E-mail newsletters for customers who “opt in” (request or otherwise sign up for them) are a terrific marketing tool for online businesses. Rather than being a hard-hitting price-and-product flyer, an online newsletter ideally provides useful information and/or news relating to your lines of business.

A popular outdoor and camping-gear store, for example, sends its customers a newsletter with information on camping trips and outdoor activities. As an incentive for opting in on the company’s website, the store offers new subscribers a coupon for 10 percent off their next order.

In fact, e-mail newsletters commonly are used to promote special offers or discounts to their subscribers. They are an inexpensive way to place your brand and products in front of a highly receptive customer base that already has demonstrated interest by signing up for your newsletter.

And because it’s in digital form, its free and unlimited. Giving you a huge advantage over your paper pushing competitors.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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The need to eliminate spam and fraud is critical: Spam and viruses rank as the top two security breaches for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)-according to the Yankee Group, more than 80 percent of SMBs have fallen victim to security breaches, leading to major losses in business productivity.

Following are five critical tips which will help you create a more productive workplace that is better protected against spam and phishing attacks-even if you have minimal or no IT staff.

1. Make sure your employees are aware of “phishing” attacks. For small-business owners, now is the time to educate your employees on how to spot a phishing attack-they’re on the rise and they’re dangerous.
2. Educate employees on the how-tos of secure e-mail usage. Make sure your employees know they should avoid filling out forms in e-mail messages that ask for personal financial information or passwords. This affects all employees, especially those who book travel reservations, deal with human resources issues or make purchases for your business. Legitimate companies won’t ask for this information via e-mail.
3. Protect your business from being “phished.” For small businesses, phishing can be especially pernicious, putting owners and employees at risk of online fraud, identity theft and outright robbery. What’s more, phishing also threatens future operations, causing users to have less trust in legitimate, commercial e-mail messages.
4. Let your employees have some control. Look for a spam-filtering solution that lets users sort through their own junk mail, so they can determine exactly what is spam vs. other mail which might accidentally end up in the trash bin (such as e-mail newsletters and marketing messages). Also, have a procedure in place so employees can report spam and you can in turn report it to your ISP or the Feds at www.ftc.gov.
5. Choose an e-mail security solution that’s right for you. Because small businesses may not have the money to afford dedicated IT resources, they often require a different type of solution to support their security infrastructure. Since you may not be able to afford the upfront investment in technology to help meet these challenges, you should look to solutions that don’t require an IT resource, are easy to use, and are specifically designed with small businesses in mind.

Don’t wait for an attack to happen before figuring out what to do. Spam attacks are on the rise, and you need to start now to reduce your business risk and develop response plans.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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At two minutes apiece, it will take three plus hours just to read and respond. Let’s not even think about the messages that take more than three minutes of work to deal with. Shudder. For whatever reason, everyone feels compelled to keep you “in the loop.”

Being buried alive under electronic missives forces you to develop coping strategies. Here are some of the non-obvious ones.

Readers Now Bear the Burden

Before e-mail, senders shouldered the burden of mail. Writing, stamping and mailing a letter was a lot of work. Plus, each new addressee meant more postage, so we thought hard about whom to send things to.

E-mail bludgeoned that system in no time. With free sending to an infinite number of people now a reality, every little thought and impulse becomes instant communication. Our most pathetic meanderings become deep thoughts that we happily blast to six dozen colleagues who surely can’t wait. On the receiving end, we collect these gems of wisdom from the dozens around us. The result: Inbox overload.

“But my incoming e-mail is important.” Don’t fool yourself. Time how long you spend at your inbox. Multiply by your per-minute wage (divide your yearly salary by 120,000 to get your per-minute wage) to find out just how much money you spend on e-mail. If you can justify that expense, far out–you’re one of the lucky ones. But for many, incoming e-mail is a money suck. Bonus challenge: Do this calculation companywide.)

Taming e-mail means training the senders to put the burden of quality back on themselves.

How You Can Send Better E-Mail

What’s the best way to train everyone around you to better e-mail habits? You guessed it: You go first. First, you say, “In order for me to make you more productive, I’m going to adopt this new policy to lighten your load�” Demonstrate a policy for a month, and if people like it, ask them to start doing it too.

• Use a subject line to summarize, not describe. People scan their inbox by subject. Make your subject rich enough that your readers can decide whether it’s relevant. The best way to do this is to summarize your message in your subject.
  • Bad Subject Line
    Subject: Deadline discussion
  • Good Subject Line
    Subject: Recommend we ship product April 25th
• Give your reader full context at the start of your message. Too many messages forwarded to you start with an answer–”Yes! I agree. Apples are definitely the answer”–without offering context. We must read seven included messages, notice that we were copied, and try to figure out what apples are the answer to. Even worse, we don’t really know if we should care.
  • Bad E-Mail
    To: Billy Franklin
    From: Robert Payne
    Subject: Re: Re: Re: Please bring contributions to the charity drive
    Yes, apples are definitely the answer.
  • Good E-Mail
    To: Billy Franklin
    From: Robert Payne
    Subject: Re: Re: Re: Please bring contributions to the charity drive.
    You asked if we want apple pie. Yes, apples are definitely the answer.
• When you copy lots of people (a heinous practice that should be used sparingly), mark out why each person should care. Just because you send a message to six poor co-workers doesn’t mean all six know what to do when they get it. Ask yourself why you’re sending to each recipient, and let them know at the start of the message what they should do with it. Big surprise, but this also forces you to consider why you’re including each person.
  • Bad CC
    To: Abby Gail, Bill Fold, Cindy Rella
    Subject: Website design draft is done
    The website draft is done. Check it out in the attached file. The design firm will need our responses by the end of the week.
  • Good CC
    To: Abby Gail, Bill Fold, Cindy Rella
    Subject: Website design draft is done
    AG: DECISION NEEDED. Get marketing to approve the draft
    BF: PLEASE VERIFY. Does the slogan capture our branding?
    CR: FYI, if we need a redesign, your project will slip.
    The website draft is done. Check it out in the attached file. The design firm will need our responses by the end of the week.
• Use separate messages rather than bcc (blind carbon copy). If you bcc someone “just to be safe,” think again. Ask yourself what you want the “copied” person to know, and send a separate message if needed. Yes, it’s more work for you, but if we all do it, it’s less overload.
  • Bad BCC
    To: Fred
    Bcc: Chris
    Please attend the conference today at 2:00 p.m.
  • Good BCC
    To: Fred
    Please attend the conference today at 2:00 p.m.
    To: Chris
    Please reserve the conference room for me and Fred today at 2:00 p.m.
• Make action requests clear.. If you want things to get done, say so. Clearly. There’s nothing more frustrating as a reader than getting copied on an e-mail and finding out three weeks later that someone expected you to pick up the project and run with it. Summarize action items at the end of a message so everyone can read them at one glance.
• Separate topics into separate e-mails…up to a point. If someone sends a message addressing a dozen topics, some of which you can respond to now and some of which you can’t, send a dozen responses–one for each topic. That way, each thread can proceed unencumbered by the others.Do this when mixing controversy with mundania. That way, the mundane topics can be taken care of quietly, while the flame wars can happen separately.
  • Bad Mixing of Items
    We need to gather all the articles by February 1st.
    Speaking of which, I was thinking–do you think we should fire Sandy?
  • Good Mixing of Items
    Message #1: We need to gather all the articles by February 1st.
    Message #2: Sandy’s missed a lot of deadlines recently. Do you think termination is in order?
• Combine separate points into one message. Sometimes the problem is the opposite–sending 500 tiny messages a day will overload someone, even if the intent is to reduce this by creating separate threads. If you’re holding a dozen open conversations with one person, the slowness of typing is probably substantial overhead. Jot down all your main points on a piece of (gasp) paper, pick up the phone and call the person to discuss those points. I guarantee you’ll save a ton of time.
• Edit forwarded messages. For goodness sake, if someone sends you a message, don’t forward it along without editing it. Make it appropriate for the ultimate recipient, and make sure it doesn’t get the original sender in trouble.
  • Bad Forwarding
    To: Bill
    Sue’s idea, described below, is great.
    —-
    From: Sue
    Hey, Abner:
    Let’s take the new design and add sparkles around the border. Bill probably won’t mind; his design sense is so garish he’ll approve anything.
  • Good Forwarding
    To: Bill
    Sue’s idea, described below, is great.
    —-
    From: Sue
    Hey, Abner:
    Let’s take the new design and add sparkles around the border.
• When scheduling a call or conference, include the topic in the invitation. It helps people prioritize and manage their calendar more effectively.
  • Bad E-Mail
    Subject: Conference call Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.
  • Good E-Mail
    Subject: Conference call Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. to review demo presentation.
• Make your e-mail one page or less. Make sure the meat of your e-mail is visible in the preview pane of your recipient’s mailer. That means the first two paragraphs should have the meat. Many people never read past the first screen, and very few read past the third.
• Understand how people prefer to be reached and how quickly they respond. Some people are so buried under e-mail that they can’t reply quickly. If something’s important, use the phone or make a follow-up phone call. Do it politely; a delay may not be personal. It might be that someone’s overloaded. If you have time-sensitive information, don’t assume people have read the e-mail you sent three hours ago rescheduling the meeting that takes place in five minutes. Pick up the phone and call.

Setting a good example only goes so far. You also have to train others explicitly. Explain to them that you’re putting some systems in place to help you manage your e-mail overload. Ask for their help, and know that they’re secretly envying your strength of character.

• Check e-mail at defined times each day. We hate telemarketers during dinner, so why do we tolerate e-mail when we’re trying to get something useful done? Turn off your e-mail “autocheck,” and only check e-mail two or three times a day, by hand. Let people know that if they need to reach you instantly, e-mail isn’t the way. When it’s e-mail processing time, however, shut the office door, turn off the phone, and blast through the messages.
• Use a paper “response list” to triage messages before you do any follow-up. The solution to e-mail overload is pencil and paper? Who knew? Grab a legal pad and label it “Response list.” Run through your incoming e-mails. For each, note on the paper what you have to do or whom you have to call. Resist the temptation to respond immediately. If there’s important reference information in the e-mail, drag it to your Reference folder. Otherwise, delete it. Zip down your entire list of e-mails to generate your response list. Then, zip down your response list and actually do the follow-ups.
• Charge people for sending you messages. One CEO I’ve worked with charges staff members five dollars from their budget for each e-mail she receives. Amazingly, her overload has gone down, the relevance of e-mails has gone up, and the senders are happy, too, because the added thought often results in them solving more problems on their own.
• Train people to be relevant. If you’re constantly copied on things, begin replying to e-mails that aren’t relevant with the single word: “Relevant?” Of course, you explain that this is a favor to them. Now, they can learn what is and isn’t relevant to you. Beforehand, tell them the goal is to calibrate relevance, not to criticize or put them down and encourage them to send you relevancy challenges as well. Pretty soon, you’ll be so well trained you’ll be positively productive!
• Answer briefly. When someone sends you a 10-page missive, reply with three words. “Yup, great idea.” You’ll quickly train people not to expect huge answers from you, and you can then proceed to answer at your leisure in whatever format works best for you. If your e-mail volume starts getting very high, you’ll have no choice.
• Send out delayed responses. Type your response directly, but schedule it to be sent out in a few days. This works great for conversations that are nice but not terribly urgent. By inserting a delay in each go-around, you both get to breath easier. >(In Outlook, choose “Options” when composing a message and select “do not deliver before.” In Eudora, hold down the Shift key as you click “Send.”)
• Ignore it. Yes, ignore e-mail. If something’s important, you’ll hear about it again. Trust me. And people will gradually be trained to pick up the phone or drop by if they have something to say. After all, if it’s not important enough for them to tear their gaze away from the hypnotic world of Microsoft Windows, it’s certainly not important enough for you to take the time to read.

Yeah, yeah, you have a million reasons why these ideas can never work in your workplace. Hogwash. Choose a technique and start applying it — right now.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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3. Email Marketing

E-mail programs to in-house lists perform at least as well as direct mail–and often considerably better–without the postage or printing costs. And results are easy to track and measure.

Here are the steps that can help you build an e-mail marketing campaign:

1. Build your list. Today, having a terrific website is simply not enough. You need a marketing program that drives traffic there and keeps visitors coming back. And since e-mail to rental lists is often kicked out as spam, it’s essential to build your own opt-in list of customers and prospects. These are individuals who have visited your site and given you permission to contact them.
2. Send the right message. For many e-mail marketers, it’s beneficial to alternate promotional messages with softer-sell communications, such as newsletters. This helps avoid list burnout and may increase the frequency with which you can successfully communicate with your customers and prospects. The most crucial element is to make the content of your e-mails relevant to the needs of your recipients, because off-target e-mails and those that come too frequently are generally treated as spam.
3. Design and track like a pro. The two elements that most dramatically affect your e-mail “open rate” are the “from” and “subject” lines. So it’s essential to make it clear the e-mail is coming from you, a valued source of information. And the subject line must contain a benefit, or at least convey what your e-mail contains–otherwise your open rate will plummet. Comply with all CAN SPAM regulations by including your company’s name and physical address in the body of the message as well as an unsubscribe option at the bottom.

When it comes to design and execution of your e-mail campaign, it’s not necessary to go it alone. In fact, it’s difficult for an entrepreneur to send more than 50 e-mails at a time, since higher numbers are usually blocked as spam by ISPs.

Fortunately, e-mail marketing services that cater to small businesses, such as Constant Contact or those available through major web hosting services like Interland, will generally e-mail up to 5000 subscribers for $50 a month or less. The service will also maintain and clean your list by removing bounces and addresses of people who choose to unsubscribe.

Choose an e-mail marketing service that provides design templates for e-newsletters, promotional offers and coupons that are easy to customize. Since only about 56 percent of internet users have broadband, it’s essential to design full-color, high impact HTML newsletters or promotions but still give recipients the option of receiving a text-only version.

Best of all, most e-mail marketing services will provide all your campaign metrics, which are vital to evaluating the effectiveness of your mailings. You’ll be able to identify who opened your e-mail and clicked on each link. Then you can fine-tune your key elements–from your offers to your subject lines–for maximum ROI, and compare your results from one mailing to the next.

Originally Posted on: Florida Small Business Consulting - SuncoastGlobal.com

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