Posted by Jackie Ewing on February 14, 2010
Join Our Mailing List
Do you send a newsletter to your clients and prospects? It could be an email newsletter or a print newsletter, but you SHOULD be sending one or the other, if not both.
Most businesses are unaware that their customer list is their most valuable asset. Communicating with them on a very regular basis is key to you being at the forefront of their minds when they are ready to buy whatever product or service it is that you offer. As mentioned in a previous blog called Mining for Gold,
You also need to communicate with your customers on a regular basis through email and print. If you don’t have an email newsletter, you are losing out on the potential of building really lasting, long-term relationships with your customers. Your communication to them is not a bother, if they don’t unsubscribe. They may not react immediately because they are not ready to buy. But when they are, because you communicate with them regularly, you are at the forefront of their mind when a particular need arises. Some will respond better to print so you should also use direct mail as part of your mining process. Continue to “mine” your list and communicate with them very regularly.
There are many options for you once you’ve made the decision to begin a newsletter. I’ve narrowed them down to three basic approaches:
- Create your own email newsletter for next-to-nothing using your email software.
- Use a service like Constant Contact, Vertical Response or MadMimi that has a minimal cost but gives you pre-made templates to use.
- Delegate it or outsource it.
1. Create your own:
I don’t recommend creating your own unless you have the skills, talent and time to do it. Believe me, it is not an easy task! It may not end up looking like you want it to and you will be limited by your email service as to how many you can send out at one time.
2. Use an email service:
Using one of the sources mentioned above (or choose from a myriad of others) is a great way to get started. It means you can take an existing template, customize it to your business in a few easy steps, add your interesting content (always the most time-consuming and difficult part, I say!), import your customer data and email out your newsletter. Easy to follow instructions allow you to focus on the content that will most interest your customers.
3. Delegate or Outsource:
While this may cost a little more to get going and keep going, it allows you the freedom to continue doing what you do best -working on your business so you can make more money! Pay someone else to develop the newsletter format, find the content – interesting text, photos and video – prepare the customer database and get it emailed out on a regular basis. Once the process has been started, you’ll be amazed at how smoothly it runs – you may only have to input a little article to personalize the newsletter – proof it, and give the OK to email it out on schedule.
Our recommendation for this type of service? Ewing Enterprises of course! This is one of the services that we provide to our clients. If you are ready to take the plunge and have someone do this for you – someone who LOVES to do this!! – take a look at what some of our clients have to say about our newsletters and service:
Kim Williams
With Jackie’s help & support we finally got around to sending out newsletters to our past guests. I never seemed to find the time to do it myself but it’s has been fun working with Jackie as she does all the hard work! Jackie’s encouragement to write my ‘piece’ each month has provoked a new interest! And the past guests have been delighted to receive our communication – it’s like a continuation of the holiday time they spent with us. Working with Jackie at Ewing Enterprises has made it all so easy.
Kim Williams, Clermont, Florida. VILLASFANTAZMIC
Jackie has proved to be totally reliable & trustworthy – she meets the deadlines set and is the sole of discretion.
David Leather
She has taken on the onerous task of categorizing our data base, which is at least 7 years old, and writing monthly newsletters which are both factual and easy to read.
David Leather, St. Cloud, Florida. HAYES VACATION HOMES
I learnt that Jackie Ewing does this as part of her consulting services and I asked her to explain to me how it worked. She visited my
Joanne Kjolsen
office and the only effort was in the formation of the names database which was just a matter of data entry – not difficult at all by any standards and now I have a created list in the correct format to now receive monthly newsletters.However I had no idea about what to say/what to write/format etc, and once again, Jackie has this down to a fine art. She comes up with the topical news snippets which are of interest to my client base both potential and existing and creates a newsletter for me and all I have to do is provide a couple of photos of things done during my month and a few words about one or two topics and she does the rest,.I proof read it before it goes out and voila! I know my customers are reading it as I see them mention something in it during correspondence with me, it might be something that I did or something that was mentioned in the newsletter. Either way, it’s a very simple and informative way of keeping me in touch with my clients on a monthly basis without it appearing as a direct selling piece. It totally is, but they see it as a fun thing to read about the place they love, Orlando!
Joanne Kjolsen, Kissimmee, Florida. BELLA VACATION HOMES
Posted by Jackie Ewing on February 1, 2010
I recently spent 3 days in the esteemed company of the likes of Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, Yanik Silver, Ron Ipach and Dean Hunt – well, me and several hundred others that is! The Outrageous Academy & Workshop led us through many, many, tried and tested examples of outrageous marketing that WORKS! I do believe that after those 3 days, the ideas have finally been accepted by my subconscious, which is now very busy convincing my conscious mind that these ideas, while wacky and wonderful, DO WORK!
Bill Glazer gave us some in-depth training on the ideas presented in his book – Outrageous Marketing That is Outrageously Successful. He has used these ideas for
Bill Glazer signed his book for me
many years and made millions of dollars within his own menswear retail businesses, and again in the Glazer-Kennedy Insider Circle (GKIC) information marketing business. The book itself is a reference tool like no other, with multiple swipe-and-deploy examples ready for the swiping and deploying! You just have to train yourself to ask “How can I use this in my business to get more clients and make more money?” – and not shake your head saying, “that won’t work in my business.”
Since that weekend, I have seen some examples of advertising that while not particularly outrageous, they certainly are different and made me notice their message. Again, wondering “How can I apply that in MY business.”
Outrageous Marketing at Work
The first one is a rather unique effort by the elementary school to get more parents to give their email addresses to the school so they can better communicate with them… and save some paper by not having to send letters and flyers home with each kid. *Note: there was a 2nd step to this process, with a deadline! See the pic at the bottom of the post. Added Feb 4, 2010.
Pretty good idea to get the kids to get the parents to give up the elusive email addresses so they can get a free homework pass – rather ingenious, I do think!
The next one I saw was a billboard. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of thinking – “I’ll take a photo of that tomorrow”. Tomorrow came, and the billboard was gone! Another lesson taught by my esteemed pals – don’t think about it, do it NOW! Lesson now learned the hard way ; I consider myself appropriately wrist-slapped.
The billboard said “Men have rights too” and gave phone number and website for a local law firm specializing in
This firm are going the opposite direction to everyone else
divorce. It pulled on the opposite emotion to most other companies who advertise to the women. I bet it has caught a lot people’s eyes as they drive by. So, in it’s place is a new billboard – by the same law firm. Check this one out!
This time, by focusing on the kids, they are pulling on the emotions of both sides by intimating that they have the kids best interests at heart. If you don’t want a messy divorce in which your children might get hurt, try us – we’ll take good care of them for you. Pretty outrageous, don’t you think?!
So, now I have to knuckle down and put the outrageous in my own advertising. If you have any ideas you’d like to share, or just have me try it so you don’t look like an eejit (that’s Dublinese for idiot!), comment below and I’ll get back to you. Outrageous only please!
Free Homework Pass
Posted by Jackie Ewing on January 19, 2010
You’ve heard enough about Facebook by now to know that you probably should be doing something about using it in your business. But like many others, you are probably also wondering WHY and HOW?!
This article will address the WHY part of that question.
In a nutshell, if you add a Facebook Fan Page to your overall marketing strategy (and Yes, you should have one of these!!) you will supplement your efforts at driving traffic to your website or phone.
Here are 3 really good reasons why your business should have a Facebook Fan Page and why it is imperative that you do it NOW as opposed to “just as soon as I can find the time”.
- Excellent Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Very effective communication tool
- It’s FREE!!
Let’s take a look at these in more detail so you can see how they apply to YOUR business.
Excellent Search Engine Optimization:
If you have a website for your business then you surely are aware of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how much time and energy is spent on this. The idea is if your website is optimized with the right keywords and meta data, the search engines will find your website, like what they find and then place you high in their rankings of other websites similar to yours. Good SEO will place your site high in the organic (non-paid for) listings when folks search for your product or service. A Facebook Fan Page will supplement all of your other SEO efforts.
You can add content daily and change it out at will. The static pages of your site once indexed, remain that way because they typically don’t change much. Search engines like new and updated relevant content and will index it well if they see it happening on a regular basis. Posts to your Facebook Fan Page can be done daily, even hourly if your audience is receptive enough.
You can add unlimited photos and videos to your Facebook Fan Page. Tag and describe these with your top keywords and you give the search engines many more reasons to visit and index your site.
Very Effective Communication Tool:
Of the 350 million users that are on Facebook almost daily, do you think any of your customers are among them? Absolutely! So use Facebook to converse with them in their style. Of course, first you need to get them to come to your Fan Page and become a fan. You can do that many ways – email signatures, newsletters, mail invitations. Just find the customers that choose Facebook as their favored communication tool and interact with them regularly. Take a llok at Coca Cola’s Fan Page to see how they interact with their fans and you’ll see how powerful a communication tool this really is!
It’s FREE:
This the greatest reason why your business should have a Facebook Fan Page – it’s completely Free to use! You can double or triple your SEO efforts at no cost to you, but some well-planned time. The speed that good fan pages are showing up all over the search engines is phenomenal! If you don’t take advantage of this, you will most certainly be left behind.
Posted by Jackie Ewing on January 11, 2010
I’ve seen one-too-many comments from frustrated Facebook friends on the raging Mafia Wars or Farmville or sheep-throwing or other such nonsense to ignore it any longer.
Block Mafia Wars
I consider myself one of the lucky few who have never engaged with anyone on these and so have remained relatively free of requests. I did make it my business to find out how to block unwanted applications when I received a ton of requests to join Mafia Wars from friends that I knew were just not the type – and sure enough, it was a scam.
So, to permanently block one or more unwanted applications from your facebook you have two choices
- Next time you receive a request from one of these apps, look for the “block application” link and click on it
- Go to the app itself and block it there
To do the 2nd option, follow these steps:
- Click on the Facebook Applications link in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen
- type “mafia wars” in the search box and hit enter
- You’ll get a list of apps with that name; the most popular one is the one you want to block which is usually top of the list. look at the number of active users if you are unsure which to choose
- click on the link to the app
- right under where it says “Go To Application” it also has the option to Block Application
- Click on “Block Application”
- You’ll get a pop-up screen asking if you want to block the application, click on the big blue Block Mafia Wars button
- Final pop-up will confirm that this app is now blocked for you
How to Block Farmville
If you want to block more apps just repeat the above steps for each of them.
Hope that helps alleviate the frustration with unwanted apps. Let me know how it worked out for you. All comments are welcome!
Posted by Jackie Ewing on December 31, 2009
I’m sure everyone has at least thought about setting some goals or resolutions for this coming New Year. I am one of those – I’ve definitely thought about it, but not actually sat down and put anything down on paper. I’m almost finished reading “The Magic of Thinking Big” by Michael J. Schwartz and that has helped me think about what I want to accomplish in the next 12 months. The plan was to sit down this afternoon and plot out my goals and then the path to those goals.
Bree McMahon
I took my power walk a little earlier today so I could get some extra blood flow to the brain in the hope that it would also help me get motivated to start the process! As I approached the soccer fields in the park, I noticed a group of girls in red and white soccer uniforms. They were having their group photos taken and there was much laughter and noise coming across the soccer field! A wheelchair caught my eye and made me think of a local Orlando girl – Bree McMahon – a soccer player who lost a leg this year while at a car wash raising funds for her soccer team and then to wonder how she was doing.
It’s a pretty sad but inspiring story of how accidents can happen and can change peoples lives forever. Basically, one of her best friends accidentally reversed the car they were washing into Bree and the wall behind her. She ended up having a leg amputated. You can read details of the story here.
I stopped to watch the girls goof around and get together for the photo. Did I mention that the wheelchair was empty? I sought out Bree in the gaggle of soccer-clad girls and saw her standing among them on her “new” leg. She acted no differently to any of the others. What a girl!
I continued my walk and when I got home, I searched for an update on her story. What I found was this video clip of her story that The Today Show did earlier this month. I want you to watch it, listen to her and then look inside yourself at your own “issues” and then put them into some kind of perspective. It worked for me!
After I showered, ate and powered down an XS energy drink, I sat down with a pen and paper and wrote down many goals for myself and my business for this coming year. As I was doing that, I stopped and realized that by sharing this, somebody else might be inspired to get focused on their own goals and the action needed to get there. If a teenage girl who lost a leg can continue to actively pursue her goal (pun intended!) of playing and coaching soccer, then I should be able to get my head around my own goals and the actions I need to take to accomplish them. My perceived barriers paled into insignificance beside her achievements.
Hoping that this story inspires you to take action and be thankful for what you have!
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.
