Email Marketing

  • Why email marketing will work for your business.

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    So you have a business. You use social media. And maybe (hopefully) you have a website. But you aren’t sure that email marketing is right for you or maybe you don’t even know what it is. Let’s cut right through that pronto.

    First things first – what is email marketing? Well, in the most basic sense, it is something wonderful that can help your business grow and something you needed yesterday. But today will work, too.

    Let me ask you this – do you get a little frustrated when you post on social media and no one responds or you reach 5 whole people? Yeah, I getcha. Let’s fix it.


    While social media is a must and has its own superpowers sometimes reaching an audience is not one of them. Well, not without paying for an ad and you probably don’t want to pay for an ad every single time you post. But you need your customers to hear what you are saying and see what you are selling, right? Enter email marketing. Hello there, email marketing. Where have you been all my business?

    Email marketing gives you a way to reach your customers without hoping and crossing your fingers they will see your post.  If you aren’t convinced already, I am going to tell your 3 reasons why email marketing will work for your business.

     

    It entices new customers. 

    Say you have a beautiful website and you have a visitor to your site but they aren’t really sure they want to buy from you. But all of the sudden, they see something on your site that says if they sign up they will get 10% off their first purchase.  Who doesn’t love discounts? So it helps customers get a little bit of extra persuading to shop with your business. If they sign up, they give you their email address and you give them a discount (or some other special something) and a beautiful new baby friendship is formed.

    It reminds customers your business exists.

    Once a customer makes a purchase with you – unless you live next door to them – there is a good chance they might forget about your business. It is always nice to show up somewhere they can see you,  remind them you are still in business, and you are ready to do business with them again. As discussed above, chances are they might not see your post on social media. So, if you have a customer that is on your email list, you have an easy direct way to get in contact with them again. With email marketing, you can reach out to your customer and help your new baby friendship start growing into a little more of a connection.

    It’s a great way to nurture the relationship with your customer.

    Email marketing is not just so you can throw sales and promotions in the face of your customer. Truth be told, I don’t want anyone throwing things in my face. Unless it’s money. Or free cake. So, there are probably some things you can throw at your customer without them getting irritated and ending your friendship. When you have an email list, you can send love, and lovely things that have nothing to do with making a sale. And that is a beautiful thing. No matter what type of business you are in you can find something to send your customer without trying to sell them every time. It just takes a little bit of creativity and research.


    What I use and Why

     

    I started out years ago on Mailchimp. Mostly because it was free and it felt like a good starting place. It was a way too glitchy for my taste and I wanted to be able to do more. From there I moved up to Aweber. It offered better features than Mailchimp and they have good customer service. The interface was a little clunky and they charge for subscribers in a weird way which can quickly add up to more money. So, upon the advice of one of my business besties, I moved over to Convertkit.

    I graduated on to Convertkit (affliate link) and fell in love. That’s what I currently use and love. I have used Convertkit for awhile now and I have no complaints. It has a ton of help videos, stellar customer service, and a wide range of features. It is worth every penny and I don’t plan on moving anytime soon.

     

    Until next time,

    Kelli

     

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  • The Quick and Easy Way to Proofread

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    If you are short on time and attention span but know proofreading is a must then let me share my quick hack on proofing the quick and easy way.

    Once I write out my blog post, or other lengthy write-up, I then copy the entire text.

    Then I hop on over to  Google Translate (https://translate.google.com/) where I paste my text into the left side box. Then press the speaker icon and listen to your story. Sweet and simple!

     

    As I was publishing this little post, my 15-year-old son walked by and told me about Grammarly. It’s a free Chrome extension and is very easy to use and install. I just installed it and used it on this post. I’m impressed. So there are now TWO Quick and Easy hacks to proofreading. Is the word ‘hack’ overused? I bet it is but ‘tip and trick’ is old too. I’m leaving as is because I think you will understand.

    Have any tricks you want to share? Let me know in the comments and/or follow me over on Instagram or Facebook.

     

     

    Never miss a post, tip, freebie or sale. Sign up below! We would love to have you join us.

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  • Why Selling on Social Media is Hurting Your Business

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    Hi! Okay, I am going to make this quick and painless. Hopefully. Here are 3 reasons you are potentially doing damage to your business and stunting your own business growth if you are selling on social media:

    Selling only on social media and not being able to send your customer to a real live website hurts your appearance and professional standing. It’s like going to the mall and having one of those girls in a kiosk asking if you want to have your hair straightened or maybe have a massage. In the middle of the mall. My first thought is that if their product is so great why aren’t they investing in a real store front? Same with social media selling. If you have the good goods and you are going to be around for awhile, set up a real store front online (AKA a website). Are you a running a business or are you playing around with a hobby/sort of business? If you are running a business – get a website.

     

    When you sell on social media and you ask your customer to leave their size, state, and email in the comments you are putting their information at risk. If (and when) a spammer, spambot, creepy hacker type automated program gets a hold of their very visible email address you just bought your customer trouble in the form of a ton of nasty spam to something worse. I am sure you value your customers so stop doing this at once if you are guilty of this.

     

    When you post on social media the goal is to get them to your website. When you send them to your website the goal is to get something from them – whether it be a purchase, a newsletter signup, an entry to a giveaway, etc. And it’s even better when they do multiple things on your website. When I see a post on social media selling a cute t-shirt, as a consumer, I go through one of two processes (yes, I buy t-shirts online way too much. Follow me on Instagram and you will see me often giving shout outs to businesses and showing off the t-shirt I just bought from them). Stay with me. This is good insight here.

    Scenario one (the almost sort of winner): I see a post on Instagram where this business is selling a t-shirt and I want it. (I almost always do because I am an easy sell). If they ask for my email address and size, I cringe because I don’t leave my email address on social media because of Reason 2. So sometimes I skip on by because it’s too much work to buy their shirt. If I really want it, I will DM them and give them my info. Not a great sell because they left money on the table. Tsk! Tsk! Where did they miss out on more money? Well, they missed selling me more. They did nothing to retain me as a customer and no relationship was formed. Read below.

    Scenario Two (the real winner): I see a post on Instagram of this must have t-shirt. They give me all the info in the post and tell me to click the link in the bio to visit their website. Sweet. I skip on over to the website, see the awesome shirt I want, and add it to my cart. Am I done? Nope. I check out their other products because while I’m here I might as well scope out the store. And I might find more t-shirts I want and therefore spend more. Even better is they offered an incentive to sign up for the email list/newsletter. So now in two weeks when I have forgotten about this store because I have moved onto something else they send me a newsletter to my email inbox telling me about a sale they are having. So, I have just been reminded of this business and I remember the last time was a great shopping experience so I click on over to their website again and potentially give them more sales. Winner winner chicken dinner. I win as a customer because I have found a great little place to shop and they care enough about me to send me info on their latest happenings so they win, too.

     

    If you are in it to win it and you want to see your business become something solid take the time to learn the best strategies for selling on social media. I know you have better things to do than to guess what works on social media. If you want to dive in further, download my free guide here. It won’t launch you into making millions overnight (I so wish!). But it will show you 5 successful things I do for my own business on Instagram.

    [convertkit form=4989469]

     

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