Program Guide Module 2 2011 LifeStylized.com Module 2 M Page 1 o f S1IMPLE 5 MARKETING ADE
YOUR WEEK ONE AH- HA MOMENTS What did you find most useful/ helpful about the Avatar exercise? Did you learn anything new about your target market that you feel will be helpful in communicating your marketing messages to them? Y / N If yes, what? What blocks or B.S. (belief systems) came forward that frustrated you or stopped you from completing your avatar exercise? Do you feel that this same B.S. might contribute to any struggles you currently face in your business? (be specific) What questions came up that you would like answered in today s Q&A session? MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 2 of SIMPLE 15
Online Marketing: Learn the Do s and Don ts of a Successful Website Now that you have an idea of who you are speaking with, let s talk about two important ways that you will be communicating with your tribe - Your Website and Your E- zine. After all, marketing is the words you speak and the words you write. 5 most costly mistakes in creating a website 1. Not having the ability to make your own changes/ updates 2. Not knowing your web platform and how you can expand with it 3. Paying thousands of dollars for a site that doesn t work for you 4. Thinking that all you need is a website to drive traffic to it 5. Including way too much information/ pages on your site (a confused mind ALWAYS says NO) Active Website vs. Passive Website A passive website is what most people create. It s a website that acts as a brochure or branding site. People come to it, click around to learn about you and then leave with nothing to entice them back. An active website is a site that encourages people to take action on something. Active websites offer enticing ways for people to join your list, buy a product or service or get to know you through your blog or videos. You want to be able to contact the people who visit your site so capturing their contact info is a priority. PASSIVE SITES VS ACTIVE SITES http://www.rachelavalon.com http://rosecole.com http://thewholejourney.com http://www.thegrowthcoach.com http://www.donatochiropractic.com http://jjvirgin.com http://bigvisionbusiness.com http://tpcwellness.com IMPORTANT- Be sure to look at these site examples on the pages to follow as websites update often and may not reflect what we are speaking about at the time you are viewing them. MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 3 of SIMPLE 15
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5 ways to make your site more active: 1. Include a video of you on your homepage 2. Have a free offer to entice people to join your email list. 3. Have your social networks listed on homepage 4. List your special events and programs on homepage 5. Have your blog as your homepage MARKETING MYTH #2 Having a website will get you clients. A website is almost a must these days for any business. It truly helps people to get to know you and your brand before they decide to buy. However, just putting up a website does not guarantee that people will find you. There is a lot more to the web these days than just getting your site up and having people find you. There is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and millions of dollars (or hours) needed to keep your rankings high in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. However, don t despair, with the rise of social media there are many low- cost and no cost ways to get people to your site. 5 no cost ways to drive traffic to your website: 1. Find busy blogs related to your niche and comment on them. 2. Create 2 minute tips videos on YouTube and share your website link on the video and in the description. 3. Post links to your blog on your social media pages (facebook, twitter. etc) 4. Visit Niche Forums and join the conversation. Learn more: http://www.famousbloggers.net/find- forums- niche.html 5. Get your website link posted on high traffic sites like craigslist.com and ebay.com. (get creative) MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 8 of SIMPLE 15
Your E- zine: A gateway to an ongoing conversation with your tribe. EMAIL MARKETING IS EFFECTIVE BECAUSE It allows targeting It is data driven It drives direct sales It builds relationships, loyalty and trust It supports sales through other channels Statistically: According to recent reports, email marketing is 20 times more cost effective than direct mail. The opt- in response rate is 50 times greater than advertising with an ROI of $42.08 for every $1 spent on it in 2010 (DMA). Email marketing generates rapid responses and leaves a digital footprint that can be measured instantaneously. It is also highly targeted. In just a few clicks, you can segment your list by demographics, purchasing history, or interests and tailor your messages and offers to the individuals most likely to respond - boosting response rates. Creating an email marketing message is almost as simple as writing an email. Not having an e- zine is the biggest mistake any service- based entrepreneur can make. It is a way for you to communicate with your tribe, offer them valuable information about you and your offerings, and it is the #1 way to track their response in which to better tailor your products/ services to them. Elements of a Successful E- zine Now that you ve identified your tribe and their core wounds in relationship to your products & services, you can begin to figure out how to address them in your copy (writing). Tips for creating and gathering content: Your content is the most important part of your email newsletters. Here are some content- related tips excerpted from an e- book by MailChimp: 1. Give your readers the VIP treatment The people who subscribe to your email list are so interested in you and your business that they have asked you to reach out to them directly (by signing up for your newsletter). Honor this group of dedicated customers and fans. Let them be the first to know about any important or interesting news (such as sales, new products, business changes, etc.). Give them access to special benefits as subscribers. Maybe even give them special insight into your company so they feel like they are getting to know you on a personal level. MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 9 of SIMPLE 15
2. Keep It Useful Think about how you decide which emails you want to open and which ones you delete right away. You don t open an email that doesn t benefit you in some way. Make sure the content you fill your newsletter with benefits your subscribers. Some common things to include in an e- newsletter are: Industry news and information Useful tips and tricks Surveys and polls Special offers and exclusive coupons Q&A s Promotional material Photos of staff around your office 3. Keep It Short Most people are bombarded with tons of emails each day. Keep your newsletter short and easy to digest. If you re including a long interview, story or article, just feature the headline and first paragraph (or a short summary) in your newsletter and provide a link to the full piece on your website. This allows your readers to decide what they want to read quickly and bypass the information they re not interested in. 4. Show Some Personality No one wants to read a dry and boring newsletter put some personality into it. The email newsletter format is less formal than a print article or brochure. Try to write the way you might speak to one of your subscribers if you were discussing the same information. Find your voice. Building your list. If you ve ever collected business cards or exchanged emails with current or potential clients then you have a start of a great list. If you are already in business and you ve collected email from your clients, this is also a great start to your list. TIPS TO START YOUR FIRST EMAIL LIST Put all the information gathered from these tips into one master spreadsheet* Gather up all the business cards from people you ve met who are part of your tribe. Go through your email files and pull out emails from current and prospective clients. Use your family & friends contact info to start your list. They can always opt- out later. Always have sign- up sheets with you when you are a presenter or speaker. Make sure to collect emails in all your intake forms or new client questionnaires. Use Facebook or Linked- in to source emails of people in your networks / tribe by sending a message to your friends asking them if you can send them your newsletter. MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 10 of SIMPLE 15
NOTE: Do not take or use any emails from CC d group emails where you do not already have a relationship with those people. This is called scraping and is a big no no! Begin to create your master email list. Schedule a few hours this week to organize your contacts and put them into a master spreadsheet for easy upload into an email program of your choice. Do research on how you can export your email contacts from your existing database (outlook, AOL, g- mail, etc). Go through your business card collection (people you ve met at networking events, etc) and pull out those you think fit the qualities of your tribe. If you have your contacts already organized take the time to put them in a template. Visit our program page for an excel document template that you can use to easily organize your lists. **IMPORTANT NOTE** Please take the time to read more about permission based email on page 10 of our Marketing Lexicon to better understand the rules of email marketing. You MUST send your contacts an opt- in link or letter before you can start bulk emailing them. Be Professional- Use an Email Delivery Service. With all the SPAM issues out there, email delivery services have become quite popular. Why? Because they work with email providers such as gmail, yahoo and AOL to ensure that your email gets delivered and, they offer easy ways to track results and to unsubscribe. Being able to easily unsubscribe from your list is something that is very important when it comes to using an e- zine in your business. It s ALL about permission based email. MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 11 of SIMPLE 15
Recommended Email Programs: COMPANY FEATURES WE LIKE LINK TO SIGN- UP Mail chimp Always free for under 2000 subscribers / contacts Simple/ user friendly Sign- up for mail chimp using this URL: http://eepurl.com/etn7e Benchmark Email Aweber Easy media manager Good social media features Easy to use templates Great opt- in forms highly reliable delivery Sign- up for benchmark using this URL: http://www.benchmarkemail.com?p=73392 Sign- up for Aweber using this URL: http://www.aweber.com/?299790 Other professional email service providers: Mad Mimi Cooler Email icontact iconnect Vertical Response Constant Contact Try out an email delivery service! Begin to get familiar with the features of an email system. The best way to learn is by DOING. Pick a company from the recommended list above (each of them offers a free trial) and set up an account. Watch some tutorials, play with the templates and set- up your first email. Even if you don t know what to write, just make it up! Have fun! MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 12 of SIMPLE 15
Week 2 Marketing Lifestyle HOMEPLAY: Explore the passive vs. active websites we covered. Look for sites in your field that are more active. Begin to create your master email list. Try out an email delivery service. Marketing Lexicon: Web Platform: this is the system of infrastructure that your website is build on. Wordpress is a wesbsite platform. Others are Joomla, Drupal, or custom platforms build by website design companies. Web design: this is the look and feel of your website. Design includes colors, logos, banners, or anything that adds style to your site. Programmer: Someone who works with the code that creates the web infrastructure. A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. Media Manager/ Media Library: an online library that hosts all of your images, videos and files used on your web site or in your e- zine. URL: In computing, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that specifies where a known resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. In layman s terms, this is what you plug in to your web browsers when wanting to visit a specific site or page. Example of a URL: http://coolconsciousmarketing.com/mms4- home Domain Name: Simply put, a domain name is the name you purchase for your website. A domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are hostnames that identify Internet Protocol (IP) resources such as web sites. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 13 of SIMPLE 15
Opt- in form (aka- web form): this is a form that you place on your site so that visitors can easily opt- in or sign- up for your email list. Opt- in email: is a term used when someone is given the option to receive "bulk" e- mail, that is, e- mail that is sent to many people at the same time. Typically, this is some sort of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising. Obtaining permission before sending e- mail is critical because without it, the e- mail is Unsolicited Bulk Email, better known as spam. There are several common forms of opt- in e- mail: Unconfirmed opt- in A new subscriber first gives his or her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page), but no steps are taken to make sure that this address actually belongs to the person. This can cause e- mail from the mailing list to be considered spam because simple typos of the email address can cause the email to be sent to someone else. Malicious subscriptions are also possible, as are subscriptions that are due to spammers forging email addresses that are sent to the e- mail address used to subscribe to the mailing list. Confirmed opt- in (COI) A new subscriber asks to be subscribed to the mailing list, but unlike unconfirmed opt- in, a confirmation e- mail is sent to verify it was really them. Many believe the person must not be added to the mailing list unless an explicit step is taken, such as clicking a special web link or sending back a reply e- mail. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. Mail system administrators and non- spam mailing list operators refer to this as confirmed subscription or closed- loop opt- in. Some marketers call closed loop opt- in "double opt- in." The term double opt- in was coined by marketers in the late 90s to differentiate it from what they call single opt- in, where a new subscriber to an e- mail list gets a confirmation e- mail telling them they will begin to receive e- mails if they take no action. This is compared to double opt- in where the new subscriber must respond to the confirmation e- mail to be added to the list. Some marketers contend that double opt- in is like asking for permission twice and that it constitutes unnecessary interference with someone who has already said they want to hear from the marketer. The term double opt- in has also been co- opted by spammers, diluting its value. Opt- out. Instead of giving people the option to be put in the list, they are automatically put in and have the option to be taken out. MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 14 of SIMPLE 15
Squeeze page: This is also referred to as a landing page. It is a single web page where the only option you have is to either sign- up for someone s email list or to click away. An example of a squeeze pages is: http://www.estherexperience.com Sales Page/ Sales Letter: The Sales Letter is usually the most important part of the online sales process. As far as Internet marketing is concerned it is not a sales message written on paper and mailed to a prospects mailbox but mostly a one page website designed to close the visitor to actually decide for the promoted product and buy it right away. An example of a sales page is what you visited and signed up for this class with: http://coolconsciousmarketing.com/mms6 For more marketing term definitions, visit: http://www.internetmarketing- dictionary.com/ MARKETING Module 2 MADE Page 15 of SIMPLE 15