Work Better, Not Harder

A simple process was all I needed to promote two workshops and manage registrations. But, as I often do, I decided to use the opportunity to try out some new ways to do things. Yesterday I put the workshops live for registration. Here are all the different applications I used or will use in my campaign to promote and manage the registrations. my website builder Canva Blogger Hootsuite Social Jukebox iContact PayPal JotForm - my newest favourite app Google Calendar Twitter Facebook Google+ LinkedIn and email Phew! Some of these are integrated, some not, but I had fun pulling it all together (mostly). And the next time I need to fill workshops, it'll take me a lot less time to put everything in place. photo by edkohler / Flickr Click to Tweet this Article

If your ideal customer is new to social media, your autoresponder messages might be creeping them out. At one time I had this vision of some big guy hunched over his keyboard poised to pounce on my 'Follow'. If your ideal customer is more tech savvy, they'll recognize an autoresponder immediately. (Really? You expect me to interact with a program?) I liken autoresponders on social media to email spammers . Both are giving their medium a bum rap. A recent Twitter following spree on my part resulted in 16 automated tweets (close to 10% of those I followed). At least I think they were autoresponders. There's the rub. Even if you take time to respond to people individually, now they may assume it's an autoresponder. The legitimacy of your action is lost in the sea of spammers. photo by wnstn / Flickr Click to Tweet this Article

Your newsletter has just gone out and your inbox is filling up with out-of-office auto-responder messages. Are you deleting them unopened? They might be worth a closer look. Other than vacation notices, you might also find that some of your contacts have changed their email addresses due to new jobs or other reasons. You’ll want to search them in your list and replace their email address. (If you delete them and add them as a new contact, you’ll lose the electronic trail of your contact history.) The Phone Lady told me a nice story about reconnecting with someone as a result of following up on a change notice. The lesson is that you can use this as an opportunity to reach out and touch someone that you haven’t talked to in a while. photo by rich115 / Flickr Click to Tweet this Article

If you've been publishing a regular monthly newsletter, you already know the benefits of reaching out to your contacts. You've invested time and money to build your readership and your reputation. You've provided value consistently and people have come to look forward to your newsletters. It’s time to crank it up a notch and send more emails. You've earned it. The 5 strategies listed below weren't invented by me but some of them may be new to you. Or perhaps you've rejected them in the past and it’s time to think again.  The goal of implementing these ideas is to ‘touch’ your contacts more frequently than you are now. There are other advantages built into each one as well. 1. Create and promote a new free resource. Make it amazing. Make it better than any other resource you've ever created. Make it something people would pay for. Give it away with no strings attached. Am I suggesting you give it away without getting an email address in return? Y...

photo by Andrew Pescod Unless being used for a drip campaign, I typically don't recommend the use of welcome auto-responders at all. Not even for event registrations or other uses of sign-up forms. The goal is to not send any emails that aren't necessary and aren't what subscribers signed up for. What I do recommend is using a redirect web page , also called a landing page. You can typically put more types of content on a web page, such as maps, video, files for download, and PayPal buttons. I really do think it's a much better way to deliver important follow-up information. And you don't have to be concerned with delivery issues like a full mailbox or spam filters either. The redirect page will pop right up for them as soon as they click the sign up button. To see the value in a redirect page, click here , enter your email and hit submit. (You'll also be signing up for our newsletter!) Click to Tweet this Article

photo by alborzshawn Marketers encourage you to use welcome emails as an opportunity to market. Those same marketers are the ones writing all the articles about how integrity and relationship-building are so important to your content strategy. If you've succeeded in getting someone to sign up for your newsletter, don’t muck it up! I’m pretty sure they didn't sign up for a welcome email. Several times now I have signed up for a newsletter and then immediately unsubscribed when I received a welcome email that: had no value whatsoever for me contained (a lot of!) advertising was long, boring and ugly made me think, “If this is an indication of what is to come...?” and then hunt for the unsubscribe link There is another, much better, way to communicate to your new subscriber – use a landing page , also called a redirect page, in your sign up process. I can think of some situations where a welcome email might be desirable but, in most cases, a landing page can accom...