Blog | Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant

Creating a Simple Marketing Plan

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Jeannine Clontz

Many of you broke into a sweat after reading the title, didn’t you? Many small business owners don’t have a marketing plan because they believe it’s too hard, too time consuming, or they just don’t know where to start.

Creating a good marketing plan doesn’t have to be overwhelming, or costly, but it will save you time and help you achieve your goals much more easily than you ever believed possible.

Start small, your plan can grow as your business and profits grow. In fact, without some sort of plan in place, it will be extremely difficult for your profits to grow. Don’t fall into the trap we sometimes set for ourselves by having our marketing plan in ‘mind’. You do need to memorialize it in some form so that you will be accountable to making it happen. And once you decide what you’ll want to include in the plan, then you need to set it up on some sort of a calendar so that you’ll be sure to implement it and track your results.

Start by identifying:
• Who is your ideal client?
• What do I have to spend?
• Where can I reach my ideal client?

Establish your ideal client profile by looking at your current clients and who can afford to buy your product or service? Who on your current client list seem to be the best fit for you and our expertise? What industry are those clients in, or what types of services to you enjoy doing for them the most?

Once you understand who that client is and what products or services you can and should be providing them, then identify the best ways to reach them. Where do they hang out? What industry associations or list serves do they belong to? What type of message will they respond to, in order to have their problems solved?

Next, consider your marketing budget. It should minimally be 10-15% of your yearly sales. Start simple, and make changes monthly or quarterly as you begin to see results. Be realistic and flexible. Having a budget will allow you to visualize and expand upon your program throughout the year.

The plan itself will have a number of options to consider. Here is a list of some marketing aspects to consider in your plan.

• Print advertising (including Yellow Pages)
• Direct Mail
• Email (include eZines and Blogs)
• Networking (Chamber participation/membership)
• Sponsorship
• Trade Shows
• Article Writing
• Speaking
• Referrals
• Social Media

While some of these items will have little to no cost, including them in your marketing plan will help you stay on track and implement each segment as needed. Don’t just participate in ‘free’ marketing options, although it can be tempting, you just won’t be able to reach the top level clientele that you should be looking for.

You need to participate in multiple mediums so that you will determine the best, most logical and cost effective way to reach your ideal prospect and client.

When putting together the actual marketing piece, remember to include a ‘call to action’. It could be a coupon in a direct mail piece, or a ‘free’ offer at the end of a speaking engagement. Just make sure you have different calls to action in each piece so that tracking success will be a breeze.

Check in quarterly to see how each segment is performing and make adjustments as necessary throughout the year to make sure you are getting the biggest bang for your marketing buck! Try to give each marketing option at least 6-months to produce results. It can take up to 10-15 touches for a prospect to remember you and your offerings before they take the next step to connect with you. Don’t give up too quickly or you could lose that next big opportunity to connect with the perfect client.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Categories : Marketing Tips

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Brand, Sales, and Balance: Are You Including Social Media with Other Online Marketing?

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Jeannine Clontz

The 1980s are remembered for their developments in business and technology, particularly computing. The 1990s for their advances in technology, particularly the growth of the internet and online business opportunities. If the 2000s are to be remembered for anything (although it may still be too early to tell), it will be their developments in communications and online communities, particularly the incredible power of social media.

Social media gives major brands and companies as well as small business, some seriously big power, but it is rarely used as it should be. Commitments to quality are sometimes overlooked, and opportunities for branding, direct sales, or indirect marketing are often passed over. These missing opportunities do cost businesses.

Social Media for Branding:

A dollar unearned is a dollar lost. Businesses are often questioning the value of social media for their branding efforts, but few take action when they should. Billions of dollars are being left on the table, particularly as major brands move onto social media services, and the value of a social media-friendly brand still is not being recognized.

An experiment is always worth more than not even trying. Discussion on social media’s branding abilities will only take companies so far. With the low cost of social media efforts, an experiment with social media branding can generate huge returns, all with a relatively minimal level of risk. Develop a simple plan and test your ability to grow and expand your brand.

Social Media for SEO:

SEO consultancy (and in-house efforts) were once the domain of spammy content and low quality link generation efforts. Poorly planned information was setup on low-cost websites, and marketers shot out as many links as were possible. Despite being somewhat effective, the old world of SEO is packed with inefficient models and outright unethical business models.

However, social media has given SEO new life. The old “SEO is spam” cliche is no more thanks to the development of social media. Each new social media asset is another opportunity for high quality outbound and inbound linking, and every social media conversation is another opportunity to spread links that actually add value.

With Twitter tweets and Youtube videos now regularly appearing in Google’s standard search results, the divide between search and social media is likely to become even smaller. Marketers accustomed to spam-style SEO tactics are in for a new surprise, while businesses that embrace social media receive a well-deserved SEO boost.

Social Media for Sales:

Social media is not a good sales platform, but it is a good resource for generating future sales. Social media’s ability to generate prospects is one of the most important aspect to the sales process. Marketers that were once dependent on direct lead generation have a new platform available to them, particularly in open social media platforms like Twitter or Myspace.

The greatest news is that social media is still in its infancy. Businesses that are built on lead-based sales have good things to look forward to. As social media develops further, sales models will be refined, micro-networks offering great sales potential will grow greater, and marketers can look forward to a platform that is refined, sales-friendly, and willing to be marketed to.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Categories : Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing

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Making Ourselves Accountable to Achieving our Goals

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Jeannine Clontz

Looking through magazines for gift ideas recently, I stumbled upon something I hadn’t seen in years, a glass piggybank. I recall receiving one when I opened my first savings account as a child. It forced me to continue to save because I didn’t want to ‘break’ it until it was completely full, or until I had enough to purchase something I really wanted. My eyes were always on the prize.

By the ‘80’s piggybanks had changed; they had rubber stoppers in the bottom so you were able to remove money whenever you wanted. No longer having to continue to save until you’d reached your goal, many times goals were never met, because we could remove small amounts whenever we wanted, no matter if the purchase was for something important or simply something we wanted. The bank became a place to gather loose change but it took away the demand that you reach a goal or lose it all, by having to ‘break the bank’.

I think about my business goals in somewhat the same way. I have to find ways of making myself accountable to reaching my goals or they may never be met. Last year, I setup several reminders to check on my goals. When I got the first reminder, I realized, – YIKES, now where did I put those goals? I was not contributing to them as I would have liked, and I certainly had not put a system in place to remind me more often how I planned to achieve them.

It’s difficult when you’re the boss, isn’t it? How can we make ourselves accountable for the goals we need to keep our businesses afloat in these challenging times?

Because I know many of us struggle with this, I decided to find someone willing to help me stay focused on achieving my goals, and I’m doing the same for her! Sort of a business buddy system that keeps things fresh and motivates us to always keep our goals in mind as we work on our businesses.

Now do not beat yourself up if you don’t achieve a goal. They are always evolving to meet the demands of whatever’s going on in your industry, or marketplace, to help your business stay strong and profitable.

So set some attainable goals for where you’d like to see yourself in 2012. Find someone you trust who will help you stay on track and make you accountable for the goals you’ve set.

Re-invent yourself and your business. Try new technologies. Keep in touch with your clients to see what new challenges or problems they may have that you can solve. Take your yearly goals, break them down into monthly and weekly goals, so that you are always in touch with what will be needed to attain those goals.

Be reasonable with yourself and your abilities to meet them, change or update all areas including your marketing options and tracking systems, whatever is necessary to get your business growing in the right direction, and keep making deposits in your unbreakable piggybank of growth. Stay positive and watch what happens.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Categories : Business Tips, Goals

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Benefits of Email Marketing to Online Businesses

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Jeannine Clontz

Email marketing is becoming a vastly popular and beneficial direct marketing tool, especially for small and home-based businesses. Used primarily to provide subscribers with information on service and product offerings, it has also been particularly useful in building a loyal customer base by helping stay top-of-mind with your subscribers.

More online business owners are turning to email marketing as their primary means to generate leads, not only because results are easily tracked, but also because it is an inexpensive way to market yourself on a large scale, at a low cost, allowing a greater chance to generate a profitable return on your investment.

Recently, owners of online businesses have begun relying on email marketing specialists to support or train them to expand their internet marketing efforts and enhance their online business profits, with a very small investment of their time and money. Because all Internet users use email, it’s easy to reach your target client or prospect, by encouraging them to opt-in through enticing offerings and keep them subscribed through relevant and compelling content and resources.

Whether online business owners decide to engage in your services or invest in the tools and training to use themselves, email marketing is considered a low-cost means to generate sales leads and profit. In fact, most email marketing campaigns average just one cent per email sent–much cheaper than other direct marketing platforms. It has proven to be more effective in generating sales leads than many other direct marketing options.

Measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of email marketing is simple because most all internet-based software options provide sophisticated reporting features that track key performance indices such as open rates, read rates, and click-throughs. Using these results, online business owners can gain valuable insights on how best to communicate with their target audience, what their specific interests are, and enhance their campaigns and product sales accordingly.

Other very important benefits include the ability to easily send out multiple communications, schedule them for future submissions, personalize emails, and send out automated responses at pre-designed intervals. With all these features combined, internet marketers and email marketing specialists can easily carry out an effective email marketing campaign, allowing them to spend more time on other important aspects of maintaining and expanding their business.

Email marketing should be an integral part of promoting any type of online business, whether you provide a product, service, or both. Through this platform, online businesses can enhance brand reputation, reach out to a larger market, provide customer service resources and resolutions, introduce new products and/or services, and track results in an inexpensive way. Through email marketing, online businesses can achieve outcomes they would never expect from any other direct marketing platform.

Although it may take quite some time to build a large and targeted subscriber base, the results that this direct marketing platform will generate in the long run will surely be worthwhile.

Take a moment to share your email marketing successes and challenges by leaving a comment for our subscribers to enjoy.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Categories : email marketing, General, Internet Marketing, Marketing Tips

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Ten Tips to Increase Website Traffic Without Any Expense

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Jeannine Clontz

We use several strategies and search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to help clients increase their online presence and rankings through our marketing and social media support, however, there are several things you can do regularly to help increase your rankings at the major search engines that are easy to implement and maintain.

Here are 10 simple ways to improve your SEO with little to no expense (depending on whether or not you’re a DIY or have website support and maintenance done by a Virtual Assistant (VA), or in-house staffer/IT Support.). I hope you find them helpful.

1. Schedule regular updates/changes of information on your main website pages. This activity spiders out to search engines to let them know something’s happening at your site.

2. Add resources and links to other sites, even affiliate sites where you can make a second income stream would be helpful. It also brings attention to your site.

3. Update or add keywords and meta tags. Search your niche and see what pops up, ask your clients what words they might use in a search engine if they were looking for you. They may come up with words you hadn’t even thought of.

4. Add features such as a newsletter subscribe or survey questions. Rotating survey questions is a great way to bring visitors back again and again.

5. Use your website in your marketing pieces. Write articles that would be of interest to your clients and include the URL on the print or electronic marketing piece to drive more traffic to your site.

6. Create private areas of your website where clients can login and retrieve projects or files.

7. Add a blog, or connect to your site from your blog, to increase search engine rankings.

8. Find out what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be done manually and set a regular schedule each week, or several times a month to increase your rankings at major search engines.

9. If you get an article published, post a link to it somewhere on your website, or include your website URL in the article so that people will have easy access to your site.

10. Include your website URL on your letterhead, business cards, online directories, and anywhere else you can reasonably post it.

If you incorporate several of these tips into your regular website maintenance, you’re sure to see your numbers grow.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Categories : Internet Marketing, Marketing Tips, Website Tips

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Five Online Business Optimization Strategies

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Jeannine Clontz

Running an online business gives entrepreneurs an incredible chance to expand and scale their operations. While offline business requires a physical presence — offices, retail outlets, and kiosks in every location — an online business can operate virtually and via digital real estate. Expanding is simple, and scaling businesses can be achieved without the need for expensive physical locations.

Still, there are some major errors that newbie online entrepreneurs tend to make when they scale their businesses. The road to running an online business is paved with lots of potholes, from expanding too quickly to moving in all the wrong directions. These five strategies are designed to help you achieve worthwhile business optimization, and take your business to new heights without endless setbacks.

1. Stick to the 80/20 Rule.

Pareto’s Principle — known as the 80/20 rule — dictates that 80% of your returns — in this case, business profits — will come from just 20% of your actions. Your goal in running an internet business is not to do as much as you can, but to achieve as much as you can. Focus on the ultra-profitable 20% that contributes to your business, and eliminate as much of the fluff as you possibly can.

2. Whenever possible, add products to service businesses.

Service businesses are a good short-term model, but as a long-term earning option alone, they are not. The main issue with service businesses is the lack of scalability and long-term earnings potential. By running a service business, you are essentially tying a value to your time and working to that alone. It would be an effective use of your time to create a product to enhance your sales.

3. Package and sell your information.

Informational products are extremely popular, especially in the online world. From guides on mastering online business to simple how-to sets for learning a new skill, informational products make up a huge percentage of online sales. If you have got skills that would otherwise only be valuable in a service business, consider turning them into an information product that you can sell online?

4. Focus on marketing before you start your business.

One of the major things my clients need and the make-or-break component of any online business is marketing. The internet is crowded, and there is no chance to survive without a large customer or client base that knows how to find you. The world’s most profitable companies invested in marketing before they expanded their businesses. You should too.

5. Set a value for your time, and don’t waste it.

You have set up your online business, invested in some manual and paid marketing options, and have started to earn over $100 a day. The only problem is that it is taking almost 12 hours to do it. There will be times, especially when running an online business, that you will rack up a reasonably impressive daily earnings total. Ignore it. Daily totals are deceiving and are not an accurate metric for judging online business success.

What is much more valuable is the amount of time that goes into that income. Set a minimum value for your time, and create an online business that gives you options on where to spend it. Sometimes services might be worthwhile, other times product-based work might be the best solution. Either way, set a minimum cost for an hour of your time, and design a business that allows you to earn above it.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Categories : Business Tips, Marketing Tips

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Client’s View on Virtual Assistants Featured in NBEA News!

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Jeannine Clontz

As the Virtual Assistance industry continues to evolve, more and more organizations are promoting and endorsing the use and growth of the Virtual Office Professional.

The March issue of the NBEA’s (National Business Education Association) Newsletter was focused on “The Virtual Office Professional (VOP)” and featured several of my client’s views, as well as those of my colleague, Terri Orlowski of Beyond the Office.

Not yet being provided electronically, here are the highlights of the article: “The Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur: The Virtual Office Professional (VOP), The Client’s View”

“Solopreneurs, such as life and business coaches, independent legal and real estate professionals, and consultants, are among the businesses that hire virtual office professionals. Keying In interviewed some of these solopreneurs to get insights on their expectations of and their experiences with virtual assistants.

We hope this information will be useful to you as you guide and advise individuals aspiring to this profession and or build a course or a curriculum around this career. This sidebar offers additional insights on a company that provides “hybrid” services to small businesses that need an extra pair of hands, on-site or virtual, as they hurdle through growth spurts and the impacts these spurts have on their business processes (see “Providing a Hybrid of Services”).

Eve Siegel
Kailas Career & Life Transitions Coaching
EI Cerrito, California
www.Kailaslifecoaching.com

Eve Siegel is a certified life coach. Three years ago she decided to hire a virtual assistant to help her set up a newsletter and send it to her mailing list so she could keep in touch with clients and potential customers. Now her VA handles Siegel’s Internet marketing efforts to expand and diversify her audience.

In her own words…

I found my first VA through a local agency. She lived 2,000 miles away. I worked with her for a couple of years [until she] moved on to something else. A friend recommended my second VA — [she lived] 1,000 miles away. I began to find out that there are VAs who specialize in certain things … and [this one] was savvy with e-marketing.

She helped me learn how I could use Facebook and LinkedIn. I gave up the newsletter, began blogging, then went to Twitter.

In the beginning I thought I’d learn how to do [Internet marketing from my VA], then do it myself. Then [it dawned on me]: Why should I do it myself? She’s more interested and eager [to do it], whereas it was tedious for me.

When hiring a VA, it’s always with the understanding that they’re good at what they do. Communication is very important: How quickly do they respond to emails from me, and how do they respond? Are they professional, friendly, and on time? And I think about what I really want someone to help me with and how much would that cost. I have in mind a certain [financial] limit per month. Which of these items can [she] do for that amount this month?

My current VA, [Jeannine Clontz] is very current on how to market business on the Internet. She’s always thinking of other ideas, building on things that I started. At first it was overwhelming. Then I got a sense of her vision. She didn’t do “just jobs.”

As an entrepreneur, there’s a limited amount of time in the day. Factoring in sleep and a social life, how much can I do and what’s it worth my time to do? This is where VAs come into one’s life. It’s not that I have extra money floating around. It’s just that it’s worth putting some of the money I do here, to further extend and maintain my business.

Laura MacDonald
The Laura MacDonald Team
St. Louis, Missouri
www.theLauraMacDonaldteam.com

A real estate agent, Laura MacDonald works predominantly in the St. Louis corridor. She sought a virtual assistant when she felt the business model for real estate shifting from a staffed office to a technology-driven market.

In her own words…

[In the past], I had paid, salaried employees — a closing manager and a listing manager. I was responsible for their livelihoods. When the market shifted, I decided to create a strategic approach to increasing my bottom line by adjusting my business model and hiring a VA.

From the beginning, Jeannine [Clontz] was familiar with our industry, [which is] driven by Internet marketing. Reports are Internet based. [You don't] set up an appointment to see a property, [you take a] virtual home tour on the Internet. Anything that was once a paper trail is now a paperless model. Jeannine is comfortable operating in that environment. She is also good at creating newsletters and postcards and sending [mailings] to our immediate database to keep them abreast of what we’ve done.

She helped us streamline our communication. An example is social media. She had the knowledge and wherewithal to tap into all that content with one simple process. Anything behind the scenes that could help us keep our position in the market, she’s done.

When hiring, I looked for qualities other than expertise: knowledge of the industry, talents, past [experience] with other realtors, familiarity with [software] programs that realtors use. Also [how the VA can] bring value to us.

You also have to do due diligence. There are a lot of VAs out there. You get what you pay for. Really follow up on references. Look at work samples. Find out how long they were in business, and whether they can offer a wide palette of services and comprehend the language [that’s used], depending on the field.

In an ever-changing economy when you have to shift and adapt, change, or restructure your business model, I think a VA makes you shine like a star and keeps that overhead intact. Her value is immeasurable.

Kelly Eckert
KellyEckert.com
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Like many solopreneurs, personal and professional development coach Kelly Eckert works from home. And like other solopreneurs, she has spent a lot of time doing tasks that were necessary to build her business — website and blog updates, online store maintenance, and general marketing — but that took her away from her core businesses.

In her own words…

As an entrepreneur, I had hesitated about hiring a VA because I worried that it would take a lot of time [to train the VA] and I wondered if it would really be worth it to pay someone rather than do the tasks myself. As a former marketing consultant and graphic designer, doing these tasks is not difficult for me, just a time burden.

Right away, though, Terri [Orlowski] freed up a huge amount of time for me. Not only that, I felt unburdened and light. I was able to focus on coaching and writing again.

Terri’s specialty is website creation. She came up with a great vision for my Positivity Girl™ website right away. When that is done, I plan to continue working with Terri, especially on web issues.

I hired a second VA, Lee Drozak, to help me with my coaching club website and online payment system. Terri really got Positivity Girl™. And Lee understood how to support my work on my coaching club.

When hiring, I looked for someone [who gets me] and someone I could easily communicate with. I don’t expect my VA to be available 24/7. But I do want emails and calls to be answered quickly. I also want to feel that my VA is closer to being a partner, rather than being someone on whom I’m dumping work I don’t want to do. I appreciated the glowing testimonials about Terri and Lee from other women who had hired them.

[I'd advise] anyone who’s considering this career to be very clear about how you can help your clients. Don’t overstate your abilities. I would definitely hire a new VA, but I would want to know that she is new. In fact, as long as she can do what she says she can do, the fact that she’s just getting started would be a selling point, as I like to help new businesses. Also, find out exactly what the client’s expectations are and be clear about your boundaries. I imagine some clients would have unreasonable expectations. But you can prevent misunderstandings by clarifying expectations and boundaries upfront.

Source: “Keying In: The Newsletter of the National Business Education Association”, March 2011, Volume 21, Number 4

I want to congratulate my clients, Eve Siegel and Laura MacDonald, for their contributions and kind words about our relationship. It’s always helpful to get some perspective from clients to gain perspective on their needs and how a Virtual Assistant fits into their business plan.

For more information about NBEA visit: www.nbea.org

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan request her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or contact her at info@accbizsvcs.com

Categories : Business Tips, VA, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Professionals

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Build Trust Through Email Marketing Content (Part One)

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Jeannine Clontz

Your email copy plays an immensely important role in gaining trust from subscribers. While the quality of information is still the most important element, there are a lot of other factors to consider. Listed below are those I find most important.

1. Give more than what you might gain.

We all know the importance of providing relevant and engaging content to gain traffic and business/income in return. Although your subscribers recognize this exchange (they get useful information only if they provide their data and perform certain actions, sometimes a purchase), many of them still focus on the idea that you’re only helping them out because you’re after their money.

To alleviate this perception, be ready to provide value without expectations of any return from subscribers. Offering free reports or items works, but there are other things you should consider.

Provide timely information related to your niche but without direct benefit to you works well, especially if you don’t publish any obvious call to action. Subscribers who receive such content from you on a regular basis are more likely to trust you and become loyal to your business than if you simply sent them content produced specifically to prompt them to make a purchase.

2. Always keep your promises.

There are two types of promises you make when marketing your business online. The first is a promise brought about by your brand. Your brand has a certain reputation that serves as a promise. No matter what, there are things that people will expect from you. These expectations are something you must meet through your written copy. For example, if your brand is known to have a fun-loving and edgy personality, the content of your emails should reflect that.

The other type of promise you make is what’s stated in your registration process as well as your follow-up emails. In these materials, you need to state certain things that people can expect to receive when subscribing to your mailing list. These include the content you will be sending as well as how often you will be sending it. These are things that your subscribers will consider as promises, so you should always be true to what you say.

As long as you match the expectations you’ve set in your subscribers’ minds, you will be able to keep their trust and loyalty for years to come.

Next week we’ll talk about how your emails are formatting and proofed, and how to communicate with subscribers to maintain and improve your levels of trust.

Until then, if you have a question, challenge or something to share, please let a comment below.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Categories : Business Tips, email marketing, Internet Marketing, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Professionals

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Building Email Trust Through Appearance (Part Two)

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Jeannine Clontz

Last week we looked at building trust in our email marketing campaigns by creating a recognizable ‘from’ line to our messages; optimizing the copy that is viewed through the preview pane; and encouraging subscriber communication. This week we complete the process with three more tips to polish your email marketing appearance.

4. Include full contact details in your footer.

Publishing your company’s full contact information allows your subscribers to trust in what you have to say. People are more open to content from credible sources and showing that you are a real company (with a registered name, mailing address, and contact numbers) will enhance your credibility. Including these details in your footer also creates accountability for everything you say in your emails.

5. Match email design to your brand.

The design of your emails should be consistent with all other materials you use to promote your business online. While you don’t need to copy your website’s design and layout down to the last detail, it is best for you to match your emails to its theme, colors, and graphics. This will help extend the trust you’ve built through other promotional activities beyond your email marketing campaign.

Once you’ve created a design that suits your image, use it consistently in all your emails. Doing so will continue to build trust through branding and recognition. You may consider showing a sample email to new subscribers so that they become familiar with the look and know what to expect. Once they receive your email, they will be more likely to read through it.

6. Email design doesn’t need to be fancy.

Some email marketers get so caught up designing their emails that they forget to focus on functionality. While the use of fancy code can make your emails look flawless, they will appear far from perfect if not in good working order and will do nothing to gain respect from subscribers. They need to look professional and work properly for subscribers.

To produce a successful email marketing campaign and gain trust from subscribers, you need to make sure that the design you use will work and does not appear broken, leaving subscribers feeling you don’t really know what you’re doing.

For this reason, make sure your emails render properly in at least the major email clients. You should also make use of proper alt attributes (an alternative text description for images that displays before the image is loaded) in case the images get blocked.

Appearance plays a huge part in gaining trust from your subscribers. As long as you keep these tips in mind when planning your email marketing campaign, you should be able to establish your reputation as a trustworthy and credible source of relevant information.

Please share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net, or contact her at info@internetmarketingvirtualassistant.net

Categories : Business Tips, email marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing Tips, VA, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Professionals

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