This interview is a great example of stirring engagement with your fans, followers, etc. It takes social media engagement to a whole new level beyond what everybody else is doing and makes it easier to cut through the dis-focus of communications on major social networks. As you participate or simply watch today’s session, think about ways that you can start engaging your contacts as well. Also, think of ways to get others to promote you naturally just the same way I am promoting this interview session Just something to think about.

To get the session started you can enter your questions on my message board by visiting http://connect.phase2solutions.net/jverdelli. I will answer these questions first so this will help save you some time. If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact me by using the contact form on the right side of this page

The first step in improving your email marketing effectiveness is to develop a campaign structure that is geared to continually break the habits of your email subscribers. This means CHANGE. Below is a short list of campaign ideas that you could implement:

• Start a contest on your Facebook Fan Page or other social networking tool you use to communicate with clients and prospects (i.e. Social HubSite). You can see a great example of this by visiting one of the Facebook pages for our clients at http://facebook.com/pafamilydining.
  
• Bring humor into your content. This is a great way to tap into a foundational human need.
• Share what’s trending. Go to http://google.com/trends to find out what people are searching for and what are the hot topics right now.
• Use video. One of the top reasons why certain people don’t spend time in your emails is due to the time and attention factor. I have always found a video call-to-action to produce results. I’ve done it with video taping myself giving an internet marketing tip in my car then labeling the subject line with the word “Video” and posting it. The email can simply be the title, screenshot of the video with a play button and a link. You can start seeing the effectiveness of video email to small groups or individuals for free by visiting http://sendvideoemail.me.
• Who’s got the lucky number? When setting up your email campaign use the data-binding tool that allows you to assign separate data fields with each subscriber. In Excel you would just want to create a new column. From there you can assign each subscriber with a unique number (use the incremental values feature in Excel). When you have uploaded your email list and are setting up your campaign, you can include the new data field and call it something along the lines of “Your Lucky Number”. Each time you send the email you can promote a prize giveaway to the subscriber that has the lucky number. It’s crazy, but simple little bribes like this can work wonders.
• Host a live seminar/webinar. Take time to get to know individuals on your email list. Hosting a live in-person seminar or webinar can be a great tool to allow the conversation to go beyond the inbox.
• Send individual video emails to subscribers. Use the http://sendvideoemail.me tool to send a quick video email to individual subscribers simply saying thank you and offering suggestions to what they want to see next. If this seems too time consuming, hire a virtual assistant or have someone in your office work on it. It’s well worth the time invested.
• Feature a client case study. Case studies are a great way to bring relevance into your campaigns. Featuring a client success story will help those that are opening your emails envision how what you have done for someone else might work for them.
• Simply say happy birthday. One of the keys to success in any online communication effort is to show your connections how well you have been listening. If don’t already have it, start collecting birthdays from your clients and prospects then send them an email on their birthday. You could start by using a tool such as http://happybirthday.com.
• Pay attention to how you are adding people to your list. The above ideas are great and can really help spark the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. One of the most basic and proactive ways you can start engaging more clients and prospects is by setting up the right email collection methods. If you are just blindly entering names in from random business cards you collected at some point you are going to have an uphill battle using email to communicate effectively. I have several ideas that I could list, but am going to hold you accountable to ask me directly

In short, email marketing is an effective and efficient tool to use as long as you pay attention to how your subscribers are interacting with it. It can serve as the glue to all of the other activities you use online to engage clients and prospects. The first step is to identify what you want to get out of it and then design a strategy that includes proper execution and monitoring. Please feel free to reach out to me directly so we can work together in making sure you are getting the most out of your email marketing efforts and overall online communication effort. Please email me directly, call my cell at 717-579-8343 or fill out the contact form on the bottom right of the page.

Here is a solid solution for centralizing your social media marketing efforts: http://socialhubsite.com

I have been using it for about 2 years now. It’s perfect if you are trying to save time while sending email communications. It’s also very effective because your recipients are able to see you instead of reading text.

If you would like to start taking advantages of tools like this to simplify your online communication efforts with prospects and customers, consider joining as an Expert Member. We will include a free 1 hour consultation to work with you direct to make sure you get off on the right foot.

» CLICK HERE TO JOIN

Here are 5 easy ways to stand out:

• Use Conversational Subject Lines – People generally react better to conversational tones better than forceful tones when communicating online. You could use something along the lines of “Let’s Start Working Together” or “Some Ideas that Might Interest You”.
• Use Socially Relevant Subject Lines – Use subject lines in your email campaign that relate to something of general interest to your subscribers. As an example, since many of my subscribers are around the Mid Atlantic states I used a subject line and post title relating to “flooding” since we are in the middle of a tropical depression. Before you set on a subject line be sure you understand the demographic of your email subscriber base and where they are from. This will help your email open rates tremendously.
• Get to Know Your Subscribers – One of the most important factors when someone is deciding to open up an email is based on who it is coming from. This goes back to your relationship with your email subscribers. One suggestion is to invite your email subscribers to connect with you on LinkedIn, join your LinkedIn Group or even join for your Facebook Fan Page. This provides you with the opportunity to non-obtrusively communicate with them outside of email. From there make it a habit to comment on their status updates or acknowledge something in their profile. This simple form of communication will help you develop a deeper impact in future email marketing campaigns.
• Choose the Right Time to Send – Be sure to change the sending times and frequency to track variances in your open and click through rates. If you have a lot of business emails you might want to consider scheduling your campaign late morning when your recipients have had time to clean up the “flood” of emails in their inbox.
• Give Away Something You Normally Charge For – One way to get your email subscribers to WANT to open up your emails is to give away something that you might normally charge for. This doesn’t mean that you have to give away the farm, but just simply to let your email subscribers feel that there is a true value by being on your list. When it comes time to actually offering them something they will be much more receptive because they have already receive a form of value from you. The imagination wonders when you get something awesome for free and when you have the opportunity to purchase something of similar or greater value. You can see an example of this when buying a smart phone. They stick a bunch of cool “free for 30 days” apps on your phone hoping that you develop a habit and a value mindset around it so you pay for the app service for months to come.

These are just a few ideas that should help you become more effective in communicating your messages through email. If you have further questions on how to apply these types of tactics to your own specific online marketing strategy, please feel to contact me direct here on the website. Good luck and stay dry