E-mail Marketing

If you haven’t yet added email marketing to your marketing mix please consider it soon. Email marketing – when done effectively and legally – is still the best thing you can do for your business as it enjoys the highest rate of return on investment.

One of the first things to consider is a suitable Email Service Provider (ESP) to provide you with the online system to manage your email marketing campaigns, to send personalized emails to your list, manage subscriptions, bounces, unsubscribes, etc.

When choosing an ESP, ask yourself these two questions:

1. Do I need to handle multiple opt-in lists?
2. Do I need a sequential auto-responder?

This will narrow down your choices significantly. If you’d like to have people sign up on your website/blog/facebook to different lists and offer them different automated sequential messages (also know as auto-responders) then my choice would be iContact.

For the ultimate in ease of use, try MadMimi.com, I recommend them to those who would like to create and send their email newsletters by themselves.

MadMimi has the most easy-to-use interface of all the ESPs I’ve tried over the years. They even offer a fully-featured free account for those just starting out. Read this article MadMimi Brings the Fun Back to Sending Email “Blasts” to learn more.

Boris Mahovac R.G.D.
Web Developer and eMarketing Mentor

P.S.
To see how one of our members, Jason Stevens, uses MadMimi, arrange a visit to his Oakville studio, and while he’s explaining to you how easy it is to use MadMimi to stay in touch with clients and prospects, get a professional business portrait done to complement your business card on this blog.

If you have a substantial number of clients, suppliers and contacts, one of the best ways to stay in touch with them is by publishing a regular email newsletter. A newsletter will educate them, entertain them and establish you as the expert in your field, and by using this free on line service called MadMimi it’s really easy — so you have no more excuses!

1. MadMimi allows you to import your contacts without forcing you to “confirm” each and every subscriber. This means if you import 100 contacts, you can send email to 100 contacts.
2. MadMimi’s simple-yet-sophisticated email editor is so easy to use, you don’t have to hire an email marketing expert like me to manage it for you
3. The best feature of all: it’s free, for lists of up to 100 email addresses. Once you out grow this, paid  plans starts at a very reasonable US$8 for up to 500 contacts, no long-term contracts.

Sign up with MadMimi today even if you’re not ready to start using email for marketing — their free account offer may not last for long.

Boris Mahovac – Email Marketing Coach

Remember, as a member of Oakville Networking I can set up your MadMimi account for you free of charge – this is a value of US$125! Takes 2 minutes to sign up, so do it now!

Interested in blogging for business? Growing your email marketing list? Join me, Boris Mahovac, email marketing consultant, as I interview a couple of world-class experts on the subject!

Blogging for Business – a candid interview with the BlogSquad!

Blogging for your business is not an option anymore, but does it work better that email marketing?

The real questions actually is: How do you make these two marketing strategies work together to create a powerful tool to boost your small business or professional practice?

Our Patent Lawyer Camilla Nielsen has a remarkable story to share. Make sure you read about how OakvilleNetworking’s blog made a difference in her business!

I’ll be asking Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman some tough questions on how to use business blogging to build credibility and visibility on the Internet, and how to generate leads and prospects.

This is a FREE educational event, but you need to register.

Register for the tele-seminar today even if you can’t attend the live call, because a recording will be available after the call.

When: Wednesday, Feb 11, at 3 pm ET
Where: the comfort of your home or office – via tele-conference
Why: to learn about the power of blogs from the experts!

Consider the members of our networking group as your extended sales team: We are here to promote you and your business, find leads for you, and ultimately, refer our clients, customers, friends, associates and neighbours to you.

I’d like to propose that we – and it should be an option, not a requirement – offer some sort of incentive to our members if they buy something from us themselves. This incentive can be in a form of:

• straight discount: e.g. 10% on all orders
• added value: free added service or product which normally sells separately
• a free Chapters gift card as a thank-you

For my part, I am happy to offer the following to all our members:

• a straight 10% discount on all email marketing services.
• if you sign up with one of my preferred Email Service Providers, such as ConstantContact, or MadMimi I will throw in a free ESP account set up – a value of US$199
• and finally, you will be paying in Canadian dollars, while all my other clients pay in US currency, which currently translates to a 20% discount!

Please comment and add your own thoughts, and ways that you have decided to “award” our members, if any.

Setting up your blog will require a little research and review, but almost all blog software is very easy to use and offers a variety of plug-ins and other resources to make yours unique.

Blog platforms such as WordPress can be very helpful in getting you setup with a professional look, especially if you have limited design skills and are not working with a web or graphic designer immediately.

A professionally designed WordPress theme (or, template) may be just the right thing for you. Why not try Unique Blog Designs, a company that’s making great waves in the WordPress Premium Themes industry. They are actually running a contest to celebrate the 1st anniversary of their business. You could win an Apple IPod Touch or one of their WordPress themes.

One of the world’s largest domain registrars and web hosts, US-based GoDaddy.com now offers direct support to Canadian residents and business owners, who now can register and host “dot CA” domains with GoDaddy.

I’ve personally used and recommended GoDaddy to my clients, ever since I made the switch in 2006. Since then I’ve registered domains and set up hosting for my clients’ web sites, blogs, and FTP servers. I have yet to encounter a problem with this company. Some may not like their particular style of advertising, but their reliability and track record are spotless.

Highly recommended!

Profile

I help small businesses, solo professionals and non-profit organizations create effective email newsletters (or ezines) and email marketing campaigns, from “write” to “send”.

Award-winning author of Contacts2Clients ezine. Subscribe today for tips on effective email marketing strategies at YourEzineCoach.com.

Did you know that email is still king in terms of return on investment? I can teach you how and when to use e-mail newsletters, auto-responders and e-mail promotions to grow your business.

I am a professional service provider with experience in email marketing, advertising, graphic design, web design, web programming, training and coaching.

As a professional speaker I am available to speaking engagements on the topics such as: email marketing, small business marketing, internet marketing, etc.

Specialities

email marketing, ezine marketing, ezine design, ezine production, on line marketing, traffic generation, linking strategies, email etiquette, email best practices, list building techniques, search engine optimization (SEO)

Boris Mahovac R.G.D.

iBizAcademy - Online Marketing For Small Business

Sign up for my next Contacts2Clients Business Seminar

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See my facebook profile

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