he just released a free video explaining how you can do it too.

Watch the Free Video HERE. 

I have been through the system and I found it both easy to follow and easy to implement. And you are not alone. I had live one-to-one and group  training via Skype with two coaches while I went through the programme and now have another coach helping me get leads. Plus there is a wealth of training available if you want it, or you can use the done-for-you system. Your choice.

By Martin Goldthorpe – September 17

7 Things to Do to Position Your Home Business for Success

Running a home-based business takes a definite commitment of time and energy. Working from home involves putting in place a quality marketing strategy designed to build your customer base.

You must think like a corporate marketer in many ways when it comes to promoting your small business. It will thrive when you take definite steps to position it for success. Here are 7 things you can do now to build your home business:

1. Set specific goals

Understand what you want your home business to achieve. Don't start and then run your operation on a whim - hoping for the best. Set specific goals concerning sales, expenditures, inventory to carry, and such.

Precise goals help you budget properly. You find you use your resources more sensibly. Goals keep you from being distracted by unproductive activities that can hurt your business. Goals help you focus on activities designed to grow your business efficiently.

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2. Know your products and your customers

Do People Laugh When You Say You're A Home Business Owner?

One of the biggest challenges you can face when you run a home business is people not being taking your business seriously. You can have issues with family, friends and strangers alike. The good news is that there a number of ways to deal with these negative people.

1. Are You Serious About Your Home Business?

The first person you need to be serious with is yourself. Invest in your business education and learning, produce a business plan and take steps each day to make your plan become a reality. Develop a website with a domain name that either features your name or a relevant keyword related to your niche or industry. Write a regular blog to build your authority, expand your business and attract new customers.

Want to learn more about becoming a Home Business Entrepreneur? Attend the Home Business Summit and learn from the experts, click this link to find an event near you. 

Do I Really Need a Landing Page?

One of the most frequently asked questions I hear must be "What is a landing page?" immediately followed by "Do I really need one?" A landing page (also known as a Squeeze Page or Opt-In Page) is a webpage that you land on after clicking on a hyperlink. However, the definition goes a little deeper when discussing landing pages as a marketing tool.

When we talk about landing pages in marketing, we are usually referring to a webpage that has been designed to focus solely on a single objective. The reason it focuses on a single objective is so that potential customers will also focus solely on that one thing. No distractions of sidebars or a navigation menu that can potentially take them away from the page with your intended conversion goal. They are basically really short versions of sales pages. So why should you use one? Simply put, they increase your conversion rate.

Click here to get a FREE landing page