Looking to Upgrade Your Skills?

VAclassroom has launched signup for their 2011 Summer Skill Camp. This Skill Camp consists of eight 90-minute clinics over 4 weeks. Topics covered include mobile marketing, Google Tools, creating compelling service packages, measuring social media ROI, strategies for launching an ecommerce product campaign, Facebook contests, monitoring clients’ social media activity & improving Google ranking with proven link building & SEO strategies.

The 8 clinics will be held on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 3 PM Eastern starting July 5th. Sessions will be recorded & will be available to watch later if you miss one or need to review the material again.

Oh yeah, did I mention there’s “early bird” discount pricing ($100 off) through June 28th? You can get more information by watching the video below or at this link.

Facebook Tagging for Business

Social Media Explorer recently wrote an excellent article about the new Facebook tagging feature and using it for business. Here’s a quick excerpt:

“For a business, this can allow you to stay more top of mind with your friends or fans. When you tag someone, they receive a notification you’ve done so and, thus, come see what you tagged them in. This is potentially very powerful for businesses. As the administrator of a fan page, when you tag someone in a wall post or note, it appears to them as if the business or organization tagged them, not the individual logged in to administer the account.”

Here’s a link to the original article. What are your thoughts?

Why Should Your Small Business Use Email Marketing?

If you think email marketing is just for “Internet” businesses or the “big guys”, your small business could be missing out on one of the most powerful, cost effective marketing tools available. I’m not talking about SPAM emails; I mean a properly managed, fully compliant marketing campaign.

It’s Targeted – A good mailing list will consist of current customers and those who have expressed an interest in your particular goods or services. With a properly managed email campaigns you can target your marketing efforts. For instance, you can send one version to current customers and another to potential customers who have expressed an interest in your product or service.

It’s Flexible – Email campaigns can help your company build stronger relationships with current clients, attract new clients, increase visits to your web site, provide up to date company and product information and build brand awareness.

It’s Immediate – Your mailing list can be notified almost immediately when you launch a new product or service – no waiting days or weeks for printed newsletters or post cards to be printed and mailed.

It’s Trackable – With the right program you will be able to track if your message was received, if it was opened and if the recipient clicked on any links in your email.

It’s Cost Effective – In tough economic times, cost effectiveness is crucial. With email marketing you are instantly eliminating the expense associated with printing, postage and the time it takes to prepare mailings.

It Works – A well managed email campaign and mailing list will yield response rates much higher than other direct marketing methods. Although there are many variables in response rates, overall email marketing has a response rate 5 times higher than direct mail.

Factoring in the cost to have a knowledgeable Internet marketing assistant manage your email campaigns for you, chances are you will be spending less per month for an ongoing email marketing campaign than a weekly ad in the local newspaper. I’m not saying you should abandon all other marketing efforts, but consider adding email marketing to your marketing tool box.

Why aren't you using email marketing for your small business?

If you think email marketing is only for the “big boys”, think again! Email marketing is one of the most powerful and effective marketing tools available today.

  • It’s cost effective. There are no printing costs and you can reach hundreds (or thousands) of customers and potential customers on a limited budget.
  • It’s trackable. Almost every email marketing campaign service has a tracking system in place to measure how many of your emails are actually delivered, how many people actually open your email, how many click links in your email and how many “convert to a sale”.
  • It’s instant. Your customers get current information about your business and products immediately – without having to wait days for the mail.
  • It’s easily outsourced. Email marketing is easily outsourced to a Certified Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant. A Certified Internet Marketing VA can take the worry, headache and learning curve out of the equation.

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