Work Better, Not Harder

Brenda Fay and her husband Dan of BrenDaniel Productions Corp. have trained people all over the world on project management. As a result, they have many contacts across several time zones. They had been using email marketing to promote their services. A couple of years ago I suggested to Brenda that she can get more out of her email marketing if she also gives some value to readers . Now her brief newsletter is bringing her success every time it goes out. Recently I asked Brenda where she gets her ideas . “From things that happen every day – talking with people, listening to CBC radio, and reading books are three main ways. I write about ideas that strike me as related to project management in one way or another.” Brenda told me that her goals are to stay in touch with people and to get information out about public programs she’s offering. It’s not a one way street. “It is fun for me to write the articles, and I am very pleased when people write back giving comments on the

Summer may be a sluggish time for many businesses but it doesn't have to be. Use the slower pace to your advantage. Take the Time to Get Inspired Do more reading. Watch more videos. Have more chats over coffee. Take online or offline courses. All of these will generate ideas for content and beyond. Spend some time refreshing your marketing strategy. Stick Around Why don't you be the one who hangs around all summer while everyone else disappears? Whether it's your newsletter, blog or social media, or all three, maintain your commitment to your fans. If not, you might not be missed all summer but people will realize you deserted them when you show up again in the fall. Use Automation I'm all for vacations but even then you don't have to drop out of sight. Continue to give value by using tools to schedule social media posts. Prepare and schedule your newsletters and blog posts in advance. Use your voicemail and email automated messages to keep people a

Content templates can simplify your content development time by providing structure - sort of like filling in blanks. That means you can be done and onto your next task in no time. The purpose of this template is to create an awesome resource for beginners on a particular topic. This type of article will attract readers that could eventually become customers. Search engines will also like it because it will contain the common keywords people search when initially researching a subject.  Download the "How to Start" template now (pdf). Get More Content Templates If you like that one, grab our mini workbook with 15 Quick and Easy Content Templates plus some extra tips for repurposing content. Click to Tweet this Article

If you've already mastered Getting Started (Part 1 in this series) , you have gained some momentum and are ready to expand your skills and tackle some content that is useful to your readers and time-saving for you . Save Yourself Time and Be Useful There are so many types of content that can fit into this category; my concern is overwhelming you. So let's start simple and you'll begin to see all the possibilities yourself. Think of a piece of information that you relay repeatedly , such as every time you take on a new client. If you can't think of it now, this will come to mind when you do it next. My example is about writing the introduction to your first newsletter. Every time I started working with a new client, I wrote them an email giving advice and examples. The quality varied, the examples varied, and I was wasting time repeating myself. Either now or the next time you have to, take the time to write an awesome version of that information, detailed and

Some of you might remember the old Wendy's ad, "Where's the beef?" I was reminded of that when I saw these 3 examples back-to-back on Twitter. What's missing from the middle post in this screenshot? The beef. People are picky about what they subscribe to. If you don't give them a good reason to sign up, they won't even get to taste the beef, no matter how many patties there are. Good calls-to-action are not easy to construct but it's important to make the effort. Click to Tweet this Article

Isn’t it exciting that your email marketing campaign is likely to be more successful because average open rates have trended significantly upward ? According to Inbox Marketer, their North American average open rate was 19.2% in 2011 and 25.9% in 2015, an increase of over 6%! The cream on the cake is that deliverability is also up. This sounds like great news for small businesses doing email marketing - my client base. But wait, there’s actually a scary side to all this industry success, especially for small businesses. Be careful about the latest trend that's improving those stats - list pruning . Statistics are quite different from people, and you do business with people. If you’re considering pruning your list, there are some things you need to know first in order to make an informed decision. The Math behind the Pruning Let’s say you start with 500 subscribers and your average open rate is 20%. If you get rid of 100 subscribers (who appear not to be opening your new