Last month I had the extreme privilege of being selected by NASA to report live at the launch of STS-132, the last scheduled mission for the space shuttle Atlantis.  After a thorough screening process I was issued press credentials and allowed 2 day access to the historic NASA Launch Complex 39 Press Site next to the Vehicle Assembly Building where they prep the shuttles (and the Apollo Saturn V rockets back in the 60’s and 70’s), put them on a giant crawler and move them out to the launch pad.  The funny thing is: I’m not a reporter.  But here I am at the final launch of Atlantis with news crews and media outlets from around the globe.  I’m meeting astronauts, NASA engineers and getting up close and personal viewing at the launch pad where Atlantis proudly stands getting final prepping for launch. How did I, a non-reporter, manage to trick NASA into giving me press credentials for a shuttle launch?  It’s simple: Twitter.

Space shuttle Atlantis blasting off!

I have a Twitter account and am an active participant in social media.  NASA recognized the value of social networking and how they can use it to reach a greater audience.  They also realize that people’s media habits are changing.  Reading a paper in the morning and watching the evening news at night is no longer the norm.  The internet is quickly replacing the older titans of media.  As proof, I confess I haven’t really read a newspaper in years.  I also don’t get a single TV channel.  I do have a TV, but it’s sole purpose is being hooked up to a DVD player.  I gather the bulk of my news and media via the internet – never from a single source, of course, but Twitter is one of those sources I use to know what is going on in the world around me.

Giving others special behind the scenes access can pay off big in social media. At the Tweetup, NASA gave us special access to the shuttle on the launch pad.

To reach people like myself who don’t rely on traditional media for our news and instead rely on a network of trusted sources, NASA turned to social media outlets such as Twitter to help get their message out.  They began hosting “Tweetups”, which is just Twitter speak for a meetup.  I was selected to be a part of the STS-132 Tweetup that they hosted at the press site, a two day event covering the day before launch and then launch day.  NASA selected 150 Twitter users for the event – as long as you could commit to being there and passed the screening process then you where good to attend.  An incredibly smart move by NASA, as us Tweetup members where paying our own way, more excited to be there than the paid reporters and sharing our enthusiasm with hundreds of thousands of combined network connections through Twitter and our various social networks.  Talk about ROI and maximizing your marketing dollar!

I talk to a lot of clients about social media and how effective it can be when done right.  The STS-132 NASA Tweetup was no doubt done right.  Granted they are NASA, launching people into space on rocket boosters, so it’s a little easier for them to generate buzz and a groundswell of support via social media than someone who is looking to promote their furniture store, for example.  Well, I guess if you tied a rocket to a La-Z-Boy recliner that would help get more attention, but it might also get you arrested or severely injured, so let’s stick with safer methods.   To get attention online you can use examples of what NASA did in whatever social media you participate in.

First off, NASA uses social media.  I mean they really use it and use it on a regular basis.  I can’t tell you the number of NASA employees and astronauts I follow on Twitter.  They have a huge presence on Facebook and YouTube too.  Websites and blogs plus Flickr accounts are also part of their online strategy.  As the owner of a small business, you probably don’t have the human resources that NASA does, but you don’t have to have the same financial resources.  Time is the main currency used to pay for marketing via social media, so if you can spare some time, you can capitalize to some degree on social media.

Close up photo of Atlantis the day before launch.

Second, NASA is consistent with social media.  It’s not an on-again off-again affair.  They have a social media mission and stick with their flight plan.  Inconsistent activity in social media will lead to inconsistent results.  If you have a blog and can’t keep up with the overly optimistic goal of one post a day you set for yourself when you started, then re-adjust your flight plan.  Maybe one blog post a week is better for you.  It’s better to to make a mid-course correction than burn out from an unrealistic schedule.

Next, NASA is an event.  If you have a furniture store, it may be hard to organize willing participants for a furniture store tweetup, but who knows, maybe it’s not such a stretch.  Maybe you have a loyal and local following online and you host an event you call the “Couch Potato Summit” where guests get comfy on their favorite seat in the store and discuss, tweet or blog a shared topic of interest.  Now you are hosting a networking event where people are tweeting about the event and mentioning “at Joe’s Furniture discussing politics and boy is this Camden sofa nice.”  This of course, is just an example, but with a little thought you can find a way to bring your network together in an entertaining way that helps you stand out from your competition.

Additionally, NASA used hashtags with Twitter.  Prior to the tweetup, I’ll admit to not using  hashtags that often with Twitter.  With only 140 characters to work with, hashtags just seemed like a way to take up too much valuable Twitter real estate.  Now I realize it’s a great way to segment content and to pinpoint a particular audience you want to reach.  I used a number of the event related hashtags throughout the tweetup, such as #nasatweetup, #nasa, #STS132 and #Atlantis.  This allowed me to reach a larger audience than just my normal Twitter followers, because someone may not have been following me, but they may have been following the hashtag of #Atlantis on Twitter to keep up with any news going on with the launch.  As a result, I had the highest number of retweets of my content I’ve ever had on Twitter – and many of those retweets where by individuals that didn’t follow me, but saw my tweet due to using a hashtag.  Many of those individuals are also now followers.

Astronaut Janice Voss was one of many representatives of NASA participating in the social media event.

Finally, NASA continues the dialog.  After the tweetup I attended, which was at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, they hosted a tweetup at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas and made sure to keep the KSC participates involved.  A special page was setup on NASA’s website to aggregate all activity of the tweetup participants and to encourage more interaction.  A month after the tweetup and I still get emails from the NASA team that put the event together.  This team also continues to use Twitter to communicate with all participants, including those that attended previous tweetups prior to STS-132.  Sometimes at the tweetup, it was hard to determine who was actually at the event and who was involved remotely, as so many people where engaged in the event.  Now as an alumni of the event, I keep up much more with NASA and look forwarding to future tweetups, regardless of whether or not I’ll be selected again as an attendee.  This is moving beyond being an event, to being a destination.

On a final note, I couldn’t help but notice how the launch of Atlantis related to launching a website.  All the behind the scenes activity leading up to the launch, the maintenance of the spacecraft, the monitoring of data after launch, getting media promotion, coordination of different technical processes, teamwork, etc.  While we at NetSource realize we are not launching rockets into space, it is a great feeling to be a part of events that generates so much excitement.

Viral videos are one of the mysteries of social media marketing; most people assume “going viral” (getting people to share and view your video online, creating buzz) is pretty much luck or the domain of Fortune 500 companies with large ad agencies working for them. Steve Strauss’ article tries to present some concrete steps to help you plan and execute your own viral video.

Read it here: 7 Steps to Creating a Viral Video

If you have an online business, this article can help you kick-start the year with straightforward and affordable suggestions for getting your business, message and products out there in front of potential customers. I highly recommend it.

10 Things You Can Do to Make Your Online Business Money
by Susan L. Reid

After putting in place a well-developed marketing plan and generating traffic to your landing page or website, the next step is to turn your online prospects into customers. Improving your online conversion rate is a two-part process.

Improve targeted traffic

Before you make changes to the conversion tools on your website or landing page, it’s important to improve the quality and/or relevance of your in-bound traffic. Attracting the right people to your website is critical to increasing conversions at a lower cost. Begin by evaluating your lead sources and determine the alignment of your prospects with your product.

You can determine what traffic is best aligned with your products and services by carefully analyzing your Google Adwords campaigns. With the proper conversion tracking in place, it’s easy to determine which keywords are generating sales (as opposed to generating clicks alone). Focus on expanding your top converting keywords and driving truly interested prospects to your landing pages.

Take advantage of conversion tools

Once you’ve begun to attract the right prospects, you need to focus on converting them. The fastest way to improve conversion is through testing various landing pages. If you have the technology to rotate landing pages (a process we call “split testing”), then you can learn quickly what page has the highest conversion rate. If you are limited to testing one page at a time, run each landing page for a week and measure the results. Your data won’t be as accurate but it can certainly point you in the right direction.

Another method for improving on-site conversions is to use an automated touch program. With this technique, you can use an auto-responder that gives site visitors an opportunity to reconnect with your business.

One example would be an abandoned shopping cart campaign. If users begin the purchase process (and have given you their email) but fail to complete the process, an auto-responder can be used to send an email message within minutes or hours, inviting them back to complete the purchase – perhaps with a discount or other incentive. You can use email best practices to enhance conversion, and touch visitors numerous times to move them through the purchase decision process.

In addition to targeting visitors who have started a purchase, you can also use an auto-responder for visitors who sign up to receive valuable information from your website. Perhaps they sign up for your newsletter, free lessons, or a whitepaper. Once a person has registered, the auto responder goes to work, sending appropriate emails at set intervals. The result is a communications channel that was previously unavailable to you. Work on improving conversion of your automated touch program by testing both the content and the timing of messages.

By using the techniques of better targeting, improving landing page conversion rates, and using auto-responders you can significantly enhance the performance of your online marketing campaigns. Plan your programs carefully, measure performance and make appropriate adjustments. Over time, your results just might surprise you.

We all know about Twitter and Facebook – how could we not as they have been beaten into our brains over the last year.  Most of us are likely fatigued from the overload of media attention they have generated – Facebook this, Twitter that.  Yet if you use these tools to help promote your business, you know the importance of keeping up with any news related to these two social media giants.

On a smaller scale, Twitter and Facebook are not the only games in town to pay attention to as there are newer players on the social media field.  These newer players are helping to define the future trends in social media and networking.  Here are 4 trends to watch and the web apps that are behind them:

1. Screencasting:

Screencasting is the ability to share your computer screen with others for the purpose of a tutorial or business presentation.  If you have ever attended a webinar, an online meeting, or viewed a tutorial video on YouTube, then you have experienced screencasting.  Screencasting will continue to grow and become a part of the social media fabric for 2010.

Screenr - Screenr.com is an ingenious tool.  If you are familiar with Jing or Camtasia by TechSmith, then you will be familiar with the concept of Screenr.  Basically, Screenr allows you to record a screencast and publish it online using nothing more than your browser and microphone.  No downloading of a program required and Screenr hosts the file for you and even lets you send a tweet to your Twitter account to share the screencast video with your Twitter followers.  The web app is amazingly simple to use and get started with, although you won’t have editing abilities like you will get with a paid application like Camtasia.  A great use for the program is to create mini-presentations, such as talking through a PowerPoint presentation on your screen.  It is a free online service so take note that your recordings will need to be limited to 5 minutes.  You can also post your screencasts to YouTube or embed the screencast into another website or blog.

2. Social Media Aggregators:

With so many social media websites out there, it can get difficult to manage multiple logins and to remember to post information to all of your open accounts.  Much of the time the information you post on Twitter may be the same information that you planned to post on Facebook.  Social media aggregators put multiple accounts from various social media websites under one umbrella.  Via one login, you can make a single post that is shared over multiple social media websites.  Also, you can view all of the content posted to multiple social media sites that another user that you follow has posted – it aggregates, or combines, these multiple streams onto one timeline.  Think of a social media aggregator as a social media hub or command center where you can manage all, or most, of your social media activities.  While social media aggregators are not new, their popularity is set to explode in the months ahead.

FriendFeed – Some out there may question listing FriendFeed as a trend in social media.  After all, since being purchased by Facebook, the Friendfeed platform is almost dead in the water.  However, FriendFeed is (was?) an innovator in social media aggragation.  They are now owned by big money via Facebook.  The technology will be leveraged on Facebook and new FriendFeed competitors will build on FriendFeed’s innovation and fill the gaps that FriendFeed’s lack of development leaves.

Cliqset – If it can get a foothold, Cliqset is poised to be the next FriendFeed.  Cliqset has a FriendFeed-feel to it, but in my opinion, raises the bar a notch or two.

Flock Browser – What if your website browser was your social media aggregator?  It would be if you are using the Flock browser.  Firefox users have long been installing add-ons to give them more functionality and integration with social media websites.  Flock recognized this and built a new Firefox-powered browser that comes fully tricked out with every imaginable social networking feature and then some.  From the Flock browser you can Tweet, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, WordPress, Picasa, Delicious bookmark, Digg, follow RSS feeds and more.  Big deal, you think as you can do that from any browser, but with Flock, you login to the browser then you have instant access to all your online accounts.  Plus, all those accounts are available from a sidebar while you view other websites.  Online multitasking and social media aggregation at it’s finest.

3. Project Colaboration:

Social networking involves communicating and sharing content with others.  Combined with how it tracks everything on a time line, social networking is a natural for project collaboration. 

Google Wave – While there are many online project management tools out there, Google Wave is mentioned as it has had billing as a social media platform.  It’s true calling, however, seems to be in project collaboration.  It could be said that Google has made project collaboration a social media experience.  While not widespread as of yet, Google Wave has a lot of interest.  As more companies adopt Google’s cloud services, such as Google Docs, for business, expect those businesses to also experiment with Google Wave for client projects.

4. Analytical Tracking:

The first step for most in social media has been to simply get involved with it, to learn what it is and how to use it.  Now that the break-in period is over and acceptance has been reached, business users are wondering how to get the most out of it and to track what is working and what is not. While there are many analytic tools out there that can track anything under the sun, most of the free online apps aimed at tracking social media are geared towards Twitter.  However, watch for analytic tracking to expand to cover more social media applications.

HootSuite – While primarily a Twitter client for managing multiple Twitter accounts, HootSuite has built-in analytical tracking that makes tracking the success of your Twitter posts a breeze.  You can track how many clicks you get from each of your URL’s that you post in HootSuite.  By knowing how many clicks your posts get, you will get an idea of what content you share is of the most interest of your followers.  You can also determine if your activity on Twitter is paying off or if there is too little interest from your followers to legitimize the effort.

What trends do you see happening in social media for 2010?

As you gear up into the most exciting and stressful time of year for online retailers, you may be wondering if you’ve done everything you can to get the most out of this year’s Holiday shopping season.  This close to “Black Friday” there isn’t time to completely overhaul your e-Commerce site, and even search engine optimization efforts take a few weeks before you will see results.  Those things should typically be planned in late Summer.

Right now, you should be concentrating on updating your product photos and descriptions and beginning your online marketing push that might include a Pay-Per-Click campaign, email marketing, print mailers to existing customers, and more. You should also consider implementing the features outlined below that come standard in all versions of ProductCart released since 2007.  Each of them offers a big return on investment for you and is easily and quickly set up.

1. Product Reviews
One barrier to sales online can often be the physical distance between the shopper and the product they want to buy – they can’t touch it, try it on, test it out, or even see if the shelves are clearing fast.  Mega-sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble have overcome that barrier successfully by using Customer Reviews.  When Amazon first started letting customers post reviews of their products, other retailers thought they were nuts, but shoppers quickly came to rely on product reviews to tip the scale and help them make a decision.  Furthermore, sites that use product reviews have learned two things that run counter to most assumptions:

• The average grade for reviewed products is 4.3 out of 5 stars, according to this article by Geoffrey Fowler and Joseph De Avila of The Wall Street Journal. Consumers are overwhelmingly positive when it comes to online reviews.
• Even negative reviews can boost sales. Only a month after installing product review software, Alpacadirect.com saw sales climb 23%, even on items that received “bad” reviews. (See full article here.)

Shoppers appreciate reading reviews, and including even negative reviews adds to the level of trust you have built with them as a retailer.  According to a recent study by Forrester Research, online shoppers list product reviews as the most desired feature of a website.  So what’s stopping you from adding this feature to your website today?

ProductCart shopping sites include a system that allows you to enable customer reviews quickly and easily – either store wide or for individual products.  You can also manage, check, approve and reject reviews.  Reviews can post immediately, or you can require approvals before they show up in your catalog.

Simply go to the Products menu and choose Manage Product Reviews > Product Reviews Setting.  Everything you need to start including product reviews on your website today can be managed from there.

2. Coupons
Shoppers love coupons. And with more than 70% of the American population now online, online coupons are becoming more and more popular. According to Simmons/Experian Research and Coupons Inc., online coupon usage has grown 39% since 2005.

Planned skillfully, coupons can do more than just attract bargain shoppers. You can design your coupons to:

• Generate buzz for a new product – Create a coupon for your new or featured product and distribute it widely online through your customer email list and online coupon sites.
• Attract new and first-time customers - Create a coupon code for first-time buyers; for instance 15% off of a shopper’s first purchase online. Encourage customers to share this coupon code with their friends.
  
• Increase average transaction size – Encourage larger purchases by creating a coupon that rewards customers for spending more, i.e. Free Shipping on orders over $100.
• Encourage customer loyalty – Follow up all of your purchases (both online and off) by providing your customer with a special coupon code for further discounts or promotions. Or reward “preferred customers” with periodic, exclusive discount codes sent to them via email.

ProductCart lets you set up your coupons in many different ways. Discount codes can be based on purchase level, be associated with specific products (or all of them), have a set dollar value ($10) or a set percentage off (10%), be activated by a specific quantity level, and even be assigned to specific customers only (you can also use the Pricing Category feature for this). You can assign free shipping. You can base coupons on a customer’s shipping location. You can set the discounts to be applied to an order automatically if it meets specific criteria, or require that the customer enter a code during checkout.  Coupon codes can be set up for one-time use or designed to be shared and re-used.  You can even decide if customers can use multiple discount codes in a single order.  To create and manage coupons in the latest version of ProductCart , select Discount by Code from the Marketing menu.

Once your coupons are created, you have several options for delivering them to new and existing customers:

Online Coupon Distribution:

• Email campaign to existing customers and/or newsletter subscribers
• Encourage email recipients to “Forward to a Friend”
• Include a special coupon code for their next purchase  in the Auto-response email that confirms order shipment
• Display special coupons on your Home page
• Link a coupon code to banner ads displayed on other websites
• Advertise coupon promotions on Social Networking sites – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
• Add your coupons for free to online coupon directories like RetailMeNot.com, UltimateCoupons.com, Coupon Cabin, Coupon Chief, Coupon Sherpa, Dealio, GOdeals.com, and more

Offline Coupon Distribution:

• Add a special coupon code to Yellow Pages, magazine, newspaper, and other print ads so you can track sales conversions
• Include a special code in radio and television ads
• Print out stacks of online-only coupons to distribute at your retail location, encouraging offline customers to visit and shop online
• Swap promotions with a complimentary retailer (like a pet groomer, if you sell themed pet apparel), so that customer to their store will get a coupon for your website at checkout, and vice versa.
• Include coupons with all of your shipped orders
• Print a special coupon code on the back of your business cards, brochures, and promotional mailers

When it comes to advertising, there are a number of ways to promote your business. Make the most of your advertising budget by creating ads that specifically target your potential customers.

There is no universal advertising solution that works for all businesses, because every business has a unique audience. Once you define your market, you can start thinking creatively to target more customers with your advertisements. For example, a local daycare center may find that advertising on the back of a school play program is more effective than advertising on the radio, because the school program specifically targets parents in nearby schools.

This article will go over many types of advertising media that you can use to promote your business.

Out-of-Home Advertising

Out-of-Home advertisements, or outdoor advertisements, are any type of ads that are in public places. These ads work best in urban areas, where each advertisement is seen by a large number of residents and commuters. Some are designed to reach a mass audience, such as a billboard in a popular intersection, but you can also use out-of-home advertising to target specific types of people. For example, a stadium ad would be seen by sports fans who are predominantly male.

More examples of out-of-home advertising:

• Billboards (Traditional, Digital, and Mobile)
• Bus Shelters
• Benches
• Bus Wraps
• Car Wraps
• Taxi Tops
• Stadium Ads
• Gas pumps
• Aerial Advertising (Airplane Banners, Blimps, and Skywriting)
• Mall Advertisements
• Movie Theatre Screens
• Window Clings
• Floor Graphics

Online Advertising

Online advertising includes any type of promotion that uses the internet. Many companies today already have websites, but there are countless other ways to market your business online. One of the benefits of advertising online is that it’s much easier to track how many people are viewing your ads, and how many people click on them.

Pay per click (PPC) advertising allows you to target a specific audience with keyword phrases that are related to your products or services, such as ‘Women’s Clothing’ or ‘Texas RV Dealer’. You can also advertise on other websites or list your business in online directories that are related to your field.

More ways to promote your business online:

• Banner Ads
• Online Directory Listings
• Search Engine Optimization
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising
• eNewsletters
• Email Marketing
• Social Networking Websites (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)
• Creating a Company Blog
• Posting Videos on YouTube or other video websites
• Posting expert articles on community websites related to your product or service
• Distributing online coupons
• Submitted a product feed to Google Base
• eBay and other Online Classified Sites

Broadcast Advertising

Broadcast advertising uses audio or video communication to create ads. These advertising spots are purchased from a television or radio station. Radio advertising tends to be more affordable and faster to produce than a television advertisement, but pricing for both varies based on production costs and pricing for the time slot. With either medium, your ad can broadcast on stations or channels that target your demographic.

Types of broadcast advertisements:

• Television Ads (Cable, Local, and National)
• Radio Ads
• Sallellite Radio Ads

Print Advertising

Print advertising includes any promotional material printed on paper. Advertisements in newspapers can target a broad range of local readers, while magazines are able to target subcribers based on interests. Direct mail advertising sends print materials directly to targeted recipients. These lists can be purchased, or developed by the business. Print media can also be handed out at events or given to customers who are interested in your business.

One benefit of print advertising is that the potential customer receives a physical copy of your message that they can keep and refer back to for contact information, rather than hearing or seeing your ad for a fleeting moment.

Types of print advertisements:

• Newspaper Ads
• Magazine Ads
• Program Ads for Events
• Yellow Pages Ads
• Brochures
• Flyers
• Postcards
• Newsletters
• Booklets
• Business Cards
• Posters
• Coupons
• Local Directories

Discovering your target audience will help you promote your business more effectively, because your efforts are concentrated on people who would be interested or could benefit from your solutions. With some creative thinking, you can target these customers with your advertisements and discover which medium yields the best results for your company.

The team at NetSource Technologies is happy to announce the launch of Bent Oak Tree Farm’s new website and email marketing campaign, which presents information about their wholesale tree farm.

Bent Oak Tree Farm

The Bent Oak Tree Farm website is a custom design that uses natural colors and textures to represent their business. The website has information about their tree farm,growers, and process for growing top quality trees. A content management system allows the client to quickly and easily list trees that are available directly on their website for visitors to browse. Information about the the species, size, specs, and availability are listed with photos that can be viewed full size. This information is also displayed on the homepage in a random rotation to showcase featured trees.

‘Straight Talk from Bent Oak’ is a new newsletter from Bent Oak Tree Farm that shares knowledge and advice from their nurserymen and expert tree growers. This eNewsletter shows off their expertise in tree growing and also serves as a marketing tool for their business. Visitors are able to sign up for the newsletter on the website and browse an archive of previous eNewsletters, which can also be indexed by search engines.

Bent Oak Tree Farm is a top wholesale tree grower with a staff of knowledgeable and respected nurserymen. They provide quality container trees and B&B trees (Balled & Burlapped trees), along with on-time deliveries, personal customer care, and knowledgeable planning services. Their three locations consist of over 500 acres in Marion County, Florida and Thomas County, Georgia.

NetSource Technologies is an award-winning web design, hosting, e-commerce and consulting company that has been serving Ocala and clients nationwide since 1995. Visit their web site at www.netsourceinc.com for more information on their services and to view additional client web sites.

Here is a very useful article by Kunur Patel at AdAge.com that presents what works and doesn’t work in banner ads – along with some tips to improve your campaigns.  Among the highlights: prominent logo placement, compelling and bold call-to-action, and the use of people are more important factors in online success than expensive targeting or high-profile placement.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139795

While email has been around as long the Internet and may not be as “trendy” as the new social media marketing strategies, email campaigns and email marketing are still among the most popular and effective tools in an advertiser’s arsenal.   According to a recent study by the Center for Media Research, 56.8% of marketers polled “realistically” plan to use email in their advertising next year.

But even though email may be “old”, new strategies and technologies come along every day that can help you start an effective email campaign, or improve your existing one.  Below, I present five new things to try along with five things you really should avoid when planning your next email campaign.

5 NEW THINGS TO TRY

1.  Tie-In to Social Marketing
If you’ve done anything online in the last 6 months, you’ve probably noticed the latest buzz, Social Media or Social Marketing.  Social Media is buzzworthy for a reason; it is right behind email in popularity among marketers, and it seems that everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, or some other social network.  According to a TechCrunch study, the major social networks combined attracted over 300 million visitors during September 2008.  Those numbers have skyrocketed over the past year.

Even if your company has not created its own Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter profile yet, you can still take advantage of your email subscribers’ social networking habits in a couple of easy ways.  First, be sure to always include a “Forward to a Friend” link in all of your email campaigns.  Most major email newsletter programs include this functionality and will also allow you to track which subscribers have forwarded your email and to whom.  Next, be sure to add social media “share” links to your emails, allowing email recipients to post a link to a web-version of your email on their Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn pages.

2. Take Advantage of Reporting & Stats
Most email newsletter programs provide you with a host of reporting and statistics.  Have you taken a look lately?  Do you take advantage of the information available in order to improve your campaign results?  Here are a few things you might want to look at.

View and Click-Thru – Take a look at how many people “viewed,” or opened, the last email you sent out.  Next take a look at how many people clicked on the links within your email.  Are you happy with the percentages?  Do some of your emails fare better than others?  Do more successful emails have different content types or better subject lines?  Less or more text and photos?  Are you more successful on a particular day of the week?  Come up with some theories regarding why, then see if you’re right by sending two different versions of your next email.  The first email can be sent to the even numbered subscribers on your list, and the second to the odd subscribers.  eNewsletters Pro allows you to do this easily.

Interested Readers – You can also take a look at which subscribers found your email interesting by looking at how many times they opened and clicked through on a message.  Perhaps you’d like to follow-up with these customers with a secondary message, or even a phone call.

3.  Segment Your Email List
Do you have a single email newsletter list that holds all of your subscriber emails?  If so, you may not be sending the most effective emails possible.  You can increase your View and Click-Thru rates simply by sending targeted information that your subscribers are most likely to be interested in.  Having a catch-all newsletter list forces you to send a one-size-fits-all email, when you could be sending emails to:

• Current Customers vs. Potential Customers
• Particular Product or Service categories that subscribers have expressed interest in
• Geographic or other demographic groups that effect your particular customer base
  (Perhaps you offer different things to local and out of state customers)

A short word of warning though: resist the urge to segment too much.  If you create too many lists, you are less likely to keep up with the multiple email campaigns.

4. Integrate Email with Your Entire Sales Cycle
Who says email campaigns can only be used for marketing to potential customers?  Have you considered adding prospects to help shorten your sales cycle, and adding existing customers to continue customer service and maintenance?

Many email newsletter programs allow you to set up a series of scheduled emails in a single campaign that will be sent to a new subscriber at set intervals.  So you can automate follow-up with potential customers, remind new customers of the special features of your product, notify customers of warranty expiration and offer extended warranty sign-up, and so much more.  Once you set up these scheduled emails, you’ve literally added a new member to your Customer Care team.

5.  Clean Up & Build Your Email List
Don’t abandon your email list once you’ve imported your customer email addresses into your new email newsletter program. To make sure you’ve got as many high-quality email addresses in your list as possible, be sure to:

• Remove email addresses from your subscriber list that have bounced too often
• Identify low- to no-click subscribers, and send a personalized message to them
• Be sure there is a benefits-based subscription offer on every page of your website, especially the Contact form, check-out pages, and Home page.  Some examples of benefits-based offers include a free gift on their birthday, a chance to win in a drawing, and exclusive offers.

5 PITFALLS TO AVOID

1.  “Email Fatigue”
One of the most critical components of your email campaign is balancing the need to send just one more message against the dangers of annoying your valuable subscribers, risking falling Views and Click-Thru’s, and prompting Un-subscribes.  Even worse, your company could be added to personal and corporate SPAM lists, risking the delivery of your email even to those customers you haven’t annoyed yet.

Respect your subscribers’ time and attention.  They did you a favor by providing you with their email address because they thought you’d send them something useful, so return the favor by delivering relevant information to them on a reasonable schedule.

2.  Information Overload
As a close partner to the point above, information overload can cripple the effectiveness of your email campaign.  Your customer’s time and attention is limited, so don’t load them down with 15 – 20 offers that they’ll need to weed through.  Instead, keep your messages short and sweet.  Send only a handful of your most attractive and relevant offers, and you’ll see your click-thru and conversion rates increase.

3.  Emailing Without Permission
It is very tempting to exhaust every available avenue in trying to secure higher sales, and that email address you got from a business card at a trade show sure looks attractive.  But you do not want your company to be identified by Yahoo, AOL, EarthLink, and other ISPs as a Spammer, or someone who sends unsolicited and unwanted email.  Send too many messages that get flagged by “subscribers” as SPAM or Junk though, and that’s exactly what will happen.  Then suddenly all of your emails will be routed directly to the Junk folder or will be blocked entirely.

4. List Purchase and/or Rental
This pitfall is related to the one above, where permission is vague at best.  As an email marketer you should be aware that when you rent or purchase an email list, most of the newly obtained “subscribers” didn’t knowingly agree to have their email addresses sold.  Your company will be exposed to all of the dangers listed above for emailing without permission.  In addition, the quality of these leads and the relevance of the message you send to them will be secondary to the email addresses you have collected legitimately.

5.  Leaping Before Looking
Now that you’ve crafted that perfect email and avoided the worse pitfalls, don’t just send it out!  Always test your email before sending it to your subscribers.  It only takes a few minutes, but you’ll consider it time well-spent when you catch a costly mistake – bad links, wrong prices or contact information, misspelled products, or outdated and inaccurate content.

Build a “Test List” that gets the first delivery on all of your emails.  Be sure to include your own email address, plus the address of your best proofreader.  Then look for volunteers within your organization with the following types of email addresses or email readers: AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Gmail, Outlook, and a mobile device.  Proofread your text for spelling, grammar, and accuracy.  Test all of your links.  Make sure readability and layout are consistent across email readers.   Did you include an Unsubscribe, or Opt-Out, link?  Are your company name, website address, and phone number prominently displayed?  Confirm that your email is perfect, then you’re ready to send.

Have some tips of your own to share? Comment below and let us know what’s worked for you… and what mistakes we can all learn from.