Here in Crawley exploring emarketing tod

Here in Crawley exploring emarketing today!

Using Email Lists – Staying Within The Law & Not Upsetting Clients!!!

I felt this is a topic often either forgotten, overlooked or ignored by so many businesses that I needed to write this article today to update everyone on the etiquette and law of using email for a newsletter and creating an email list! So many people make the same mistakes and then wonder looking back where it all went wrong! It doesn’t have to be hard work though and can in fact be very simple and even automated for you with a number of bells and whistles included at no cost – making your life simple!

Issues all email users MUST remember and cover in their list management.

1. Firstly all email addresses must be obtained with full permission for the use of newsletters! This means you can’t just harvest them for your client records, directories or even your own address book. You must ask permission from all list members that they agree to receive your newsletter! This is called an opt in.
2. Opt out must also be considered and an automated opt out must be included in all emails, newsletters, etc to ensure you are compliant with the Data Protection Act 1984. If you send out an email or electronic newsletter there must be included a method for the receiver to stop receiving them in the future in a simple way, without delay and with guarantee.
3. Data protection - it scares me how many people (and people who should know better that is too) that send out bunk emails (emails to more than 10 individuals) using just Outlook or a similar program or worse still actually list all the email addresses in the To or even the CC (Carbon Copy)  and NOT use the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) facility. You must ensure that all email addresses are protected from view from others within the list!
4. Data Security - how secure is your email list? Is it password protected if it is on a shared computer (this includes family computers share with a partner and children too). You must ensure that only yourself and those with permission to access it can do so otherwise again you are in breach of the Data Protection Act 1984
5. Server Acceptance – please remember that most email servers (the computers that control, send, deliver and receive email online for individuals, companies and internet providers) will happily block you and your email address if it feels you are spamming (even if you feel you are not). What does this mean? Well basically if you send out an email or newsletters to a group of people or regularly send out group emails without the proper back office management you stand a high chance of being blocked and losing your email account or just not being able to send to those individuals or companies. You honestly want to lose the ability to be able to send an email to everyone on your list that uses Sky email or Virgin email or other email providers?
6. Analytics – Do you honestly know how many of your emails/newsletters are received, opened, read and clicked through if they include links? If not why not? There is no excuse and this is essential list management. If the email address are wrong and not being received they should be removed from the list. If they are not being opened maybe they are not considered news worthy and you need to work on your credibility. If email/newsletter receivers are not clicking on links included within your email then again you must know these things so you can do something about it. This is all related to ROI (Return On Investment) – your time, energy and in many cases money setting up, creating and sending out these communications!
7. Do you provide receivers the opportunity to share your newsletter with others and therefore increase your potential reach and new subscribers for your newsletters.

OK that’s some of the basics you MUST remember and no excuses, but lets now be a little more positive now, and consider some of the many and huge advantages of sending a regular newsletter to your stakeholders (all those with an interest in your organisation – clients, suppliers, sponsors, shareholders, etc).

1. You stay in the front of their minds if it is sent out regularly – at a minimun every 3 months or every other month but ideally a minimum of once a month. More regular unless they are paying for it and expect value for money is a waste of time normally.
2. Enables you to ensure that everyone receives current and important news about your organisation.
3. Is an opportunity to receive sponsorship from advertisers, joint venture partners or strategic alliances through paid for advertising on the newsletter!
4. Develop and increase awareness of your products or services and inform your subscribers of everything you do and not just the things they use you for. For example I have a huge number of clients whom just attend my workshops or training courses but once they know we can supply marketing materials like banners and exhibition stands or t-shirts, etc too they then use us for that as well!
5. It is about Know, Like & Trust - you are building a relationship with your subscribers and these days it’s all about relationship marketing. People need to know about you, they need to grow to like you and they also need to trust you. All of these things can and do take time, but this is a brilliant method of enabling that process.

So just how can you do all of this simply, quickly and without huge cost, time or technical knowledge issues? Its very simple… use an email management system to do it all for you! I use MailChimp.com to organise and manage my email lists and newsletters. It includes all of the above and much much more. (There are many other systems too, but this has a comprehensive free version and is compatible with a large number of other business systems and software – ideal for a business startup or small organisation. It even has a smartphone app for management too).

MailChimp – http://www.mailchimp.com

It even creates sign up boxes for your website, facebook, twitter, etc (this is my own sign up box, which many of you have seen in the past) – http://elizabethgraney.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ba9c5ae9c7f3141f8d0c69fdc&id=6a7d9c43cb

I am all for a simple, easy life and I dont have the time to run around dealing with what is basically cramp and annoyance. This way I know that everyone is happy – the law, my clients, my subscribers and of course me!

Please also look at the article I wrote back in December  2011 called “Acquiring Email Addresses from Clients”

 

Exciting Times – New Masterminds Group, New Networking Event & New Training Site!!!

Wow, I am simply bursting with so much exciting news from EAG that I can’t contain myself any longer and must start to share some of it with you all. So where shall I begin and please don’t say at the beginning lol.

OK first things first I guess if I must, EAG is launching its new online training course site/portfolio later this month and is already testing it with further Beta testing coming soon (where we will be looking for five business owners who would like some free training courses in return for feedback and testimonials please). This new site has enabled us to expand our course range and make a number of new topic areas available as part of our distance learning, online learning and continued after workshop training range for our wonderful inspiring clients. This is something we have been planning for over a year with lots of work going into it in the last few months.

What could top that? Well EAG is launching a new exclusive monthly mastermind group for small business owners looking for mentoring, coaching and training every month in all areas of essential business knowledge, training and development. This will be aimed at business mainly within the service sector and probably within their first five years of business although it will be an amazing resource for any small business owner or manager! I personally am very excited about this and I know a number of our clients have been begging us for this for ages. We wanted to be able to offer the best and most comprehensive package that we could so we have taken our time with this and we will finally be launching this next month! Included will be all sorts of different fabulous resources – MP3s, video training, slides, handouts, templates, quizzes, etc and much more! We will also be starting up an exclusive monthly webinars open only to our mastermind members too so huge value Please keep your eye open for launch news and make sure you get you foot in the door for the first intake of limited numbers for this amazing monthly professional training and development group.

So what else have we been up to recently? We are proud to announce that we will be the key note speaker and part of the organising team for two major new networking and training clubs in both Gosport and Fareham in Hampshire with other venues being explored too! Each month we will be providing face to face training, a guest speaker, entertainment, networking opportunities and even access to a bar so all very civilised! Our first meeting will be at the Thorngate Halls in Gosport on Thursday, 10th May. For more info on this please just get in touch.

So there you have it a three slight excuses why we haven’t been quite so active on our blog, with your newsletters and other online profiles recently but I am sure you will agree that it has been worth the wait. As soon as we have official launch dates we will of course be letting you all know and those of on our newsletter list will get an exclusive discount offer and advance access period so make sure you sign up now to not miss out on these amazing opportunities

Creating the Foundations of Success!

Yesterday evening a starting tutoring a new group of business owners on my brand new course Business Growth & Development at the fabulous Gosport Discovery Centre. This first session we discussed the importance of strong foundations and planning for the future.

During the session we discussed knowing where your business is now and how you can assess it to discover its successes, failures, strengths, weaknesses, oppportunities and threats as well as financial results! All of this information is vital before you can start to set yourself targets, goals and aims for the future, and yet sadly it still amazes me the number of people in business in general that either dont do this at all or dont know the answers to these essential questions!

Once you know where you are starting you can then begin to create strong foundations for growth and the development of your business whatever stage it is at or however old or young it is. We then explored 90 day planning as a tool for tackling those business planning tasks that sit on a to do list and never seem to get attacked.

Taking advantage of 90 day planning within your business is in my opinion one of the easiest and best methods for creating forward momentum and developing the structure, team and procedure that are essential for continuing busness success.

We then explored new product/service creation and development for businesses. Without new products or services being developed you can and will eventually start to lose clients. For myself it is a constant ongoing activity and one that I love. I take my lead from my clients by listening to their requirements, needs and desires. Just this last three weeks I have created and booked two new courses into my future diary due to demand! I dont stop providing my old courses of course, but I do constantly look for development areas.

By looking towards the future of your business regularly then you are ensuring its future!

With Love and Passion…

Do you know one of the greatest marketing tools available to you? It also just happens to be free too!

Well let me share this with you… quite simply being proud of your business, services and products then talking to anyone and everyone about them with love and passion is one of the best ways to to get word out about your business and market/promote it. It never fails to amaze me the number of people that go to all the effort of creating a word perfect business pitch or elevator speech but never manage to express the excitement, love and passion that they have for their industry, topic or market. Personally call me mad if you so wish but I think you should love what you do and enjoy it so much that your business isn’t work and is quite simply fun and almost a hobby or labour of love. I even go to work and even present workshops and courses when I probably should be in bed while ill!

If you love what you do and can share that with your potential clients and clients it instantly shows , making you more approachable and demonstrating a real interest in your business. Why is this important well think about this for just a second… would you rather do business with someone that hates their business and would rather be anywhere but with you providing a great service or would you prefer to hire and use someone that loves their business, enjoys it and takes pride in what they do going above and beyond as a natural part of their business service? For me the answer is simple I want someone that wants to help me because they will do their best and not someone that will do the minimum they can to get paid.

If you speak with pride, passion and excitement about your business then it is clear to everyone around you! People will be more likely to talk to you or refer business to you – that has to be good surely!

I consider myself a very lucky lady as I love what I do and get so much satisfaction from it plus the added bonus of seeing other people succeed is an amazing feeling. So which camp are you in, love and passion or do it because you have to. If it happens to be the latter then I would advise you seriously reassess your business, target client types and even changing your business. If you are like me then tell the world… Use your email signature, online social media profiles and every chance you get to share your passion. I have even been known to talk an insurance salesman into becoming a customer of mine and gain business in the supermarket while cueing to pay for my shopping, last year I even sold two places on a training course to two ladies while walking my dogs and they were walking their own dogs!

Now don’t panic I am not a natural sales person in fact I actually hate pushy sales and feel I can’t do sales, but talking with pride, passion and excitement about my business and what I do is easy What have you got to lose? Go for it and share the love! It’s Valentines Day this week coming so do yourself and your business a favour and share the love and reap the rewards!