How Small Businesses Can Create a Strong Database
It’s easy to understand the temptation to ramp up your database numbers with a quick infusion to catch up with your competitors and make your brand look hot. The truth of the matter is, false inflation does little to propel small businesses forward and may actually cost you more money in the long run.
We had a client recently purchase a localized database list from a data service company. At first glance, several contacts jumped out at us because we knew of the businesses—past tense. They had dissolved several years earlier. Upon further inspection, our client was able to determine that almost 50% of the list was obsolete and that of the remaining contacts, few were viable as potential customers.
While the database firm would not refund the client’s money for the bunk list, our client did halt all efforts to contact the businesses on that list, saving on postage, man-hours, phone calls, and electronic efforts that would have all been essentially flushed down the toilet.
Of course it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers game, but how long have we known that quantity does not trump quality? What good does it do for a local restaurant to have 7,000 Twitter followers if the majority of them live outside of the state, or even out of the country?
For local, small businesses that provide a localized service, slow and steady wins the race when it comes to building an online reputation. For larger, nationwide businesses or those that ship products or provide services globally, large infusions may provide strong results.
So what’s a small business to do? To build a quality marketing list:
| 1. Capture existing customers by verifying or collecting information at check-out. | |
| 2. Create a refer-a-friend program to reward customers for referring new customers to your business. | |
| 3. Display your business at local events, community samplings, and festivals to capture local interest. td> | |
| 4. Join a networking group and grow your reach through select partners. | |
| 5. Tag-team with local vendors to cross-promote your products or services through “select third party” offers. |
All of these things will help you collect a database of potential customers. Unlike wide-open grow-your-numbers programs on the web, these tips account for proximity and interest in your product or service when collecting database information.
Is Your Business Ready for Managed Email Services?
So your company is off and running. Congratulations! If your dream company is finally off the ground and you’ve collected email addresses that have the makings of an excellent customer base, it may be time to graduate to managed email services.
We realize how daunting it can be to manage so many aspects of your company and that when you are in this critical stage of development, you’d like to keep expenditures low. That’s why when you are just crossing over into managed services, we think you should be able to do so FREE until your company reaches that next growth milestone.
How can we do this? Easy. We pride ourselves in support and care and want to be an integral part in your success. We hope that after we partner with you during this phase of your development, be it several months or several years, our help will have served as an introduction and “get-to-know-you,” and that you’ll consider us for future services as you grow.
Check out Online Outbox to customize, send, and track 1,000 emails per month FREE with no strings attached! What does come attached are all of these great features for, did we mention, FREE!
| - Personalized email builder | |
| - Customizable templates | |
| - Account manager | |
| - Email response tracker | |
| - Tips and tricks to maximize your success | |
| - Guidelines to keep your e-communications legally compliant |
Go ahead, get your feet wet. Check out the FREE offer that never expires. When you are ready to increase your campaign’s reach, you can upgrade to any of Online Outbox’s other featured services. We can assist you in launching split or test campaigns, help you refine your messages, and tie your campaign into your other online efforts so customers will be able to find you in every corner of the web.
So go on and take the monster task of email management off your plate and use our services FREE. You’ve made it this far, and it’s time to focus your efforts on your future growth.
Next up, we’ll share strategies that will help you build up a quality database of customer contacts.
Don’t Forget to Adjust Your Automated Features!
Brrr! It’s cooled down in a hurry this week. We’ve seen people in offices around Atlanta sneaking over to fiddle with the thermometer and much to their chagrin, the master control trumped their wishes to fire up the heater.
We love automated features that make our lives easier but hate it when they backfire on us. At Online Outbox, we get a lot of clients who like to program a campaign to run long term. They dub it “set it and forget it” and choose to rely on our site’s convenient automation. The feature is very reliable, just as a thermostat is when you program it to self-regulate. But what happens when the weather changes? You need to revisit your programming and adjust it for new conditions. Can you see where we’re going with this?
It is important to adjust your advertising matrix based on the levels and types of responses your former campaigns generate. Our automated send-outs and reporting tools are time-saving features, but should not be used as a substitute for the human touch. Take for instance, timing your messages. We can suggest to you the best time to send an email to your clients based on industry standards and our experiences, but those guidelines are no substitute for what you know about your business.
What do we mean? Let’s take three individual clients and consider their best send out times. General industry guidelines suggest the best time to send an email is Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday during the 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. hour.
What if that time slot isn’t working well for these three clients? How would you tweak their delivery schedule?
| - A nightclub advertising featured bands | |
| - A natural, herbal sleep-aid | |
| - A doughnut shop |
Right. You would look at when their audience is most likely to be actively engaged in their product line. For the nightclub, we’d look at after-hours toward the end of the week when people are making their weekend plans. The sleep aid company might do substantially better by reaching out to people in the middle of the night—when potential customers are suffering from the problem and likely to be idling on the computer. And the doughnut shop? Generally they’ll do their best business in the morning, so it’s important to strike when the iron is hot. They could look at early morning hours to encourage their clients to pick up a box of goodies for the office meeting or use the drive-thru for a treat on the way to work.
Sending effective campaigns isn’t about following the formula other companies use. It isn’t about when it’s convenient for you to hit the send button during a hectic day. It’s about understanding your customer base and providing relevant content to them when they need it. Pairing our tools with your business savvy is just one more way you can maximize your results with Online Outbox.
Catering to the Masses While Staying True to your Brand Identity
One of the most difficult hurdles for small businesses to overcome when communicating with customers is brand identity. The Internet is laden with competitors who appear to have an edge in some aspect of the business you share. So how can you really make yourself stand out in a crowd while staying true to who you are and what you do?
Focus on Your Assets
Hey, if you’ve got it, flaunt it! This means if you’ve just received another award for that scrumptious apple cobbler in your bakery, put it front and center in your advertising efforts and allow it to “transfer credibility” to your other products. If coffee is an ancillary product and you don’t do it as well as Starbucks, don’t pretend. Instead, mention you have a seating area for people to meet and relax and that you serve a house blend of roasted coffee alongside your fabulous baked goods. It’s hard to keep yourself from “overselling” something you believe in, but if your coffee is just coffee, don’t set your customers up to believe they are going to receive custom-ordered gourmet drinks if they’re not. You’ll gain credibility for being honest.
Draw the Lines
Tout your specialties, but if there is a related area of business that your customers ask for and you don’t deliver, make that clear or offer alternate solutions. Perhaps you are a seamstress who creates fabulous drapes but you don’t have installers on staff. In this case, provide information about do-it-yourself window treatment installation or have a list of reputable referrals that you can provide to your customers.
Small businesses don’t grow big overnight. There may be some areas where your company cannot compete with a national company that delivers the same type of product or service. Figure out what gives you the competitive edge over them, and drive it to the bank. Perhaps you have guaranteed appointment times, a product selection that is regionally unique, or you only hire certified professionals to handle your contracts. Whatever it is that makes your company unique is what you should pour into your brand identity.
How to Show Up on your Customers’ Radar (or Newsfeed!)
Have you given much thought lately to how the average American family spends its time? It’s quite a departure from how we lived our lives just ten short years ago.
One of our clients recently shared his epiphany with us. His family was sitting in the great room in front of the television. No one was talking but there were four conversations going on in the room around him. Why? You guessed it—everyone was chatting via social media-enabled devices—their laptop, iPad, or cell phone. His daughters were even forwarding web-links and sharing Facebook comments with each other while in the same room as each other, yet without exchanging a single word verbally. He figured this out when the girls broke out in laughter at the same time but he didn’t catch a joke—they’d texted it to each other.
As ludicrous as indirect-direct communications may seem to those of us who grew up a few decades earlier than this rising tech-enriched society—a new form of communication has arrived and society has embraced it in almost every commerce-related and social aspect of their lives.
How can you get into that inner circle? That is the question web development firms are clamoring to answer. People aren’t always going to search for you, and yet, you still have opportunities to appear in front of them. Getting invited into people’s Twitter feed is one way you can send out short message bursts to them on a frequent basis. Converting them to your inner circle where they’ll accept your newsletters and special offers is where the art of messaging and communicating comes in.
You may have heard that content is king, but so has everyone else. Instead of heeding the rush to shove content out the door, resist the urge and hold back. Insist that quality is present in every communication; otherwise you’ll quickly get blocked or dropped by potential customers. What makes your communication worthwhile? It should have one or more of these key components:
1.Entertainment value
2.Education for consumers
3.Special offers or discounts
4.Relevant and timely information
5.Clever tips and tricks
The number one way to show up and stay in your customers’ inner circle is to give them something they perceive as valuable: a laugh, a breaking news update, special offers, education, or tips and tricks. Does your messaging contain one of more of those components?
Stay tuned for our next blog where we will discuss specific ways to discover which of these components is right for your specific company.
Sharing is Caring: Social Media on Newsletters
One of the best methods to increase your popularity and web presence is through effective use of social media. You may have seen social buttons on websites or blogs, but have you thought of using the power of sharing on the emails you’re sending out? Although your subscribers can forward emails they’re getting from you via webmail or their email client, wouldn’t it be lovely if you can make their lives easier by showing them a way to share it on Facebook, Twitter or virtually everywhere in the world wide web? Here are 3 of the nicest ways to add social media sharing buttons/links to your newsletters.
Very easy to use. Simply fill in the page title and the URL of whatever link is included in your newsletter that you want to get the people to share, press the Get Button Code to generate an HTML code that you can paste into one or all of your Online Outbox HTML email campaigns. Registration is not required to use the site.
Better looking buttons here and there’s an option to register if you want to separately track how your readers are using the sharing button. Again pretty simple, paste the URL you want to share – it can be your website or a blog post, select a “style” and an HTML code should pop up at the side.
Unlike the previous two, ShareThis requires registration before you grab a hold of a button code for your newsletter. Anyhow, once you get past that prerequisite, you’re in for a painless three step process to pick the code you need and you’re done.
See? There’s a bigger world for your newsletters than limiting them to the subscriber’s inbox. Maintain a healthy relationship with your subscribers, provide quality content and encourage them to share your newsletter content if you wish to make it available to a bigger audience. Do you know of other methods to improve the reach of email campaigns?