Bill McRea

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With the rising popularity of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, there has been a lot of talk about how email marketing is dying out, and that it’s not as effective as it used to be. Margaret Framakis, of Return Path UK, said, “The death of email has been vastly overstated.”  She went on to say that while email might not be as flashy, new and sexy as the social media sites are, it is still the most effective way to build a solid relationship with your customers.

Email marketing is definitely not going away. Email marketing generates revenue, and it is great for branding and keeping your company and brand top-of-mind in your consumers heads.

One of the main barriers that keep email from being as effective as it once was is the increase in the amount of spam that is flooding your customers’ inboxes. It’s been estimated that as much as 55% of email messages get deleted before they are even open because people think its spam, or because of the fear of viruses that can be delivered via email.

Gone are the days when people were eager to get new email. Now what’s more challenging is to rise above the noise and stand out in your customers’ inboxes. Your emails must demand attention, be relevant, and the subscriber must recognize the name in the ‘from’ field or they will more than likely delete it.

The best way to make sure that your email marketing campaigns are as effective as possible is that you must first get a clear understanding of what your customers and prospective customers want from you. Ask for feedback, conduct surveys, be open and transparent as you build a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship with your subscribers. Rather than thinking of your email subscribers as a ‘cash cow,’ think of them as your tribe. Think about how you can be a trusted resource for them so that they look to you as someone who provides value rather than someone who always has a hand in their pockets.

1. Always send a welcome email

Send a welcome email as soon as someone signs up to your email list. Walk them through how to white list your email address and set the expectation for how often you’ll be emailing them, and what kind of emails they should be expecting from you.

2. Run your email messages through a spam filter

Before you hit that ‘send’ button, use a spam filter to flag certain words that can raise the potential spam level of your email.

3. Put your full name in the ‘From’ line

4. Don’t use ALL CAPS in the subject line and limit it as much as possible in the body of the email.

This can set off spam filters.

5. Re-direct the live links in the message to your own domain

If it’s done properly, email marketing can be a very effective way to brand your business, build solid relationships with your audience and generate revenue. Take the time to test and track your email campaigns and you should see encouraging results.

Email marketing is just one aspect of Internet marketing. If you’d like to learn more about building and growing your online business, visit, http://mcreasite.com/blog today.

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Human beings are visual creatures. When it comes to the Internet, which is a purely visual medium design is a vital element to consider when you are building your website, which is your virtual representation in a digital world.

Think about your favorite brands that you always choose over whatever else is available. What is the first thing that comes to mind? Most likely, it’s the design of the logo, those familiar colors, or the famous lettering that stands out in your mind. Think about brands that have withstood the test of time such as Ford, Coca-Cola, and McDonalds. You could argue that the distinctive design along with the value reputation of the company makes it stick out in the mind of the public.

Because your website will take its place in the crowded field among billions of other websites on the Internet, and the hundreds of other sites within your industry or niche, you must find a way to differentiate yourself from all of the other options your prospective customers might have. Your website’s design must serve to help you to stand head and shoulders above the crowd, grab and hold the attention of your audience long enough for them to explore what you have to offer.

Choosing a website designer

Keep in mind that website designers are not marketers. Their strength lies in delivering a visually appealing website with optimized load times, efficient navigation and user-friendly design features.

Ask for referrals from your colleagues who have a website that you like. As you browse the web, make note of the websites that have a pleasing design scheme. Scroll to the very bottom of the page and you might see the name of either the designer or the design firm.

Once you have narrowed down your search, ask for references from your short list of designers and contact these people. Ask how pleased they were both with the final website design and how easy it was to work with that designer.

The impact of design on conversion rates

Entire books have been written about conversion optimization because you can make a change as seemingly insignificant as the color of your ‘Buy Now’ button and get vastly different conversion rates. Website design plays a significant role in your conversion rates. It’s worth investigating what changes you can make to your existing site, or if you are planning a new site, how you can find out what the most effective elements are for your website.

This article barely scratches the surface when it comes to all of the various aspects of how your website’s design will impact your ability to succeed online. Try doing a quick split test of some of the elements of your website and see what kind of results you get. Often you may not need an entire site re-design in order to see higher conversion rates, but you would be amazed at what a difference making small tweaks to your site’s design can have on your bottom line.

Your website’s design has a major impact on your ability to make money online. If you’d like to learn more about Internet marketing, please visit, http://mcreasite.com/blog, where you’ll discover a ton of tips and strategies for making money online.

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Webinars are the Internet version of the traditional live seminar where you have a presenter speaking to a live audience. But webinars come in all different flavors to suit your needs and the needs of your audience. Let’s take a quick look at the various kinds of webinar events that you can use to reach a large audience at once, and teach, train and entertain your prospective customers.

Live webinar events

A live webinar has one or several presenters who are either all in the same location, or they can be at different locations. They all call in to the webinar and interact live with the audience, which gains access to the presentation over the Internet. They can participate on their desktop PC, laptop, tablet or mobile phone. Depending on the webinar service, participants can conduct polls and share the results live and in real-time with the audience. The audience members can virtually raise their hands to ask a question during the presentation. Live webinars are great because they provide an excellent way for your audience to get to know, like and trust you more, they can get their questions answered live, and they can attend an enjoyable, live event that they can participate in.

Webinar replays

Since a webinar is a live event, that means that participants must join in at the appointed time in order to participate. However, there are circumstances when the webinar time slot is not convenient for all of the participants, so the presenter will record the webinar so that it can be viewed later. Sometimes the presenter will then limit the number of days the replay is available to create a sense of urgency and scarcity so that viewers will watch the webinar rather than put it off.

The thing about webinar replays is that the viewer knows that they are watching the replay of a live event.

Perpetual webinars

A perpetual webinar is a webinar replay that gets continuously presented. It is not a live event, so participants are not able to interact with the presenters, ask questions or get any kind of feedback. Perpetual webinars are often used to take advantage of the potential for the webinar format to sell lots of products to a lot of people in a short amount of time. These presentations can be pre-recorded and then scheduled to be presented on an automatic basis on the same day of the week every week.

So, as you can see, there are differences between a live webinar event, a webinar replay and perpetual webinars. Each has its place and each format has its limitations. The presenter must decide on which format to use based on the nature of the content they will be presenting, and the needs of the audience. When you are teaching complex information in a step-by-step fashion, it makes sense to hold a live event to provide an opportunity for participants to ask their questions in real time.

Webinars can be a very powerful way to reach your audience to sell, teach and train your audience. If you’d like more information about hosting your own webinars, visit http://mcreasite.com/blog for lots of tips and strategies for growing your business online.

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Webinars, which are the Internet version of a live seminar, can be either a live event where the presenter and participants are interacting in real time, or they can be pre-recorded and then replayed several times. Webinars have become a powerful way to reach lots of prospective customers at once, but they are also a great format for selling downloadable information products online. In this article we’ll take a look at how you can get started using webinars to sell information products.

What product will you be offering?

The first step in selling information products using webinars will be to decide what product you will be offering to your audience. The type of product will have some bearing on the format of your webinar. For example, if you are selling a ‘how-to’ course, the webinar might be instructional where you walk participants through how to do a specific task.

Choosing a webinar service provider

There are several webinar service providers and you can choose the one that best suits your needs and your budget. Here are some of the top webinar providers:

• Cisco’s WebEx
• Go to Webinar
• MegaMeeting

Some of the features of these webinar providers include:

• Real-time screen sharing
• VoIP
• Webcam Compatibility
• Embedded video sharing
• Full duplex support (allows participants to communicate at the same time)
• Polling (allows the presenter to poll the audience and present the results in real time)

Composing your presentation

You can use any kind of presentation software such as PowerPoint, or some of the free, online solutions such as Prezi, SlideRocket, or Google docs Presentations.

As you prepare your presentation, remember to keep it as simple as possible so that you do not distract viewers with flashy graphics. Be sure to include lots of relevant content that your participants will be able to use immediately. If it turns out to be an hour long commercial for your product, people will not be as happy to buy from you. But if you provide lots of value, and they come to know, like and trust you, then they are more likely to want to purchase what you have to offer.

Marketing your webinar

Once you have finished putting the presentation together, you’ll want to spread the word about your event. Create a landing page where participants can register for the webinar by leaving their name and email address.  You can also request a phone number and send a text message reminder to their phone before the webinar starts.

Next you would set up an email list which you can use to keep in contact with subscribers. Be sure to send out reminders to ensure the highest attendance possible. You can offer to send a link to the recording of the webinar only to those who have registered. You can also use email to follow up after the webinar is over, send them a link to the replay and invite them to your next webinar event.

Webinars can be a fun way to make money selling information products. Take the time to research the various providers, and practice your presentation and soon you will have a winning program.

There are lots of other ways to sell information products online in addition to webinars. For more information you are welcome to visit http://mcreasite.com/blog for lots of tips and strategies for making money online.

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Branding is one of those buzzwords that has been growing in popularity for the past ten years or so. When you are running an online business, Your website is just one among millions so if you want to succeed you’ve got to find a way to set your company apart—to stand head and shoulders above your competition in order to be seen and attract customers and clients. Developing a branding strategy is how you present a cohesive, memorable, and hopefully engaging image to your prospective customers so that when they see your image, or your logo it will pique their attention and make them want to find out what you are all about.

What is branding?

Your brand is far more than the sum of its parts, which include your company name, logo, website design and color choices. Branding is what sets you apart from every other company in your industry. Your brand communicates who you are, what you do and what makes you different from your competition. Your brand essentially makes a promise to your current and prospective customers. It is up to you to make sure that promise is fulfilled in order to maintain your company’s reputation—another aspect of branding.

Before you can develop you branding strategy you’ve got to be clear on your USP and your market position with regard to your competition.

Branding is about effective communication, but in the communication process there are always at least two messages: the first is the message that you are sending to your market, and the second is the message that they are receiving. Those are not always the same thing. For example, you might think that your ads using a scantily clad, thin young woman are appealing to your market when in fact your target audience is women for whom those ads hold little or no appeal.

Here are some steps that you can take to begin defining a branding strategy for your online business:

• Survey your audience and find out what they need, want and expect from you
• Clearly define your target market and your ideal customer
• Describe what you do and what makes you the best choice
• Come up with a positioning statement that clearly outlines where you fit in the scheme of things
• Create a pricing strategy
• Describe how your customers benefit from doing business with your company
• Outline how you and your staff will engage with customers

Define your brand’s message

Your branding message is what you will be communicating to the world about your company, its products and services. One powerful example of a branding message can be seen in the competitive battle between major auto rental companies. One of the top car rental companies proclaimed, “We’re #1!” Not to be outdone, the number two company responded with, “W e try harder.” So the prospective customer who is looking to rent a car can decide do they want to go with the one that thinks they are the best, or the one that is trying hard to be the best. The marketplace gets to decide who wins.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to topics like marketing and branding for your online business. You should visit, http://www.mcreasite.com/blog, to discover tons of resources for growing your online business.

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