In fact, that is just one example of how email marketing can integrate so well with other forms of social media. After all, getting your content out to your email list is great, but getting that content out to the rest of the world is better, right? It brings people back to your site and hopefully builds your list and, therefore, the number of potential prospects for your product or service.

We’ve written a primer on getting started in blogging for your business, so feel free to read that post to get you started. The point here is that you can write a post for your blog and then use that post as content for your email. After all, don’t assume that the people on your email list are all reading your blog. They probably aren’t, so let’s get them going there. It saves you time by re-purposing your content AND gets more traffic going to your site. In fact, some very successful email marketers simply send out their blog posts every few days or every week as their email content.

So, now you’ve got periodic emails regularly going out to your list. How do you continue to build that list outside of adding the people to whom you become introduced in the normal course of your business day? Remember: Your list is your database for potential clients, affiliates and partners, and therefore, arguably one of your business’s most valuable resource. In the old days (just a few years ago), the primary way to attract new customers was to spend a great deal of your hard earned cash on push advertising using television, radio, newspapers and magazines. Those mediums are still valuable, but email marketing, when done right, can be an exponentially more cost-effective means of attracting qualified people to your product or service.

Back to building your list. Your next step should be to put a short form on your web site so that visitors can add themselves (opt-in) to your email list 24/7. To increase the effectiveness of your subscriber opt-in process, think of some valuable piece of information that you give them in exchange for submitting their name and email address to you. Yeah… a bribe! Go back to part one of this series and look at the example email content subjects. Any of those would work well for this purpose.

To expand upon those examples, a law firm could create a report entitled, “Inheritance: Protecting your lifelong assets for your loved ones.” A real estate agent could create, “Secrets to finding wealth-creating real estate assets in a down economy”. And a home heating oil/AC service company could create, “5 year-round cash saving tips you can do yourself for pennies”. As you would for email content topics, think of common questions or problems experienced by your customers, or mistakes you see customers commonly making. Think of a topic, create the product and have your webmaster post the PDF (or video if you’re a bit more ambitious!) and start promoting that link.

How do you promote that link throughout the Internet so that people opt in to your list? Hint: It has a lot to do with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media of which you haven’t yet taken full advantage. We’ll cover that in depth for you in part 3.

So, you’ve got someone on the other end of the phone who’s answered the qualifying question we discussed in part one in a manner that identifies a possible need for your product or service. At this point you might tell them a bit more about your product, but your emphasis should be on learning more about the problem they wish to solve and their level of interest in finding a solution like yours. Restrain yourself from going into the big pitch.

This article is much more focused on telemarketing as a means to set an appointment or take a next step of some sort. If you are selling a product directly over the phone, once you’ve found someone who admits wanting to solve the problem your product solves, it’s time to close and ask for payment. Simply put, it means asking a question, the answer to which provides you with a sign that they may buy. Typical questions of this sort include asking how many units the prospect wishes to own, what color, when she wants it delivered, etc. Talk less. Ask questions and close more.

Back to calling for an appointment: Let’s say, for example, you are an investment adviser. Your qualifying question (again, from part one) is… “Are you completely satisfied with the return you’re getting on your entire portfolio?”. I might add, “Is you current adviser communicating well and regularly with you about your various options as you go along?” An answer you might get is, “Well, no one can expect much these days, but I’m not thrilled with my returns.” You would then ask, “What return would you be happy with?” Assuming an answer aligned with your abilities, you might ask, “If I could demonstrate that type of return, would it be worth a half hour of your time to discuss it?” The principle at play here is: Offer the possibility of something big or satisfying, then ask for something small from the prospect in return.

If the prospect says, “No”, restrain yourself from asking, “Why not?” That often puts him in a position of having to justify his answer and you end up getting an excuse that’s not the real objection. Instead, ask something that gets to his motivations like, “Have you thought about when you’d like to retire?” This question gets him thinking about possibly running out of time to sufficiently grow his nest egg. Ask, “Can I ask you how much you’d like to have saved by then?” Listen to the answer, then perhaps ask, “Can it hurt to take 30 minutes to look at a possible strategy for reaching your goals – especially since it sounds like you don’t believe your current path may get you there in time?”

There is a technique at play here, and it’s one you can learn. It involves focusing like a laser on your prospect’s pains, fears and desires. In the above example, once you learned that he is not thrilled with his returns, and that he has specific retirement goals, you have a potential answer to his problem. If he believes that you might be that answer, getting a commitment to discuss your service becomes easier. There is obviously some need for you to explain what you do and how you are different, but if you’re like most salespeople, you probably believe that your explaining, selling, boasting, puffing your abilities, etc. is benefiting the sales MUCH more than it really is. Ask questions and focus on the prospect 85% of the time and talk about you 15%. We’ve created an entertaining 4 minute video on how to do this that you should watch.

One last tip: No matter if they buy or not, make sure to get an email address and let them know that you’d like to keep in touch from time to time. Most people not wishing to buy are so pleased that you are willing to end the call, they’ll eagerly agree to that. Our post on using email effectively will guide you through the process of keeping open the communication with that prospect. You never know – he might open his very next investment statement, see the losses, envision his shinking future Florida condo, and be glad you just sent him an email on savings strategies for retirement in a tough economy!

First, why use email marketing? Because it is a very cost-effective way of communicating with your prospects and clients. The more often you communicate to these important people, and do so with life-benefiting information, the more likely they will see you as a trusted expert and your product as one they should consider. Notice I didn’t just say, “the more often you email them a sales pitch about your product…”, because people don’t want to be solicited. We want to be given value. That is the key to effective email marketing.

As your fist step, you need a list of people to email. Hopefully, you’ve been keeping a database of names and email addresses of customers and the people who inquire about your product or service. Your list is key. If you have no such list, begin now by compiling one. Start by… creating an Excel spreadsheet of your customer’s names and emails. There is no magic number of names in order to start. If you have 27, start with 27. The most important thing to do is just start!

Next, how will you mail to your list? To do emailing correctly, you need a service into which you can upload your list and then compose and send your email. Vertical Response and Constant Contact are two services I would recommend. A more robust service that the emailing pros use is AWeber. AWeber has some great features including autoresponders that will send out emails on a pre-determined schedule or automatically when someone responds to your message in some way.

This brings up the subject of permission-based emailing. You can send unsolicited emails, but you risk services like AOL locking you out if people using AOL complain that they are receiving unwanted email from you. You can also be restricted by your service provider if they get too many complaints and you can risk getting flagged as spam by people’s servers when you try to email them. Unlike Vertical Response or Constant Contact, AWeber won’t let you send out unsolicited emails. Your audience MUST agree to receive emails from you. In fact, your first campaign from AWeber must be an email that literally asks them if they wish to receive information from you–and if so, to agree and then confirm. Once you make it through that step, you’re home free. Why go through that hassle? Because your emails are now fully permission-based so that they will make it through the spam filters and will most likely be more read by more recipients. Email programs and servers are getting much smarter. They know if you’ve been given permission to send email.

So, you now have your list and a service through which to send them. Now, what do you send? Send the people on your list information that will benefit them. Think of questions people ask you. Think of important topics that people are unaware of, but need to know. Think if current news topics that relate to your business, product or service.

Let me give you some examples. Say you are a day care facility. How about “7 little known cost cutting measures that will benefit your child.” or “3 tax benefits of which you’re probably not taking full advantage.” or “Questions you need to ask any perspective babysitter before they care for your child.” or “The single most dangerous food ingredient, and how to know if your child is being effected by it.” or “How to save money buying clothes for your child.” or “Vaccinations: The two sides of the argument” and so on.

Say you are a Yoga facility. How about: “How to shovel snow without adding strain to your back.” or “Why you’re probably not getting enough water.” or “Milk: What may it be doing to your bones that you’re unaware of?” or “How to improve your work and disposition by a 10 minute meditation at your desk.” or “The most neglected muscle and why you should pay attention.”

One more. Say you’re a bed and breakfast. How about: “Planning the most romantic getaway ever.” or “Great things to do in New York’s Hudson Valley.” or “Three key considerations when choosing a bed and breakfast.” or “What most people don’t think about when planning a long weekend getaway.” or “How to save money while having the 3 day weekend trip of your dreams.”

Notice what they all have in common. They’re providing value, not a sales pitch. None of them are: “Why you need Yoga.” or “The top 3 reasons our Bed and Breakfast is the best.” or “Why more parents prefer our day care facility over the others.” These types of messages will be ignored and people will opt out. Wouldn’t you? So, keep them focused on a value you can provide people that is related to your expertise or product/service. Only then, will your audience see you as a leader in your field and an indispensable expert they’ll want to seek out should they need your product or service.

By the way, didn’t all those topics sound like blog topics? Yes they did, and in part two we will show you how a blog integrates perfectly with a good email strategy.

The reporter with whom I spoke yesterday was intrigued, and welcomed my contrarian outlook on the economy. I told him that companies are still spending money on marketing, and the good ones always will. I told him the creative freelancers I know continue to fill their days with paying work. I told him that Redlake’s most recent three clients are in or related to the real estate business(!) and have hired us to create strategic marketing strategies. They’re planning.

Last night I heard for the gazillionth time a popular and self-serving Washington cliche, and for the first time, it made an impact on me. “We want to get the economy working again.” Well, the fact is that the US economy IS working and has been steadily for the past 225 years. There are plenty of places around the world to remind us what a non-working economy looks and feels like! But, this is not a political discussion-for that let’s hang out sometime. Rather, this is my assurance to you that while the economy is in a downturn, there are LOTS of people making great money and the same can be done by anyone reading this.

Here’s how: First, recognize that you must focus on delivering an exemplary quality of work now more than ever. Picking up a regular paycheck by doing “good enough” and taking your clients for granted was never a prescription for grand success, but is less so now. So, how would YOU answer these six questions:

1. What is your written plan for success?
2. How much of each day do you engage in income-relevant training?
3. Exactly how are you applying that training?
4. What is your level of engagement in on-line social media? I don’t mean looking a recent Letterman episodes on YouTube, but instead, reaching out and joining the discussion related to your skills or profession.
5. What three things within your control can do you this week to improve the quality of your product or service?
6. What income-supplementing activities can you enlist outside of your professional job requirements? Examples include multilevel marketing of a great product, active participation in the stock market and selling your knowledge on the Internet. Don’t know how? Then learn! (see #2 above)

Getting your personal economy working doesn’t require an act of Congress! It requires you to take personal responsibility for producing the absolutely best product or service of which you’re capable, and then effectively marketing that product or service to the broadest possible audience. Not sure how? Start by reading aloud your answers to those half dozen questions!

Yesterday, I was on an important business conference call. Ten minutes into the call, I was dropped. I immediately used my other line to dial back in and after 4 minutes I was dropped again. As I’ve become skilled at through years of experience, I rebooted my modem. I finally got back on the call and at the end, I complained about your company being the sole provider in this area for my cable, Internet and phone. One of the other conference attendees immediately exclaimed that he was about to sign up for your triple package. After my 3 minute rant about how abysmal your service is throughout every aspect of the organization I have touched – and I’ve got years of touching(!) – he thanked me and said he would use your competitor. Where he lives, he has options.

I realize that complicated technology sometimes goes awry. So, it is not your technology I dislike. Rather it your service. I have questions:

Why must I ALWAYS waste my time working my way up the ladder of service competence being transferred from one department to the next to the next to the next until I finally get to that really smart person who seems to hold all the answers? What’s her direct number?

Why do I need to… dial my number into the recording that answers my call, only to be required to give it AGAIN to the service person I speak with?

Why do you NOT give me the option to speak to a live person unless I trick the dial-in system by continually hitting “0″ over and over until it cries “uncle” and connects me to a live person?

Why has almost every service call over the years consisted of the technician telling me that he found the problem, only to have the technician on my next service call tell me the problem is what the last technician did?

Why must each support call I make about a dire emergency with my dead service needing to be looked at by the next level department “that handles that” end with your phone rep cheerfully asking “Is there any thing else I can help you with?”

Why do you ask me EVERY TIME at the end of a service call if I could just take a brief survey to “rate the quality of my service”? Who wastes their time taking those surveys, and do you really think that’s the way to get accurate customer feedback?

Sincerely,

A Severely Dissatisfied Customer.

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Dear Severely Dissatisfied Customer,

Please do not respond directly to this email as it has been sent via our automated responder.

Thank you for your inquiry. Your issue has been forwarded to the appropriate person and someone will get back to you within 24 – 48 hours. For additional inquiries, please email our award winning customer service at click here.

Please take our brief customer service survey to rate the quality of our service. Click here

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The point is: Every customer matters, even if you are a mega billion dollar corporation, but especially if you are a small business. News travels fast and in ways you can’t even imagine. Make it easy for people to solve their occasional problems with your product or service, make live people and phone numbers easily accessible (No, the Internet hasn’t made telephones obsolete!), and rethink your policies, especially if you consider and name them “our policy”.

You can no longer hide from bad word of mouth. Ask my friend who is now that other phone company’s newest customer!

I see a general neglect of people to display a flattering photograph of themselves, and as a result, my initial emotional impression of them is usually unfairly biased. I see obviously dated photos (so dated, often they are black and white), photos from a long distance, unflattering expressions, out of focus shots, poses of people looking away from the camera so that you can’t even make out their face, and the ever popular deer-in-the-headlight mug shots. And, surprisingly, I often see these types of photos from internet and media pros who should know better.

Now, before diving into a few tips for a good photograph, let’s first consider… the purpose of on-line personal photographs. In other words, why does it matter? Well, studies show that placing a photo of a person next to text written or spoken by that person greatly increases people’s reception to it. The photo humanizes the content and makes it more credible to the reader. If someone is looking us directly in the eyes, we tend to believe them more. Seeing the author of a site or other content better connects the reader to it. By its nature, the web is devoid of real personal interaction, so personal images increase the illusion of humanity on our site and our forum posts and our social media presence.

Again, this is very subjective. Maybe a black and white photo sets the right tone for you. Perhaps your personality is captured best with an off-camera gaze. A sketch or caricature might portray you perfectly. The key, however, is to make these choices deliberately rather than than defaulting them to the only photo you happen to find. Most often, the space allocated to your photo is about the size of a postage stamp, so make it count.

There are exceptions to every rule, but here are some generalized tips for a good photo:

• It should be recently taken and reflect who you currently are.
• It should be a headshot. Remember, space is limited on the web, so your face is the most important attribute of the photo. The full body shot diminishes the view of your face because you have to shoot from further back.
• Related to the above point, close is better. A sure sign of any amateur photo is that it is taken from too far away and often includes extraneous background stuff. Your personal headshot should focus on your face.
• More specifically, your headshot should focus on your eyes. Peer deep into the camera. A commonly used trick is to have the subject feel as if she is looking past the front of the camera lens deep into the camera itself.
• Be aware of your expression. You don’t have to smile, but have an expression that says something positive about you.

I realize that for many of you, just getting the photo taken is the biggest problem, right? It need be neither difficult nor expensive. You don’t need (and probably can’t afford) Annie Leibovitz. But on the other hand, you probably won’t get a good image having your co-worker take a shot of you at your desk with his point and shoot digital. Do you know someone who owns and knows how to use a good prosumer level SLR? Perhaps go to the mall and use one of the retail studios. Before you commit, however, ask to see some headshots they’ve taken. Do you like them?

The bottom line: Get a quality headshot of yourself that reflects your personality and shows you in the best “light”. Then, post it for your online avatars on social media sites, forums and your site if appropriate. I look forward to seeing you soon!

They all relate to my beautiful and talented wife, Christine, in an article recently written about her. Take a read through this brief biographical piece to learn a bit about the 24th M.I. Battalion in Desert Storm and the joys of world travel.

To read the piece click on: http://www.hvbiz.biz/proud/lakereganchristine.php

What else do they have in common? They all were either broken within a VERY short time or came defective right out of the box.

Probably like you, over the years, I could make a fairly long list of things that… shortly after their purchase became defective. But I thought it was remarkable that three of four substantial purchases made within the past two weeks share that trait. A gem fell out of a thousand dollar bracelet, the photos don’t loop as they should on a Kodak digital frame and the rotors broke upon a fairly soft helicopter landing of the initial flight of this $200 machine.

What does this have to do with branding? EVERYTHING! Most of what we are told about building a successful brand consists of a catchy name, a good web site, well-placed high quality advertising, the right pricing model, etc. All of these and other means of building a brand come a distant second place to… HAVING A GREAT PRODUCT.

Go to Amazon and you’ll find several popular books written about how to engineer good word of mouth. They go into great detail about public relations, viral & guerrilla marketing, and slick distribution schemes. But before any of that, you just have to have a great product — one that people rave about to their friends, relatives, product review pages and social web contacts.

Here’s an idea for a New Year’s resolution: At the top of every marketing meeting agenda, put “Improve Product Quality”. No matter what else is on your agenda, spend at least half the time brainstorming about how to make your product better. What? You don’t think that’s the job of marketing?

Think again, because if word of mouth is valuable to your product’s marketing, Zales, Kodak and that little toy manufacturer doing direct sales in the mall just took a big hit. No amount of expensive marketing can come close to the power of my personal dissatisfaction story to my friends considering the purchase of a Kodak digital picture frame.

So, how do you know how to start improving your product? Ask your customers. Read reviews on Amazon.com, Bazaarvoice.com, Epinions.com, Buzzillions.com, Consumerreview.com, Testseek.com, etc. Can’t find anything useful there? Then do a survey using Surveymonkey.com and ask only one question: What improvements to our product would make you rave about it to your friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances?

The number one way to build your brand is to sell a remarkably great product — one that people enjoy bragging to their friends about how smart a purchase it was. But remember: Just like bad news on television is more interesting that good news, stories about poor products tend to be more prolific and engaing for the teller. Instead, give them something to rave about and you won’t have to waste your money on books about manufacturing word of mouth advertising!

A letter from our heating oil supplier had teaser copy that claimed that they want to help us. Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed it, and at the moment of my son’s innocent enthusiasm, I was reminded how jaded most of us adults are regarding advertising copy – and how important (and difficult) is it to write it well.

First, I must give kudos to my heating oil company for… adhering to a cardinal rule of advertising copy: Write from the perspective of the customer. They did this when they wrote “We want to help you.” Far too many advertisers continue to write copy that speaks about them: “We’ve been in business over 50 years.” “We have locations throughout the Northeast.” or “Our service can’t be beat.” None of that copy would excite my 8 year-old son. So how do you write copy that resonates with grownups who are likely to buy your product or service?

Let me give you a list of questions, that if answered correctly, will provide you with powerful ad copy. Before I give them to you, it’s critical that you know where to get the answers. They do NOT come from your advertising agency and they don’t even come from an internal meeting of your senior staff. They come from your customers. Ask each of these questions of your customers and your ad copy will turn to gold.

1. What are the goals of my customers and what are the main problems that stand in the way of them achieving them that my product/service eliminates?
2. What do they believe about the problems they’re trying to solve?
3. What other options do my customers have that might also eliminate the above problems?
4. What do they believe about products like mine?
5. What do they need to believe about my product/service in order to buy now?
6. What are their objections about buying my product now?
7. Who/what are their enemies – people or products they distrust?
8. What are their dreams for the future?

Ask these questions of your customers either in person, through surveys or by reading on-line blogs and forums so that you can gather answers to as much of the above as possible. Then find some commonality between answers and write your ad copy as if your customer were speaking it themselves.

P.S. My son was elated by another envelope, this one from an insurance company carrying a message beneath the clear address window that read, “Pay to addressee or bearer”. As my son yelled, “Dad, someone wants to give you money!”, I asked myself in this day and age, if anyone BESIDES an 8 year-old is taken in my that trick! Don’t use gimmicks. Just good copy that resolnates with your audience.

It was a commercial for womens’ pajamas. The company sells a nice selection of pajamas: Flannel, silk, nursing, maternity, sexy – something for everyone. They come in a “hat box” along with something called bath tea. But what I find absolutely brilliant is the other component they throw in with each purchase.

Before I disclose it to you, think for a moment about marketing. We’re all trying to… get people to purchase our product or service, right? We spend so much time writing sales and brochure copy to compel people to buy, that we forget about the product or service experience. More importantly, we frequently forget to tap into the beliefs of the buyer that our product or service will reinforce. That’s VERY powerful. The premise behind Seth Goden’s brilliant book, All Marketers are Liars is that we need to discover the story that our prospective buyers believe, then show them how our product/service will confirm, reinforce and help them experience that belief or story.

Back to pajamas. With each set of pajamas, the company also includes a Do Not Disturb door hanger. First, think about the story they are reinforcing: You’re not wearing these pajamas to cook breakfast, clean up after your toddler’s latest accident or do laundry. You’re wearing them behind closed doors in the privacy of your bedroom. Do Not Disturb. ROMANCE! They’re tying their product for women into romance, and doing it in a very powerful and cunning way. Even Victoria’s Secret didn’t come up with anything this good.

Here’s the second key point: This door hanger costs the company almost nothing. It’s a piece of cardboard! And the takeaway for you is that there is an inexpensive something that YOU can add to your product or service that has a low cost and high perceived value to your customer. And when that add-on actually makes your product more compelling, your in rarefied marketing air! Now, you just have to discover it.

Your assignment is to think about the story that your customer believes relative to your product or service. Then figure out what simple element will reinforce that story in her mind. Again, the magic of the door hanger is that it costs almost nothing. We’re not talking about a $500,000 television campaign to convince people that they should like purple shoes. Instead, you’re tapping into an existing belief (I deserve more romance) then providing the means for your customer to experience it through the use of your product or service (hanging the Do Not Disturb sign behind a closed door as you wear – and perhaps disrobe – your beautiful new pajamas.)

By the way, the company is Pajamagram. Great work, guys!