After my New Business Website is Complete-

Question: I’m starting a new business and I need help setting up a new business website, social media sites and logo designs as well as print materials. Can Drio help us once our web design is done?
Drio is a full service marketing agency- don’t be fooled by the word “small business.” We offer the same service and offerings of a larger marketing firm. We work with you to understand your business’ goals and objectives and design the best strategy for you.

Your business’ new website is only the beginning. We can help you plan an internet marketing strategy that encompasses your branding, social media plan and print campaigns.

Make sure to sign up below for our newsletter for free marketing tips and if you have an existing website please be sure to sign up for our free website evaluation. No strings attached!

Our goal is to help you reach beyond your own connections.

Question: I have an existing business website that I would like to revamp. Can you help me?

Some of the reasons why we have had businesses solicite our help with their new business website revamp are listed below:
1. Our website was designed years ago and our team and service offerings have expanded/changed. We want our website to reflect who we are today not who we used to be.
2. Our website doesn’t incorporate any interactive elements. We want to incorporate videos, news feeds etc.
3. We don’t feel like our website generates much traffic. We want to learn more about SEO.
4. Our competiors have cool new websites and we think our website needs a boost.

New Business Website Optimization:

Although many of the reasons cited above may warrant a website makeover keep in mind a website revamp is not the only answer to improving your website’s effectiveness. Keep in mind that optimizing the site for SEO, incorporating a blog and frequent content updates can help make your website more “searchable” and can help your business “get found on the web.”

“It is not our goal to set you up with a pretty website and send you on your way.  We want to give you the tools for a holistic and thorough approach to marketing that will change the course of your business years down the road.”

We believe that your website just the beginning…..

If you are just browsing, join our newsletter, by signing up below to receive tips and ideas for where your business should be online in 2012!

What’s CTR?…

It is an acronym for click through rate. CTR measures your audience’s response to a specific email message. It’s measured by the percentage of recipients that click on a link included in the email. To determine the click-through rate, divide the number of responses/clicks by the number of emails sent (multiply this number by 100 to get your results as a percentage).

Click Through Rate

How to measure your success?

Look at your current click through rate and compare it with past click through rates to determine whether your marketing campaigns are improving. Make sure to do this often so you can see what’s working. There is always room for improvement when building your email list!

What’s a good CTR rate?

There isn’t one! If you’re curious about your own CTR, you can use the Adwords Performance Grader at http://www.wordstream.com/google-adwords to measure your click-through rate and compare it to that of your competitors.

5 email marketing messaging tips

I have outlined 5 basic guidelines you want to consider when launching your email marketing campaign. Of the five (5) email list building tips, some may seem obvious but it’s important to still reiterate. Remember to keep testing and see what works for your business. You want to drive results – your goal is to generate a high click rate.

Keep these email list building tips in mind before you hit send!

• No thinking required! Make sure that your message is clear and concise so your reader knows what he/she is supposed to do when they receive your email.

• Cut to the Chase! Clearly outline the benefit you’re delivering to them.

• Lose the extra frills! Extra copy and images can be a distraction and keep people from doing what you want them to do.

• The more the merrier! E-mail marketing and social media go hand in hand so remember to include “Like” and “Forward to a Friend” icons so that your customers share your message with their friends.

• Your first impression!  Make sure the subject  line is interesting, relevant and persuasive by using compelling keywords.

What have you found as the biggest benefit to making constant use of your e-mail list?  We’d love to hear from you.  Share your results with us below!

Email marketing can help keep your business stay connected with your consumers. It’s an opportunity to keep your business in the mind of your consumers and keep them posted on your offering and services.

There are laws and regulations that have been put in place to protect consumers from unfair email marketing practices. Although many don’t follow these laws it’s important to inform yourself and get additional information of fair email marketing practices.

It’s likely that there are businesses who aren’t educated in these laws and break them without intending to. As the use of email marketing continues to grow expect these laws/regulations to be further enforced. So as a business owner be sure to educate yourself and keep an eye for changes in these laws.

Before you make use of our e-mail list building techniques take the time to review how the laws in place affect you. The Can-spam law was established in 2003.

CAN-SPAM derives from the bill’s full name: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003. The CAN-SPAM Law covers all commercial email messages. So what does the term commercial email mean? It means “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service.” That includes all email that promotes content on a commercial website, so if your website makes any money at all and your email links back to it, you are liable under the CAN-SPAM Law.

I have included Drio’s email marketing rules. We typically give our clients a copy to ensure everyone understands the rules and regulations to successfully building an email list. You can modify this document and use it for your business.

Drio E-mail List Building Tips to Enforce the Can-spam Law*:

Basic Rules:

To send an email to someone using our e-mail marketing that recipient must be:
- Someone who is a customer, member or subscriber of your business or organization,
- Someone who has specifically asked to receive your emails by opting in or signing up in some way, or
- Someone who has bought a product or service from you in the past 18 months

1. No list rental or purchasing lists

We do not allow any customers to rent or purchase lists and send to them using our email campaign network.
Why? Lists obtained in that manner aren’t worth the trouble and expense. We know that email works best when it appeals to an audience that’s receptive to your message, and that begins with a true permission-based list.

2.  No old lists

When it comes to sending permission-based email, the age of the list matters. If enough time passes between someone initially subscribing to your list and eventually receiving an email from you, permission “expires” as people eventually forget what they’ve signed up for. That’s why we don’t allow sending to any email address that was obtained more than 18 months ago and has not received any correspondence from you since that time.

3. Paying customers

If they are current or recent customers (within the last 2 years at the longest) then you are safe to assume an existing relationship.If it’s been longer than that and you’ve not been emailing them regularly, then it is a no go zone.

4. Website contact forms

Sending in a question or comment isn’t the same thing as opt-in permission. Even if your form says ‘send me more information’, that doesn’t mean you can add them to a marketing list, it just means you can send them specific information as requested.

Unless your contact form clearly lets people choose to also receive your newsletter, they have not given you permission.

5. Everyone signed up directly on a form (in person)

Perfect, that’s clear, direct permission and you are good to go. Just make sure you email people regularly (don’t leave it months before contacting them) and that you only send them what you promised you would.

6. We sponsored this tradeshow, and we got a list of everyone who attended

This is very common, but it doesn’t count as permission. Those people may well have agreed to hear from every vendor as part of their entry, but it isn’t explicit, direct permission to your company. It is not allowed to be used with this software, even if the tradeshow organizer tells you it is fine.

7. These are all my friends, colleagues or family members.

You do still need to have their direct permission. That could be as simple as verbally asking them if it is ok to add them to your newsletter list. They probably won’t mind even if you don’t ask, but it still is not opt-in, and still not allowed.

*These rules are pretty standard from any e-mail marketing agency.  If the rules are broken, the user will be dropped from the program.

You may be thinking, “okay, I’ve worked my a$$ off, my shop is open, I’ve got a few customers, so how do I grow my business?”  Let, me tell you, it’s no secret, the key is in the e-mail list!

All of the hard work that you put into getting your business launched will be lost if you don’t hold on to those initial customers.  You should be pouring all of your time and effort in those first few months of opening your doors to building that e-mail list.  You may be thinking, “but I’ve built a facebook page and I have followers there, so why do I need a list on top of that?”

Newsflash, you don’t own facebook!  Your facebook followers are only as good as the application and you don’t have any control over that!  You do, however, own your list!  All of those e-mails you’ve worked hard to collect are yours forever, as long as you keep it current.

So, where do you begin?  Here are some tried and true e-mail list building tips:

Top 5 E-mail List Building Tips

Follow these 5 tips to building your list and your new business will be on it’s way to bigger and better things:

1. Never sell your product to a customer without asking for them to be added to your list.

2.  Build-in incentives for customers to join your list.  Ask them to become MVP customers and let them know that they will receive coupon codes, specials and more.

3. Give your online visitors a chance to be added to your list without becoming customers first.  To do this, have your web developer add a sign-up form to your website.  It is important that you give those a chance to be on your list and nurture them until they become a customer one day.

4.  Start blogging!  I know it may sound like a lot of work, but blogging attracts visitors to your website and each visitor is a potential new customer.  Make sure you have a sign up form for your list at the end of each blog post or in the sidebar of your blog.  Something fun to do is to attach landing page links to the bottom of each blog post and have visitors sign-up for your list through a special offer.

5. Nurture, nurture, nurture.  Once you have that list, start making use of it.  Touch base with the members of your list regularly.  Set-up auto responders to connect with the folks on your list at regular intervals.  A fun one is the birthday auto responder, you can send your customers an automatic coupon code annually on their birthday (just remember to collect birth dates of your customers).  Keep your email list in the loop about the ongoings of your business, you may have some potential brand ambassadors on your hand so keep feeding them information!

Don’t have a store front?  All the more reason to build your e-mail list and keep customers thinking about your business even though they aren’t passing by it every day.  Tips 3-5 should be able to help your business out.

Even if you are planning on a store-front at some point in the future you can start building your list even before you open your doors.  Create a buzz. Get found.

These are the basics, you can go crazy with e-mail marketing, but just remember its about putting your business in the front of your customers minds.  They may be browsers for years, but without the list you may miss that opportunity for a new customer.

Plan to send out e-mails on regular intervals ranging from weekly to bi-weekly!

Some serious thought can go into Facebook’s new timeline cover photo image when it comes to using social media for marketing.

Here are some general rules about using your cover image on your business page:

What CAN’T you do on your cover image:

Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

What CAN you do on your cover image?

Use an image that reflects your page
Change the image regularly – this keeps many of your viewers engaged
Create a unique cover image by incorporating the profile picture, like this one:

If you need help creating a cover image there are a bunch of resources online that can help you with your design or even give you some inspiration for your business, check these out:

CoverCanvas
covermyfb.com
myFBCovers

If you are thinking what I was thinking a few months ago it was, “why would anyone use google plus for marketing their business when they have Facebook?”  Facebook is huge and the numbers prove that Facebook dominates google plus.  But, guess what, my thoughts on the subject have changed the more I learn about google plus and in light of recent Facebook changes.

First, let me get this straight, Google Plus is not Facebook.  It’s google answer to adding a social media piece to their search engine, but it is very different from Facebook.  First of all Google Plus has a huge advantage over Facebook in that it integrates with Google.  Facebook does not own a search engine and stands alone on the internet.

Facebook has recently gone public and the stocks are not proving to be as high as initially valued, but Facebook has also made some more (negative) changes recently.  In my mind I do not think it has been a good move for Facebook to start charging Business’ to promote their posts to their own fans.  I see this as Facebook being greedy, but that’s just my opinion.

Google Plus does have a smaller base of users, which in my opinion could be a good thing!  Get into Google Plus while the getting’s good and start using it to promote your business.  Google Plus does allow you to add a business page to your account, but I’m not convinced that this is the way to go.

Adding Authorship to your Blog Posts

Using social media for marketing allows you to go social on a more personal level, show your followers that there is a face behind the business.  Google has integrated the rel=author tag into their search engine to really promote the people behind the content that is created.  Here is an example:

Drio has claimed authorship to our posts by installing the WordPress plugin ‘Easy Rel=Author’ a great plugin for a WordPress site with multiple authors.   If you are contributing as a guest on a blog you can easily add this by adding the following code to your post: <a href=”https://plus.google.com/112823810003807269031?rel=author”>Rachel McFadden</a>, which looks like this: Rachel McFadden

You must however, also add the sites you are contributing to, to your Google Plus Profile:

This adds a social aspect to the content your writing because those who read your content can easily see who is writing it and also helps your business prove to google that your content is not spam.

Google Plus and Using Social Media For Marketing

I have found Google Plus as a great way to connect with like minded individuals through my personal profile.  Since I can put folks in my circles that are professional or friends, I can filter the content in my news feed based on the circles I’ve created.  I can also choose to view all of the content from my circles or only some of it and let google decide which portion of it I see.  I can view a news feed based on trending terms or based on searched terms of people who are not in my circles.  Also, unlike Facebook people do not have to add me back when I add them in order for me to see their newsfeed.

You can easily add large groups of people at a time by choosing to add a circle of people shared by another individual.  The search in google plus is unmatched by Facebook.  Facebook’s search is notoriously terrible!  I suppose it is only natural that the largest search engine in the world has great search capabilities integrated on it’s social network.

Sign up to google plus today, claim your authorship and add us to your circles:

Follow Rachel on Google+

Follow Joanna on Google+

Follow Hazel on Google+

Click image for cool infographic...

As part of the Social Media Success Summit 2012, Brian Solis gave a presentation called, “The End of Business as Usual: How Social is Impacting Business.”   The change is here so let’s embrace it and start effectively using social media for marketing.  It is time to learn about your consumers and build your brand awareness around them.

Brian Solis talks about “Digital darwinism”- the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than your ability to adapt.

Don’t let digital darwinism slow your company down.  Become familiar with where your consumers are in the digital world and use it to your advantage.

Types of Consumers

Brian spoke about three different types of consumers, which really struck a chord with me.  The first consumer is the traditional consumer who receives all of his/her information from the television, newspaper ads and magazines.  I’d probably put my 90-year old grandmother in this category…although she has and iPad, so she might be more digital than I think!

The next type of consumer is the digital consumer.   This consumer will go online to compare and read ads and make purchases online.  This would be my husband….he’s got an iphone, but beyond facebook and his camera he doesn’t maximize its capabilities and actually asked me the other day how to use a QR code.

“It’s not about knowing the social media channels inside and out, it’s about knowing your customers.” [Tweet this]

Finally, we have the connected consumer.  This is where I really get excited!!! These are the newest consumers that are here to stay as long as the social world is!  These consumers are like me!  They are using the internet in a connected way to shop.  This means using social media to find the best deal, checking in at their favorite restaurant and posting pictures of their meals, scanning QR codes, and comparing deals with apps on their smart phones.

The “connected consumer” is where businesses should be focusing their marketing efforts today.  These customers are going to blast you on their social media networks if they received poor service, or complement your business like crazy if they like what you have to offer.  It’s your job, as the business owner to know when and where this is happening!  Get involved in the social networks that your customers are involved in.  Connect with your customers to provide feedback when they comment about you!

Know your Consumers

The true secret to using social media for marketing here is to know your consumer!  They can help you or hurt you.  As Brian said, “you are now marketing to an audience with an audience of audiences.”  This means your consumers who talk about your company on their social media channels, then have followers retweet, like,+1 or comment on their post to their followers and so on!

It’s not about knowing the social media channels inside and out, it’s about knowing your customers.  Create an online experience for your customers that is unlike any of your competitors.  Use that online connection to bring the awareness of your experience to the right consumers and they will eventually become loyal brand ambassadors.  What more could a business want?  A consumer who raves about us for free!  Bring them that experience and the payback will be priceless!

In what way has your company embraced the connected consumer?  Who is your connected consumer?  Can you place a value on the connections you’ve made?

Using social media for marketing is one of the fastest ways to gain substantial growth and future costumers for any business. Choosing which social media network is best for you, however, is almost as important as actually being an active user; every network has their own unique history and individual benefits in the social media world. Stay informed and pick which network works best for you!

 Facebook

1. Launched in Feb 2004.
2. 1 in every 13 people on Earth is on Facebook.
3. Average user has 130 friends.
4. It is the second biggest website by traffic behind Google (at the moment).
5. The USA has the largest Facebook user base with 155 million people which represents 23.6% of Facebook’s total users.

Twitter

1. Launched in July 2006.
2. The original project code name for the service was ‘twttr‘, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by the name of the social media image website ‘Flickr’ and the five-character length of American SMS short codes.The team finally settled on the name ‘twitter‘, which means ‘chirps from birds’ in essence ‘a short burst of inconsequential information’
3. As of February 2012, 11 Twitter accounts are created every second.
4. As of February 2012, there are approx 175 million tweets a day.
5. The busiest time in Twitter histoy was during the “Castle in the Sky” TV Screening- which got 25,088 tweets per second!!! —-> Click to tweet this!

LinkedIn

1. Launched May 2003.
2. As of March 31, 2012 (the end of the first quarter), professionals are singing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of approximately two new members per second.
3. As of March 31, 2012, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with 161 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
4. As of March 31, 2012, Sixty-one percent of LinkedIn members are located outside of the United States
5. LinkedIn is currently available in seventeen languages: English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

Pinterest

1. Launched in December 2009
2. As of March 2012, nearly a third of all Pinterest users have an annual household income of $100,000 or more.
3. As of March 2012, almost 70 percent of Pinterest users are female and the largest age demographic  represented on the site are people between 25 and 34.
4. As of March 2012, the website averages 1.36 million visitors a day.
5. As of March 2012, 50% of Pinterest users have children.

What social networks are you most active on? Where do you find the most engagement and folks with similar interests to your business?