Email

Facebook, Website, OR Email Marketing

I’ve noticed lately that many small business owners are choosing Facebook as their primary online marketing method – even to the exclusion of having a website or email list (newsletter) at all.

After all, Facebook is free.

Lots of people are ON Facebook, using it every day.

It’s easy to pop in a time or two on a daily basis and say something, or click a few “Like” buttons – it feels very productive.

Using FB seems like a no-brainer!

But using Facebook EXCLUSIVELY is “craziness”, according veteran Internet marketer Andrew Cavanaugh of Offlinebiz.com.

Cavanaugh continues “Do you really want to rely on an external site you have no control over for your list of prospects and clients and for handling the way they interact with your business? You really should have your own website and your own email list.”

Jim Cockrum, the most trusted Internet marketer according to IMReportCard.com, addressed the “email list versus Facebook” when he told me:

Abandoning email to go 100% with FB is a huge mistake. The best use of any FB marketing is to grow your email list.

Reasons to keep email:

1 If FB decides they don’t like you, they pull the plug and you vanish along with all your leads (I’ve seen it happen).
2 Sending bulk messages on FB is tedious and ineffective.
3 You can’t segment and target specific customer and prospect groups with FB
4 You can’t launch an automated campaign of follow up messages for each new follower on FB (you can with email)
5 You can’t personalize your messages based on the preferences and predetermined parameters your customers indicate when they join with FB, but with email you can. For example, you can automatically send customers a one year bonus with email. With FB you can’t.
6 On FB you compete with countless distractions in your marketing efforts, but with email, once your prospect opens it, you have a chance to own their attention (even if only momentarily)

I could probably brainstorm a list of a dozen more reasons to keep email, but that will hopefully help you out the next time a customer thinks about dropping email for FB.

Should you still use Facebook? Certainly – but it’s much smarter to use Facebook as one potential source of traffic and new prospects, rather than an entire solution.

Birthday Club Marketing

“Delight Your Customers and Improve Your Bank Balance: Easy Program Works Year-Round”

Birthday Club Coupon — Ask about Birthday Club Marketing

Are you looking for an easy, inexpensive way to market your product or service to new and existing customers? Then why not start a Birthday Club*?

Birthday Clubs have long been a favorite tool of savvy marketers.
Here’s why.

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People love to be remembered, recognized and appreciated.
Birthday Clubs help you maintain favorable “top of mind” awareness.
Birthday Clubs generate more business (money!) for you when someone redeems the offer.
They’re an easy way to collect contact info (name/email) for future marketing.

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NEW – Birthday Club Management from Your Friend on the Web, Diana Ratliff

There’s never been such an easy, hassle-free way to set up and manage a birthday club. I’ll set you up to collect names, email addresses and birth months on your website or Facebook page (you don’t even need a website at all.) Coupons are automatically delivered via email, so there’s no need to remember to send out the coupon every month – the software I use does it for you. This is truly “set and forget” marketing!

*Of course this program is not limited to people’s birthdays – why not celebrate wedding anniversaries or graduations? How about pet birthdays? Salespeople can celebrate the month someone bought their home/car, or the month they became a client.

Sample Birthday Club Offers

Of course YOUR offer can be whatever you want, but here are some ideas:

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Free meal or dessert
An upgrade to your normal service
$10 off a purchase
Coupon for oil change, coffee – the offer does NOT have to be from your own business. Partner with a fellow business owner and give away one of THEIR products/services!

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I’ll be happy to work with you to craft a good offer – and set any terms/conditions you’d like on the offer as well.

“Birthdays Mean Business – Contact Me TODAY”

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Getting Site Visitors to Fill Out Forms

One of my new clients has a contact form on her site that asked for very basic info:

Name
Email Address
Phone
Comments

She called and asked me to make the form longer – to request more information.

Generally speaking – that’s not a good idea, and here’s why. It boils down to two main reasons:

Site visitors are in a hurry – they don’t want to mess with filling out a long form.
Visitors are also protective of their privacy, and they aren’t sure what you’re going to do with all that info!

So be very careful what you ask for in a form – and make sure you really need the information.

For most email lists, for example, asking for a first name and email address is all you need. You’ll get more signups that way.

However – your sign-ups will be less targeted than if you request more complete information, so that’s the “flipside” to consider. Which is more important to you – more, less targeted contacts, or fewer, more-targeted contacts?

Always tell people what they’re going to get when they DO enter data on a form, and if possible give them an incentive for doing so – a discount, free report, etc. It’s also helpful to reassure them that you’ll respect their privacy and not sell or share their info with anyone else.