Work Better, Not Harder

(guest post by Natasha Marchewka) Do you need help with keeping in touch with past clients without "bugging them"? When working as an isolated freelancer or small business (and where building your business is all on you) there are ways to efficiently and effectively build, strengthen, and grow relationships. Keeping in touch regularly can be a bit of a conundrum. You want to remind them you exist, but you need to find a balance of being seen and heard and not overdo it. So, you created a newsletter to email clients once a month. I think that's great - and important - and keeps you relevant, top-of-mind, and also keeps you on your toes. What else can you do to remind them you exist as they are distracted daily... and still forget you exist? Here are some ideas. And, as an added bonus you'll have relevant content to share on your social media feeds! Client Relationship Building Check-list: Visit your clients' websites and check if they added anything...

Every time I do online research, I find broken things. I'm curious; I like to see how things work. And it's quite amazing how many times I find things that don't work, or don't work well. I'm not just talking about small business websites - even big brands fail sometimes. The thing is, big brands usually have a reputation which leads people to forgive or ignore more easily. I've written before about how important it is to audit your website at least quarterly. (I pay someone to do it for me and it's well worth it.) If you haven't done a website audit recently, now is a great time. Here are a handful of specific things to check. Is your website doing these things well? Be really clear about the benefits to potential customers and put that front and centre. More money and more time are great - but how much? Read and test everything yourself. Don't rely on what others tell you. I've seen a lot of non-functional website forms and suc...

One question I get asked a lot is, “When is the best time to send my newsletter?” If the person asking has an hour or so, we might chat about how it can depend on a lot of things about their business, strategy and target market. Then I might tell them about the overall industry statistics . But really, do you pick Tuesday because it’s half a percent better than Monday? That will only make a difference if you have thousands of subscribers. Consider your own email habits. How do you vet that backlog of emails you find on Monday morning? Keep in mind that, if you aren't part of your target market, your habits will vary from your subscribers’ habits. Don't project your own judgments onto your readership. Ideally, you want your newsletter to arrive when your subscriber is using their email. And when they read is often dictated by where they read - at home, at work, or out and about. So, the answer is simple: figure out when your subscribers are using their email and s...

“Where attention goes, energy flows.” - James Redfield I've been reminded of this quote lately because my attention has been wandering. That’s not to say energy isn't flowing – it’s just flowing off in several directions. When we think about getting things done, crossing things off, and making progress, we're usually considering concrete things like action items or task lists. There’s another side though. Just by paying attention to something, we are creating inspiration, motivation, and keeping momentum. Here’s the example that brought the quote to mind. For most of last year I was in the habit of checking my blog stats before logging off for the night. In the past 3 months, I’ve not been so regular. Recently I went 3 weeks without looking. And my pageviews have dropped. I’m not trying to say that just by looking at my stats I was somehow magically drawing people to my blog – although that would be nice. But here’s what was happening... First, I was paying att...

Your open rate is an indication of brand recognition. Your click rate is one indication of whether your newsletter actually gets read. (How many newsletters do you open without reading?) Getting read is what raises your reputation and prompts interaction. I dislike generalizing about the relationships between list size, content type, length, frequency, and open rates. Among our clients, we have lists of 200 subscribers to over 10,000, and frequencies that vary from weekly to quarterly. This means we see a wide variation in statistics, too. Industry averages (graph in this post ): open rate - 20% click rate - 4% Please don't judge your own newsletter's success based on a comparison with these. (Who wants to be average anyway?) There are many things that impact your open and click rates. I encourage you to also look at the number of contacts who opened/clicked, and what they clicked on. The easiest of these measures to improve is your click rate. There's a...

A friend recently mentioned that she still gets frustrated when people unsubscribe. Her disappointment stems from the confidence that her information is relevant and useful to those who opted out. There are many reasons for someone to unsubscribe from a regular emailing – promotional or informational . You need only to think of your own reasons and habits as you process your incoming email. Even if you are doing everything right, you will still lose subscribers over time.  (The average churn rate is 30% per year.) Here’s why: People’s interests change. If your readers are business people, they will be changing jobs and moving around and getting promoted. If your readers are consumers, likewise their personal situations change, as well as their hobbies and interests. People are inundated with too much information . We've all felt that way. Not everyone has developed systems to deal with the overload, so they disconnect in the moment yielding to stress. I know...

In the normal course of my day, I am constantly looking businesses up online. If I am going to talk to you, meet with you, consider buying your product or using your services, I've looked you up online. Increasingly, I am finding content that I am certain you do not want representing you. Maybe you think you do not need an online presence. Maybe you have an old website that you think is working to the extent you need it to. And maybe you are wrong. Think of all the reasons you Google a business: looking for a product or service looking for a location looking for directions or a map looking for a policy preparing for a meeting If you are using an online search to find what you are looking for, it stands to reason that others are as well. Many, many others. What do you want them to find when they look? We've said it before and it is worth repeating. Google your business at least quarterly. Set your website as your browser's default home page so you are seei...

When people meet your brand online, they are judging you . We all do it and, based on those judgments, we make assumptions about: what it’s like to work with you the quality of your products and services your prices your commitment, integrity and trustworthiness if you care about your online reputation Below are 5 ways to make sure your online presence is polished so people will make the right judgments and assumptions about you and your brand. #1. Monitor Conduct quarterly audits on your website and social profiles. This means reading all the text, clicking all the links, and making corrections and improvements. This is a great task to outsource to a virtual assistant because an impartial eye will see things you won't. #2. Be found Make sure you can be found where people expect to find you. Often it's easier to find someone on LinkedIn than to find their website. There are a multitude of social media sites where having a profile makes sense even if you aren...

Perfect is an impossible goal. Some would say that if you strive for perfection, you are setting yourself up for failure. I agree. To the point that I don't think you should beat yourself up when you miss the mark. Because you will. We all do. But if perfection is not the goal, what is? I don't think there is anything wrong in shooting for perfection. What else do you shoot for? A little less than perfect? I think ignoring perfection is a worse trap to fall into. We see it all the time in error filled newsletters. Spelling mistakes, broken links, old or incorrect information can be avoided for the most part. Nothing will lose readers faster than links that take them nowhere, or that take another 10 clicks to get somewhere, or worse - a map that takes them nowhere! We harp on proof reading all the time. A second, fresh set of eyes is what we talk about. Even then, the odd mistake will slip through. The odd mistake can be forgiven. But if your newsletter is mistake-ridde...

Intentions don’t make a bit of difference. It’s perceptions that matter. Intentions can get us motivated and keep us honest. But those things are about us, not the other person. The other person often doesn’t know or care about our intentions. My intention might be to do an excellent job. If there’s a spelling error, that intention won’t mean a thing. The perception will be of a sloppy job. Having good intentions is, well, good. But they only point us in the right direction. Intentions need to be translated into actions that ‘walk the talk’. Demonstrating our intentions is the only way to influence others’ perceptions. “In art, intentions are not sufficient and, as we say in Spanish, love must be proved by deeds and not by reasons. What one does is what counts and not what one had the intention of doing.” - Pablo Picasso - Intentions might pave the way but success in business is all about perception. Click to Tweet this Article Originally published in Work Better,...

photo by :::Derek::: Now that I have your attention, I’d better earn it, right? We've all heard it said that advertising is buying people’s attention. Content marketing is all about earning that attention by providing value to readers. There are a lot of different types of content that can mean value to readers. You have to really determine what your target market wants. And that requires gathering intelligence and strategic thinking. Not just doing it once either, but continuing to stay attuned to your readers’ preferences. Once you earn attention, you need to continue to deserve it. Past success doesn't guarantee future success. Don't let your content strategy get stale. How do you continue to deserve attention? Watch your statistics . If your readership dips, be curious and investigate. Pay attention to unsolicited feedback and also seek out feedback. If you want to do better, people are generally willing to give advice and opinions. As with any feedba...

I firmly believe that you manage what you measure . Numbers provide context so we know when we’re doing good or not so good. Sometimes we’re not even sure what the numbers are telling us and that requires a little more research and reflection. And sometimes we don’t know what to do as a result of the numbers. Take website stats for example – does anyone really know what to do with those? Reaching milestones - now those are numbers to celebrate! This newsletter is our 50th issue. That’s 250 articles we've shared – almost 100,000 words of wisdom for small business owners from 150 different authors. We hope that you've found some useful and interesting things over the years. Why are we celebrating? Our newsletter has brought us lots of great things. More social media contacts More subscribers = potential clients and referrers Enhanced reputation Improved technical skills Better writing skills - practice makes perfect More pageviews - blog and website More ref...

I know, I know! Doesn't it sound dreadful? The Audit. Conjuring up images of spreadsheets, accountants and bad hair days. But wait... this isn't about that kind of audit. This is much less stressful, yet just as important. We have talked about auditing your website before. But if you are online, you need to be auditing your entire online presence. It should be done on a schedule. We suggest quarterly. Review all online content related to your business, testing all links and reading every word . Broken or irrelevant links are an annoyance to readers. Make sure there are none when they visit you. When testing links, stop long enough to ensure the referenced content is still there. Some places to check in addition to your website are: Profiles. Remember when we found out that online profiles helped search engine ranking? Suddenly, we had more profiles than was manageable. Check them. Find your log-in or request a new one and keep the profiles current. If they are ...

I really hate the word SPAM. For me, it usually means a sudden sick feeling in my stomach that has nothing to do with the unwanted visual of canned luncheon meat. Clicking that SEND button on a newsletter is the last step in a meticulous process. It’s like that little high we get from checking an action item off our to-do list. One thing done and onto the next. So when that SPAM checker pops up flashing ‘FAILED’ with a BIG RED X , I start feeling sick because I know I've got extra work ahead of me. (It doesn't actually flash and it’s not really so big, but that’s the way it seems to me when it happens.) My first reaction is "D*mn!" But of course, the SPAM checker is there to help us, not hinder us. It helps to make sure our newsletters get delivered and don't end up in SPAM folders. Still, I feel like shooting the messenger. There is a multitude of reasons that a newsletter can fail a SPAM check. The combinations and frequency of certain words and ph...

photo: The Stakhanovite Twins We get asked this a lot, “When is the best time to send out my newsletter?”  The short reply is usually this: Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 9:45 and 10:15am. Then one Thursday morning I received 4 newsletters at exactly 9:45am. The fact is there is no magic answer - no set of best practices or generally accepted principles. There are lots of opinions though and we've seen many of them disproved through our own work. If you review overall average e-marketing statistics for time of day and day of week, no real trends stand out. See an example below. At first I found that kind of surprising but now it makes total sense - because email marketing is so diverse. More specific statistics, such as industry averages, offer some insight... but who wants to be average? This is why it's so important to know your target market! Where will your subscribers be when they receive your newsletter: at home, at wo...

For a small cost, a bulk email application gives you LOTS of benefits: Cost is minimal. It allows you to schedule your email sends. It allows you to auto-post to your social media accounts. It handles subscribes and unsubscribes effortlessly and accurately. It has built in functionality to manage your contact lists and segments. It saves you time and mistakes. Take advantage of templates plus spell/spam checkers. It keeps you compliant . It keeps you up-to-date and ready to take advantage of new functionality. It raises you above amateur status. Statistics drive strategy . Without them there is no way to know if you are being successful , what works and what doesn’t, and what readers are interested in. The real question is, why not use a bulk email service? If you can think of a reason, please share! Photo:  markyweiss Click to Tweet this Article

I've been known to fixate on graphs and measurements . See, I really hate working for no reason. I like to know that my efforts make a difference. If not, I either tweak and retry, or I give it up and put my efforts elsewhere. You can imagine that I've been keeping an eagle eye on all this online stuff - blogging, social media - since I took those first tentative steps . And it's really cool that the stats get dished up for me! I was delighted when I saw this graph of our blog statistics:  Before December, the highest number of page views we'd ever had in one month was in October - 997 views. I was kind of happy when that happened. In December,  our page views more than quadrupled! We did something right... but what was it? How do I replicate it? I think this happened because 3 or 4 times a week I started posting links to older blog posts on Twitter and LinkedIn. But, well, doesn't that seem just a lit...

Many organizations are engaging in email marketing these days – informational newsletters, promotional emails, or both. Some of these organizations have even done a great job of integrating email marketing with their social media efforts as part of a comprehensive online marketing strategy. But few have made the connection between email marketing and sales . This is an opportunity that deserves your attention. Make the most of your email marketing activities by taking advantage of all the ‘intelligence’ you can gather about your subscribers. Email service providers (ESPs) have functionality that enables you to review your overall statistics (opens, clicks, etc.). They also have the functionality to take your sales prospecting to a whole new level – you can actually see who clicked on what link. Yes, dear public, marketers have been collecting this info for years. For example, if you offer two product lines, let’s say Brand A and Brand B, and you include links to more information ab...

Most of us would agree that feedback is generally a desirable thing and necessary for continuous improvement. Yet there seems to be a whole area of performance that gets ignored due to little or no feedback: internet marketing. If you are ignoring your feedback (in the form of statistics), you’re missing two important things: Without a baseline to measure ongoing performance against, how will you know if you’re getting better or worse? Without feedback about your performance and information about people’s interests, how will you know what to do to improve? Below are some suggestions to help you get the feedback you need. They can all be applied to an enewsletter campaign but certainly have broader applications. Tracking codes Online bulk email applications will have this built in. You can also use services like Bit.ly and other URL shorteners. Within the application you will be able to view overall statistics and trends. Plus you’ll get more useful things, like how m...

Add social media to your email marketing strategy for a broader reach. It may not be obvious which strategies will work best for you but, if you take the time to work through these questions, you will be closer to figuring it out. If I ask my readers to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, do I have a suitable presence? What are readers expecting? Is my newsletter content worthy of sharing? Even if I make it easy to share , will readers want to share it? Why? If my content is  share-worthy, what benefit do I get? How can I measure it? What kind of content will give value to readers, encourage sharing, and give benefit to me through sharing? What is my primary call to action ? Asking readers to share… or something else? Do sharing tools draw attention away from other important calls to action? Am I simply switching people from one channel to another , if I use email to encourage people to follow me on Twitter, read my blog...