Don’t over sell — If every last email you send to your subscribers is selling something they will be trained to know that and if they’re not in a buying mood they’ll just click “delete” or worse “spam” after weeks of over selling.  I’m not saying don’t sell, I’m just saying pull them into your funnel, don’t flood them out.

Pique curiosity — Creative and personalized subject lines can go a long way to getting people to at least take a look at your email. But be careful, do not lie in your subject line, nothing can make a subscriber madder than opening what promises to be an interesting email only to find yet another sales pitch. However, be creative and pique the subscribers’ curiosity but do it in an honest way so that you build trust.

It’s all in the timing — If you are not sending your emails at the right time of day then they can become hidden with all the other email that your subscribers receive each day. People get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of email, they will quickly scan subject lines, if nothing is interesting, they click away. Avoid this problem by sending your emails at the right time.

If you know your niche (and you should) you should also find a way to find out the best time for them to read your emails. You can try different times of the day and check your metrics to find out the best times for your subscribers but depending upon your niche you can also make some educated guesses on when they might be at their computer reading email — THAT is the time you want to send it.

Of course, getting your visitor to opt-in to your list is just the first step. Getting her to open and take action on your emails is an entirely different thing, and it takes more than a little work to figure out. That’s why I have two new ebooks – the first is free! You can grab “Mailing List Builder: How to Get Subscribers and Entice Them to Opt-In” right now, at no cost to you. Just sign up below! Then, if you’re interested in learning more, my new ebook ”Hot Response Emails” is all about getting the most out of your email list.

Inside, I’ve revealed the exact strategies I use to get my list to open my emails in record numbers, and to take action on my suggestions and recommendations. I cover things like

• How to find out what your readers really want.
• Why unsubscribes are a good thing.
• How to turn a simple “thank you” message into a relationship-building tool that will pay off big in the future.
• How to keep your emails from landing in the spam filter – because getting there is half the battle.
• and lots more!

I know it can be confusing to deal with all the ins and outs of setting up a profitable mailing list. There are so many variables to consider. But I’ve laid it all out for you in a neat, easy-to-follow guide that gets right to the heart of the matter.

Don’t wait. Your mailing list is your biggest asset. Learn to use it effectively, and you’ll not only see a difference in your open and conversion rates, you’ll see an immediate improvement in your bottom line.

Grab your free copy of “Mailing List Builder: How to Get Subscribers and Entice Them to Opt-In“ now!

You missed it live, but you can still listen to the recording!

If you’re like many solo business owners, you’ve probably dipped your toe into the world of online marketing & social media. And there are so many different pieces to online marketing, you may find yourself jumping from one “latest and greatest” tool or fad to another, with no plan, and no results to show for it.

Yes, the world of online marketing IS always changing, but in order to harness its power, you need to know what is working now, and how to apply it to YOUR business.

Register below for the recording to learn

• One marketing tool that has a 95% open rate for messages to your ideal clients
• New ideas for integrating social media into your current marketing
• 3 Ways to figure out what online marketing is working for you, and what isn’t
• 30 minutes a week to gain local (and national) visibility
• 4 Tips on finding the right person to help you with implementation, and the important things to communicate to them

So whether you’re a successful solo professional that has decided there’s not enough time in the day to do it all yourself and need to outsource, or are just getting started and want a system to follow yourself, this call is for you!

Sign up for access to this recorded teleseminar

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season, whatever holiday you may celebrate. This time of year is great to take a break and reconnect with the things in our life that are our true priorities, like family and friends.

But with all the holidays sales out there, it’s also a great time to save a few dollars on products and services that will help your business grow in 2011. So in the spirit of holiday sales, we’re offering 25% off our most popular products and services!

Take your pick below, and use the coupon code snowman when you checkout!

Products

* The Social Media Content Creation Kit:  $97  Now $73 Buy Now

Creating a strong social media presence requires content – lots of it! If you always find yourself struggling to publish enough blog posts, articles, tweets, status updates, videos and audios, the Social Media Content Creation Kit is for you. It lays out a simple strategy for generating original content regularly, and gives you tons of ideas for repurposing content, automating your social media, and spending as little time as possible while generating an online presence that screams “Expert”!

* Social Media Assessment & Strategy Call:  $75  Now $57 Buy Now
In this 30 minute call you’ll get a complete assessment of where you are with your current social media profiles, and where improvements can be made.  Then we’ll map out a strategy for you in order to increase your visibility, traffic and sales through social media.

Services

* Project Social Media Done In a Day Intensive:  $897  Now on super-special 60% holiday discount!
This innovative Done In A Day Intensive is a one-day personalized program that gives you direct access to the experienced Project Social Media team and gives your social media marketing efforts the kick in the pants that it needs. Get your strategy and your setup done, all in one day!

* 20 Hour Support Package: $997  Now $748 Buy Now
Our ultimate support package – you get 20 hours of specialized social media, Wordpress, 1ShoppingCart and online marketing support! Let us take care of the technical side of your online marketing, and see increased results and more time for you to spend on your business!

* Wordpress Blog Site Design: $597  Now $448 Buy Now
Is your site outdated (or worse, nonexistent!) and in need of updates? Tired of waiting for your web designer to make simple changes to your website? Want better search engine findability and social media friendliness for your site? Consider Wordpress! Our Wordpress Blog Site package gives you a complete website based on Wordpress, a user-friendly and search-engine friendly platform that makes updating your site easy, and gives you loads of functionality you probably don’t currently have!

* Social Media Branding Package: $157  Now $118 Buy Now
Having a consistent design across all your social media profiles is a great way to brand your business, provide additional information, and gain visibility. This package gives you a custom Twitter background, a custom welcome tab for your Facebook Fan Page, and a custom YouTube background.

* Press Release Submission:  $67   Now $51 Buy Now
Press Releases help you get the word out about new products, changes in your company or any other news you’d like the world to know about. Our team will create accounts with your bio (and a link back to your site), and distribute one press release out to multiple high-ranking PR sites.

There should be a consistent look and feel to every page of your website. You want your visitors to know they haven’t actually left your site when they go to another page. A Wordpress based website is great for this, as you have a standard template that can be customized for your needs, while keeping certain areas the same for branding.

Icons for going back or to the next page, for printing the page or even the icons that line your menu should all follow the same theme as your site as part of your marketing effort. Every aspect of your website should be about your brand. Standing out from the rest is not nearly as important as having others recognize your site. If a visitor travels to other pages and they look different, they may believe they accidentally left your site and then really leave it!

A simple concept for internet market branding is your logo as an icon. You can then use this as buttons and every time a person has to click, your logo makes an imprint. Obviously it will need to be much smaller than the main logo on your page or other areas to be used as a menu icon, as small as 16 x 16 pixels for the favicon (the icon displayed in the browser window and in saved bookmarks), but the reduced image will continue your branding throughout your pages and offer a benefit to your internet marketing effort.

Additionally, with this level of branding throughout your site there will be no doubt in your visitor’s mind where they are. You can even make it so a visitor bookmarking your site will see the icon in his or her favorites, further imprinting the image. Remember, returning visitors often buy more than first time visitors and keeping your image in their minds will aid your internet marketing efforts

And use your logo in your social media sites as well. While I always recommend that you use a photo of yourself for your personal profile on Facebook and Twitter, you can definitely use or incorporate your logo into your Facebook Page photo. And you can utilize a custom Twitter background to help with branding with your logo as well.

With a bit of creativity, you can make it so prospective customers automatically think of you when they see your logo. This is one of the simplest yet most effective branding methods.

With all the other online marketing buzzwords floating around, it’s easy to forget about blogging, or to write it off for the next new thing. Don’t! This presentation shows you why you need a blog now more than ever.

Using Blogging to Build Your Online Presence will cover:

• Why blog?
• Blogging platforms
• Ways to take advantage of multiple streams of content to save time and write less
• Creating a blog that is a strong base for all your other social networking and social media activities
• Promoting your blog

You’ll walk away with a complete understanding of how to best set up your blog. As a bonus you’ll also receive the Blogger’s Rolodex, a complete list of resources and tools to take full advantage of the marketing power a blog can bring to your business, and Blogging 101 and Beyond, a complete guide to using the WordPress Dashboard.

Listen now…

[audio:http://www.marketinggeeksinc.com/audios/Blogging-to-build-online-presence.mp3]

And as promised, here are the two documents promised!

Blogging Rolodex

Wordpress 101

After all, if you want to appeal to US corporate business development professionals and expect that most of your traffic will come from LinkedIn, you might be surprised to find that the majority of your traffic is clicking through from Facebook and are located in Europe. Without analytics, you’d be completely unaware. As they say, ignorance is bliss! Unfortunately, for the business owner trying to make a living through sales of their products or serivces, it isn’t bliss because you’re not getting the results you’re expecting and you wouldn’t even know why.

So analytics are very important – they can give you insights into your visitors that let you make copy changes to better appeal to your target market. They can give you an idea of who is linking to you and interested in your content. And they give you the opportunity to do better with your business.

But what about external pages, like your Facebook Fan Page? A Facebook Fan Page is an increasingly important part of your online presence, but until now has been fairly difficult to get a sense of analytics. Facebook Insights give some info, but not as much as a lot of people would like to see. But now, there’s a way to add your Google Analytics code to your Facebook Fan Page!

But rather than me trying to explain how to go about adding the code, the folks over at Social Media Examiner have done a great job of that already! Check it out, they offer instructions complete with pictures and make it easy for you to do it yourself.

I’ve designed quite a few blog sites since I started my business, oh way back when  :), and in the process I’ve developed  a list of important questions to ask the client, or at least have them think about as they’re giving me notes for the new site, or their site redesign.

At the beginning of the year, a lot of people start thinking about their goals for their business, and the things they’d like to get accomplished that year, and often times, a new website or a website redesign end up on that list. But unfortunately, the process can get overwhelming and so the project gets put off.

But I can’t just let you sit around with a bad site, or worse, no site at all! So today, I’ve decided that it might be helpful to share those questions with you.

If you’re even thinking about redesigning your website or getting a new one done, check out the Web Design Questions pdf here. And if you have any questions about the web design/redesign process, comment here or email us at info@marketinggeeksintl.com!

A branding strategy is the beginning of all customer contact behavior. When the budget allows, the branding strategy can become the basis for better advertising communications such as multi-media advertising, direct mail, trade shows, and expanded public relations.

The undertaking of branding may seem scary; however there is strong proof that branding is worth the effort. Listed here are some benefits of a strong brand.

• Branding is what gives your company value and separates you from your competitors.
• Enhanced perceived value allows for top pricing and shelters you from price competition.
• Branding will provide protection in times of negative press.
• A strong brand enables you to launch new products and services more quickly and cost effectively.

Your brand will become established in your customers minds, with or without your effort. Branding and managing a brand can be tough work, but here are some easy-to-follow guidelines on how to get started.

• To succeed, you’ll need to get everyone involved from your graphic designer to your web designer to your customer service department (even if that’s you!) on down.
• Take a look at some of your successful competitors, or other entrepreneurs you admire. Study their communications and how they position themselves.
• Learn more about your target market to find out what they value when choosing a provider of your services. Survey customers, ask on social media, etc.
• Develop a strategy from the information you gathered. It must be achievable and differentiating.
• Leverage your brand strategy by integrating marketing communications. Ensure your brand is consistent across the board – website, newsletter, print marketing materials, billing, customer service responses, etc. Sending a cohesive message and giving customers the same experience every time will build brand equity.

A brand consists of eight basic building blocks:

- The Name
- The Logo (brand icon)
- The Brand’s Colors
- The Slogan and Brand Messaging
- The Sound of the Brand
- The Overall Look and Feel = The Brand’s Position
- Packaging the Brand
- The Brand Experience

A Brand is the greater sum of its parts. It is always more than just the nuts and bolts, the pieces; great brands are always the result of the whole equaling more than the sum of its parts.

Branding is about making the consumer or buyer, more hip, more in the “know,” more cool than anybody else. We are a generation and a nation wanting to be special. We want to be richer, more beautiful, better dressed and more effortlessly gorgeous than any other generation that we know.

We want everything to mean more. We want everything to have meaning. That’s why we flock to the reality shows. Why we love “The Apprentice” and “American Idol” and other top realistic shows. We crave authenticity in this age of fabrication and falsehood. We “just want to be real.”

We want to be able to trust what we buy and whom we buy from. That’s why Coke is still the number one brand in the world. The more we know about a brand, the more we trust it. The more we trust it, the more we buy it and continue to experience it. The more we experience it, the more loyal we become.

Loyalty is the currency that cannot be traded for dollars.