5 Email Marketing Tips For Bloggers

Email marketing and blogging go together like s’mores and campfires, or like Vince Vaughn and mildly underwhelming comedies. It’s undeniable that there’s a special connection.

If you’re a member of the blogosphere and don’t have an email list, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your audience and develop a deeper connection with your readers.

Why email marketing, you ask?

Well, email marketing is a great way to get your blog readers to return to your website and establish loyalty – especially in a world when so many read a single post and never return to your site again. It can also open up opportunities to easily monetize your content.

To help you establish a growing and loyal blog following with email marketing, here are five tactics to have on your radar.

1. Offer an incentive on your sign up form.

As a blogger, your biggest fans love your blog because of the content you write. So why not offer an exclusive piece of content that takes an in-depth look into a specific topic?

Sometimes, people need a little extra nudge to convince them to sign up to your email list. They might read your sign up form and wonder, Do I really want another stream of emails crowding up my inbox?

Think about your own inbox, and all of the email lists you’ve signed up for in the past. Chances are, you probably have the same thought as your own website visitors when approached with another email list to sign up for.

But I bet that when you’re presented with an opportunity to get an exclusive discount code or content, you feel a little more motivated to enter your email list, right?

The same goes for your own website visitors. Offering an incentive is like the hail-mary play for email marketers, except the odds of swaying potential email subscribers are really good. Plus, it’s an opportunity to showcase your talent and the awesome content you have to offer.

Still not a believer? Take a note from Courtney S. of the photography blog, Click It Up a Notch. After creating her email list, she added a pop up sign up form to her blog, and offered a free eBook as an incentive.

Three months later, she doubled her email list.

What you can do now: If you don’t have an eBook or long piece of content, take a minute to think about questions your readers commonly ask. Is there something new blog readers love to learn about, such as a how-to guide? You’ll want to create something that has mass appeal to your audience if you want to encourage them to sign up to your email list.

You can also do a little research to find out your top performing blog posts. If there’s a theme among them, consider combining them into an eBook or downloadable PDF guide.

2. Repurpose blog content.

Your blog is a great resource for your emails. While you can certainly share new blog posts via email to your subscribers, you can also use the content you’ve previously written and repurpose it for emails.

If you send a monthly email newsletter but are lacking on content ideas, consider looking to older popular blog posts for inspiration. Which blog posts performed exceptionally well? Your subscribers will probably enjoy additional content on the topic.

This is also a great way to engage specific segments of subscribers. If you have a photography blog and you know which subscribers are more advanced than others, you can send them exclusive content that appeals more to their experience.

Your dedicated a lot of time to working on your blog content, and if it’s valuable to your audience, then you should be able to reuse it in other channels.

What you can do now: Check your blog analytics to find your most popular content topics. Are there new angles you can take on the same topic? Add it to your blog editorial calendar and share it in your emails. Or elaborate on the topic and link back to your old blog post.

3. Leverage guest blog posts.

Posting articles on someone else’s blog is a great way to raise awareness for your own blog.

To capture new fans of your content, include a link to a web-hosted version of your sign up form at the end of your guest post. This way, people who just finished reading your content can sign up for more in your email list.

Just take a lesson from Henneke Duistermaat, the brains behind Enchanting Marketing. Before she even started offering writing advice and freelance work, she was guest blogging and growing her subscriber list.

How’d she do it? By researching blogs she thought people in her audience would like, and guest blogging for them. At the end of her guest posts, she asked readers to subscribe to her email list. But her question wasn’t without an incentive – she also offered a free email series to her new subscribers.

(Also note the “As seen on…” section for credibility).

What you can do now: Open up a new tab, and start Googling. Look for blogs your audience might be interested in. While you want to be careful that you don’t end up with a competitor, think of interests your audience might have.

Reach out to them to see there are any guest blogging opportunities. If so, start working on that post and be sure to add your sign up form!

4. Promote on social media.

There are a number of ways you can grow your email list on social media (and we’ve written about it a number of times like here and here). While it will largely depend on the social platforms you’re active on, there’s one tactic that can be used everywhere: promote a link to a web-hosted version of your sign up form.

You can add the link to your profile descriptions, and share it in a social post every now and then. Include context as to why you’re email list is awesome and how they can’t live without it, and you’re golden.

If you’re looking for other fun ways to encourage people to sign up to your list, consider running a Facebook contest or quiz using tools like Heyo and Interact.

Here at AWeber, we’ve done both for our social audience, which helped drive new sign ups to our email list.

Remember, whatever you do, just always keep your subscribers in mind and send them valuable content.

What you can do now: Make sure you include a link to your sign up form on Facebook and maybe in your description section on your blog profiles. Then, consider ways you might be able to run a contest in the future using tools like Heyo to get started.

5. Curate content.

Another way to engage your audience with a variety of content is to share the latest industry news and other recent articles you think your subscribers will enjoy. Consider crafting a newsletter and offer your views and opinions on what’s happening.

Let’s say you’re a food blogger, and the FDA is releasing new regulations for certain artificial additives. To inform your subscribers, you could link to an article on the topic and break things down in layman’s terms. You know your audience better than anyone else, so consider how you can craft a message that presents the information in a way that is relevant to them.

This will help establish trust with your readers when they know you have their best interest at heart. It’ll also help build your credibility as a thought leader.

What you can do now: Start logging your favorite articles in Evernote or a Google doc (or whatever your favorite note-keeping app is). When it’s time for you to send your next email, review them to see if there were any important stories you’d like to share with your subscribers. Before the link to the curated article, include a short blurb that explains what it means for your specific subscribers.

Get started.

While we’ve only grazed the surface of email marketing tactics for bloggers, they’re easy to implement if you’re a novice blogger or a vet who wants to try something new.

Do you use an email marketing tactic not mentioned in the post? Leave a comment below – I’d love to hear about it!

https://blog.aweber.com/email-marketing/the-top-5-email-marketing-tips-for-bloggers.htm

7 Tasks Entrepreneurs Can Outsource To Virtual Assistants

BY  FELIX TARCOMNICUJUN 17, 2015

Entrepreneurs by nature are risk-takers. 

They want to be behind the wheel of the car, have full view of the road that lies ahead and be fully accountable for the outcome of the journey. 

But what happens when the journey runs into problems like inclement weather and roads become impassable? 

Or what if the car runs into engine trouble or gets a flat tire? Or what if the driver gets lost? Who will the driver call for help? 

The road to business success is not a straight path. It has potholes, bumps, peaks, valleys and is intermittently confounded by harsh weather conditions. 

Even if your entrepreneurial tool box houses the skill sets and competencies to navigate through these inconveniences, now you have to deal with an insurmountable force that you can never hope to overcome: TIME. 

One of the most important skills required to become a successful entrepreneur is the ability to effectively manage time. 

Put it this way, like it or not, there are only 24 hours in a day. Assuming you get in the minimum requirement of six (6) hours of sleep for adults, you only have 18 hours to manage everything that you need to do. 

When you factor in time allocated for commuting, meals, personal matters and family you probably have 5 to 6 hours left to attend to your business. 

To grow your business, you must be able to manage time. And to be able to manage time, you must delegate. For entrepreneurs with tight budgets, the best option would be to hire a Virtual Assistant. 

What Is A Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant is an individual who works online from a remote location and is contracted to manage a specified set of tasks or responsibilities. Unlike regular office employees, virtual assistants are only paid for the hours they work and at a rate one third the cost of a full-time salary. Thus, hiring a virtual assistant guarantees you lower costs but greater productivity. 

The Virtual Assistant has come a long way since the 1980’s where he or she would be hired primarily to render secretarial or personal assistant services. Since the growth of technology and the influence of social media, the Virtual Assistant has evolved into a profession with various skill sets that are technical and work specific. 

For entrepreneurs with limited competencies, assembling a team of virtual assistants would be a great step forward in developing the business. 

TASKS YOU CAN OUTSOURCE TO A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

Here are a few specialized tasks that you can outsource to a Virtual Assistant: 

1. Website Design

The first step in launching your business online is to build a website. 

While there are downloadable website templates available on the Internet, it is always advisable to have your website designed by an experienced professional to ensure it will run effectively and aesthetically, have the look that will appeal to your target market. 

For a website to be effective it must be accessible to different browsers, mobile responsive and have fast download speed. Having a professionally designed website greatly improves your probability to succeed. 

2. Social Media Marketing

A website by itself will not be successful in opening up market opportunities for your business. In order to maximize the potential of your website, you have to build inbound traffic and that is the purpose of social media marketing. 

Participating in social media does not make you an expert. To successfully implement social media programs, you need to conceptualize strategies, implement programs and create content that is relevant and engaging. 

Social media can be time-consuming and most entrepreneurs would not have the requisite skill set and hours to run this effectively. 

3. Blogging

Blogging has been proven to be an effective tool in generating business interest which is why five of the top corporations in the world: Wal-Mart, Chevron, General Motors, Ford and Bank of America have blogs. 

We all learned to write when we were old enough to hold a pen. But not everyone can write great content that appeals, stimulates opinion and engages lively discussion. 

If writing is not your strength, do not hesitate to acquire the services of a professional writer or blogger. In marketing, content is king and it takes skill and experience to craft great content. Ask your website designer to include a blog page in your website. 

4. Graphic Design

Your website designer may require the assistance of a Graphic Designer to consult with the look of your logo, the use of colors, lines, shapes, rhythm, font style and other patterns for your website and social media pages. 

A Graphic Designer views design from a different filter because they have greater experience on its aesthetic aspects. 

5. Accounting

The downfall of many small businesses and entrepreneurs is their inability to oversee and manage their available resources. 

Even is your business is generating consistent income, it is highly important to keep track of the flow of money in and out of your enterprise. In a business, it is important to have these documents ready for immediate reference: 

• Cash flow statement - Tracks the movement of funds 
• Income statement - Measures performance of the business
• Cash disbursement schedule - Updates payments to employees, suppliers and other creditors
• Preparing these statements can be tedious as it requires review and constant updating of invoices, journals and other supporting documents. Thus, it is best to delegate this responsibility to a Virtual Assistant but make time to discuss these on the first work day of the week. 

6. Phone Handling

Once your business starts gaining traction, it is inevitable that you will be receiving and making more calls than usual. Nothing can be more distracting to an entrepreneur than to receive a call from a telemarketer offering products and services in the middle of an important task. 

It can also be destructive to the business if the entrepreneur misses an important call or fails to make a scheduled call to a prospective client. Most Virtual Assistants have accumulated a wealth of experience in phone handling because this is one of the required skills. 

By delegating phone handling to a Virtual Assistant, the entrepreneur can focus on the task at hand without missing a beat. 

7. General Administrative Work

In addition to phone handling, an entrepreneur needs to organize his schedule and be updated on forthcoming activities that require his time and attention. 

Again, it’s all about affording the entrepreneur valuable time to focus on the important tasks. The Virtual Assistant can filter e-mail and screen only the ones relevant to the business; confirm appointments, update the Customer Relationship Management system and transcribe business audio into text format for convenience and immediate reference. 

If you find yourself inundated with tasks that are non-essential or functions not covered by your core competencies yet are necessary to move your business, you will have less time to attend to activities that directly impact on the success of your enterprise. 

For all the assets an entrepreneur can own, only the Virtual Assistant can provide the single most important asset to ensure the success of the business: TIME.

http://www.twelveskip.com/guide/business/1410/tasks-outsource-virtual-assistant

10 Scientific Findings That Can Help You Improve Your Marketing

In online advertising, marketers are constantly testing new ideas to increase customer conversion, but their efforts amount to little if the strategies employed are not backed by scientific data.

The reality is that there are so many messages being thrown at consumers every second of every day that individual voices have a tough time cutting through the noise.

That, coupled with the fact there are now 4 million Google searches a minute, marketers really need to be in the right place at the right time. 

Luckily, countless studies have revealed interesting insights into consumer behavior that are invaluable in the race to gain market share.

We’ll talk about 10 of them.

1. Potential Customers Readily Respond To Visuals 

It’s well documented that people rely heavily on their sense of vision to navigate the world around them – we’re actually wired that way. 

In fact, 50 percent of our brain's capacity is dedicated to processing visual information. 

According to recent findings; consumers are 65 percent more likely to remember information accompanied by an image.

This is one of the reasons why social media sites like Pinterest are leading the charge and capturing 41 percent of all e-commerce traffic. For some perspective, Facebook comes in second place at 37 percent.

So if small businesses and marketers want to improve their odds, adding images or other visuals such as videos and infographics are tried-and-true methods for increasing traffic, retention and conversion rates.

2. Information Overload Is A Real Thing 

Whenever marketers attempt to describe a new product or service, they’re faced with decisions regarding how much information to share. Generally, the idea is to lead consumers gently down the content marketing funnel.

Source: http://modedigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Content-Marketing-Funnel.jpg

Best practice principles involve spreading high-level information before focusing on specifics and narrowing the scope of your marketing message.

Avoid flooding your readership with overly complicated or poorly organized information and streamline the process. By doing this, you’ll find customers become much easier to acquire.

3. Variety Serves To Capture And Retain Engagement

This point reiterates the importance of breaking up dense blocks of text and making content scannable or palatable for modern audiences. Recent research into how users consume information online has revealed many insights as to how content should be presented.

In a further study conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group, 79 percent of participants scanned any new webpage they came across and only 16 percent read the information word for word.

Interestingly, it isn’t enough for marketers to just be brief. They must also establish credibility before the content they create is taken at more than face-value.

4. Comparative Pricing Works When Positioning Products

Of all the psychological pricing strategies – and there are many – comparative pricing is perhaps the most effective at establishing and retaking market share. Still, marketers must be cautious when pricing products and services below their competitors as positive public perceptions may diminish. Marketers can also use this strategy to direct buyers towards a specific product. Again, you’ll need to be careful as consumers don’t always opt for cheaper alternatives when confronted with choice.

For an example, consider a company that offers:

• A phone-charging cord for $10
• A phone cord wall adapter for $15 and
• A phone cord and wall adapter for $15

Most consumers would purchase option three as it represents the most value, but only because they have the second option to compare it to.

Half the battle lies in understanding your target audience and what they’re prepared to spend. All you really need to do is ensure that you can add value in a meaningful way.

5. There Is A Psychological Response To Color

Take a moment to think about the world’s most established brands and ask yourself what they all have in common. If you answered “a great brand identity” or “an iconic company logo,” the good news is you’re half right.

What makes a brand immediately recognizable in today’s age is color – and it can say a lot about company, according to this psychology of color infographic. Additionally, it affects the way potential customers react to marketing materials and whether or not they connect with the message.

Source: http://www.webpagefx.com/blog/web-design/psychology-of-color-infographic/

Be sure to consider how colors make use of psychological triggers to create desirable emotional responses before marketing your product or service. Those who understand the power of color can use it to their advantage and are able to create much more effective marketing campaigns.

6. Consistency Is Key In Business Blogging 

Up until now we’ve only scratched the surface of best practice in content writing, but it is just as important to populate your website and marketing campaigns with meaningful words as it is for anything else.

Results of a recent HubSpot survey involving 7,000 businesses revealed those who had 51 to 100 pages available on their websites generated 48 percent more traffic than those with less than 50 pages.

Source: http://cdn1.hubspot.com/hub/53/Marketing-Benchmarks-from-7000-businesses.pdf

One reason for this is due to having a larger network of inbound links; that is, traffic being directed to the website from other, external sites or online spaces.

According to Social Media Today, 61 percent of U.S. consumers in 2013 followed through with a purchase after reading a blog post, making the case airtight for quality business blogging.

7. Emotions Influence People’s Purchase Decisions

While this point won’t be news to marketing professionals, the extent to which this statement is true varies by degrees and by more than you might think.

It’s the job of marketers to push their message beyond the buyer’s subconscious through the use of consumer psychology to spur them into action.

Though various approaches have been thoroughly tested, most marketers begin with the benefits and features of a product and then conduct consumer research in the pursuit of matching needs and motivations.

8. Your Choice Of Wording Matters 

While quality content is important in all forms of content marketing, it is vitally important where calls to action are concerned.

Marketers first need to pique a buyer’s interest before they can persuade them to convert. According to recent research, success hinges on satisfying consumer expectations when they click through to checkout.

Source: http://www.mashbout.com/psychology-of-conversion/

As you can see, there is a marked difference in which words are more likely to convince customers to click in the first instance, but keep it in mind that placement is also an important consideration you’ll need to factor in.

9. Bundling Reduces Pressure On Consumer Pain Points

Generally, pain points resemble those extra surcharges or fees that artificially drive up prices until consumers’ wallets are hurting. However, they needn’t be related to financial matters – pain points can encompass inconvenient purchase processes.

While customers can be broadly categorized into three distinct groups, conservative buyers typically seek to buy something in a single transaction, according a recent article and George Loewenstern, a neuroeconomics expert.

Source: http://www.sparringmind.com/customer-psychology/

It should be noted that any upgrades that directly affect price also diminish the value of a product in the minds of consumers the closer they come to their spending threshold.

Thus, it’s essential your marketing efforts seek to alleviate the fears of your target audience and that you can justify price-affecting factors.

10. Creating A Sense Of Urgency Converts 

The one thing that makes indecisive customers become suddenly able to make rapid-fire decisions is time – and it can be used to great effect as a clever marketing tactic to drive sales.

Establishing a heavily discounted shopping atmosphere during a 24-hour flash sale serves to motivate consumers so they don’t wait until the last minute to convert, or miss out entirely.

Source: http://www.wiser.com/infographic-psychologicalpricing

It creates an illusion of scarcity and enables potential buyers to break through action paralysis, provided specific details and/or instructions are given. Additionally, consumers can become part of a social activity – something that’s been missing from the average shopping experience for quite some time.

So there you have it, 10 ways to utilize scientific findings and data-backed consumer psychology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your next campaign. Use some or all of these tips to drive sales and increase conversions.

http://www.twelveskip.com/marketing/strategies/1399/scientific-findings-to-improve-marketing

9 Awesome Tools For Content Authors And Bloggers

Content marketing isn’t easy.

It requires discipline, focus, and a lot of hard work. If you do any kind of writing — blog posts, articles, ebooks, etc. — you know how hard it can be to generate ideas and perfect your text so that morphs into something that’s useful to your audience. Wouldn’t it be great if there were some tools and Web applications that could help with the process?

Congratulations — you’re in luck! From idea generation to improving the quality of your prose, these 9 tools will help you up your game and become a writing ninja.

5 Content Idea Tools

Lack inspiration? It’s not uncommon to find yourself racking your brain for killer content ideas. Here are some tools to jumpstart your creativity:

1. Portent’s Content Idea Generator

Use this tool to come up with an array of titles for your next blog post or presentation. Some are funny. Some are shocking. All useful. [Caution: It’s addictive.]

Enter a keyword or phrase and it will generate a title and also offer tips for improving the content itself:

2. Content Marketing Ideas Generator

Enter a target audience in this tool and what knowledge will benefit them, and be rewarded with 20 content marketing ideas:

3. Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator

Enter 3 nouns that you’d like to write about and Hubspot’s tool will come up with a week’s worth of relevant blog post titles:

4. Soovle

Enter a keyword and Soovle will find the most popular terms across a wide variety of search engines:

5. Google Trends: Hot Searches

This tool visualizes the top 20 trending searches and displays them in a beautiful, full-screen, live animation. Click on a trend and see the related Google search results:

4 Content Improvement Tools

Need to improve the quality of your content? These apps will help you get the job done.

1. Grammarly

Grammarly makes you a better writer by finding and correcting mistakes in your text:

2. The Readability Test Tool

The Readability Test Tool provides a quick and easy way to test the readability of your work. Enter your URL and it will calculate your content’s accessibility:

3. Unsuck-It

Are you trying to avoid business jargon? Unsuck-It is a great tool that identifies alternatives you can use instead:

4. Hemingway

Hemingway makes your content bold and clear. The app highlights common errors and catches wordy sentences, adverbs, passive voice, and dull, complicated language:

You might also like:

Pepsi Sidelines Super Bowl Ads, Opts for Social Media Push

Facebook is Now the Leading Publisher of Web Display Ads

65 Terrific Social Media Infographics

The World is Obsessed with Facebook [Video]

Linkwithin

http://www.pamorama.net/2015/03/21/9-awesome-tools-for-content-authors-and-bloggers/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Making Profits Out of Your Home Business Blog

by Yan Susanto

Blogging is a common buzzword and almost everyone who uses the internet knows what it is. In fact, many internet users have and maintain their own blogs.

Several years ago, people wrote blogs to unleash their personal thoughts and feelings. It wasn’t long ago that the power of blogging was discovered by different business people from different parts of the world, and they took advantage of it to promote their businesses online.

If you are into online marketing, one of the best tools that you can use to promote your online business is to create your very own home business blog.

Many affiliate marketers use this technique nowadays to boost their sales. This was a proven strategy and a lot of salesperson have greatly benefited from it.

How to Start Your First Home Business Blog?

You can browse for websites that enable free registration and blog posting. There are a huge number of options out there, which include Blogspot, WordPress, Live Journal, Multiply and PR Logs among others.

It will only take you about 15 minutes to set up your own free site. There are instructions to follow but they are only few and easy steps. You can get these blogs listed on search engines in just a matter of 2 days or more.

Believe it or not, there are teenagers who are earning $ xx,xxx a month through their home business blogs. If people who are as young as them could earn that much by blogging, what more can adults like us do?

Of course, bloggers would not earn that much in an instance. You need to provide content for your blog on a regular basis. After some time, you will see a dramatic change in your earnings. It will require diligence, time and dedication on the part of the blogger to establish readership.

In short, blogging is like a marathon. It is not to be considered as a sprint. It is also like wine which brings out the better taste as it grows older.

Content is King

When you have a home business blog, the first thing that you should bear in mind is that you should try your best to provide quality content at all times. People would come to your site because they know that it’s worth their time. They know that your content is always interesting, informative and useful to your readers.

Providing your visitors with quality content will help you build up a good reputation and it will increase your credibility as well. In just a matter of weeks or months, you will be able to build a bond between your business and them.

If you are going to talk about a product or a service on your blog, it is best if you will only write about something that you have really tried and tested. It will be difficult to write about something that you have no experience with.

It is always easier to describe something that you really have awareness of. Drawing those thoughts from your very own experience tends to be more effective and persuasive.

If you can place a subscription box and a thank you pop up on your blog, the better. Once your readers subscribe to your blog, they will instantly be notified whenever you post something new. The will immediately be informed when you have something interesting to offer.

Affiliate Marketing is Where The Money is

Supposed you are into affiliate marketing, you should place your affiliate link on your blog. You can also place your affiliate buttons or banners, which when clicked, will redirect readers to your main site, sign up form or purchase form.

Do not forget to write reviews about the products or services that you are marketing. Be honest about what you will say because you will win the hearts of your readers by doing this thing. Readers now have become more intelligent and they can easily distinguish hype and an honest review. Also, bear in mind that majority of the online buyers purchase stuffs after coming from a blog or a review.

Most blogging sites allow bloggers to upload videos. Do not miss the opportunity to use this feature for the sake of boosting your online sales. Upload videos about the products and services that you are selling. Actual demonstrations can easily entice viewers to make a purchase.

http://www.retireat21.com/blog/making-profits-out-of-your-home-business-blog