Here are a few relevant articles about email marketing and Valentine’s Day:

Email Marketing Tips For A Valentine’s Day Sales Boost

Valentine’s Day Email Marketing Promotions

Valentine’s Day Email Marketing Tips

Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas for Ecommerce

And finally, here’s a debate going into your romantic dinner out:

Twitter friend, marketing blogger and fellow small business marekting consultant, Jay Ehret, shares his thoughts on how Valentine’s Day should be viewed by the restaurant owner – and it’s NOT about making alot of money on Valentine’s Day but creating long-term customers.

Jay also shares a link to another article from a restaurant blogger, John Foley, who says Valentine’s Day is your day to make positive cash flow.

Which is it?  Does it have to be either/or?

Image credit: bitter tonic

This fun event honors select men and women under the age of 40 who are helping to shape the future through their business and community involvement. They are leaders today and are sure to be part of the next generation that will make Tarrant County a great place to live and work.

Who will you nominate?

______________________________________________

One of our clients is having their annual Dinner & Auction tomorrow night.  We are currently involved in their website redesign as well as printing all the materials for this event.  It is also a charity that is closely tied to our Greater Things Initiative, so we are thrilled to support them.

______________________________________________

MARKETING RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT:

When it comes to getting a hosting account for your website, we suggest using HostGator. Excellent customer service, affordable prices and more!  Monthly hosting at less than $10/month . . . can’t beat it!

If you are looking for one of the very best email marketing programs around, you can’t beat one that allows you to send emails to up to 500 contacts for less than $10/month . . . hey this $10/month seems to be a theme today.

Have a great weekend!

-Randy

* Be watching next week for a rollout of a series of coaching program announcements as well as “The Boot”!

To read the previous post(s) in this series, start here:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

Step 4: Create Marketing Materials that Educate

Step 5:Advertising, Referrals and PR: Your Lead Generation Trio!

We’re coming to the end of this series on “7 Steps to Marketing Success” – powered by the proven principles of Duct Tape Marketing.  As the economy wears on and I hear more stories of hardship in people’s lives and businesses, I am convinced that these principles work.   And if by chance, you’re CONSIDERING starting a business of your own, why not do it NOW!   Your mind will tell you that you should wait for “better economic times” – but when will that be?  Do it now and you’ll be glad to have a say-so in your future!  As a small business owner and one who started in n0t-so-great economic times, I am loving the independence and getting to do it with my brother, Donny!  Sure, there’s uncertainty, but it’s alot of fun, too!  Click here if you want to access a great resource from Jonathan Fields – it will change the way you work and live for the rest of your life!

OK – check your website now.  Would you consider your website more “informative” or “interactive“?  The former uses your website to tell everything about you and your store/product/service.  When people come, they have no doubt what you have to offer.  They peruse and they leave.  On the other hand, what about having a site that your visitors interact with?  The key that successful sites have discovered is to convert your site’s visitor to a hot prospect by capturing their email address!

Sites that do not collect this vital link back to their prospects are losing the opportunity for follow-up.  Perhaps someone visits your site because they saw a direct link somewhere.  But, when they arrive, perhaps they are not in the purchasing mindset.  If they leave, you have no way of reaching them again.  But if you draw them into your database, then they have given you permission to send them new updates, information on new products/services, and, voila!, one day when they’re ready, they’ll buy.

Email marketing systems are affordable and pretty easy to manage on your own.  Just put up a sign-up form on your website to collect email addresses.  Most people offer something of value in exchange (recognizing this email address is valuable to you) – perhaps a free report, free e-book, coupons, free sample, something fun or informative, etc…  So create something that your visitors would find interesting and valuable and make it available to them.  Email marketing must be permission based to be effective – no one like spammers.  In this way, your website is working for you 24/7 – this is especially important if you have a storefront where you have limited store hours.  People surf the net at all hours, and alot of your prospects are likely doing it in the evening after their kids are in bed!

Sign up for our FREE MARKETING REPORT just to the right of this post!  Here’s a longer post concerning the power of email marketing – you’ll also find out who we use to handle our email marketing campaigns!

NEXT UP – Step 7 – Live by a calendar – manage your brand!

- Randy Vaughn – Fort Worth’s Only DUCT TAPE MARKETING Authorized Coach

.
In order now:

Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus

Step 2: Communicate Your Difference

Step 3: Packaging Your Product

Step 4: Create Marketing Materials that Educate

Step 5: Advertising, Referrals and PR: Your Lead Generation Trio!

Step 6: Website that works 24/7 – Email Marketing

Here are some great coaching tips regarding a simple 5-step process for creating fail-proof permission-based email marketing that will lead you on a road map to email marketing success! 

Step 1.  Start using permission-based email software such as iContact (the permission-based email system we love!) that allows you to easily create newsletters, automatically manage subscribes, unsubscribes, bounces, and view reporting statistics like opens and forwards.  iContact has whitelist agreements with major ISPs so clients can enjoy industry-leading deliverability (you won’t be viewed as sending spam!).

Step 2.  Decide on the type and frequency of email communication you will be sending. I recommend sending at least a monthly newsletter (at minimum!) but consider every 7-15 days if possible when sending relevant content to your subscribers.  You can even send multiple newsletters if you sell different types of products or formats.  Take us for example: We send out a “Marketing Twins Hightlight” bi-weekly and “A Word From the Marketing Twins” on the off weeks.  

Step 3.  Add a sign-up form to your website so you can start collecting subscribers and import any existing lists of subscribers that have already requested your communications. It is generally safe to import the names of anyone who has done business with you in the past year, provided you will be sending content relevant to what they purchased.  Make the sign-up form easy to find on your site and offer an incentive for people to sign up (like we do – you get a FREE REPORT!) as well.

Step 4.  Choose a good email template by using the templates provided within the email software, having your in-house team create one, or using the custom design services of the email software company. iContact provides over 300 design templates within the software that can be used free of charge.  In addition, the Marketing Twins can help you create your own banner to use in your template that includes your logo and basic contact information to give your emails a great, consistent look.  Let us know if we can help!

Step 5.  Develop quality, relevant content for your newsletter or message and send it out to your list. Continue sending your newsletters, announcements, or promotions with consistent frequency. As your list grows, you will notice increased traffic (and if applicable, increased sales) on the day of and the days following an email send.   That’s one of the benefits of using software like iContact – you can track and get great easy-to-read results!

So what are you waiting for – get started today!  If you are unsure about taking on this task yourself (or don’t have the time), we have affordable Email Marketing Packages where we come alongside to help you launch your email marketing!  Plus, right now, iContact  is even offering a 15% discount through the end of the month so now’s the time to take advantage.  Click here to start or contact us to get the emails going!

-Donny

p.s.  Don’t forget to register for our next FREE Double Take LIVE Broadcast with Beijing Olympic Gold Medalist, Stephanie Brown Trafton (Women’s Track & Field).  The call is Wednesday, October 8th at NOON CST but is initially limited to the first 50 people to register so sign up NOW!